As the initial furor has abated, thoughtful observers have been able to consider the controversy in its broader historical and cultural context and to reflect on its significance. The finest fruits of this reflection are collected in Spence's new volume, The End of Democracy?II: A Crisis of Legitimacy.
J. Budziszewski, a noted political philosopher at the University of Texas, provides a substantial introduction to the volume, which has been edited by Mitchell S.Muncy. In addition to their fresh assessment of judicial usurpation prompted by the criticism of the original symposium, essayists consider papal teaching on the authority of unjust laws, the opponents of judicial activism's surprising pedigree in Progressisvism, Tocqueville's analysis of democracy's shortcomings, the hijacking of "equity" in Anglo-American law, and the changes in the political and religious landscape revealed by the First Things controversy.
