Author : Carole Pateman
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 35,41 MB
Release : 1970
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780521290043
Shows that current elitist theories are based on an inadequate understanding of the early writings of democratic theory and that much sociological evidence has been ignored.
Author : Chris Thornhill
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 599 pages
File Size : 17,96 MB
Release : 2018-06-21
Category : Law
ISBN : 1107199905
Provides a new legal-sociological theory of democracy, reflecting the impact of global law on national political institutions. This title is also available as Open Access.
Author : Susan Lape
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 357 pages
File Size : 28,73 MB
Release : 2010-02-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1139484125
In Race and Citizen Identity in the Classical Athenian Democracy, Susan Lape demonstrates how a race ideology grounded citizen identity. Although this ideology did not manifest itself in a fully developed race myth, its study offers insight into the causes and conditions that can give rise to race and racisms in both modern and pre-modern cultures. In the Athenian context, racial citizenship emerged because it both defined and justified those who were entitled to share in the political, symbolic, and socioeconomic goods of Athenian citizenship. By investigating Athenian law, drama, and citizenship practices, this study shows how citizen identity worked in practice to consolidate national unity and to account for past Athenian achievements. It also considers how Athenian identity narratives fuelled Herodotus' and Thucydides' understanding of history and causation.
Author : Josiah Ober
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 14,54 MB
Release : 2008-09-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1400828805
When does democracy work well, and why? Is democracy the best form of government? These questions are of supreme importance today as the United States seeks to promote its democratic values abroad. Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Greek city-state's remarkable success, and demonstrates the valuable lessons Athenian political practices hold for us today. He argues that the key to Athens's success lay in how the city-state managed and organized the aggregation and distribution of knowledge among its citizens. Ober explores the institutional contexts of democratic knowledge management, including the use of social networks for collecting information, publicity for building common knowledge, and open access for lowering transaction costs. He explains why a government's attempt to dam the flow of information makes democracy stumble. Democratic participation and deliberation consume state resources and social energy. Yet as Ober shows, the benefits of a well-designed democracy far outweigh its costs. Understanding how democracy can lead to prosperity and security is among the most pressing political challenges of modern times. Democracy and Knowledge reveals how ancient Greek politics can help us transcend the democratic dilemmas that confront the world today.
Author : Bernard Crick
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 21,78 MB
Release : 2002-10-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0191577650
No political concept is more used, and misused, than that of democracy. Nearly every regime today claims to be democratic, but not all 'democracies' allow free politics, and free politics existed long before democratic franchises. This book is a short account of the history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, from ancient Greece and Rome through the American, French, and Russian revolutions, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Author : William R. Keech
Publisher :
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 43,31 MB
Release : 1962
Category : Citizenship
ISBN :
Author : Christian Kock
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 15,36 MB
Release : 2015-06-29
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0271060298
Citizenship has long been a central topic among educators, philosophers, and political theorists. Using the phrase “rhetorical citizenship” as a unifying perspective, Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation aims to develop an understanding of citizenship as a discursive phenomenon, arguing that discourse is not prefatory to real action but in many ways constitutive of civic engagement. To accomplish this, the book brings together, in a cross-disciplinary effort, contributions by scholars in fields that rarely intersect. For the most part, discussions of citizenship have focused on aspects that are central to the “liberal” tradition of social thought—that is, questions of the freedoms and rights of citizens and groups. This collection gives voice to a “republican” conception of citizenship. Seeing participation and debate as central to being a citizen, this tradition looks back to the Greek city-states and republican Rome. Citizenship, in this sense of the word, is rhetorical citizenship. Rhetoric is thus at the core of being a citizen. Aside from the editors, the contributors are John Adams, Paula Cossart, Jonas Gabrielsen, Jette Barnholdt Hansen, Kasper Møller Hansen, Sine Nørholm Just, Ildikó Kaposi, William Keith, Bart van Klink, Marie Lund Klujeff, Manfred Kraus, Oliver W. Lembcke, Berit von der Lippe, James McDonald, Niels Møller Nielsen, Tatiana Tatarchevskiy, Italo Testa, Georgia Warnke, Kristian Wedberg, and Stephen West.
Author : Steven M. Cahn
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 473 pages
File Size : 42,47 MB
Release : 2021-07-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 153815756X
Democracies put political power in the hands of the people. But why should people have a say in the operations of the states that govern them? Are democratic states preferable to non-democratic states? If so, is there something intrinsically good about democracy, or does it merely serve an instrumental role? By what procedures should citizens’ votes be counted? How do we keep the voices of the ignorant from drowning out those of the wise? These, as well as other related questions, are explored in this timely anthology of forty historical and contemporary readings. Short introductions preceding each reading and a general introduction increase student comprehension across the spectrum of readings. With each reading edited for length and accessibility, this volume is ideal for both the undergraduate and graduate students in political theory and philosophy courses.
Author : David Pritchard
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 479 pages
File Size : 10,10 MB
Release : 2010-12-23
Category : History
ISBN : 0521190339
Analyses how the democracy of the classical Athenians revolutionized military practices and underwrote their unprecedented commitment to war-making.
Author : Ian Shapiro
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 28,86 MB
Release : 2009-01-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 140082589X
What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action. Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good. Shapiro reveals the shortcomings of both, arguing instead that democracy should be geared toward minimizing domination throughout society. He contends that Joseph Schumpeter's classic defense of competitive democracy is a useful starting point for achieving this purpose, but that it stands in need of radical supplementation--both with respect to its operation in national political institutions and in its extension to other forms of collective association. Shapiro's unusually wide-ranging discussion also deals with the conditions that make democracy's survival more and less likely, with the challenges presented by ethnic differences and claims for group rights, and with the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth. Ranging over politics, philosophy, constitutional law, economics, sociology, and psychology, this book is written in Shapiro's characteristic lucid style--a style that engages practitioners within the field while also opening up the debate to newcomers.
