Download or read book Democracy s Achilles Heel written by Bruce Fleming and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-12 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy’s Achilles Heel argues that the structure of democracy is a combination of two incompatible worldviews: one relativist and liberal, the other absolutist and conservative. This combination of opposites is essential for its survival, yet places democracy at risk since each worldview is prone to trying to engulf the other, creating threats from both the right and the left. This is democracy’s Achilles heel: it never goes away and can only be avoided. The nature of open societies means that absolutisms, for example of a religious kind, can exist quite comfortably within democracy, yet for democracy to succeed, they must permit other belief systems and worldviews, absolute or otherwise, to exist alongside them. Likewise, relativism can undermine the liberal nature of democracy itself in seeking to reduce the existence of absolutisms to nothing, thus threatening freedom and destabilizing democracy. Reacting to the recent clashes in Western democracies between left and right, and drawing on the theories of such now-classic thinkers as Fromm, Berlin, and Hoffer, as well as more recent sources such as Levitsky and Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die, the author moves beyond the usual defenses of democracy, accepting the fact that democracy, because of its combination of opposites, is always unstable and always at risk, while urging those who live within democratic polities to strengthen its chances of survival by remembering its fundamental value and purpose. An impassioned defense of the democratic way of life even given (and indeed because of) its eternally threatened nature, Democracy’s Achilles Heel will appeal to scholars, students, and readers with interests in political sociology, philosophy, and political theory.
Download or read book Democracy s Achilles Heel written by BRUCE. FLEMING and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2023-12-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A defence of democratic politics, this book argues that democracy comprises a structure based on two incompatible world-views: one relativist and liberal, the other absolutist and conservative - the combination of which is at once essential for its success, yet also that which threatens its survival.
Download or read book The Achilles Heel of Democracy written by Rachel E. Bowen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring the first in-depth comparison of the judicial politics of five under-studied Central American countries, The Achilles Heel of Democracy offers a novel typology of 'judicial regime types' based on the political independence and societal autonomy of the judiciary. This book highlights the under-theorized influences on the justice system - criminals, activists, and other societal actors - and the ways that they intersect with more overtly political influences. Grounded in interviews with judges, lawyers, and activists, it presents the 'high politics' of constitutional conflicts in the context of national political conflicts as well as the 'low politics' of crime control and the operations of trial-level courts. The book begins in the violent and often authoritarian 1980s in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and spans through the tumultuous 2015 'Guatemalan Spring'; the evolution of Costa Rica's robust liberal judicial regime is traced from the 1950s.
Download or read book The Achilles Heel of Democracy written by Rachel E. Bowen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machine generated contents note: 1. Societally penetrated judiciaries and the democratic rule of law; 2. The evolution of judicial regimes; 3. Costa Rica: a liberal judicial regime; 4. Government control regimes in Central America versus the rule of law; 5. Clandestine control in Guatemala; 6. Partisan systems; Conclusion
Download or read book Capitalism s Achilles Heel written by Raymond W. Baker and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2005-08-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over forty years in more than sixty countries, Raymond Baker has witnessed the free-market system operating illicitly and corruptly, with devastating consequences. In Capitalism’s Achilles Heel, Baker takes readers on a fascinating journey through the global free-market system and reveals how dirty money, poverty, and inequality are inextricably intertwined. Readers will discover how small illicit transactions lead to massive illegalities and how staggering global income disparities are worsened by the illegalities that permeate international capitalism. Drawing on his experiences, Baker shows how Western banks and businesses use secret transactions and ignore laws while handling some $1 trillion in illicit proceeds each year. He also illustrates how businesspeople, criminals, and kleptocrats perfect the same techniques to shift funds and how these tactics negatively affect individuals, institutions, and countries.
Download or read book Social Democracy written by Hans Keman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-06-14 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Democratic party family is a central part of political life in the West. This book focuses on this party family as well as a unique political force in the industrialised world. It provides a critical comparative survey of when, where, how and why Social Democracy developed within established capitalist democracies. The book explains the electoral fortunes of Social Democratic parties, the influence of the party system dynamics and co-operation between parties in government. It examines the ideological tensions within Social Democratic parties between socialists and reformists and its ramifications for pursuing a ‘better and kinder’ world. This study also discusses the recent state of affairs and its mission in the 21st century. The book features a comparative analysis of 21 cases from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States. It will be of key interest to students and scholars of public policy, comparative politics, party politics and democracy studies.
Download or read book BPY 003 Ancient and Medieval Western Philosophy written by BK SAHNI and published by MeetCoogle. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is useful for IGNOU BA PHILOSOPHY groups of students. It contains previous years solved papers that enable students learn about the subject and prepare for their examinations. A perusal of past questions papers gives an idea of the type of questions asked, the paper pattern and so on, it is for this benefit, we provide these IGNOU BPY-003 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL WESTERN PHILOSOPHY (SOLVED) …. Students are advised to refer these solutions in conjunction with their reference books. It will help you to improve your exam preparations…In this book, Detailed Explanatory Answers have been provided for the questions for Better Understanding of the Candidates. Hope you find it useful and Best of Luck for your Examination.
