Democratic Despot

Author : Harvey C. Mansfield
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2010-07-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0199746311

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Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction by Harvey C. Mansfield Pdf

No one has ever described American democracy with more accurate insight or more profoundly than Alexis de Tocqueville. After meeting with Americans on extensive travels in the United States, and intense study of documents and authorities, he authored the landmark Democracy in America, publishing its two volumes in 1835 and 1840. Ever since, this book has been the best source for every serious attempt to understand America and democracy itself. Yet Tocqueville himself remains a mystery behind the elegance of his style. Now one of our leading authorities on Tocqueville explains him in this splendid new entry in Oxford's acclaimed Very Short Introduction series. Harvey Mansfield addresses his subject as a thinker, clearly and incisively exploring Tocqueville's writings--not only his masterpiece, but also his secret Recollections, intended for posterity alone, and his unfinished work on his native France, The Old Regime and the Revolution. Tocqueville was a liberal, Mansfield writes, but not of the usual sort. The many elements of his life found expression in his thought: his aristocratic ancestry, his ventures in politics, his voyages abroad, his hopes and fears for America, and his disappointment with France. All his writings show a passion for political liberty and insistence on human greatness. Perhaps most important, he saw liberty not in theories, but in the practice of self-government in America. Ever an opponent of abstraction, he offered an analysis that forces us to consider what we actually do in our politics--suggesting that theory itself may be an enemy of freedom. And that, Mansfield writes, makes him a vitally important thinker for today. Translator of an authoritative edition of Democracy in America, Harvey Mansfield here offers the fruit of decades of research and reflection in a clear, insightful, and marvelously compact introduction.

Author : Brian Paul Klaas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Democracy
ISBN : 9780190668013

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The Despot's Accomplice by Brian Paul Klaas Pdf

"For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the world is steadily becoming less democratic. Though the true culprits are dictators and counterfeit democrats, the West is often complicit in contributing to the global decline of democracy. In pursuit of short-term economic and political objectives, governments in Washington, London and Brussels ultimately make the world less prosperous and stable. As Brian Klaas argues in this ... new book, this is in nobody's interests, least of all Western democracies--it is time for a rethink. The Despot's Accomplice draws on interviews on the frontlines of the global struggle for democracy, from a poetry-reading, politician-kidnapping general in Madagascar, and Islamist torture victims in Tunisia, to Belarusian activists tailed by the KGB, and tea-sipping members of the Thai junta"--From publisher description.

Author : Brian Klaas
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2017-11-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781510735934

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The Despot's Apprentice by Brian Klaas Pdf

”[A] primer on the threat to democracy posed by—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—the current president of the United States.” —David Litt, New York Times bestselling author Donald Trump isn’t a despot. But he is increasingly acting like The Despot’s Apprentice, an understudy in authoritarian tactics that threaten to erode American democracy, including: Attacking the press Threatening rule of law by firing those who investigate his alleged wrongdoings Using nepotism to staff the White House and countless other techniques Donald Trump is borrowing tactics from the world’s dictators and despots. Trump’s fascination with the military, his obsession with his own cult of personality, and his deliberate campaign to blur the line between fact and falsehood are nothing new to the world of despots. But they are new to the United States. With each authoritarian tactic or tweet, Trump poses a unique threat to democratic government in the world’s most powerful democracy. At the same time, Trump’s apprenticeship has serious consequences beyond the United States. His bizarre adoration and idolization of despotic strongmen—from Russia’s Putin, to Turkey’s Erdogan, or to the Philippines’ Duterte—has transformed American foreign policy into a powerful cheerleader for some of the world’s worst regimes. In The Despot’s Apprentice, an ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world’s dictators explains Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian tactics and how Trump uniquely threatens American democracy... and how to save it from him.

Author : John Keane
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2020-05-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780674660069

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The New Despotism by John Keane Pdf

A disturbing in-depth exposé of the antidemocratic practices of despotic governments now sweeping the world. One day they’ll be like us. That was once the West’s complacent and self-regarding assumption about countries emerging from poverty, imperial rule, or communism. But many have hardened into something very different from liberal democracy: what the eminent political thinker John Keane describes as a new form of despotism. And one day, he warns, we may be more like them. Drawing on extensive travels, interviews, and a lifetime of thinking about democracy and its enemies, Keane shows how governments from Russia and China through Central Asia to the Middle East and Europe have mastered a formidable combination of political tools that threaten the established ideals and practices of power-sharing democracy. They mobilize the rhetoric of democracy and win public support for workable forms of government based on patronage, dark money, steady economic growth, sophisticated media controls, strangled judiciaries, dragnet surveillance, and selective violence against their opponents. Casting doubt on such fashionable terms as dictatorship, autocracy, fascism, and authoritarianism, Keane makes a case for retrieving and refurbishing the old term “despotism” to make sense of how these regimes function and endure. He shows how they cooperate regionally and globally and draw strength from each other’s resources while breeding global anxieties and threatening the values and institutions of democracy. Like Montesquieu in the eighteenth century, Keane stresses the willing complicity of comfortable citizens in all these trends. And, like Montesquieu, he worries that the practices of despotism are closer to home than we care to admit.

