Analysis Of John Dewey’s Political Thoughts On American Democracy And Liberalism

Dewey is generally recognized as American leading philosopher and educational reformer, whose ideas have been influential in educational and social reform. This thesis is to analyze Dewey’s major political writings in order to explore his political thoughts on American democracy and liberalism and the relationship between the two thoughts. For democracy, Dewey first diagnosed the crisis in American democracy after the First World War, Dewey argued for a participatory democracy in which more public involvement in social and political affairs was needed. For liberalism, Dewey mainly attacked the laissez-faire liberalism in his time. In order to grapple with liberal crisis, Dewey restated his commitment to liberal values—liberty, individuality and intelligence. This thesis will come to the final conclusion that Dewey’s political writings set a positive model for political philosophers to clarify political problems and think of ways to solve the problems. The greatest and original contribution of Dewey is to dissolve the historical tension between democracy and liberalism and make clear what liberal democracy really is.