Talking It Through: Puzzles of American Democracy

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Summary: Bennett's Innovative Look at American Democracy
Review: Professor Bennett's book provides a challenging and insightful new approach to understanding American democracy. His clear descriptions and specific examples make the case he presents cogently. A fine new contribution to political theory, well worth reading and talking about.

Rating:
Summary: National Unity
Review: Robert W. Bennett tackles the question of why the United States stays united in spite of the fact that more than half the citizens don't vote or participate in the political process. He concludes that the efforts of politicians, both incumbents and office seekers, to identify the topics that concern the citizens and then speak to them represents a form of conversation which is engaging and unifying. A subtext of the book is whether the courts function in what Alexander Bickel called a counter majoritarian manner. Bennett claims that legal scholars have uncritically adopted Bickel's conclusion and neglected the fact that the Constitution has counter majoritarian aspects such as the U.S. Senate which doesn't correspond to population, and even the U.S. House of Representatives in which each state - no matter its populations - is guaranteed at least one representative. Of course, the electoral college, which can frustrate the notion of majority rule, has been in the news since 2000. Bennett then points out that house districts are apportioned on the basis of total population, but many people including children, felons or ex convicts, the mentally disabled, etc., aren't allowed to vote. He concludes that courts are no more undemocratic than the other institutions of the political system.
Along the way Bennett makes a number of suggestions to make the American electoral process more majoritarian. One of them is to give parents extra votes so that their children can be represented in elections. He speculates on the impact that extra votes for parents would have on public policy including education.
Bennett's book has an extensive bibliography but the volume is written in language that the lay reader will find accessible.Talking It Through is subtitled Puzzles of American Democracy. After reading the book this reviewer found the puzzles less puzzling and the suggestions increasingly logical even though they appear dramatic at first reading. In fact, this is a book that invites rereading and is likely to be source of many conversations in the year to come.