Era of Experimentation by Daniel Peart

Era of Experimentation by Daniel Peart

In Era of Experimentation, Daniel Peart challenges the pervasive assumption that the present-day political system, organized around two competing parties, represents the logical fulfilment of participatory democracy. Recent accounts of ""the rise of American democracy"" between the Revolution and the Civil War applaud political parties for opening up public life to mass participation and making government responsive to the people. Yet this celebratory narrative tells only half of the story. By exploring American political practices during the early 1820s, a period of particular flux in the young republic, Peart argues that while parties could serve as vehicles for mass participation, they could also be employed to channel, control, and even curb it. Far from equating democracy with the party system, Americans freely experimented with alternative forms of political organization and resisted efforts to confine their public presence to the polling place. Era of Experimentation demonstrates the sheer variety of political practices that made up what subsequent scholars have labelled ""democracy"" in the early United States. Peart also highlights some overlooked consequences of the nationalization of competitive two-party politics during the antebellum period, particularly with regard to the closing of alternative avenues for popular participation.

Daniel Peart is Lecturer in American History at Queen Mary University of London, USA.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780813935607
ISBN 10	0813935601
Titel	Era of Experimentation
Autor	Daniel Peart
Serie	Jeffersonian America
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Verlag	University of Virginia Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2014-05-05
Seitenanzahl	232
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
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