LEADER 03640nam 2200613 a 450 001 9910785558603321 005 20230801224048.0 010 $a0-674-06259-0 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674062597 035 $a(CKB)2670000000233592 035 $a(EBL)3301117 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000720640 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12291766 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000720640 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10668681 035 $a(PQKB)11763903 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301117 035 $a(DE-B1597)178265 035 $a(OCoLC)804847587 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674062597 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301117 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10583975 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000233592 100 $a20110322d2012 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe founding fathers v. the people $eparadoxes of American democracy /$fAnthony King 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cHarvard University Press$d2012 215 $a1 online resource (256 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-674-04573-4 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aPreface -- An assortment of puzzles -- Who-and what-were "the people"? -- The people in the house of power -- The exaltation of the people -- The people move upstairs -- Two tectonic plates, two nostalgias -- An assortment of solutions -- Democracy in America. 330 $aAs pundits and politicians remind us at every election cycle or turn of the television dial, the United States sees itself as the world's greatest democracy. But what citizens might also hear, if they knew how to listen, is the grinding of two tectonic plates on which this democracy was established. In the venerable tradition of keen foreign observers of American politics, Anthony King exposes the political paradoxes in our system that we may well be too close to see-founding principles of our great democracy that are distinctly undemocratic.In an extended essay eloquent in its plainspoken good sense, King begins, on the one hand, with the founding fathers who emphasized moderation, deliberation, checks and balances, and the separation of powers-a system in which "the people" were allowed to play only a limited role. On the other hand were radical democrats who insisted that the people, and only the people, should rule. The result was a political system tangled up in conflicts that persist to this day: unelected and unaccountable Supreme Court justices who exercise enormous personal power; severe restrictions on the kind of person the people can elect as president; popular referendums at the state and local level but none at the federal level, not even to ratify amendments to the Constitution.In King's provocative analysis, we see how these puzzles play out in the turmoil of our nation's public life and political culture-and we glimpse, perhaps, a new way to address them. 606 $aDemocracy$zUnited States 606 $aSeparation of powers$zUnited States 606 $aConstitutional history$zUnited States 607 $aUnited States$xPolitics and government 607 $aUnited States$xPolitics and government$xPhilosophy 615 0$aDemocracy 615 0$aSeparation of powers 615 0$aConstitutional history 676 $a320.973 700 $aKing$b Anthony$f1934-$0297382 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910785558603321 996 $aThe founding fathers v. the people$93737601 997 $aUNINA