Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times

Richard Avramenko is associate professor of political science and the chairman of the Integrated Liberal Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Ethan Alexander-Davey is assistant professor of political science at Campbell University.

We live in a time where the crisis of liberal democracy now manifests itself in the attraction of the “rule of the wise and the good”—whatever that means—as a salutary corrective to the seeming inability of liberal democratic politics to solve the world’s problems. Examples include the desire to have Keynsians guide the economy because the market cannot correct itself; the progressive view that bureaucratic “rule by experts” can “nudge” citizens into making better choices for themselves and society; and the view that the Chinese authoritarian model is better equipped than liberal democracy to handle climate issues. Strangely, the attraction of inegalitarian politics can even be seen in recent academic defences of equality that can do no better than argue that equality is good because good people believe in it. Thus even the good of equality is seen to depend upon inequality. The crisis of liberal democracy seems to consist in a demand for the best (aristo) to lead but democratic souls are ill-equipped to discern what counts as best. Proudly standing on what demagogues call the “wrong side of history,” the contributors to Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times clarify the profound differences between democracy and aristocracy and their respective moral codes, and thereby provide guidance during this time of liberal democratic confusion and perplexity.

• Introduction: Visions of Aristocracy, by Ethan Alexander-DaveyPart I: Continental Visions of AristocracyChapter 1: Selfless Surrender: Tacitus on the Aristocracy of the Roman Principate, by Andrew FearChapter 2: Furnishing War on Noble Credit: French Nobles, Commerce, and the Political Economy of Crédit, by Brian SandbergChapter 3: Enlightened Reactionary: Henri de Boulainvilliers and the Eighteenth-Century French Nobility, by Jay SmithChapter 4: “L’amour est le principe de pouvoir”: Postmodern Society and Louis de Bonald, by Jerry SalyerChapter 5: Aristocracy and the Καλλ?πολις: Konstantin Leontiev and the Politics of “Flourishing Complexity”, by Ethan Alexander-DaveyChapter 6: Nietzsche on Aristocracy and the Meaning of Life, by Jeffrey ChurchChapter 7: Noble Man and Self-Reflection in Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses, by Pedro Blas GonzalesPart II: British Visions of AristocracyChapter 8: Thomas Hobbes on the Aristocracy of Passion, by Geoffrey M. VaughanChapter 9: Edmund Burke’s Peerage, by Ian CroweChapter 10: Traditionalist Seer: The Aristocratic Philosophy of the Eighth Duke of Northumberland (1880­1930), by Jonathan M. WalesPart III: Aristocracy in AmericaChapter 11: ‘I am an Aristocrat; I Love Liberty, I Hate Equality:’ John Randolph of Roanoke and the Defense of the Aristocracy of Virginia”, by John F. Devanny, Jr.Chapter 12: “Looking Down Tocqueville’s Nose: On the Problem of Aristocratic Etiquette in Democratic Times”, by Richard Avramenko and Noah StenglChapter 13: Richard M: Weaver on Chivalry and Aristocracy in the American South: Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times, by John J. Langdale