Volume 35, Number 1
Fall 1999
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Essays
- The Fifty Worst (and Best) Books of the Century
PDF - Who Owns America?: A Forgotten American Classic
Edward S. Shapiro
PDF
1998 ISI Henry Salvatori Lecture
- Science Genuine and Corrupt: Russell Kirk’s Christian Humanism
Jeremy Beer
PDF - Logophobia: Eric Voegelin on Scientism and the Postmodern Corruption of Politics
Michael P. Federici
PDF - Rescuing Science from Scientism: The Achievement of Walker Percy
Kenneth Laine Ketner
PDF
Tribute
Reviews
Backcover:
Democracy—as “democratism”—is an ideology,though in its simpler form it can be seen as a mere system, a procedure for “producing,” i. e., for selecting a government. A democratic constitution offers a frame into which a picture can be fit through the voting process. The character of the picture is usually determined by the majority vote.... The guardians of a democratic constitution have to maintain a neutral position toward all candidates, all parties, and all the ideas they represent. One man is as good as another, one opinion is as good as another, all men and all opinions are incited to participate in the race, and he who wins numerically gets the prize. Democracy as an abstract principle must insist on fair play, must express no preferences— and thus must also condone political parties that would put an end to the democratic order. If 51 percent or, better still, two-thirds of the people vote one or several antidemocratic parties into power, the end of democracy is at hand. In other words, democracy can commit suicide democratically.
—Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
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