Democracy Incorporated Part 21

8. My discussion of Athenian democracy is much indebted to R. K. Sinclair, Democracy and Partic.i.p.ation in Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

9. On this topic, see Moses I. Finley, Democracy Ancient and Modern (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1973); G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, The Cla.s.s Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981).

10. Aristotle, Politics 1291b3038, 1310a2836, 1317a40b7.

11. Solon and Cleisthenes were described by some ancient writers as precursors of democracy.

12. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, I.70, p. 40.

13. The most notorious example of ma.s.s slaughter was the Mytilene revolt. See ibid., bk. III.

14. See J. K. Davies, Democracy and Cla.s.sical Greece (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983), 139, for examples of these rivalries.

15. Finley, Democracy Ancient and Modern, 4850, argued that empire made Athenian democracy possible by supplying revenues that could pay for the political attendance of poorer Athenians, by providing land overseas for settlements and investment opportunities for the wealthy.

16. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, V.89, p. 331.

17. Finley argued that both the average Athenian and the wealthy cla.s.ses derived economic advantages from the empire. See Moses I. Finley, "The Fifth-Century Athenian Empire: A Balance-Sheet" in Imperialism in the Ancient World, ed. P.D.A. Garnsey and C. R. Whittaker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).

18. See the fine study of the relationships between elites and demos in Ober, Ma.s.s and Elite in Democratic Athens, and the earlier treatment concentrating on the "demagogues": W. Robert Connor, The New Politicians of Fifth-Century Athens (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971).

19. See Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, III.3648; IV.2829, 108; VI.819, 89.

20. Ibid., II.65, p. 120.

21. Ibid., II.65, pp. 12021.

22. The closest were the Italian city-states of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, some of which were republican in character but often dominated by the aristocracy. It is significant that they were cities. See Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (New York: Random House, 1980), 13140.

23. See Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 1:26, 48, 49, 51, 58, 123, 132, 146. There were some rare exceptions, e.g., the speeches of James Wilson in Farrand.

24. For background, see Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975); Perez Zagorin, A History of Political Thought in the English Revolution (London: Routledge & Paul, 1954), chaps. 23; and the fine collection of essays in Margaret C. Jacob and James R. Jacob, The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1991).

25. I have relied on the pa.s.sages reproduced in G. E. Aylmer, ed., The Levellers in the English Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), 100, 102. See the important essay by Mark A. Kishlansky, "Consensus Politics and the Structure of Debate at Putney," in Jacob and Jacob, The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism, 89103.

26. Aylmer, The Levellers, 121.

27. Ibid., 100, 101.

28. Ibid., 113.

29. Ibid., 107.

30. Ibid., 107.

31. Ibid., 114.

32. See Arno J. Mayer, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).

33. I am indebted to the following: Nash, The Unknown American Revolution and his earlier work, The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979). Also Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution (New York: Vintage, 1974), and the essays in Jacob and Jacob, The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism, 185>th>ff.

34. According to Article I, sec. 2, the House was to be chosen by "the people," but the people were promptly defined as "electors" whose "qualifications" were those of "the most numerous branch of the State Legislature." Thus in states where suffrage qualifications were based on wealth or property, this could mean that most of "the people" would have no voice in the selection of their representatives.

35. See Gary Nash, "Artisans and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia," in Jacob and Jacob, The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism, 25878.

36. To Dupont de Nemours, April 24, 1816, in Writings, 1387.

37. Ibid., 1385.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

DEMOCRACY'S PROSPECTS: LOOKING BACKWARDS

1. Cited in Elizabeth b.u.miller, "Not 'the Decider,' but Stirring Anxiety," New York Times, April 24, 2006, A-17.

2. See Michael Barbaro and Stephanie Strom, "Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa," New York Times, September 8, 2006, C-1, which describes how the major conservative think tanks were paid handsome sums by Wal-Mart and responded by supplying articles praising Wal-Mart at a time when it was facing growing criticism of its low wage and benefit practices. See also Mark A. Smith, American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Election, and Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), who emphasizes the role of think tanks in influencing public opinion and furthering the political power of business.

