Giroux probes the depth and range of forces pushing the United States into a new form of authoritarianism, one that connects the Orwellian surveillance state with the forms of ideological control made famous by Aldous Huxley. Addressing how neoliberalism, or the new market fundamentalism, is shaping a range of registers from language and memory to youth and higher education, Giroux explores how education in a variety of spheres is transformed into a type of miseducation perpetuated through what he calls a "disimagination machine"-one that reproduces the present by either distorting or erasing the past. But Giroux is not content to focus on how matters of politics, subjectivity, power, and desire are colonized through forms of miseducation; he is also concerned with the educative nature of politics as the practice of freedom and how the emphasis on critique must be matched by a politics and discourse of resistance, hope, and possibility. This becomes particularly evident in his chapters on Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Thinking Dangerously makes clear that at the heart of the struggle for a radical democracy is the reviving of the radical imagination as the basis for new forms of political and collective struggle. Probing these issues through a series of interrelated essays and important interviews, Giroux provides an accessible, layered, and sustained example of how thinking dangerously is central to and connected with the struggle over the radical imagination and the fight to fulfill the promise of a radical democracy.

This book investigates the factors that led to the breakdown of democracy and the rise of violent separatism in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1980s, and how the risk of a large-scale war has grown in South Asia in the 1990s. Solutions to this conflict need to be based on knowledge about what caused it as well as perspectives on why this conflict is so particularly dangerous. Widmalm offers answers in this book, with systematic comparisons over time to establish the causes of the conflict. He refutes the contention that ethnic factors are the main cause, while acknowledging that ethnic dividing lines are salient features of the conflict today. Interviews with representatives of the Indian government, the ISI in Pakistan and separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir are also incorporated.

The Failure of Democracy in Iraq studies democratization in post-2003 Iraq, which has so far failed, due mainly to cultural and religious reasons. There are other factors, such as the legacy of the dictatorial regime, exclusionary policies, the problem of stateness, interference by regional powers, the rentier economy and sectarianism, that have impeded democracy and contributed to its failure, but the employment of religion in politics was the most to blame. The establishment of stable democratic institutions continues to elude Iraq, 15 years after toppling the dictatorship. The post-2003 Iraq could not completely eradicate the long historical tradition of despotic governance due to deep-seated religious beliefs and tribal values, along with widening societal ethno-sectarian rifts which precluded the negotiation of firm and stable elite settlements and pacts across communal lines. The book examines how the fear in neighbouring countries of a region-wide domino effect of the Iraq democratization process caused them to adopt interventionist policies towards Iraq that helped to stunt the development of democracy. The lack of commitment by the initiator of the democratic process, the United States, undermined the prospects of democratic consolidation. This is compounded by serious mistakes such as de-Ba'athification and the disbanding of the Iraqi army and security apparatuses which caused a security vacuum the US forces were not able to fill. The Failure of Democracy in Iraq is a key resource for all students and academics interested in democracy, Islam and Middle East Studies.

After describing NAFTA as 'the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere', Donald Trump's election seemed to represent the final nail in the coffin for North American economic integration. Following a decade of stagnation, however, Trump's victory presents a timely opportunity to reconsider North American integration and evaluate NAFTA's democratic track record in Mexico. In this book, Pablo Calderon Martinez presents a detailed analysis of NAFTA's influence as a political tool for democracy in Mexico. Extending beyond a mere economic or social exploration of the consequences of NAFTA, Calderon Martinez uses a three-tiered analysis based on causality mechanisms to explain how the interactions between internationalisation and democratisation unfolded in Mexico. Calderon Martinez's analysis demonstrates that Mexico's internationalisation project under the framework of NAFTA gave shape to, if not made, Mexico's democratisation process. An original and timely resource for scholars and students interested in understanding how - in cases like Mexico where transitions to democracy are characterised by a finely poised balance of power - small influences from abroad can make significant long-lasting differences domestically.

