A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment
This volume surveys the burst of political imagination that created multiple Enlightenment cultures in an era widely understood as an age of democratic revolutions. Enlightenment as precursor to liberal democratic modernity was once secular catechism for generations of readers. Yet democracy did not elicit much enthusiasm among contemporaries, while democracy as a political system remained virtually nonexistent through much of the period. If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ideas did underwrite the democracies of succeeding centuries, they were often inheritances from monarchical governments that had encouraged plural structures of power competition. But in revolutions across France, Britain, and North America, the republican integration of constitutional principle and popular will established rational hope for public happiness. Nevertheless, the tragic clashes of principle and will in fraught revolutionary projects were also democratic legacies.

Each chapter focuses on a distinct theme: sovereignty; liberty and the rule of law; the “common good”; economic and social democracy; religion and the principles of political obligation; citizenship and gender; ethnicity, race, and nationalism; democratic crises, revolutions, and civil resistance; international relations; and the transformations of sovereignty-a synoptic survey of the cultural entanglements of “enlightenment” and “democracy.”

"1142798442"
A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment
This volume surveys the burst of political imagination that created multiple Enlightenment cultures in an era widely understood as an age of democratic revolutions. Enlightenment as precursor to liberal democratic modernity was once secular catechism for generations of readers. Yet democracy did not elicit much enthusiasm among contemporaries, while democracy as a political system remained virtually nonexistent through much of the period. If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ideas did underwrite the democracies of succeeding centuries, they were often inheritances from monarchical governments that had encouraged plural structures of power competition. But in revolutions across France, Britain, and North America, the republican integration of constitutional principle and popular will established rational hope for public happiness. Nevertheless, the tragic clashes of principle and will in fraught revolutionary projects were also democratic legacies.

Each chapter focuses on a distinct theme: sovereignty; liberty and the rule of law; the “common good”; economic and social democracy; religion and the principles of political obligation; citizenship and gender; ethnicity, race, and nationalism; democratic crises, revolutions, and civil resistance; international relations; and the transformations of sovereignty-a synoptic survey of the cultural entanglements of “enlightenment” and “democracy.”

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A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment

A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment

A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment

A Cultural History of Democracy in the Age of Enlightenment

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Overview

This volume surveys the burst of political imagination that created multiple Enlightenment cultures in an era widely understood as an age of democratic revolutions. Enlightenment as precursor to liberal democratic modernity was once secular catechism for generations of readers. Yet democracy did not elicit much enthusiasm among contemporaries, while democracy as a political system remained virtually nonexistent through much of the period. If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ideas did underwrite the democracies of succeeding centuries, they were often inheritances from monarchical governments that had encouraged plural structures of power competition. But in revolutions across France, Britain, and North America, the republican integration of constitutional principle and popular will established rational hope for public happiness. Nevertheless, the tragic clashes of principle and will in fraught revolutionary projects were also democratic legacies.

Each chapter focuses on a distinct theme: sovereignty; liberty and the rule of law; the “common good”; economic and social democracy; religion and the principles of political obligation; citizenship and gender; ethnicity, race, and nationalism; democratic crises, revolutions, and civil resistance; international relations; and the transformations of sovereignty-a synoptic survey of the cultural entanglements of “enlightenment” and “democracy.”


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781350440050
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 02/08/2024
Series: The Cultural Histories Series
Pages: 296
Sales rank: 1,016,221
Product dimensions: 6.70(w) x 9.55(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Michael Mosher is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tulsa, USA.

Anna Plassart is Senior Lecturer in History at the Open University, UK.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
General Editor's Preface

Introduction
Michael Mosher (University of Tulsa, USA) and Anna Plassart (Open University, UK)

1. Sovereignty
Daniel Lee (University of California, Berkeley, USA)


2. Liberty and the Rule of Law
Yoshie Kawade (University of Tokyo, Japan)


3. The "Common Good"
Rebecca Kingston (University of Toronto, Canada)


4. Economic and Social Democracy
Alexander Schmidt (Vanderbilt University, USA)

5. Religion and the Principles of Political Obligation
Niall O'Flaherty (King's College London, UK)

6. Citizenship and Gender
Dorinda Outram (University of Rochester, USA)


7. Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism
Inder Marwah (McMaster University, Canada)


8. Democratic Crises, Revolutions, and Civil Resistance
Michael Mosher (University of Tulsa, USA)


9. International Relations
James Stafford (Columbia University, USA)

10. Beyond the Polis, Transforming Sovereignty
Joanna Innes (University of Oxford, UK)

Notes
References
Notes on Contributors
Index

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