Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis

This is a fascinating intellectual and cultural history of democracy in the United States. Hunter argues that until recently, Americans had enough in common to be able to work through their differences. But we are polarized today because we can no longer draw on common ways of thinking about reality, knowledge, human beings, ethics and purpose. Hunter says that the problem of polarization can’t be fixed just by changing the procedures of democracy; change must take place at the level of deep culture. Hunter does not offer a multipoint plan for fixing democracy, although he does offer some hopeful ideas at the end, especially about the need for new kinds of leaders. If he comes short in offering a detailed prescription, Hunter does a superb job of diagnosing our current political illness. After reading Hunter, I have a sense that many of the other books about democracy are focused more on the symptoms than on the disease.