A Two-Legged Stool
Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate
by Ronald Dworkin
Princeton University Press, 2006
(192 pages, $19.95, hardcover)
reviewed by David L. Tubbs
How significant are the “culture wars” for American politics? In Is Democracy Possible Here?, the distinguished legal scholar Ronald Dworkin contests the idea that a “comprehensive and unbridgeable cultural gap” now defines our political life.
He acknowledges cultural differences, but suggests that unsavory public figures exaggerate them for political gain. The results, he says, are deeply worrying: fierce partisanship, much acrimony, insubstantial public discourse.
Dworkin’s Remedy
Is there a remedy? Dworkin thinks so. He wants to promote serious political argument, with “argument” understood “in the old-fashioned sense in which people who share some common ground in very basic political principles debate about which concrete policies better reflect these shared principles.”
To this end, he puts forth two principles, which he believes capture essential attributes of human dignity. The principles are not wholly new; their roots lie in centuries of reflection in the West on politics and morality, and they have more specific antecedents in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Crucially, he submits that most Americans—regardless of their political or religious convictions—can endorse these principles.
The first is called “the principle of intrinsic value,” the second “the principle of personal responsibility.” Dworkin applies them to different questions of policy, including terrorism and civil liberties, taxation and social justice, and religion and public life, including public education. Taken together, they are meant to secure the largest possible area of personal freedom for each citizen, encompassing both political and “lifestyle” liberties. (Economic liberties, however, are patently less important to Dworkin.)
In every big controversy, applying the two principles yields liberal outcomes. Dworkin endorses abortion rights, the extension of marriage to same-sex couples, a highly progressive income tax, a modest role for religion in public life, and an extensive array of legal protections for terrorists and suspected terrorists.
He concedes that the uniformly liberal outcomes will surprise some readers, but asks non-liberals to reflect on both the principles and their application and to explain where his arguments go wrong. Among such readers, he pays special attention to a large group. In contrast to much of his earlier work, this book engages the views of the religiously devout, including observant Christians, and his tone is generally respectful.
Broad Principles
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
18.3—April 2005
on Being a Free Narnian & the Joy of Subordination by Donald T. Williams
32.2—March/April 2019
on Properly Rendering Things to Caesar & to God by Peter J. Leithart
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
The Alternate & Alternative Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft & C. S. Lewis by C. R. Wiley
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
