Revival of Democratic Theory (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Revival of Democratic Theory In This book I propose to analyze the decline and to suggest a case for the revival of democratic theory. Because democratic theory is a part of political theory it is important initially to understand the reasons for the bankruptcy of political theory in the Western World. Such understanding may suggest not only what must be done to revive political theory in general but also democratic theory in particular. It is my thesis that die bankruptcy of political theory is attributable to its failure to perform five significant roles. First, political theory has ceased to unify and undergird the discipline of political science. Second, it is no longer ably employed to clarify our political values. Third, it has ceased helpfully to illuminate empirical political reality. Fourth, it is not adequately used to facilitate prudent guidance in political life. And, finally, political theory has failed to assist us in doing more significant normative, empirical, and prudential research. The arguments in support of this thesis will be developed in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 I attempt to answer the question, Why have we in the modem world lost sight of the five major roles to be performed by political theory, particularly democratic theory? Four major reasons, I will argue, account for this loss of vision. First, we have been so frightened by totalitarian theory that we are leery of employing any kind of theory as a guide to action. Second, we have been intimidated by the belief that only an emphasis on precision of meaning and empirical verification, as illustrated by the "hard" sciences, will lead to a truer and more fruitful political science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.