The Two Souls of American Democracy

Abstract

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, in most of the industrialized world, large-scale mass production provoked increasing class conflict and accelerated the political mobilization of the working class. Large-scale, capital-intensive industries concentrated workers in strategic urban areas where they came in contact with radical intellectuals and were socialized into the shopfloor cultures of earlier generations of working-class activists. Reorganization of work methods in mass production also broke down some of the craft and sectoral barriers which had previously divided workers. Combined with the effects of the First World War, this second industrial revolution led to fundamental political challenges to ruling elites and to the symbolic vestiges of anciens régimes . 1 The political situation varied from country to country, but in most industrialized countries the first quarter of the twentieth century was a historical moment when demands for long-sought expansion of democratic rights meshed with industrial class conflict to produce an atmosphere of political crisis, if not potential revolution. While democratic institutions and values by no means triumphed universally, in many countries workers, peasants, and other subordinate groups fought for increased power in the street, at the ballot box, and in the parliament. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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