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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Democracy
This history traces the development of democracy in Europe from its
origins in ancient Greece up to the present day.
This volume offers a collection of lucid, theoretically stimulating articles that explore and analyse the institutions and values which are salient in understanding political practices in South Asia. Combining a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches, and blending the work of experts long established in their respective fields with refreshing and innovative approaches by younger scholars, this collaborative and cross-disciplinary endeavour facilitates a deeper understanding of the subcontinent's diverse and complex political and democratic practices in the 21st century.
This work examines European democracy, showing how it has developed through key episodes in the long history of the process: precursors in the Low Countries, the founding of British parliamentary, then American federal democracy, post-revolutionary France, post-war Germany, and the European Parliament. It explores the significance of each episode in the development of national or federal democracy and concludes with a positive assessment of the prospects of liberal democracy. This book should be of interest to political scientists, historians and others concerned with the development of democracy in Europe and beyond.
Drawing from research conducted in Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda, Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy offers a deeper understanding on how Christian and Islamic faith communities affect the political attitudes of those who belong to them and, in turn, prospects for liberal democracy. While many analysts have thought that religious diversity in developing countries is most often an obstacle to liberal democracy that creates political instability, the book concludes just the opposite. Robert A. Dowd draws on narrative accounts, in-depth interviews, and large-scale surveys to show that Christian and Islamic religious communities are more likely to support liberal democracy in religiously diverse and integrated settings than in religiously homogeneous or segregated settings. Religious diversity, in other words, is good for liberal democracy. In religiously diverse environments, religious leaders tend to be more encouraging of civic engagement, democracy, and religious liberty. The evidence, Dowd argues, should prompt policymakers interested in cultivating religiously-inspired support for liberal democracy to aid in the formation of religiously diverse neighborhoods, cities, and political organizations.
Two Italian writers, Gaetano Mosca and Antonio Gramsci, have been very influential in twentieth-century political thought, the first cast as a thoroughgoing conservative, the second as the model of a humanistic Marxist. The author of this provocative book -- the first systematic study of the connection between the two men -- maintains that they are closer to each other than is commonly supposed -- that they in fact belong to the same political tradition of democratic elitism. Maurice A. Finocchiaro argues that Gramsci's political theory is a constructive critique of Mosca's and that the key common element is the attempt to combine democracy and elitism in a theoretical system that defines them not as opposite but as compatible and interdependent. Finocchiaro finds that a critical examination of the major works of the two men demonstrates their shared belief in the viability of democratic elitism and undermines the importance of the distinction between right and left.
Politics in Pakistan has traditionally been understood in the context of civil-military relationship. In May 2013, for the first time in history, Pakistan saw an elected government complete a full term in office and transfer power through the ballot box to another civilian government. In view of such an important development, this book offers critical perspectives on Pakistan's current democratic transition and its implications for national politics, security and foreign policy. It critically analyses the emerging political trends in the country, including their underlying sources, attributes, constraints, and prospects of sustainability. Drawing on history, diverse theoretical perspectives, and empirical evidence, it explains the dynamics of the democratic process, contested borders and spaces, and regionalism. Contributions are from 13 prominent scholars in the field, who provide a wide-ranging analysis of Pakistan's contemporary national and regional challenges, as well as the opportunities they entail for its viability as a democratic state. Taking the debate on Pakistan beyond the outmoded notions of praetorian politics and security, the book explores the future prospects of civilian supremacy in the country. It will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Politics, Political Sociology and Security Studies, as well as policy-makers, diplomats, security experts and military professionals.
WITH A NEW FOREWORD ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION "This urgent book offers not only a clear-eyed explanation of the forces that broke our politics, but a thoughtful and, yes, patriotic vision of how we create a government that's truly by and for the people."--DAVID DALEY, bestselling author of Ratf**ked and Unrigged In the vein of On Tyranny and How Democracies Die, the bestselling author of Republic, Lost argues with insight and urgency that our democracy no longer represents us and shows that reform is both necessary and possible. America's democracy is in crisis. Along many dimensions, a single flaw--unrepresentativeness--has detached our government from the people. And as a people, our fractured partisanship and ignorance on critical issues drive our leaders to stake out ever more extreme positions. In They Don't Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation's citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with "them"--Washington's politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also "us." "We the people" are increasingly uninformed about the issues, while ubiquitous political polling exacerbates the problem, reflecting and normalizing our ignorance and feeding it back into the system as representative of our will. What we need, Lessig contends, is a series of reforms, from governmental institutions to the public itself, including: A move immediately to public campaign funding, leading to more representative candidates A reformed Electoral College, that gives the President a reason to represent America as a whole A federal standard to end partisan gerrymandering in the states A radically reformed Senate A federal penalty on states that don't secure to their people an equal freedom to vote Institutions that empower the people to speak in an informed and deliberative way A soul-searching and incisive examination of our failing political culture, this nonpartisan call to arms speaks to every citizen, offering a far-reaching platform for reform that could save our democracy and make it work for all of us.
