American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony

by Samuel P. Huntington

Overview

This stunningly persuasive book examines the persistent, radical gap between the promise of American ideals and the performance of American politics. Samuel P. Huntington shows how Americans, throughout their history as a nation, have been united by the democratic creed of liberty, equality, and hostility to authority. At the same time he reveals how, inevitably, these ideals have been perennially frustrated through the institutions and hierarchies required to carry on the essential functions of governing a democratic society.

From this antagonism between the ideals of democracy and the realities of power have risen four great political upheavals in American history. Every third generation, Huntington argues, Americans have tried to reconstruct their institutions to make them more truly reflect deeply rooted national ideals. Moving from the clenched fists and mass demonstrations of the 1960s, to the moral outrage of the Progressive and Jacksonian Eras, back to the creative ideological fervor of the American Revolution, he incisively analyzes the dissenters’ objectives. All, he pungently writes, sought to remove the fundamental disharmony between the reality of government in America and the ideals on which the American nation was founded.

Huntington predicts that the tension between ideals and institutions is likely to increase in this country in the future. And he reminds us that the fate of liberty and democracy abroad is intrinsically linked to the strength of our power in world affairs. This brilliant and controversial analysis deserves to rank alongside the works of Tocqueville, Bryce, and Hofstadter and will become a classic commentary on the meaning of America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674030213
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	08/15/1983
Series:	Belknap Series
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	238,586
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Samuel P. Huntington was Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University and the author of The Clash of Civilizations, The Soldier and the State, Political Order in Changing Societies, and American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, among other books.

Table of Contents

1. The Disharmonic Polity

"Our Practice of Your Principles"

The One, the Two, and the Many:
Structural Paradigms of American Politics

Ideals versus Institutions

2. The American Creed and National Identity

Political Thought in America

Sources, Scope, and Stability of the Creed

Political Ideas and National Identity

3. The Gap: The American Creed versus Political

Authority Consensus and Instability

The Gap in Comparative Perspective

4. Coping with the Gap

The American Case of Cognitive Dissonance

Patterns of Response

The Gap and American Political Style

5. The Politics of Creedal Passion

Creedal Passion Periods in American History

The Climate of Creedal Passion

Creedal Conflict: The Movement and the Establishment

Reform and its Limits

Political Earthquakes and Realignment

6. The Sources of Creedal Passion

Why Creedal Passion Periods?

General Sources: Comparable Phenomena in Other Societies

Specific Sources: The Timing of Creedal Passion Periods

Original Sources: The Roots of It All in the English Revolution

The Protestantism of American Politics

7. The S&S Years, 1960-1975

From the Fifties to the Seventies: The Changing Pattern of Response

Complacency and the End(?) of Ideology

Interlude of Hypocrisy, Surge of Moralism

The Mobilization of Protest

The Dynamics of Exposure

The Legacies

Reform and the IvI Gap

Institutional Realignment

The Misuse and Erosion of Authority

Cynicism and the Restoration of Authority

8. The Viability of American Ideals and Institutions

The Future of the Gap

History versus Progress?

America versus the World?

Power and Liberty: The Myth of American Repression

The Promise of Disappointment

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

Austin Ranney

Samuel Huntington is not only a preeminent scholar of modern governing institutions and their underlying ideas, democratic and otherwise; he has also often served as adviser to policymakers in several nations, including our own. His book should be read by everyone who is concerned with the capacity of our institutions to meet the fearful challenges they now face.
— Austin Ranney, American Enterprise Institute

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Professor Huntington has brilliantly set forth the persisting conflict between American ideals and American institutions which can energize our society or paralyze it, depending on whether it is understood for what it is. A liberating insight; a brilliant book.

Seymour Martin Lipset

This controversial book will spark considerable debate about American values, the origins and meaning of reform, and foreign policy. It will influence current discussions of the United States, and it will change the way we think about American political and social behavior.
— Seymour Martin Lipset, Stanford University

Editorial Reviews

Huntington’s underappreciated 1981 masterpiece…Describes an ineradicable tension between America’s ideals and the actual practice of our politics…Offers insights about our own moment.

New York Times - Yuval Levin

More than his famous ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis of the 1990s, it is this lesser-known 1981 work that most clearly speaks to our time. Huntington points to the gap between the values of the American creed (liberty, equality, individualism, constitutionalism) and the government’s efforts to live up to those values as the central tension of national life.

Carlos Lozada

[Huntington] squarely confronts the problem of legitimating American power at home and abroad and argues persuasively…for his exceptionalist political vision. Few have the courage—fewer the talent—to pose and systematically answer the critical questions that Huntington raises.

American Political Science Review

An illuminating book, ambitious in range and ingenious in analysis… Filled with imaginative insights.

New York Times Book Review

An exceptional book, combining political theory with American history and contemporary policy analysis in a fashion that will challenge and inform any reader interested in the American experience.

Boston Globe

[A] brilliant book… [Huntington addresses] contemporary concerns with a masterly command of theory and history which will ensure his book an enduring place as a work of scholarship.

The New Republic

Professor Huntington has brilliantly set forth the persisting conflict between American ideals and American institutions which can energize our society or paralyze it, depending on whether it is understood for what it is. A liberating insight; a brilliant book.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

This controversial book will spark considerable debate about American values, the origins and meaning of reform, and foreign policy. It will influence current discussions of the United States, and it will change the way we think about American political and social behavior.

Seymour Martin Lipset

Samuel Huntington is not only a preeminent scholar of modern governing institutions and their underlying ideas, democratic and otherwise; he has also often served as adviser to policymakers in several nations, including our own. His book should be read by everyone who is concerned with the capacity of our institutions to meet the fearful challenges they now face.

Austin Ranney

An exceptional book, combining political theory with American history and contemporary policy analysis in a fashion that will challenge and inform any reader interested in the American experience.

The Boston Globe

An illuminating book, ambitious in range and ingenious in analysis… Filled with imaginative insights.

The New York Times Book Review