The Empire Strikes Out: A Roundtable on Populist Politics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

March 1991

Volume

1991

Issue

87

First Page

3

Last Page

37

Abstract

This roundtable is predicated on the notion that the state has struck out in its game-plan to regulate social life while safeguarding an active political life. New Deal liberalism and the resulting supremacy of individual rights over the common good, together with related phenomena such as a considerable social mobility and the homogenizing effects of mass culture, have undermined the social and cultural bases of traditional communities. The strategy was to create an ever-increasing number of individual rights, enforced by a constantly expanding New Class bureaucracy, which eroded community autonomy and any vestige of local self-determination. Thus there are constant calls for a new politics in response to the undemocratic and unrepresentative character of the political system.

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