THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

(CHAPTER OUTLINE)

INTRODUCTION: BROWDER’S THESIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

SECTION ONE: IS AMERICA DYING?

Chapter 1. Is America Dying?
(An unconventional analysis of transforming American democracy.)

A. The American national dream is turning into national democratic distemper.

B. It is time for a Tocquevillian assessment of the “Great Experiment” of American

      democracy.

            C.   The objective: “To learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress.”

     Chapter 2. How Dare I Ask Such An Outrageous Question About America?
             (The discomforting venture of a veteran politician, political scientist, and “American Dreamer”)

A. A political-academic-personal introduction.

B. The discomforting nature of my rhetorical inquiry.

Chapter 3. What do I mean by “America”, “American Democracy”, and “Dying”?
(A systems theory of transformational America)

A. “America”: A national experiment in democratic ideals.

B. “American Democracy”: The magical mix of people, politics, and

   government through which we pursue democratic ideals.

       C. “Dying”: American democracy no longer works the way it
             used to, and we seem to be tiring of the Great Experiment itself.

      D.   A systems theory of transformational America.

SECTION TWO: WHY AND HOW—ARGUABLY—IS AMERICA DYING?

     Chapter 4. Proposition Number One:
“The favorable systemic environment of American democracy has
   disappeared.”

A. Our original, open, natural environment encouraged freedom,

individualism, and independence—but that environment closed long
ago.

B. The popular expansion of national public authority fostered equality, security and justice—but that expansion appears to have reached its limits.

C. America’s next democratic frontier?

D. America’s historic democratic boom may—or may not—have busted.

Chapter 5. Proposition Number Two:
“We have entrapped American democracy within a philosophical civil war.”

A. America is engaged in a philosophical civil war over democratic ideals, cultural values, and principles of governance.

B. We now are conducting an intense national debate over America’s basic cultural values (“culture wars”).

C. We also are re-examining our traditional system of limited

       representative governance (“neopopulist democratization”).

             D. This is a different and ominous challenge for American democracy.

     Chapter 6. Proposition Number Three:
“American democracy no longer works the way it has in the past.”

A. The American people are losing their civic virtue.

B. The political machinery of American democracy is broken.

C. American government is functioning in unacceptable manner.

D. We are witnessing the revolutionary rise of “electronic democracy”.

E. Demographic, economic, and technological trends are exacerbating our political troubles.

F. Declensional tendencies of American democracy.

Chapter 7. Proposition Number Four:
“America seems to be tiring of its historic Great Experiment.”

A. The American people evidence mixed commitment to their national democratic endeavor.

B. The American polity increasingly inclines toward alternative ideas about governance.

C. Tired America appears to be questioning the Great Experiment at a critical point in American history.

SECTION THREE: IS AMERICA GOING TO DIE?

     Chapter 8. How Serious Is America’s Democratic Distemper?
             (Systemic realities and alternative scenarios.)

A. America apparently has reached a critical juncture of systemic destiny.

B. Conventional assurances of American democracy’s enduring strength.

C. Unconventional interpretations of democratic destiny.

D. Alternative scenarios for an uncertain future: Disintegration (“Death of

                  America”), Deformation (“Amerika” / “USSA”), Transition (“The American
                  Federation”), or Transformation (“New America”)?

     Chapter 9. What Might America Look Like—If We Continue Our Current Course—In
          2050?” (A speculative projection: “The American Federation”)

A. Centrifugal dynamics are reshaping the American political system.

          B.   A contemporary vision of our democratic future (the California analogy).

          C.   America may become “The American Federation” by the middle of the
Twenty-First Century.

CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY?
(The challenge of “New America”)

A. A transformational review.

B. A transformational juncture (Election 2000).

C. A transformational challenge (“National Democratic Renaissance”).

D. And some transformational predictions about the evolving direction of

American democracy.

E. An even greater Democratic Experiment?

F. “Quelle Grand Expérience!”

REFERENCES

INDEX


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