Delusional Democracy

Delusional Democracy
Author: Joel S. Hirschhorn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2006
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

American democracy is crumbling, but if citizens take back their sovereign power it can be fixed.

Democratic Delusions

Democratic Delusions
Author: Richard J. Ellis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2002
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

It is becoming common in many states: the opportunity to reclaim government from politicians by simply signing a petition to put an initiative on the ballot and then voting for it. Isn't this what America ought to be about? Proposition 13 in California's 1978 election paved the way; the past decade saw more than 450 such actions; now in many states direct legislation dominates the political agenda and defines political—and public-opinion. While this may appear to be democracy in action, Richard Ellis warns us that the initiative process may be putting democracy at risk. In Democratic Delusions he offers a critical analysis of the statewide initiative process in the United States, challenging readers to look beyond populist rhetoric and face political reality. Through engaging prose and illuminating (and often amusing) anecdotes, Ellis shows readers the "dark side" of direct democracy—specifically the undemocratic consequences that result from relying too heavily on the initiative process. He provides historic context to the development of initiatives-from their Populist and Progress roots to their accelerated use in recent decades-and shows the differences between initiative processes in the states that use them. Most important, while acknowledging the positive contribution of initiatives, Ellis shows that there are reasons to use them carefully and sparingly: ill-considered initiatives can subvert normal legislative checks and balances, undermine the deliberative process, and even threaten the rights of minority groups through state-sanctioned measures. Today's initiative process, Ellis warns, is dominated not by ordinary citizens but by politicians, perennial activists, wealthy interests, and well-oiled machines. Deliberately misleading language on the ballot confuses voters and influences election results. And because many initiatives are challenged in the courts, these ostensibly democratic procedures have now put legislation in the hands of the judiciary. Throughout his book he cites examples drawn from states in which initiatives are used intensively—Oregon, California, Colorado, Washington, and Arizona-as well as others in which their use has increased in recent years. Undoing mistakes enacted by initiative can be more difficult than correcting errors of legislatures. As voters prepare to consider the host of initiatives that will be offered in the 2002 elections, this book can help put those efforts in a clearer light. Democratic Delusions urges moderation, attempting to teach citizens to be at least as skeptical of the initiative process as they are of the legislative process—and to appreciate the enduring value of the representative institutions they seek to circumvent.

Delusions of Democracy

Delusions of Democracy
Author: Moses Weldon Sowards
Publisher:
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1912
Genre: Democracy
ISBN:

Este libro ilustrado para niänos tiene solapas que los estudiantes pueden usar para esconder las palabras o los dibujos. Estâa organizado alrededor de 15 temas populares incluyendo granjas, escuelas, familia, colores y alimentos.

Democracy and Delusion

Democracy and Delusion
Author: Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh
Publisher:
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2017
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 9780624082286

Many common political arguments come pre-packaged in an old and dusty box - but the self-evident truths are not, in fact, so indisputable. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh sets out to dismantle that box. He argues that free education is far from impossible, the ANC's liberation narrative is too idyllic to swallow, land reform is not the first step to chaos, and the media is not free. A fresh perspective on South African politics.

On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions

On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions
Author: Joan Cocks
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 178093355X

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Winner of the 2015 David Easton Prize, awarded by the American Political Science Association (APSA) Global forces are eroding the ability of states to exert sovereign control over their populations, territories, and borders. Yet when dominated subjects across the world dream of freedom, they continue to conceive of it in sovereign terms. Sovereign freedom haunts the imagination of oppressed ethnic minorities, popular masses ruled by foreign powers or homegrown tyrants, indigenous peoples, and individuals chafing under customary or governmental restrictions. On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions draws on political theory and on two case studies – the encounter between Anglo-American settlers and Native American tribes, and the search for Jewish sovereignty in Palestine – to probe the allure of the idea of sovereign freedom and its self-defeating logic. It concludes by shifting its sights from political to economic sovereign power and by pursuing intimations of non-sovereign freedom in the contemporary age.

The Inclusion Delusion?

The Inclusion Delusion?
Author: Aislinn O'Donnell
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Democracy
ISBN: 9783034317856

This book argues that in order to develop just and inclusive institutions, particularly within the education system, we must begin from the standpoint of those who feel silenced, marginalised and excluded. It makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about how institutions need to change if they are to become genuinely inclusive.

Imperial Delusions

Imperial Delusions
Author: Carl Boggs
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780742527720

In this hard-hitting critique, Carl Boggs argues that the United States is dominated by a new militarism, one that has become more potent and menacing since 9/11. He skillfully explores the origins and development of this new militarism and show its devastating effects on American society.

Delusions of Power

Delusions of Power
Author: Robert Higgs
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781598130454

In Delusions of Power, economic historian Robert Higgs calls into question our ingrained notions concerning the nature of the state and democracy. Higgs uproots the foundation stone upon which the state's powers have rested and grown unchecked by the public. Beginning with the Founding Fathers and moving forward, Higgs reassesses the world wars, the Great Depression and the New Deal, and the financial debacle that began in 2008 with the view of demonstrating Americans' loss of liberties. He brings together the crisis in policymaking; key political actors and events; and the impact of war on the economy and civil liberties. For Higgs, war, and the cost of it, has had a major impact of war on the economy and civil liberties. For Higgs, war, and the cost of it, has had a major impact on American life and freedom. Through reading Higg's work, one will gain a new understanding of the state's power, democracy, and the issues threatening the pursuit of liberty. Book jacket.

The Net Delusion

The Net Delusion
Author: Evgeny Morozov
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1610391632

"The revolution will be Twittered!" declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran in June 2009. Yet for all the talk about the democratizing power of the Internet, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian governments are effectively using the Internet to suppress free speech, hone their surveillance techniques, disseminate cutting-edge propaganda, and pacify their populations with digital entertainment. Could the recent Western obsession with promoting democracy by digital means backfire? In this spirited book, journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov shows that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, Western do-gooders may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder -- not easier -- to promote democracy. Buzzwords like "21st-century statecraft" sound good in PowerPoint presentations, but the reality is that "digital diplomacy" requires just as much oversight and consideration as any other kind of diplomacy. Marshaling compelling evidence, Morozov shows why we must stop thinking of the Internet and social media as inherently liberating and why ambitious and seemingly noble initiatives like the promotion of "Internet freedom" might have disastrous implications for the future of democracy as a whole.