Do Third World countries benefit from having large militaries, or does this impede their development? Kirk Bowman uses statistical analysis to demonstrate that militarization has had a particularly malignant impact in this region. For his quantitative comparison he draws on longitudinal data for a sample of 76 developing countries and for 18 Latin American nations.

To illuminate the causal mechanisms at work, Bowman offers a detailed comparison of Costa Rica and Honduras between 1948 and 1998. The case studies not only serve to bolster his general argument about the harmful effects of militarization but also provide many new insights into the processes of democratic consolidation and economic transformation in these two Central American countries.

What kind of role can the middle class play in potential democratization in such an undemocratic, late developing country as China? To answer this profound political as well as theoretical question, Jie Chen explores attitudinal and behavioral orientation of China's new middle class to democracy and democratization. Chen's work is based on a unique set of data collected from a probability-sample survey and in-depth interviews of residents in three major Chinese cities, Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an-each of which represents a distinct level of economic development in urban China-in 2007 and 2008. The empirical findings derived from this data set confirm that (1) compared to other social classes, particularly lower classes, the new Chinese middle class-especially those employed in the state apparatus-tends to be more supportive of the current Party-state but less supportive of democratic values and institutions; (2) the new middle class's attitudes toward democracy may be accounted for by this class's close ideational and institutional ties with the state, and its perceived socioeconomic wellbeing, among other factors; (3) the lack of support for democracy among the middle class tends to cause this social class to act in favor of the current state but in opposition to democratic changes. The most important political implication is that while China's middle class is not likely to serve as the harbinger of democracy now, its current attitudes toward democracy may change in the future. Such a crucial shift in the middle class's orientation toward democracy can take place, especially when its dependence on the Party-state decreases and perception of its own social and economic statuses turns pessimistic. The key theoretical implication from the findings suggests that the attitudinal and behavioral orientations of the middle class-as a whole and as a part-toward democratic change in late developing countries are contingent upon its relationship with the incumbent state and its perceived social/economic wellbeing, and the middle class's support for democracy in these countries is far from inevitable.

The recent, highly sucessful publication of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam, has attracted new attention to the subject of civil society. While markets and democracies arise in formerly Communist states, the established liberal democracies of Western Europe, North America, and East Asia grow increasingly dissatisfied with the institutions of representative democracy. Inasmuch as a democracy draws its strength from the involvement of its citizens in public life, the decline of civic participation, Putnam asserts, reflects changes in society. Putnam and his contributors investigate the mechanisms of social transformation by employing the concept of social capital, which loosely describes the extent and variety of an individual's social relations. Democracies in Flux delineates the properties of social capital by analysing its behaviour in several economically advanced democracies. While all participate in a global economy, they differ as societies in terms of historical experience, economic organisation, and democratic structure. A central concern of the project is to understand how societies change, and what implications these changes have for democracy.

This book brings together leading scholars in the field of electoral studies and political representation to examine the democratization of the recruitment of political representatives in Western Europe. The study deals with long-term changes in parliamentary recruitment and patterns of political careers in eleven European countries from the middle of the 19th century until 2000. The book provides the first ever truly comparative study of parliamentary representation in Europe.

The beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's more promising times? In this boisterously inventive book Alvin Kernan sends various descendants of the original Joad family on a post-modern journey out of California and into the excesses of American culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The experiences of today's Joads are as hilarious as they are discomfiting: they encounter in Kernan's America a world of democracy gone haywire and social institutions in perplexing disarray.

In ten satiric episodes, Kernan visits virtually every important American institution -- the family, education, religion, art, the military, law courts, sex, science and medicine, politics, and not least television and its advertisements. Unsparing with his barbs, he reveals both the fools and the knaves among us. Kernan's modern-day Joads find themselves in a distorted world where a surplus of democracy not only fails to free its inhabitants but also makes them vulnerable to the machinations of greedy and unscrupulous exploiters. Echoing the voices of such other provocative wits as Evelyn Waugh and Tom Wolfe, Kernan will make you laugh at the absurdity of American culture and -- in all likelihood -- at yourself.

Shinoda provides an analytical framework for examining the role of the prime minister in Japan's political decision making. He shows that two dimensions of fraction within the government and the ruling party--interagency rivalry and intraparty factions--confront the prime minister whenever a major policy issue needs to be resolved. Despite these obstacles, Shinoda shows that the prime minister can be effective.

