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Democracy The Orgn Of Politi
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Book Synopsis The Origins of Democratic Thinking by : Cynthia Farrar
Download or read book The Origins of Democratic Thinking written by Cynthia Farrar and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1988 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Farrar argues that the development of political theory accompanied the growth of democracy at Athens in the fifth century BC. By analysing the writings of Protagoras, Thucydides and Democritus in the context of political developments and speculation about the universe, she reveals the existence of a distinctive approach to the characterisation of democratic order, and in doing so demonstrates the virtues of Thucydides' historical conception of politics.
Book Synopsis The Shortest History of Democracy: 4,000 Years of Self-Government - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) by : John Keane
Download or read book The Shortest History of Democracy: 4,000 Years of Self-Government - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) written by John Keane and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full chronological sweep of democracy, from the assemblies of ancient Mesopotamia and Athens to present perils around the globe. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. This compact history unspools the tumultuous global story that began with democracy’s radical core idea: We can collaborate, as equals, to determine our own futures. Acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces how this concept emerged and evolved, from the earliest “assembly democracies” in Syria-Mesopotamia to European-style “electoral democracy” and to our uncertain present. Today, thanks to our always-on communication channels, governments answer not only to voters on Election Day but to intense scrutiny every day. This is “monitory democracy”—in Keane’s view, the most complex and vibrant model yet—but it’s not invulnerable. Monitory democracy comes with its own pathologies, and the new despotism wields powerful warning systems, from social media to election monitoring, against democracy itself. At this urgent moment, when despots in countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia reject the promises of democratic power-sharing, Keane mounts a bold defense of a precious global ideal.
Book Synopsis Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece by : Kurt A. Raaflaub
Download or read book Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece written by Kurt A. Raaflaub and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-01-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a state-of-the-art debate about the origins of Athenian democracy by five eminent scholars. The result is a stimulating, critical exploration and interpretation of the extant evidence on this intriguing and important topic. The authors address such questions as: Why was democracy first realized in ancient Greece? Was democracy “invented” or did it evolve over a long period of time? What were the conditions for democracy, the social and political foundations that made this development possible? And what factors turned the possibility of democracy into necessity and reality? The authors first examine the conditions in early Greek society that encouraged equality and “people’s power.” They then scrutinize, in their social and political contexts, three crucial points in the evolution of democracy: the reforms connected with the names of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes in the early and late sixth and mid-fifth century. Finally, an ancient historian and a political scientist review the arguments presented in the previous chapters and add their own perspectives, asking what lessons we can draw today from the ancient democratic experience. Designed for a general readership as well as students and scholars, the book intends to provoke discussion by presenting side by side the evidence and arguments that support various explanations of the origins of democracy, thus enabling readers to join in the debate and draw their own conclusions.
Book Synopsis Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy by : Michael Albertus
Download or read book Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy written by Michael Albertus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that - in terms of institutional design, the allocation of power and privilege, and the lived experiences of citizens - democracy often does not restart the political game after displacing authoritarianism. Democratic institutions are frequently designed by the outgoing authoritarian regime to shield incumbent elites from the rule of law and give them an unfair advantage over politics and the economy after democratization. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy systematically documents and analyzes the constitutional tools that outgoing authoritarian elites use to accomplish these ends, such as electoral system design, legislative appointments, federalism, legal immunities, constitutional tribunal design, and supermajority thresholds for change. The study provides wide-ranging evidence for these claims using data that spans the globe and dates from 1800 to the present. Albertus and Menaldo also conduct detailed case studies of Chile and Sweden. In doing so, they explain why some democracies successfully overhaul their elite-biased constitutions for more egalitarian social contracts.
Book Synopsis The Decline and Rise of Democracy by : David Stasavage
Download or read book The Decline and Rise of Democracy written by David Stasavage and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation."—Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.
