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"For years, intellectuals have argued that, with the triumph of capitalist, liberal democracy, the Western World has reached "the end of history." Recently, however, there has been a rise of authoritarian politics in many countries. Concepts of post-democracy, anti-politics, and the like are gaining currency in theoretical and political debate. Now that capitalist democracies are facing seismic and systemic challenges, it becomes increasingly important to investigate not only the inherent antagonism between liberalism and the democratic process, but also socialism. Is socialism an enemy of democracy? Could socialism develop, expand, even enhance democracy?While this volume seeks a reappraisal of existing liberal democracy today, its main goal is to help lay the foundation for new visions and practices in developing a real socialist democracy. Amid the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism today, the responsibility to sort out the relationship between socialism and democracy has never been greater. No revival of socialist politics in the twenty-first century can occur without founding new democratic institutions and practices."--Publisher's description

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.

"For years, intellectuals have argued that, with the triumph of capitalist, liberal democracy, the Western World has reached "the end of history." Recently, however, there has been a rise of authoritarian politics in many countries. Concepts of post-democracy, anti-politics, and the like are gaining currency in theoretical and political debate. Now that capitalist democracies are facing seismic and systemic challenges, it becomes increasingly important to investigate not only the inherent antagonism between liberalism and the democratic process, but also socialism. Is socialism an enemy of democracy? Could socialism develop, expand, even enhance democracy?While this volume seeks a reappraisal of existing liberal democracy today, its main goal is to help lay the foundation for new visions and practices in developing a real socialist democracy. Amid the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism today, the responsibility to sort out the relationship between socialism and democracy has never been greater. No revival of socialist politics in the twenty-first century can occur without founding new democratic institutions and practices."--Publisher's description

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.

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.

The timely book takes stock of the state of the art and future of electronic democracy, exploring the history and potential of e-democracy in global perspective. Analysing the digital divide, the role of the internet as a tool for political mobilisation, internet Voting and Voting Advice Applications, and other phenomena, this volume critically engages with the hope for more transparency and political participation through e-democracy.

Intro -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America -- Front Matter -- Title Page -- Copyright Details -- Volume I -- Table of Contents, p. ix -- Translator's Note, p. xxi -- Key Terms, p. xxvi -- Foreword, p. xxviii -- Abbreviations and Symbols Used in This Edition, p. xxxix -- Editor's Introduction, p. xlvii -- Foreword to This Edition, p. cli -- Part I. Introdution, p. 3 -- Chapter 1. Exterior Configuration of North America, p. 33 -- Chapter 2. Of the Point of Departure and Its Importance for the Future of the Anglo-Americans, p. 45 -- Chapter 3. Social State of the Anglo-Americans, p. 74 -- Chapter 4. Of the Principle of the Sovereignty of the People in America, p. 91 -- Chapter 5. Necessity of Studying What Happens in the Individual States before Speaking about the Government of the Union, p. 98 -- Chapter 6. Of the Judicial Power in the United States and Its Action on Political Society, p. 167 -- Chapter 7. Of Political Jurisdiction in the United States, p. 179 -- Chapter 8. Of the Federal Constitution, p. 186 -- Part II -- Chapter 1. How It Can Be Strictly Said That in the United States It Is the People Who Govern, p. 278 -- Chapter 2. Of Parties in the United States, p. 279 -- Chapter 3. Of Freedom of the Press in the United States, p. 289 -- Chapter 4. Of Political Association in the United States, p. 302 -- Chapter 5. Of the Government of Democracy in America, p. 313 -- Chapter 6. What Are the Real Advantages That American Society Gains from the Government of Democracy?, p. 375 -- Chapter 7. Of the omnipotence of the Majority in the United States and Its Effects, p. 402 -- Chapter 8. Of What Tempers Tyranny of the Majority in the United States, p. 427 -- Chapter 9. Of the Principal Causes That Tend to Maintain the Democratic Republic in the United States, p. 451.

These papers were part of the proceedings of the first national conference organized by IDASA in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 8-9 May, 1987

Is there a public good? A prevalent view in political science is that democracy is unavoidably chaotic, arbitrary, meaningless, and impossible. Such scepticism began with Condorcet in the eighteenth century, and continued most notably with Arrow and Riker in the twentieth century. In this powerful book, Gerry Mackie confronts and subdues these long-standing doubts about democratic governance. Problems of cycling, agenda control, strategic voting, and dimensional manipulation are not sufficiently harmful, frequent, or irremediable, he argues, to be of normative concern. Mackie also examines every serious empirical illustration of cycling and instability, including Riker's famous argument that the US Civil War was due to arbitrary dimensional manipulation. Almost every empirical claim is erroneous, and none is normatively troubling, Mackie says. This spirited defence of democratic institutions should prove both provocative and influential