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Book 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy

Download or read book 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy written by Steven Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy Steven Hill addresses the problems plaguing the US political system, outlining his ten-step program to improve American democracy. He proposes specific reforms to give voters more choices at the ballot box, boost voter turnout, reduce Senate 'filibustering' and end excessive corporate dominance. In the face of mounting cynicism about the US political system, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy is a refreshing blueprint for how to resurrect the Founders' democratic vision. It will change the way you think about US politics.

Book Fixing Elections

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steven Hill
  • Publisher : Psychology Press
  • Release : 2002
  • ISBN : 0415931940
  • Pages : 381 pages

Download or read book Fixing Elections written by Steven Hill and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fixing Elections is a refreshing blueprint to resurrect our founders' democratic vision by adopting common-sense changes already instituted in other democracies. It will change the way you think about American politics.

Book Thirteen Cracks

    Book Details:
  • Author : Allan J. Lichtman
  • Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
  • Release : 2021-11-08
  • ISBN : 1538156520
  • Pages : 221 pages

Download or read book Thirteen Cracks written by Allan J. Lichtman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s founders feared a president like Donald Trump. Through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they erected a fortified but constrained government to secure the benchmarks of our democracy and established the guardrails designed to protect it. But Trump pushed almost every one of the Framers’ safeguards to its limit—most held, but some broke under the weight of presidential abuses even the Framers did not foresee. Thirteen Cracks will be the first book to expose the most vulnerable areas in our democracy, explain in historical context how President Trump uniquely and outrageously exploited these weak spots, and propose a fix for each challenge. Historian Allen J. Lichtman argues that Trump has put us at a pivot point in our history, where the survival of American democracy is at stake. But this is also an historic opportunity to shore up the vulnerabilities and to strengthen our democracy.

Book Europe s Promise

    Book Details:
  • Author : Steven Hill
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2010-01-19
  • ISBN : 052094450X
  • Pages : 488 pages

Download or read book Europe s Promise written by Steven Hill and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010-01-19 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quiet revolution has been occurring in post-World War II Europe. A world power has emerged across the Atlantic that is recrafting the rules for how a modern society should provide economic security, environmental sustainability, and global stability. In Europe's Promise, Steven Hill explains Europe's bold new vision. For a decade Hill traveled widely to understand this uniquely European way of life. He shatters myths and shows how Europe's leadership manifests in five major areas: economic strength, with Europe now the world's wealthiest trading bloc, nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined; the best health care and other workfare supports for families and individuals; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; the world's most advanced democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union. Europe's Promise masterfully conveys how Europe has taken the lead in this make-or-break century challenged by a worldwide economic crisis and global warming.

Book 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy

Download or read book 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy written by Steven Hill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy Steven Hill addresses the problems plaguing the US political system, outlining his ten-step program to improve American democracy. He proposes specific reforms to give voters more choices at the ballot box, boost voter turnout, reduce Senate 'filibustering' and end excessive corporate dominance. In the face of mounting cynicism about the US political system, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy is a refreshing blueprint for how to resurrect the Founders' democratic vision. It will change the way you think about US politics.

Book Election Meltdown

Download or read book Election Meltdown written by Richard L. Hasen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the nation’s leading expert, an indispensable analysis of key threats to the integrity of the 2020 American presidential election As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old-fashioned and new-fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans. Taking into account how each of these threats has manifested in recent years—most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections—Hasen offers concrete steps that need to be taken to restore trust in American elections before the democratic process is completely undermined.

Book How Democracies Die

Download or read book How Democracies Die written by Steven Levitsky and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

Book From Oath to Action

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jeff Edelstein
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2016-09-07
  • ISBN : 9781537517810
  • Pages : 204 pages

Download or read book From Oath to Action written by Jeff Edelstein and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Oath to Action presents a bold, yet achievable, pathway to rebuilding American democracy. The book challenges our very understanding of what political leadership looks like in today's world. At a time when our political landscape looks increasingly bleak, this book inspires through its vision and its practicality. Our democratic institutions need repairing-on that most Americans would agree. But institutions change only when the people in them change, and most people change only one step at a time. Therein lies the path forward. We don't need politicians who will "fix Washington." We need politicians who will fix themselves, one simple act of courage at a time. From Oath to Action suggests twelve acts of courage that could transform American politics. Some are so simple that anyone aspiring to leadership should embrace them. Others are for the more courageous. One is so powerful-a "do or die" pledge-that it could fix a long-hidden flaw at the heart of representative democracy. Leadership in the 21st century should be about more than just taking an oath. It should be about taking action. Courageous action. This book provides a roadmap to courageous action for leaders and citizens alike.

