The Future of American Democracy
STUDY GUIDE
for
THE FUTURE
OF
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
“THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY”
“The Future of American Democracy”—a special Jacksonville State Universityoffering as part of its Eminent Scholars Program—is an unconventional but constructive assessment of America’s national democratic experiment by former Congressman andlongtime Political Science Professor Glen Browder. For several years, Dr. Browder has presented his provocative thesis (drawing largely upon his academic, political, and personal background) in book form, a public lecture series, university courses, and guestappearances throughout the country. Now, in this ancillary guide, Dr. Browder and a team of classroom educators provide a unique, challenging initiative for high school and college groups and individuals interested in pursuing their own study of America’s democratic destiny.
CONTENTS
Future Democracy: A Course of Study ...... 2
StudyTheme, Text, and Material ...... 3
Study Sessions (With Content Outline, Main Points,
Group Discussion, and Individual Assignments) ...... 5
Concluding Commentary: “Quelle Grand Expérience!”. 22
Recommended Booklist ...... 23
About the Author, the Textbook, and Future Democracy. 36
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This study guide may be used for educational purposes by institutions and individuals without authorization. However, specific permission must be obtained from Dr. Browder for commercial usage. Additional copies of this guide may be acquired from Browder directly or may be downloaded electronically from his website at
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FUTURE DEMOCRACY:
A COURSE OF STUDY
Getting young people to take responsibility for the future of American democracy is an ambitious assignment, but that’s what former Congressman Glen Browder and some experienced educators hope to accomplish with this civic endeavor. Browder (now Eminent Scholar in American Democracy at Jacksonville State University) and the government teachers have put together a structured educational program that challenges young Americans to think seriously about “what America means” and “how America ought to work” in the Twenty-First Century.
The “Future of American Democracy” course of study consists of ten sessions, based on Browder’s text, with suggested content outline, main points and key concepts, open group discussion, individual journal assignments, and a recommended booklist.
Provocative Challenge. The course initially confronts young people with a dramatic, rhetorical question: "Is America dying?" From this provocative introduction, the course proceeds to examine our civic and governmental health;it then proposes an "American democratic renaissance"; and it concludes by challenging the young citizens to become active partners in American democracy.
Innovative Approach. Gail Carpenter, CalhounCounty secondary education curriculum specialist who oversaw the project, emphasizes the interesting approach of this initiative. "Our teachers are continually searching for new, innovative ways to present course content. Dr. Glen Browder's Future Democracy Project promises to be just that.”
Flexible Resource. The teachers themselves seem delighted with the collaborative effort. Stephanie Matthews of White PlainsHigh Schoolsays “Dr. Browder’s Future Democracy Project is an incredible teacher resource that correlates with the Alabama course of study. I plan to also use this project for my enrichment students, because it lends itself to independent study.” Ms. Mathews worked on the study guide with fellow educators Jason Cox (White PlainsHigh School), Veronia Hill (PleasantValleyHigh School), and Carolyn Serviss (SaksHigh School).
Civic Relevance. Dr. Judy Stiefel, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Calhoun County School System, strongly supports the projectfor its educational value to future citizens. “The availability of a quality resource, such as that being developed by Dr. Browder and our team of Calhoun County American Government teachers, should help to better prepare our students to take part in ensuring that our system of democracy endures.”
Important Outreach. According to JSU President Bill Meehan, "The Future Democracy Project has the potential to raise awareness among students who will become future leaders. This is an important outreach effort, and I applaud Dr. Browder’s work.”
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STUDYTHEME,TEXT,
AND PERTINENT MATERIAL
IS AMERICA DYING?
Despite America’s obvious economic strength and military power as we enter theTwenty-First Century, these are anxious times for American democracy.
