DEMOCRACY DISCONTENT - AMERICA IN SEARCH OF A PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY - SANDEL,MJ

Democracy's Discontent is part of an ongoing debate between liberals a nd communitarians about the usefulness of liberal political theory as a foundation for American law and public policy. Through analyses of b oth court cases and texts of political theory, Professor Michael Sande l criticizes both the philosophical assumptions upon which liberalism is based and the political culture to which it has given rise in the U nited States. The ideology of the procedural republic, based on an exa ggerated individualism, has gained ascendancy over the ideology of civ ic republicanism, which attends to the demands of community cohesion a nd civic virtue, and now jeopardizes the vitality of American democrat ic life. Professor Shanley argues that Sandel creates a false dichotom y between the ideology of the procedural republic and that of civic re publicanism. That dichotomous approach leads Sandel to a skewed readin g of the history of American political thought and of certain Supreme Court decisions. Shanley argues that ''rights talk'' has neither stemm ed from nor produced the kind of exaggerated individualism that Sandel claims, and contends that the distortions in Democracy's Discontent r isk depriving us of useful tools in shaping policies beneficial to ind ividuals and their communities alike.