Democracy and digressions in Cornel West's new book

Some 10 years after "Race Matters," Cornel West has published "Democracy Matters." The subtitle "Winning the fight against imperialism" adequately encapsulates the unambiguous invective against three antidemocratic dogmas espoused by the neo-conservative hawks of the Bush administration — "free-market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism and escalating authoritarianism" — which threaten the "precious democratic experiment that is the USA." A cultural relativist, West declares himself an opponent of any kind of bigotry, advocating instead a Socratic emphasis on reasoning for oneself, tempered with the courage to be compassionate (from what he terms "the Jewish prophetic tradition") and a tragicomic attitude to hardship embodied by the Blues.

West traces a fundamental tension between imperialist and democratic urges since the USA's inception. The founders were rebels who rejected the British Empire yet, nevertheless, they endorsed imperialist expansion westwards and subjugation of peoples and races. The Declaration mentions a necessary domination of "Savages" in order to achieve the "empire of liberty." West goes so far as to say that slavery and appropriation of peoples and lands were "necessary preconditions" for the possibility of American democracy. Thomas Jefferson, who was both a freedom fighter and slave owner, embodies this American paradox.

"Democracy for me is a verb more than a noun," said West, speaking at the U-Store to launch his book two weeks ago. Over the course of the USA's 200-year history, there have been crucial times when the demos has taken action to preserve the "democratic energy" from being snuffed out completely — for example the abolitionists and the civil rights protesters. Professor West intimates that now is another crucial juncture where action must be taken, or else the American empire, "drunk on the wine of world power," may follow the seemingly inevitable road of the Leviathans of the past — death by hubris. It is a powerful call to arms, and his last chapter is appropriately entitled "Putting on our democratic armour."

It is timely that the book was published so close to the presidential election, as democracy's main mode of expression is, of course, at the ballot box. However, West is careful to point to nonpolitical channels for releasing "democratic energy." Artists have their role to play. He discusses Emerson's optimism and Melville's pessimism, before exploring more modern and fractured voices of authors such as Toni Morrison. There is also a chapter on the need to engage with youth culture by rejecting the constraints of traditional pedagogy and opening up teaching to other aspects of lived experience such as music and dance. West is someone who practises what he preaches: he has two rap CDs to his name and came to Princeton after controversially resigning from Harvard when his unconventional teaching methods met with disapproval.

A polemicist with all the pizzazz of a passionate gospel preacher, West has a clear and impassioned style that often soars fittingly into Emersonian or Whitmanesque modes: "And if we lose our precious democratic experiment, let it be said that we went down swinging like Ella Fitzgerald and Muhammad Ali — with style, grace, and a smile that signifies that the seeds of democracy matters will flower and flourish somewhere and somehow and remember our gallant efforts."

The book lacks a certain unity. The chapter on writers is interesting but is not obviously linked to the overriding argument and the chapter on youth seems to provide West with an opportunity to set the record straight about his disagreement with the Harvard president (a rather lengthy digression).

However, there are more troubling aspects to the book. It may be with a certain irony that he employs military vocabulary ("democratic armour") when one of the three antidemocratic dogmas he lists is "aggressive militarism," but it is more worrying to read of his desire to "Socratize Islam." The main thesis of the book examines America's moral obligations to its own people and to the world. West is a cultural relativist who does not tolerate bigotry of any kind — whether religious or racist. He correctly defines the problem of the Middle East as a very complex one, engineered almost entirely by the Western powers, and explains that in order to "implant democracy in the Middle East" one needs not to impose it from the outside but from the inside, with a full understanding of the region's history and culture. "We will likely stoke more resentment in the Middle East than fires of democratic passion if we are not sensitive to the special characteristics out of which democracy must evolve there." Precisely how to go about it is not explained, although West does discuss some contemporary Islamic philosophers who are struggling, it would seem, to marry Islamic concepts to democratic ideals. The very mission to "implant democracy" is as dangerous as any other bigotry, and is incongruent with his whole philosophy as a cultural relativist. It assumes the superiority of a particular political system, and its viability in a completely different context. The qualification that it should be coaxed rather than imposed cannot detract from the basic, evangelical message — the belief that savages will be enlightened by democracy (to use West's language against him). To call it socio-political bigotry may not be too much of an exaggeration, and his slightly crusading/imperialistic tone is completely out of tune with the essential idea behind his book.

Cornel West is a man of considerable learning and is one of the few people who approach the Middle East situation trying to be equitable. His views on the current political situation in America and abroad make for stimulating reading and any good book tackling such controversial issues is bound to elicit heated discussion and dissenting voices. Indeed, West's main reason to write was to spark debate, to "stoke democratic fires," wherein the success of "Democracy Matters."