Author : Roberto Mangabeira Unger
Publisher : Verso
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 25,24 MB
Release : 2000-06-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781859840092
Unger gives detailed content to a progressive and practical alternative to neoliberalism and institutionally conservative social democracy in a strategy that has drawn increasing attention throughout the world as well as in his native Brazil.
Author :
Publisher : Cambria Press
Page : 306 pages
File Size : 28,78 MB
Release :
Category :
ISBN : 162196826X
Author : Susan Clark
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 44,53 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1603584137
Reconnecting with the sources of decisions that affect us, and with the processes of democracy itself, is at the heart of 21st-century sustainable communities. Slow Democracy chronicles the ways in which ordinary people have mobilized to find local solutions to local problems. It invites us to bring the advantages of "slow" to our community decision making. Just as slow food encourages chefs and eaters to become more intimately involved with the production of local food, slow democracy encourages us to govern ourselves locally with processes that are inclusive, deliberative, and citizen powered. Susan Clark and Woden Teachout outline the qualities of real, local decision making and show us the range of ways that communities are breathing new life into participatory democracy around the country. We meet residents who seize back control of their municipal water systems from global corporations, parents who find unique solutions to seemingly divisive school-redistricting issues, and a host of other citizens across the nation who have designed local decision-making systems to solve the problems unique to their area in ways that work best for their communities. Though rooted in the direct participation that defined our nation's early days, slow democracy is not a romantic vision for reigniting the ways of old. Rather, the strategies outlined here are uniquely suited to 21st-century technologies and culture.If our future holds an increased focus on local food, local energy, and local economy, then surely we will need to improve our skills at local governance as well.
Author : Ilya Somin
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 26,3 MB
Release : 2013-10-02
Category : Law
ISBN : 0804789312
One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.
Author : Zizi Papacharissi
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 42,44 MB
Release : 2021-02-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 030025864X
What do ordinary citizens really want from their governments? Democracy has long been considered an ideal state of governance. What if it’s not? Perhaps it is not the end goal but, rather, a transition stage to something better. Drawing on original interviews conducted with citizens of more than thirty countries, Zizi Papacharissi explores what democracy is, what it means to be a citizen, and what can be done to enhance governance. As she probes the ways governments can better serve their citizens and evolve in positive ways, Papacharissi gives a voice to everyday people, whose ideas and experiences of capitalism, media, and education can help shape future governing practices. This book expands on the well-known difficulties of realizing the intimacy of democracy in a global world—the “democratic paradox”—and presents a concrete vision of how communications technologies can be harnessed to implement representative equality, information equality, and civic literacy.
Author : Ronald Dworkin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 45,60 MB
Release : 2008-07-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1400827272
Politics in America are polarized and trivialized, perhaps as never before. In Congress, the media, and academic debate, opponents from right and left, the Red and the Blue, struggle against one another as if politics were contact sports played to the shouts of cheerleaders. The result, Ronald Dworkin writes, is a deeply depressing political culture, as ill equipped for the perennial challenge of achieving social justice as for the emerging threats of terrorism. Can the hope for change be realized? Dworkin, one the world's leading legal and political philosophers, identifies and defends core principles of personal and political morality that all citizens can share. He shows that recognizing such shared principles can make substantial political argument possible and help replace contempt with mutual respect. Only then can the full promise of democracy be realized in America and elsewhere. Dworkin lays out two core principles that citizens should share: first, that each human life is intrinsically and equally valuable and, second, that each person has an inalienable personal responsibility for identifying and realizing value in his or her own life. He then shows what fidelity to these principles would mean for human rights, the place of religion in public life, economic justice, and the character and value of democracy. Dworkin argues that liberal conclusions flow most naturally from these principles. Properly understood, they collide with the ambitions of religious conservatives, contemporary American tax and social policy, and much of the War on Terror. But his more basic aim is to convince Americans of all political stripes--as well as citizens of other nations with similar cultures--that they can and must defend their own convictions through their own interpretations of these shared values.
Author : Leif Lewin
Publisher :
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 39,87 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781604978186
It took two hundred years to implement democracy within the nation-state, from the emergence of democratic theories during the Enlightenment to the introduction of popular government after World War I. If the same process were to follow at the international level, and the treaty of Versailles was taken as the baseline for the calculation, a democratic world order could be expected to emerge by 2119 - hence the title of this book. The point is the long perspective. Most scholars in mainstream political science and international relations are skeptical of the prospect of global democracy and believe that in the short run the fight against corruption and abuse of power is a more pressing task. This is true and very much an important mission; as such, corruption is treated in a special chapter of the book.
