Technological Cultures and Liberal Democracy in the United States

Abstract

This article argues that “technologies of culture” influence citizens’ conceptions of the American state. The technology of modernism (which lasted into the 1960s) educated citizens to manipulate machines and control nature. This influenced citizens’ views of government’s tasks and capacities. Postmodern technology focuses attention on the self and alters people’s conceptions of the tasks and capacities of government. The article discusses the political implications of postmodern citizenship and suggests possible remedies for postmodernism’s effects on democratic citizenship in the United States.