Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America [Hardcover]

Gary Hart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195155866 | ISBN-13: 978-0195155860 | Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | Edition: First edition.

Rarely does scholarship anticipate the most dramatic events of the moment. In this timely work Gary Hart does just that, arguing for the restoration of republican virtues and for homeland security as an important first step. The American democratic republic has from its founding been a paradoxical success. Simultaneously attached to state and national power, citizens' rights and citizens' duties, American democracy has uniquely turned its reliance on consent from the governed into a powerful governing of the consenting. In a remarkable political feat, America's founders combined mixed government, the language of popular sovereignty and a self-conscious emphasis on checks and balances to forge a republic that has weathered the test of time. The complex realities of the twenty-first century, however, have fundamentally challenged the underpinnings of this enduring American experiment, repeatedly exposing the tensions at the heart of America's mixed system of government. What then is the nature of an American republic in an age of democracy? How can the democratic values of social justice and equality be balanced with republican values of civic duty and popular sovereignty? Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy--the "ward republic"--Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. Of crucial relevance for contemporary society, including its startlingly prescient plan for homeland security, Restoration of the Republic provides original insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arguments between right and left over individual freedom, states' rights and big government have been a staple of American politics. In this innovative reassessment of Thomas Jefferson's political theories, former senator and presidential candidate Hart attempts to secure a middle road that would promote the political participation of individual citizens while fostering a more effective federal structure. By explicating Jefferson's idea of the "elementary, or ward, republic" essentially a town meeting model as "the appropriate forum for direct citizen engagement in public [life]," Hart explores ways to adapt this paradigm. Urban and suburban neighborhoods could consolidate such functions as schools, police and health services; by becoming "local republics," they would "rationalize fragmented municipal governments." But while his concern with the individual's role in governance is pressing he cites "a recent survey" showing that 68% of Americans ages 18 to 34 felt "disconnected" from government many of his solutions are theoretical rather than immediately practical (betraying this book's origins as Hart's doctoral dissertation at Oxford) his vision of local control of schools, for example, disregards the important role the federal government plays in funding and regulation. While this is a valiant attempt to mine the past in order to plan the future, it may strike many as existing too much in an ivory tower rather than in the vibrant "local republic" Hart so admires.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Politics corrupted by money and special interests. Citizens alienated from government. Much talk of rights, little mention of civic duty. This is the picture of a republic gone astray, according to Thomas Jefferson, who made citizen engagement and authentic democracy the focus of his mature political philosophy. In these pages, Gary Hart takes up questions Jefferson raised 200 years ago, and applies them to America today. He has written a timely, bracing book." ---John McCain, U.S. Senator, Arizona

"An elegant...re-reading of Jefferson for the new century....[Hart's] historical conversation with Jefferson's evolving ideas and shining ideals...reminds readers that we can never look forward without understanding where we've been. That alone, especially in a present forever altered last September, is a worthy message."--The San Francisco Chronicle

"An insightful discussion of the problems in our civic life today....Hart's fine effort focus[es] our attention on the perils in our present [governmental] situation."--The Washington Post Book World

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First edition. edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195155866
• ISBN-13: 978-0195155860
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,441,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Restoration of the Republic, February 25, 2003

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America (Hardcover)

Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America written as a doctoral thesis by Gary Hart.The book in a nutshell is about bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosphy... "the ward republic."

Thomas Jefferson proposed that a layer of American government composed of elementary, pure or ward republics should provide the foundation upon which individual State republics and the federated republic would be based. His proposal was heavily influenced both by classic republican theories of civic virtue and citizen participation and by the belief that local public affairs were best managed locally. His views, explicated most thoroughly following his retirement from public office, were not considered during the Constitutional debates and were thus neither explicitly accepted nor rejected during America's founding era.

Federalist proponents of the new Constitution, principally Jefferson's ally James Madison, argued for a Constitutional structure based upon a federal republic whose allocation of power among branches of government would check and balance each other, a republic strong enough to unite the various States and sufficiently consolidated as a national government to resist local factions and interests. Whereas Madison saw citizens as fractious, potentially oppressive, and neither enlightened for self-government. Madison saw democracy as a door through which chaos might enter; Jefferson saw it as the only means by which to prevent ownership of government by "interests" and the resulting citizen alienation from government.

With this in mind, Hart brings these views to mind as he discusses current economic globalization and the evolving of Nation-States, Republicanism, and Original objections to small republics in the light of the twenty-first-century realities.

I found the book to be well-written and the prose foundational at first, then later making cogent sense as he tries to bring Jefferson's ideas into the twenty-first-century. This book does as follows: brings consideration of the revolutionary economic, social, and political changes in the twenty-first century; an examination of whether America in the twenty-first century is an authentic republic; consideration of the objections to small-scale republicanism during the founding-era debate and discussions of the impact of these new realities on early objections to small-scale republicanism; a concluding discussion of the relevance of radical democratic republican ideals to America in the current age.

This is a thoughtful and provocative book and makes a persuasive argument for Jeffersonian principles.

34 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Try --- But No Cigar, October 29, 2002

By 

C. Hitchcock (New York City, N.Y., U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America (Hardcover)

Takes a shot at explaining what it is to be an American, but, does only a so-so job. Good try -- but no cigar. If you're really interested in the answers, let me recommend the only one I have ever read that gives them and explains them. I suggest you read "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From The Readings And Writings Of Thomas Jefferson", by Remick.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How can we preserve local communities and economies?, April 16, 2005

By 

Albert M. Zaccor (Bridport, Vermont USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Restoration of the Republic: The Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America (Paperback)

Gary Hart has made a significant contribution to the national discussion on the nature of our political system and our aspirations as a nation.

Very few scholars and commentators have seriously explored the serious erosion of authority and viability of our local communities and economies in the face of urbanization/surbanization, the ascendancy of consumerism, and the continued march of globalization. One writer who has explored the social and economic (especially agricultural) aspects of this problem is Wendell Berry. Berry, however, locates the problem in the larger culture and does not offer any detailed political prescriptions. I am not sure that Berry would agree, but I think that Hart's argument is a natural complement to his, coming at some of the same problems from a political perspective. Hart makes a serious attempt to articulate a vision for maintaining local control despite the centralizing forces in our national and international political and economic systems. Both Berry and Hart ask us if we can truly claim to be a "free" people when we give up all real control of our local communities and economies to distant unnaccountable political and economic elites. Neither author offers ultimate solutions to these problems, but both ask the right questions and point us in the right direction.

In the conclusion Hart describes the extreme individualism, alienation, and "atomization" that afflicts contemporary American life. He holds out the vision of a local republic as a response to these trends and their related social ills. (In response to the comments of an earlier reviewer, Hart is on solid analytical ground in pointing out Americans' lack of participation in local community and political affairs. His analysis relies heavily on the solid research of Robert Putnam [Bowling Alone], whom he cites extensively).

What I like best about Hart's argument is that it avoids the simplistic left-right divide in current American political discourse. Hart criticizes those on both the left and right who defend a narrow rights-based vision of the American political system, divorced from rights and obligations. Hart's reminder that we can only preserve our rights through civic virtue expressed by our direct participation in the life of our local communities, is a timely one and fully grounded in the thought of Thomas Jefferson and the larger republican tradition.