Even in the midst of an economic boom, most Americans would agree that
our civic institutions are hard pressed and that we are growing ever
more cynical and disconnected from one another.
In response to this bleak assessment, advocates of civil society argue
that rejuvenating our neighborhoods, churches, and community
associations will lead to a more moral, civic-minded polity. Christopher
Beem argues that while the movement's goals are laudable, simply
restoring local institutions will not solve the problem; a civil society
also needs politics and government to provide a sense of shared values
and ideas. Tracing the concept back to Tocqueville and Hegel, Beem shows
that both thinkers faced similar problems and both rejected civil
society as the sole solution. He then shows how, in the case of the
Civil Rights movement, both political groups and the federal government
were necessary to effect a new consensus on race.
Taking up the arguments of Robert Putnam, Michael Sandel, and others,
this timely book calls for a more developed sense of what the state is
for and what our politics ought to be about.
This book is bound to incite controversy and to contribute to our
ongoing grappling with where our own democratic political culture is
going. . . . Beem helps us to get things right by offering a corrective
to any and all visions of civil society sanitized from politics.--Jean
Bethke Elshtain, from the Foreword
[Beem] makes an impressive case. At the end of the day, there really
is no substitute for governmental authority in fostering the moral
identity of the body politic.--Robert P. George, Times Literary
Supplement
