The Seven Democratic Virtues

Christopher Beem is Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Associate Research Professor of Political Science, and Affiliate Faculty in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. He is the author or coeditor of five books, including The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life and Democratic Humility: Reinhold Niebuhr, Neuroscience, and America's Political Crisis. He is a cohost of the Democracy Works podcast and a frequent contributor to The Conversation.

Acknowledgements Introduction Part 1: The Democratic Vice 1. Tribalism 2. Tribal Alignment 3. Tribalism and Madison's Precautions Part 2: Democratic Thinking 4. Humility 5. Honesty 6. Consistency Part 3: Democratic Acting 7. Courage 8. Temperance Part 4: Democratic Belief 9. Charity 10. Faith (and Hope) Conclusion: Democratic Excellence Notes Bibliography Index

"An essential and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library contemporary political science collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Deserving of as wide a readership as possible, it should be noted for students, academia, political activists, governmental policy makers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject." -Midwest Book Review "As warning signs flare about the state of American democracy, we should consider both cultural and institutional solutions. Beem's The Seven Democratic Virtues is an empowering text that gives readers actionable steps to promote democracy through their individual behavior." -Jeremy Rose, Fairvote "With our democratic future at stake, The Seven Democratic Virtues deserves a wide hearing." -Beau Underwood, A Public Witness "Beem uses his deep understanding of Western philosophical and theological traditions, plus contemporary social and cognitive psychology, to construct a strong and distinctive argument that we must cultivate certain virtues to combat polarization and misinformation. He offers essential guidance for anyone who cares about democracy." -Peter Levine, author of We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: The Promise of Civic Renewal in America "No one has mined the history of the Western intellectual tradition on the virtues and done nearly so good of a job in transposing those rich resources into the context of twenty-first-century democratic politics. Beem's treatment takes old, dusty texts and breathes urgent vitality into them for the reform of our civic life." -Michael Neblo, author of Deliberative Democracy Between Theory and Practice "When we think of democracy as simply a mechanism for making collective decisions, we overlook the fact that democracy is also the moral proposal that free and equal citizens can live together as a self-governing community, despite their ongoing political disagreements. Of course, in recognizing this moral dimension of democracy, we also confront the fact that democracy is not easy. In this engaging and important book, Christopher Beem makes an impassioned case for recovering the idea of democratic civic virtues, the dispositions and practices that citizens need to conduct themselves well amidst political conflict. John Dewey once wrote that democracy is a 'task before us.' Christopher Beem reminds us that democracy also sets a task within us." -Robert B. Talisse, author of Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place