This book analyses the role of the European Union in the process of institutional change in its Eastern neighbourhood and explains why EU policies arrive at contradictory outcomes at the sectoral level. Combining EU studies approaches with insights from the fields of new institutionalism, international development studies and transnationalisation, it explains how the EU policies contribute to rule persistence or lead to institutional change. Highlighting the importance of investigating how the policies of external intervention interact with domestic institutions, the book also provides a coherent presentation of the political and economic problems of Ukraine and Moldova and a comparative analysis in key areas at critical junctures of their development. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics and more broadly to International Relations, post-Soviet and Russian studies.

Transforming the transformation? The East European Radical Right in the Political Process examines the significance of radical right parties, along with other organizations, in terms of their involvement in the political process of new democracies. This groundbreaking study highlights firstly the radical right's interaction with other political actors, such as parties, governments and interest groups, in their respective countries. Secondly, the contributors analyze the effects of such interaction with regard to agenda setting and policies in "loaded" policy fields, namely minorities and immigration, law and order, religion, territorial issues and democratization. Through an examination of the role of radical right actors in political processes and an assessment of the resulting measurable outcomes, this book shows how policies, election results and regime changes indicate shifts away from the liberal-democratic order institutionalized in the course of post-Communist transformation. Offering a unique cross-national comparison of particular facets and themes, as well as in-depth analysis of country cases, this book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, of European politics and far right studies.

Al Jazeera and Democratization analyses the increasing role of the media in political transformations with a special emphasis on the Arab world. Taking the Al Jazeera media network as a case study, the author explains how engaging the public and providing platforms for open debate and free expression contributed to the emergence of a new vibrant Arab public sphere. The launch of Al Jazeera in 1996 was a significant event that led to subsequent changes both in Arab media and politics. Among these changes, the Arab spring is certainly the most remarkable. This unprecedented phenomenon has already resulted in political change in a number of countries and is expected to generate a democratizing wave and reshape the face of the region. The Arab spring provides us with a telling empirical example where the interplay between media and politics is manifest. The public sphere that has emerged out of this newly communicative environment has undoubtedly played its role in the current political transformations. In this context, Arab democratization is no longer an abstract, it is rather a developing process that needs our attention and requires concerted scholarly efforts. Highly topical, this book provides a fresh theoretical perspective on Arab democratization in light of the Arab Spring, and is essential reading for researchers and students of Middle East Politics, Media Studies and Democratization.

Nearly thirty years have passed since Latin America began the arduous task of transitioning from military-led rule to democracy. In this time, more countries have moved toward the institutional bases of democracy than at any time in the region s history. Nearly all countries have held free, competitive elections and most have had peaceful alternations in power between opposing political forces. Despite these advances, Latin American countries continue to face serious domestic and international challenges to the consolidation of stable democratic governance. The challenges range from weak political institutions, corruption, legacies of militarism, transnational crime, and globalization, among others.

The second edition of "Latin American Democracy "maintains the mix of practitioners and academic that composed the first edition. Contributors from both North and Latin America explore and assess the state of democratic consolidation in Latin America by focusing on the specific issues and challenges confronting democratic governance in the region.

Changes incorporated into the latest edition include:

• Major revisions to chapters on the US administration s policies in regards to Latin America; women s political and institutional roles in Latin America; indigenous movement mobilization; Latin America economic issues, incorporating the 2008 financial crisis, and corruption and its effect on democracy in the region.
• New chapter on the process of decentralization and local government development.
• New chapter exploring the factors affecting the environment and democratic governance in Latin America.
• New chapter analyzing the challenges and opportunities of the increased Chinese presence in the region.

As an ethnic minority the Nubians of Kenya are struggling for equal citizenship by asserting themselves as indigenous and autochthonous to Kibera, one of Nairobi's most notorious slums. Having settled there after being brought by the British colonial authorities from Sudan as soldiers, this appears a peculiar claim to make. It is a claim that illuminates the hierarchical nature of Kenya's ethnicised citizenship regime and the multi-faceted nature of citizenship itself. This book explores two kinds of citizenship deficits; those experienced by the Nubians in Kenya and, more centrally, those which represent the limits of citizenship theories. The author argues for an understanding of citizenship as made up of multiple component parts: status, rights and membership, which are often disaggregated through time, across geographic spaces and amongst different people. This departure from a unitary language of citizenship allows a novel analysis of the central role of ethnicity in the recognition of political membership and distribution of political goods in Kenya. Such an analysis generates important insights into the risks and possibilities of a relationship between ethnicity and democracy that is of broad, global relevance.

