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Democracy's Achilles Heel argues that the structure of democracy is a combination of two incompatible worldviews: one relativist and liberal, the other absolutist and conservative. This combination of opposites is essential for its survival, yet places democracy at risk since each worldview is prone to trying to engulf the other, creating threats from both the right and the left. This is democracy's Achilles heel: it never goes away and can only be avoided. The nature of open societies means that absolutisms, for example of a religious kind, can exist quite comfortably within democracy, yet for democracy to succeed, they must permit other belief systems and worldviews, absolute or otherwise, to exist alongside them. Likewise, relativism can undermine the liberal nature of democracy itself in seeking to reduce the existence of absolutisms to nothing, thus threatening freedom and destabilizing democracy. Reacting to the recent clashes in Western democracies between left and right, and drawing on the theories of such now-classic thinkers as Fromm, Berlin, and Hoffer, as well as more recent sources such as Levitsky and Ziblatt's How Democracies Die, the author moves beyond the usual defenses of democracy, accepting the fact that democracy, because of its combination of opposites, is always unstable and always at risk, while urging those who live within democratic polities to strengthen its chances of survival by remembering its fundamental value and purpose. An impassioned defense of the democratic way of life even given (and indeed because of) its eternally threatened nature, Democracy's Achilles Heel will appeal to scholars, students, and readers with interests in political sociology, philosophy, and political theory.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
1. Democracy as Oddball
2. Philadelphia 1776 and Beyond
3. Democracy Is a Game with Rules, and Some People Play It Better Than Others
4. Absolute and Relative Are Yoked Together
5. The Arc of History Does Not Bend toward Democracy
6. Rights and Freedom in Democracy
7. Freedom Is Linked to Goals
8. The Dangers of Overselling Democracy
9. Democracy's Two Elements at War
10. Democracy Isn't Supposed to Be Sexy
11. Absolutist Actions vs. Relativistic Actors
12. Democracy Is Constructed, Like a Building
13. Do People Even Want to Be Free?
14. Laws, Freedom, and Democracy
15. Belief within Democracy
16. Democracy Doesn't Demand the Provable
17. Reason vs. Passion in Everyday Life
18. Works Cited
About the author
Bruce Fleming is Professor of English at the US Naval Academy and is the author most recently of
The End of the Modernist Era in Arts and Academia,
What Does 'Art' Mean Now?,
The Civilizing Process and the Past We Now Abhor, Masculinity from the Inside, and
Saving Our Service Academies: My Battle with, and for, the US Naval Academy to Make Thinking Officers.
Summary
A defence of democratic politics, this book argues that democracy comprises a structure based on two incompatible world-views: one relativist and liberal, the other absolutist and conservative – the combination of which is at once essential for its success, yet also that which threatens its survival.
