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Author: Trevor Norris
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498533620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
This is a robust and relevant collection from a truly distinguished group of political theorists actively rethinking the promise and perils of democracy. The book is coherent in its focus on a common theme and aim: to advance and refine the political project of promoting democratic theory and practice. While the contributors are admirers of the promotion of various models of democracy they also express distinct approaches and concerns. Each builds on and expands the central theme of democracy and ultimately contends with potential limits of current configurations of democratic life. While to some extent they share common concerns they express considerable dissent and fruitful opposition that deepens and advances the debate. Contributors explore democracy from different perspectives: law and constitutionalism, globalization and development, public life and the arts, pluralism, democracy and education, and democratic listening and democratic participation. The contributions point towards new ways of living and thinking politically, new directions for contending with some of the more significant and seemingly intractable political problems, challenging conventional presuppositions about democracy by expanding the boundaries of what kinds of democracy may be possible. The book critiques liberal notions of democracy that forefront rational autonomy and a citizenship characterized by narrow self-interest, and critique naïve claims that any infringement on the rights of the autonomous individual must invariably lead to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Instead contributors suggest that the abandonment of the res publica in pursuit of private interests may well lead to arid politics or authoritarianism. Citizens are called upon to be more than just voters but rather define themselves by participation in a community beyond their self-interest—in fact arguing, like Aristotle, Rousseau, Jefferson and Arendt, that we are only human when we participate in something beyond ourselves, that we forge and preserve our political community by our commitment to and participation in robust debate and meaningful political action. Contributors are not only revolutionary scholars that challenge problematic streams of democratic theory and traditions, but are deeply involved in shaping the character and constitution of the American body politic and promoting debates about community and citizenship and justice around the world.
Author: Trevor Norris
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498533620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Get Book Here
Book Description
This is a robust and relevant collection from a truly distinguished group of political theorists actively rethinking the promise and perils of democracy. The book is coherent in its focus on a common theme and aim: to advance and refine the political project of promoting democratic theory and practice. While the contributors are admirers of the promotion of various models of democracy they also express distinct approaches and concerns. Each builds on and expands the central theme of democracy and ultimately contends with potential limits of current configurations of democratic life. While to some extent they share common concerns they express considerable dissent and fruitful opposition that deepens and advances the debate. Contributors explore democracy from different perspectives: law and constitutionalism, globalization and development, public life and the arts, pluralism, democracy and education, and democratic listening and democratic participation. The contributions point towards new ways of living and thinking politically, new directions for contending with some of the more significant and seemingly intractable political problems, challenging conventional presuppositions about democracy by expanding the boundaries of what kinds of democracy may be possible. The book critiques liberal notions of democracy that forefront rational autonomy and a citizenship characterized by narrow self-interest, and critique naïve claims that any infringement on the rights of the autonomous individual must invariably lead to authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Instead contributors suggest that the abandonment of the res publica in pursuit of private interests may well lead to arid politics or authoritarianism. Citizens are called upon to be more than just voters but rather define themselves by participation in a community beyond their self-interest—in fact arguing, like Aristotle, Rousseau, Jefferson and Arendt, that we are only human when we participate in something beyond ourselves, that we forge and preserve our political community by our commitment to and participation in robust debate and meaningful political action. Contributors are not only revolutionary scholars that challenge problematic streams of democratic theory and traditions, but are deeply involved in shaping the character and constitution of the American body politic and promoting debates about community and citizenship and justice around the world.
Author: David Runciman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691178135
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424
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Book Description
Why democracies believe they can survive any crisis—and why that belief is so dangerous Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
Author: Adam Przeworski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108498809
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
Examines the economic, social, cultural, as well as purely political threats to democracy in the light of current knowledge.
Author: Freedom House
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538112035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1265
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Book Description
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.