Over the past seven decades and more, political parties have become an essential feature of the political landscape of the South Asian subcontinent, serving both as a conduit and product of the tumultuous change the region has experienced. Yet they have not been the focus of sustained scholarly attention. This collection focuses on different aspects of how major parties have been agents of - and subject to - change in three South Asian states (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), examining some of the apparent paradoxes of politics in the subcontinent and covering issues such as gender, religion, patronage, clientelism, political recruitment and democratic regression. Recurring themes are the importance of personalities (and the corresponding neglect of institutionalisation) and the lack of pluralism in intraparty affairs, factors that render parties and political systems vulnerable to degeneration. This book was published as a special issue of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

Democracy is in shambles economically and politically. The recent economic meltdown in Europe and the U.S. has substituted democratic deliberation with technocratic decisions. In Athens, Madrid, Lisbon, New York, Pittsburgh or Istanbul, protesters have denounced the incapacity and unwillingness of elected officials to heed to their voices. While the diagnosis of our political-economic illness has been established, remedies are hard to come. What can we do to restore our broken democracy? Which modes of political participation are likely to have an impact? And what are the loci of political innovation in the wake of the crisis? It is with these questions that Reclaiming Democracy engages. We argue that the managerial approach to solving the crisis violates 'a right to politics', that is, a right that our collective life be guided by meaningful politics: by discussion of and decision among genuinely alternative principles and policies. The contributors to this volume are united in their commitment to explore how and where this right can be affirmed in a way that resuscitates democracy in the wake of the crisis. Mixing theoretical reflection and empirical analysis the book offers fresh insights into democracy's current conundrum and makes concrete proposals about how 'the right to politics' can be protected.

The term militant democracy was coined by Karl Loewenstein in the 1930s. He argued that attempts to establish democracy in the Weimar Republic failed due to the lack of militancy against subversive movements. The concept of militant democracy was introduced to legal scholarship and constitutional practice so as to provide democracy with legal means to defend itself against the range of possible activities of non-democratic political actors.

This book offers a broad comparative look at the legal concept of militant democracy. It combines an analysis of major theoretical considerations of this concept with a substantive practical component investigating its practice in a number of countries and on a diverse array of issues. The historical development of militant democracy in constitutional theory is mapped and the book explores how militant democracy interacts with various traditional and contemporary notions of democracy. The possibilities and pitfalls of the concept of protecting democracy when it is under threat of harm or destruction by undemocratic actors are analysed, and the book suggests possible solutions and measures to overcome those dangers and concerns. The book provides a thematic treatment of militant democracy practices in a wide range of jurisdictions, including Australia, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Israel, India, the USA and the Council of Europe. The case-study elements include the most apparent examples of militant democracy practice that of the prohibition of political parties, as well as recent developments in the understanding of the concept and its interpretation such as the extension of militant democracy to address threats other than undemocratic political parties. The book considers how dangerous religious movements and the threat of terrorism could be addressed by applying the logic of militant democracy."

Democracy Indian Style explores the social and cultural factors underlying India's successful democracy by describing and analyzing the life of Subhas Chandra Bose and his impact on India before and after independence. As a nation India is very old. Its political culture has deep roots in India's pre-colonial history, but it is also a product of Western-style democracy, which has shaped and even created the nation.

The analysis is balanced between chapters that explain Bose's life and career and those that describe the Indian political system. Anton Pelinka explains India's stable democracy as a mixture of British and American patterns--Westminster parliamentary rule plus federalism--and a specific set of power-sharing arrangements among religions, linguistic groups, and castes.