Book Democracy Unchained

Download or read book Democracy Unchained written by David Orr and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stellar group of America's leading political thinkers explore how to reboot our democracy The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralyzed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance. The book is the collective work of thirty of the most perceptive writers, practitioners, scientists, educators, and journalists writing today, who are committed to moving the political conversation from the present anger and angst to the positive and constructive change necessary to achieve the full promise of a durable democracy that works for everyone and protects our common future. Including essays by Yasha Mounk on populism, Chisun Lee on money and politics, Ras Baraka on building democracy from the ground up, and Bill McKibben on climate, Democracy Unchained is the articulation of faith in democracy and will be required reading for all who are working to make democracy a reality. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction David W. Orr Part I. The Crisis of Democracy Populism and Democracy Yascha Mounk Reconstructing Our Constitutional Democracy K. Sabeel Rahman Restoring Healthy Party Competition Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson When Democracy Becomes Something Else: The Problem of Elections and What to Do About It Andrew Gumbel The Best Answer to Money in Politics After Citizens United: Public Campaign Financing in the Empire State and Beyond Chisun Lee Remaking the Presidency After Trump Jeremi Suri The Problem of Presidentialism Stephen Skowronek Part II. Foundations of Democracy Renewing the American Democratic Faith Steven C. Rockefeller American Land, American Democracy Eric Freyfogle Race and Democracy: The Kennedys, Obama, Trump, and Us Michael Eric Dyson Liberty and Justice for All: Latina Activist Efforts to Strengthen Democracy in 2018 Maria Hinojosa What Black Women Teach Us About Democracy Andra Gillespie and Nadia E. Brown Engines of Democracy: Racial Justice and Cultural Power Rashad Robinson Civic and Environmental Education: Protecting the Planet and Our Democracy Judy Braus The Supreme Court's Legitimacy Crisis and Constitutional Democracy’s Future Dawn Johnsen Part III. Policy Challenges Can Democracy Survive the Internet? David Hickton The New New Deal: How to Reregulate Capitalism Robert Kuttner First Understand Why They're Winning: How to Save Democracy from the Anti-Immigrant Far Right Sasha Polakow-Suransky No Time Left: How the System Is Failing to Address Our Ultimate Crisis Bill McKibben Powering Democracy Through Clean Energy Denise G. Fairchild The Long Crisis: American Foreign Policy Before and After Trump Jessica Tuchman Mathews Part IV. Who Acts, and How? The Case for Strong Government William S. Becker The States Nick Rathod Democracy in a Struggling Swing State Amy Hanauer Can Independent Voters Save American Democracy? Why 42 Percent of American Voters Are Independent and How They Can Transform Our Political System Jaqueline Salit and Thom Reilly Philanthropy and Democracy Stephen B. Heintz Keeping the Republic Dan Moulthrop The Future of Democracy Mayor Ras Baraka Building a University Where All People Matter Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, and Derrick M. Anderson Biophilia and Direct Democracy Timothy Beatley Purpose-Driven Capitalism Mindy Lubber Restoring Democracy: Nature's Trust, Human Survival, and Constitutional Fiduciary Governance 397 Mary Christina Wood Conclusion Ganesh Sitaraman

Book Healing American Democracy

Download or read book Healing American Democracy written by Mike Hais and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-03-22 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American democracy is in trouble. Loss of public confidence in the federal government to solve-or even care about-the problems and concerns of ordinary people has bred both frustration and anger. At the same time, sharp divisions-partisan, demographic, cultural, generational and economic-make finding consensus at the federal level nearly impossible. Yet pundits and politicians continue to call for leadership that "brings us together" as the antidote to this growing divisiveness. The authors profoundly disagree. Mike Hais, Doug Ross and Morley Winograd make a thought-provoking, non-partisan case to rebuild Americans' faith in democracy. Coined as "Constitutional Localism" they suggest moving as much decision-making as possible out of Washington into local communities, while preserving the individual and civil rights granted by the Constitution. EDITORIAL REVIEWS "Messrs Hais, Ross, and Winograd have stumbled upon a simple yet brilliant idea for how to fix American democracy: empower localities to create their own political and civic solutions while using the Constitution as the bedrock for civil rights. From Kalamazoo to Denver, and Knoxville to New Orleans, they provide stories about local success, places where leaders have responded to their constituents' needs in a way the federal government never could and rebuilt civic trust in the process. The authors' optimism and creativity have been sorely needed and should be welcomed by those on both the left and the right. On one thing all Americans should be able to agree - we need new solutions and this book offers many that are worthy." Michael Smerconish, SiriusXM, CNN, and Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer. "Here's a brilliant, alternative solution to our national woes. The notion of bringing power back to communities represents the potential upside in an information age that, to date, has driven greater centralization, economic concentration and horrendous levels of polarization. This should be a foundational text, not to any one political perspective, but to the entire polity." Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures, Chapman University and Executive Director, Center for Opportunity Urbanism "Tip O'Neill said 'All politics is local.' As Mike Hais, Doug Ross, and Morley Winograd explore in this valuable work, while Washington is riven by polarization, some of the most innovative and important policies are flowing from local communities today." David Axelrod, Founder and Director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS (insert pictures from all three authors as on this page https://www.amazon.com/Millennial-Majority-Coalition-Remaking-American/dp/1517063582/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1522345245&sr=8-4&keywords=morley+winograd )

