Restoring Democracy to America

Contents

Preface: A Life of Thought in a Life of Politics

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: The Historic Advance, ca. 1870–1970

1. The Historic Advance: Setting a Context

2. Interpreting the “Sixties”

3. The Modern Reaction

Part 2: Recapping and Beyond

4. Social Stratification and Social Dynamics

5. Institutional Elites and Social Action

6. The Inner Government Within Liberal Democracy

Part 3: Proposals for a Renewed Historic Advance

7. On Strategy and Organization

8. The Reform of the Police Power

9. Civilizing the Corporation

10. A “Civilized” Employment System

11. International Government and International Chaos

12. Political Reform

Notes

References

Index

“John F. M. McDermott’s Restoring Democracy to America is a sweeping, powerful political sociology of the conservative reaction that dominated the politics and culture of advanced capitalist democracies after the post–World War II ‘welfare state consensus’ weakened in the 1970s. His book brings social theory to bear upon a nuanced historical analysis of the rise (and now crisis) of deregulated, finance-driven, postindustrial capitalism. He adeptly shows how the Right succeeded (with difficulty) in bringing together the managerial elite’s turn against the welfare state and the ‘antimodernist’ cultural impulses of deindustrialized communities. But McDermott does not simply chart the rise and consolidation of conservative rule; his analysis also illuminates the social dynamics that may give rise to democratic forces that can revive progressive politics.”

—Joseph M. Schwartz, Temple University