Democracy Indian Style offers one answer to the enigma of how Indian democracy succeeds, by describing the working of India's constitution, the weaknesses of its party system, and the specifics of Indian elections. The focus on Bose provides a second explanation for India's political success. Democracy Indian Style is a timely exploration of the roots of Indian democracy, and will be of interest to political scientists, historians, and students of Indian politics.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

For China, Taiwan is next in line to be unified with the People's Republic after Hong Kong in 1997. China's claim on Taiwan is of great importance to the politics of Chinese Nationalism, and is central to the dynamics of power in this most volatile of regions. The democratic challenge from Taiwan is very potent and its status and identity within the international community is crucial to its survival. Taiwan and Chinese Nationalism explores how Taiwan's status has come to be a symbol for the legitimacy of the Chinese regime in the evolution of Chinese nationalism. It also demonstrates how this view has been challenged by demands for democratization in Taiwan. The KMT regime is shown to have allowed sovereignty to be practised by the population of the island while maintaining the claim that it is a part of China. The result is a "post-nationalist" identity for the island in an intermediate state between independence and unification with the PRC.

Neither a work concerned only with her Marxist writings nor a personal biography concerned with her private life, this book examines Rosa Luxemburg's ideas on revolution and democracy and how the two are bound together by her views on the importance of political action. Stretching, historically, from 1863 to the present, this book covers in great detail the history and developments within the German SPD during her time, the 1905 and 1917 Russian Revolutions, the German Revolution, the outbreak of World War I and the imperialism that fuelled it. It then moves on to consider political and historical developments after her death and examines her arguments on revolution and democracy in the light of the post-revolutionary government in Nicaragua: the one violent revolution that sought to establish social democracy (but failed). Also covered are aspects of Rosa Luxemburg's life, her important writings and actions, the relevant Marxist debates in which she was involved, including, for example Bernstein's arguments on social democracy through reform and, with Lenin, on revolutionary organization. A welcomed and timely collection presenting an important examination of the political and social context in which Luxemburg developed her activities and views and a complete understanding of the history of social democracy, the revolutionary times of a century ago and the relevance of their events and ideas for more recent revolutions for democracy in the twenty-first century.

At a time when some EU member states are attracting attention for the rise to power of illiberal, anti-democratic political movements, this book's analytical focus on ideas and identities helps explain why institutional progress is not necessarily reflected in the formation of liberal, democratic publics. Starting from the premise that citizens can only uphold the institutions of liberal democracy when they understand and identify with the principles enshrined in them, the author applies normative public sphere theory to the analysis of political discourse and everyday discussion in Serbia and Bulgaria. From this perspective, the Serbian public sphere is observed to be more contested, pluralist and, at the margins, liberal than that of Bulgaria. Considering that Bulgaria has been a full EU member since 2007 while Serbia remains stuck in the waiting room, it is argued that democratic cultures are not shaped by elite-led drives to meet institutional criteria but rather by the spread of ideas through politics, the media and the discussions of citizens. Moving beyond the narrow focus on institutions that currently prevails in studies of democratization, this book demonstrates the value of a more ethnographic and society-oriented approach.

How effective are democracy clauses of regional integration organizations (RIOs) in promoting democratization and democratic consolidation among member-states? RIOs are increasingly adopting "democracy only" clauses in their treaties, requiring democracy and political stability as a condition of membership. Stable democracy is a collective good for RIO members; without political stability, uncertainty regarding economic exchange increases, undermining the promise of integration. The presence of powerful countries may be necessary for the RIOs to legalize democratic conditionality. In this book, the authors argue that once established democracy clauses exert an independent influence in promoting and defending democratic norms and institutions within the member-states by increasing the transparency and credibility of democratic commitment and sanctions for violation. The findings based on the analysis of 40 RIOs around the world and in-depth analysis of the European Union, the Common Market of the South, and the Economic Community of West African States indicate that RIO democracy clauses help prevent democratic backsliding and coups and stimulate democratization and consolidation. With its global scope, originality, and theoretical rigor, this is the first book to catalogue democracy clauses adopted by RIOs worldwide with a thorough analysis of their effectiveness.

Over the past seven decades and more, political parties have become an essential feature of the political landscape of the South Asian subcontinent, serving both as a conduit and product of the tumultuous change the region has experienced. Yet they have not been the focus of sustained scholarly attention. This collection focuses on different aspects of how major parties have been agents of - and subject to - change in three South Asian states (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), examining some of the apparent paradoxes of politics in the subcontinent and covering issues such as gender, religion, patronage, clientelism, political recruitment and democratic regression. Recurring themes are the importance of personalities (and the corresponding neglect of institutionalisation) and the lack of pluralism in intraparty affairs, factors that render parties and political systems vulnerable to degeneration.

