Democracy's Meanings

Democracy's Meanings PDF Author: Nicholas T. Davis
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472133128
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
How do the people who make up American democracy view and judge its process?

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica PDF Author: Hugh Chisholm
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 1090

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Book Description
This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Democracy's Meanings

Democracy's Meanings PDF Author: Nicholas T. Davis
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472133128
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
How do the people who make up American democracy view and judge its process?

What Is a Democracy?

What Is a Democracy? PDF Author: Sue Bright-Moore
Publisher: Forms of Government
ISBN: 9780778753230
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This interesting book describes the characteristics of a democracy, a political system in which the government's power comes from its citizens. Democratic governments around the world are featured to show examples of direct and representative democracy, how elections work, and the different checks and balances put in place to avoid the so-called "tyranny of the majority."

The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy

The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy PDF Author: David Estlund
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195376692
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
This volume includes 22 new pieces by leading political philosophers, on traditional issues (such as authority and equality) and emerging issues (such as race, and money in politics). The pieces are clear and accessible will interest both students and scholars working in philosophy, political science, law, economics, and more.

Open Democracy

Open Democracy PDF Author: Hélène Landemore
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691212392
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Hélène Landemore demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, more than ever, urgently needed. -- Cover page 4.

What Democracy Is For

What Democracy Is For PDF Author: Stein Ringen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400831679
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In this provocative book, Stein Ringen argues that the world's democracies are failing to live up to their ideals--the United States and Great Britain most especially. The core value of democracy, he contends, is freedom, the freedom to live a good life according to one's own choosing. Yet he shows that democracy's freedom is on the decline. Citizens are increasingly distrustful of political systems weighted by money, and they don't participate in political affairs as they once did. Ringen warns of the risks we face if this trend continues, and puts forth an ambitious proposal for democratic reforms. The issues that concern him are ones that should concern us all. They include education, poverty, the social and economic roles of families, the lack of democracy in our economic lives, and the need to rejuvenate municipal democracy. Along the way, Ringen proposes policy solutions aimed at restoring democracy, such as universal vouchers for education, substituting the principle of individual insurance for social-welfare pensions, and rethinking how we measure poverty in rich and poor countries. He calls for the revival of local democracy, a democratically grounded global economy, and the protection of political democracy from the transgressions of economic power. The way to protect democracy is not to cheer it, but to reform it. What Democracy Is For offers a bold defense of democratic ideals, grounded in real reforms.

What Is Democracy?

What Is Democracy? PDF Author: Alain Touraine
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429971664
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
In this sequel to A Critique of Modernity, Alain Touraine questions the social and cultural content of democracy today. At a time when state power is being increasingly eroded by the economic might of transnational capital, what possible value can we ascribe to a democratic idea that is defined merely as a set of guarantees against the totalitarian state?If democracy is to survive in the postcommunist world, Touraine argues, it must accomplish two urgent goals: It must somehow protect the power of the nation-state at the same time as it limits that power (for only the state has sufficient means to counterbalance the global corporate wielders of money and information); and it must reconcile social diversity with social unity and individual liberty with integration.This is not merely a philosophical problem but a dilemma whose resolution will dramatically affect the immediate future of people everywhere. If we want a resolution in democracy's favor, then it is time, in Touraine's view, for us to redefine democracy in terms of active intervention rather than mere passive institution. To preserve the power and effectiveness of our states and societies, we must make visible strides?and soon?away from a politics of particularity and toward the integration and balancing of women and minorities, of immigrants, of rich and poor. If our states become too weakened, too debased by the politics of competing identities and interest groups, we will one day find ourselves without the means to protect the very values we believe we are fighting to uphold.

The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution

The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution PDF Author: A. Somit
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403978425
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
Throughout history authoritarian governments have outnumbered democratic ones to an overwhelming degree. Even today, true democracies are an exception. In this book, Somit and Peterson argue that the main reason for this pattern is that humans are social primates with an innate tendency for hierarchical and authoritarian social and political structures. Democracy requires very special 'enabling conditions' before it can be supported by a state, conditions that require decades to evolve. As a result, attempts to export democracy through nation-building to states without these enabling conditions are doomed to failure. The authors argue that money and energy devoted to nation-building around the globe by the U.S. would be better spent on problems facing the country domestically.

Democracy in America?

Democracy in America? PDF Author: Benjamin I. Page
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022672493X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
America faces daunting problems—stagnant wages, high health care costs, neglected schools, deteriorating public services. How did we get here? Through decades of dysfunctional government. In Democracy in America? veteran political observers Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens marshal an unprecedented array of evidence to show that while other countries have responded to a rapidly changing economy by helping people who’ve been left behind, the United States has failed to do so. Instead, we have actually exacerbated inequality, enriching corporations and the wealthy while leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves. What’s the solution? More democracy. More opportunities for citizens to shape what their government does. To repair our democracy, Page and Gilens argue, we must change the way we choose candidates and conduct our elections, reform our governing institutions, and curb the power of money in politics. By doing so, we can reduce polarization and gridlock, address pressing challenges, and enact policies that truly reflect the interests of average Americans. Updated with new information, this book lays out a set of proposals that would boost citizen participation, curb the power of money, and democratize the House and Senate.

Democracy as Problem Solving

Democracy as Problem Solving PDF Author: Xavier De Souza Briggs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262262010
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
Case studies from around the world and theoretical discussion show how the capacity to act collectively on local problems can be developed, strengthening democracy while changing social and economic outcomes. Complexity, division, mistrust, and “process paralysis” can thwart leaders and others when they tackle local challenges. In Democracy as Problem Solving, Xavier de Souza Briggs shows how civic capacity—the capacity to create and sustain smart collective action—can be developed and used. In an era of sharp debate over the conditions under which democracy can develop while broadening participation and building community, Briggs argues that understanding and building civic capacity is crucial for strengthening governance and changing the state of the world in the process. More than managing a contest among interest groups or spurring deliberation to reframe issues, democracy can be what the public most desires: a recipe for significant progress on important problems. Briggs examines efforts in six cities, in the United States, Brazil, India, and South Africa, that face the millennial challenges of rapid urban growth, economic restructuring, and investing in the next generation. These challenges demand the engagement of government, business, and nongovernmental sectors. And the keys to progress include the ability to combine learning and bargaining continuously, forge multiple forms of accountability, and find ways to leverage the capacity of the grassroots and what Briggs terms the “grasstops,” regardless of who initiates change or who participates over time. Civic capacity, Briggs shows, can—and must—be developed even in places that lack traditions of cooperative civic action.