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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. American Democracy and Its Spaces: An Introduction

Author : Scott M. Roulier

Published in: Shaping American Democracy

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The introduction explains that the book—using the landscape and urban design visions of Jefferson, Thoreau, Olmsted, Wright, Moses, and several new urbanists—provides a unique history of American democratic ideas. Moreover, to set the stage for the rest of the project, the chapter describes different models of democracy, seeks to define and differentiate landscape and urban design, and offers a brief account of why spatial philosophy matters for politics. Finally, it spells out the book’s key normative claim, to wit, that a communally oriented democratic theory and its associated urban designs strike a better balance than individualistic theories and their built spaces—that the former are able to combine the protection of individual liberty with the nurturing of civic practices and values.

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next chapter Correction to: Shaping American Democracy

Even if a citizen body could agree on most values, it would still disagree about specific policies: “health might be desired by all, yet people would still disagree on vaccination and vasectomy” (Schumpeter 1976, 252).

Dahl, it turns out, is equally skeptical of this model, which subscribes to the “rule” that “in choosing among alternatives, the alternative preferred by the greater number is selected” (Dahl 1956, 37). Dahl provides several critiques of popular rule, including the observation that, when there is an equal division of preferences in a society, deadlock ensues and, in such cases, populistic democracy biases “the policy-making process in favor of all individuals who prefer policies requiring government inaction and against all who prefer policies requiring government action” (41). This paradigm also ignores the serious problem of differences in intensity of preference. Dahl concludes his critique by suggesting that political equality and popular sovereignty are not absolute goals.

As one might anticipate, there are many possible definitions of “individualism.” The type of individualism to which Thoreau aspired and the type Wright hoped to nurture in Broadacres’ residents could be characterized as Millian, sans J.S. Mill’s utilitarian commitment. Mill asserts that the “free development of individuality is one of the leading essentials of well-being,” and he approvingly quotes Wilhelm von Humboldt’s formula, which states that “the end of man…is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole” (Mill 1972, 124–125). What Wright himself embodied, as did Robert Moses, might best be described as a romantic, Faustian individualism, the need to express one’s uniqueness by imposing one’s will on the external world, while the individualism most often associated with Wright’s Broadacres’ progeny, suburbanites, highlights the importance of economic choice and the ownership of private property, a libertarian individualism (Friedman 1962; Nozick 1974).

For a more contemporary account of republicanism defined as non-domination, see Philip Pettit’s Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). Iseult Honohan’s Civic Republicanism (New York: Routledge, 2002) provides a good taxonomy of republican virtues.

The migration of jobs from cities to suburbs, for example, is one trend that has significantly altered the spatial form of cities, one consequence of which has been high rates of unemployment in urban cores. Harvey explains that, because of “inelasticity and locational inflexibility in the supply of low-income housing,” lower-income people find it difficult to relocate to suburbs. If they do obtain employment in the outer rings, low-income residents must contend with the loss of time (opportunity costs) and expensive transportation outlays, for public monies tend to be invested in roadways linking suburbs to one another and in high performance suburban to downtown systems, none of which benefit the urban poor (Harvey 2009, 63–64).

For an excellent historical overview of the philosophy of place and space, see Edward Casey’s The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History (1998).

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Dahl, R. (1956). A Preface to Theory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

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Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Pettit, P. (1997). Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Title: American Democracy and Its Spaces: An Introduction
Author: Scott M. Roulier
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Shaping American Democracy
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68809-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-68810-7

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68810-7_1

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