Book Synopsis The Primacy of Politics by : Sheri Berman
Download or read book The Primacy of Politics written by Sheri Berman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-07 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political history in the industrial world has indeed ended, argues this pioneering study, but the winner has been social democracy - an ideology and political movement that has been as influential as it has been misunderstood. Berman looks at the history of social democracy from its origins in the late nineteenth century to today and shows how it beat out competitors such as classical liberalism, orthodox Marxism, and its cousins, Fascism and National Socialism by solving the central challenge of modern politics - reconciling the competing needs of capitalism and democracy. Bursting on to the scene in the interwar years, the social democratic model spread across Europe after the Second World War and formed the basis of the postwar settlement. This is a study of European social democracy that rewrites the intellectual and political history of the modern era while putting contemporary debates about globalization in their proper intellectual and historical context.
Book Synopsis Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by : Barrington Moore
Download or read book Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy written by Barrington Moore and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 1993-09-01 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic work of comparative history explores why some countries have developed as democracies and others as fascist or communist dictatorships Originally published in 1966, this classic text is a comparative survey of some of what Barrington Moore considers the major and most indicative world economies as they evolved out of pre-modern political systems into industrialism. But Moore is not ultimately concerned with explaining economic development so much as exploring why modes of development produced different political forms that managed the transition to industrialism and modernization. Why did one society modernize into a "relatively free," democratic society (by which Moore means England)? Why did others metamorphose into fascist or communist states? His core thesis is that in each country, the relationship between the landlord class and the peasants was a primary influence on the ultimate form of government the society arrived at upon arrival in its modern age. “Throughout the book, there is the constant play of a mind that is scholarly, original, and imbued with the rarest gift of all, a deep sense of human reality . . . This book will influence a whole generation of young American historians and lead them to problems of the greatest significance.” —The New York Review of Books
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy by : David Estlund
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy written by David Estlund and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume includes 22 new pieces by leading political philosophers, on traditional issues (such as authority and equality) and emerging issues (such as race, and money in politics). The pieces are clear and accessible will interest both students and scholars working in philosophy, political science, law, economics, and more.
Book Synopsis The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy by : Douglass Adair
Download or read book The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy written by Douglass Adair and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy, available for the first time in this Lexington Books edition, is Douglass Adair's first major work of historical inquiry. Adair was a mentor to many of the nation's leading scholars and has long been admired for his original and profound observations about the founding of the American republic. Written in 1943, The Intellectual Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy has been praised widely as the seminal analysis of the origins of American democracy. The passage of time has not dulled Adair's arguments; instead, his critique of economic determinism, his emphasis on the influence of ideology on the Founders, and his belief in the importance of civic virtue and morality to good republican government have become ever more critical to our conception of American history. With judicious prose and elegant insights, Adair explores the classical and modern European heritage of liberalism, and he raises fundamental questions about the nature of democratic government. This book is for any serious reader interested in American intellectual history, political thought, and the founding of the republic.
Book Synopsis The Greek Discovery of Politics by : Christian Meier
Download or read book The Greek Discovery of Politics written by Christian Meier and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the Greeks? How did it happen that these people--out of all Mediterranean societies--developed democratic systems of government? The outstanding German historian of the ancient world, Christian Meier, reconstructs the process of political thinking in Greek culture that led to democracy. He demonstrates that the civic identity of the Athenians was a direct precondition for the practical reality of this form of government. Meier shows how the structure of Greek communal life gave individuals a civic role and discusses a crucial reform that institutionalized the idea of equality before the law. In Greek drama--specifically Aeschylus' Oresteia--he finds reflections of the ascendancy of civil law and of a politicizing of life in the city-state. He examines the role of the leader as well as citizen participation in Athenian democracy and describes an ancient equivalent of the idea of social progress. He also contrasts the fifth-century Greek political world with today's world, drawing revealing comparisons. The Greek Discovery of Politics is important reading for ancient historians, classicists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the history of political thought or in the culture of ancient Greece.
