A passion for democracy : american essays / Benjamin R. Barber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barber, Benjamin R., 1939-2017, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy--United States.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (310 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st paperback.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1998]

Summary:

"Benjamin Barber is one of America's preeminent political theorists. He has been a significant voice in the continuing debate about the nature and role of democracy in the contemporary world. A Passion for Democracy collects twenty of his most important writings on American democracy. In these pieces, Barber argues for participatory democracy without dependence on abstract metaphysical foundations, and he stresses the relationship between democracy and civil society, civic education, and culture."--Jacket.

Contents:

Part 1. AMERICAN THEORY: DEMOCRACY, LIBERALISM AND RIGHTS: Liberal democracy and the costs of consent ; Foundationalism and democracy ; Why democracy must be liberal: an epitaph for Marxism ; The compromised Republic: public purposelessness in America ; The rights of we the people are all the rights there are ; Have rights gone wrong? The reconstruction of rights

PART 2. AMERICAN PRACTICE: LEADERSHIP, CITIZENSHIP, AND CENSORSHIP: leither leaders nor followers: citizenship under strong democracy ; Command performance: where have all the leaders gone? ; The undemocratic party system: citizenship in an elite/mass society ; One nation indivisible or a compact of sovereign states? The two faces of Federalism ; The market as censor in a world of consumer totalism

PART 3. EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY: CIVIC EDUCATION, SERVICE, AND CITIZANSHIP: Thomas Jefferson and the education of the citizen ; The civic mission of the university ; Service, citizenship, and democracy: Civic duty as an entailment of civil right ; Cultural conservatism and democratic education: Lessons from the Sixties ; America skips school: why we talk so much about education and do so little ; Education for democracy

Part 4. DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY: ENDLESS FRONTIER OR END OF DEMOCRACY?: The Second American Revolution ; Pangloss, Pandora, or Jefferson? Three scenarios for the future of technology and democracy ; The new telecommunications technology: endless frontier or the end of democracy?

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691057668

0691057664

9780691227900

069122790X

OCLC:

1200559060