Footnote:
Includes bibliographical references and index -- Includes bibliographical references and index
Description:
The classical ideal of the leader -- Plato -- Thomas Aquinas -- Conclusion : fictions and implicit theories -- The classical ideal in republics -- Aristotle -- Niccolo Machiavelli -- James Harrington -- The implicit theories of the classical republicans -- Toward a new implicit theory and a new fiction -- A new conception of the people. The emergence of 'the people' -- 'The people' as a protean fiction -- The implicit leadership theories of popular sovereignty -- Two fictions in need of a third fiction -- A new social relation -- The emergence of the fiction of leadership -- The implicit leadership theories of the leadership relation -- Inventing the fiction of leadership -- The challenge of democracy -- A republican prelude -- The transition to democracy -- The implicit leadership theories of democracy -- Introducing the fictions of leadership -- James Madison and the classical ideal -- Madison's core values -- Challenge #1 : the threat to the common good from the people -- Challenge #2 : the threat to the common good from the leaders -- Challenge #3 : the threat to the common good from the people and their leaders -- The implicit leadership theories of James Madison -- Alexis de Tocqueville and the challenges of democracy -- The nature of democracy -- The problems of democracy -- Solutions for the problems of democracy -- The implicit leadership theories of Alexis de Tocqueville -- Alexis de Tocqueville and the fiction of leadership -- Inventing liberalism -- John Locke -- John Stuart Mill -- John Rawls -- Robert Nozick -- Two liberalisms -- Conclusion : the liberal fiction in leadership terms -- Inventing communitarianism -- Aristotle -- G.W.F. Hegel -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- Modern communitarian thought -- A new fiction of leadership -- What is the leadership challenge? -- What is the end or purpose of leadership? -- What is the epistemology of leadership? -- How is the matter of diversity and minority interests addressed? -- What is the perception of human nature? -- Are the people capable of governing? -- What is the role of the people? -- What is the role of the leader? -- How should leaders and the people interact? -- What institutions and processes are needed? -- Let the games begin.
The tension between ruler and ruled in democratic societies has never been satisfactorily resolved, and the competing interpretations of this relationship lie at the bottom of much modern political discourse. In this fascinating book, Thomas Wren clarifies and elevates the debates over leadership by identifying the fundamental premises and assumptions that underlie past and present understandings