New Democracy: An Essay on Certain Political and Economic Tendencies in the United States Book

In The New Democracy Weyl describes the efforts of a plutocracy seeking to control, often by corrupt means, the federal government. He attacks the Founding Fathers' motives, and reads the Constitution as an anti-democratic document produced by aristocrats attempting to protect their own economic interests in troubled times. In contrast to many of his predecessors, Weyl rejects Natural Law and sees the distribution of wealth as the fundamental issue in political life. For Weyl, rights are not defined by Nature, but by human institutions that distribute wealth. He supported a stronger federal government, one that provides more rights and economic equality for the common citizen. In his opening essay for this new edition Sidney A. Pearson, Jr. painstakingly explores Weyl's life, influence, political philosophy, the origins of the book, and the author's subsequent descent into obscurity.