Democracy:
Deneen, Patrick J.
ical decision making. Caplan implicitly flict he has a reasonable suspicion about lying assumptions of their common vo- forsakes these criteria when he forsakes which to honor. It is...
...When these con- son...
...Yet Machiavelli is ulbe received within the polity...
...takes, to measure temporal vagaries against democracy assume a corporeal equality that a higher standard, even to assume a crit- cannot exist...
...But theoretically equal capacity of participaseems somehow to apply disproportion- democracy cannot afford to be indiscrim- tion in the political order, regardless of ately to those without roofs...
...The only overt, if apologetic, engagement of the fundamental excellences and inadequacies of democracy occurs in SuAT PLAY IN PUBLIC SPACES san Mendus's chapter on feminism...
...Or 1993 of democracy outside the particular his- are there fundamental flaws in the very conEdited by John Dunn torical moments that each chapter under- cept of modem equality...
...In neglecting to consider this i OLF-71 A National Jesuit Theological Center in Cambridge self-corrosive aspect of modern democracy, Democracy does not fully succeed in living up to its name...
...In an original, engag- measures...
...Notably absent is any sustained fixed with relative ease by adding women The Unfinished Journey: 508 B.C...
...To be preferred Machiavelli one must consider means solution to procedural equality remains, at are the Sophists, who in Protagoras's and ends, and he is quite revealing in this instance...
...Paradoxically, a wholly proPatrick J. Deneen ical stance on democracy itself...
...36: 9 April 1993 Commonweal...
...Is it simply that democracy has had its prejudices too, and can be DEMOCRACY all focus...
...in Biancamaria Fontana's treat- To Care for the Earth (part 2) Paul Wadell, CP 1 Corinthians Margaret Mitchell ment of the French Revolution we may Ministry, Leadership and Authority John Linnan, CSV have among the first fair and balanced ac- God Images in Mexican Popular Religiosity Gary Riebe-Estrella, SVD counts of that ambiguous and disputed Jeremiah: Poetry and Theology Pauline Viviano event...
...As whether virtue or viciousness constitutes Mendus's recapitulation of feminist we are now witnessing throughout the that measure...
...In short, they demand too much timately not as sanguine about the mutulike many "multiculturalists," too easily em- unity between the individual and the poli- al coexistence of these goals as Skinner braces any difference regardless of its pos- ty, integrating excellent democratic prac- would have us believe...
...But there has to be a mid- he cannot present them even in a frag- this school there is an admitted reluctance dle ground between his "just do it" spir- mentary fashion, because at least part of to draw any broader lessons from historit and more philosophically systematic what informs ethics is what individuals ical knowledge, and this is tantamount to approaches...
...Does modern Oxford University Press, $25, 290 pp...
...While the cedural equality that neglects natural inneglect of democratic theory is not sur- equalities-such as our "equal" right to prising, its source is less the varying po- family leave that almost invariably disrupts Liberal democracy has won litical viewpoints of the authors-although only women's career paths-may result the cold war, and John Dunn certainly contributory-than the under- in an exacerbation of those existing inand his colleagues have taken the occasion to write a collection of essays accounting CATHOLIC for democracy's unlikely yet undeniable TFIEOLOGICAL UNION success...
...Among adherents of foundationalism...
...Contact: Director of Continuing Education Yet, the collection also suffers from that Catholic Theological Union at Chicago - COM usual disadvantage of multiple author- 5401 South Cornell • Chicago, IL 60615 ship: because each essayist is immersed (312) 324-8000 • (FAX) 324-4360 in his or her topic, the book lacks an overCommonweal 9 April 1993: 35 equalities...
...Democracy will serve ad- Ezekiel: Prophetic Voices of Ancient Israel Leslie Hoppe, OFM mirably as a departure for anyone wishing Understanding Ethnic Diversity in the Church Sheila Adams Religious Life: Gift and Challenge Helen Cahill, OP, to learn more of these eruptions of popuAnita Beskar, FSPA lar rule throughout history...
...If we • explore the myriad intellectual, cultural and recreational attractions of forgo participation in communities in Cambridge...
...It is the reader's loss that cation as historians...
...Neglecting, even repudiating such one that goes beyond purely procedural these themes in Cynthia Farrar's essay on standards, all that remain are secular means...
...Catherine M. Hannigan, PBVM • Director of Continuing Education Programs This logic ultimately condemns democWeston School of Theology • 3 Phillips Place, Dept...
...inate about its tolerance of difference...
...No doubt, he has a limited value-what Caplan values-and those an admission that historical contingencies, bag of principles that describe most human beliefs encompass much more than rea- not human nature, are largely responsible conditions and values...
...El for political outcomes...
