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7 - Conclusions

Resuscitating the People’s Two Bodies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Alin Fumurescu
Affiliation:
University of Houston
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Summary

The concluding chapter tackles some of the possible lessons from the founding that may serve us well today. It begins by discussing the contemporary dangers of confounding party membership with partisanship and explaining why such confusion is inimical to the spirit of compromise. The stakes are high, since for decades the common knowledge has been that political parties are the backbone of liberal democracies. Because I claim that the change in understandings of the self, nurtured by the digital revolution, is at least partially responsible for the worrisome loss of trust in parties and in the formalized channels of political representation, I return to the Puritan purged individualism in order to see what we may, politically speaking, expect from this change. Social media appears to be, like Puritanism, a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps individuals to engage in acts of identity disclosure and voluntary construction, encouraging in-group compromises. On the other hand, it promotes group conformity and ideological “Balkanization,” as it pushes individuals toward more extreme positions. I conclude with some considerations about the importance of rhetoric in shaping public opinion and, hopefully, in resuscitating the people’s two bodies.

Type
Chapter
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Compromise and the American Founding
The Quest for the People's Two Bodies
, pp. 217 - 248
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Conclusions
  • Alin Fumurescu, University of Houston
  • Book: Compromise and the American Founding
  • Online publication: 28 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108235358.007
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  • Conclusions
  • Alin Fumurescu, University of Houston
  • Book: Compromise and the American Founding
  • Online publication: 28 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108235358.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusions
  • Alin Fumurescu, University of Houston
  • Book: Compromise and the American Founding
  • Online publication: 28 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108235358.007
Available formats
×