Author : Johan Skytte Professor of Eloquence and Government Leif Lewin
Publisher :
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 12,41 MB
Release : 2014-05-14
Category : LAW
ISBN : 9781624993619
It took two hundred years to implement democracy within the nation-state, from the emergence of democratic theories during the Enlightenment to the introduction of popular government after World War I. If the same process were to follow at the international level, and the treaty of Versailles was taken as the baseline for the calculation, a democratic world order could be expected to emerge by 2119 - hence the title of this book. The point is the long perspective. Most scholars in mainstream political science and international relations are skeptical of the prospect of global democracy and believe that in the short run the fight against corruption and abuse of power is a more pressing task. This is true and very much an important mission; as such, corruption is treated in a special chapter of the book. But in fulfilling this mission, the finite goal should not be forgotten. The present good must not be the enemy of the ultimate best. To promote short-time accountability in world politics, leading scholars suggest new, so called pragmatic methods instead of old-fashioned values such as political equality and electoral accountability. Critical analyses of how this pragmatism has already functioned in various international organizations are presented as well as a discussion of four models of global democracy: "federalism," "cosmopolitanism," "global corporatism" and "stakeholder democracy." The book is a bold, unique and provocative defense of classical democracy transferred to the global level. Today, students of international politics are learning that global democracy is not feasible. The future is said to belong to the nation-state. Still, in an era of globalization more and more decisions are made on the supranational level. Small social changes in one place have great consequences elsewhere. Rivers, winds, migration, financial operations, trade and travel do not stop at national borders. The question is not whether there exists a decision-making process above the nation-states but rather if these decisions should be made in a democratic fashion or in some other way. The reason for studying the book, then, is to obtain a critical view of the conventional wisdom today so that the goal of global democracy is not abandoned. 2119 - The Year Global Democracy Will Be Realized applies a comprehensive approach to globalization and democracy and presents new insights in the intriguing dialectics between these two phenomena. After the end of the Cold War, democratic theory has changed from "input-legitimization" in terms of voting, participation, and procedure to "output-legitimization" with an emphasis on welfare, consensus, and results. Again, Platos guardians are hailed as the peoples true friend, whereas the possibilities to hold the collaborating governors to account by the voters are rendered more difficult. Anyone interested in this philosophical change should read the book. 2119 - The Year Global Democracy Will Be Realized is written in a clear and accessible manner, deliberately avoiding jargon, and will be especially useful for students and scholars in political science, international relations, and related fields as well as for journalists, moulders of public opinion, political decision-makers, and involved citizens.
Author : K. Sabeel Rahman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 11,14 MB
Release : 2017
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 019046853X
In 2008, the collapse of the US financial system plunged the economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In its aftermath, the financial crisis pushed to the forefront fundamental moral and institutional questions about how we govern the modern economy. What are the values that economic policy ought to prioritize? What institutions do we trust to govern complex economic dynamics? Much of popular and academic debate revolves around two competing approaches to these fundamental questions: laissez-faire defenses of self-correcting and welfare-enhancing markets on the one hand, and managerialist turns to the role of insulated, expert regulation in mitigating risks and promoting growth on the other. In Democracy Against Domination, K. Sabeel Rahman offers an alternative vision for how we should govern the modern economy in a democratic society. Drawing on a rich tradition of economic reform rooted in the thought and reform politics of early twentieth century progressives like John Dewey and Louis Brandeis, Rahman argues that the fundamental moral challenge of economic governance today is two-fold: first, to counteract the threats of economic domination whether in the form of corporate power or inequitable markets; and second, to do so by expanding the capacity of citizens themselves to exercise real political power in economic policymaking. This normative framework in turn suggests a very different way of understanding and addressing major economic governance issues of the post-crisis era, from the challenge of too-big-to-fail financial firms, to the dangers of regulatory capture and regulatory reform.
Author : Bernardo De Urquidi
Publisher : Bernardo De Urquidi
Page : 341 pages
File Size : 26,84 MB
Release :
Category : Philosophy
ISBN :
Do you trust the government? Do you feel represented by the politicians inside the government? Do you trust politicians? Do you vote for “the lesser of two evils”? The truth is you do not live in a real democracy. Electoral Representative Democracy is not a truly democratic system, it is oppressive, it concentrates power in a few hands, it is inefficient, polarizing, easily corrupted and it tends to generate either stagnation or dictators. What options do we have? Stay on this oppressive, polarizing, and inefficient system until it breaks apart or a dictator or violent revolution terrorizes our society. Implement a more oppressive and totalitarian system to maintain “order” and ramp up “efficiency”. Implement one of the truly democratic but inefficient systems that have already been developed and applied like direct democracy or sortition democracy. Develop new, efficient, just, and real democratic systems and processes like the Democratic Objectivecracy. What is our best option? The Democratic Objectivecracy: a new social organization system that is truly democratic, participatory, efficient, hard to corrupt, that distributes power equally among all citizens, it incentivizes collaboration and cooperation to achieve societies common objectives, it protects citizens from oppression and abuses of power and it generates new opportunities and freedoms. The Democratic Objectivecracy maximizes organization and citizens' power while eliminating hierarchy and the concentration of power in a few hands. Can we really change the system? Of course! Systems have been changed before and they will continue to change. The real question is not whether or not the system will change but whether it will change peacefully or through violence and whether it will change to be more oppressive or a more just and free system. Do you want real democracy?