Book Synopsis Democracy by Petition by : Daniel Carpenter
Download or read book Democracy by Petition written by Daniel Carpenter and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the James P. Hanlan Book Award Winner of the J. David Greenstone Book Prize Winner of the S. M. Lipset Best Book Award This pioneering work of political history recovers the central and largely forgotten role that petitioning played in the formative years of North American democracy. Known as the age of democracy, the nineteenth century witnessed the extension of the franchise and the rise of party politics. As Daniel Carpenter shows, however, democracy in America emerged not merely through elections and parties, but through the transformation of an ancient political tool: the petition. A statement of grievance accompanied by a list of signatures, the petition afforded women and men excluded from formal politics the chance to make their voices heard and to reshape the landscape of political possibility. Democracy by Petition traces the explosion and expansion of petitioning across the North American continent. Indigenous tribes in Canada, free Blacks from Boston to the British West Indies, Irish canal workers in Indiana, and Hispanic settlers in territorial New Mexico all used petitions to make claims on those in power. Petitions facilitated the extension of suffrage, the decline of feudal land tenure, and advances in liberty for women, African Americans, and Indigenous peoples. Even where petitioners failed in their immediate aims, their campaigns advanced democracy by setting agendas, recruiting people into political causes, and fostering aspirations of equality. Far more than periodic elections, petitions provided an everyday current of communication between officeholders and the people. The coming of democracy in America owes much to the unprecedented energy with which the petition was employed in the antebellum period. By uncovering this neglected yet vital strand of nineteenth-century life, Democracy by Petition will forever change how we understand our political history.
Book Synopsis Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by : Daron Acemoglu
Download or read book Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy written by Daron Acemoglu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy. Different social groups prefer different political institutions because of the way they allocate political power and resources. Thus democracy is preferred by the majority of citizens, but opposed by elites. Dictatorship nevertheless is not stable when citizens can threaten social disorder and revolution. In response, when the costs of repression are sufficiently high and promises of concessions are not credible, elites may be forced to create democracy. By democratizing, elites credibly transfer political power to the citizens, ensuring social stability. Democracy consolidates when elites do not have strong incentive to overthrow it. These processes depend on (1) the strength of civil society, (2) the structure of political institutions, (3) the nature of political and economic crises, (4) the level of economic inequality, (5) the structure of the economy, and (6) the form and extent of globalization.
Book Synopsis The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe by : Stathis N. Kalyvas
Download or read book The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe written by Stathis N. Kalyvas and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although dominant in West European politics for more than a century, Christian Democratic parties remain largely unexplored and little understood. An investigation of how political identities and parties form, this book considers the origins of Christian Democratic "confessional" parties within the political context of Western Europe. Examining five countries where a successful confessional party emerged (Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and Italy) and one where it did not (France), Stathis N. Kalyvas addresses perplexing questions raised by the Christian Democratic phenomenon. How can we reconcile the religious roots of these parties with their tremendous success and resilience in secular and democratic Western Europe? Why have these parties discarded their initial principles and objectives to become secular forces governing secular societies? The author's answers reveal the way in which social and political actors make decisions based on self-interest under conditions that constrain their choices and the information they rely on—often with unintended but irrevocable consequences.Kalyvas also lays a foundation for a theory of the Christian Democratic phenomenon which would specify the conditions under which confessional parties succeed and would determine the impact of such parties, and the way they are formed, on politics and society. Drawing from political science, sociology, and history, his analysis goes beyond Christian Democracy to address issues related to the methodology of political science, the theory of party formation, the political development of Europe, the relationship between religion and politics, the construction of collective political identities, and the role of agency and contingency in politics.
Book Synopsis The Origins of Political Order by : Francis Fukuyama
Download or read book The Origins of Political Order written by Francis Fukuyama and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark history of the origins of modern democratic societies by one of our most important political thinkers. A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of 2011 title Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today's developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world. Francis Fukuyama, author of the bestselling The End of History and the Last Man and one of our most important political thinkers, provides a sweeping account of how today's basic political institutions developed. The first of a major two-volume work, The Origins of Political Order begins with politics among our primate ancestors and follows the story through the emergence of tribal societies, the growth of the first modern state in China, the beginning of the rule of law in India and the Middle East, and the development of political accountability in Europe up until the eve of the French Revolution. Drawing on a vast body of knowledge—history, evolutionary biology, archaeology, and economics—Fukuyama has produced a brilliant, provocative work that offers fresh insights on the origins of democratic societies and raises essential questions about the nature of politics and its discontents.
