The Coming Age of Direct Democracy PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Coming Age of Direct Democracy PDF full book. Access full book title The Coming Age of Direct Democracy by Mark Baldassare. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Mark Baldassare
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742538726
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Get Book
Book Description
This book examines the unique form of democracy that has been taking shape in California since the historic recall of Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003. The authors examine how Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership has encouraged the growth of direct democracy, in which public policy decisions are made by voters at the ballot box rather than by elected representatives in the legislature. Using the Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Surveys, which include interviews with more than 150,000 Californians, Baldassare and Katz detail the transformation in the state's political climate and the public attitudes behind this change. The authors conclude that this transformation will likely take place in other states, perhaps even nationwide, and offer recommendations for ways to improve policymaking in a hybrid democracy. Book jacket.
Author: Mark Baldassare
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742538726
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268
Get Book
Book Description
This book examines the unique form of democracy that has been taking shape in California since the historic recall of Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003. The authors examine how Governor Schwarzenegger's leadership has encouraged the growth of direct democracy, in which public policy decisions are made by voters at the ballot box rather than by elected representatives in the legislature. Using the Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Surveys, which include interviews with more than 150,000 Californians, Baldassare and Katz detail the transformation in the state's political climate and the public attitudes behind this change. The authors conclude that this transformation will likely take place in other states, perhaps even nationwide, and offer recommendations for ways to improve policymaking in a hybrid democracy. Book jacket.
Author: David Altman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108496636
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Get Book
Book Description
Offers a comparative study of the origins, performance, and reform of contemporary mechanisms of direct democracy.
Author: Nancy C. Roberts
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317458818
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Get Book
Book Description
Citizen involvement is considered the cornerstone of democratic theory and practice. Citizens today have the knowledge and ability to participate more fully in the political, technical, and administrative decisions that affect them. On the other hand, direct citizen participation is often viewed with skepticism, even wariness. Many argue that citizens do not have the time, preparation, or interest to be directly involved in public affairs, and suggest instead that representative democracy, or indirect citizen participation, is the most effective form of government. Some of the very best writings on this key topic - which is at the root of the entire "reinventing government" movement - can be found in the journals that ASPA publishes or sponsors. In this collection Nancy Roberts has brought together the emerging classics on the ongoing debate over citizen involvement. Her detailed introductory essay and section openers frame the key issues, provide historical context, and fill in any gaps not directly covered by the articles. More than just an anthology, "The Age of Direct Citizen Participation" provides a unique and useful framework for understanding this important subject. It is an ideal resource for any Public Administration course involving citizen engagement and performance management.
Author: Ian Budge
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 9780745617657
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Get Book
Book Description
Direct democracy involves citizens in discussion and decisions about what the government is to do, rather than leaving this to officials or parliaments. It thus challenges the restrictions placed by representative democracies such as Britain and the United States on political consultation and popular participation. Why should responsible adults not take public decisions as well as making their own individual choices? One affects them just as much as the other. Can ordinary citizens make good public policy though? Many lack education and expertise and may not even be interested in politics. Even without these individual defects, mass debate may by its very nature lead to arbitrary or downright bad decisions. This book confronts these arguments in light of new communication developments which for the first time make direct democracy technically feasible in a mass society. The result is a highly original and innovative account of the possibility of the direct involvement of citizens in the governance of their own affairs.
Author: Andrew Ellis
Publisher: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
ISBN: 9185391662
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297
Get Book
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.
Author: Scott Henkel
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 149681228X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Get Book
Book Description
Winner of a 2018 C. L. R. James Award for a Published Book for Academic or General Audiences from the Working-Class Studies Association Beginning with the Haitian Revolution, Scott Henkel lays out a literary history of direct democracy in the Americas. Much research considers direct democracy as a form of organization fit for worker cooperatives or political movements. Henkel reinterprets it as a type of collective power, based on the massive slave revolt in Haiti. In the representations of slaves, women, and workers, Henkel traces a history of power through the literatures of the Americas during the long nineteenth century. Thinking about democracy as a type of power presents a challenge to common, often bureaucratic and limited interpretations of the term and opens an alternative archive, which Henkel argues includes C. L. R. James's The Black Jacobins, Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas, Lucy Parsons's speeches advocating for the eight-hour workday, B. Traven's novels of the Mexican Revolution, and Marie Vieux Chauvet's novella about Haitian dictatorship. Henkel asserts that each writer recognized this power and represented its physical manifestation as a swarm. This metaphor bears a complicated history, often describing a group, a movement, or a community. Indeed it conveys multiplicity and complexity, a collective power. This metaphor's many uses illustrate Henkel's main concerns, the problems of democracy, slavery, and labor, the dynamics of racial repression and resistance, and the issues of power which run throughout the Americas.
Author: Thomas E. Cronin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
Get Book
Book Description
Americans have grown increasingly restive when dissatisfied with legislation or elected officials between elections. As a result, public interest in and use of the devices created to give voters a greater direct voice in our democracy, referendum, recall, and initiative, have proliferated in recent years. Cronin has thoroughly examined the development of recall petitions, local initiatives, and referenda and interviewed those involved in the recent growth of the direct democracy movement. He finds that there are difficulties with direct democracy devices, yet he concludes that these procedures have been a lasting, and generally a positive, part of the American political landscape. - p. [vii.].
Author: John Seery
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271056800
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Get Book
Book Description
Under the Constitution of the United States, those with political ambitions who aspire to serve in the federal government must be at least twenty-five to qualify for membership in the House of Representatives, thirty to run for the Senate, and thirty-five to become president. What is the justification for these age thresholds, and is it time to consider changing them? In this provocative and lively book, John Seery presents the case for a constitutional amendment to lower the age barrier to eighteen, the same age at which citizens become eligible to vote. He divides his argument into three sections. In a historical chapter, he traces the way in which the age qualifications became incorporated in the Constitution in the first place. In a theoretical chapter, he analyzes the normative arguments for office eligibility as a democratic right and liberty. And in a political chapter, he ruminates about the real-world consequences of passing such an amendment and the prospects for its passage. Finally, in a postscript, he argues that younger citizens in particular ought to be exposed to this fundamental issue in civics.
Author: John Haskell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429980612
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Get Book
Book Description
In Direct Democracy or Representative Government? John Haskell develops a devastating critique of direct democracy by exposing the central flaw in populist thinking. Contrary to the beliefs of populist advocates of direct democracy, the popular will cannot be interpreted from the results of the plebiscite. John Haskell presents a defense of representative institutions that brings to bear, in an understandable way, the findings of public choice scholars. Haskell covers the clash of ideas between populists and constitutionalists throughout American history. He follows the development of direct democracy during the twentieth century, especially the dramatically increased use of initiatives and referenda in the last decade. As Americans become increasingly frustrated with the workings of the institutions of government at the state and national levels, and as populist ideas gain greater currency, new forms of direct and participatory democracy making use of the latest computer technology appeal to more people. Haskell speculates as to the likely future direction of direct democracy in the U.S. He describes in clear language the fundamental problem with the premise of populist thinking and explains why direct democracy presents a threat to minority rights and only promises irresponsible and unaccountable governance.
Author: John Keane
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847377602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 717
Get Book
Book Description
John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps? The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
