Keywords
Thomas Jefferson
Democratic Idealism
Democracy
political ideology
Abstract
This article contends that there is a pronounced if underappreciated side to Thomas Jefferson’s democratic vision that is decidedly undemocratic. By reexamining several of Jefferson’s core beliefs, including his agrarianism, his philosophy of education, and his desire for an “empire of liberty,” this paper elucidates a Jeffersonian vision of democracy that defers to the knowledgeable and enlightened rather than the actual, historical will of the people. Reexamining the character and quality of Jefferson’s vision helps shed light on our own fraught conception of democracy, which similarly is often torn between the desire for direct popular rule and a competing desire for rule by experts.
Similar Articles
- Nadia Urbinati, About Democracy’s Friends , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 1 (2018): Symposium: Philosophy in Weimar Germany
- Grant Havers, Voegelin, Marx, and the "Evils" of Capitalism , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 47 No. 1 (2023): Political Theory and Economics, and other Essays
- Sarah Gustafson, Opening the American Heart , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 47 No. 2 (2023): The Future Before Us: Early Career Women in Political Theory and Constitutional Studies
- Michelle Schwarze, Freedom and Dependence in John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 1 (2018): Symposium: Philosophy in Weimar Germany
- John Boersma, Adam Smith’s Eulogy for Self-Command , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 47 No. 1 (2023): Political Theory and Economics, and other Essays
- Eduardo Schmidt Passos, Carl Schmitt’s Political Theory during the Third Reich , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 1 (2018): Symposium: Philosophy in Weimar Germany
- Douglas Walker, Michael Giles, Tocqueville Reconsidered: On Secular Morality and Religion’s Place in Liberal Democracy , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 43 No. 1 (2019): Essays
- James Read, John Adams and the Unpurchased Impact of Wealth , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 1 (2018): Symposium: Philosophy in Weimar Germany
- Thomas David Bunting, Erin Evans, Together Under the Open Sky , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 43 No. 1 (2019): Essays
- Noah Stengl, Tocqueville in the Wilderness , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 1 (2018): Symposium: Philosophy in Weimar Germany
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Alexander J Groth, Demonizing the Germans , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 32 (2003): A Symposium on Bertrand de Jouvenel
- Douglas Walker, Michael Giles, Tocqueville Reconsidered: On Secular Morality and Religion’s Place in Liberal Democracy , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 43 No. 1 (2019): Essays
- Richard M Gamble, The United States as World Savior , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 38 (2009): A Symposium on Rémi Brague’s <em>The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea</em>
- Robert Anthony Waters, How Socialism Underdeveloped Africa , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 34 (2005): Eric Voegelin’s <em>New Science of Politics</em>: A 50th Anniversary Symposium
- Michael Federici, The Politics of Prescription , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 35 (2006): Symposia on Edmund Burke and on Russell Kirk’s <em>The Conservative Mind</em>
- Mark G Malvasi, Kirk among the Historians , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 35 (2006): Symposia on Edmund Burke and on Russell Kirk’s <em>The Conservative Mind</em>
- Glenn A Moots, The Bible, the Founders, and Christian America , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 41 No. 2 (2017): Symposium: The Life and Work of Christopher Dawson
- Sonu Bedi, Review of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 42 No. 2 (2018): Symposium: The Political Thought of Robert Nisbet
- Lee Trepanier, Culture and History in Eric Voegelin and Christopher Dawson , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 41 No. 2 (2017): Symposium: The Life and Work of Christopher Dawson
- Grant Havers, Was Spinoza a Liberal? , The Political Science Reviewer: Vol. 36 (2007): A Symposium on Leo Strauss and His Students