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Cornel West's 1994 classic Race Matters scrutinized America's deep inner uncertainty about race. In Democracy Matters, his first major book in ten years, West analyzes the arrested development of democracy both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. He argues that if we are to become the steward of democratization around the world, we must first awaken to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own foreign relations. "The old American empire of Manifest Destiny and Cold War containment policies has given way," he writes, "to a new American empire of dreams of global domination."

From the Publisher

Praised by the New York Times for his "ferocious moral vision," Cornel West returns to the analysis of what he calls the arrested development of democracy with a masterful diagnosis. Pointing to the rise of three antidemocratic dogmas that are rendering the energy of American democracy impotent—a callous free-market fundamentalism, an aggressive militarism, and an insidious authoritarianism—West argues that racism and imperial bullying have gone hand in hand in our country's inexorable drive toward world dominance, including our current militaristic excesses. This impassioned and empowering call for the revitalization of America's democracy, by one of our most distinctive and compelling social critics, will reshape the raging national debate about America's role in today's troubled world.

The Washington Post - Lester K. Spence

The new book is richer and more compelling largely because it contains a historical component that was mostly neglected in its predecessor. In his chapter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for example, West boils down several decades' worth of history on the movement for a Jewish state into just 30 pages. West has long been interested in Jewish culture (a chapter of Race Matters was devoted to the relationship between blacks and Jews, and he wrote a book with Tikkun magazine's Michael Lerner on the subject), so this is a natural extension. He does a yeoman's job of presenting the history clearly and succinctly for the layperson. And given the minefield this subject represents for scholars, he does an admirable job of critiquing both Israeli (and American Jewish) elites and their Palestinian counterparts, while arguing that the central problem remains the lack of a Palestinian state.

Publishers Weekly

A sequel to 1993's Race Matters, West's latest aims to "look unflinchingly at the waning of democratic energies and practices in our present age of American empire." Such orotund language pervades the book, which expands philosophically on extant critiques but offers little practical or programmatic advice. American democracy, argues West, is threatened by free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating authoritarianism. He criticizes Republicans as evangelical nihilists driven by delusions of American domination, Democrats (including John Kerry) as paternalistic nihilists accepting a corrupt system and most news organizations as sentimental nihilists sacrificing truth for distraction. With intermittent journeys through Tocqueville, Melville, King, Emerson, Twain and Morrison, among others, he lingers in the Middle East (supporting security for Israel and freedom for Palestinians), and calls fiercely for an American Christianity that evokes the Christian ideals of love and justice, and that advocates deeper engagement with youth culture-which leads to a nine-page account of how his outreach led to a clash with Harvard president Larry Summers and his departure for Princeton. Echoing his 1993 demand for improvisational "jazz freedom fighter[s]," West here invokes the blues, which "forge a mature hope that fortifies us on the slippery tightrope of Socratic questioning and prophetic witness in imperial America." Agent, Gloria Loomis for Watkins Loomis Agency. Author tour. (On sale Sept. 13) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

