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Author : Benjamin Barber
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : History
ISBN : 0520242335
"One of the chosen few: an enduring contribution to democratic thought."—Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
Author : Allan C. Hutchinson
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Constitutional law
ISBN : 9781487507930
Bold and unconventional, this book advocates for an institutional turn-about in the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism.
Author : Trevor Norris
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2016-05-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781498533621
This collection of original essays by prominent authors contributes to current debates about democracy in powerful and provocative ways. The occasion for bringing together this notable collection of essays is the opportunity to examine the crisis in democracy and the promise of new alternative models.
Author : Ganesh Sitaraman
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2019-12-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781541618107
A leading progressive intellectual offers an "illuminating" agenda for how real democracy can triumph in America and beyond (Ari Berman, New York Times). Since the New Deal in the 1930s, there have been two eras in our political history: the liberal era, stretching up to the 1970s, followed by the neoliberal era of privatization and austerity ever since. In each period, the dominant ideology was so strong that it united even partisan opponents. But the neoliberal era is collapsing, and the central question of our time is what comes next. As acclaimed legal scholar and policy expert Ganesh Sitaraman argues, two political visions now contend for the future. One is nationalist oligarchy, which rigs the system for the rich and powerful while using nationalism to mobilize support. The other is the great democracy, which fights corruption and extends both political and economic power to all people. At this decisive moment in history, The Great Democracy offers a bold, transformative agenda for achieving real democracy.
Author : Cristina Lafont
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198848189
This book articulates a participatory conception of deliberative democracy that takes the democratic ideal of self-government seriously. It aims to improve citizens' democratic control and vindicate the value of citizens' participation against conceptions that threaten to undermine it. The book critically analyzes deep pluralist, epistocratic, and lottocratic conceptions of democracy. Their defenders propose various institutional ''shortcuts'' to help solve problems of democratic governance such as overcoming disagreements, citizens' political ignorance, or poor-quality deliberation. However, all these shortcut proposals require citizens to blindly defer to actors over whose decisions they cannot exercise control. Implementing such proposals would therefore undermine democracy. Moreover, it seems naive to assume that a community can reach better outcomes 'faster' if it bypasses the beliefs and attitudes of its citizens. Unfortunately, there are no 'shortcuts' to make a community better than its members. The only road to better outcomes is the long, participatory road that is taken when citizens forge a collective will by changing one another's hearts and minds. However difficult the process of justifying political decisions to one another may be, skipping it cannot get us any closer to the democratic ideal. Starting from this conviction, the book defends a conception of democracy ''without shortcuts''. This conception sheds new light on long-standing debates about the proper scope of public reason, the role of religion in politics, and the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. It also proposes new ways to unleash the democratic potential of institutional innovations such as deliberative minipublics.
Author : Benjamin R. Barber
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Citizenship
ISBN : 0520056167
Arguing that an excess of liberalism has undone American democratic institutions, Barber demonstrates that the political crises of this era -- cynicism about voting, alienation, privatism and the growing paralysis of public institutions -- are symptoms of a malaise due to liberal ways of thinking about and doing politics. He believes that if Americans are to survive as a free people, they will have to participate more in their political system through such means as neighborhood assemblies, national initiatives, referendums and election of some political offices by a rotation system. Citizens of a strong democracy formulate policies not on the basis of absolute values but on what can be agreed as reasonable. ISBN 0-520-05115-7 : $16.95.
Author : Jason Brennan
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2017-09-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781400888399
A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.
Author : Benjamin R. Barber
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 175 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2004-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780809076567
In our crowded, noisy world—too many people, too much crime, too many wars, not enough time—it seems almost impossible to locate and preserve the common ground where a civil society might flourish. Whatever happened to the civic virtue and community life that nourished true democracy? In this provocative, hard-hitting book, political scientist Benjamin Barber tackles these questions head-on and, in answering them, retrieves the ideals of "civil society" from the nostalgists who want to re-create old-fashioned (and discriminatory) small communities and from the free-marketeers who associate it with unfettered commercial activity. Commentators have been making a fashion of civil society, but they tend to mean many different things by the phrase: this bracingly clear book shows how diverse the various notions are and how best to think about them. Barber proposes practical strategies for making civil society real, for civilizing public discourse and promoting civic debate, and for affirming values beyond those of work and leisure, commerce and bureaucracy.