Democratic Distemper. Clearly, the United States remains the standard, by most accounts, of progressive democracy and “the good life” at this point in world history. But—as I will argue in this unconventional analysis—telltale signs of democratic distemper belie our contemporary well-being. The systemic environment of American democracy is seriously constrained. The American people are losing their civic virtue. The political machinery of American democracy is broken. American government is functioning in unacceptable manner. Consequently, we seem to be tiring of our historic national democratic experiment.
Centrifugal Dynamics. Just as importantly, along with these telltale signs of political distemper, fundamental patterns of American history appear to have erupted into contradictory, confounding turmoil. Two centuries of irresistible democratic nationalization now clash head-on with the equally powerful dynamics of centrifugal democracy. Increasingly, as a result, our diverging populace is reassessing the nature of America’s “Great Experiment”.
An Uncertain Future. In many ways, the opening election of the new century reflected the present turbulence and uncertain future of transforming American democracy. Election 2000 revealed an American nation bifurcating into two distinct philosophical personalities and cultural societies—simultaneously competitive, commingled, and interdependent—each with legitimate but starkly different visions of our national destiny. Subsequent elections seemingly continue this bifurcation.
On one hand is “Traditional America”—an historically dominant white society, rooted in rural, small town, middle regions, which subscribes to religious convictions, community values, and relatively conservative government. On the other hand is “Emerging America”—a growing, eclectic society of relatively liberal and historically disadvantaged citizens in urban and coastal areas who are inclined toward social diversity, moral tolerance, and activist government. “Traditional America” asserts its right of national control as the historic majoritarian democratic culture and, in the recent case of selecting our presidential leadership, by constitutional virtue of the Electoral College. Just as vehemently, “Emerging America” boldly defines itself as the future of our nation, not only in demographic terms but also as the demonstrated electoral majority of American democracy.
Interestingly, at this point in our national consciousness and public debate, neither “Traditional America” nor “Emerging America”—nor the first President of the Twenty-First Century—evidences sufficient comprehension of the transformational ramifications of their differing electoral mandates and our raging philosophical civil war.
This cultural bifurcation—combined with the aforementioned clash between historic democratic nationalization and contemporary centrifugal democracy—greatly exacerbates the distemperate course of American government and democracy. An America that so proudly proclaims itself “one nation . . . indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” increasingly seems wayward, irrelevant, and ungovernable.
Fundamental Questions. In this unconventional analysis, I will ask some tough questions about troubled, transforming America. For example, how do we make sense of our basic democratic distemper during good times? Can we deal with the political realities of our changing world? Could we survive a serious streak of economic-military-civil disorder in the next few decades? Will we address the philosophical challenges of the Twenty-First Century? Or—rhetorically but most fundamentally— “Is America dying?”
Study Material. The text for this study initiative is The Future of American Democracy: A Former Congressman’s Unconventional Analysis (University Press of America, 2002). Also consult “American Democracy’s Uncertain Future” (August 21, 2003), “An Unsettling Vision of America’s Democratic Destiny” (August 21, 2003), and the Recommended Booklist of pertinent readings. Additionally, relevant and updated items periodically appear at
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STUDY SESSIONS
SESSION ONE______
“IS AMERICA DYING?”
An Unconventional Analysis of Transforming American Democracy. (Chapter One in
text, pp. 5-26)
Content Outline:
- Browder’s thesis of American democracy.
B. The American national dream is turning into national democratic distemper.
- It is time for a Tocquevillian assessment of the “Great Experiment” of American democracy.
- The objective: “To learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress.”
Main Points and Key Concepts:
Browder’s Thesis of American Democracy: America is changing in ways that
are important and unsettling for the future of American democracy. We are
undergoing a democratic metamorphosis that, for better or worse, is
transforming our nation and the world; therefore, we owe it to coming
generations to deal constructively with these challenges.
The American National Dream: Along with their individualistic aspirations of
personal opportunity, the America people historically have nurtured and
cherished a collective sense of freedom, equality, and justice, an American
national dream of unlimited democratic destiny.