This book looks at the evolution of OAS multilateralism for
democracy and the lessons its experience holds for other
multilateral contexts. It also tackles the theoretical challenge of
bridging the traditional divide between international relations and
comparative politics. The book stresses the need for conceptual
tools that allow scholars to take into consideration the
transnationalization of democratization processes in their
analysis, where previous emphasis was placed on domestic variables
in regime change. The growing role of the OAS, the Rio Group,
foreign governments, and international NGOs in democracy assistance
underscores the transnational nature of current democratization
trends. The authors present an "inter-active" approach to tackle
the dilemma of the inter-relation between internal and external
factors
Mainstream politics in Northern Ireland has not been welcoming to women, but many women have been present in community and voluntary organizations where their contribution has been outstanding. This book examines four organizations (including the recently-formed Northern Ireland Women's Coalition) where women have been active. It discusses the processes and structures created by these groups in order to work democratically across differences and argues that their experiences are invaluable to the development of feminist debates on democracy and difference.
This important new volume, sponsored by the Indiana Center on Global Change and World Peace, brings together academicians and practitioners in comparative politics and international relations to examine the impact of civil-military relations on the process of democratization. Contributors take an unprecedented look at current and emerging patterns of linkages between civil-military relations and democratization, especially in areas which have embarked on the path of democratization since the 1980s. They also challenge or refine many of the concepts and models that have figured prominently in discussions of civil-military relations and democratization. These include the notion that democratization requires adoption of the traditional Western model of civil-military relations.
How did Tunisia succeed in eliminating the threat of militant Islamic fundamentalism? Borowiec examines the actions, which begin with the removal of the senile President Habib Bourguiba in 1987, known in Tunisia as the change. Today, while its next door neighbor, Algeria, is in the midst of an upheaval threatening modernization and a secular government, Tunisia is the only Muslim country to ban polygamy and to introduce state-funded contraception. Borowiec begins by sketching Tunisia's history from the Phoenician era onward. He provides a detailed analysis of the country's Islamic movement, and then examines the efforts of Bourguiba's successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to liberalize the economy, foster a Western orientation, and make education accessible to all. Interviews with leading government officials as well as educators, writers, and average Tunisians puts a human face on a process that may allow Tunisia to make the transition to become a young developed nation at the beginning of the next millennium. This book is important to scholars, researchers, and the general public concerned with events in North Africa and the Arab world.
America and the Rogue States traces and examines the policies and
interaction of the United States with the main adversarial nations
in the post-Cold War era. The book concentrates on the three major
rogue states-North Korea, Iran, and pre-invasion Iraq. What are
termed as lesser rogue nations-Libya, Syria, Cuba, and the
Sudan-receive summarized treatment in one chapter together with a
brief discussion about why Afghanistan and Venezuela are not
rogues. The author makes clear the distinctions among these
confrontational regimes, noting that North Korea, Iran, and Saddam
Hussein's Iraq aroused much more anxiety in Washington than lesser
rogues and other troublesome states. After an opening chapter
placing the rogue-nation phenomenon in historical and current
context, the manuscript devotes one chapter each to the three major
adversarial rogues. A final chapter deals with the less threatening
rogue regimes. Each chapter follows a chronological format with
description and analysis. The work is intended for a general reader
interested in the topic; it also will have appeal as a supplemental
text for university classes in international relations covering the
period after the Cold War ended.
One of the dark sides to democratization can be crime and corruption. This book looks at the way political liberalization affects these practices in a number of ways whilst also challenging some of the scare stories about democracy. The book also brings the politics of power back into an examination of corruption.
The book investigates the substance of the European Union's (EU) democracy promotion policy. It focuses on elections, civil and political rights, horizontal accountability, effective power to govern, stateness, state administrative capacity, civil society, and socio-economic context as components of embedded liberal democracy.
This groundbreaking review and analysis of relations between the United States and Italy since the early postwar years is distinguished by the author's use of a unique combination of sources: hundreds of reports and analyses published by the author in U.S. and Italian dailies and magazines as events unfolded; his frequent interviews with ranking politicians and other leading figures in the two countries; U.S. and Italian government documents to which he has been the first outsider to gain access; and reports and comments by other journalists and students of Italian affairs and Italo-American relations. The result is the most comprehensive and balanced study of relations between the two countries published to date. Demonstrating that the U.S. media has often conveyed a view of Italian politics that does not correspond with reality, the author argues that the roots of Italian democracy have proved to be less fragile than most observers thought. Students of European politics will find Wollemborg's analysis a welcome counterweight to those who have frequently forecast impending Communist takeovers, military coups, political anarchy, and economic collapse in Italy. Wollemborg asserts that most U.S. observers have badly underestimated the resources and resiliency of the Italian economy as well as the Italian people's capacity to stand up to and defeat such threats to their democratic institutions as the surge of terrorism in the mid-1970s. He also shows that at some critical junctures, the U.S. government's approach was badly out of step with Italian developments, most notably in the late 1950s when they opposed the inclusion of Socialists in the ruling coalition. Both the U.S. and Italian media, Wollemborg shows, have contributed to strains in the relationship by portraying the other country unfavorably or by ascribing the wrong motives and beliefs to political parties and actors. Finally, Wollemborg explores present-day relations, demonstrating that cooperation between the United States and Italy is closer now than at any time during the postwar period--reflecting both the weakening of Communist influence in Italy and the rise of the Italo-American community in the United States.
