The Moral Foundation of Democracy

With The Moral Foundation of Democracy, John H. Hallowell makes a significant argument in favor of the importance of moral values in the orderly functioning of modern democracies. Hallowell begins with a survey of the role that classical liberalism and faith in man as a reasonable, moral, and spiritual actor played in the emergence of democratic self-government. He sharply criticizes positivist thought and moral relativism as direct challenges to the notion that transcendent truths guide individuals in their actions and influence how people participate in a democratic society. Hallowell reminds us that at its core, a well-functioning democracy must be based on a fundamental respect for the dignity of the individual.

John H. Hallowell taught political science for forty years at Duke University and was chair of the department from 1964 to 1971. He died in 1991. In addition to this work, Hallowell also wrote The Decline of Liberalism as an Ideology (1943) and Main Currents in Modern Political Thought (1950).