Download or read book Democracy Ltd written by Bobby Friedman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The agenda-setting book the politicians don’t want you to read WELCOME TO THE MURKY WORLD OF POLITICAL DONATIONS. Big business, eccentric loners, lobbyists, fraudsters, senior trade unionists, and dodgy wheeler-dealers have all been rubbing shoulders with the most senior politicians in the country – and they often expect something in return for their money. Now, in this blistering exposé, investigative journalist Bobby Friedman reveals how upstanding party treasurers and cabinet ministers have been turned into desperate courters of the rich. Discover the truth behind the toxic system where money buys you access and trade union power is king. Understand why you’re more likely to become a peer if you’ve donated to a political party and how foreign multi-millionaires can use shell companies and subterfuge to gain entry to the locked doors of Westminster. Informed by interviews with wealthy donors and key political figures, and packed with shocking revelations, this enthralling book exposes who is really pulling the strings in British government.

Download or read book Democracy Ltd written by Bobby Friedman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The agenda-setting book the politicians don’t want you to read WELCOME TO THE MURKY WORLD OF POLITICAL DONATIONS. Big business, eccentric loners, lobbyists, fraudsters, senior trade unionists, and dodgy wheeler-dealers have all been rubbing shoulders with the most senior politicians in the country – and they often expect something in return for their money. Now, in this blistering exposé, investigative journalist Bobby Friedman reveals how upstanding party treasurers and cabinet ministers have been turned into desperate courters of the rich. Discover the truth behind the toxic system where money buys you access and trade union power is king. Understand why you’re more likely to become a peer if you’ve donated to a political party and how foreign multi-millionaires can use shell companies and subterfuge to gain entry to the locked doors of Westminster. Informed by interviews with wealthy donors and key political figures, and packed with shocking revelations, this enthralling book exposes who is really pulling the strings in British government.

Download or read book Digital Democracy written by Kenneth L Hacker and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2000-12-05 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing attention is being paid to the political uses of the new communication technologies. Digital Democracy offers an invaluable in-depth explanation of what issues of theory and application are most important to the emergence and development of computer-mediated communication systems for political purposes. The book provides a wide-ranging critical examination of the concept of virtual democracy as discussed in theory and as implemented in practice and policy that has been hitherto unavailable. It addresses how the Internet, World Wide Web and computer-mediated political communication are affecting democracy and focuses on the various theoretical and practical issues involved in digital democracy. Using international examples Digital Democracy attempts to connect theoretical analysis to considerations of practice and policy.

Download or read book Democracy Incorporated written by Sheldon S. Wolin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level. Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come. Now with a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, Democracy Incorporated remains an essential work for understanding the state of democracy in America.

Download or read book Activating Democracy written by Sheryl Oring and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Driven by a powerful belief in the value of free expression, Sheryl Oring has for more than a decade been helping people across the United States voice concerns about public affairs through her 'I Wish to Say' project. This book uses that project as the starting point for an exploration of a series of issues of public interest being addressed by artists today. It features essays by contributors ranging from art historians and practicing artists to scholars and creators working in literature, political science and architecture. All the contributors offer a different approach, but they share a primary goal of sparking a dialogue not just among makers of art, but among viewers, readers and the concerned public at large. The resulting volume will be an essential resource for politically engaged contemporary artists searching for innovative, cross-disciplinary ways of making and sharing art.

Download or read book Making Democracy Work written by Robert D. Putnam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1994-05-27 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A classic."—New York Times "Seminal, epochal, path-breaking . . . a Democracy in America for our times."—The Nation From the bestselling author of Bowling Alone, a landmark account of the secret of successful democracies Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970, when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and healthcare, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity. The result is a landmark book filled with crucial insights about how to make democracy work.

