We Hold These Truths: Updating the Framers' Vision of American Democracy

The Federalist remains the best single account of how American democracy is supposed to work. That said, it remains incomplete. While generations of scholars from Alexis de Tocqueville to Anthony Downs have worked hard to fill these gaps, America's constantly-changing society and political institutions continue to encounter new puzzles and challenges. We Hold These Truths provides a comprehensive survey of recent scholarship about the Framers' vision, stressing how long-established political patterns can abruptly change as voters become more polarized, and even lead to feedbacks that amplify public anger still further. Developing a theory of American democracy for the age of the internet, Trump, and polarization, this study mixes modern social science with a detailed knowledge of history, asking where the Framers' scheme has gone wrong – and what can be done to fix it.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Updating the framers; 2. The people: from individuals to communities; 3. Selling policy: political narratives & ideologies; 4. The public forum: mass media and the web; 5. Mass democracy: political parties and elections; 6. The 'extended republic': communities, states & regions; 7. Making law: the congress; 8. Implementing law: the executive; 9. Interpreting law: the courts; 10. Democracy evolving: the future of American politics.

About the Author :
Stephen M. Maurer is Adjunct Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Trained as a lawyer, he has been associated with Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy since 1999. His books include WMD Terrorism (2009), On the Shoulders of Giants (CUP 2017), and Self-Governance in Science (CUP 2017).

Review :
'Stephen Maurer addresses the challenge of current American political polarization by assuming the Framers of the US Constitution made accurate diagnoses of the problem but prescriptions that need updating in the light of modern social science. This approach yields insights that will intrigue students of political institutions everywhere.' Paul Seabright, Toulouse School of Economics, author of The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life 'Whither American democracy in this age of polarization? How has the institutional design of the 1780s played through the history since? How have we been theorizing about that design, and how should we be? For one thing, James Madison meet Anthony Downs. But that is not all. Steeped in theory, history, vast scholarship, and alert to current vexations, this book is an invigorating read.' David R. Mayhew, Sterling Professor of Political Science Emeritus, Yale University