A01=Andrew Sabl
Activism
Aristocracy
Author_Andrew Sabl
Black Power
Calculation
Category=JPHL
Category=JPHV
Citizenship
Civil society
Communism
Consideration
Constitutionalism
Criticism
Deliberation
Democracy
Democracy in America
Election
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethics
Governance
Government
Hannah Arendt
Ideology
Individualism
Institution
John Rawls
Legislation
Legislator
Legislature
Legitimacy (political)
Liberal democracy
Liberalism
Moral authority
Moral responsibility
Morality
Obligation
Oligarchy
Party leader
Philosopher
Philosophy
Political ethics
Political movement
Political philosophy
Political science
Political system
Politician
Politics
Populism
Prejudice
Prerogative
Principle
Public opinion
Public sphere
Rational choice theory
Reason
Republicanism
Requirement
Rhetoric
Right-wing politics
Saul Alinsky
Self-interest
Skepticism
Social Action
Social issue
Social movement
Social theory
State (polity)
Suggestion
Tax
The Public Interest
Theory
Toleration
Voting
Wealth
Product details
- ISBN 9780691088310
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 24 Feb 2002
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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How should politicians act? When should they try to lead public opinion and when should they follow it? Should politicians see themselves as experts, whose opinions have greater authority than other people's, or as participants in a common dialogue with ordinary citizens? When do virtues like toleration and willingness to compromise deteriorate into moral weakness? In this innovative work, Andrew Sabl answers these questions by exploring what a democratic polity needs from its leaders. He concludes that there are systematic, principled reasons for the holders of divergent political offices or roles to act differently. Sabl argues that the morally committed civil rights activist, the elected representative pursuing legislative results, and the grassroots organizer determined to empower ordinary citizens all have crucial democratic functions. But they are different functions, calling for different practices and different qualities of political character. To make this case, he draws on political theory, moral philosophy, leadership studies, and biographical examples ranging from Everett Dirksen to Ella Baker, Frances Willard to Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr. to Joe McCarthy.
Ruling Passions asks democratic theorists to pay more attention to the "governing pluralism" that characterizes a diverse, complex democracy. It challenges moral philosophy to adapt its prescriptions to the real requirements of democratic life, to pay more attention to the virtues of political compromise and the varieties of human character. And it calls on all democratic citizens to appreciate "democratic constancy": the limited yet serious standard of ethical character to which imperfect democratic citizens may rightly hold their leaders--and themselves.
Andrew Sabl is Assistant Professor of Policy Studies at UCLA.
