by
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo, 1971- author.
Call Number
321.8 23
Publication Date
2017
Summary
"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."--Back cover.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.4331
by
Abrams, Elliott, 1948- author.
Call Number
327.73056 23
Publication Date
2017
Summary
"America is turning away from support for democrats in Arab countries in favor of "pragmatic" deals with tyrants to defeat violent Islamist extremism. For too many policy makers, Arab democracy is seen as a dangerous luxury. In Democracy and Realism, Elliott Abrams marshals four decades of experience as an American official and leading Middle East expert to show that deals with tyrants will not work. Islamism is an idea that can only be defeated by a better idea: democracy. Through a careful analysis of America's record of democracy promotion in the region and beyond, from the Cold War to the Obama years, Abrams proves that repression helps Islamists beat democrats, while political openings offer moderates and liberals a chance. This book makes a powerful argument for an American foreign policy that combines practical politics and idealism and refuses to abandon those struggling for democracy and human rights in the Arab world"--
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.3300
View Other Search Results
by
Drochon, Hugo, author.
Call Number
320.092 23
Publication Date
2016
Summary
Nietzsche's impact on the world of culture, philosophy, and the arts is uncontested, but his political thought remains mired in controversy. By placing Nietzsche back in his late-nineteenth-century German context, Nietzsche's Great Politics moves away from the disputes surrounding Nietzsche's appropriation by the Nazis and challenges the use of the philosopher in postmodern democratic thought. Rather than starting with contemporary democratic theory or continental philosophy, Hugo Drochon argues that Nietzsche's political ideas must first be understood in light of Bismarck's policies, in particular his "Great Politics," which transformed the international politics of the late nineteenth century. Nietzsche's Great Politics shows how Nietzsche made Bismarck's notion his own, enabling him to offer a vision of a unified European political order that was to serve as a counterbalance to both Britain and Russia. This order was to be led by a "good European" cultural elite whose goal would be to encourage the rebirth of Greek high culture. In relocating Nietzsche's politics to their own time, the book offers not only a novel reading of the philosopher but also a more accurate picture of why his political thought remains so relevant today.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.2062
by
Wingo, Ajume H. (Ajume Hassan)
Call Number
321.8 21
Publication Date
2003
Summary
"In this account of the development and sustainability of the liberal democratic state, Ajume H. Wingo offers a completely new perspective from that provided by political theorists. Such theories will typically argue for the basic values of liberal democracies by rationally justifying them. However, there is a significant gap between what people are rationally justified in believing and what they are actually motivated to do. Neglect of what actually motivates us to political action carries a great risk by leaving the motivation of citizens open to manipulation by opportunists." "This book argues that it is non-rational factors - rhetoric, symbols, traditions - that more often than not provide the real source of motivation. Drawing from both historical and philosophical sources, Wingo demonstrates that these "veils," as he calls them, can play an essential role in a thriving, stable liberal democratic state. This theory of veil politics furnishes a conceptual framework within which we can reassess the role of aesthetics in politics, the nature and function of political myths in liberal democracies, and the value of civic education."--Jacket.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.1157
Call Number
306.096751 23
Publication Date
2011
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.1155
by
Ku, Charlotte, 1950-
Call Number
341.584 22
Publication Date
2003
Summary
"This book explores the experiences of nine countries (Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) in the deployment of armed forces under the UN and NATO, asking who has been and should be accountable to the citizens of these nations, and to the citizens of states who are the object of deployments, for the decisions made in such military actions. The authors conclude that national-level mechanisms have been most important in ensuring democratic accountability of national and international decision-makers."--Jacket.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.1031
by
Zucker, Ross, 1952-
Call Number
330.1 21
Publication Date
2001
Summary
"By exploring the integral relationship between democracy and economic justice, Democratic Distributive Justice seeks to explain how democratic countries with market systems should deal with the problem of high levels of income inequality. The book acts as a guide for dealing with this issue by providing an interdisciplinary approach that combines political, economic, and legal theory. The book also analyzes the nature of economic society and puts forth a new understanding of the agents and considerations bearing upon the ethics of relative pay, such as the nature of individual contributions and the extent of community in capital-based market systems. Economic justice is then integrated with democratic theory, yielding what Ross Zucker calls "democratic distributive justice." While prevailing theory defines democracy in terms of the electoral mechanism, the author holds that the principles of distribution form part of the very definition of democracy, which makes just distribution a requirement of democratic government."--Jacket.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0873
by
Shapiro, Ian.
