Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side Robert B Talisse

Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side Robert B Talisse – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780197556474, 0197556477

Product details:

• ISBN 10: 0197556477
• ISBN 13: 9780197556474
• Author: Robert B. Talisse

Democracy is not easy. Citizens who disagree sharply about politics must nonetheless work together as equal partners in the enterprise of collective self-government. Ideally, this work would be conducted under conditions of mutual civility, with opposed citizens nonetheless recognizing one another’s standing as political equals. But when the political stakes are high, and the opposition seems to us severely mistaken, why not drop the democratic pretences of civil partnership, and simply play to win? Why seek to uphold properly democratic relations with those who embrace political ideas that are flawed, irresponsible, and out of step with justice? Why sustain democracy with political foes? Drawing on extensive social science research concerning political polarization and partisan identity, Robert B. Talisse argues that when we break off civil interactions with our political opponents, we imperil relations with our political allies. In the absence of engagement with our political critics, our alliances grow increasingly homogeneous, conformist, and hierarchical. Moreover, they fracture and devolve amidst internal conflicts. In the end, our political aims suffer because our coalitions shrink and grow ineffective. Why sustain democracy with our foes? Because we need them if we are going to sustain democracy with our allies and friends.

Table of contents:

1. Common Ground and Its Erosion
2. Is Democracy Self-Defeating?
3. Sustaining Democracy and Overdoing Democracy
4. Final Preliminaries
1. Democracy as a Society of Equals
1. Democracy as a Moral Idea
2. Democracy as an Ethos
2.1. Duties of Citizenship
2.2. Virtues of Citizenship
2.3. Fitting the Pieces Together
3. Democracy as a Practical Ideal
4. The Generality of the Account
2. Why Sustain Democracy?
1. Seeing the Dilemma from the Inside
2. Persistent Political Disagreement
2.1. Good-Faith Political Disagreement
2.2. Limits to Good-Faith Political Disagreement
2.3. The Dilemma Restated
3. The Burden of Citizenship
4. Addressing the Citizen
3. The Polarization Dynamic
1. Political Polarization
1.1. Three Sites of Political Polarization
1.2. The Three Sites as Mutually Reinforcing
2. Belief Polarization
2.1. Examples of Belief Polarization
2.2. Thinking in Groups
2.3. How Belief Polarization Works
2.4. Belief Polarization and the Stadium
2.5. Polarization as a Dynamic
3. Polarization Among Allies
3.1. Love Your Political Enemies?
3.2. Fractured Allegiances
4. The Dilemma Resolved: Why Sustain Democracy

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