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A Sapped Democracy
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Book Synopsis A Sapped Democracy by : Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome
Download or read book A Sapped Democracy written by Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of the interaction between liberal economic and political reforms in Nigeria between 1983 and 1993. The work investigates the causes and outcome of the Nigerian state's decision to undertake a simultaneous, dual transition. It considers the role of the state, multilateral organizations and domestic politics as potential causes of policy and the dynamic interaction between economic and political processes during the transition as determinants of the outcome. Few studies focus on the interaction between the role of the multilaterals, external creditors, and the state as well as the state and powerful domestic actors as determinants of development strategy on contemporary Africans. Nigeria's dual transition reveals complex power struggles by these domestic and international actors. By providing evidence of the dynamic interaction between state, society, and external forces during a period of grave economic crisis, the underlying power relations which shaped the possibility of economic recovery and democracy become evident. This book advances interdisciplinary, theoretical dialogue and contributes to policy studies by analyzing the interaction of policymaking with socioeconomic and political outcomes.
Download or read book Ruling the Void written by Peter Mair and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic account of democracy's crisis of legitimacy The age of party democracy has passed, argues Peter Mair in Ruling the Void. The major parties have become so disconnected from society that they no longer seem capable of sustaining democracy in its present form. First published in 2013, Ruling the Void presciently observed that the widening gap between citizens and their political leaders posed a crisis of legitimacy for the governing class, and was fuelling populist mobilizations against it. Europe’s political elites had remodelled themselves as a homogeneous professional class, withdrawing into state institutions that offer relative stability in a world of fickle voters. Meanwhile, non-democratic agencies and practices proliferated – not least among them the European Union itself. Mair weighs the impact of these changes, and offers an authoritative assessment of the prospects for popular political representation today, not only in the varied democracies of Britain and the EU but throughout the developed world. With a new Introduction by Chris Bickerton, author of The European Union: A Citizen’s Guide.
Book Synopsis The Democracy Project by : David Graeber
Download or read book The Democracy Project written by David Graeber and published by Doubleday UK. This book was released on 2013 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the idea of democracy, its current state of crisis, and its potential as a tool for change, sharing historical perspectives on the effectiveness of democratic uprisings in various times and cultures.
Book Synopsis How Democracy Ends by : David Runciman
Download or read book How Democracy Ends written by David Runciman and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How will democracy end? And what will replace it? A preeminent political scientist examines the past, present, and future of an endangered political philosophy Since the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get? In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable -- a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better. A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life.
Book Synopsis Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence by : Jonathan Manthorpe
Download or read book Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence written by Jonathan Manthorpe and published by Cormorant Books. This book was released on 2020-08-08 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This global affairs veteran has carved out a solid, mature path, including for ‘flawed democracies’ like the U.S. We’d all be wise to follow.” — Vancouver Sun From the author of the Globe and Mail bestseller, Claws of the Panda, comes a book quite literally for our times. Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence is a thoughtful account of how we can save democracies from the despots and populists who provide easy answers to complicated situations, dumbing political discourse down to sandbox antics. Manthorpe argues that democracy is more resilient than it appears, and is capable of overcoming the attacks from within and without that have sapped its vigour since the end of the Cold War. He begins with a description of the events of 1989, one of the seminal years in modern history. This saw the end of the Cold War, and the apparent conclusive victory of democracy and its civic values. But the view of these changes as a triumph of democracy — as summed up in Francis Fukuyama’s essay "The End of History" — was short-lived. Russia, shorn of its Soviet empire, and the Chinese Communist Party, re-examining its survival after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, began devising ways to counter-attack the West’s triumphalism and these met with considerable success. Internal pressures and contradictions — wealth disparity being chief among them — threaten the survival of many democratic systems. Abandoned industrial workers turn to the repeated platitudes designed to appeal to those left behind without actually offering them the ways and means to catch up. Immigrants, refugees, and the reformist fixations of isolated liberal elites have provided ammunition for would-be despots. Adding to the pressures building on the political norms of our democracies, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought economic and social stand-still for which no country is prepared.
Book Synopsis Revolutionary Democracy by : Soma Marik
Download or read book Revolutionary Democracy written by Soma Marik and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging and insightful work, Soma Marik defends the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution, arguing against many of its detractors that the early communist regime was centrally concerned with both the liberation of women and the expansion of democracy. Soma Marik teaches Women's Studies and History at Jadavpur University.
