Democracy and its critics : Anglo-American democratic thought in the nineteenth century

Part 1 Introduction: traditions of democratic thought; liberty and equality; America - Republican virtue and the role of religion; Britain - history and the habit of deference; majority rule; dimensions of democracy. Part 2 The democratic debate in America: the founding of the American republic; a republican constitution; the separation of powers and federalism; "The Federalist" and factions; slavery and democracy; the electoral system; the party system; democracy's critics - why should numbers count for more?; John C.Calhoun (1782-1850); James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851); Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859); interpretations of the democratic ideal; Abraham Lincoln and the moral implications of democracy; Walt Whitman and the cultural impulse of democracy; Henry George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Lloyd and the economic imperative of democracy. Part 3 The democratic debate in Britain: preparing for democracy - the British Constitution 1789-1832; the idea of the constitution and the continuity of change; Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine - reform and revolution; Jeremy Bentham, James Mill and the utilitarian alternative; Lord Macaulay and the defence of balance; a grudging acceptance of the people's right to vote; a people's Magna Carta; John Stuart Mill, Walter Bageot and Matthew Arnold; the problem of the working-class voter; democracy's critics - outsiders looking on; Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881); John Ruskin (1819-1900); William Morris (1834-1896). Part 4 Conclusion: democracy, values and ideology; equality and liberty; the problem of the majority; democracy and ideology.