Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court: Law, Power, and Democracy

In this concise, timely book, constitutional law expert Stephen M. Feldman draws on neoconservative writings to explore the rise of the neocons and their influence on the Supreme Court. Neocons burst onto the political scene in the early 1980s via their assault on pluralist democracy's ethical relativism, where no pre-existing or higher principles limit the agendas of interest groups. Instead, they advocated for a resurrection of republican democracy, which declares that virtuous citizens and officials pursue the common good. Yet despite their original goals, neocons quickly became an interest group themselves, competing successfully within the pluralist democratic arena. When the political winds shifted in 2008, however, neocons found themselves shorn of power in Congress and the executive branch. But portentously, they still controlled the Supreme Court. Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court explains how and why the neoconservatives criticized but operated within pluralist democracy, and, most important, what the entrenchment of neocons on the Supreme Court means for present and future politics and law.

Author: Stephen M. Feldman
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 12/03/2012
Pages: 235
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780814764664

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2013

About the Author
Feldman, Stephen M.: - Stephen M. Feldman is Jerry W. Housel/Carl F. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Wyoming. His previous titles include Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State (NYU Press, 1997) and Law and Religion: A Critical Anthology (NYU Press, 2000).