Which Side Are You On?

I am an American democrat. I believe that democracy is not simply a utilitarian system but “a fit object of faith and hope.” This allegiance is the point of departure for the subject matter of this book.

According to Machiavelli, the first appearance in public life of the Roman plebs was prompted by the indignation they felt at being compelled to perform undignified tasks by Tarquin the Proud. Tarquin upended the expectations of ordinary Romans’ private lives. This first expression of the democratic sense of injustice took form over a struggle regarding the nature of work and its relationship to the self-respect of ordinary people.

The sudden erosion of confidence in liberal democracy and in the functionality of its institutions points to a crisis of self-respect among its middle and working classes. This loss of confidence has increasingly taken the form throughout the liberal democracies of the rise of what has come to be called, somewhat vaguely, populist nationalis m or the alt-right, with nativist instincts and authoritarian impulses. The weakening of both the affective and institutional foundations of liberal democracy makes necessary, even urgent, a return to the investigation into the political attitudes and sensibilities of ordinary people. In this conclusion, I will focus on two broad themes: the relation of self-respect and work, and the relation of this basic self-respect and political life. In doing so, I will draw upon the early modern tradition I have already discussed as well as analyses of our current circumstances.