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The Ideology of Democratism argues that history's most vocal champions of democracy from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson to John Rawls put forth an interpretation of democracy that effectively transforms the meaning of "rule by the people" into its opposite. Making use of democratic language and claiming to speak for the people, politicians, philosophers, academics, religious, and many others advocate a more "complete" and "genuine" form of democracy that in practice has little regard for the actual popular will. This way of conceiving of democracy, which constitutes an entire view of life and politics, has been and remains a powerful influence in America and leading Western European nations and their colonial satellites. This book defines and describes the ideology of democratism through a look at some of its major historical contributors, including Rousseau, Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Jacques Maritain, Jürgen Habermas, John Rawls, and prominent figures in the George W. Bush administration. The findings of this book suggest that to the great political "isms" of the past two centuries must be added another of equal scope: democratism.

Political science --- Methodology --- Political philosophy. Social philosophy