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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political parties > General
Three leading thinkers analyze the erosion of democracy's social foundations and call for a movement to reduce inequality, strengthen inclusive solidarity, empower citizens, and reclaim pursuit of the public good. Democracy is in trouble. Populism is a common scapegoat but not the root cause. More basic are social and economic transformations eroding the foundations of democracy, ruling elites trying to lock in their own privilege, and cultural perversions like making individualistic freedom the enemy of democracy's other crucial ideals of equality and solidarity. In Degenerations of Democracy three of our most prominent intellectuals investigate democracy gone awry, locate our points of fracture, and suggest paths to democratic renewal. In Charles Taylor's phrase, democracy is a process, not an end state. Taylor documents creeping disempowerment of citizens, failures of inclusion, and widespread efforts to suppress democratic participation, and he calls for renewing community. Craig Calhoun explores the impact of disruption, inequality, and transformation in democracy's social foundations. He reminds us that democracies depend on republican constitutions as well as popular will, and that solidarity and voice must be achieved at large scales as well as locally. Taylor and Calhoun together examine how ideals like meritocracy and authenticity have become problems for equality and solidarity, the need for stronger articulation of the idea of public good, and the challenges of thinking big without always thinking centralization. Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar points out that even well-designed institutions will not integrate everyone, and inequality and precarity make matters worse. He calls for democracies to be prepared for violence and disorder at their margins-and to treat them with justice, not oppression. The authors call for bold action building on projects like Black Lives Matter and the Green New Deal. Policy is not enough to save democracy; it will take movements.
"Political Parties in Post-Communist Societies "is a study of party development in the post-communist world. Set in the endogenous institution tradition, it develops an analytical framework that can be used to understand why parties form and how and why they choose certain electoral strategies once formed. The book is based on extensive fieldwork in Bulgaria and Hungary and uses the experience of parties there as well as aggregate data from 12 post-communist states to provide an explanation of the behavior of parties since 1990. The book offers some new insights into the impact of party financing, party organization and international actors on the behavior of political parties in these recently democratized political systems.
The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the East German Communist party, has long outlasted the state that spawned and nourished it. It now flourishes in Berlin and the territories of the old GDR, confounding the conventional political in Germany and the rest of the West. This is the first scholarly examination of the party's unexpected success as a regional party, as well as a left-wing party of protest and reform. It is a unique study of the PDS's structure, strategy and support, and of its present and future status in German politics.
Feminist theory is interwoven with women's voices in this study of three consecutive Twentieth-century women's organisations, separate but affiliated to the Labour Party, which represented women workers, consumers and politicians, so that the totality of women's involvement in the Labour movement is considered.
Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general. Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society. Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.
This book is the product of many years’ research by Lodge, whose Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983) established him as a leading commentator on South African politics, past and present. 2021 will mark the centenary of the foundation of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and today’s South African Communist Party (SACP, founded in 1953 after the proscription of the CPSA) will be extremely fortunate to have the milestone marked by a scholarly work of this calibre. Since 1994, many memoirs have been written by communists, and private archives have been donated to university and other collections. Significant official archives have been opened to scrutiny, particularly those of South Africa and the former Soviet Union. It is as if a notoriously secretive body has suddenly become confiding and confessional! While every chapter draws upon original material of this sort, such evidence is supported, amplified, illuminated and challenged by the scholarship of others: the breadth of secondary sources used by the author reflects what may well be an unrivalled familiarity with the scholarly literature on political organisations and resistance in twentieth century South Africa. Lodge provides a richly detailed history of the Party’s vicissitudes and victories; individuals – their ideas, attitudes and activities – are sensitively located within their context; the text provides a fascinating sociology of the South African left over time. Lodge is adept at making explicit what the key questions and issues are for different periods; and he answers these with analyses and conclusions that are judicious, clearly stated, and meticulously argued. Without doubt, this book will become a central text for students of communism in South Africa, of the Party’s links with Russia and the socialist bloc, and of the Communist Party’s changing relations with African nationalism – before, during and after three decades of exile.
