Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy

Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy PDF Author: David Altman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108496636
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Offers a comparative study of the origins, performance, and reform of contemporary mechanisms of direct democracy.

Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy

Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy PDF Author: David Altman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108496636
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book Here

Book Description
Offers a comparative study of the origins, performance, and reform of contemporary mechanisms of direct democracy.

Voting from Abroad

Voting from Abroad PDF Author: Andrew Ellis
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9185391662
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
The constitutions of many countries guarantee the right to vote for all citizens. However, in reality, voters who are outside their home country when elections take place are often disenfranchised because of a lack of procedures enabling them to exercise that right. Voting from Abroad: The International IDEA Handbook examines the theoretical and practical issues surrounding external voting. It provides an overview of external voting provisions in 115 countries and territories around the world, including a map illustrating the regional spread.

Campaign Strategy in Direct Democracy

Campaign Strategy in Direct Democracy PDF Author: Laurent Bernhard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137011343
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
In the first study of comparative direct-democracy, Laurent Bernhard explores the nature of direct-democratic campaigning in Switzerland. The author examines four policy areas: immigration, healthcare, welfare and economic liberalism focussing on interviews with campaign managers to provide a comprehensive analysis of direct-democratic campaigning.

Direct Democracy Worldwide

Direct Democracy Worldwide PDF Author: David Altman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139495437
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Challenging the common assumption that models of direct democracy and representative democracy are necessarily at odds, Direct Democracy Worldwide demonstrates how practices of direct and representative democracy interact under different institutional settings and uncovers the conditions that allow them to coexist in a mutually reinforcing manner. Whereas citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy can spur productive relationships between citizens and political parties, other mechanisms of direct democracy often help leaders bypass other representative institutions, undermining republican checks and balances. The book also demonstrates that the embrace of direct democracy is costly, may generate uncertainties and inconsistencies, and can be manipulated. Nonetheless, the promise of direct democracy should not be dismissed. Direct democracy is much more than a simple, pragmatic second choice when representative democracy seems not to be working as expected. Properly designed, it can empower citizens, breaking through some of the institutionalized barriers to accountability that arise in representative systems.

The Battle Over Citizen Lawmaking

The Battle Over Citizen Lawmaking PDF Author: M. Dane Waters
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
There is little doubt that in recent years the initiative process has become one of the most important mechanisms for altering and influencing public policy at every level of government. In the last two years alone, utilizing the initiative process, citizens were heard on affirmative action, educational reform, term limits, tax reform, campaign finance reform, animal protection, drug policy reform, and the environment. However, the initiative process has fallen prey to its own success. Lawmakers who have been most affected by this citizen's tool have struck back by imposing new regulations on the process -- regulations that serve no purpose but to deprive the citizens of the only avenue available to them to reign in unresponsive government. These regulations have generated many questions that have so far remained unanswered or have been discussed only in specialist journals. There are legal questions about signature gathering and limits on campaign spending, political questions about implementing the relevant statutes, and philosophical questions about equality and freedom of expression. The Battle Over Citizen Lawmaking discusses the evolution of the initiative and referendum process, the need for the process, how it has been utilized, the impetus for new regulations, the major regulations that have been imposed, the role the courts have played in regulating the initiative and referendum process, what role money plays, and how the process has been regulated in other countries. This book comprehensively addresses these issues from the viewpoint of leading scholars, opinion leaders, journalists, elected officials, activists, and attorneys. "Dane Waters has done a commendable job in bringing a focus to an edited book project that provides a new perspective on the growing literature on direct democracy. The emphasis on a legal perspective may even help bring the topic to greater attention in classes on law and politics." -- The Journal of Politics, February 2002

The Politics Industry

The Politics Industry PDF Author: Katherine M. Gehl
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1633699242
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies

The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies PDF Author: Robert Rohrschneider
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198825080
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 731

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Book Description
"How can democracies effectively represent citizens? The goal of this Handbook is to evaluate comprehensively how well the interests and preferences of mass publics become represented by institutions in liberal democracies. It first explores how the idea and institutions of liberal democracies were formed over centuries and became enshrined in Western political systems. The contributors to this Handbook, made up of the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation, examine how well the political elites and parties who are charged with the representation of the public interest meet their duties. Clearly, institutions often fail to live up to their own representation goals. With this in mind, the contributors explore several challenges to the way that the system of representation is organized in modern democracies. For example, actors such as parties and established elites face rising distrust among electorates. Also, the rise of international problems such as migration and environmentalism suggests that the focus of democracies on nation states may have to shift to a more international level. All told, this Handbook illuminates the normative and functional challenges faced by representative institutions in liberal democracies"--

Stealth Democracy

Stealth Democracy PDF Author: John R. Hibbing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521009867
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Americans often complain about the operation of their government, but scholars have never developed a complete picture of people's preferred type of government. In this provocative and timely book, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, employing an original national survey and focus groups, report the governmental procedures Americans desire. Contrary to the prevailing view that people want greater involvement in politics, most citizens do not care about most policies and therefore are content to turn over decision-making authority to someone else. People's wish for the political system is that decision makers be empathetic and, especially, non-self-interested, not that they be responsive and accountable to the people's largely nonexistent policy preferences or, even worse, that the people be obligated to participate directly in decision making. Hibbing and Theiss-Morse conclude by cautioning communitarians, direct democrats, social capitalists, deliberation theorists, and all those who think that greater citizen involvement is the solution to society's problems.

How We Win

How We Win PDF Author: George Lakey
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612197531
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
A lifetime of activist experience from a civil rights legend informs this playbook for building and conducting nonviolent direct action campaigns In an era of massive worldwide protests for racial and economic justice, it is important to remember that marching is only one way to take to the streets. Protest must be supplemented with the sustained direct action campaigns that are crucial to winning major reforms. Beginning as a trainer in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, George Lakey has spent decades helping direct action tactics flourish and succeed on the front lines of social change. Now, in this timely and down-to-earth guide, he passes the torch to a new generation of activists. Lakey looks to successful campaigns across the world to help us see what has worked, what hasn’t, and why: from choosing the right target to designing a creative campaign; from avoiding burnout within your group to building a movement of movements to achieve real progressive victories. Drawing on the experiences of a diverse set of ambitious change-makers, How We Win shows us the way to justice, peace, and a sustainable economy. This is what democracy looks like.

Building a Business of Politics

Building a Business of Politics PDF Author: Adam D. Sheingate
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190217197
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Today, politics is big business. Most of the 6 billion spent during the 2012 campaign went to highly paid political consultants. In Building a Business of Politics, a lively history of political consulting, Adam Sheingate examines the origins of the industry and its consequences for American democracy.