Conventional Democratic Orthodoxy: Too often, we subscribe to an almost
religious belief in the indomitable, permanent, progressive destiny of
American democracy; this orthodoxy (built on the notion that the cure for
America’s ills is always more democracy) severely limits our capacity for
critically examining the Great Experiment.
National Democratic Distemper: Contemporary America suffers a
fundamentally deranged and disorderly deterioration of our national
experiment in democratic ideals.
Central Issues of Public Debate for Twenty-First Century America:
(1) Can our nation—a people of growing cultural diversity with increasingly
divergent ideals, values and governance principles, in a constrained systemic
environment—continue to sustain our collective pursuit of freedom, equality,
and justice through the traditional framework of limited, representative
government?
(2) How far can America pursue the Great Experiment without succumbing to
the inherent, destructive tendencies of democracy?
(3) Is America dying?
Group Assignment (open discussion):
Browder talks about the familiar notion of “the American dream” and
introduces a broader concept—something he defines as our collective dream
as a nation. What ideas and values underly the American national dream?
Reflect on your own, personal American dream and your conception of the
American national dream.
Reflecting broadly, personally,and informally (without worrying about
defending or proving your thoughts), how do you think that America and the
American dream have changed—positively and negatively—over the course
of our history?
What do our “sober public reflection” and “troubling
public record” say about the contemporary state of American democracy?
Who is Alexis de Tocqueville and what is a “Tocquevillian Assessment”?
Individual Assignment (personal journal):
Why is it important for us to think “unconventionally” about the future of
American democracy?
SESSION TWO______
“HOW DARE I ASK SUCH AN OUTRAGEOUS QUESTION ABOUT AMERICA?”
The Discomforting Venture of a Veteran Politician, Political Scientist, and “American
Dreamer”. (Chapter Two in text, pp. 27-44)
Content Outline:
- A political-academic-personal introduction.
- The discomforting nature of this rhetorical inquiry.
Main Points and Key Concepts:
Philosopher-Politician: The author describes himself as a “Philosopher-
Politician”, purportedly drawing from his academic background and practical
expertise to pursue as much democratic progress as is practically possible.
Group Assignment (open discussion):
Why does Browder call himself an “American Dreamer”?
Why did the author write this book?
Is the author qualified to ask his rhetorical question about America?
What did the author learn about American democracy during the years he
served in office?
What did you learn about public service from the author’s experience?
Individual Assignment (personal journal):
Does it make you uncomfortable talking about the possible “death” of
America?
SESSION THREE______
“WHAT DO I MEAN BY AMERICA, AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, AND DYING?”
A Systems Theory of Transformational America. (Chapter Three in text, pp. 45-64)
Content Outline:
A. “America”: A national experiment in democratic ideals.
B. “American Democracy”: The magical mix of people, politics, and
government through which we pursue democratic ideals.
C. “Dying”: American democracy no longer works the way it
used to, and we seem to be tiring of the Great Experiment itself.
D. A systems theory of transformational America.
Main Points and Key Concepts:
America, American Democracy, and Dying
The Great Experiment: This term refers to American democracy, as called and
described by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America (1831).
Democratic Ideals: American ostensibly subscribe to a dynamic, evolving array
of noble principles and practices that comport with the general ideas of
freedom, equality, and justice. These ideals are somewhat fuzzy, sometimes
inconsistent, and often unrealistic; but they fit comfortably within the
American democratic mindset and experience.
Systemic Model of Transforming America: Systems analysis provides a broad
conceptual framework for assessing, theoretically and graphically, important
and unsettling propositions about changing American democracy.
Group Assignment (open discussion):
What is America? What is an American? And are we a nation?
List the essential, founding concepts of American democracy.
How do you define “democratic ideals”?
Compare and contrast individualism and equality.
What do the phrases “all people are created equally” and “with liberty
justice for all” mean to you?
How can we balance majority rule with minority rights?
