Customer Reviews

Deep Democracy: Community, Diversity, and Transformation

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Judith Green's book asks us to engage in what may be called a somewhat anti-Humean enterprise -- that is, to push-out rather than accept the assumed limits of our characters/human natures in order to engage in the kinds of cooperative activities that should lead to a better world. Invoking Deweyan experimentalism and (Alain) Lockean critical relativism, Green challenge us to create democratic imaginations that "go all the way down." Going all the way down means more than simply voting when called to do so, but to effectively see oneself as a serious bearer of responsibility for expanding the circles of community. Her notion of deep democracy is, therefore, quite Emersonian.

Although Deep Democracy is clearly written by someone grounded in philosophy and the realm of ideas, Green is not lost in mere theory. She brings to her analysis concrete empirical examples of the kind of experimentalism she advocates. One such example is the work of the Grameen Bank, which actively provides micro-loans to poor entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. She applauds the kind of risk-taking experimentalism that is evidenced by the bank's work, against critics who were pointing out that the frequency of loan repayment would be low (as it turns out, loan repayment is higher than in many First World contexts).

Deep Democracy is a challenge to our political imaginations. Having said that, what I would like to see in a future work by Green is more empirical analysis to support her lines of moral and political reasoning. For the work of philosophers must ultimately be joined to policy, as the work of policy is ultimately to establish health, security and freedom.

The book is a plea for a more inclusive democracy. Drawing on the tradition of Dewey, it offers a great vision of community and what we can do to attain it. Sometimes, the passion overwhelms the logic, but this is an exciting read.

Dr. Green does an excellent scholarly job of reviewing the philosophy of democracy. I'd recommend instead that readers consider Mindell's "The Leader as Martial Artist: An Introduction to Deep Democracy," which picks up where Green leaves off, furthers the theoretical basis for deep democracy, and provides practical tools for developing deep democracy in community, in relationship, as well as in inner-work.

Judith Green is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of Women's Studies at Fordham University.

She writes in the Introduction to this 1999 book, "The purpose of this book is to frame the kind of philosophy of deep democracy that can guide individual and social transformation as we address our urgent contemporary problems and opportunities... In writing this book and in beginning to imagine the book that will follow, my aim is to write 'public philosophy' that can frame the transformative dimensions of a comprehensive philosophy of deep democracy."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Deep democracy so understood---as a realistically imaginative philosophical expansion of the implications of the democratic ideal into habits of the heart and a shared way of life---is profoundly preferable to a merely formal, institutional conception of democracy because it is preferable 'all the way down.'" (Pg. xiv)
"This is difficult work. The obstacles to doing it well are enormous. Only those who care passionately about the real and evident failures of our present institutions to meet most people's human existential needs while caring for the Earth---and who dare to hope to be part of building something better---need apply. For them, the return of such meaningful and satisfying labor will be life-transforming." (Pg. 219-220)