''Notes on Democracy'' is a 1926 book by American journalist, satirist and leading cultural critic
H. L. Mencken.
The initial print run was only 235 copies; another edition was printed later in 1926. A number of reprints of the book have continued to be issued, with editions released in 2008 and 2012.
Synopsis and impact
''Notes on Democracy'' is a critique of
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
. The book places political leaders into two categories: the
demagogue
A demagogue (; ; ), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, Appeal to emotion, appealing to emo ...
, who "preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots" and the demaslave, "who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself." Mencken depicts politicians as "men who have sold their honor for their jobs."
Reception
Writing for ''
The Saturday Review of Literature''
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining t ...
described the book as a "tremendous polemic" which "destroy
by rendering it ridiculous and unfashionable, the democratic tradition of the American pioneers" and likens ''Notes on Democracy'' to ''
The Social Contract
''The Social Contract'', originally published as ''On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right'' (), is a 1762 French-language book by the Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theorizes about how ...
'' by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but Lippmann also criticizes Mencken by saying "The chief weakness of the book, as a book of ideas, arises out of this naive contrast in Mr. Mencken’s mind between the sordid reality he knows and the splendid society he imagines."
References
External links
* Full text of
Notes on Democracy' at the Internet Archive
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{{Authority control
1926 non-fiction books
Books about democracy
Books by H. L. Mencken
Books in political philosophy
Alfred A. Knopf books