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Article: Democracy in America today: preface to the 2007 edition of Habits of the heart.(SYMPOSIUM ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF HABITS OF THE HEART)
- Article from:
- Sociology of Religion
- Article date:
- June 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Association for the Sociology of Religion. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The great struggles of our time are characterized as the conflict between democracy and tyranny. Since those seem to be the only options, we take it for granted that democracy is a good thing--indeed, politically, the best thing--and whatever opposes it is a very bad thing. But we do not spend much time thinking about what we mean by democracy. We often mean societies that have free elections, a problematic idea when the free elections are won by opponents of democracy. In Habits of the Heart we draw heavily from Tocqueville's Democracy in America, a book that went far in making democracy a good word. (1) It is worth remembering that, in most of western history, democracy ...