Dogmas of Cornel West

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes the main points in Cornel West's book about American democracy, "Democracy Matters", and presents a positive review of the book. The paper suggests that the book is accurate in its assessment of American democracy in terms of its positive features as well as the challenges it is facing.

From the Paper:

"In his book Democracy Matters, Cornel West's critical assessment of American democracy contends that there are three principal, powerful tenets (or dogmas, as he refers to them) that weaken the most crucially important democratic forces necessary to maintain and expand what has arguably emerged as the most successful form of government in the world. These three American dogmas are "free-market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism, and escalating authoritarianism," and he blames them for the "frightening" state of our democracy (7-8). Examined both holistically as cooperative problems and as separate, atomistic syndromes, this portrayal of the challenges to our democracy proves its accuracy in several ways. When West speaks of the eradication of "democratic impulses that are so vital for the deepening and spread of democracy," his words inspire a contemplation of the specific beneficial aspects of democracy that suffer at the hands of these three problematic distractions."

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