Downsizing Democracy

Downsizing Democracy
Author: Matthew A. Crenson
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 142143735X

Originally publushed in 2002. In Downsizing Democracy, Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg describe how the once powerful idea of a collective citizenry has given way to a concept of personal, autonomous democracy. Today, political change is effected through litigation, lobbying, and term limits, rather than active participation in the political process, resulting in narrow special interest groups dominating state and federal decision-making. At a time when an American's investment in the democratic process has largely been reduced to an annual contribution to a political party or organization, Downsizing Democracy offers a critical reassessment of American democracy.

Downsizing Democracy

Downsizing Democracy
Author: Matthew A. Crenson
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2004-03-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780801878862

Originally publushed in 2002. In Downsizing Democracy, Matthew A. Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg describe how the once powerful idea of a collective citizenry has given way to a concept of personal, autonomous democracy. Today, political change is effected through litigation, lobbying, and term limits, rather than active participation in the political process, resulting in narrow special interest groups dominating state and federal decision-making. At a time when an American's investment in the democratic process has largely been reduced to an annual contribution to a political party or organization, Downsizing Democracy offers a critical reassessment of American democracy.

Popular Democracy

Popular Democracy
Author: Gianpaolo Baiocchi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-12-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1503600777

Local participation is the new democratic imperative. In the United States, three-fourths of all cities have developed opportunities for citizen involvement in strategic planning. The World Bank has invested $85 billion over the last decade to support community participation worldwide. But even as these opportunities have become more popular, many contend that they have also become less connected to actual centers of power and the jurisdictions where issues relevant to communities are decided. With this book, Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Ernesto Ganuza consider the opportunities and challenges of democratic participation. Examining how one mechanism of participation has traveled the world—with its inception in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and spread to Europe and North America—they show how participatory instruments have become more focused on the formation of public opinion and are far less attentive to, or able to influence, actual reform. Though the current impact and benefit of participatory forms of government is far more ambiguous than its advocates would suggest, Popular Democracy concludes with suggestions of how participation could better achieve its political ideals.

Presidential Power

Presidential Power
Author: Matthew A. Crenson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780393064889

This book explores how American presidents--especially those of the past three decades--have increased the power of the presidency at the expense of democracy.

Political Parties and Democracy

Political Parties and Democracy
Author: Kay Lawson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1537
Release: 2010-07-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0313083495

Native scholars explore the relationship between political parties and democracy in regions around the world. The development of political parties over the past century is the story of three stages in the pursuit of power: liberation, democratization, and de-democratization. Political Parties and Democracy is comprised of five, stand-alone volumes that probe the realities of political parties at all three stages. In each volume, contributors explore the relationship between political parties and democracy (or democratization) in their nations, providing necessary historical, socioeconomic, and institutional context, as well as the details of contemporary political tensions. Contributors are distinguished indigenous scholars who have lived the truths they tell and are, thus, able to write with unique breadth, depth, and scope. They show the parties of their respective nations as they have developed through history and changing institutional structures, and they explain the balance of power among them—and between them and competing agencies of power—today.

Downsizing the Federal Government

Downsizing the Federal Government
Author: Chris Edwards
Publisher: Cato Institute
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2005-11-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1933995513

The federal government is running huge budget deficits, spending too much, and heading toward a financial crisis. Federal spending soared under President George W. Bush, and the costs of programs for the elderly are set to balloon in coming years. Hurricane Katrina has made the federal budget situation even more desperate. In Downsizing the Federal Government Cato Institute budget expert Chris Edwards provides policymakers with solutions to the growing federal budget mess. Edwards identifies more than 100 federal programs that should be terminated, transferred to the states, or privatized in order to balance the budget and save hundreds of billions of dollars. Edwards proposes a balanced reform package of cuts to entitlements, domestic programs, and excess defense spending. He argues that these cuts would not only eliminate the deficit, but also strengthen the economy, enlarge personal freedom, and leave a positive fiscal legacy for the next generation. Downsizing the Federal Government discusses the systematic causes of wasteful spending, and it overflows with examples of federal programs that are obsolete and mismanaged. The book examines the budget process and shows how policymakers act contrary to the interests of average Americans by favoring special interests.

Why Politics Matters

Why Politics Matters
Author: Gerry Stoker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2017-09-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 113760896X

Profound social changes have made governance and political leadership more challenging than ever. The result is that politics in the democratic world faces a crisis in the 21st century. The revised edition of this highly successful text reassesses the gap between citizen expectation and the realities of government in light of new developments.

Resisting Citizenship

Resisting Citizenship
Author: Martha A. Ackelsberg
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135775230

Political participation in America—supposedly the world’s strongest democracy—is startlingly low, and many of the civil rights and economic equity initiatives that were instituted in the 1960s and '70s have been abandoned, as significant proportions of the populace seem to believe that the civil rights battle has been won. However, rates of collective engagement, like community activism, are surprisingly high. In Resisting Citizenship, renowned feminist political scientist Martha Ackelsberg argues that community activism may hold important clues to reviving democracy in this time of growing bureaucratization and inequality. This book brings together many of Ackelsberg’s writings over the past 25 years, combining her own field work and interviews with cutting edge research and theory on democracy and activism. She explores these efforts in order to draw lessons—and attempt to incorporate knowledge—about current notions of democracy from those who engage in "non-traditional" participation, those who have, in many respects, been relegated to the margins of political life in the United States.

Democracy Reinvented

Democracy Reinvented
Author: Hollie Russon Gilman
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2016-01-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 081572683X

Participatory Budgeting—the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States. Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called "revolutionary civics in action" by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds. Democracy Reinvented places participatory budgeting within the larger discussion of the health of U.S. democracy and focuses on the enabling political and institutional conditions. Author and former White House policy adviser Hollie Russon Gilman presents theoretical insights, indepth case studies, and interviews to offer a compelling alternative to the current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government. She offers policy recommendations on how to tap online tools and other technological and civic innovations to promote more inclusive governance. While most literature tends to focus on institutional changes without solutions, this book suggests practical ways to empower citizens to become change agents. Reinvesting in Democracy also includes a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that come with using digital tools to re-engage citizens in governance.

Democracy After Liberalism

Democracy After Liberalism
Author: Robert Talisse
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2005-07-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135930384

This book critically evaluates liberalism, the dominant attempt in the tradition of political philosophy to provide a philosophical foundation for democracy, and argues for a conception of deliberative democracy to meet this need.