Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for David M. Weber

NAME:
- David M. Weber

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1996)

ADVISORS:
- Joyce Oldham Appleby
- Bruce Schulman

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Clyde S. Spillenger
- Bruce Schulman

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Reasoned elaborations: Consensus liberalism, legal process, and the discourse of democracy, 1950-1962

Abstract: It is often asserted that the legal scholars of the legal process school were part of the larger consensus school of the 1950s and early 1960s. However, no previous effort has attempted a comparative textual analysis of the published works of the legal and political scholars who participated in the consensus discourse with a view toward specifying the nature of the relationship. This dissertation does so. It analyzes the twin discourses of the consensus political intellectuals in sociology, history, and political science and that of the legal process scholars. It divides the discourses into constituent parts, referred to as the paradigmatic models or languages of "psychology," "American exceptionalism," "structural-functionalism," and "the free market." Each is shown to be derived from a particular analysis of history and politics that was shared by members of both the political and legal cohorts, who then used the terminology of these models or languages to convey their shared meanings. To further emphasize this point, the discourses are contrasted with related discourses taking place in the same period among legal and political intellectuals who did not subscribe to the existence of or the necessity for consensus.

The dissertation concludes that the twin consensus discourses ultimately expressed the fear that the United States was in danger of becoming a mass society, which could lead to it becoming a totalitarian society. For many of the legal process scholars, the problem of totalitarianism and democracy was connected with the problem of race relations, including the school integration controversy, since the "creation" of rights under the Constitution by the Supreme Court was generally interpreted by legal process scholars as antithetical to democracy. The period's discourse concerning the proper role of the Supreme Court within the American system of government cannot therefore be understood only as part of a long-term technical debate, stretching back to the days of John Marshall. Rather, it must be historicized as part of the larger discussion about the existence and ramifications of the mass society and the risk that American society could become a totalitarian society that took place between 1950 and 1962.

MPACT Scores for David M. Weber

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-02-03 11:09:23

Advisors and Advisees Graph

generating graph, please reload

Students under David M. Weber

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None