A Dream Deferred: America's Discontent and the Search for a New Democratic Ideal - Softcover

Slater, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807043052 ISBN 13: 9780807043059

Publisher: Beacon Press, 1992

Synopsis

America's Discontent and the Search for a New Democratic Ideal. Convincingly demonstrates that democratic processes, however messy and confusing, ultimately yield the most intelligent and flexible responses to a complex world.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

While new governments around the world strive for democracy, the United States is becoming increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic. Sociologist Philip Slater shows how Congress-bashing and low voter turnout are symptoms of a larger decline in our faith in the sharing of power and information. In documenting the costs of American authoritarianism, Slater convincingly demonstrates that democratic processes, however messy and confusing, ultimately yield the most intelligent and flexible responses to a complex world.

Review:

Slater has a fascinating premise: All the authoritarian regimes the world has seen in the past five thousand years were just a difficult phase in civilization's inevitable evolution to democracy. Political Darwinism with a twist, his theory holds that democracy is inevitable not because it is just or good, but because it is the most efficient way of ordering advanced, complex societies. Why we had to endure 5,000 years of pharaohs, emperors and fiihrers is a question he chooses not to address. Instead, Slater concentrates on describing in detail the seemingly paradoxical growth in America of "authoritarian barriers that have sprung up like tumors on the body politic" - just as the rest of the world seems to be growing more democratic. Expanding on the themes of his 7-be Pursuit of Loneliness, the 1971 classic that has sold over 500,000 copies, Slater paints a convincingly bleak picture of America's democratic failings. Unfortunately, he concludes with only the vaguest suggestions for how we might begin to chart a new, democratic course. Still, A Dream Deferred is sure to appeal to Slater's many fans off and, especially, on campus. -- From Independent Publisher

About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0807043052
• ISBN 13: 9780807043059
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240