Book Synopsis Democratic Decision-Making by : David Lewis Schaefer
Download or read book Democratic Decision-Making written by David Lewis Schaefer and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012-02-20 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democratic Decision-Making: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives contains eight essays by political scientists addressing various aspects of the democratic decision-making process. The book is divided into four parts: democratic statesmanship, the extent to which limitations of the democratic principle of majority rule are desirable, the contemporary doctrine of “deliberative democracy,” and informal modes of democratic decision-making. Under these four headings, the contributors discuss a wide variety of issues, including the practice of “political opportunism” by such statesmen as Hamilton and Madison; the historical development of legal restraints on democracy in America ranging from judicial review (during the colonial period) to the filibuster; the operation of classical Athenian democracy, the defects of which may have been exaggerated by the American Founders; the significance of the reflections of Tammany Hall boss George Washington Plunkitt for the development of the American party system; the relation of deliberative-democracy theory to the thought of Rousseau; and the means by which cooperative land-use agreements have been arrived at in California, eliciting the voluntary consent of the affected parties instead of relying on judicial or bureaucratic dictates. The book is well-suited for use in courses on American political thought, democratic theory, American political development, and related subjects.
Book Synopsis Democracy and Discontent by : Atul Kohli
Download or read book Democracy and Discontent written by Atul Kohli and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long considered one of the great successes of the developing world, India has more recently experienced growing challenges to political order and stability. Institutional mechanisms for the resolution of conflict have broken down, the civil and police services have become highly politicized, and the state bureaucracy appears incapable of implementing an effective plan for economic development. In this book, Atul Kohli analyzes political change in India from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. Based on research conducted at the local, state and national level, the author analyzes the changing patterns of authority in and between the centre and periphery. He combines rich empirical investigation, extensive interviews and theoretical perspectives in developing a detailed explanation of the growing crisis of governance his research reveals. The book will be of interest to both specialists in Indian politics and to students of comparative politics more generally.
Book Synopsis Democracy and Populism by : John Lukacs
Download or read book Democracy and Populism written by John Lukacs and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This intensely interesting—and troubling—book is the product of a lifetime of reflection and study of democracy. In it, John Lukacs addresses the questions of how our democracy has changed and why we have become vulnerable to the shallowest possible demagoguery. Lukacs contrasts the political systems, movements, and ideologies that have bedeviled the twentieth century: democracy, Liberalism, nationalism, fascism, Bolshevism, National Socialism, populism. Reflecting on American democracy, Lukacs describes its evolution from the eighteenth century to its current form—a dangerous and possibly irreversible populism. This involves, among other things, the predominance of popular sentiment over what used to be public opinion. This devolution has happened through the gigantic machinery of publicity, substituting propaganda—and entertainment—for knowledge, and ideology for a sense of history. It is a kind of populism that relies on nationalism and militarism to hold society together. Lukacs's observations are original, biting, timely, sure to inspire lively debate about the precarious state of American democracy today.
Book Synopsis China's Democratic Future by : Bruce Gilley
Download or read book China's Democratic Future written by Bruce Gilley and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eminent China expert considers how the Chinese Communist Party will be removed from power and democratic transition will take place.
Book Synopsis Democracy in Decline? by : Larry Diamond
Download or read book Democracy in Decline? written by Larry Diamond and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eight preeminent scholars debate the future of democracy. For almost a decade, Freedom House’s annual survey has highlighted a decline in democracy in most regions of the globe. While some analysts draw upon this evidence to argue that the world has entered a “democratic recession,” others dispute that interpretation, emphasizing instead democracy’s success in maintaining the huge gains it made during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Discussion of this question has moved beyond disputes about how many countries should be classified as democratic to embrace a host of wider concerns about the health of democracy: the poor economic and political performance of advanced democracies, the new self-confidence and assertiveness of a number of leading authoritarian countries, and a geopolitical weakening of democracies relative to these resurgent authoritarians. In Democracy in Decline?, eight of the world’s leading public intellectuals and scholars of democracy—Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Philippe C. Schmitter, Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, Thomas Carothers, and editors Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner—explore these concerns and offer competing viewpoints about the state of democracy today. This short collection of essays is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the latest thinking on one of the most critical questions of our era.
Book Synopsis The New African Diaspora in North America by : Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang
Download or read book The New African Diaspora in North America written by Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New African Diaspora in North America brings together sociologists, social workers, geographers, economists, anthropologists and others to explore the African immigrant experience from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The contributors shed light on the factors behind the increasing wave in African immigration to the U.S. and Canada, the socio-economic characteristics of African immigrants, their spatial distribution, obstacles, and contributions. Despite their increasing presence, African immigrant groups in the U.S. and Canada have engendered relatively little scholarly research on their pre- and post-migration experience. This collection helps fill that void, and will be valuable reading for anyone interested in African Diaspora studies.