Call Number
321.8 22
Publication Date
2003
Summary
What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action. Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0834
by
Breton, Albert.
Call Number
321.8 22
Publication Date
2003
Summary
Democracy is widely accepted today, perhaps as never before, as the most suitable form of government. But what is democracy, and does it always produce good government? Democracy is often associated with the existence of competitive elections. But theory and experience suggest that these are not sufficient for democracy to function reasonably well. In this book, a number of experts from North America and Europe use a rational choice approach to understand the 'foundations' of democracy - what makes democracy successful, and why. In doing so, they consider diverse problems of democratic governance such as the importance of morals or virtue in political life, negative advertising, the role of social capital and civil society in sustaining democracy, the constitutional and cultural prerequisites of democracy, and the interaction of democracy and markets.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0770
by
Shapiro, Ian.
Call Number
321.8 22
Publication Date
2011
Summary
In this book Ian Shapiro develops and extends arguments that have established him as one of today's leading democratic theorists. Shapiro is hardheaded about the realities of politics and power, and the difficulties of fighting injustice and oppression. Yet he makes a compelling case that democracy's legitimacy depends on pressing it into the service of resisting domination, and that democratic theorists must rise to the occasion of fashioning the necessary tools. That vital agenda motivates the arguments of this book.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0743
by
Kenworthy, Lane.
Call Number
335.50973 23
Publication Date
2014
Summary
"America is the one of the wealthiest nations on earth. So why do so many Americans struggle to make ends meet? Why is it so difficult for those who start at the bottom to reach the middle class? And why, if a rising economic tide lifts all boats, have middle-class incomes been growing so slowly? Social Democratic America explains how this has happened and how we can do better. Lane Kenworthy convincingly argues that we can improve economic security, expand opportunity, and ensure rising living standards for all by moving toward social democracy. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of social policy in America and other affluent countries, he proposes a set of public social programs, including universal early education, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, wage insurance, the government as employer of last resort, and many others. Kenworthy looks at common objections to social democracy, such as the oft-repeated claim that Americans don't want big government, which he readily debunks. Indeed, we already have in place a host of effective and popular social programs, from Social Security to Medicare to public schooling. Moreover, the available evidence suggests that rich nations can generate the tax revenues needed to pay for generous social programs while maintaining an innovative and growing economy, and without restricting liberty. Can it happen? Kenworthy describes how the US has been progressing slowly but steadily toward a genuine social democracy for nearly a century. Controversial and powerful, Social Democratic America shows that the good society doesn't require a radical break from our past; we just need to continue in the direction we are already heading."--Publisher's website.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0730
12.
by
Griffith, Bryant.
Call Number
375.001 23
Publication Date
2012
Summary
In this the sixth book of a series of exploratory and cautionary tales, Griffith revisits the sites of reflective knowledge and practical experiences that have been our historical presuppositions, and which are now in the process of flux and change. As in his previous books, historical discourse, what we know and can know about the past, is used as the baseline for understanding. This is an ongoing process, where ideas are considered, used to interact with other ideas, and then, among communities of learners, are incorporated, supplanted, or rejected. This is more than a dialectical process because it is based in human action. In education, broadly speaking, we have taught and have learned that this was a linear, rational path that could be mapped, but in today's fragmented, decentered world of difference we can no longer be certain that our presuppositions hold or apply. Using the analogy of shifting strands, this book provides a way of coming to understand, rather than a way of knowing. It suggests that our emerging paradigm will be grounded in presuppositions that are relative to person, place, and time and that certainty may be illusive. The role of introducing ideas like these in a mass capitalist democracy such as ours is a staggering challenge, and it is one that has fallen to educators whether they wish it or not. Shifting Strands challenges both teachers and learners to take up the torch and run with it. This can be accomplished by thinking in a way that is both historical and philosophical; one that understands that learning occurs when we understand where our learners are situated in terms of place and thought. Thinking and knowing about the world is relative to who you are and your ability to thinking in a critical and reflexive way. This is only the first part of the challenge. The second, and no less important, task is for you to realize the power of our polymodal world. Increasingly, we rely on social networks in our decision-making and retreat from the more difficult process of negotiation and interaction, but it is this process that schooling must explore and practice. Our world is paradoxical. There are few, if any, certainties and the trip to understanding our reasons for believing and acting as we do is one with many different routes. It is an exciting time, full of possibility and open to the maverick in you, and open to your creative spirit. Come along for the ride.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0730
Limit Search Results