The Democratic Wish
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Popular Participation and the Limits of American Government
Revised Edition
James A. Morone
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Format: PaperPrice: $29.00
This prize-winning book reinterprets more than 200 years of American political history as the interplay between the public’s dread of government power and its yearning for communal democracy. James Morone argues that Americans will never solve their collective problems as long as they instinctively fear all public power as a threat to liberty. This revised edition includes a new final chapter about contemporary populism, government bashing, and democratic wishes.
Winner of the 1991 Gladys M. Kammerer Award
“The Democratic Wish merits the highest compliments one can accord a public policy book. It spotlights a problem that can no longer be evaded. And it makes you think.”—Alan Tonelson, New York Times Book Review
“Morone writes with flair and passion. The fact that he puts forth a provocative argument and provides concise histories of labor, civil rights, and health care politics makes this book especially useful for teaching American politics.”—R. Shep Melnick, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
“Morone’s contribution to our understanding of state building . . . is substantial and profound.”—John S. Dryzek, American Political Science Review
“This stimulating reinterpretation of American political history will interest both scholars concerned about the past and citizens concerned about the future.”—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
“This is a persuasive, illuminating study in American political ideas and the disappointments of reform.”—Dean McSweeney, American Politics Review
James A Morone is professor of political science at Brown University.
"The Democratic Wish merits the highest compliments one can accord a public policy book. It spotlights a problem that can no longer be evaded. And it makes you think."—Alan Tonelson, New York Times Book Review
"Morone writes with flair and passion. The fact that he puts forth a provocative argument and provides concise histories of labor, civil rights, and health care policies makes this book especially useful for teaching American politics."—R. Shep Melnick, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Morone's contribution to our understanding of state building . . . is substantial and profound."—John S. Dryzek, American Political Science Review
"This stimulating reinterpretation of American political history will interest both scholars concerned about the past and citizens concerned about the future."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
"A powerfully ironic portrait of American democracy as an aspiration for liberty that strengthens bureaucracy, a revolt against the state that augments its force."—Benjamin Barber, Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and author of Strong Democracy and The Conquest of Politics
"With this book, Professor Morone joins a select group of serious analysts of America's apparently intractable governability problem. It is strongly recommended."—Walter Dean Burnham, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Government
"One of the most exciting books on American political life to appear in years. Gracefully written and persuasively argued, Morone's work is a model of intellectual integration. . . . This is political analysis with lasting power, a book that reminds one of the scope of the late Richard Hofstadter and Louis Hartz."—Theodore Marmor, Professor of Public Policy, Yale University
Selected as a 1991 Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review
Publication Date: January 21, 1998