3. Cited in Maureen Dowd, "The Unslammed Phone," New York Times, September 9, 2006, A-27.

4. See Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina (New York: Penguin, 2006).

5. Cited in Michael Abramowitz and Thomas E. Ricks, "Strategy: Pressures Mount on Bush Policy," Santa Rosa Press Democrat, October 20, 2006, A-1, 15. Reprinted from the Washington Post.

6. Bernard Williams, Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002), 118. This book is the best available discussion of the subject.

7. In his biography, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Public Affairs, 2000), 31531, Lou Cannon describes the anguish suffered by Reagan when he was finally persuaded to confess to the American public that he had lied about the sale of arms to Iran in order to aid the Nicaraguan "contras."

8. Republic, trans. Francis M. Cornford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1945), 158 (V.459cd).

9. For discussions of lying in Plato's works, see Julia Annas, An Introduction to Plato's Republic (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 1068, 16667; John R. Wallach, The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), 27374. For a defense of Plato's tactic, see C.D.C. Reeve, Philosopher-Kings: The Argument of Plato's Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 50 ff.

10. Republic, 105 ff. (III.414 ff.) 11. Jose Sarramago has written a remarkable novel on the theme, The Cave, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage, 2003).

12. Republic, 227 ff.(VII.514a ff.).

13. Plato portrays his rulers as begrudging the time spent on politics and as looking forward to the day when they can retire and pursue philosophy. They are strictly limited in the years spent in office. A crucial difference between Plato and the neocons is that his polity is forbidden to expand or embark on foreign conquests. Further, in Plato's antidemocracy there is no provision for interaction between the elite and the populace; hence while there is no provision for holding rulers accountable to the ruled, by the same token there is no likelihood of the Alcibiades dynamic of a demagogic elite exploiting ma.s.s emotion or of a ma.s.s inciting leaders to foreign adventures.

14. The New York Times headlined a front-page story with the innocuous t.i.tle "Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity," but in the continuation of the story on the inside pages a sharper heading was used: "Workers' Share of the Economy Hits Record Low, as Corporate Profits Skyrocket." August 28, 2006, A-1, A-13.

15. Some of the important works are the following: Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (New York: Macmillan, 1932); President's Report on Administrative Management (1937); Hoover Commission Reports (1946 ff.); Elton Mayo, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization (New York: Macmillan, 1933); Chandler, The Visible Hand; Burnham, The Managerial Revolution; Drucker, The Practice of Management.

16. The administration of Lyndon Johnson was the last instance of a Democratic administration that struggled to combine the welfare state with a crushing defense budget.

17. See Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest; Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men.

18. See Cannon, President Reagan, 521 ff.

19. For details, see the excellent biography by Cannon, President Reagan, 6667; Gary Wills, Reagan's America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985).

20. On Reagan's belief in Armageddon, see Cannon, President Reagan, 247 ff. It might seem astonishing that a political figure as ill-prepared as Reagan and who presided over more than his fair share of fiascos should become a cult figure with an impressive hagiography. The Times carried a revealing account of a summer camp for young conservatives funded by the usual conservative foundations. The young people attending went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Reagan ranch and were eager to voice unqualified adoration for Reagan. Jason deParle, "Pa.s.sing Down the Legacy of Conservatism," New York Times, July 31, 2006, A-13.

21. For Reagan and concentration camps, see Cannon, President Reagan, 428 ff.

22. This is not to say that Reagan had no influence over policies. He was a major influence in modifying the Cold War fundamentalism regarding the Soviet Union by initiating groundbreaking discussions with Gorbachev. He was also instrumental in various schemes for missile defense and arms reduction. For details, see ibid., 671 ff., and especially Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000).

23. It was the Reagan administration's James Watt whose record as secretary of the interior was the equivalent of the cla.s.sic horror movie for environmentalists.

24. One should not be misled into believing that the Reagan White House was streamlined, all marching to the same drummer. On the internal battles, petty jealousies, and conflicting ambitions within the administration, see Cannon, President Reagan, 495 ff., 56469, 61124.

