Americans have long prided themselves on living in a country that serves as a beacon of democracy to the world, but from the time of the founding they have also engaged in debates over what the criteria for democracy are as they seek to validate their faith in the United States as a democratic regime. In this book John Gunnell shows how the academic discipline of political science has contributed in a major way to this ongoing dialogue, thereby playing a significant role in political education and the formulation of popular ...
Read More
Americans have long prided themselves on living in a country that serves as a beacon of democracy to the world, but from the time of the founding they have also engaged in debates over what the criteria for democracy are as they seek to validate their faith in the United States as a democratic regime. In this book John Gunnell shows how the academic discipline of political science has contributed in a major way to this ongoing dialogue, thereby playing a significant role in political education and the formulation of popular conceptions of American democracy. Using the distinctive "internalist" approach he has developed for writing intellectual history, Gunnell traces the dynamics of conceptual change and continuity as American political science evolved from a focus in the nineteenth century on the idea of the state, through the emergence of a pluralist theory of democracy in the 1920s and its transfiguration into liberalism in the mid-1930s, up to the rearticulation of pluralist theory in the 1950s and its resurgence, yet again, in the 1990s. Along the way he explores how political scientists have grappled with a fundamental question about popular sovereignty: Does democracy require a people and a national democratic community, or can the requisites of democracy be achieved through fortuitous social configurations coupled with the design of certain institutional mechanisms?
Read Less
Add this copy of Imagining the American Polity: Political Science and to cart. $42.49, very good condition, Sold by Friends Tucson rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Tucson, AZ, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Penn State University Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Paperback. NOT Ex-library. Very good condition. Clean pages and tight binding. Notes, Bibliography, Index. Until further notice, USPS Priority Mail only reliable option for Hawaii. Proceeds benefit the Pima County Public Library system, which serves Tucson and southern Arizona.
Add this copy of Imagining the American Polity: Political Science and to cart. $82.62, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Penn State University Press.
