The Parent as Citizen: A Democratic Dilemma
Brian Duff
Abstract
When leaders and citizens in the United States articulate their core political beliefs, they often do so in terms of parenthood and family. But while the motives might be admirable, the results of such thinking are often corrosive to our democratic goals. This book reveals how efforts to make the experience of parenthood inform citizenship contribute to the most persistent problems in modern democracy and democratic theory. The book explains how influential theories of democratic citizenship rely on the experience of parenthood to help individuals rise to the challenges of politics, and demons ... More
When leaders and citizens in the United States articulate their core political beliefs, they often do so in terms of parenthood and family. But while the motives might be admirable, the results of such thinking are often corrosive to our democratic goals. This book reveals how efforts to make the experience of parenthood inform citizenship contribute to the most persistent problems in modern democracy and democratic theory. The book explains how influential theories of democratic citizenship rely on the experience of parenthood to help individuals rise to the challenges of politics, and demonstrates that this reliance has unintended consequences. When parenthood is imagined to instill confidence in political virtue, it uncovers insecurity. When parenthood is believed to inculcate openness to change, it produces fundamentalism. The book develops this argument through original readings of four theorists of citizenship: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Rorty, and Cornel West—readings that engage the ways in which these theorists incorporated their personal history into their political thought.
Keywords:
leaders,
citizens,
core political beliefs,
parenthood,
family,
democratic goals,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Friedrich Nietzsche,
Richard Rorty,
Cornel West
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780816672721 |
| Published to Minnesota Scholarship Online: August 2015 |
DOI:10.5749/minnesota/9780816672721.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Brian Duff, author
Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of New England, Biddeford Campus
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