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Ruling Passions: Political Offices and Democratic Ethics
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Editorial Reviews
Review
This book is an extraordinary achievement. It is brilliantly conceived and executed, closely argued and erudite, sensitive to textual and political nuance and lucid even at its most inventive and sophisticated. . . . Particular discussions of thinkers, actors and issues are as original as the architecture of the work as a whole. Thus one learns something significant not only about Rousseau, Tocqueville, Madison, Frances Williard, Martin Luther King, Saul Alinsky, and Everett Dirksen, but about larger issues such as what Sabl calls democratic constancy, philosophy and politics, theory and institutions. Many of the book's formulations are memorable, almost all are provocative in ways that stimulate reflection. There is much to argue with in this book, but every argument is one worth having.
(Peter Euben, author of "Corrupting Youth and The Tragedy of Political Theory" )
Product Description
How should politicians act? When should they try to lead public opinion and when should they follow it? Should politicians see themselves as experts, whose opinions have greater authority than other people's, or as participants in a common dialogue with ordinary citizens? When do virtues like toleration and willingness to compromise deteriorate into moral weakness? In this innovative work, Andrew Sabl answers these questions by exploring what a democratic polity needs from its leaders. He concludes that there are systematic, principled reasons for the holders of divergent political offices or roles to act differently.
This book is an extraordinary achievement. It is brilliantly conceived and executed, closely argued and erudite, sensitive to textual and political nuance and lucid even at its most inventive and sophisticated. . . . Particular discussions of thinkers, actors and issues are as original as the architecture of the work as a whole. Thus one learns something significant not only about Rousseau, Tocqueville, Madison, Frances Williard, Martin Luther King, Saul Alinsky, and Everett Dirksen, but about larger issues such as what Sabl calls democratic constancy, philosophy and politics, theory and institutions. Many of the book's formulations are memorable, almost all are provocative in ways that stimulate reflection. There is much to argue with in this book, but every argument is one worth having.
(Peter Euben, author of "Corrupting Youth and The Tragedy of Political Theory" )
Product Description
How should politicians act? When should they try to lead public opinion and when should they follow it? Should politicians see themselves as experts, whose opinions have greater authority than other people's, or as participants in a common dialogue with ordinary citizens? When do virtues like toleration and willingness to compromise deteriorate into moral weakness? In this innovative work, Andrew Sabl answers these questions by exploring what a democratic polity needs from its leaders. He concludes that there are systematic, principled reasons for the holders of divergent political offices or roles to act differently.
Sabl argues that the morally committed civil rights activist, the elected representative pursuing legislative results, and the grassroots organizer determined to empower ordinary citizens all have crucial democratic functions. But they are different functions, calling for different practices and different qualities of political character. To make this case, he draws on political theory, moral philosophy, leadership studies, and biographical examples ranging from Everett Dirksen to Ella Baker, Frances Willard to Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr. to Joe McCarthy.
Ruling Passions asks democratic theorists to pay more attention to the "governing pluralism" that characterizes a diverse, complex democracy. It challenges moral philosophy to adapt its prescriptions to the real requirements of democratic life, to pay more attention to the virtues of political compromise and the varieties of human character. And it calls on all democratic citizens to appreciate "democratic constancy": the limited yet serious standard of ethical character to which imperfect democratic citizens may rightly hold their leaders--and themselves.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
IN THINKING ABOUT what politicians should do and the qualities of character that will help them do it, we have conflicting intuitions. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
democratic constancy, governing pluralism, constancy theory, moral activist, office ethics, moral activism, democratic officers, principled compromise, moral labor, deliberative democrats, constituent wishes, democratic sympathy, democratic responsiveness, democratic ethics Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Martin Luther King, Ella Baker, New York, Stokely Carmichael, Civil Rights Act, John Rawls, Robert Moses, State Department, Frances Willard, Free Huey, Michael Walzer, New England, Saul Alinsky, Supreme Court, Declaration of Independence, Everett Dirksen, Richard Nixon, Birmingham City Jail, Judith Shklar, Macomb County, Open Housing, Fair Housing, Hannah Arendt, President Clinton New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
IN THINKING ABOUT what politicians should do and the qualities of character that will help them do it, we have conflicting intuitions. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
democratic constancy, governing pluralism, constancy theory, moral activist, office ethics, moral activism, democratic officers, principled compromise, moral labor, deliberative democrats, constituent wishes, democratic sympathy, democratic responsiveness, democratic ethics Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Martin Luther King, Ella Baker, New York, Stokely Carmichael, Civil Rights Act, John Rawls, Robert Moses, State Department, Frances Willard, Free Huey, Michael Walzer, New England, Saul Alinsky, Supreme Court, Declaration of Independence, Everett Dirksen, Richard Nixon, Birmingham City Jail, Judith Shklar, Macomb County, Open Housing, Fair Housing, Hannah Arendt, President Clinton New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics) by Alexander Hamilton on page 59, page 138, and Back Matter
- The Social Contract (Penguin Classics) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau on page 207, page 212, and Back Matter
- Federalist Papers by John Jay on page 59, page 138, and Back Matter
- Social Contract: Essays by Locke, Hume, and Rousseau by John Locke on page 207, page 212, and Back Matter
- The Partial Constitution by Cass R. Sunstein on page 149, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
- First Person Political: Legislative Life and the Meaning of Public Service by Grant Reeher in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Good Representative (New Directions in Ethics) by Suzanne Dovi in Back Matter
- Management, Organisation, and Ethics in the Public Sector (Law, Ethics and Governance) by Patrick Bishop in Back Matter
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