Inventing Leadership: The Challenge of Democracy

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Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007 - Political Science - 404 pages
Tom Wren s book is a masterpiece of intellectual history. It explores the philosophical and historical foundations of democracy in a compelling way. Wren is a sparkling and graceful writer. He makes a potentially dry subject come alive with wit and insigh

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Contents

of fi ctions implicit theories and leadership in a democracy
1
1 The classical ideal of the leader
13
2 The classical ideal in republics
46
3 A new conception of the people
95
4 A new social relation
131
5 The challenge of democracy
147
6 James Madison and the classical ideal
171
7 Tocqueville and the challenges of democracy
203
8 Inventing liberalism
237
9 Inventing communitarianism
296
10 A new fi ction of leadership
335
Index
393
Copyright

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Page 141 - Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests ; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates ; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole ; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.
Page 239 - ... a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man.
Page 240 - The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions...
Page 240 - For this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough and as good left in common for others.
Page 189 - A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Page 141 - Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents.
Page 174 - To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.
Page 247 - ... there can be but one supreme power which is the legislative, to which all the rest are and must be subordinate, yet, the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends, there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the legislative when they find the legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them...
Page 173 - Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
Page 240 - A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another...

About the author (2007)

J. Thomas Wren, Professor of Leadership Studies, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, US

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