25. Part of this story is the subservience of the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, where the Court halted the Florida recount and then solemnly declared that its majority opinion was not to be taken as a precedent. Vice President Cheney's hunting companion, Justice Scalia, when asked about the opinion, tartly responded, "Come on, get over it." Cited in Adam Cohen, "Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named?" New York Times, August 15, 2006, A-22. Another part of the story is the "judicial education" programs financed by wealthy individuals and business interests. See Samuels, "Golf Anyone?" A-24.

26. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order, 19191933 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957).

27. Quoted in Adam Nagourney, "Democrats Back Lamont in Show of Unity," New York Times, August 10, 2006, A-1.

28. James Glanz, "Series of Woes Mark Iraq Project Hailed as Model," New York Times, July 28, 2006, A-1.

29. In Vice President Cheney's notorious closed meeting with the most powerful energy corporations, a major environmental group, the National Resources Defense Council, was denied admission.

30. An interesting addition to the idea of originalism among conservatives is the elevation of certain conservative books as canonical and their authors as founding fathers of conservative theory.

31. Aristotle, Politics, VII.ix, 1329a.

32. On higher education and campus protest, see Sheldon S. Wolin and John H. Schaar, The Berkeley Rebellion and Beyond (New York: New York Review of Books, 1970).

33. The Federalist,, 57.

34. Ibid., 58, 59.

35. For a spirited use of Madison's tenth Federalist as a critique of the excesses of the Bush administration, see Stephen L. Elkin, "Republicans and the End of Republican Government," The Good Society 14, no. 3 (2005): 1 ff. Elkin makes no reference to corporate power and proposes "a moderate measure of economic equality" as a part of a reformed republicanism, "a well-ordered version of which requires a large and secure middle-cla.s.s, one that can keep in check the desire to expand the political control that wealth already gives the richest of the 'haves', and that can restrain the desire of the 'have-nots' to use the power of government in any fashion that will alleviate their misery" (5).

36. The Federalist, No. 10, 63, 6465.

37. Ibid., No. 48, p. 333.

38. Ibid., No. 51, p. 349.

39. Madison posed the question of what would preserve the balance between the branches of government; his answer: "by so contriving the interior structure of the government, as that its several const.i.tuent parts may, by their mutual relations, be the means of keeping each other in their proper places." The Federalist, No. 51, pp. 34748. See Michael Kammen, A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Const.i.tution in American Culture (New York: Random House, 1987).

40. The Federalist, No. 51, p. 349.

41. Ibid., No. 35, pp. 220, 221.

42. Ibid., No. 15, p. 97.

43. Ibid., No. 70, pp. 47172; No. 71, p. 482. See also the discussion in Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 17761787, 508.

44. The Federalist, No. 72, p. 489.

45. A cla.s.sic account is that by R. H. Tawney, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Harper, 1967). The work was originally published in 1912.

46. General Tommy Franks, the commander of Central Command at the beginning of the Iraq war, had a special fondness for movies. See Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Knopf, 2006), 25, 115, 164.

47. On presidential decision making during the Lebanon crisis, see Cannon, President Reagan, 521 ff.; on military decisions for the Iraq war, see Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II. See also Bruce Kuklick, Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War from Kennan to Kissinger (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).

48. See my essay "Tending and Intending a Const.i.tution: Bicentennial Misgivings" in The Presence of the Past, 8299.

49. The secretary of homeland security testified recently that the agency's inept response to Katrina was due in large part to its preoccupation with security.

50. A prime counterexample was Vice President Cheney's refusal to make public the meetings he held in his office with representatives from the great energy corporations while denying representation to environmental groups and despite the fact the discussions concerned policies.

51. Recently the Bureau of Internal Revenue privatized the collection of small debts, even though it would have been more cost-effective for the bureau to have hired its own agents to perform that function. David Cay Johnston, "I.R.S. Enlists Outside Help . . . Despite the Higher Costs," New York Times, August 20, 2006, A-12.