Download or read book Media Democracy and Social Change written by Aeron Davis and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we are told so regularly that we live in a ‘post truth’ age and are surrounded by ‘fake news’, it can be tempting to think of politics as primarily mediated. Discussion and analysis of public affairs is preoccupied with the power and reach of platforms or the passion and rage of social media exchanges. As important as these issues may be, a focus on the communicative risks downgrading the political. Media, Democracy and Social Change puts politics back into political communications. It shows how within a digital media ecology, the wider context of neoliberal capitalism remains essential for understanding what political communications is, and can hope to be. Tackling broad themes of structural inequality, technological change, political realignment and social transformation, the book explores political communications as it relates to debates around the state, infrastructures, elites, populism, political parties, activism, the legacies of colonialism, and more. It is both an expert introduction to the field of political communications, and a critical intervention to help re-imagine what a democratic politics might mean in a digital age. It will be essential reading for students, researchers and activists. Aeron Davis, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman and Gholam Khiabany all work at the Department of Media and Communication at Goldsmiths, University of London, where they teach together on the MA in Political Communications.

Download or read book The Case for Democracy in the COVID 19 Pandemic written by David Seedhouse and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2020-09-14 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Seedhouse highlights the alarming irrelevance of inclusive democracy in the governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, asking why decision-makers so readily ignored centuries of hard-won civil freedoms? Why were we so easily controlled and why were our controllers so willing to do it? Before suggesting that this flawed governmental response is the perfect argument for an extensive, participatory democracy.

Download or read book Comparative Politics written by Judith Bara and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2009-03-19 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ′Bara and Pennington′s edited volume successfully fills a huge void in the market for introductory textbooks to comparative politics which previously offered either descriptions of political processes and systems or overviews of the methodology of comparative analysis. By applying major political science theories to overviews of the core elements of political systems, the authors both enhance our understanding of these elements and provide readers an excellent introduction to comparative explanation′ - Dr David Howarth, University of Edinburgh ′What is distinctive about this authoritative and comprehensive book on comparative politics is the way in which it is underpinned throughout by a theoretical analysis centred on a new institutionalist approach′ - Professor Wyn Grant, University of Warwick ′Comparative Politics takes a fresh and original approach to the field... it examines the role of structures, rules and norms in regulating the individual and collective behaviour of political actors. Each chapter provides a critical bibliography and key questions which will be particularly useful for students approaching Comparative Politics for the first time. Altogether this is a comprehensive and useful read which I warmly recommend′ - Ian Budge, Professor Emiritus Professor of Government, University of Essex ′This is a most useful book. Teachers of comparative politics often scramble around, with out-of-date textbooks and photocopies of more or less compatible articles. Here is a new book that gives an up-to-date, comprehensive and systematic introduction to the major strands of institutional thought and applies these to the major institutions, processes and policy areas. It will be a great help for many of us, academics and students alike′ - Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Copenhagen This book provides a distinctive new introduction to the study of comparative politics at undergraduate level. Rich in case study material and global in coverage, Comparative Politics sets out the basic theoretical and methodological foundations for studying different political systems as well as the key structures and actors of which they are comprised. Part One explores the nature of comparative methodology and introduces students to the major theoretical paradigms that seek to explain the operation of institutions in democratic states and facilitate comparison across different political systems. Part Two examines the institutional structures of the modern state, outlining the key features such as the electoral systems and territorial and functional divisions of government across a range of modern states. Part Three analyzes the role of key actors, such as voters and parties, interest groups and social movements, the bureaucracy and the judiciary. This book will be an essential primer for students on first-year courses in comparative government and politics as well as introductory courses in political science concepts and methods. Judith Bara is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London and Research Fellow in Government, University of Essex. David S. Bell is Professor of French Government and Politics and Head of Social Studies and Law at the University of Leeds. Jocelyn Evans is Reader in Politics at the European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford. Catherine Needham is Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. Brendan O′Duffy is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. Mark Pennington is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. David Robertson is Professor of Politics, University of Oxford and Vice Principal, St Hugh′s College, Oxford.

