Being Like God: How American Elites Abuse Politics and Power / Edition 218

by John B. Parrott

Overview

American democracy revolves around two central visions: equality and unity. When Americans have pursued these ideals in moderation and balance, they have flourished. But because equality and unity exist as ideals, they can be striven for but never achieved completely. Further, they can be abused by zealous followers. In the years after World Ward II, the governing elite of the time—an elite of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant and traditionalist men—let the unity ideal corrode into McCarthyism. In the 1950s, a reformist elite sprang up to check the abuses of the anti-subversives, and with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 this elite came into control of the Executive Branch for the first time. The Liberal elite is multicultural and has egalitarianism as its defining vision. The various Clinton administration misdeeds, and the acquiescence of Liberals to them, demonstrated that, no less than the Traditionalists before them, Liberals could also befoul federal power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761826156
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	06/16/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	218
Product dimensions:	5.52(w) x 8.18(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

John B. Parrott is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science, Kutztown University, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Man As Tyrant Chapter 3 What is Power? Chapter 4 The American Experience: Democracy in Equality and Unity and Balance of Power Chapter 5 The Authoritarian Temptation I: The Patriotic Elite and McCarthy Chapter 6 The Authoritarian Temptation II: The Egalitarian Elite and Clinton Chapter 7 Rationalism or Psychologism: The Intellectual Struggle Over Knowledge and Knowing Chapter 8 Conclusion: The Coming Demise of the Liberal Elite Chapter 9 Appendix I: A Thought Experiment Chapter 10 Appendix II: Excerpts from the Speech of Margaret Chase Smith before the United States Senate, June 1, 1950 Chapter 11 Notes Chapter 12 Bibliography Chapter 13 Index