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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
America, The Republican Nation: A Response To Critics Of The Nation-State, Bernard Dobski
America, The Republican Nation: A Response To Critics Of The Nation-State, Bernard Dobski
Political Science Department Faculty Works
Dedication to America’s national form is not about the thoughtless valorizing of one’s own that is so often at the heart of uglier forms of nationalism. It is about an understanding of the critical role played by size, scope, and dimensionality in the creation of stable and secure communities, the emergence of a citizenry attached to the public good, the rule of reasoned law, the preservation of diversity and minorities, and political transparency and accountability, the very things that critics of the nation tacitly seek to preserve. Critics of the national form thus fail to appreciate the conditions necessary to …
America Is A Republic, Not A Democracy, Bernard Dobski
America Is A Republic, Not A Democracy, Bernard Dobski
Political Science Department Faculty Works
America is a republic and not a pure democracy. The contemporary efforts to weaken our republican customs and institutions in the name of greater equality thus run against the efforts by America’s Founders to defend our country from the potential excesses of democratic majorities. American republicanism and the ordered liberty it makes possible are grounded in the Federalists’ recognition that non-majoritarian parts of the community make legitimate contributions to the community’s welfare, and that preserving these contributions is the hallmark of political justice. But, the careful balance produced by our mixed republic is threatened by an egalitarianism that undermines the …