Bavaria and German Federalism details the struggle by successive Bavarian political parties of the pre- and post-Nazi period to shape the construction of the German state in a decentralized fashion. While the Bavarian Peoples Party ultimately failed to redraw the Weimar constitution to satisfy Bavarian particularist desires, the Christian Social Union assumed the federalist mantle after 1945 and largely succeeded in helping shape western Germany into a workable federal state.
In this book, John Ehrenberg argues that Donald Trump, as both candidate and president, represents a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the Republican Party's willingness to exploit American racial tensions. Works on Trump's use of race have tended to be fragmentary or subsidiary to a larger purpose. Ehrenberg concentrates his investigation on Trump's weaponized use of race, contextualized through historical and theoretical details, demonstrating that while Trump draws on previous Republican strategies, he stands apart through his explicit intention to convert the Republican Party into a political instrument of a threatened racial order. The book traces the Grand Old Party's (GOP) approach to racial matters from Goldwater's "constitutional" objection to federal activity in the South to George W. Bush's overtures to Black citizens. Ehrenberg examines the role of racial animus in prying loose a significant portion of the Democratic Party's electoral coalition and making possible Trump's overt flirtation with white nationalism. He concludes that the Republican Party will find it difficult to jettison its 50-year history of embracing and amplifying white racial animus and resentment. White Nationalism and the Republican Party will be of interest to academics and students of American politics, voting behavior, American party politics, race and American politics, twentieth-century American history, political leadership, politics of inequality, race and public policy.
In this book, John Ehrenberg argues that Donald Trump, as both candidate and president, represents a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the Republican Party's willingness to exploit American racial tensions. Works on Trump's use of race have tended to be fragmentary or subsidiary to a larger purpose. Ehrenberg concentrates his investigation on Trump's weaponized use of race, contextualized through historical and theoretical details, demonstrating that while Trump draws on previous Republican strategies, he stands apart through his explicit intention to convert the Republican Party into a political instrument of a threatened racial order. The book traces the Grand Old Party's (GOP) approach to racial matters from Goldwater's "constitutional" objection to federal activity in the South to George W. Bush's overtures to Black citizens. Ehrenberg examines the role of racial animus in prying loose a significant portion of the Democratic Party's electoral coalition and making possible Trump's overt flirtation with white nationalism. He concludes that the Republican Party will find it difficult to jettison its 50-year history of embracing and amplifying white racial animus and resentment. White Nationalism and the Republican Party will be of interest to academics and students of American politics, voting behavior, American party politics, race and American politics, twentieth-century American history, political leadership, politics of inequality, race and public policy.
The African National Congress (ANC) has established itself as Africa's most famous liberation movement. The year 2012 is an important year in the history of the African National Congress' organisational, political and ideological development and growth. It marks 100 years of the ANC's existence; a milestone that has prompted partisans to a century of unparalleled achievement in the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination and the year of the 53rd National Conference in Mangaung. It is, though, a liberation whose critics have painted a less-flattering portrait of the historical ANC, as a communist puppet, a moribund dinosaur, or an elitist political parasite. For such sceptics, the ANC -- now in government for two decades -- has betrayed South Africans rather than liberated them. The politics of the ANC, and those of the country it governs, are today tumultuous. South Africans endure deep inequality and unemployment, violent community protests, murders of foreign residents, major policy blunders, an AIDS crisis, and deepening corruption. Inside the ANC there are episodes of open rebellion against the leadership, conflicts over the character of a post-liberation movement, and debilitating battles for succession to the movement's presidency. The Idea of the ANC explores how ANC intellectuals and leaders interpret the historical project of their movement. It investigates three interlocked ideas: a conception of power, a responsibility for promoting unity, and a commitment to human liberation. It explores how these notions have shaped South African politics in the past, and how they will inform ANC leaders' responses to the challenges of the future.
