Creating Political Presence

Creating Political Presence PDF Author: Dario Castiglione
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022658853X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
For at least two centuries, democratic representation has been at the center of debate. Should elected representatives express the views of the majority, or do they have the discretion to interpret their constituents’ interests? How can representatives balance the desires of their parties and their electors? What should be done to strengthen the representation of groups that have been excluded from the political system? Representative democracy itself remains frequently contested, regarded as incapable of reflecting the will of the masses, or inadequate for today’s global governance. Recently, however, this view of democratic representation has been under attack for its failure to capture the performative and constructive elements of the process of representation, and a new literature more attentive to these aspects of the relationship between representatives and the represented has arisen. In Creating Political Presence, a diverse and international group of scholars explores the implications of such a turn. Two broad, overlapping perspectives emerge. In the first section, the contributions investigate how political representation relates to empowerment, either facilitating or interfering with the capacity of citizens to develop autonomous judgment in collective decision making. Contributions in the second section look at representation from the perspective of inclusion, focusing on how representative relationships and claims articulate the demands of those who are excluded or have no voice. The final section examines political representation from a more systemic perspective, exploring its broader environmental conditions and the way it acquires democratic legitimacy.

Creating Political Presence

Creating Political Presence PDF Author: Dario Castiglione
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022658853X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
For at least two centuries, democratic representation has been at the center of debate. Should elected representatives express the views of the majority, or do they have the discretion to interpret their constituents’ interests? How can representatives balance the desires of their parties and their electors? What should be done to strengthen the representation of groups that have been excluded from the political system? Representative democracy itself remains frequently contested, regarded as incapable of reflecting the will of the masses, or inadequate for today’s global governance. Recently, however, this view of democratic representation has been under attack for its failure to capture the performative and constructive elements of the process of representation, and a new literature more attentive to these aspects of the relationship between representatives and the represented has arisen. In Creating Political Presence, a diverse and international group of scholars explores the implications of such a turn. Two broad, overlapping perspectives emerge. In the first section, the contributions investigate how political representation relates to empowerment, either facilitating or interfering with the capacity of citizens to develop autonomous judgment in collective decision making. Contributions in the second section look at representation from the perspective of inclusion, focusing on how representative relationships and claims articulate the demands of those who are excluded or have no voice. The final section examines political representation from a more systemic perspective, exploring its broader environmental conditions and the way it acquires democratic legitimacy.

Creating Political Presence

Creating Political Presence PDF Author: Dario Castiglione
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226588360
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For at least two centuries, democratic representation has been at the center of debate. Should elected representatives express the views of the majority, or do they have the discretion to interpret their constituents’ interests? How can representatives balance the desires of their parties and their electors? What should be done to strengthen the representation of groups that have been excluded from the political system? Representative democracy itself remains frequently contested, regarded as incapable of reflecting the will of the masses, or inadequate for today’s global governance. Recently, however, this view of democratic representation has been under attack for its failure to capture the performative and constructive elements of the process of representation, and a new literature more attentive to these aspects of the relationship between representatives and the represented has arisen. In Creating Political Presence, a diverse and international group of scholars explores the implications of such a turn. Two broad, overlapping perspectives emerge. In the first section, the contributions investigate how political representation relates to empowerment, either facilitating or interfering with the capacity of citizens to develop autonomous judgment in collective decision making. Contributions in the second section look at representation from the perspective of inclusion, focusing on how representative relationships and claims articulate the demands of those who are excluded or have no voice. The final section examines political representation from a more systemic perspective, exploring its broader environmental conditions and the way it acquires democratic legitimacy.

Representative Democracy

Representative Democracy PDF Author: Nadia Urbinati
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226842800
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
It is usually held that representative government is not strictly democratic, since it does not allow the people themselves to directly make decisions. But here, taking as her guide Thomas Paine’s subversive view that “Athens, by representation, would have surpassed her own democracy,” Nadia Urbinati challenges this accepted wisdom, arguing that political representation deserves to be regarded as a fully legitimate mode of democratic decision making—and not just a pragmatic second choice when direct democracy is not possible. As Urbinati shows, the idea that representation is incompatible with democracy stems from our modern concept of sovereignty, which identifies politics with a decision maker’s direct physical presence and the immediate act of the will. She goes on to contend that a democratic theory of representation can and should go beyond these identifications. Political representation, she demonstrates, is ultimately grounded in a continuum of influence and power created by political judgment, as well as the way presence through ideas and speech links society with representative institutions. Deftly integrating the ideas of such thinkers as Rousseau, Kant, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Paine, and the Marquis de Condorcet with her own, Urbinati constructs a thought-provoking alternative vision of democracy.

