Download Review: The Future of American Democracy: A Former

Volume 28, Number 1, January 2005
Legislative Studies Section Newsletter is published at the
Carl Albert Center, University of Oklahoma, Norman,
Oklahoma, under the authority of the Legislative Studies
Section of the American Political Science Association. The
LSS and APSA are non-profit educational associations. The
Newsletter is uploaded to this web site twice yearly: in
January and in July.
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The Future of American Democracy: A Former Congressman's
Unconventional Analysis
The Future of American Democracy: A Former Congressman's
Unconventional Analysis, Glen Browder, Rowman & Littlefield
Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0761823077, paper, $41.00, 206 pages.
Written from the unique combination of practitioner and academic, Glen
Browder draws heavily on his experience as a public servant and
observations to explore the “democratic distemper,” currently affecting the
future of politics in America. Democratic distemper relates not only to the
substance and character of public discourse and political action, but also
to the systemic failures of the American system of government (8-10).
Browder examines the causes of this democratic distemper, its effects and
its dire future implications if left unchecked.
Browder employs a systems model to examine his four propositions as
the causal factors of democratic distemper. The first proposition asserts
that the natural and open geographic, demographic, and political
environments in which the American system operated were self-limiting.
The shift from an open system of expansion into a contained system
informs Browder’s concerns in the other three propositions and each of
the successive propositions builds upon the next. Browder argues that
public discourse is constrained by a “philosophical civil war” and
democracy no longer functions in a traditional and acceptable fashion,
resulting in the floundering of the “Great Experiment” of American
democracy (61). The “Great Experiment” centers on the ability of
government to provide the open, equal, and free society which democracy
advocates and provides for.
Browder approaches each of the causal factors individually, but his
systems model requires that all the propositions be considered as
simultaneously interacting to create the democratic distemper in American
democracy. He considers the problems associated with democratic
distemper, including the erosion and undermining of democracy itself. His
question, “is America dying,” is not so much a question of fact, as a
rhetorical question to prompt careful consideration of the current political
and systematic atmosphere (46). Although Browder is not always clear on
the exact problems facing the Great Experiment, he does indicate that the
current system must be changed or transform if the progressive nature of
American democracy is to remain intact and supreme. He concludes with
an assessment of the future of American democracy within the context of
democratic distemper, which yields a stark vision of federalism hearkening
back to the American Confederation (185).
Browder’s assessment of American democracy originates both through
his many years of public service and academic study. He argues that
although America is not currently dying, we are experiencing suffocation of
some of the primary aspects and tenets of American democracy. The
American system of democracy must be transformed to meet the
challenges of tomorrow while recognizing the systematic and character of
the current system.
Kate Carney
Carl Albert Graduate Fellow
University of Oklahoma