Download or read book Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity written by Dimitrios Karmis and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2023-02-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Tully is one of the world’s most influential political philosophers at work today. Over the past thirty years – first with Strange Multiplicity (1995), and more fully with Public Philosophy in a New Key (2008) and On Global Citizenship (2014) – Tully has developed a distinctive approach to the study of political philosophy, democracy, and active citizenship for a deeply diverse world and a de-imperializing age. Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity explores, elucidates, and questions Tully’s innovative approach, methods, and concepts, providing both a critical assessment of Tully’s public philosophy and an exemplification of the dialogues of reciprocal elucidation that are central to Tully’s approach. Since the role of public philosophy is to address public affairs, the contributors consider public philosophy in the context of pressing issues and recent civic struggles such as: crises of democracy and citizenship in the Western world; global citizenship; civil disobedience and non-violence; Indigenous self-determination; nationalism and federalism in multinational states; protest movements in Turkey and Quebec; supranational belonging in the European Union; struggles over equity in academia; and environmental decontamination, decolonization, and cultural restoration in Akwesasne. Offering a wide-ranging analytical discussion of Tully’s work by leading scholars from various fields of study, with an extensive reply by Tully himself, Civic Freedom in an Age of Diversity provides a rich perspective on the full extent of his contribution.
Download or read book Promise Of Development written by Peter F Klaren and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-23 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years Latin Americanists have been among the most innovative and productive theorists of the uneven process of development. This collection of substantial selections from some of the most prominent theorists in the field represents a scholarly consolidation and reassessment of the controversies concerning the development of Latin America. Beginning with a historiographic overview, the editors emphasize the origins, evolution, and historical context of the development of each theoretical school (modernization, dependency and Marxism, corporatism, and bureaucratic authoritarianism) and then present key selections drawn from the writings of major theorists, organized by school. Each selection is prefaced with a short editorial introduction that highlights the central themes. A concluding section outlines the main debates surrounding each school and suggests new directions in theoretical development that might arise from criticism of the theories of authoritarianism and the search for democratic processes of development. The book’s usefulness as a text is further enhanced by selected bibliographies that contain additional readings on each development theory. Here is a single source for Latin Americanists who hope to interest and instruct their students in the rich theoretical traditions and debates in Latin American studies. This book can also be a strong core volume for courses on other developing areas.
Download or read book Latin American Democracy written by Richard L. Millett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-26 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly thirty years have passed since Latin America began the arduous task of transitioning from military-led rule to democracy. In this time, more countries have moved toward the institutional bases of democracy than at any time in the region’s history. Nearly all countries have held free, competitive elections and most have had peaceful alternations in power between opposing political forces. Despite these advances, however, Latin American countries continue to face serious domestic and international challenges to the consolidation of stable democratic governance. The challenges range from weak political institutions, corruption, legacies of militarism, transnational crime and globalization among others. In Latin American Democracy contributors – both academics and practitioners, North Americans and Latin Americans – explore and assess the state of democratic consolidation in Latin America by focusing on the specific issues and challenges confronting democratic governance in the region.
Download or read book The Individual and the Political Order written by Norman E. Bowie and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in an accessible yet sophisticated style, The Individual and the Political Order, Third Edition is a text appropriate for students at all levels. This thoroughly revised edition challenges its readers to critically respond to a sustained defense of liberalism. Additions include examinations of communitarian and feminist critiques of liberalism, discussions of hate speech regulations, responses to the most recent work of Rawls, and a study of humanitarian intervention efforts in other countries. An expanded and updated bibliography as well as new study questions for each chapter make this an extremely useful text.
Download or read book The Fifth Narrative written by Benjamin Katz and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2004-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written for bright, brave and curious people who wish to become farsighted, to find other meanings and necessities beyond our recent Grand Tales (Religion, Pessimism, Capitalism and Science). The Fifth Narrative is about our emergence out of our "dung beetle´" state. It reveals our unawareness that the "dungballs" which currently sustain us (Grand Narratives) constrain our ability to be farsighted thus endangering our future evolution. It tells how human folly in our time seems more than ever to confound these grand stories and their bearing meaning. It explains why a new grand Narrative is necessary in order to survive and prevail. And why a new psychology encompassing areas like global ecology, demography, resources and politics is of impending necessity. The book deals with the emergence of a new civilization through technology and farsighted knowledge, which will form and guide our further evolution. Its essential message is: Let us become wiser ascending Icarus, rising beyond our limiting schemes and perspectives.
