The Tyranny of Political Ignorance

The Tyranny of Political Ignorance PDF Author: Winston Sheekel Marsh
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 1480898996
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
The Tyranny of Political Ignorance highlights cracks in the United States’ democratic armor, beginning with the Constitution’s legalization of slavery and continuing through to the Trump presidency. President Trump, who may be the most politically ignorant individual to hold this high office, has disrupted international agreements and dismantled his predecessor’s accomplishments. The coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests have further exposed Trump’s shortcomings as a leader. Future generations may observe these two cataclysmic events as blessings as they revealed Trump’s inability to lead and focused a bright light on the nation’s social and economic disparities. The author hopes that his analysis will draw attention to the nation’s inequalities that have inhibited the United States’ progress toward the goals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Join the author as he explores the flaws in the United States democracy and advocates reform that will require the president and all members of Congress to demonstrate nationally approved levels of competence before they can hold office this democracy.

The Tyranny of Political Ignorance

The Tyranny of Political Ignorance PDF Author: Winston Sheekel Marsh
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 1480898996
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Tyranny of Political Ignorance highlights cracks in the United States’ democratic armor, beginning with the Constitution’s legalization of slavery and continuing through to the Trump presidency. President Trump, who may be the most politically ignorant individual to hold this high office, has disrupted international agreements and dismantled his predecessor’s accomplishments. The coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests have further exposed Trump’s shortcomings as a leader. Future generations may observe these two cataclysmic events as blessings as they revealed Trump’s inability to lead and focused a bright light on the nation’s social and economic disparities. The author hopes that his analysis will draw attention to the nation’s inequalities that have inhibited the United States’ progress toward the goals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Join the author as he explores the flaws in the United States democracy and advocates reform that will require the president and all members of Congress to demonstrate nationally approved levels of competence before they can hold office this democracy.

Democracy and Political Ignorance

Democracy and Political Ignorance PDF Author: Ilya Somin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804789312
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.

When Ignorance Isn't Bliss

When Ignorance Isn't Bliss PDF Author: Ilya Somin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description


Tyranny from Plato to Trump

Tyranny from Plato to Trump PDF Author: Andrew Fiala
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538160498
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Power grabs, partisan stand-offs, propaganda, and riots make for tantalizing fiction, but what do we do when that drama becomes a reality all around us? For a country founded as an escape from British tyranny, the United States seems to have devolved into a land where tyrants rise to power, sycophants blindly follow, and the entire nation suffers. As ancient Greek philosophers warned us, chaotic tragedy unfolds in the absence of reason, and the only cure is a return to wisdom and virtue. America’s founding fathers knew this lesson all too well and dreamed of an enlightened citizenry guided by better-than-ideological dictators. Using contemporary events to illuminate universal human weaknesses, Andrew Fiala charts the perennial history of tyrannical takeovers and the masses who support them and ultimately suffer under their rule. Ultimately, Fiala also points to a solution. Knowing the cyclical nature of tyranny, we can build safeguards against our worst inclinations and keep alive the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned for this nation.

Tyranny of the Minority

Tyranny of the Minority PDF Author: Benjamin Bishin
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1592136605
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Why do special interests defeat the people's will in American politics?

A Passion for Ignorance

A Passion for Ignorance PDF Author: Renata Salecl
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069124099X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
An original and provocative exploration of our capacity to ignore what is inconvenient or traumatic Ignorance, whether passive or active, conscious or unconscious, has always been a part of the human condition, Renata Salecl argues. What has changed in our post-truth, postindustrial world is that we often feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of information and misinformation. It sometimes seems impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood and, as a result, there has been a backlash against the idea of expertise, and a rise in the number of people actively choosing not to know. The dangers of this are obvious, but Salecl challenges our assumptions, arguing that there may also be a positive side to ignorance, and that by addressing the role of ignorance in society, we may also be able to reclaim the role of knowledge. Drawing on philosophy, social and psychoanalytic theory, popular culture, and her own experience, Salecl explores how the passion for ignorance plays out in many different aspects of life today, from love, illness, trauma, and the fear of failure to genetics, forensic science, big data, and the incel movement—and she concludes that ignorance is a complex phenomenon that can, on occasion, benefit individuals and society as a whole. The result is a fascinating investigation of how the knowledge economy became an ignorance economy, what it means for us, and what it tells us about the world today.