Book The Slow Death of American Democracy

Download or read book The Slow Death of American Democracy written by Ross Rosenfeld and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our democracy is under threat: Voter suppression, legalized bribery, the destruction of unions, poverty, racism, a partisan Supreme Court and much, much more - we are witnessing the deterioration of American democracy right before our eyes. It's time to fight back. In this book you'll find fifty problems with American democracy laid bare, encompassing everything from the Electoral College to the disproportionate make up of the Senate to our extremely skewed tax code to shadow organizations with enormous influence over our government. If you're a liberal, if you're a progressive, if you're part of the Resistance, this book will give you the intellectual ammunition you need to combat the extremist Republican Party and the injustices we're seeing all around us. We can no longer sit back while conservatives take names off of voting lists and add names to prison rosters.Bernie Sanders once said that we have to decide whether we want to be a democracy or an oligarchy. Right now we have an oligarch president in Donald Trump, the poster-child for greed and privilege. We have corporations not only influencing our politicians, but often writing the laws themselves. And we have a growing wealth gap between the richest 1% and the rest of us.Some of the information you'll find this book will truly shock you. But we can change things. It begins by defeating the lies from the other side. Let's get started.This book is available on Kindle Unlimited and is a must-read for anyone with an interest in politics, government, or history. If you're concerned about the state of democracy in America right now, you'll find this an alarming page-turner. Some of the topics include: the Electoral College, poverty, voter suppression, a disproportionate Senate, gerrymandering, overzealous prosecutors, money in politics, income inequality, the lack of a meritocracy, a partisan Supreme Court, political corruption, a skewed tax code, and mass incarceration.This isn't just about politics - it's about saving our republic. American democracy is indeed what's at stake.Topics: American democracy, voting, election of 2018, presidency, Donald Trump, voter suppression, the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, Congress, Republicans, Democrats, democracy, mass incarceration, the Senate, gerrymandering, inequality, government, Puerto Rico, elections, problems with American democracy, voting in America, politics government corruption, political parties, political corruption, the one percent

Book Whose Vote Counts

Download or read book Whose Vote Counts written by Robert Richie and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2002-09-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy takes place when the silent find their voice, and when we begin to listen to what they have to say. --Lani Guinier, from the Foreword In Whose Vote Counts?, Robert Richie and Steven Hill listen to what the silent are saying. They argue that we need a new way of electing our representatives to combat voter apathy and the leveling of political views. Such a system already exists in many parts of the world, including places in the United States: proportional representation. Leading activists respond in essays that illustrate what our country could look like if all qualified citizens became voters, and if they all felt their vote contributed to more than just the winning or losing tally. The New Democracy Forum is a series of short paperback originals exploring creative solutions to our most urgent national concerns.

Book To Promote the General Welfare

Download or read book To Promote the General Welfare written by Steven Conn and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans love to hate their government, and a long tradition of anti-government suspicion reaches back to debates among the founders of the nation. But the election of Barack Obama has created a backlash rivaled only by the anti-government hysteria that preceded the Civil War. Lost in all the Tea Party rage and rhetoric is this simple fact: the federal government plays a central role in making our society function, and it always has. Edited by Steven Conn and written by some of America's leading scholars, the essays in To Promote the General Welfare explore the many ways government programs have improved the quality of life in America. The essays cover everything from education, communication, and transportation to arts and culture, housing, finance, and public health. They explore how and why government programs originated, how they have worked and changed--and been challenged--since their inception, and why many of them are important to preserve. The book shows how the WPA provided vital, in some cases career-saving, assistance to artists and writers like Jackson Pollock, Dorothea Lange, Richard Wright, John Cheever, and scores of others; how millions of students from diverse backgrounds have benefited and continue to benefit from the G.I. Bill, Fulbright scholarships, and federally insured student loans; and how the federal government created an Interstate highway system unparalleled in the world, linking the entire nation. These are just a few examples of highly successful programs the book celebrates--and that anti-government critics typically ignore. For anyone wishing to explore the flip side of today's vehement attacks on American government, To Promote the General Welfare is the best place to start.