Author : Brian Klaas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2018-05-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780190934996

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The Despot's Accomplice by Brian Klaas Pdf

For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the world is steadily becoming less democratic. The true culprits are dictators and counterfeit democrats. But, argues Klaas, the West is also an accomplice, inadvertently assaulting pro-democracy forces abroad as governments in Washington, London and Brussels chase pyrrhic short-term economic and security victories. Friendly fire from Western democracies against democracy abroad is too high a price to pay for a myopic foreign policy that is ultimately making the world less prosperous, stable and democratic. The Despot's Accomplice draws on years of extensive interviews on the frontlines of the global struggle for democracy, from a poetry-reading, politician-kidnapping general in Madagascar to Islamist torture victims in Tunisia, Belarusian opposition activists tailed by the KGB, West African rebels, and tea-sipping members of the Thai junta. Cumulatively, their stories weave together a tale of a broken system at the root of democracy's global retreat.

Author : Paul Anthony Rahe
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 399 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2009-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780300144925

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Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift by Paul Anthony Rahe Pdf

In 1989, the Cold War abruptly ended and it seemed as if the world was at last safe for democracy. But a spirit of uneasiness, discontent, and world-weariness soon arose and has persisted in Europe, in America, and elsewhere for two decades. To discern the meaning of this malaise we must investigate the nature of liberal democracy, says the author of this provocative book, and he undertakes to do so through a detailed investigation of the thinking of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville. Paul A. Rahe argues that these political thinkers anticipated the modern liberal republic's propensity to drift in the direction of “soft despotism”—a condition that arises within a democracy when paternalistic state power expands and gradually undermines the spirit of self-government. Such an eventuality, feared by Tocqueville in the nineteenth century, has now become a reality throughout the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. So Rahe asserts, and he explains what must be done to reverse this unfortunate trend.

Author : Brian Klaas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2017-12-07
Category : Authoritarianism
ISBN : 9781849049436

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The Despot's Apprentice by Brian Klaas Pdf

An ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world's dictators explains Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian tactics and the threat they pose to American democracy.

Author : Walter Thomas Mills
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 1916
Category : Democracy
ISBN : STANFORD:36105036617996

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Democracy Or Despotism by Walter Thomas Mills Pdf

Author : Charles Edward Merriam
Publisher : New York, McGraw-Hill
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 1939
Category : Democracy
ISBN : UCAL:$B154970

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The New Democracy and the New Despotism by Charles Edward Merriam Pdf

Author : Molly Elliot Seawell
Publisher : Good Press
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2022-08-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : EAN:4064066425630

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Despotism and Democracy: A Study in Washington Society and Politics by Molly Elliot Seawell Pdf

"Despotism and Democracy: A Study in Washington Society and Politics" by Molly Elliot Seawell is a history book, but it's not written in a dry or stuffy way. Seawell was a respected historian and she knew how to break down political and social aspects of Washington in a way that would engage readers during a time when being informed about politics was an incredible rarity.

Author : Richard Hildreth
Publisher : Applewood Books
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2009-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781429019576

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Despotism in America by Richard Hildreth Pdf

Title: Despotism in America: an inquiry into the nature, results, and legal basis of the slave-holding system in the United States.Author: Richard HildrethPublisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP01269900CollectionID: CTRG94-B637PublicationDate: 18540101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: Collation: 306 p.; 19 cm

Author : Debasish Roy Chowdhury,John Keane
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2021-06-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780192588272

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To Kill A Democracy by Debasish Roy Chowdhury,John Keane Pdf

India is heralded as the world's largest democracy. Yet, there is now growing alarm about its democratic health. To Kill a Democracy gets to the heart of the matter. Combining poignant life stories with sharp scholarly insight, it rejects the belief that India was once a beacon of democracy but is now being ruined by the destructive forces of Modi-style populism. The book details the much deeper historical roots of the present-day assaults on civil liberties and democratic institutions. Democracy, the authors also argue, is much more than elections and the separation of powers. It is a whole way of life lived in dignity, and that is why they pay special attention to the decaying social foundations of Indian democracy. In compelling fashion, the book describes daily struggles for survival and explains how lived social injustices and unfreedoms rob Indian elections of their meaning, while at the same time feeding the decadence and iron-fisted rule of its governing institutions. Much more than a book about India, To Kill A Democracy argues that what is happening in the country is globally important, and not just because every third person living in a democracy is an Indian. It shows that when democracies rack and ruin their social foundations, they don't just kill off the spirit and substance of democracy. They lay the foundations for despotism.

Author : T A B (Thomas Anthony Buch Corley
Publisher : Hassell Street Press
Page : 442 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2021-09-09
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1014355869

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Democratic Despot; a Life of Napoleon III by T A B (Thomas Anthony Buch Corley Pdf

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author : Molly Elliott Seawell
Publisher : HOLISTENCE PUBLICATIONS
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2024-03-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9786256646926

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Despotism and Democracy A Study in Washington Society and Politics by Molly Elliott Seawell Pdf

Author : Sulyman Abaya
Publisher : AuthorHouse
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-24
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781546282495

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Africa’s Democratic Despot and Its Transition by Sulyman Abaya Pdf

This play is a dramatic exposé of agelong concerns on why Africa as a continent has not been able to completely break the yoke of military rule. Sulyman Abaya probes the three-pronged anathema of Africa—poverty, war, and illiteracy—within the context of its undemocratic governance and inability to totally embrace democracy as the real reasons why the continent has been on the back seat. As the play tries to capture the Western incursion to free Africa completely from the vestiges of military rule, it collapses into the glooming complexities of the deceit and chicanery of the sit-tight military rulers, who keep endless promises of transition from militarism to democracy. The line drawn by the global trend to see the whole world become a democracy and the recurring decimal of military takeovers is where this play has found its voice to locate indices of Africa’s retrogression.