ABSTRACT

A signal contribution of this volume is to remind us that achieving democracy has never been easy. Across the long arc of recorded human history, democracy’s period of influence has been brief: a few hundred years out of a few thousand. Even in places, such as the United States, where its modern version was born and where it has long had a reputation for being precocious, we now know (and chapters by Reeve Huston, Andrew Robertson, Daniel Carpenter, and Nicole Topich remind us) that it has never been perfect. For long periods of time, substantial groups of Americans—the propertyless, blacks, and women—were (and still are, as shown in Jim Cohen’s chapter) denied the franchise. Corruption, moreover, seemed to be a handmaiden to the American system, with party bosses engaging in systematic efforts to buy and sell votes, and oligarchs, ranging from railroad barons in the late nineteenth century to the Koch brothers today, overwhelming legislatures and legislators with their cash. Too often, as well, demagogic appeals have allowed passion to crowd out rational discussion of issues and policies; “alleged demagoguery,” in turn, has become a justification for maintaining governing devices, such as the Electoral College and the gerrymandering of electoral districts, to keep a substantial portion of “the people” at a safe distance from the levers of public power.