Download or read book Nigeria written by Douglas A. Phillips and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: - Information-packed volumes provide comprehensive overviews of each nation's people, geography, history, government, economy, and culture - Abundant full-color illustrations guide the reader on a voyage of discovery - Maps reflect current political boundaries
Book Synopsis How to Save a Constitutional Democracy by : Tom Ginsburg
Download or read book How to Save a Constitutional Democracy written by Tom Ginsburg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracies are in danger. Around the world, a rising wave of populist leaders threatens to erode the core structures of democratic self-rule. In the United States, the tenure of Donald Trump has seemed decisive turning point for many. What kind of president intimidates jurors, calls the news media the “enemy of the American people,” and seeks foreign assistance investigating domestic political rivals? Whatever one thinks of President Trump, many think the Constitution will safeguard us from lasting damage. But is that assumption justified? How to Save a Constitutional Democracy mounts an urgent argument that we can no longer afford to be complacent. Drawing on a rich array of other countries’ experiences with democratic backsliding, Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq show how constitutional rules can both hinder and hasten the decline of democratic institutions. The checks and balances of the federal government, a robust civil society and media, and individual rights—such as those enshrined in the First Amendment—often fail as bulwarks against democratic decline. The sobering reality for the United States, Ginsburg and Huq contend, is that the Constitution’s design makes democratic erosion more, not less, likely. Its structural rigidity has had unforeseen consequence—leaving the presidency weakly regulated and empowering the Supreme Court conjure up doctrines that ultimately facilitate rather than inhibit rights violations. Even the bright spots in the Constitution—the First Amendment, for example—may have perverse consequences in the hands of a deft communicator who can degrade the public sphere by wielding hateful language banned in many other democracies. We—and the rest of the world—can do better. The authors conclude by laying out practical steps for how laws and constitutional design can play a more positive role in managing the risk of democratic decline.
Book Synopsis State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria by : M. Okome
Download or read book State Fragility, State Formation, and Human Security in Nigeria written by M. Okome and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1990s, attempts at democratic transition have generated hopes for 'civil society' as well as ambivalence about the state. The interdisciplinary studies gathered here explore this dynamic through the complex interactions of state fragility, self-help, and self-organization in Nigeria. Nigeria stands as a particularly interesting case, as its multifaceted associational life extends far beyond civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs): as this volume reveals, there is a 'third sector' of Nigerian society encompassing everything from community self-help programs to ethno-religious affiliations to militias. Some of these formations have narrow, pragmatic aims, while others have an explicit socio-cultural or political agenda; most can be understood as compensating for the state's failure to deliver services and maintain regulatory frameworks. By examining the emergence of broader forms of civil society, this volume considers their successes while also assessing their costs and contradictions.
Book Synopsis The Life and Death of Democracy by : John Keane
Download or read book The Life and Death of Democracy written by John Keane and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 717 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps? The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
Book Synopsis Science under Fire by : Andrew Jewett
Download or read book Science under Fire written by Andrew Jewett and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans have long been suspicious of experts and elites. This new history explains why so many have believed that science has the power to corrupt American culture. Americans today are often skeptical of scientific authority. Many conservatives dismiss climate change and Darwinism as liberal fictions, arguing that “tenured radicals” have coopted the sciences and other disciplines. Some progressives, especially in the universities, worry that science’s celebration of objectivity and neutrality masks its attachment to Eurocentric and patriarchal values. As we grapple with the implications of climate change and revolutions in fields from biotechnology to robotics to computing, it is crucial to understand how scientific authority functions—and where it has run up against political and cultural barriers. Science under Fire reconstructs a century of battles over the cultural implications of science in the United States. Andrew Jewett reveals a persistent current of criticism which maintains that scientists have injected faulty social philosophies into the nation’s bloodstream under the cover of neutrality. This charge of corruption has taken many forms and appeared among critics with a wide range of social, political, and theological views, but common to all is the argument that an ideologically compromised science has produced an array of social ills. Jewett shows that this suspicion of science has been a major force in American politics and culture by tracking its development, varied expressions, and potent consequences since the 1920s. Looking at today’s battles over science, Jewett argues that citizens and leaders must steer a course between, on the one hand, the naïve image of science as a pristine, value-neutral form of knowledge, and, on the other, the assumption that scientists’ claims are merely ideologies masquerading as truths.
