The success and survival of American democracy have never been guaranteed. Arguing that we must take an unflinching look at the nature of democracy-and therefore, ourselves-historian Robert Tracy McKenzie explores the ideas of human nature in the history of American democratic thought, from the nation's Founders through the Jacksonian Era and Alexis de Tocqueville.
In twenty-five years of imperial adventure, America has laid waste to its principles of democracy. The self-glorifying march of folly steps off at the end of the Cold War, in an era when delusions of omnipotence allowed the market to climb to virtual heights, while society was divided between the selfish ...
Addresses the question of why institutions meant to attract citizen participation succeed in strengthening civil society and improving state responsiveness and transparency in some places, but fail in others. Focuses on urban politics in Porto Alegre (Brazil), Montevideo (Uruguay), and Caracas (Venezuela).
