Glen Browder has written a scary book. 

In this book, subtitled “A Former Congressman’s Unconventional Analysis,” Browder writes that our “Great Experiment” in democracy is in serious trouble, that “America may be dying.” 

Browder brings unusual qualifications to his analysis. He was, and again is, a political science professor at Jacksonville State University, with nearly 20 years of experience in teaching and research. He has served as a state legislator, Alabama secretary of state and Third District representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. As he says in his book, “I realized that, with guts and luck, I just might become Alabama’s ‘Professor-Politician’ — because nobody else wanted the job.” 

His name was on the ballot in 12 elections. He won them all, except the last one. In 1996 he lost the Democratic runoff primary election for U.S. Senate, and retired from active politics. Browder writes that he was “burned out,” but he notes that “I would still be in politics, happily serving in the United States Senate if I had won my last election.” 

Concern for the future of American democracy is not new. The last decade has seen a growing volume of warnings by academicians and journalists. Browder draws on these. The book incased 14 pages of references. He also writes from practical experience. 

The result is an interesting and unusual book, one well worth reading for anybody concerned about the state of our democratic system. The format may be somewhat off-putting for the general reader. It was developed primarily for use in the classroom. The book is written in a sort of outline form, with many citations and quotations. But it is accessible. The language is clear and passionate, and the outline structure makes it easy to follow. In paperback, it is 215 pages, plus references and index. 

This book should shatter anyone’s complacency about our political system. Browder writes that America is in a “philosophical civil war … heated cultural issues (such as abortion, homosexuality, and school prayers) and issues of representational governance (such as our recent Electoral College drama, the unsavory role of special interest money, and the politics of personal destruction) now interfere with rational debate about a diversity of public initiatives, such as civil rights, education, health care, welfare, and even national defense.” 

The election of 2000, according to Browder, revealed an American nation “bifurcating into two distinct philosophical personalities and cultural societies … 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.” 

Citing a growing withdrawal of citizens from all aspects of civic life and the declining turnout for elections, Browder finds that “The American people are losing their civic virtue.” And, he writes, young Americans are even less involved than their elders, slightly less than a third of all 18-24 year olds voted in the 2000 elections. 

Browder strikes some notes of hope in his concluding chapter. America will not die, he writes. But we must face our problems and the challenge of a changing America. He proposes a “National Democratic Renaissance,” led by the president and involving the development of a “super civic institution — the American Democracy Commission — something like but much bigger than the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.” Such an organization would coordinate a national reexamination of our American democracy and its structural problems. 

This kind of effort, Browder writes, requires “formal and active leadership by the president of the United States.” He adds that President George W. Bush has “an opportunity to be a transformational leader at this critical juncture in American history.” But the president seems otherwise occupied these days. 

Browder believes that such a “fundamental renewal of American democracy” will happen, and that there will be a “new golden age for our historic Great Experiment in the Twenty-First Century.” He admits that his optimism is based partly on “an almost mystical confidence in America.” 

Paul Rilling, a former executive editor of The Anniston Star, is an adjunct teacher of political science at Jacksonville State University.
 

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