This cohesive and challenging collection of academic essays represents a radical analysis, indeed re-interpretation, of the political, social and economic events which have occurred within the new South Africa since the momentous 1994 general election. Chapters by three of the leading authorities in the field of South African history and politics, Professors Marks, Spence and Gutheridge, concisely examine the prospects for stability and progress as the key fields of regional and international security, armed forces integration and social and economic policy. Three other authors examine, sometimes in controversial fashion, the progress of and prospects for the three main political parties: the ANC; the NP; and the IFP. A further three studies address the ramifications of recent elections, developments in the arms industry and changes in the political economy of the new South Africa. The book as a whole will be seen as the first comprehensive study of the security prospects of the New South Africa under the inspired leadership of Nelson Mandela.
Political parties are central to democratic life, yet there is no standard definition to describe them or the role they occupy. "Voter-centered" theoretical approaches suggest that parties are the mere recipients of voter interests and loyalties. "Party-centered" approaches, by contrast, envision parties that polarize, democratize, or dominate society. In addition to offering isolated and competing notions of democratic politics, such approaches are also silent on the role of the state and are unable to account for organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the African National Congress, which exhibit characteristics of parties, states, and social movements simultaneously. In this timely book, Cedric de Leon examines the ways in which social scientists and other observers have imagined the relationship between parties and society. He introduces and critiques the full range of approaches, using enlivening comparative examples from across the globe. Cutting through a vast body of research, de Leon offers a succinct and lively analysis that outlines the key thinking in the field, placing it in historical and contemporary context. The resulting book will appeal to students of sociology, political science, social psychology, and related fields.
This edited volume brings together leading specialists in Conservative Party politics to examine the effectiveness with which the Cameron led coalition has adapted to the demands of government. While the main focus is on the first year in office, there are insights into why a Conservative modernisation statecraft strategy resulted in a hung Parliament and the need to form a coalition. The coherence of the policy agenda that informs 'liberal conservatism' is analyzed and the impact of the coalition on party policy across a range of social and foreign areas is examined; including economic, European and immigration policies, as well as territorial politics. The contributors also consider how cohesive and unified the coalition actually is in parliamentary terms and the effectiveness of Cameron as leader and Prime Minister. They also evaluate the impact of the coalition on wider perceptions of party politics and on 'New' Labour and how it has adapted to opposition.
"An original combination of theoretical innovation and a detailed empirical analysis of the ideas, language and policy of New Labour. Politicians often appeal to moral principles and arguments in their efforts to win support for new policy programs. Yet the question of how politicians use moral language has until now been neglected by scholars"--
What impact do political parties have on women's political representation and on state gender policies? Does this vary between national and local levels of government? This study focuses on two Latin American cases. The first analyzes the National Women's Ministry in Chile, a country with a history of ideological conflict, strong parties and centralized government. The second examines the local administrations of the leftwing Brazilian Workers' Party, in a political environment shaped by clientelism, weak parties and decentralization.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the party finance regime at the level of the European Union. Based on an in-depth analysis of the interaction between European political parties and their institutional environment, it shows how the Europarties have coped with - and altered - the funding rules. The book explains why increasing party subsidies have been made available, and why considerable differences exist in how Eurosceptic and pro-European parties have used their EU funding. It also examines how party finance reform at the EU level has been at the centre of party competition, by demonstrating how the rules were strategically changed to benefit some European parties over others. Considering the strong democratic aspirations that lay at the origins of the finance regime, the book explores its consequences for party democracy and the rule of law in Europe. This book is valuable for scholars working on the European Parliament, Eurosceptic parties, EU decision-making, (European) party politics and political finance.
This book investigates Turkey's departure from a 'flawed democracy' under Kemalist secularism, and its transitioning into Islamist authoritarian Erdoganism, through the lenses of informal law, legal pluralism, and legal hybridity. In doing so, it examines the attempts of Turkey's ruling party (AKP) at social engineering and gradual Islamisation of the Turkish state and society, by using informal Islamist laws. To that end, the book argues that the AKP has paved the way for Islamist legal hybridity where society, state, and law, are being gradually Islamised on an ad hoc basis. Informal law and legal pluralism in Turkey have had a non-state characteristic which have permitted Muslims to solve disputes by seeking the opinions of religio-legal scholars. Yet under the AKP rule, this informal legal system has become increasingly dominated by conservatives, sometimes radical Islamists, which the governing party has taken advantage of by either formalizing some parts of the informal Islamist law, or using it informally to mobilize its supporters against the opposition.