Book Synopsis The Making and Unmaking of Democracy by : Theodore K. Rabb
Download or read book The Making and Unmaking of Democracy written by Theodore K. Rabb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For every citizen of the world, there is no more urgent issue than the spread of democracy. Democracy is what the WTO-protestors are calling for; it's the main concern of human rights advocates; and it's only long-term way to end terrorism. But how does democracy spread? What can be done to encourage and support. This remarkable new collection brings together some of the best minds in variety of fields to discuss the conditions that promote and sustain, or undermine and extinguish democratic institutions and ideas. Spanning political thought from ancient Athens to contemporary sub-Saharan Africa, the contributors develop an outline of how democracy develops. Several key factors emerge: Democratic transitions are always heavily shaped by the ideas and practices of past regimes (like tribal traditions in Africa), international political and economic pressure to liberalize (as in Asia) and current economic conditions. The quality of democracy is almost always improved by the elimination of religion as the center of the state, by the move from democracy as protection of the individual from the state to democracy as enhancer of rights, and by the progression from a focus on the individual to a focus on the community. Expansive in its coverage and fundamental in its significance, The Making and Unmaking of Democracy is a volume to learn from, argue against, and expand upon.
Book Synopsis The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America, 1630-1789 by : Joshua Miller
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America, 1630-1789 written by Joshua Miller and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America describes and explores the emergence of a directly democratic political culture in America, the Federalists' theoretical campaign against that culture, and the legacy of the struggle over democracy for politics today. The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Early America traces the rise of democracy in America beginning with the Puritans of New England; the radicalization during the eighteenth century of Puritan notions of community, autonomy, and participation; and the Antifederalist attempt to preserve a democratic political culture in the face of Federalist efforts to centralize power and distance it from the people by the passage of the 1787 Constitution. Despite its historical concerns, this book is not a history of institutions or a history of ideas. It is a work of political theory that explores certain early American texts and debates, and discusses the theoretical questions raised by those texts and debates, emphasizing those issues most relevant to democratic thought in our own time. Among the many insights into our democratic heritage that Joshua Miller affords us in his discussion of the Puritan theory of membership and the Antifederalist theory of autonomous communities is the hitherto obscured affinity between democracy and conservatism. Whereas many treatments of early American political thought make the debate over the ratification of the Constitution appear dry and abstract, this book shows the clash of political values and ideals that were at the heart of the struggle. It illustrates how the Federalists employed a democratic-sounding vocabulary to cloak their centralizing, elitist designs. Miller introduces readers to a political theory of direct democracy that is presented as an alternative to Marxism, liberalism, and mainstream conservatism. This new democratic theory based on an early American political tradition should serve as a stimulus for rethinking the directions we are taking in politics today.
Book Synopsis The Shortest History of Democracy by : John Keane
Download or read book The Shortest History of Democracy written by John Keane and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Indispensable for understanding democracy today' Michael Schudson A bold new history of democracy from the popular assemblies of Syria-Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent to present-day challenges around the world. From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege, and why. For democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures. In this vigorous, illuminating history, acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces its byzantine history, from the age of assembly democracy in Athens, to European-inspired electoral democracy and the birth of representative government, to our age of monitory democracy. He gives new reasons why democracy is a precious global ideal, and shows that as the world has come to be shaped by democracy, it has grown more worldly. In today’s age of populist strongmen threatening democracy in India, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US and elsewhere, we need its radical potential more than ever. Does democracy have a future, or will the demagogues and despots win? We are about to find out."