Download or read book The Corporation written by Joel Bakan and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for the film that won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, The Corporation contends that the corporation is created by law to function much like a psychopathic personality, whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin. Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world’s dominant economic institution. Eminent Canadian law professor and legal theorist Joel Bakan contends that today's corporation is a pathological institution, a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies. In this revolutionary assessment of the history, character, and globalization of the modern business corporation, Bakan backs his premise with the following observations: -The corporation’s legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others. -The corporation’s unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal. -Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization. But Bakan believes change is possible and he outlines a far-reaching program of achievable reforms through legal regulation and democratic control. Featuring in-depth interviews with such wide-ranging figures as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, business guru Peter Drucker, and cultural critic Noam Chomsky, The Corporation is an extraordinary work that will educate and enlighten students, CEOs, whistle-blowers, power brokers, pawns, pundits, and politicians alike.

Download or read book Democracy and Education written by John Dewey and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1916 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: . Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

Download or read book Defining and Measuring Democracy written by David Beetham and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1994-11-29 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid worldwide phase of democratization since the 1980s has stimulated a renewed interest in how we define and measure democracy. The contributors to this volume include leading political theorists, political scientists and experts in comparative government from across Europe. Defining and Measuring Democracy offers an integrated analysis of key debates and issues ranging from the question of how to define democracy to the issue of cultural diversity. Each chapter offers new insights and approaches placed in the context of contemporary debates.

Download or read book Democracy in Decline written by Philip Kotler and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2016-06-17 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy in Decline is an examination by the ′father of modern marketing′ into how a long cherished product (democracy) is failing the needs of its consumers (citizens). Philip Kotler identifies 14 shortcomings of today’s democracy and confronts this gloomy outlook with some potential solutions and a positive message; that a brighter future awaits if we can come together and save democracy from its decline. Encouraging readers to join the conversation, exercise their free speech and get on top of the issues that affect their lives regardless of nationality or political persuasion. Suitable for students across a broad range of courses including Political Science, Politics, Political Marketing and Critical Management/Sociology. An accompanying website invites those interested to help find and publish thoughtful articles that aid our understanding of what is happening and what can be done to improve democracies around the world.

Download or read book Spaces of Democracy written by Clive Barnett and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2004-08-31 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an historically unprecedented way, democracy is now increasingly seen as a universal model of legitimate rule. This work addresses the key question: How can democracy be understood in theory and in practice?.

Download or read book Comparing Democracies written by Lawrence LeDuc and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides you with a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and voting behaviour. It explores important work taking place on new areas, whilst at the same time covering the key themes that you’ll encounter throughout your studies. Edited by three leading figures in the field, the new edition brings together an impressive range of contributors and draws on a range of cases and examples from across the world. It now includes: New chapters on authoritarian elections and regime change, and electoral integrity A chapter dedicated to voting behaviour Increased emphasis on issues relating to the economy. Comparing Democracies, Fourth Edition will remain a must-read for students and lecturers of elections and voting behaviour, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.

Download or read book Development and Democracy written by Ole Elgström and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-08-29 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Development and Democracy confirms the robust relationship between levels of economic development and democracy, but suggests that globalization is a key variable in determining the tenuous nature of this relationship in the periphery of the world economy. It raises new questions about the role of social classes in democratization, and points to the importance of including the nature of the state as a factor in the study of democratization. A further important finding is that countries with mixed legal systems correlate less positively with democracy than do countries with more homogenous legal systems. Moreover, Development and Democracy shows conclusively that the way researchers design their studies has a major impact on their findings.

Download or read book Reexamining Democracy written by Gary Marks and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1992-07 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seymour Martin Lipset is one of the best known and most prolific social scientists this century. These comprehensive essays pay tribute to his scholarship by exploring his core theme: the conditions, problems, dynamics, values and institutions of democracy, both in the US and throughout the world. Published originally as a Special Issue of The American Behavioral Scientist, Reexamining Democracy is devoted to rethinking the character and development of democracy worldwide. The contributors offer fascinating perspectives on an ever-potent and compelling social force.