Title Teachers of the people : political education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill / Dana Villa

Published Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017 ©2017

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Description 1 online resource (367 pages) Contents Introduction -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: creating and "preserving" a free people -- Hegel as political educator -- Tocqueville: the aristocrat as democratic pedagogue -- J.S. Mill: democracy and the authority of the instructed -- Conclusion Summary The year 2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, some form of political education aimed at "the people" is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when "the people" first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment - the era just before and after the French Revolution - led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch in the history of mankind. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people's seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by a deep skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. Difference aside, Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill all thought that "the people" needed to be restrained, educated, and guided - by specific laws and institutions and by a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy's wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between "teachers" and "taught" in the work of these theorists that generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism. -- from dust jacket Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 -- Political and social views Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 -- Political and social views Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 -- Political and social views Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873 -- Political and social views SUBJECT Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 fast Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873 fast Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778 fast Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859 fast Subject Political science -- Europe -- Philosophy -- History -- 18th century Political science -- Europe -- Philosophy -- History -- 19th century Democracy -- Europe -- Philosophy -- History -- 18th century Democracy -- Europe -- Philosophy -- History -- 19th century POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Essays. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- General. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- National. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Reference. Democracy -- Philosophy Political and social views Political science -- Philosophy Europe Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780226467528 022646752X

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