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Vanderbilt University Press - John Lawrence Hill

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Today almost half of all Americans decline to define themselves as either "liberal" or "conservative." In fact, modern liberalism and conservatism seem hopelessly fragmented ideologies. Liberals claim to believe in individual freedom yet advocate a more collectivistic approach to government and an increasingly paternalistic role for the state. Conservatives are hopelessly divided between two incompatible ideals--the highly individualistic, limited-state philosophy of classical liberalism and an older, more collectivistic tradition of cultural conservatism that holds government responsible for shaping social morality. As a result, modern liberals are economic collectivists and moral individualists, while conservatives are economic individualists and moral collectivists.

Centrists reject each of these fragmented and polarized approaches to politics. We believe that government has a role to play in structuring social and economic opportunities and in reinforcing basic moral norms, yet we are deeply troubled by ever-expanding government. We reject libertarianism, left-liberalism, and the various schools of conservatism as a model for government.

Part I of The Political Centrist briefly traces the trajectory of the liberal and conservative traditions. It argues that modern liberalism is an unprincipled fusion of classical liberal and socialist ideals while modern conservatism is an untenable hybrid of economic liberalism and social conservatism. Part II offers a centrist approach to many of the most contentious contemporary political and social issues. Those include:

-- abortion

-- affirmative action

-- the death penalty

-- gay marriage

-- illegal immigration

-- judicial activism

-- the relationship of religion and politics

-- the role of government in the economy

Sujets

Law

History

Social movement

Sociology

Sociologie, société et politique

Social Science

Political Science

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Publié par	Vanderbilt University Press
Date de parution	21 décembre 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780826516701
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The PoliTical cenTrisT

J O H N L AW R E N C E H I L L

The Political Centrist

John Lawrence Hill

Vanderbilt University Press Nashville

Cover design: Gary Gore Text design: Dariel Mayer

his book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in te United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hill, Jon L. (Jon Lawrence), – he political centrist / Jon Lawrence Hill. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN ---- (clot : alk. paper) . Centrist Party. . United States— Politics and government—– I. Title. JK.CH  .—dc 

We are . . . reformers in te morning, conservers at nigt. Reform is aﬃrmative, conservatism, negative. Conservatism goes for comfort, reform for trut. . . . Conservatism makes no poetry, breates no prayer, as no invention; it is all memory. Reform as no gratitude, no prudence, no usbandry. . . . Conservatism tends to universal seeming and treacery, believes in a negative fate, believes tat men’s temper governs tem. . . . Reform in its antagonism inclines to asinine resistance, to kick wit oofs; it runs to egotism and bloated self-conceit; it runs to a bodiless pretension, to unnatural reﬁning and elevation, wic ends in ypocrisy and sensual reaction. —Ralp Waldo Emerson

Contents

Acknowledgmentsxi

Introduction: The Center Holds 1

Part I: Beyond Liberalism and Conservatism

Chapter 1: The Liberal’s Paradox 11 Two Visions of Liberalism The Roots of Early Liberalism The Utilitarian Inﬂuence The Greatest Liberal of All The New Liberalism Embraces Equality

Chapter 2: The Conservative’s Dilemma 29 Conservatives before Conservatism: The Classical Worldview The Roots of Modern Paleoconservatism: The Case of Joseph de Maistre The Father of Conservative Traditionalism: Edmund Burke The First Skeptical Conservative

Chapter 3: What “Liberalism” and “Conservatism” Mean Today 48 How Liberalism and Conservatism Have Moved Leftward The Liberal Inﬂuence on Modern Conservatism Reinterpreting Individualism and Collectivism Openness to Change versus Conserving the Status Quo Social versus Moral Causes of Human Discontent Equality versus Elitism

Chapter 4: Why the Big “Isms” Fail 64 What’s Wrong with Libertarianism? What’s Wrong with Conservatism? What’s Wrong with Left Liberalism?

viii

The Political Centrist

Part II: Toward a Centrist View of U.S. Politics Chapter 5: Politics and the Big Questions: On God, Morality, and the Human Condition81 The Traditional and Secular Understandings of the World The Temptation of Fundamentalism The Drift to Secularism The Further Consequences of Secularism Where Centrists Stand Chapter 6: Between the Night Watchman and the Leviathan: The Centrist’s Conception of Government95 The Runaway State The Argument from Compassion A TopDown View of the State Why Some Economic Redistribution Is Morally Justiﬁed The Centrist’s Approach to Government Chapter 7: Centrist Constitutionalism: Democracy and the Role of the Judge111 Practicing Politics at the Bar The Countermajoritarian Difﬁculty Conservative Constitutionalism: Its Virtues and Its Limits Liberal Constitutionalism: How Far Is Too Far? The Right to Privacy Centrist Constitutionalism: Four Minimum Commitments Chapter 8: From Gay Rights to Drug Legalization: The Tension between Individual Freedom and Social Morality130 Morals Legislation and the LiberalConservative Fault Line The Centrist’s Stance The Question of Gay Marriage Prostitution The Drug Legalization Debate

Chapter 9: A Centrist Approach to Abortion146 Abortion in Social and Historical Context Two Central Issues The Standard Conservative Position The Standard Liberal Position The Constitutionalization of the Standard Liberal Position What’s Wrong with the Standard Liberal Position? The Centrist’s Approach

Chapter 10: Race, Gender, and Reasonable Equality of Opportunity The Conservative Ideal: Formal Equality The Liberal Ideal: Substantive Equality Civil Rights, Yes; Afﬁrmative Action, No Reasonable Equality of Opportunity

Chapter 11: Crime and Punishment176 What Causes Crime? Explaining Crime without Excusing It The Deterrent Effect WhiteCollar Crime, BlueCollar Crime, and Proportional Punishment The Death Penalty: Some Background The Arguments: A Brief Look A Centrist Approach to Capital Punishment

Chapter 12: The Debate over Illegal Immigration196 Immigration in U.S. History: The Swinging Pendulum The Argument for Open Borders The Conservative Counterattack: The Arguments against Illegal Immigration The Centrist Approach: Five Proposals

Notes215

Index 237

Contents

161

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