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Political Literacy confronts and responds to the question: What is required of the citizens of a democracy to ensure their individual and social rights? Exploring the rhetoric of legal interpretation, this book answers that citizens must be so educated as to have an intellectual awareness of the inherently rhetorical nature of language.
Political Literacy explodes the myth that justice is delivered in the measured, seemingly disinterested, written decisions of America's highest courts. Instead, it reveals the political nature of legal opinions and their necessarily ideological perspectives. Using arguments and examples from a variety of ancient and modern writers and thinkers, the book defines political literacy for the first time. Fredric Gale passionately calls for changes in the way the public is educated about the justice system and about the risk of complacency in this crucial area of public life.
"These arguments are timely, well-made, and deserving of wide and careful attention. Fredric Gale writes with impressive and sure knowledge of the law, jurisprudence, critical theory, and composition theory, a considerable achievement. "— G. Douglas Atkins, University of Kansas
Introduction
1. New Perspectives
2. Sources and Traditions of Modern Justice
3. Critical Approaches to the Question of Justice
4. Rhetoric, Justice, and Ideology
5. Literacy and the Possibility of Justice
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index