Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America

Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America

Author: Gary Hart
Category: History & Theory - General
ISBN: 9780195174281
Format : Paperback
Publisher : 101 Productions

  

The American democratic republic has from its founding been a paradoxical success. Simultaneously attached to state and national power, citizens' rights and citizens' duties, American democracy has uniquely turned its reliance on consent from the governed into a powerful governing of the consenting. The complex realities of the twenty-first century, however, have fundamentally challenged the underpinnings of this enduring American experiment, repeatedly exposing the tensions at the heart of America's mixed system of government. Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy--the ward republic --Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. Of crucial relevance for contemporary society, including its startlingly prescient plan for homeland security, Restoration of the Republic provides original insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.