Fencing in Democracy

Fencing in Democracy
Author: Miguel Díaz-Barriga
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 117
Release: 2020-01-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478007478

Border walls permeate our world, with more than thirty nation-states constructing them. Anthropologists Margaret E. Dorsey and Miguel Díaz-Barriga argue that border wall construction manifests transformations in citizenship practices that are aimed not only at keeping migrants out but also at enmeshing citizens into a wider politics of exclusion. For a decade, the authors studied the U.S.-Mexico border wall constructed by the Department of Homeland Security and observed the political protests and legal challenges that residents mounted in opposition to the wall. In Fencing in Democracy Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga take us to those border communities most affected by the wall and often ignored in national discussions about border security to highlight how the state diminishes citizens' rights. That dynamic speaks to the citizenship experiences of border residents that is indicative of how walls imprison the populations they are built to protect. Dorsey and Díaz-Barriga brilliantly expand conversations about citizenship, the operation of U.S. power, and the implications of border walls for the future of democracy.

Border Walls

Border Walls
Author: Reece Jones
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2012-07-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1848138261

*** Winner of the 2013 Julian Minghi Outstanding Research Award presented at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting *** Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, why are leading democracies like the United States, India, and Israel building massive walls and fences on their borders? Despite predictions of a borderless world through globalization, these three countries alone have built an astonishing total of 5,700 kilometers of security barriers. In this groundbreaking work, Reece Jones analyzes how these controversial border security projects were justified in their respective countries, what consequences these physical barriers have on the lives of those living in these newly securitized spaces, and what long-term effects the hardening of political borders will have in these societies and globally. Border Walls is a bold, important intervention that demonstrates that the exclusion and violence necessary to secure the borders of the modern state often undermine the very ideals of freedom and democracy the barriers are meant to protect.

Fences and Windows

Fences and Windows
Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2010-08-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0307366537

Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate brings together two years of Naomi Klein’s writings and tracks the globalization conflict from Seattle to September 11th and beyond. Since the publication of No Logo, Naomi Klein has continued tirelessly as a brilliant and informed contributor to contemporary debate. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate, intended as a companion to No Logo, includes her most notable essays, speeches and articles on issues from NAFTA to Genetically Modified Organisms to the violence in Genoa. It offers introduction and explanation, looking at where the movement has come from and where it is going. More than any other single voice, Naomi Klein articulates the concerns and complaints of a generation: about economic fundamentalism, the criminalization of dissent and the effects of Free Trade. But this book also reflects on the nature of resistance: the street protests that shocked and energized millions, carnival-style subversion and the apparent disorganization that is anti-globalization’s great strength. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate is provocative, intelligent and passionate, a document, in its own right, of a unique time in our history.

America's Battle for Media Democracy

America's Battle for Media Democracy
Author: Victor Pickard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107038332

Drawing from extensive archival research, the book uncovers the American media system's historical roots and normative foundations. It charts the rise and fall of a forgotten media-reform movement to recover alternatives and paths not taken.

Bordering

Bordering
Author: Nira Yuval-Davis
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2019-06-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509504982

Controlling national borders has once again become a key concern of contemporary states and a highly contentious issue in social and political life. But controlling borders is about much more than patrolling territorial boundaries at the edges of states: it now comprises a multitude of practices that take place at different levels, some at the edges of states and some in the local contexts of everyday life – in workplaces, in hospitals, in schools – which, taken together, construct, reproduce and contest borders and the rights and obligations associated with belonging to a nation-state. This book is a systematic exploration of the practices and processes that now define state bordering and the role it plays in national and global governance. Based on original research, it goes well beyond traditional approaches to the study of migration and racism, showing how these processes affect all members of society, not just the marginalized others. The uncertainties arising from these processes mean that more and more people find themselves living in grey zones, excluded from any form of protection and often denied basic human rights.

Border Politics

Border Politics
Author: Nancy A. Naples
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 1479898996

In the current historical moment borders have taken on heightened material and symbolic significance, shaping identities and the social and political landscape. “Borders”—defined broadly to include territorial dividing lines as well as sociocultural boundaries—have become increasingly salient sites of struggle over social belonging and cultural and material resources. How do contemporary activists navigate and challenge these borders? What meanings do they ascribe to different social, cultural and political boundaries, and how do these meanings shape the strategies in which they engage? Moreover, how do these social movements confront internal borders based on the differences that emerge within social change initiatives? Border Politics, edited by Nancy A. Naples and Jennifer Bickham Mendez, explores these important questions through eleven carefully selected case studies situated in geographic contexts around the globe. By conceptualizing struggles over identity, social belonging and exclusion as extensions of border politics, the authors capture the complex ways in which geographic, cultural, and symbolic dividing lines are blurred and transcended, but also fortified and redrawn. This volume notably places right-wing and social justice initiatives in the same analytical frame to identify patterns that span the political spectrum. Border Politics offers a lens through which to understand borders as sites of diverse struggles, as well as the strategies and practices used by diverse social movements in today’s globally interconnected world. Contributors: Phillip Ayoub, Renata Blumberg, Yvonne Braun, Moon Charania, Michael Dreiling, Jennifer Johnson, Jesse Klein, Andrej Kurnik, Sarah Maddison, Duncan McDuie-Ra, Jennifer Bickham Mendez, Nancy A. Naples, David Paternotte, Maple Razsa, Raphi Rechitsky, Kyle Rogers, Deana Rohlinger, Cristina Sanidad, Meera Sehgal, Tara Stamm, Michelle Téllez

Politics and Property Rights

Politics and Property Rights
Author: Shawn Everett Kantor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1998-04-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780226423753

After the American Civil War, agricultural reformers in the South called for an end to unrestricted grazing of livestock on unfenced land. They advocated the stock law, which required livestock owners to fence in their animals, arguing that the existing system (in which farmers built protective fences around crops) was outdated and inhibited economic growth. The reformers steadily won their battles, and by the end of the century the range was on the way to being closed. In this original study, Kantor uses economic analysis to show that, contrary to traditional historical interpretation, this conflict was centered on anticipated benefits from fencing livestock rather than on class, cultural, or ideological differences. Kantor proves that the stock law brought economic benefits; at the same time, he analyzes why the law's adoption was hindered in many areas where it would have increased wealth. This argument illuminates the dynamics of real-world institutional change, where transactions are often costly and where some inefficient institutions persist while others give way to economic growth.

The Silenced Majority

The Silenced Majority
Author: Amy Goodman
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 1608462315

A collection of newspaper and magazine articles where Goodman and Moynihan take an anti-establishment stance and get to the heart of today's critical news stories and political events

The Jury and Democracy

The Jury and Democracy
Author: John Gastil
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2010-11-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199888531

Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, and the U.S. Supreme Court have all alleged that jury service promotes civic and political engagement, yet none could prove it. Finally, The Jury and Democracy provides compelling systematic evidence to support this view. Drawing from in-depth interviews, thousands of juror surveys, and court and voting records from across the United States, the authors show that serving on a jury can trigger changes in how citizens view themselves, their peers, and their government--and can even significantly increase electoral turnout among infrequent voters. Jury service also sparks long-term shifts in media use, political action, and community involvement. In an era when involved Americans are searching for ways to inspire their fellow citizens, The Jury and Democracy offers a plausible and realistic path for turning passive spectators into active political participants.

Against Democracy

Against Democracy
Author: Jason Brennan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2017-09-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1400888395

A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.