This book was published as a special issue of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

Half a century ago, many democratic states started to respond to environmental pressures that had arisen in the wake of rapid industrialization. They set up environmental ministries and agencies and issued legislation to control the pollution of air and water and to manage industrial processes, wastes and toxic substances. This was the birth of the environmental state. With planetary ecological challenges like climate change spiraling out of control and dwarfing the environmental state's classical tasks of environmental management, new questions about the transformative capacities of the state are becoming acute today. How large is the state's capability to transform enhanced industrial societies into sustainable post-carbon societies? Do its new environmental functions empower the state to prioritise ecological goals over economic growth? Can the state's environmental management capabilities be radicalised to turn it into a 'sustainability state'? Can democracies be enhanced to enlarge the state's transformative capacities? The Political Prospects of a Sustainability Transformation: Moving Beyond the Environmental State explores these and other questions from a variety of theoretical and empirical angles, covering the fields of democratic theory, theories of the state, political economy, political sociology, rhetoric and political philosophy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Environmental Politics.

Electoral and parliamentary arenas play a crucial role in the configuration and dynamics of modern polities. This book explores the practices of citizenship and unveils the fabric of representation in the Iberian countries, during a significant period of liberal politics, that is, from its apogee to its collapse (from the 1870s to the 1920s). Part One examines the evolution of electoral norms and behaviour, as well as the recruitment profile of MPs. Portugal and Spain share fundamental features, such as the extensive clientelistic mobilisation of voters, the dissemination of fraud and corruption, the supremacy of governmental parties and the prevalence of the politics of notables. Part Two focuses on Parliament, questioning constitutional models, internal procedures, legislative action and political activity, as well as coetaneous perceptions and images of the institution and its actors as portrayed in novels, newspaper chronicles, cartoons and photographic reports. This collection of essays offers a detailed and cogent analysis, as well as a vivid picture, of the politics of representation in Portuguese and Spanish liberalism, revealing significant similarities and differences through cross-country comparisons.

An excellent and entertaining essayist, Laski s volume deals with the issues of politics and law in Europe and American during the 1920s and 30s. It is unified by the concpetion of democracy as a society of equals sharing in a common good.

"

This volume, originally published in 1938 can be read by anyone with an interest in the evolution of the institution of government in England and how the workings of some parts of it particularly relate to the problems of the first half of the twentieth century.

This book, originally published in 1952, unfinished and perhaps imperfect is the last book of one of the most acute political thinkers of the twentieth century. Laski s earlier optimism about a swing to the Left was beginning to be reversed, and in this volume he saw the defects of his previous optimistic surveys, which, in his opinion, still had value, but needed to be brought up-to-date and consquently he began to write an additional chapter which was never completed. It remains a valuable last word of an author who for thirty years was respected and listened to on the topic of civilisation s survial through change. "

Recent years have seen contestations of democracy all around the globe. Democracy is challenged as a political as well as a normative term, and as a form of governance. Against the background of neoliberal transformation, populist mobilization, and xenophobic exclusion, but also of radical and emancipatory democratic projects, this collection offers a variety of critical and challenging perspectives on the condition of democracy in the 21st Century. The volumes provide theoretical and empirical enquiries into the meaning and practice of liberal democracy, the erosion of democratic institutions, and the consequences for citizenship and everyday lives. With a pronounced focus on national and transnational politics and processes, as well as postcolonial and settler-colonial contexts, individual contributions scrutinize the role of democratic societies, ideals, and ideologies of liberal democracy within global power geometries. By employing the multiple meanings of The Condition of Democracy, the collection addresses the preconditions of democratic rule, the state this form of governance is in, and the changing ways in which citizens can (still) act as the sovereign in liberal democratic societies. The books offer both challenging theoretical perspectives and rigorous empirical findings of how to conceive of democracy in our times, which will appeal to academics and students in social and political science, economics and international relations amongst other fields. The focus on developments in the Middle East and North Africa will furthermore be of great usefulness to academics and the wider public interested in the repercussions of western democracy promotion as well as in contemporary struggles for democratization 'from below'.