Book 9 Ideal Ways to Fix the Cracking American Democracy

Download or read book 9 Ideal Ways to Fix the Cracking American Democracy written by John Davidson and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2023-12-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fahey was then 27 years of age, with little involvement with legislative issues. Her message was brought into the world of general disappointment that the framework wasn't working for the vast majority, including her. She felt that manipulating the control of regulative and legislative locale for political increase was a significant supporter of the issue of absence of portrayal. Fahey wasn't by any stretch a web-based entertainment powerhouse, however by noon, she understood she had struck a nerve. Many individuals "enjoyed" the posting, others answered with remarks, and still others sent her messages requesting how to help. To that inquiry, she had no response. "Gracious, poo," she pondered internally. And afterward, she researched, "How would you end up manipulating?" Today, as a result of the grass-roots crusade that Fahey sent off, Michigan's regional lines are drawn by a free commission of residents. To act as an illustration of the force of a person to change the framework, the development begun by Fahey's Facebook post stands apart when countless Americans doubt legislators and political organizations, feel their voices are not heard, and resent each other. A series looking at the manners in which Americans feel unrepresented by a political framework battling with a crash of powers both old and new. This book has tried to feature the blemishes of America's association including the engineering made by the pioneers that in a cutting edge, enraptured, two-party framework frequently provides more capacity to a minority of residents than to the larger part, or that leaves specific gatherings underrepresented. The issues with the American majority rule government can, to many, feel overpowering and immovable. However, there are potential arrangements, some of which are portrayed beneath. What's more, that's what Fahey demonstrated, given time, energy, and responsibility by numerous common individuals, the framework can be moved. For ages, the redistricting system, which follows the statistics like clockwork, has been in the possession of state lawmakers. Whichever party had the power practiced it to safeguard itself. Wresting control away from the government officials was Fahey's objective. In 2000, Arizona electors were quick to support the production of a free commission of residents to direct redistricting. To do it in Michigan, Fahey said she and her partners needed to compose an impermeable and extensive established alteration, then attempt to qualify it for the polling form under the state's mandate cycle. They needed to gather more than 300,000 marks from around the state in 180 days. Furthermore, they needed to coordinate and back a political activity that could persuade a larger part of the electors to endorse it. All from a standing beginning. GRAB A COPY OF THIS BOOK NOW AND ENJOY A GOOD READ.

Book Democracy in America

Download or read book Democracy in America written by Benjamin I. Page and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Important and riveting . . . The solution isn’t to redistribute wealth from the have-mores to the have-lesses. It’s to redistribute political power to everyone.” —Robert B. Reich America faces daunting problems—stagnant wages, high health care costs, neglected schools, deteriorating public services. How did we get here? Through decades of dysfunctional government. In Democracy in America? veteran political observers Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens marshal an unprecedented array of evidence to show that while other countries have responded to a rapidly changing economy by helping people who’ve been left behind, the United States has failed to do so. Instead, we have actually exacerbated inequality, enriching corporations and the wealthy while leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves. What’s the solution? More democracy. More opportunities for citizens to shape what their government does. To repair our democracy, Page and Gilens argue, we must change the way we choose candidates and conduct our elections, reform our governing institutions, and curb the power of money in politics. By doing so, we can reduce polarization and gridlock, address pressing challenges, and enact policies that truly reflect the interests of average Americans. Updated with new information, this book lays out a set of proposals that would boost citizen participation, curb the power of money, and democratize the House and Senate. “Brilliant, indispensable, and highly accessible.” —New York Journal of Books

Book Democracy in America  Complete

Download or read book Democracy in America Complete written by Alexis de Tocqueville and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 1320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed. I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated. I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined that I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New World presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is daily progressing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have reached in the United States, and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe. I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader. It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on amongst us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and consequences. To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history. Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when the territory was divided amongst a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man, and landed property was the sole source of power. Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and began to exert itself: the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the poor and the rich, the villein and the lord; equality penetrated into the Government through the Church, and the being who as a serf must have vegetated in perpetual bondage took his place as a priest in the midst of nobles, and not infrequently above the heads of kings. The different relations of men became more complicated and more numerous as society gradually became more stable and more civilized. Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail. Whilst the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in State affairs. The transactions of business opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political influence in which he was at once flattered and despised. Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science became a means of government, intelligence led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the State. The value attached to the privileges of birth decreased in the exact proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and equality was thus introduced into the Government by the aristocracy itself.

Book Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus

Download or read book Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus written by Danielle Allen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in crisis -- Pandemic resilience -- Federalism is an asset -- A transformed peace: an agenda for healing our social contract.