A01=Katlyn Marie Carter
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Author_Katlyn Marie Carter
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Category1=Non-Fiction
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Constitutional Congress
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democracy
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French Revolution
George Washington
James Madison
Language_English
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Price_€20 to €50
privacy
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representation
secrecy
softlaunch
transparency
Product details
- ISBN 9780300246926
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 09 Jan 2024
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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How debates over secrecy and transparency in politics during the eighteenth century shaped modern democracy
“Thought-provoking. . . . As Carter’s history shows with wonderful nuance, democratic governance is about a process of ongoing negotiation, not merely being in the know.”—Bronwen Everill, Foreign Policy
Does democracy die in darkness, as the saying suggests? This book reveals that modern democracy was born in secrecy, despite the widespread conviction that transparency was its very essence.
In the years preceding the American and French revolutions, state secrecy came to be seen as despotic—an instrument of monarchy. But as revolutionaries sought to fashion representative government, they faced a dilemma. In a context where gaining public trust seemed to demand transparency, was secrecy ever legitimate? Whether in Philadelphia or Paris, establishing popular sovereignty required navigating between an ideological imperative to eradicate secrets from the state and a practical need to limit transparency in government. The fight over this—dividing revolutionaries and vexing founders—would determine the nature of the world’s first representative democracies.
Unveiling modern democracy’s surprisingly shadowy origins, Carter reshapes our understanding of how government by and for the people emerged during the Age of Revolutions.
“Thought-provoking. . . . As Carter’s history shows with wonderful nuance, democratic governance is about a process of ongoing negotiation, not merely being in the know.”—Bronwen Everill, Foreign Policy
Does democracy die in darkness, as the saying suggests? This book reveals that modern democracy was born in secrecy, despite the widespread conviction that transparency was its very essence.
In the years preceding the American and French revolutions, state secrecy came to be seen as despotic—an instrument of monarchy. But as revolutionaries sought to fashion representative government, they faced a dilemma. In a context where gaining public trust seemed to demand transparency, was secrecy ever legitimate? Whether in Philadelphia or Paris, establishing popular sovereignty required navigating between an ideological imperative to eradicate secrets from the state and a practical need to limit transparency in government. The fight over this—dividing revolutionaries and vexing founders—would determine the nature of the world’s first representative democracies.
Unveiling modern democracy’s surprisingly shadowy origins, Carter reshapes our understanding of how government by and for the people emerged during the Age of Revolutions.
Katlyn Marie Carter is assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. She lives in South Bend, IN.
