Author: Giuseppe Tosi
Publisher: Editora CRV
ISBN: 6525158249
Category : Political Science
Languages : pt-BR
Pages : 343
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Book Description
Democracy is a concept so worn out by intensive use and polysemy of meanings, and at the same time so essential to contemporary political theory and practice, that it deserves to be recurrently revisited and reinterpreted. That's what we want to do in this book, raising some questions and confronting different theories about democracy, without any claim to completeness. Our objective is not to cover the entire discussion about democracy, but to restrict itself to the debate between democracy and elitism. Our central working hypothesis is that a compromise between democratic and elitist theory is possible, through the so-called democratic elitism, which embraces elements of both theories and promotes a synthesis. From this perspective, democracy, realistically, is not the "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", but the government of elites by competing among themselves for popular consensus, to achieve power. This does not mean denying the possibility of popular participation if this is understood not as an alternative to representative democracy, but as its necessary complement. This thesis is developed through a history of the main concepts in dispute: people, elite, government, citizenship, representative, direct, plebiscitary, participatory democracy, which change according to different historical, political, economic and social contexts.
Author: M. I. Finley
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 197880234X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
Western democracy is now at a critical juncture. Some worry that power has been wrested from the people and placed in the hands of a small political elite. Others argue that the democratic system gives too much power to a populace that is largely ill-informed and easily swayed by demagogues. This classic study of democratic principles is thus now more relevant than ever. A renowned historian of antiquity and political philosophy, Sir M.I. Finley offers a comparative analysis of Greek and modern conceptions of democracy. As he puts the ancient Greeks in dialogue with their contemporary counterparts, Finley tackles some of the most pressing issues of our day, including public apathy, partisanship, consensus politics, distrust of professional politicians, and the limits of free speech. Including three lectures that Finley delivered at Rutgers University, plus two additional essays that further illuminate his thinking, Democracy Ancient and Modern explores the dramatic differences between the close-knit civil society of the ancient Greeks and our own atomized mass societies. By mapping out democracy’s past and its present manifestations, this book helps us plot a course for democracy’s future.
Author: Benjamin Constant
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 30
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Book Description
This is an essay by Benjamin Constant. In this essay, Constant contrasted two views on freedom: one held by "the Ancients," particularly those in Classical Greece, and the other by members of modern societies. He investigates the dangers of attempting to impose ancient liberty in a modern context, as well as the risks associated with each type of liberty. The danger of ancient liberty was that men, preoccupied with securing their share of social power, might place too little value on individual rights and pleasures. The danger of modern liberty is that we will give up our right to participate in political power too easily, absorbed in the enjoyment of our independence and the pursuit of our particular interests." Constant believes that the two types of liberty must eventually be combined.
Author: Wilfried Nippel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316565114
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399
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Book Description
Ancient and Modern Democracy is a comprehensive account of Athenian democracy as a subject of criticism, admiration and scholarly debate for 2,500 years, covering the features of Athenian democracy, its importance for the English, American and French revolutions and for the debates on democracy and political liberty from the nineteenth century to the present. Discussions were always in the context of contemporary constitutional problems. Time and again they made a connection with a long-established tradition, involving both dialogue with ancient sources and with earlier phases of the reception of Antiquity. They refer either to a common cultural legacy or to specific national traditions; they often involve a mixture of political and scholarly arguments. This book elucidates the complexity of considering and constructing systems of popular self-rule.
Author: M. I. Finley
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978802323
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
Leaders and followers -- Athenian demagogues -- Democracy, consensus and the national interest -- Socrates and after -- Censorship in classical antiquity.
Author: M. I. Finley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 127
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Book Description
Author: Terrot Reaveley Glover
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Author: Hugh Seymour Tremenheere
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political science
Languages : en
Pages : 202
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Book Description
Author: Robertino Ghiringhelli
Publisher: Cisalpino
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172
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Book Description
Author: Kostas Vlassopoulos
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199888701
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
Ancient Greece is famous as the civilization which "gave" the world democracy. Democracy has in modern times become the rallying cry of liberation from supposed totalitarianism and dictatorship. It is embedded in the assumptions of Western powers who proclaim their faith in the global spread of democratic governance and at the same time wielded by protesters in the developing world who challenge what they view as the West's cultural imperialism. Thus, a lively and well informed treatment of the nexus between politics in antiquity and political discourse in the modern era is both timely and apposite. As Kostas Vlassopoulos shows, much can be learned about the practice of politics from a comparative discussion of the classical and the contemporary. His starting point is that the value of looking back to a political system with different assumptions and elements can help us think, and even shape, what the future of modern politics might be. He discusses the contrasting political systems of Athens, Sparta and Rome; the political theories of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero; how great events like the Peloponnesian War or the Roman civil wars shaped the course of political theory; and the discovery of freedom, participation and equality as political values in antiquity. Above all, the book shows how important and surprising an analysis of the ancient world can be in reassessing and revaluating modern political debates.