West offers a compelling, exciting argument in this sequel to his 1992 best seller, Race Matters. With an impassioned voice he decries the dangerous drift America has taken from our original ideals of freedom and democracy. Three trends, or dogmas as he calls them, are to blame: the first is a "callous free market fundamentalism" that puts self and profit above all else; secondly, the United States has adopted an aggressive militarism that has made us reviled and feared worldwide, in essence, the same feelings engendered by the gangsters and thugs who attacked us; and finally, our reaction to the terrorist attack of 9/11 has led to escalating authoritarianism. West urges that we go back to the roots we adapted from earlier cultures-Socratic questioning from the Greeks, a prophetic commitment to justice from the Jews, and a tragicomic commitment to hope as exhibited in the black freedom struggle and in blues and jazz. He concludes with a call to action to regain the country and its ideals. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Imperialism bad, democracy good: a lackluster excursion into the realm of the obvious. This latest offering by author and academic celebrity West (Restoring Hope, 1997, etc.) resembles nothing so much as a sermon written in a hurry and delivered to the choir. Only the converted will be moved by set pieces such as: "When Bush smiles after his carefully scripted press conferences of little substance, we do not know whether he is laughing at us or getting back at us as we laugh at him-as the press meanwhile hurries to concoct a story out of his cliches and shibboleths." (Shibboleths?) Or: "How ironic that in America we've moved so quickly from Martin Luther King's 'Let Freedom Ring' to the 'Bling! Bling!'-as if freedom is reducible to simply having material toys, as dictated by free-market fundamentalism." (So Puffy and Jay-Z are now disciples of von Mises?) Or: "Western-style democracy has no future in the Islamic world. The damage has been done, the wounds are deep, and the die has been cast by the hypocritical European and nihilistic American imperial elites." And how to battle Big Corporatism and Imperial Globalism, as well as those hypocrites and nihilists? Well, we can start by embracing a "Socratic-driven, prophetic-centered, tragicomic-tempered, blues-inflected, jazz-saturated" vision "that posits America as a confident yet humble democratic experiment that should be shoring up international law and multilateral institutions that preclude imperial arrangements and colonial invasions." (Whew.) And, West adds, as if channeling Charles Reich, we can listen to the kids, who are picked on and misunderstood by such brutalizing forces as Harvard University president Lawrence Summers-who,notoriously, caused West's defection from Harvard to Princeton after questioning his scholarship. West's self-serving account of that affair seems out of place in a polemic on democracy vs. imperialism. But, concrete rather than abstract and full of real emotion ("President Summers had messed with the wrong Negro"), it's the best thing here. Author tour. Agent: Gloria Loomis/Watkins Loomis

Product Details

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Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

Democracy Matters

The Penguin Press

Chapter One

This slow yet frightening imperial devouring of American democracy flows from a lethal combination of free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism, and escalating authoritarianism. Free market fundamentalism-just as significant as religious fundamentalisms-not only posits the unregulated market as idol and fetish; it also devalues and demeans nonmarket activities like critical thought, compassionate temperament, and laughter at self and society. No democracy can survive without these precious commitments. No vital sense of public interest and common good can be sustained without these humanistic convictions.

Plutocratic economic arrangements-in which elite greed runs amok-create an unhealthy hemorrhage of wealth at the very top of society. This top-heavy inequality puts a premium on instant success and short-term gain by any means and at any cost. It also erodes the fragile democratic trust between classes and groups. Needless to say, it sends an explosive message to the most vulnerable that they neither count nor matter. Democracies reap social chaos when such plutocratic seeds are sowed.

Aggressive militarism-whether abroad, as in armed invasion in Iraq, or at home, as in police violations-heralds force as the desirable means of resolving problems. It demotes diplomacy and degrades dialogue-two crucial pillars of any democratic regime. And, as with Sophocles' Creon in Antigone, the preoccupation with might easily leads to myopic arrogance and hideous hubris of nations and persons. As the mechanisms of deliberation and modes of cooperation weaken, unchecked power reigns supreme. No democracy can thrive without legitimate forms of accountability containing such power.

Escalating authoritarianism feeds public paranoia and cuts off the democratic lifeblood of any society. The curtailment of liberties and the repression of rights make the hard-won rule of law suspect. The subtle censorship of media and narrowing of political discourse disempowers citizens and discourages novel approaches to pressing problems. The ideological monitoring of schools and universities dampens the imagination and ingenuity of talented and creative young people. Freedom of expression is the indispensable precondition for any democratic experiment.

The perennial battle between empire and democracy-that reaches from Athens to America-sits at the center of human efforts to preserve decency and dignity, excellence and elegance, freedom and equality. We not only ignore it at our own peril; we also must acknowledge that the very moral grounds of our prosperity are at stake.

(Continues...)

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