Democracy East and West

About the Book

A reexamination of democracy, which during the eighteenthcentury Enlightenment seemed to offer a much-desired escape from arbitrary class structures and oppressive governments, but has not proven to be a sure formula or a simple solution. An awareness of the true complexities of democracy requires an understanding of a perennial dialectic residing at the heart of democracy, and manifesting itself in specific dialectical relationships: between elitism and populism, liberty and equality, smallness and bigness, religion and secular life, politics and economics, etc. This book argues that such dialectical relationships, originally most explicit in particular nations, are also manifest in international relations.

About the Author

Howard Kainz is Professor Emeritus at Marquette University, Milwaukee. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for 1977-1978, and Fulbright fellowships in Germany for 1980-1981 and 1987-1988. His major publications include Ethics in Context (1988), Philosophical Perspectives on Peace (1987), Democracy and the Kingdom of God (1993) and The Philosophy of Human Nature (2008).