This is a comparison of the process of democratization in Chile and Argentina. Utilizing models of citizenship, the book examines the impact of constitutional change, institutional development and participation in both political parties and social movements from the perspective of the citizen. It finds that citizen participation, once dominated by the welfare model, has been enhanced by the individualism associated with neo-liberalism in relation to local, social issues but that elite relationships dominate political activity in the formal political arena.
Over the last decade, the main area of sustained populist growth has been Western Europe, with populist movements reaching new heights in countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Holland. "Twenty-First Century Populism" analyses this phenomenon by looking at the conditions facilitating the emergence and success of populism in specific national contexts and then examining why populism has flourished or floundered in those countries. The book also discusses the degree to which populism has affected mainstream politics in Western Europe and examines the inter-relationship between populism, political parties, the media and democracy. Containing chapters by a series of country experts and renowned political scientists from across the continent, this volume is the first to offer an in-depth account of the reasons behind the populist wave in twenty-first century Europe.
Surveying all referendums around the world since 1793, Dr Qvortrup and contributors provide a thorough account of why and when citizens have been asked to vote on policy issues. Referendums Around the World is essential reading for political scientists and others interested in direct democracy as well as representative government.
This book examines the role of the military in the wave of democratization that has swept through Latin America in the past decade. Although much of the leading literature on the transition to democracy recognizes the importance of hardline and softline factions within the military in this process, the author takes this study one step further to investigate the motivations of the military officers themselves. Using the cases of Brazil and Bolivia, and relying on dozens of interviews with military officers, politicians, jurists, and other observers throughout Latin America, he determines that the factions' attitudes do not depend primarily on ideological commitment but on the leaders' calculation, as to the career benefits to their followers of either supporting or opposing democratization. In terms of policy making, it is important to recognize this distinction in order to help preserve the fragile democracies which are already under threat from the military once again.
China and Taiwan have similar political cultures. However, the Chinese intellectual and political elite have failed to democratize the Middle Kingdom since the 4 May 1919 Movement; whilst their Taiwanese counterpart succeeded in making the island state fairly democratic in just over four decades since the 28 February 1947 Uprising.;After an examination of the approaches they applied, the author finds that the former have pursued a culturalist route by trying to change the psycho-cultural make-up of the Chinese people. Conversely, Taiwan followed an institutional road in which they tried to win elections and to set up political organizations, such as parties.
In the 1980s a large number of Latin American countries reverted from military dictatorships to civilian democracies. In most cases the new democratic governments inherited an extremely precarious economic situation, which left little room to manoeuvre. This book analyzes the special problems that governments face in the formulation and implementation of economic policy after the restoration of democracy. In each of six cases - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay - an analysis is made of the difficulties encountered and the performance of the democratic governments.
The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU's economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sense of purpose, and the Covid-19 pandemic its credibility as a protector of European citizens. The key argument of this book is that the multiple crises of the European project are caused by one underlying factor: its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. Left unchecked, supranational institutions tend to become ever more bureaucratic, eluding control of the people they are meant to serve. The logic of technocracy is thus pitted against the democratic impulse, which the European Union is supposed to embody. Democracy in Europe has suffered as a result.
This book uses recent experience in participatory innovations at the city level to explore the practice of participation. Taking examples from Latin America, which are closer to participatory democracy, and the UK, which are closer to participatory governance, it argues the case for revitalizing democracy and quality of life through participation.
The topic of electoral reform is an extremely timely one. The accelerated expansion of the number of new democracies in the world generates increasing demands for advice on the choice of electoral rules; at the same time, a new reformism in well established democracies seeks new formulas favoring both more representative institutions and more accountable rulers. This book addresses the theoretical and comparative issues of electoral reform in relation to democratization, political strategies in established democracies and the relative performance of different electoral systems. Case studies on virtually every major democracy or democratizing country in the world are included.
This collection explores transnational peace and social-justice movements, their implications for international relations, and their potential for democratizing global governance. Contributors examine case studies on issue areas including human rights, security, environment, and social/economic justice. The core objective is to determine whether and how progressive actors are able to break free of the entrapments of global arrogance. |
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