{"product_id":"imagining-the-american-polity-john-g-gunnell-9780271023533","title":"Imagining the American Polity: Political Science and the Discourse of Democracy","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmericans have long prided themselves on living in a country that serves as a beacon of democracy to the world, but from the time of the founding they have also engaged in debates over what the criteria for democracy are as they seek to validate their faith in the United States as a democratic regime. In this book John Gunnell shows how the academic discipline of political science has contributed in a major way to this ongoing dialogue, thereby playing a significant role in political education and the formulation of popular conceptions of American democracy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing the distinctive \"internalist\" approach he has developed for writing intellectual history, Gunnell traces the dynamics of conceptual change and continuity as American political science evolved from a focus in the nineteenth century on the idea of the state, through the emergence of a pluralist theory of democracy in the 1920s and its transfiguration into liberalism in the mid-1930s, up to the rearticulation of pluralist theory in the 1950s and its resurgence, yet again, in the 1990s. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong the way he explores how political scientists have grappled with a fundamental question about popular sovereignty: Does democracy require a people and a national democratic community, or can the requisites of democracy be achieved through fortuitous social configurations coupled with the design of certain institutional mechanisms?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John G. Gunnell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0271023538\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780271023533\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penn State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/15\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 300\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.28h x 6.04w x 0.78d","brand":"John G. Gunnell","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44056719884543,"sku":"9780271023533","price":42.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7cfdc2da-51b2-4d8f-8126-79b9e577d429.jpg?v=1685042883","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/imagining-the-american-polity-john-g-gunnell-9780271023533","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}