Suchergebnisse

Despite lacking any sort of military advantage over the regimes they have confronted, the Iranian people have never been dissuaded from rising against and challenging varying forms of injustice. Through the successful implementation of non-violent action Iranians have overcome the violence of successive governments by undermining their moral and political legitimacy. But more than a hundred years after the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iranians are still in search of a social covenant through which they can acquire and practice public freedom. The stakes are extremely high, if Iran fails to end its culture of violence as a state and society then it risks its future as a stable, democratic state. So how then can the Iranian people break the cycle of violent and oppressive regimes and start looking towards a non-violent and democratic future? There is no magic formula that will immediately end violence in Iran but this book argues that by shunning violence and showing a readiness to face down persecution that the Iranian people have a chance to secure their freedom.

Despite the increasing number of countries throughout the world characterized by democratic rule, it is noted that only a minority of developing countries are democracies, & that many of these are "quantified democracies," with electoral, rather than direct, representation. It is also pointed out that democracy is not necessarily associated with the melioration of social or economic inequality, & that citizenries expecting the imposition of democracy to solve problems quickly are sure to be disappointed. Democracy must be accompanied by the rule of law, which often is not the case (eg, Mexico & Brazil), & that, in fact, many democratic governments actively work to subvert it. Resistance to democratic government (such as among the Zapatistas of Chiapas) is often approved of by the well-meaning, who fail to distinguish between Weber's ethics of good intentions & responsibility for consequences. However, despite a general disappointment with democracy, such dissatisfaction often leads to reform. A. Siegel

Reviews Ingeborg Maus's theory of democracy as delineated in her Zur Aufklarung der Demokratietheorie ([Explanation of Democratic Theory] 1993). The inability of theory & practice to find a balance or synthesis between equality & liberty in democracies is one of the fundamental problems of democratic theory. Through a reinterpretation of Immanuel Kant's political theory, Maus attempts to build a unified concept of sovereignty while ensuring the plurality so obvious in the modern condition. A reflexive structure is advocated that preserves the relation & autonomy of the extralegal sphere (where popular sovereignty is retained) & legal spheres, without which sovereignty cannot be maintained. Such radical procedurism, it is argued, does not shape the nature of the extralegal space, only its existence. In the post-1989 transition to democracy, caution is urged that formal rights not be suspended in order to make democracy -- as a broader quest for justice -- possible. J. Cowie

I. Machine politics.--II. Organized democracy.--III. The cost of machine politics.--IV. The necessity of reorganization.--V. General considerations. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Explores evolution of democracy, arguing that the "court tradition" has been exhausted, and that the choice is now between a reinvented republicanism and a bland, almost narcotic populism. Democratization, modernization, Prime Minister Thatcher's conservative revolution, and Blair's "New Labour" revolution.

This book is a collection of contributions by leading scholars on theoretical and contemporary problems of militant democracy. The term 'militant democracy' was first coined in 1937. In a militant democracy preventive measures are aimed, at least in practice, at restricting people who would openly contest and challenge democratic institutions and fundamental preconditions of democracy like secularism - even though such persons act within the existing limits of, and rely on the rights offered by, democracy. In the shadow of the current wars on terrorism, which can also involve rights restrictio

Originally published in 1985, Retrieving Democracy offers a thorough and systematic answer to the familiar objection that genuine democracy is utopian. The book outlines an imaginary, yet imaginable, society that would be non-racist, non-sexist, and sufficiently classless to support true civic equality. Moving beyond previous discussions of re-industrialization and economic democracy, the book proposes the social control of corporations; a democratic division of labour that would maximize equality of citizenship rather than merely the production of commodities; the democratization of trade unions; the equalization of wages and job opportunities and the insulation of electoral politics from the power of money.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ; Belief systems after converse / Donald R. Kinder -- Democracy with attitudes / Larry M. Bartels -- The political psychology of party identification / Herbert F. Weisberg and Steve H. Greene -- Process matters: cognitive models of candidate evaluation / Marco Steenbergen and Milton Lodge -- Policy issues and electoral democracy / Stuart Elaine Macdonald, Geroge Rabinowitz and Holly Brasher -- Elections and the dynamics of ideological representation / Michael B. MacKuen . [et al.] -- The heavenly public: what would a fully informed citizenry be like? / Robert C. Luskin -- The nature of belief in a mass public / Michael W. Traugot --- Electoral democracy during policts as usual, and unusual / John Aldrich -- Coming to grips with V.O. Key's concept of latent opinion / John Zaller. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Cover -- Contents -- List of Boxes, Figures and Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Why 'saving' democracy? -- 2 Can democracy be saved? -- Part 1: Interventions at the input stage to enable critical citizenship -- 3 Building participatory governance systems -- 4 Direct democracy -- 5 Deliberative democracy -- 6 Design-led digital democracy -- Part 2: Interventions at the throughput stage to improve the quality andintegrity of politics -- 7 Reforming elected assemblies -- 8 Cleaning up politics -- 9 Embedding experts and evidence in democratic governance -- 10 Old and new media: power with responsibility -- Part 3: Interventions at the output stage to improve the capacity ofpolitics to deliver quality services and policy outcomes -- 11 Improving the public service experience: the search for public value -- 12 Representative democracy and crisis management -- 13 Future proofing democracy -- 14 In conclusion - restoring and strengthening the 'protective power'of democracy -- Postscript -- Notes -- Index.

This second, revised edition presents a broader discussion of Schumpeter's and other leadership models of democracy and also includes a new chapter on presidential leadership and foreign policy. The first part of the book is centred around Schumpeter's theories and his emphasis upon the role of leadership in democracy. Such leadership normally involves only an adaptive, incremental response to change but it can also take the form of an adaptive innovation, a creative response, or a pioneering leader's entrepreneurial-style initiative and innovation. The second part of the book uses the US and British examples of democracy to assess how much entrepreneurial-style, pioneering leadership occurred during the 1960s-90s in democracies' electoral, governmental, legislative, administrative, and policy-advocacy sectors. The second edition's conclusion offers a new appraisal of the prospects for this pioneering leadership, and the merely adaptive form of innovative leadership, in the decades and crises that lie ahead.

Advocates a broad-based reconstruction of public culture & citizen ownership of government based on the commonwealth tradition. The US history of the tradition, which stresses inclusion through civic production & socioeconomic equality sufficient to permit democracy, is sketched. Causes for the decline of civic engagement are identified: postwar emphasis on citizens as consumers rather than as producers; work specialization; an increasingly economic definition of wealth; cynical politics; & alienation from government. An example of community organizing in Seattle, WA, 1920s-1960s, illustrates the strength of the commonwealth idea, & possibilities for the contemporary revival of public work are considered. Unlike progressive & communitarian versions of citizenship, the commonwealth idea views governance as something done by citizens but does so without neglecting the reality of power structures/relations. E. Blackwell