Rediscovering the American Democratic Dream

Abstract

Three dreams run through American history: the elitist dream, the American dream, and the democratic dream. For most people, the American dream means marginal economic improvement; democracy, in all but the formal or legalistic sense, is essentially dropped from the promise of American life. The conservative elitist dream makes no pretense of concern for social democracy, and the liberal American dream offers at best a less oppressive social order than that envisioned in the conservative dream. For true democracy, an earlier dream of America the radical democratic dream envisioned by Thomas Jefferson-must be rediscovered and adapted to contemporary American life. Culturally, the American dream reinforces capitalism and liberal democracy; together, all three push classical democratic values aside. Although it is overwhelmed by the American dream, another dream of America, the democratic dream, recurs throughout American history.