Libraries, Archives and Museums as Democratic Spaces in a Digital Age


Book Description

Libraries, archives and museums have traditionally been a part of the public sphere's infrastructure. They have been so by providing public access to culture and knowledge, by being agents for enlightenment and by being public meeting places in their communities. Digitization and globalization poses new challenges in relation to upholding a sustainable public sphere. Can libraries, archives and museums contribute in meeting these challenges?




A Nation Under Our Feet


Book Description

Emphasizing the role of kinship, labor, and networks in the African American community, the author retraces six generations of black struggles since the end of the Civil War, revealing a "nation" under construction.







Democracy and the Media


Book Description

Volume 7 of The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research series focuses on the relationship between democracy and the media. Using the extensive collection of the C-SPAN Video Library, chapters cover Trump political rallies, congressional references of late-night comedy, responses of African American congresswomen to COVID-19 bills, and congressional attacks on the media through floor speeches in the House of Representatives and Senate. The C-SPAN Video Library is unique because there is no other research collection that is based on video research of contemporary politics. Methodologically distinctive, much of the research uses new techniques to analyze video, text, and spoken words of political leaders. No other book examines such a wide range of topics―from immigration to climate change to race relations―using video as the basis for research.




Activating Democracy


Book Description

Driven by a powerful belief in the value of free expression, Sheryl Oring has for more than a decade been helping people across the United States voice concerns about public affairs through her 'I Wish to Say' project. This book uses that project as the starting point for an exploration of a series of issues of public interest being addressed by artists today. It features essays by contributors ranging from art historians and practicing artists to scholars and creators working in literature, political science and architecture. All the contributors offer a different approach, but they share a primary goal of sparking a dialogue not just among makers of art, but among viewers, readers and the concerned public at large. The resulting volume will be an essential resource for politically engaged contemporary artists searching for innovative, cross-disciplinary ways of making and sharing art.




Democracy and Leadership


Book Description




The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research


Book Description

C-SPAN is the network of record for US political affairs, broadcasting live gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and to other forums where public policy is discussed, debated, and decided––without editing, commentary, or analysis and with a balanced presentation of points of view. C-SPAN Video Library, adjacent to Purdue University, archives copies of all broadcast content, including policymaking proceedings, events, discussion, and debate, aired on the C-SPAN network since 1987. Extensive indexing, captioning, and other enhanced online features provide researchers, policy analysts, students, teachers, and public officials with an unparalleled chronological and internally cross-referenced record for deeper study. C-SPAN Insights presents the finest interdisciplinary research utilizing tools of the C-SPAN Video Library. Each volume highlights recent scholarship and comprises leading experts and emerging voices in political science, journalism, psychology, computer science, communication, and a variety of other disciplines. Each section within each volume includes responses from expert discussants. Developed in partnership with the Brian Lamb School of Communication and with support from the C-SPAN Education Foundation, C-SPAN Insights is guided by the ideal that all experimental outcomes, including those from our American experiment, can be best improved by directed study driving richer engagement and better understanding. C-SPAN Insights—Volume 4, edited by Robert X. Browning, advances our understanding of the framing of mental health, HIV/AIDS, policing, and public health, and explores subjects such as audience reactions in C-SPAN covered debates, the Twitter presidency of Donald Trump, and collaborative learning using the C-SPAN Video Library.




Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe


Book Description

Alternatives to Democracy in Twentieth-Century Europe examines the historical examples of Soviet Communism, Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Spanish Anarchism, suggesting that, in spite of their differences, they had some key features in common, in particular their shared hostility to individualism, representative government, laissez faire capitalism, and the decadence they associated with modern culture. But rather than seeking to return to earlier ways of working these movements and regimes sought to design a new future – an alternative future – that would restore the nation to spiritual and political health. The Fascists, for their part, specifically promoted palingenesis, which is to say the spiritual rebirth of the nation. The book closes with a long epilogue, in which Ramet defends liberal democracy, highlighting its strengths and advantages. In this chapter, the author identifies five key choke points, which would-be authoritarians typically seek to control, subvert, or instrumentalize: electoral rules, the judiciary, the media, hate speech, and surveillance, and looks at the cases of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, Jarosław Kaczyński’s Poland, and Donald Trump’s United States.




Democracy


Book Description

Since its inception, the Journal of Democracy has served as the premier venue for scholarship on democratization. The newest volume in the acclaimed Journal of Democracy book series, Democracy: A Reader brings together the seminal works that have appeared in its pages in nearly twenty years of publication. Democracy is in retreat around the world, giving renewed relevance and urgency to fundamental questions about the system that nevertheless remains the ideal standard of governance. Contributors ask: What exactly is democracy, and what sustains it? What institutions are best suited to a democratic system? Can elections produce undemocratic outcomes? Is democracy a universal value? Democracy: A Reader addresses these important concerns with critical discussions on delegative democracy, social capital, constitutional design, federalism, hybrid regimes, competitive authoritarianism, and more. With such influential contributors as Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Anwar Ibrahim, this is an indispensable resource for students of democracy and instructors at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Contributors: Michael E. Alvarez, Nancy Bermeo, Russell Bova, José Antonio Cheibub, Larry Diamond, Jørgen Elklit, Abdou Filali-Ansary, M. Steven Fish, Francis Fukuyama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Donald L. Horowitz, Anwar Ibrahim, Terry Lynn Karl, Steven Levitsky, Arend Lijphart, Fernando Limongi, Vali Nasr, Guillermo O'Donnell, Marc F. Plattner, Adam Przeworski, Robert D. Putnam, Andrew Reynolds, Giovanni Sartori, Andreas Schedler, Philippe C. Schmitter, Amartya Sen, Alfred Stepan, Palle Svensson, Nicolas van de Walle, Lucan A. Way




Democracy in Decline?


Book Description

"Is Democracy in Decline? is a short book that takes up the fascinating question on whether this once-revolutionary form of government--the bedrock of Western liberalism--is fast disappearing. Has the growth of corporate capitalism, mass economic inequality, and endemic corruption reversed the spread of democracy worldwide? In this incisive collection, leading thinkers address this disturbing and critically important issue. Published as part of the National Endowment for Democracy's 25th anniversary--and drawn from articles forthcoming in the Journal of Democracy--this collection includes seven essays from a stellar group of democracy scholars: Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Thomas Carothers, Marc Plattner, Larry Diamond, Philippe Schmitter, Steven Levitsky, Ivan Krastev, and Lucan Way. Written in a thought-provoking style from seven different perspectives, this book provides an eye-opening look at how the very foundation of Western political culture may be imperiled"--