Download or read book In the Name of Social Democracy written by Gerassimos Moschonas and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the locust years of the neo-liberal revolution, social democracy was the great victor at the fin-de-sicle elections. Today, parties descended from the Second International hold office throughout the European Union, while the Right appears widely disorientated by the dramatic "modernisation" of a political tradition dating back to the nineteenth century. The focal point of Gerassimos Moschonas's study is the emergent "new social democracy" of the twenty-first century. As Moschonas demonstrates, change has been a constant of social-democratic history: the core dominant reformist tendency of working-class politic notwithstanding, capitalism has transformed social democracy more than it has succeeded in transforming capitalism. Now, in the "great transformation" of recent years, a process of "de-social-democratization" has been set in train, affecting every aspect of the social-democratic phenomenon, from ideology and programs to organization and electorates. Analytically incisive and empirically meticulous, In the Name of Social Democracy will establish itself as the standard reference work on the logic and dynamics of a major mutation in European politics.
Download or read book Governing Youth Politics in the Age of Surveillance written by Maria T. Grasso and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on case studies from around the world, contributors to this ground-breaking book explore a major contemporary paradox: on the one hand, young people today are at the forefront of political campaigns promoting social rights and ethical ideas that challenge authoritarian orders and elite privileges. On the other hand, too many governments, some claiming to be committed to liberal-democratic values, social inclusion and youth participation are engaged in repressing political activities that contest the status quo. Contributors to this book explore how, especially since 9/11, governments, state agencies and other traditional power holders around the globe have reacted to political dissent authored by young people. While the ‘need’ to enhance ‘youth political participation’ is promoted, the cases in this book document how states are using everything from surveillance, summary offences, expulsion from universities, ‘gag laws’ and ‘antiterrorism’ legislation, and even imprisonment to repress certain forms of young people’s political activism. These responses diminish the public sphere and create civic spaces hostile to political participation by any citizen. This book forms part of The Criminalization of Political Dissent series. It documents and interprets the many ways contemporary governments and agencies now routinely use various techniques to repress and criminalise political dissent.
Download or read book The Trouble with Canada written by William Gairdner and published by BPS Books. This book was released on 2007-08 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original edition of this bestselling and country-changing book. Beginning in the 1970s, Canada abandoned its historical foundations and fell under the spell of socialism. This best-selling classic, which galvanized the generation now leading the counter-attack, explains in plain language how Canadians got into their present predicament, and how to get out. He deals with such topics as the great welfare ripoff; the waste in foreign aid giveaways; radical feminism's attack against the family; the mediocrity of the health-care system; and the politicization of the church.
Download or read book The Theory of Social Democracy written by Thomas Meyer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ascendancy of neo-liberalism in different parts of the world has put social democracy on the defensive. Its adherents lack a clear rationale for their policies. Yet a justification for social democracy is implicit in the United Nations Covenants on Human Rights, ratified by most of the worlds countries. The covenants commit all nations to guarantee that their citizens shall enjoy the traditional formal rights; but they likewise pledge governments to make those rights meaningful in the real world by providing social security and cultural recognition to every person. This new book provides a systematic defence of social democracy for our contemporary global age. The authors argue that the claims to legitimation implicit in democratic theory can be honored only by social democracy; libertarian democracies are defective in failing to protect their citizens adequately against social, economic, and environmental risks that only collective action can obviate. Ultimately, social democracy provides both a fairer and more stable social order. But can social democracy survive in a world characterized by pervasive processes of globalization? This book asserts that globalization need not undermine social democracy if it is harnessed by international associations and leavened by principles of cultural respect, toleration, and enlightenment. The structures of social democracy must, in short, be adapted to the exigencies of globalization, as has already occurred in countries with the most successful social-democratic practices.
Download or read book Democracy in Times of Crises written by Emmanouil M.L. Economou and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the democratic origins of the Greek naval victory at Salamis, the book discusses the current pressing issues of democracy worldwide. In 12 carefully selected chapters, well-renowned scholars from around the globe discuss topics such as Brexit, Euroscepticism, or the rise of populism. The authors further analyze various aspects of democracy, as well as various types of democratic regimes, such as mixed government, direct democracy, and cases of quasi democracies. While doing so, they relate this discussion to the pivotal question of how the quality of democracy today can be improved, seeking answers and solutions to current pending problems at the global level. This book is the second out of two edited volumes as a sequel of an international academic conference titled Salamis and Democracy: 2500 Years After that took place between October 3rd and October 5th, 2020, on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the great historical event of the Battle of Salamis, which saved Greek culture and the newly founded democratic regimes throughout the Hellenic world during the Classical period (508-323 BCE). The book is a must-read for scholars and students of political science, economics, and law, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of democracy, governance, populism, social choice, and constitutional law.
