Suchergebnisse

This article explores the relationship between democracy & social democracy from the late nineteenth century through to the present. It discusses the emergence of different concepts of democracy within European social democracy at different times during this period & attempts to locate key junctures in the relationship between those two concepts. After investigating the strong links between radical democracy & social democracy in the second half of the nineteenth century, it goes on to argue that Marxism, through an anti-pluralist legacy which social democratic reformists & revisionists tried hard to overcome after 1900, considerably influenced social democracy's perception of democracy. Yet a fundamental ambiguity of social democracy towards democracy was only overcome under the conditions of the Cold War & the long economic boom after 1945. In the 'golden age' of social democracy between the 1940s & the 1960s, Social Democrats fully endorsed the politics of pluralist democracy. From the 1970s onwards, when the 'social democratic consensus' came under intense criticism from the political Right, the commitment of social democracy to democracy remained one of the few uncontentious areas, & the renaissance of social democratic fortunes in the 1990s has tended to focus on democracy as a key element of 'new' social democracy in Europe. [Copyright 2002 Sage Publications Ltd.]

A review article on books by (1) John B. Judis, The Paradox of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests and the Betrayal of Public Trust (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000); (2) Michael Zweig, The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret (London, Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 2000); & (3) Ruy Teixeira & Joel Rogers, America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters (New York: Basic Books, 2000). As America inaugurates its 43rd president, it enters a period of reflection. The danger is that all emphasis on voting procedure will silence a longstanding & ultimately more significant criticism of US democracy & its policy of democracy promotion. The separation of economics from politics & the promotion of so-called "market democracy" does a disservice to the wider democratic project & is potentially self-defeating. This article reviews three books to argue that the declining international reputation of the US can be traced to its own democratic shortcomings. It explores the possibility of a popular working-class movement to address these failings & examines the implication this may have on the liberal international order. Adapted from the source document.

Argues that democracy has succeeded in establishing itself as the "normal" form of political organization & as the political dimension of a modernity founded on secularization & a market economy. It is further contended that if democracy is to ameliorate the growing opposition between the North, which identifies rationality with power, & the South, which is increasingly shaped by cultural defense & the collapse of subjectivity, it must be redefined & defended against both liberal & revolutionary misconceptions. It is shown that democracy is above all a political condition for the existence of the subject -- a notion that refers to the conflictual unity of freedom & tradition, & to the efforts of human beings to become creators of their collective & individual lives. W. Howard

Several articles discuss issues surrounding democracy

IN A TRUE DEMOCRACY, THE TENSION BETWEEN UNITY AND DIFFERENCE OF CITIZENS IS UNRESOLVABLE -- AS THE AUTHOR SAYS IT SHOULD BE. SHE CONTENDS THAT THE MOST FERTILE TERRAIN FOR CONSTRUCTING PROGRESSIVE POLITICS IS THAT OF A RADICAL DEMOCRACY THAT RECOGNIZES THE CENTRALITY OF DIFFERENCE AND CONTESTATION TO POLITICAL LIFE. SHE EXPLORES SCHMITT'S DEMOCRATIC ANTI-LIBERALISM AS WELL AS KANT AND THE COMMON GOOD. THE CONCLUSION IS THAT THE VERY EXISTENCE OF MODERN DEMOCRACY FORBIDS THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS FULL REALIZATION.