Difference and disagreement can be valuable, yet they can also spiral out of control and damage liberal democracy. Advancing a metaphor of citizenship that the author terms ''role-based constitutional fellowship,'' this book offers a solution to this challenge. Cheng argues that a series of ''divisions of labor'' among citizens, differently situated, can help cultivate the foundational trust required to harness the benefits of disagreement and difference while preventing them from ''overheating'' and, in turn, from leaving liberal democracy vulnerable to the growing influence of autocratic political forces. The book recognizes, however, that it is not always appropriate to attempt to cultivate trust, and acknowledges the important role that some forms of confrontation might play in identifying and rectifying undue social hierarchies, such as racial-ethnic hierarchies. Hanging Together thereby works to pave a middle way between deliberative and realist conceptions of democracy.
Industry Reviews
'... a timely and masterful account of the challenges facing liberal democracy, the significance of difference and disagreement, the binding power of role-based constitutional fellowship, and the never-ending balancing act necessary to keep the enterprise afloat.' Paige Digeser, 2023 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 'Author-Meets-Critics' Panel
'... a valuable and politically sophisticated contribution to democratic theory on how to manage difference and disagreement...' Kevin J. Elliott, Perspectives on Politics
'Cheng's book provides a valuable and politically sophisticated contribution to democratic theory on how to manage difference and disagreement. His role-based approach presents an extremely promising path that remains underutilized in democratic theory. Hanging Together illustrates the great dividends that this approach can yield in addressing some of democracy's most dire challenges today.' Kevin J. Elliott, Yale University, Perspectives on Politics
'Eric Cheng's Hanging Together: Role-Based Constitutional fellowship and the Challenge of Difference and Disagreement is a timely and masterful account of the challenges facing liberal democracy, the significance of difference and disagreement, the binding power of role-based constitutional fellowship, and the never-ending balancing act necessary to keep the enterprise afloat. Cheng's book shows how the center could and perhaps does hold in an environment in which our differences and disagreements generate a passionate intensity that makes difficult (and sometimes impossible) the ordinary give and take of politics.' Paige Digeser, University of California, Santa Barbara
'Hanging Together is a model book in Political Theory. It uses observations from our everyday, lived experiences to reveal gaps in some of our most well established thinking on democracy, while also in turn, using those democratic theories to offer clear thinking on ways to proceed from those lived experiences. Moreover, Cheng takes on perhaps the most significant problem in contemporary American politics: the erosion of trust between and among citizens. Hanging Together artfully brings together insights from some of the most prominent defenders of liberal democracy, while incorporating his own novel concept of role-based constitutional fellowship. It is an important read for anyone interested in the evolution of democratic theory and the sustainability of American democracy more generally.' Matthew Chick, Hartwick College
'In attempting to figure out how to better perpetuate our political institutions, to better unite liberal democrats whose nations seem to be buckling under the weight of combative antiliberalism, Cheng's effort is a useful and welcome one.' Ashton Kushner, The Review of Politics