Making Constituencies

Making Constituencies PDF Author: Lisa Jane Disch
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022680450X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Introduction : responsiveness in reverse -- In defense of mobilization -- From the bedrock norm to the constituency paradox -- Can the realist remain a democrat? -- Realism for democrats -- Manipulation : How will I know it when I see it? And should I worry when I do?-- Debating constructivism and democracy in 1970s France -- Radical democracy and the value of plurality -- Conclusion.

Dynamic Partisanship

Dynamic Partisanship PDF Author: Ken Kollman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022676236X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Introduction : why study dynamic partisanship? -- Partisanship : meaning and measurement -- Consistent partisanship models -- The United States -- Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom : the setup -- Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom : results -- Explaining partisanship dynamics -- Parties and partisanship.

Participation and Political Equality

Participation and Political Equality PDF Author: Sidney Verba
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521219051
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
In this survey of political participation in seven nations - Nigeria, Austria, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and the United States - the authors examine the relationship between social, economic, and educational factors and political participation. The book provides insight into an ongoing debate among political scientists and sociologist: why is political participation in some nations distributed evenly across economic, social, and educational lines, whereas other nations foster participation only by their privileged classes? The book treats politics not only as a dependent variable influenced by socioeconomic factors, but also as an independent variable that affects levels of political participation through variations in party systems and linkages between parties and other organizations.

Collective Dreams

Collective Dreams PDF Author: Keally D. McBride
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271046120
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
How do we go about imagining different and better worlds for ourselves? Collective Dreams looks at ideals of community, frequently embraced as the basis for reform across the political spectrum, as the predominant form of political imagination in America today. Examining how these ideals circulate without having much real impact on social change provides an opportunity to explore the difficulties of practicing critical theory in a capitalist society. Different chapters investigate how ideals of community intersect with conceptions of self and identity, family, the public sphere and civil society, and the state, situating community at the core of the most contested political and social arenas of our time. Ideals of community also influence how we evaluate, choose, and build the spaces in which we live, as the author’s investigations of Celebration, Florida, and of West Philadelphia show.Following in the tradition of Walter Benjamin, Keally McBride reveals how consumer culture affects our collective experience of community as well as our ability to imagine alternative political and social orders. Taking ideals of community as a case study, Collective Dreams also explores the structure and function of political imagination to answer the following questions: What do these oppositional ideals reveal about our current political and social experiences? How is the way we imagine alternative communities nonetheless influenced by capitalism, liberalism, and individualism? How can these ideals of community be used more effectively to create social change?

State of Exception

State of Exception PDF Author: Giorgio Agamben
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226009262
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
Two months after the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration, in the midst of what it perceived to be a state of emergency, authorized the indefinite detention of noncitizens suspected of terrorist activities and their subsequent trials by a military commission. Here, distinguished Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben uses such circumstances to argue that this unusual extension of power, or "state of exception," has historically been an underexamined and powerful strategy that has the potential to transform democracies into totalitarian states. The sequel to Agamben's Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, State of Exception is the first book to theorize the state of exception in historical and philosophical context. In Agamben's view, the majority of legal scholars and policymakers in Europe as well as the United States have wrongly rejected the necessity of such a theory, claiming instead that the state of exception is a pragmatic question. Agamben argues here that the state of exception, which was meant to be a provisional measure, became in the course of the twentieth century a normal paradigm of government. Writing nothing less than the history of the state of exception in its various national contexts throughout Western Europe and the United States, Agamben uses the work of Carl Schmitt as a foil for his reflections as well as that of Derrida, Benjamin, and Arendt. In this highly topical book, Agamben ultimately arrives at original ideas about the future of democracy and casts a new light on the hidden relationship that ties law to violence.

For the Many or the Few

For the Many or the Few PDF Author: John G. Matsusaka
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226510875
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Direct democracy is alive and well in the United States. Citizens are increasingly using initiatives and referendums to take the law into their own hands, overriding their elected officials to set tax, expenditure, and social policies. John G. Matsusaka's For the Many or the Few provides the first even-handed and historically based treatment of the subject. Drawing upon a century of evidence, Matsusaka argues against the popular belief that initiative measures are influenced by wealthy special interest groups that neglect the majority view. Examining demographic, political, and opinion data, he demonstrates how the initiative process brings about systematic changes in tax and expenditure policies of state and local governments that are generally supported by the citizens. He concludes that, by and large, direct democracy in the form of the initiative process works for the benefit of the many rather than the few. An unprecedented, comprehensive look at the historical, empirical, and theoretical components of how initiatives function within our representative democracy to increase political competition while avoiding the tyranny of the majority, For the Many or the Few is a most timely and definitive work.

Sentimental Citizen

Sentimental Citizen PDF Author: George E. Marcus
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271045986
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
An Analysis Of How emotion functions cooperatively with reason & contributes to a healthy democratic politics.