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Democracy begins at home : moderation and the promise of salvage ethnography

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Smith, Alexander Thomas T. (2013) Democracy begins at home : moderation and the promise of salvage ethnography. The Sociological Review, Volume 61 (Issue supplement S2). pp. 119-140. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.12103

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12103

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Abstract

This article ethnographically maps the activism of moderates engaged with grassroots Republican Party politics in Kansas, a state that for the last two decades has been a primary battleground in America's so-called ‘culture wars’ in which the value of ‘moderation’ has been the subject of strident contestation. Drawing inspiration from the writings of the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, it probes the testimony of activists in an effort to identify those political and social practices and principles that might be considered constitutive in the making of a moderate politics. The goal is to ‘salvage’ a rudimentary activist theory of moderation for those seeking to champion and defend contemporary American democracy at a time when publics and their institutions have been compromised by, or succumbed to, electoral polarization and political extremism. The article argues for the displacement of the usual representation of moderation as a default position defined by the absence of strong ideological or other convictions in favour of an understanding of moderation as a disciplined engagement with divided publics. Most importantly, moderates embrace democracy as a yet-to-be-fulfilled moral project, which serves to infuse the values that underpin moderate politics with normative power and purpose. How to render these values operational in a divided politics remains a central question for both activists and scholars committed to moderation and the practices and values it names.

Item Type: Journal Article
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Journal or Publication Title: The Sociological Review
Publisher: Blackwell
ISSN: 0038-0261
Official Date: December 2013
Dates:
DateEvent
December 2013Published
Volume: Volume 61
Number: Issue supplement S2
Page Range: pp. 119-140
DOI: 10.1111/1467-954X.12103
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access

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