Democracy’s Discontents

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Democracy’s Discontents (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)

When the United States of America emerged from its eighteenth century crucible to become the world’s first modern constitutional republic, its public philosophy was composed of two competing strands. One was classical liberalism, the doctrine which emphasized the rights of the individual and the dependence of legitimate government on the consent of the governed—consent that the governed were free to withdraw at their pleasure. Political obligations, that is to say, are by nature “voluntarist.” They are chosen by the free will of those who submit to this or that government...

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