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Social Fragmentation and the Decline of American Democracy

The End of the Social Contract

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Robert E. Denton, Jr.

    1. Department of Communication, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

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  2. Benjamin Voth

    1. Division of Corporate Communicationand Public Affairs, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, USA

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Presents a timely and clear-headed view of generational change and social dynamics from two leading rhetoricians
  • Argues for a return to the social contract built on individual freedom and responsibility
  • Offers optimistic solutions to the problems of partisanship and ideological gridlock

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. A Divided and Selfish Nation: A United States of America No More

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 1-18

  3. Democracy and the “Social Contract”: Prescription for Freedom and Equality

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 19-37

  4. Generational Change and Social Values

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 39-60

  5. The Postmodern Culture and Political Implications

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 61-83

  6. The Epistemological Poisoning of America

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 85-111

  7. De-mock-racy: Comic Framing as Political Wrecking Ball

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 113-125

  8. Making Black Lives Matter Today

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 127-149

  9. What Can We Do? An American Renaissance Predicated on Communicative Idealism

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 151-167

  10. The Practice of Politics Today and the Greater Tomorrow

    • Robert E. Denton Jr, Benjamin Voth
    Pages 169-182

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 183-195
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the social and political implications of what the authors identify as the decline of the social contract in America and the rise of a citizenry that has become self-centered, entitled, and independent. For nearly two decades, America has been in a “cultural war” over moral values and social issues, becoming a divided nation geographically, politically, socially, and morally. We are witnessing the decline of American Democracy, the authors argue, resulting from the erosion of the idea of the social contract. Especially since the “baby boomers,” each successive generation has emphasized personal license to the exclusion of service, social integration, and the common good. With the social contact, the larger general will becomes the means of establishing reciprocal rights and duties, privileges, and responsibilities as a basis of the state. The balkanization of America has changed the role of government from one of oversight to one of dependency, where individual freedom and responsibility are sacrificed for group equality. This book examines the conditions of this social fragmentation, and offers ideas of an American Renaissance predicated on communicative idealism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Communication, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

    Robert E. Denton, Jr.

  • Division of Corporate Communicationand Public Affairs, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, USA

    Benjamin Voth

About the authors

Robert E. Denton, Jr., holds the W. Thomas Rice Chair in the Pamplin College of Business and is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech, USA. Denton is the author, co-author or editor of 25 books on the presidency and political campaigns. His most recent volume is entitled Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices, 8th Edition (with Judith Trent and Robert Friendenberg).


Ben Voth is Associate Professor and Director of Debate and Speech programs in the Communication Studies Division of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, USA. He is a leading national scholar on debate and the power of the human voice. He is the author of The Rhetoric of Genocide: Death as a Text (2014). He is currently an Advisor to the Bush Institute, USA, and the Debate fellow for the Calvin Coolidge Foundation in Vermont, USA. He is an officer in the American Forensics Association and served on theeditorial board of Argumentation and Advocacy.


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