Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy

Fouad Ajami, U.S. News & World Report
In times of trouble men and women ransack their past and their traditions. In Democracy's Discontent Michael Sandel has raided that gre at American attic and returned with a bold narrative of the ancestors and the civic tradition they bequeathed. Sandel gives us one of the most powerful works of public philosophy to appear in recent years [and] weaves a seamless web between the American present and the American past, a brilliant diagnosis.


George F. Will, Newsweek
American political discourse has become thin gruel because of a deliberate deflation of American ideals. So says Michael Sandel in a wonderful new book, Democracy's Discontent Sandel's book will help produce what he desires-a quickened sense of the moral consequences of political practices and economic arrangements Sandel is right to regret the missing moral dimension of public discourse. Or he was until recently. Suddenly politics has reacquired a decidedly Sandelean dimension. Political debate is reconnecting with the concerns Sandel so lucidly examines Statecraft is again soulcraft, and the citizens who will participate best, and with most zest, will be the fortunate readers of Sandel's splendid expansion of our rich political tradition.


Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
A provocative new book Democracy's Discontent argues that modern democracies will not be able to sustain themselves unless they can find ways of contending with the global economy, while also giving expression to their people's distinctive identities.


From Kirkus Reviews
A wide-ranging critique of American liberalism that, unlike many other current books on the matter, seeks its restoration as a guiding political ethic. ``Despite the achievements of American life in the last half-century,'' political theorist Sandel (Harvard) writes, ``our politics is beset with anxiety and frustration.'' He suggests that the growing public mistrust in the federal government, whose manifestations range from the conservative sweep of Congress in the last election to the Oklahoma City bombing, can be addressed only by reevaluating the liberal assumption that ``government should be neutral on the question of the good life,'' and by putting in its place a social-democratic concern for the spiritual well-being of the citizenry. The ``utilitarian calculus'' of the past has helped preserve individual liberties, Sandel observes, but it finds little room for weighing the finer questions of morality in recommending action. (For instance, Sandel remarks, minimalist liberalism of the sort that is practiced today could scarcely find room for the antislavery arguments of the abolitionists a century and a half ago, relying as those arguments did on ``appeals to comprehensive moral ideals.'') This indifference to the character of the citizenry, Sandel adds, is not the province of liberalism alone; where liberals have defended abortion rights on the grounds that government has no place in moral issues, conservatives have likewise argued for laissez-faire economic policies, claiming ``government should be neutral toward the outcomes'' of a market economy. Sandel is strong on tracking the history of this value-neutralization of government; he is less successful in identifying the particulars of a practical yet value-laden ethic that can ``repair the civic life on which democracy depends'' while not trampling on anyone's liberties--one of the thorny dilemmas of current reformist politics. A book rich in ideas, if not in blueprints for action. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


From Book News, Inc.
Sandel (government, Harvard U.) adds his views to the growing recognition that beneath American affluence and social justice lies a suspicion of government, a lack of control of our lives, and the unraveling of the moral fabric. He traces the problem to an impoverished vision of citizenship and community and a loss of a civic voice that prevents both liberals and conservatives from inspiring a sense of community and civil engagement that self- government requires. He calls for storytellers who can create an inspiring and convincing society to strive toward. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


George Scialabba, Boston Globe
It is the great achievement of Democracy's Discontent to weave around lofty abstractions a detailed, coherent and marvelously illuminating narrative of American political and legal history. Recounting the debates over ratifying the Constitution, chartering a national bank, abolishing slavery, the spread of wage labor, Progressive Era reforms and the New Deal, Sandel skillfully highlights the presence (and, increasingly, absence) of republican ideology, the shift from a 'political economy of citizenship' to a political economy of growth.


John B. Judis, Washington Post Book World
Michael Sandel has written an important book about the meaning of liberty. Sandel argues that over the last century, Americans have abandoned an earlier communitarian view of liberty, rooted in participation in self-government, for a narrower, individualistic definition, based on the power of personal choice. That has led to the great paradox of American politics: Just as Americans have become freer in the conduct of their personal lives, they have become more constrained in their public lives. The strength of Sandel's book is his account of how this definition of liberty has changed over the last 200 years. He argues persuasively that the new definition reinforces undesirable trends in court decisions and public policy Sandel argues brilliantly that the change in this definition of liberty took place after the Civil War and was based primarily on economic change. His analysis is superb. By revealing the shallowness of liberal and conservative views of democracy, [this book] inspires us to reevaluate what American politics is really about.


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