How far can we pursue democratic ideals without succumbing to the
inherent, destructive tendencies of democracy?
Why might the “Great Experiment” work in America but not in other
countries?
Individual Assignment (personal journal):
Is America a myth?
SESSION FOUR______
“WHY AND HOW—ARGUABLY—IS AMERICA DYING?”
Propositional Observations of Transforming American Democracy.
Propositional Observation Number One: “The favorable systemic environment of
American democracy has disappeared.” (Chapter Four in text, pp. 65-80)
Content Outline:
A. Our original, open, natural environment encouraged freedom,
individualism, and independence—but that environment closed long
ago.
B. The popular expansion of national public authority fostered equality,
security and justice—but that expansion appears to have reached its
limits.
C. America’s next democratic frontier?
D. America’s historic democratic boom may—or may not—have busted.
Main Points and Key Concepts:
Favorable Systemic Environment: American democracy derived,
functioned, and prospered historically within a unified, interactive
environment (with supportive social, cultural, and economic dynamics).
Natural Frontier: The original, open, natural environment allowed early
Americans to breathe, to grow, to experiment, to exercise
freedom, individualism, and independence.
National Public Authority: The popular growth of government met the
needs of a developing American nation for equality, security, and
justice (thereby expanding democracy beyond the capacities of the
natural frontier).
Group Assignment (open discussion):
What were Tocqueville’s ideas about why people left the “Old World”
to settle in the “New World”?
What, according to Frederick Jackson Turner, made settling and
development of the United States different from that of other parts of
the world?
What do Tocqueville, Turner, and Walter Prescott Webb suggest about
the eventual destiny of American democracy?
Is contemporary America a more constrained democratic system (in terms
of restricted opportunity and our mixed attitudes toward expansive
national government) than has been the case in the past?
Individual Assignment (personal journal):
The author talks about “natural” and “national” frontiers in
the history of American democracy; what do you think may be the next
democratic frontier?
SESSION FIVE______
“WHY AND HOW—ARGUABLY—IS AMERICA DYING?”
Propositional Observations of Transforming American Democracy.
Propositional Observation Number Two: “We have entrapped American
democracy within a philosophical civil war.” (Chapter Five in text, pp. 81-100)
Content Outline:
A. America is engaged in a philosophical civil war over democratic
ideals, cultural values, and principles of governance.
B. We now are conducting an intense national debate over America’s basic
cultural values (“culture wars”).
C. We also are re-examining our traditional system of limited
representative governance (“neopopulist democratization”).
D. This is a different and ominous challenge for the Great Experiment of
American democracy.
Main Points and Key Concepts:
Philosophical Civil War: America is experiencing a divisive national
struggle over democratic ideals, cultural values, and principles of
governance.
Culture War: As part of this struggle, a disjointed but far-reaching debate
(over “what America means”) poses dramatic consequence for the
American nation.
Neopopulist Democratization: A growing movement (about “how America
ought to work”) challenges the historic system of limited, representative
governance.
Group Assignment (open discussion):
What is the “Philosophical Civil War”?
Define the parameters of the culture war?
What is the neopopulist revolution?
Is the current argument over community-versus-diversity a legitimate
concern for the “Great Experiment” or simple competing racisms?
Is the argument over historic republicanism-versus-direct democracy a
legitimate democratic debate or simply crass politics?
Americans have always argued among themselves; in what ways is
the philosophical civil war a new challenge for America?
Individual Assignment (personal journal):
Will the Great Experiment ever resolve America’s historical legacy of
slavery and the continuing dilemma of racism?
SESSION SIX______
“WHY AND HOW—ARGUABLY—IS AMERICA DYING?”
Propositional Observations of Transforming American Democracy.
Propositional Observation Number Three: “American democracy no longer works
the way it has in the past.” (Chapter Six in text, pp. 101-128)
Content Outline:
- The American people are losing their civic virtue.
B. The political machinery of American democracy is broken.