America's Political Dilemma Hardcover

320 Pages·1968·207.534 MB·English

by  Gottfried Dietze

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America’s Founding Fathers saw not
only the blessings, but also the dangers
of democracy. As a result, they provided
for a Constitution designed to let reason
prevail over passion and to secure a
free government under which the ruling
majority was restricted for the sake
of the individual. Feeling that America’s
was a democratic challenge, they hoped
that a broadening of democracy would
further increase the rights of men,
make the United States a powerful
nation, and promote the emancipation
of mankind.
Professor Dietze examines whether this

American Dream has, in fact, come
true. Set within a rich historical and
comparative framework, his thesis is
that the march of democracy has made
government less reasonable, has elimi-
nated constitutional checks upon the
majority, jeopardized essential rights of
man, and resulted in a foreign policy
which permitted a dangerous expansion
of Soviet power since World War II.
In view of America’s general com-
mitment to democracy, the author
asserts that her democratic challenge has
become a democratic dilemma and
that the development from limited to
unlimited democracy may well result in
some kind of executive dictatorship—
even if the United States survives in the
struggle with the Communist world.
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AMERICA’S ,POLITICAL DILEMMA
FROM LIMITED TO UNLIMITED DEMOCRACY
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
UBER FORMULIERUNG DER MENSCHENRECHTE (1956)
THE FEDERALIST—A CLASSIC ON FEDERALISM
AND FREE GOVERNMENT (1960)
IN DEFENSE OF PROPERTY (1963)
MAGNA CARTA AND PROPERTY (1965)
(ED.) ESSAYS ON THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION—
A COMMEMORATIVE VOLUME IN HONOR OF
ALPHEUS T. MASON (1964)
AMERICA’S
POLITICAL

DILEMMA
FROM LIMITED TO UNLIMITED DEMOCRACY
BY
GOTTFRIED DIETZE
THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS, BALTIMORE
Copyright © 1968
by The Johns Hopkins Press
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-12902
Manufactured in the United States of America
All Rights Reserved
Cover Illustration Courtesy of Bettman Archives
For
*
P. F. G.
Friend of Liberty
Skeptic of Power
Posterity may know we have not loosely
through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream.
RicHARD HOOKER, . . . TO THEM THAT SEEK
(AS THEY TERM IT) THE REFORMATION OF THE LAWS...