The End of the Republican Era (Volume 5) (The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series) - Softcover

Lowi, Theodore J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806128879 ISBN 13: 9780806128870

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996

Synopsis

In The End of the Republican Era, Theodore J. Lowi predicts not only a collapse of the Republican coalition but also the potential collapse of the United States’ republican experiment at large. Professing that the ideologies of dominant political coalitions contain the seeds of their own destruction, Lowi suggests that the efforts of a new conservative Right to enforce a national, religion-based morality has brought about the demise of the Republican era.

A new, in-depth afterword by Lowi brings the text up to date with a discussion of political events since the book’s original publication. Noting the appearance of the new Conservative coalition, whose ideology runs counter to that of the traditional Republican party, Lowi affirms that the Republican era did in fact come to an end during the 1990s, having morphed into a Conservative party.

About this title

About the Author

Theodore J. Lowi is John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University, Ithaca. He is the author of a number of influential books, including The End of Liberalism.

From Booklist

Readers who have followed prolific Cornell University professor Lowi since the late 1960s, when his The End of Liberalism argued that the New Deal changed American institutions so significantly that the period since the '30s should be understood as a "Second Republic," will not be surprised to learn that--like the earlier book--The End of the Republican Era bears a deliberately ambiguous title. Lowi's subject is objectives as well as terminations, both the recent hegemony of the Grand Old Party and the tradition of republican government. Ideology lies at the center of Lowi's analysis. Carefully defining old and new varieties of liberalism, conservatism, and (less important in the U.S. context) "the left," he traces shifting alliances of these tendencies and analyzes the "tragic flaw" that led to the collapse of the New Deal Democratic coalition and the serious weakness that now may destroy either the fragile Republican coalition of Old Liberals and New Conservatives or the American republic itself. As usual, Lowi provides a smart, distinctly controversial analysis of politics past, present, and future. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0806128879
• ISBN 13: 9780806128870
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352