The Real World of Democracy

The Real World of Democracy
Author: Crawford Brough Macpherson
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1972, 1975 printing.
Total Pages: 67
Release: 1972
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780195015348

In The Real World of Democracy, C. B. Macpherson examines the rival ideas of democracy - the communist, Third World, and Western-liberal variants - and their impacts on one another. Macpherson, who was a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and an Officer of the Order of Canada, suggests that the West need not fear any challenge to liberal democracy if it is prepared to re-examine and alter its own values.

Real Democracy

Real Democracy
Author: Frank M. Bryan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2010-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226077985

Relying on an astounding collection of more than three decades of firsthand research, Frank M. Bryan examines one of the purest forms of American democracy, the New England town meeting. At these meetings, usually held once a year, all eligible citizens of the town may become legislators; they meet in face-to-face assemblies, debate the issues on the agenda, and vote on them. And although these meetings are natural laboratories for democracy, very few scholars have systematically investigated them. A nationally recognized expert on this topic, Bryan has now done just that. Studying 1,500 town meetings in his home state of Vermont, he and his students recorded a staggering amount of data about them—238,603 acts of participation by 63,140 citizens in 210 different towns. Drawing on this evidence as well as on evocative "witness" accounts—from casual observers to no lesser a light than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn—Bryan paints a vivid picture of how real democracy works. Among the many fascinating questions he explores: why attendance varies sharply with town size, how citizens resolve conflicts in open forums, and how men and women behave differently in town meetings. In the end, Bryan interprets this brand of local government to find evidence for its considerable staying power as the most authentic and meaningful form of direct democracy. Giving us a rare glimpse into how democracy works in the real world, Bryan presents here an unorthodox and definitive book on this most cherished of American institutions.

One World Democracy

One World Democracy
Author: Jerry Tetalman
Publisher: Origin Press (CA)
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781579830175

In One World Democracy, authors Jerry Tetalman and Byron Belitsos describe the only known long-term solution to the urgent global problems that threaten the survival of humankind: democratic world government and the rule of law at the global level—a federation of all nations. This book provides the definitive overview for our time of how humanity can replace the United Nations with a genuine world democracy. In this future world democracy, the executive branch will be strictly limited by a separation of powers—world courts, a global bill of rights, and a world legislature—all under a world constitution. One World Democracy is directed at today’s progressives who are ready to implement tomorrow’s solutions to the global crisis. This book teaches how to become part of the greatest political revolution in history.

The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy

The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy
Author: Macpherson,
Publisher: OUP Canada
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-02-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780195447804

In this brief but powerful book, acclaimed political philosopher C.B. Macpherson sets out in bold relief the essence of liberal democracy, both as it is currently conceived and as it might be reimagined. The Wynford edition includes a new Introduction by Frank Cunningham.

Vital Democracy

Vital Democracy
Author: Frank Hendriks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2010-04-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019957278X

Vital Democracy outlines an innovative new theory of democracy in action.

Democracy for Realists

Democracy for Realists
Author: Christopher H. Achen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2017-08-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400888743

Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.

Democracy in Retreat

Democracy in Retreat
Author: Joshua Kurlantzick
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 030018896X

DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div

Open Democracy

Open Democracy
Author: Hélène Landemore
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0691212392

To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Hélène Landemore demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, more than ever, urgently needed. -- Cover page 4.

Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy

Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy
Author: David M. Elcott
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2021-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0268200599

Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy highlights the use of religious identity to fuel the rise of illiberal, nationalist, and populist democracy. In Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy, David Elcott, C. Colt Anderson, Tobias Cremer, and Volker Haarmann present a pragmatic and modernist exploration of how religion engages in the public square. Elcott and his co-authors are concerned about the ways religious identity is being used to foster the exclusion of individuals and communities from citizenship, political representation, and a role in determining public policy. They examine the ways religious identity is weaponized to fuel populist revolts against a political, social, and economic order that values democracy in a global and strikingly diverse world. Included is a history and political analysis of religion, politics, and policies in Europe and the United States that foster this illiberal rebellion. The authors explore what constitutes a constructive religious voice in the political arena, even in nurturing patriotism and democracy, and what undermines and threatens liberal democracies. To lay the groundwork for a religious response, the book offers chapters showing how Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism can nourish liberal democracy. The authors encourage people of faith to promote foundational support for the institutions and values of the democratic enterprise from within their own religious traditions and to stand against the hostility and cruelty that historically have resulted when religious zealotry and state power combine. Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy is intended for readers who value democracy and are concerned about growing threats to it, and especially for people of faith and religious leaders, as well as for scholars of political science, religion, and democracy.