First, Shinoda identifies the sources of power available to Japanese prime ministers--some from legal authorities and others from informal sources. Because prime ministers must rely on informal sources of power to effectively utilize institutional sources of power, their effectiveness varies depending on their background, experience, political skills, and personality. Shinoda identifies six major informal sources of power: power base within the ruling party, control over the bureaucracy, ties with the opposition parties, public support, business support, and international reputation. The national leader's leadership style can be defined depending on which sources of power they utilize in the policy process. He presents both successful and unsuccessful case studies--Hashimoto's administrative reform, Takeshita's tax reform, and Nakasone's administrative reform-- illustrate how different prime ministers have succeeded or failed in applying their political resources. After examining these three case studies, Shinoda uncovers four types of leadership among Japanese prime ministers. A major analytical resource for scholars and students of Japanese politics and political economy and comparative politics.

Banning minarets by referendum in Switzerland, publicly burning Korans in the United States, prohibiting kirpans in public spaces in Canada--these are all examples of the rising backlash against diversity that is spreading across multicultural societies. Trust has always been precarious, and never more so than as a result of increased immigration. The number of religions, races, ethnicities, and cultures living together in democratic communities and governed by shared political institutions is rising. The failure to construct public policy to cope with this diversity--to ensure that trust can withstand the pressure that diversity can pose--is a failure of democracy. The threat to trust originates in the perception that the values and norms that should underpin a public culture are no longer truly shared. Therefore, societies must focus on building trust through a revitalized public culture. In Trust, Democracy, and Multicultural Challenges, Patti Tamara Lenard plots a course for this revitalization. She argues that trust is at the center of effective democratic politics, that increasing ethnocultural diversity as a result of immigration may generate distrust, and therefore that democratic communities must work to generate the conditions under which trust between newcomers and "native" citizens can be built, so that the quality of democracy is sustained.

At a time when many regions of the world, Europe included, see a resurgence of authoritarianism, several countries in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, are struggling to counter this trend by developing European-style democracies. In this second edition, three years after the first, the story of Eastern Europe's dramatic struggles to achieve properly functioning democracies and the rule of law rages on, warranting deeper analysis and substantial updating. Highlights during this period include the spectacular ascent but questionable achievements of Vladimir Zelensky in Ukraine, the rise and fall of the pro-Russian presidency of Igor Dodon in Moldova, the deterioration of Georgia's democracy under oligarchic state capture, and the advent to power of Nikol Pashinyan in Armenia, now threatened by defeat in the second war over Nagorno Karabakh.

Winner of the 2007 SANA Book Award

Complete List of Authors:
Dorothy Holland, Donald M. Nonini, Catherine Lutz, Lesley Bartlett, Marla Frederick-McGlathery, Thaddeus C. Guldbrandsen, and Enrique G. Murillo, Jr.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Preface.

aLocal Democracy Under Siege argues persuasively that American democracy is at a pivotal moment where the forces of exclusion and the ideology of market rule contest with new forms of political activism and engaged citizenship. Readers will see many of the same issues that North Carolina faces in their own communities and will take away new perspectives on power, race, class, and activism from this cogent and timely analysis.a
--Louise Lamphere, Past President of the American Anthropological Association

aProduces new insights into the amakeovera of local governmenta--"Choice"

aDebates about democracy often get stuck at the national scale. But the capacity for ordinary people to shape the conditions of their lives through politics and public speech is often greatest at the local level. This important book opens up anthropological perspectives on how this happens. It situates the challenges of local politics amid the constraints of neoliberalism, but also reports on the creative solutions different communities have developed to the distinctive problems they face.a
--Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council

aThis book opens up the crucial questions of what democracy means in the U.S. today and the ways in which everyday Americans struggle to make themselves heard. Conceptually, methodologically, and theoretically this book realizes the potential for anthropological analysis as a way tounderstand the dangers of increasing inequality in the contemporary U.S. It is a major contribution.a
--Ida Susser, author of "Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood"

"A luminous work about everyday citizens that should free up local democratic energies across the land!"
--Aihwa Ong, author of "Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty"

"This unique study provides a vital enquiry into the troubled times of local democracy and poses critical questions about its future in the USA."
--John Clarke, author of "Changing Welfare, Changing States"

aNicely illustrate the problems that plaue local democracya
--"Political Science Quaterly"

What is the state of democracy at the turn of the 21st century? To answer this question, seven scholars lived for a year in five North Carolina communities. They observed public meetings of all sorts, had informal and formal interviews with people, and listened as people conversed with each other at bus stops and barber shops, soccer games and workplaces. Their collaborative ethnography allows us to understand how diverse members of a community-not just the elite-think about and experience "politics" in ways that include much more than merely voting.

This book illustrates how the social and economic changes of the last three decades have made some new routes to active democratic participation possible while making others more difficult. Local Democracy Under Siege suggests how we can account for the current limitations of U.S. democracy and how remedies can be created that ensure more meaningful participation by a greater range of people.

