| Michael Sandel, author of Democracy's Discontent, fears that society is losing control of the forces which govern citizens' lives and that from family to neighborhood to nation the moral fabric of community is unraveling. He discusses new ideas about liberty and democracy that "spawn unencumbered selves with no sense of moral responsibility, duty, or attachment." This carefree sensibility, he believes, has been encouraged by a "procedural republic" which interprets democracy to be merely a morally neutral procedure to adjudicate differences. He also talks about a shift from a civic public philosophy that worried about shaping character of citizens to a more individualistic one that conceives of freedom of choice. Sandel believes this conception of freedom cannot sustain a vital democratic life. |
Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Harvard University Press, 1996) |
