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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. 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