Complete List of Authors (pictured)
FromLeft to Right, bottom row: Enrique Murillo, Jr., Thaddeus Guldbrandsen, Marla Frederick-McGlathery.
Top row: Dorothy Holland, Catherine Lutz, Lesley Bartlett, and Don Nonini.

Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy - the "ward republic" - Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. Of crucial relevance for contemporary society, including its startlingly prescient plan for homeland security, Restoration of the Republic provides original insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.

China is in the midst of dramatic economic and social reform--reform that may well suggest a long-term developmental trend toward modernization and democracy. This evolution in the structure of Chinese society means that the authoritarian social control system in China must change if loss of community ties, dislocation, and social disintegration are to be avoided in the coming years. This book provides a blueprint for the social architecture of China and offers an argument for how change in the essential structure of Chinese society must be implemented. Shaw's investigation of work units--the building blocks of contemporary China--pinpoints them as the primary sites of social control and as the most important components of any efforts at reform.

This accessible yet authoritative collection of essays chronicles the history of dissent in the British Isles, from Magna Carta to the present day. The contributors - all specialists in their field - cover such milestones as the age of revolution, industrialisation and the foundation of the Labour Party. Tony Benn contributes a powerful, final extended chapter arguing that "we are light years away from being a true democracy."

Citizens, political theorists, and politicians alike insist that political or partisan motives get in the way of real democracy. Real democracy, we are convinced, is embodied by an ability to form collective judgments in the interest of the whole. The Rhetorical Surface of Democracy: How Deliberative Ideals Undermine Democratic Politics, by Scott Welsh, argues instead that it is our easy rejection of political motives, individual interests, and the rhetorical pursuit of power that poses the greatest danger to democracy. Our rejection of politics understood as a rhetorical contest for power is dangerous because democracy ultimately rests upon the perceived public legitimacy of public, political challenges to authority and the subsequent reconstitution of authority amid the impossibility of collective judgment. Hence, rather than searching for allegedly more authentic democracy, rooted in the pursuit of ever-illusive collective judgments, we must find ways to come to terms with the persistence of rhetorical, political contests for power as the essence of democracy itself. Welsh argues that the impossibility of any kind of public judgment is the fact that democracy must face. Given the impossibility of public judgment, rhetorical competitions for political power are not merely poor substitutes for an allegedly more authentic democratic practice, but constitute the essence of democracy itself. The Rhetorical Surface of Democracy is an iconoclastic investigation of the democratic process and public discourse.

The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first human rights treaty adopted by the United Nations in the 21st century. It seeks to secure the equal and effective enjoyment of human rights for the estimated 650 million persons with disabilities in the world. It does so by tailoring gerneral human rights norms to their circumstances. It reflects and advances the shift away from welfare to rights in the context of disability. The Convention itself represents a mix between non-discrimination and other substantive human rights and gives practical effect to the idea that all human rights are indivisible and interdependent. This collection of essays examines these developments from the global, European and Scandinavian perspectives and the challenge of transposing its provisions into national law. It marks the coming of age of disabilty as a core human rights concern.

Few would disagree that since 1990 Sub-Saharan Africa has undergone a process of political transformation. Where one-party systems once stood, multi-parties are now dominant; where heads of state once ruled autocratically, open elections have emerged. In this study, both African and non-African scholars take a critical look at the evolution and contradictions of democratization in seven African nations: Malawi, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, and Gabon, each at a different stage in the democratization process. Some of these countries historically have not received much attention in North America. For example, little is known about Malawi, and Gabon has escaped notice outside the Francophone world. While other works have focused primarily upon the role that institutions have played in the democratization process, this study looks at individual leaders. Some of the authors were themselves participants in the reform movements in their home countries, and they examine the role that the military and the church played in the process. This volume also includes a discussion of why democratization has stagnated or been reversed in some nations.

This volume is a collection of essays by notable political philosophers and legal scholars on the concept of "deliberative democracy". With this theory, moral issues like abortion or affirmative action can be discussed using an enriched process of deliberation that forces citizens to take into account the moral claims of others. In large part these essays form a response to and criticism of the highly influential book Democracy and Disagreement by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, published in 1996 by Harvard, which propelled this theory into the scholarly limelight and which has been the single most important locus of this recent discussion. The contributors are all well-known, including Daniel Bell, Russell Hardin, Cass Sunstein, Stanley Fish, and Normal Daniels. Gutmann and Thompson contribute a response to critics.

Geoff Eley's magnum opus, this book analyses the role the Left has played in establishing democracy in modern Europe. Eley looks at socialist, labour, feminist, Communist, and other organisations in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. He considers how the Left has been a part of key moments of change in European history, including the rise of industrialisation, the World Wars, the Cold War, student uprisings in 1968, and the overturn of Communist governments in Eastern Europe.