Author : Jason A. Scorza
Publisher : UPNE
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Citizenship
ISBN : 1584656654
In this age of "total" war on terrorism, many liberals fail to recognize the dangers of adopting the methods of their enemies--of meeting propaganda with propaganda, cruelty with cruelty, and violence with violence. Other liberals reject even modest efforts to teach and regulate good citizenship, fearing that in doing so they will come to resemble their enemies. Can liberal democracy be strengthened and secured without either compromising basic liberal principles or emasculating fundamental liberal purposes? The great totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century are gone, but the need for "strong liberalism" has never been more urgent. Jason A. Scorza argues that liberalism can generate an account of citizenship responsive to such pressing contemporary challenges as political fear, political apathy, and conformist political membership. Strong Liberalism is founded on understanding thoroughly the canonical defenders of liberal democracy (John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, and Judith Shklar), moving beyond the thinking of prominent contemporary theorists (Stephen Macedo, William Galston, and Thomas Spragens), and parrying the arguments of liberalism's critics (Benjamin Barber, Michael Sandel, and Mary Ann Glendon). Scorza imparts a sharp theory of "strong liberalism" that summons liberal philosophy to the battlefield of the inner life of politics and recalls it to its own essential but often overlooked strengths: civic friendship, political courage, political self-reliance, civic toleration, and political irreverence. The theory of strong liberalism accepts that civic strength is rooted in civic pluralism. Liberal democracy is best served by the cultivation of multiple examples of good citizenship rather than by the insistence that a single, ideal civic character can be identified and universally imposed through civic education.
Author : Marcel Hénaff,Tracy B. Strong
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0816633878
Moving from classical Greece to the present, Public Space and Democracy provides both historical accounts and a comparative analytical framework for understanding public space both as a place and as a product of various media, from speech to the Internet. These essays make a powerful case for thinking of modern technological developments not as the end of public space, but as an opportunity for reframing the idea of the public and of the public space as the locus of power.
Author : Shoshana Zuboff
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 658 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-15
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781610395700
The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.
Author : Benjamin R. Barber
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691227900
Benjamin Barber is one of America's preeminent political theorists. He has been a significant voice in the continuing debate about the nature and role of democracy in the contemporary world. A Passion for Democracy collects twenty of his most important writings on American democracy. Together they refine his distinctive position in democratic theory. Barber's conception of "strong democracy" contrasts with traditional concepts of "liberal democracy," especially in its emphasis on citizen participation in central issues of public debate. These essays critique the "thin representation" of liberal democracy and buttress the arguments presented in Barber's twelve books, most recently in his well-received Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Re-shaping the World. In these pieces, Barber argues for participatory democracy without dependence on abstract metaphysical foundations, and he stresses the relationship among democracy and civil society, civic education, and culture. A Passion for Democracy is divided into four sections. In the first, "American Theory: Democracy, Liberalism, and Rights," Barber addresses issues of ongoing relevance to today's debates about the roots of participatory democracy, including individualism vs. community, the importance of consent, and the irrelevance of Marxism. Essays in the second section, "American Practice: Leadership, Citizenship, and Censorship" provide a "strong democracy" critique of American democratic practice. "Education for Democracy: Civic Education, Service, and Citizenship" applies Barber's theories to three related topics and includes his much-discussed essay "America Skips School." The final section, "Democracy and Technology: Endless Frontier or End of Democracy?" provides glimpses into a future that technology alone cannot secure for democracy. In his preface, Barber writes: "In these essays ... I have been hard on my country. Like most ardent democrats, I want more for it than it has achieved, despite the fact that it has achieved more than most people have dared to want." This wide-ranging collection displays not only his passion for democracy, but also his unique perspective on issues of abiding importance for the democratic process.
Author : Frances McCall Rosenbluth,Ian Shapiro
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2018-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780300232752
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics Democracies across the world are adopting reforms to bring politics closer to the people. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates. Ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly. Many democracies now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones. Yet voters keep getting angrier. There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem, not the solution. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making make governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents' long-term interests. To revive confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.
Author : Majid Behrouzi
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0739118102
This book, along with its companion volume, Democracy as the Political Empowerment of the Citizen, relates the democratic potential of the latest electronic technologies to the idea of direct-participatory democracy. Taking a critical look at the past and present theories of democracy, this volume clarifies the original meaning of the idea of democracy and explains the distortions it has suffered throughout its long history.
Author : Maxwell A. Cameron
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780190235222
The separation of powers is an idea with ancient origins, but nowadays it is largely relegated to legal doctrine, public philosophy, or the history of ideas. Yet the concept is often evoked in debates on the 'war' on terrorism, the use of emergency powers, or constitutional reform. Strong Constitutions boldly places the separation of powers on a social scientific footing, arguing that it emerged with the spread of literacy, became central to constitutional thought after the Gutenberg revolution, and faces unprecedented challenges in our current era of electronic communication. Constitutional states use texts to coordinate collective action, and they do so by creating governmental agencies with specific jurisdiction and competence over distinct types of power. Among them are the power to make decisions backed by legally sanctioned coercion; the deliberative power to make procedurally legitimate laws; and the judicial power to interpret and apply laws in particular circumstances. The division of government into three such branches enables state officials and citizens to use written texts-legal codes and documents, including constitutions-along with unwritten rules and conventions to coordinate their activities on larger scales and over longer time horizons. Cameron argues that constitutional states are not weaker because their powers are separated. They are generally stronger because they solve collective action problems rooted in speech and communication. The book is a must read for anyone interested in the separation of powers, its origin, evolution, and consequences.