Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book examines what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death and Judge Neil Gorsuch's appointment mean for the future of democracy in America. Before Scalia's death, the five conservative justices of the Roberts Court--John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia--stamped a capitalized version of democracy, discussed in this book as Democracy, Inc., with a constitutional imprimatur. The justices believed they were upholding the American way of life, but they instead placed our democratic-capitalist system in its gravest danger since World War II. Democracy, Inc. not only contravenes the framers' vision of a system balanced between the public and private spheres, government power and individual rights, but also threatens the very survival of American constitutionalism. With the looming confirmation of Gorsuch, the new Court must choose: will it follow the early Roberts Court in approving and bolstering Democracy, Inc., or will it restore the crucial balance between the public and private spheres in our democratic-capitalist system?
Synopsis
This book traces the evolution of the constitutional order, explaining Donald Trump's election as a symptom of a degraded democratic-capitalist system. Beginning with the framers' vision of a balanced system--balanced between the public and private spheres, between government power and individual rights--the constitutional order evolved over two centuries until it reached its present stage, Democracy, Inc., in which corporations and billionaires wield herculean political power. The five conservative justices of the early Roberts Court, including the late Antonin Scalia, stamped Democracy, Inc., with a constitutional imprimatur, contravening the framers' vision while simultaneously claiming to follow the Constitution's original meaning. The justices believed they were upholding the American way of life, but they instead placed our democratic-capitalist system in its gravest danger since World War II. With Neil Gorsuch replacing Scalia, the new Court must choose: Will it follow the early Roberts Court in approving and bolstering Democracy, Inc., or will it restore the crucial balance between the public and private spheres in our constitutional system?
Synopsis
Chapter 1: Introduction: Democracy, Inc., and the Betrayal of the Constitution 1Part I: The Foundation for a Balanced Structure 15Chapter 2: The Constitutional Framing: Republican Democracy, Private Property, and FreeExpression 15The Revolutionary Background 18Experience Defeats Idealism 22The Nature of the Citizen-Self 24Republican Democratic Government and the Public Sphere 30Property and the Private Sphere 33Balancing the Public and Private 44Free Speech and a Free Press 55Part II: The Transformation of the Constitutional System 63Chapter 3: Republican Democracy Evolves: Corporations and Laissez Faire 63Chapter 4: Pluralist Democracy Saves the United States and Invigorates Free Expression 80American Democracy Transforms: Reconciling the Public and Private 81Pluralist Democratic Theory: Free Expression Becomes a Constitutional Lodestar 94Chapter 5: Pluralist Democracy Evolves: Free Expression, Judicial Conservatism, and the ColdWar 97The Early-Cold War, Free Expression, and Moral Clarity 98The Flip Side of the Cold War: Liberty and Equality in an Emerging Consumers'Democracy 104Civil Rights and Democracy 104Capitalism and Democracy 109Chapter 6: Democracy, Inc., and the End of the Cold War 123The Rise of Democracy, Inc.: An Attack on Government 125The Early Roberts Court in Democracy, Inc. 139Statutory and Other Non-constitutional Cases 141Free-Expression and Other Constitutional Cases 144Part III: The Early and New Roberts Courts 153Chapter 7: Constitution Betrayed: The Endangerment of the American Democratic-CapitalistSystem 153The Framing and Originalism 154Social and Political Theory 158The Practical Effects of Laissez Faire in History 171Chapter 8: Will We Save the American Constitutional System? 175