Illiberal Justice

Illiberal Justice PDF Author: David Lewis Schaefer
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826216846
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
"Schaefer challenges John Rawls's practically sacrosanct status among scholars of political theory, law, and ethics by demonstrating how Rawls's teachings deviate from the core tradition of American constitutional liberalism toward libertarianism"--Provided by publisher.

The Tyranny of Clichés

The Tyranny of Clichés PDF Author: Jonah Goldberg
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1595231021
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
“An indispensable and enduring field guide to the arguments the left makes—and the ones it tries to avoid.” —The Claremont Review of Books According to Jonah Goldberg, if the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, the greatest trick liberals ever pulled was convincing themselves they’re not ideological. Today, “objective” journalists, academics, and “moderate” politicians peddle some of the most radical arguments by hiding them in homespun apho­risms. Barack Obama casts himself as a disciple of reason: He’s a pragmatist, opposed to the ideology and drama of the Right, solely concerned with “what works.” And today’s liberals follow his lead, spouting countless clichés such as: • One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter: Sure, if the other man is an idiot. Was Martin Luther King Jr. a terrorist? Was Bin Laden a freedom fighter? • Violence never solves anything: Really? It solved our problems with King George III and ended slavery. • We need complete separation of church and state: In other words, all expressions of faith should be barred from politics . . . except when they support liberal programs. With humor and passion, Goldberg dismantles these and many other Trojan horses that liberals use to cheat in the war of ideas. He shows that the Pro­gressive tradition of denying an ideological agenda while pursuing it vigorously under the false flag of reasonableness is alive and well. And he reveals how this dangerous game may lead us further down the path of self-destruction.

Power Without Knowledge

Power Without Knowledge PDF Author: Jeffrey Friedman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190877170
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Technocrats claim to know how to solve the social and economic problems of complex modern societies. But as Jeffrey Friedman argues in Power without Knowledge, there is a fundamental flaw with technocracy: it requires an ability to predict how the people whom technocrats attempt to control will act in response to technocratic policies. However, the mass public's ideas-the ideas that drive their actions-are far too varied and diverse to be reliably predicted. But that is not the only problem. Friedman reminds us that a large part of contemporary mass politics, even populist mass politics, is essentially technocratic too. Members of the general public often assume that they are competent to decide which policies or politicians will be able to solve social and economic problems. Yet these ordinary "citizen-technocrats" typically regard the solutions to social problems as self-evident, such that politics becomes a matter of vetting public officials for their good intentions and strong wills, not their technocratic expertise. Finally, Friedman argues that technocratic experts themselves drastically oversimplify technocratic realities. Economists, for example, theorize that people respond rationally to the incentives they face. This theory is simplistic, but it gives the appearance of being able to predict people's behavior in response to technocratic policy initiatives. If stripped of such gross oversimplications, though, technocrats themselves would be forced to admit that a rational technocracy is nothing more than an impossible dream. Ranging widely over the philosophy of social science, rational choice theory, and empirical political science, Power without Knowledge is a pathbreaking work that upends traditional assumptions about technocracy and politics, forcing us to rethink our assumptions about the legitimacy of modern governance.

Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory

Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory PDF Author: Donald Green
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300187084
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive critical evaluation of the use of rational choice theory in political science. Writing in an accessible and nontechnical style, Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro assess rational choice theory where it is reputed to be most successful: the study of collective action, the behavior of political parties and politicians, and such phenomena as voting cycles and Prisoner's Dilemmas. In their hard-hitting critique, Green and Shapiro demonstrate that the much heralded achievements of rational choice theory are in fact deeply suspect and that fundamental rethinking is needed if rational choice theorists are to contribute to the understanding of politics. In their final chapters, they anticipate and respond to a variety of possible rational choice responses to their arguments, thereby initiating a dialogue that is bound to continue for some time.