Books in Brief: America’s Political Dilemma

America’s Political Dilemma, by Gottfried Dietze (Johns Hopkins, $7.95) The Great Society is—or, rather, was—a democratic society. Democracy continues, of course, and grows ever more pervasive: more and more, vox Dei, vox pop. Professor Dietze traces America’s road from limited to unlimited democracy. Dietze’s main point is the accelerating breakdown of institutional safeguards of freedom. This breakdown can be seen in the dominance of the executive over the legislative branch, of the Federal Government over the states, of the majority over the minority, of the central government over the individual. As Jefferson put it, quoted by Dietze: “The tyranny of the executive will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.” America’s political dilemma, as Dietze sees it, is that she has become too egalitarian, too majoritarian, losing in the process her libertarian values and constitutional tradition.

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America’s Political Dilemma, by Gottfried Dietze (Johns Hopkins, $7.95) The Great Society is—or, rather, was—a democratic society. Democracy continues, of course, and grows ever more pervasive: more and more, vox Dei, vox pop. Professor Dietze traces America’s road from limited to unlimited democracy. Dietze’s main point is the accelerating breakdown of institutional safeguards of freedom. This breakdown can be seen in the dominance of the executive over the legislative branch, of the Federal Government over the states, of the majority over the minority, of the central government over the individual. As Jefferson put it, quoted by Dietze: “The tyranny of the executive will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.” America’s political dilemma, as Dietze sees it, is that she has become too egalitarian, too majoritarian, losing in the process her libertarian values and constitutional tradition.