Eric W. Cheng: Hanging Together: Role-Based Constitutional Fellowship and the Challenge of Difference and Disagreement. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. vii, 182.)

Abstract

We must all hang together," Benjamin Franklin jibed after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, "or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." Franklin's sentiments capture the essence of Eric Cheng's Hanging Together, which muses over how to perpetuate liberal democracies in a modern world rife with what the author calls difference and disagreement. "Difference" here represents descriptive diversity (age, sex, race, etc.); "disagreement" means ideological competition (partisanship, religious belief, and so on). Liberal democratic theory promises to hold diverse, competing peoples together, but the threat of division and strife constantly looms over efforts at democratic unity. Cheng proposes a solution to this problem-the problem of difference and disagreement-called role-based constitutional fellowship. The goal of this fellowship is to create and sustain a "culture of trust" wherein citizens trust that their fellow citizens are committed to perpetuating liberal democratic political institutions, despite their disagreements (94).Motivated by the rise of far-right political movements the world over, Hanging Together argues that we need to rethink how liberal democrats perpetuate their political systems. While theoretically not restricted to America, Cheng nonetheless focuses most of his analysis on the situation in the United States, post-January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Cheng's intention is to create a framework for "how citizens who have differences and disagreements ought to relate to one another in a liberal democracy" to sustain their systems and remedy injustices (1). By "liberal democracy" (the correctness of which Cheng assumes a priori), Cheng means a political regime that takes seriously the rule of law, individual liberties, freedom of the press, fair elections, an independent judiciary, and "the legitimacy of political disagreement" (1).Cheng's framework first involves understanding the different roles citizens play in society before figuring out how to create a culture of trust between them. There are two main spheres in modern liberal democracies, one