This book analyses the politicization of immigration and the European Union in Italy, the UK, and the European Parliament (EP) from 2015 to 2020. The book uses the case studies of Italy, the UK, and the EP to study party positioning specifically towards immigration and the European Union, to understand to what extent mainstream-left, mainstream-right and populist parties adopt different framing strategies to compete on the new cultural dimension created by globalization. The book draws on saliency theory, issue ownership theory, and yield theory to investigate the multidimensional nature of political competition, and the relevance of institutional settings in determining party framing strategies. Bridging two fields that typically do not interact-party politics and migration studies-this book fills gaps in the academic literature and as such will be appropriate for students and researchers interested in party politics, European politics, immigration politics, populism, and text analysis.
When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who steered national politics. Yet, despite the egalitarian dream at the heart of its founding, the Republican Party quickly became mired in a fundamental identity crisis. Would it be the party of democratic ideals? Or would it be the party of moneyed interests? In the century and a half since, Republicans have vacillated between these two poles, with dire economic, political, and moral repercussions for the entire nation. In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the present, revealing the insidious cycle of boom and bust that has characterized the Party since its inception. While in office, progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln's vision of economic freedom and expanded the government, attacking the concentration of wealth and nurturing upward mobility. But they and others like them have been continually thwarted by powerful business interests in the Party. Their opponents appealed to Americans' latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. The results of the Party's wholesale embrace of big business are all too familiar: financial collapses like the Panic of 1893, the Great Depression in 1929, and the Great Recession in 2008. With each passing decade, with each missed opportunity and political misstep, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles. Now with a new epilogue that reflects on the Trump era and what comes after it, To Make Men Free is a sweeping history of the Party that was once considered America's greatest political hope, but now lies in disarray.
A study of territorial dynamics within party organizations in multi-layered systems. This book contributes to a new approach in party research which acknowledges the importance of multi-layered institutional framing. It includes an analysis of vertical linkages and sub-state autonomy in Austrian, Belgian, British, German and Spanish parties.
The State of the Parties 2022 brings together leading scholars of parties, elections, and interest groups to provide an indispensable overview of American political parties today. The 2020 presidential election was extraordinary. What role did political parties play in these events? How did the party organizations fare? What are the implications for the future? Scholars and practitioners from throughout the United States explore the current state of American party organizations, constituencies and resources at the national, state and local level.
Ilaria Favretto presents a detailed study which traces the origins of the Third Way by comparing the European Left's contemporary neo-revisionism with past revisionist attempts. Focusing its analysis on the British Labour Party and the Italian Left, this book provides new interpretations and insights into the histories of both parties.
Enemy Of The People is the first definitive account of Zuma’s catastrophic misrule, offering eyewitness descriptions and cogent analysis of how South Africa was brought to its knees – and how a nation fought back. When Jacob Zuma took over the leadership of the ANC one muggy Polokwane evening in December 2007, he inherited a country where GDP was growing by more than 6% per annum, a party enjoying the support of two-thirds of the electorate, and a unified tripartite alliance. Today, South Africa is caught in the grip of a patronage network, the economy is floundering and the ANC is staring down the barrel of a defeat at the 2019 general elections. How did we get here? Zuma first brought to heel his party, Africa’s oldest and most revered liberation movement, subduing and isolating dissidents associated with his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. Then saw the emergence of the tenderpreneur and those attempting to capture the state, as well as a network of family, friends and business associates that has become so deeply embedded that it has, in effect, replaced many parts of government. Zuma opened up the state to industrial-scale levels of corruption, causing irreparable damage to state enterprises, institutions of democracy, and the ANC itself. But it hasn’t all gone Zuma’s way. Former allies have peeled away. A new era of activism has arisen and outspoken civil servants have stepped forward to join a cross-section of civil society and a robust media. As a divided ANC square off for the elective conference in December, where there is everything to gain or to lose, award-winning journalists Adriaan Basson and Pieter du Toit offer a brilliant and up-to-date account of the Zuma era.
First Published in 1968. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. |
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