Goodreads asked Walter Horn:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Walter Horn For over 40 years, I've found inspiration in the work of American philosopher Everett W. Hall, a man who died at the height of his powers in 1960. Hall wrote mostly about epistemology and value theory, but he did publish one short paper on political philosophy, right after WWII. Through the head librarian of his archival material at the University of Southern Ilinois, I discovered that he also had an unpublished book manuscript on the subject. After reading it, I thought I'd try to develop some material from it into a paper on what I call "CHOICE voluntarism."

After finishing that work, it began to strike me how that concept might fit into an entirely new picture of democratic theory. And as longtime critic of nearly every American electoral system, I was excited to apply my theory to such matters as the Electoral College, gerrymandering, immigration, youth voting, term limits, etc.

Anyhow, my new book is called "Democratic Theory Naturalized: The Foundations of Distilled Populism," and it's coming out on Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield) this Fall.

flag