Individuality and Mass Democracy Mill, Emerson, and the Burdens of Citizenship

by Alex Zakaras

Overview

Democracy, unlike any other form of government, demands that citizens take responsibility for their politics. And yet, over the past fifty years, observers of American democracy have worried that Americans are failing to do so. With occasional exceptions, voter turnout and civic engagement are declining, and the average citizen's knowledge of public affairs is flimsy at best. Citizens' political posture is mostly passive: they receive political propaganda designed by marketing professionals and consume staged political spectacles that are scarcely distinguishable from other forms of "reality" entertainment. The Rockwellian ideal of democracy--participatory, deliberative, egalitarian--that still captivates our imaginations is for the most part anachronistic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195384680
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	10/02/2009
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alex Zakaras is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont. He specializes in political philosophy and the history of political thought. His interests include the philosophy of democracy and democratic citizenship, the ideal of autonomy and its place in the liberal tradition, and the political thought of the nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Part I Democratic Individuality

1 Responsible Citizenship 3

2 Docility and Democracy 14

3 The Ideal of Individuality 24

Part II Emerson

4 The Docile Individual 41

5 Emersonian Transitions 65

6 Withdrawal from Complicity 88

Part III Mill

7 Conformity and Subjection 123

8 The Active Mind 147

9 Individuality and Civic Virtue 178

Part IV Conclusion

10 The Burdens of Citizenship 201

References 231

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

"This is a very well-written, well-argued, and thoroughly researched volume...Highly recommended."—CHOICE

"Much recent (and not so recent) political theory has resisted including the question of human excellence as central to a democratic politics. In this view, 'democracy' requires competitive elections, minimal agreement on procedures, and a more or less free press—and that is about all. It is the great merit of Alex Zakaras's excellent book to show that this vision of democracy is perversely limited and limiting. Drawing upon Mill and especially Emerson, Zakaras develops and critically extends the conception of human excellence contained within the idea of democratic individuality. He shows that it can and should be a central component of a democratic polity—without in any way being elitist, impractical, culturally specific, or undermining the practice of citizenship. I—we—have been waiting for a book like this."—Tracy B. Strong, Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego

From the Publisher