...Unarguably a timely work, Celebrating 25 years of Theological Education presents Summer Institute 1993 Democracy benefits from the advantage Session 1, June 14-18 of being a collaborative volume in which Biblical Models for Church Barbara Bowe, RSCJ each author brings an impressive exper- To Care for the Earth (part 1) Paul Wadell, CP The Church: New Testament and Today John Linnan, CSV tise to his or her historical purview...
...Greek democracy...
...while shorter versions of earlier and Ministry as a Call to Transformation Anthony Gittins, CSSp monumental books by Quentin Skinner and Session Ill, June 28-July 2 Gordon S. Wood appear on the Italian city Sermon on the Mount Donald Senior, CP Hispanic Practices/Leadership Development Edmundo Rodrigues, SJ republics and the American Revolution re- Vatican I1 and the Future of the Church John Linnan, CSV spectively...
...attempt to define those essential aspects (or blacks or the poor) to the mixture...
...As mod• integrate theological and pastoral reflection with spiritual and personal renewal ern regimes demonstrate at every turn, • interact with a distinguished faculty and a talented and diverse student body of wealth eventually challenges a citizenry's lay and religious men and women most evident form of freedom, shared speech and action in political life...
...Yet Mendus, Aristotle...
...theory's difficulties with liberal democ- world, many groups base their "identity" Plato and Aristotle, alternatively, make racy is adequate, at times subtle, but in direct antagonism to democratic ideals the divine the measure of al I things, thus like many feminists Mendus is ultimately of speech and persuasion, instead opting setting a standard to which all people, too narrowly concerned with the post- for the bullhorn and the gun...
...favor of exercising our liberty to pursue For more information, please contact: wealth and power, will our freedoms last...
...The political tice may demand that we measure human ly respect any claim in itself...
...Justice de- despite varying and sometimes radicalmodern paradoxes of equality to concern mands that we be attentive to the contents ly limited opportunities, are nevertheless herself explicitly with justice...
...Caplan implicitly flict he has a reasonable suspicion about lying assumptions of their common voforsakes these criteria when he forsakes which to honor...
...The reigning question for Mendus is, what is it about democracy that precludes female participation...
...Yet jus- of those claims for equality, and not mere- held to equal account...
...It is easy," he writes in the Discourses, "to understand how an affection for living a free way of life springs up in peoples...
...for one sees by experience DO YOURSELF A FAVOR that cities have never increased either in power or in wealth unless they have been established in liberty...
...B3 racy to ruin: without the constant interCambridge, MA 02138-3495 • Phone: (617) 492-1960 • Fax: (617) 492-5833 play of citizens in public spaces that maintains the uneasy coexistence of liberty and equality, we lose the element that makes democracy more than a name or a Weston School of Theology system...
...Mendus looks in this direction by propos- ing, but misleading analysis of ancient Indeed, Quentin Skinner in his essay ing that "difference" be added to our cur- thought, one replete with modern liberal embraces Machiavelli's call, contra anrent understanding of equality, suggesting assumptions, what most disturbs Farrar is cient and Christian philosophy, that the a scenario in which natural (as in gender the uncomfortable blending of the public objects of democratic republics be civic" and race) and cultural distinctions would and private in the philosophies of Plato and glory and liberty...
...Boston and New England...
...One recalls Anatole France's base, procedural: rather than assuming ab- phrase consider "man the measure of all quip that in Paris all are equally forbid- stract equal rights at birth, she would sub- things," thereby according all citizens a den to sleep under bridges, although this stitute an equality of differences...
...Richard Fragomeni Christians Examine the New Age For well-conceived panoramics there is Creation Theology: Isaiah Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP Charles S. Maier's essay on democracy Children, Teachers and Parents Susan Johnson, since the French Revolution and Neil Herbert Anderson Harding's trenchant indictment of Marxist- Session Il, June 21-25 Leninism...
...sphere points beyond itself, at its best enshortfalls occurring from accidents of for- Mendus's inattention to principles of jus- abling citizens to approximate those pertune and nurture against an older stan- tice underlying democracy is not unex- fect standards even as it inevitably falls dard of civic and even natural equality, pected given the inaugural treatment of short...
...Her tice with private virtue...
...to A.D...
...At times, it is essential to pause and passage as though the goals are entirely renew one's personal vision and spiritual aspirations...
...Always with sible antagonism to democracy itself...
...The Weston School of compatible, yet Machiavelli explicitly Theology Sabbatical Program affords the experienced minister an opportunity to: makes liberty a means to achieving power and wealth, not an end in itself...
...Skinner cites this A life of ministry is rewarding and demanding...
Vol. 120 • April 1993 • No. 7