Democracy, unlike any other form of government, demands that citizens take responsibility for their politics. And yet, over the past fifty years, observers of American democracy have worried that Americans are failing to do so. With occasional exceptions, voter turnout and civic engagement are declining, and the average citizen's knowledge of public affairs is flimsy at best. Citizens' political posture is mostly passive: they receive political propaganda designed by marketing professionals and consume staged political spectacles that are scarcely distinguishable from other forms of "reality" entertainment. The Rockwellian ideal of democracy--participatory, deliberative, egalitarian--that still captivates our imaginations is for the most part anachronistic.
How should we respond to these worries? Alex Zakaras argues that we must develop an ideal of citizenship suitable for mass society. To do so, he turns to a pair of nineteenth-century philosophers--John Stuart Mill and Ralph Waldo Emerson--who were among the first to confront the specific challenge of making mass democracy work, and whose moral and political insights are deeply relevant to America today. He focuses especially on the idea of individuality, which lies at the very center of their theories of democracy. Individuality emphasizes each citizen's personal complicity in the injustices committed by democratic officials, and calls on each of us to resist such complicity by speaking and acting against injustice. Individuality suggests that those of us who do no more than vote--who otherwise lead strictly private lives--are guilty of moral and civic negligence.

How Western donor assistance can both help and undermine democracy in different parts of the world Democracy promotion is a central pillar of the foreign policy of many states, but the results are often disappointing. In Promoting Democracy, Manal A. Jamal examines why these efforts succeed in some countries, but fail in others. A former journalist and researcher in the Palestinian territories, she offers an up-close perspective of the ways in which Western donor funding has, on one hand, undermined political participation in cases such as the Palestinian territories, and, on the other hand, succeeded in bolstering political engagement in cases such as El Salvador. Based on five fieldwork trips and over 150 interviews with grassroots activists, political leaders, and directors and program officers in donor agencies and NGOs, Jamal brings into focus an often-overlooked perspective: the experiences of those directly affected by this assistance. Promoting Democracy makes an important and timely argument about how political settlements ultimately shape democracy promotion efforts, and what political choices Western state sponsored donors can make to maximize successful outcomes in different contexts across the world.

Adult Education contradicts the theorists and practitioners who claim that empowering organizations can only be created when those at the top decide to share power. The emancipating educational processes are the tools of those who work within systems whether the issue is literacy, civil rights or democracy in the workplace. The Adult Education movement has linked its mission to cultivating the growth of democratic processes. Those people who work in organizations and are trying to improve their understanding of how to reshape the organization into a democratic workplace will find this useful.

"First Person Political illuminates why people run for and serve in state legislatures from the standpoint of the legislators themselves and in a way that increases our appreciation of representative democracy. Part of the charm of this book is that it is intensely personal and, therefore, compelling."
--Karl Kurtz, co-author of "Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy"

aAt a time when public disillusionment with elected leaders and political institutions is increasing rapidly, it is refreshing to read a book that highlights the selfless nature of public service....This is a wonderful read. The book realistically portrays the various stages in a legislatoras life and the challenges one faces while in office.a
--"Perspectives on Politics"

"First Person Political fills an important void in our understanding of politicians and politics. Through a combination of surveys and the tools of the political scientist, Reeher provides for the reader both empathy and insight into what makes politicians tick at the state legislative level. We may not like what our state legislators do, but reading this work will help us understand much better who we elect and the constraints that operate on them."
--Thomas J. Volgy, author of "Politics in the Trenches: Citizens, Politicians, and the Fate of Democracy"

aAn informative, sophisticated, and entertaining book. Reeher's interviews with three sets of state lawmakers in three distinct legislatures provide candor, real food for thought, and wonderful insights. First Person Political stands as a real contribution to understanding legislative politics, the people who practice these politics, and how to gently nudge politiciansto provide candid glimpses of their world.a
--Burdett Loomis, co-author of "The Sound of Money: How Political Interest Groups Get What They Want"

In First Person Political, Grant Reeher combats the public's alienation from and distrust of politicians by putting a personal face on everyday political life. Through moving personal interviews, Reeher allows legislators to tell their own stories about how and why they came to politics, the experience of serving in their state legislature, their decisions to stay or leave, and the many trials they face in the name of public service. Reeher contends that these politicians do have the public good in mind and often suffer great personal losses for their chance to represent the people and fight for what they think is right. His research also shows that those who choose to run for office often come from a background of deep community involvement.

Reeher argues against public cynicism about our elected officials, and his profiles stir not only our praise and respect for these legislators, but also a greater belief in the democratic process itself. The excerpts from his interviews provide a rarely afforded intimate look at these politicians. What emerges from these stories is a humane and believable portrait of public servants acting on behalf of the public good, a portrait that should provide some comfort, perhaps even inspiration, for citizens concerned about the state of American democracy.