Author: Graham Smith
Publisher: University of Westminster Press
ISBN: 1914386183
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Covid-19 has highlighted limitations in our democratic politics – but also lessons for how to deepen our democracy and more effectively respond to future crises. In the face of an emergency, the working assumption all too often is that only a centralised, top-down response is possible. This book exposes the weakness of this assumption, making the case for deeper participation and deliberation in times of crises. During the pandemic, mutual aid and self-help groups have realised unmet needs. And forward-thinking organisations have shown that listening to and working with diverse social groups leads to more inclusive outcomes. Participation and deliberation are not just possible in an emergency. They are valuable, perhaps even indispensable. This book draws together a diverse range of voices of activists, practitioners, policy makers, researchers and writers. Together they make visible the critical role played by participation and deliberation during the pandemic and make the case for enhanced engagement during and beyond emergency contexts. Another, more democratic world can be realised in the face of a crisis. The contributors to this book offer us meaningful insights into what this could look like.
Author: Carl Schmitt
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262691260
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 190
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Book Description
The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy offers a powerful criticism of the inconsistencies of representative democracy. Described both as "the Hobbes of our age" and as "the philosophical godfather of Nazism," Carl Schmitt was a brilliant and controversial political theorist whose doctrine of political leadership and critique of liberal democratic ideals distinguish him as one of the most original contributors to modern political theory. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy offers a powerful criticism of the inconsistencies of representative democracy. First published in 1923, it has often been viewed as an attempt to destroy parliamentarism; in fact, it was Schmitt's attempt to defend the Weimar constitution. The introduction to this new translation places the book in proper historical context and provides a useful guide to several aspects of Weimar political culture. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.
Author: William G. Howell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022672882X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
To counter the threat America faces, two political scientists offer “clear constitutional solutions that break sharply with the conventional wisdom” (Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of How Democracies Die). Has American democracy’s long, ambitious run come to an end? Possibly yes. As William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe argue in this trenchant new analysis of modern politics, the United States faces a historic crisis that threatens our system of self-government—and if democracy is to be saved, the causes of the crisis must be understood and defused. The most visible cause is Donald Trump, who has used his presidency to attack the nation’s institutions and violate its democratic norms. Yet Trump is but a symptom of causes that run much deeper: social forces like globalization, automation, and immigration that for decades have generated economic harms and cultural anxieties that our government has been wholly ineffective at addressing. Millions of Americans have grown angry and disaffected, and populist appeals have found a receptive audience. These were the drivers of Trump’s dangerous presidency, and they’re still there for other populists to weaponize. What can be done? The disruptive forces of modernity cannot be stopped. The solution lies, instead, in having a government that can deal with them—which calls for aggressive new policies, but also for institutional reforms that enhance its capacity for effective action. The path to progress is filled with political obstacles, including an increasingly populist, anti-government Republican Party. It is hard to be optimistic. But if the challenge is to be met, we need reforms of the presidency itself—reforms that harness the promise of presidential power for effective government, but firmly protect against that power being put to anti-democratic ends.
Author: David Graeber
Publisher: Doubleday UK
ISBN: 081299356X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
Explores the idea of democracy, its current state of crisis, and its potential as a tool for change, sharing historical perspectives on the effectiveness of democratic uprisings in various times and cultures.
Author: Danielle Allen
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226815625
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 134
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Book Description
From a leading political thinker, this book is both an invaluable playbook for meeting our current moment and a stirring reflection on the future of democracy itself. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated some of the strengths of our society, including the rapid development of vaccines. But the pandemic has also exposed its glaring weaknesses, such as the failure of our government to develop and quickly implement strategies for tracing and containing outbreaks as well as widespread public distrust of government prompted by often confusing and conflicting choices—to mask, or not to mask. Even worse is that over half a million deaths and the extensive economic devastation could have been avoided if the government had been prepared to undertake comprehensive, contextually-sensitive policies to stop the spread of the disease. In Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus, leading political thinker Danielle Allen untangles the US government’s COVID-19 victories and failures to offer a plan for creating a more resilient democratic polity—one that can better respond to both the present pandemic and future crises. Looking to history, Allen also identifies the challenges faced by democracies in other times that required strong government action. In an analysis spanning from ancient Greece to the Reconstruction Amendments and the present day, Allen argues for the relative effectiveness of collaborative federalism over authoritarian compulsion and for the unifying power of a common cause. But for democracy to endure, we—as participatory citizens—must commit to that cause: a just and equal social contract and support for good governance.
Author: Frances Rosenbluth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300241054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335
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Book Description
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making have made governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long-term interests. They argue that to restore confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.
