Download or read book The State of Democratic Theory written by Ian Shapiro and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-16 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action. Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good. Shapiro reveals the shortcomings of both, arguing instead that democracy should be geared toward minimizing domination throughout society. He contends that Joseph Schumpeter's classic defense of competitive democracy is a useful starting point for achieving this purpose, but that it stands in need of radical supplementation--both with respect to its operation in national political institutions and in its extension to other forms of collective association. Shapiro's unusually wide-ranging discussion also deals with the conditions that make democracy's survival more and less likely, with the challenges presented by ethnic differences and claims for group rights, and with the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth. Ranging over politics, philosophy, constitutional law, economics, sociology, and psychology, this book is written in Shapiro's characteristic lucid style--a style that engages practitioners within the field while also opening up the debate to newcomers.
Download or read book Democratization and the State written by Jan Henryk Pierskalla and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does democratization lead to more meritocracy in the civil service? The Element argues that electoral accountability increases the value of competence over personal loyalty in the civil service. While this resembles an application of merit principles, it does not automatically reduce patronage politics or improve public goods provision. Competent civil servants are often used to facilitate the distribution of clientelistic goods at mass scale to win competitive elections. The selection of competent but less loyal civil servants requires the increased use of control mechanisms, like the timing of promotions, to ensure their compliance. The Element tests these claims using novel micro-level data on promotions in Indonesia's civil service before and after democratization in 1999. The Element shows that national- and local-level elections led to increased promotion premiums for educated civil servants, and simultaneously generated electoral cycles in the timing of promotions, but did little to improve public goods provision.
Download or read book Democracy in Retreat written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div
Download or read book State Formation and Democratization written by Thomas Denk and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-16 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the connection between two major developments in the world: state-formation and democratization. Since 1946, the number of states has increased from 66 to almost 200 independent states, but our knowledge of these state-formation processes is limited. The authors present a new database on state-formation and democratization, which enables novel classifications and analyses of these processes on the global level. They argue that the form of state-formation affects the probability for democratization in new states and that the initial regime that state-formation establishes at the time of independence has long-term effects on new states’ democratization.
Download or read book Stateness and Democracy in East Asia written by Aurel Croissant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparative analysis of case studies across East Asia provides new insights into the relationship between state building, stateness, and democracy.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory written by John S Dryzek and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2008-06-12 with total page 898 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford Handbooks of Political Science are the essential guide to the state of political science today. With engaging contributions from 51 major international scholars, the Oxford Handbook of Political Theory provides the key point of reference for anyone working in political theory and beyond.
Download or read book Democratization written by Dirk Berg-Schlosser and published by Verlag Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2007-08-22 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Problems of democratization, its successes, failures and future prospects, belong to the most pressing concerns of our times. Empirical democratic theory has received many new impulses since the last ""wave"" of democratization in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast and East Asia. In this volume the ""state of the art"" in this respect is discussed by leading international experts in this field including Laurence Whitehead, Gerardo Munck, Axel Hadenius and Juan Linz. From the contents: Some significant recent developments in the field of Democratization Concepts, measurements and sub-types in Democratization Research Agendas, findings, challenges Successes and failures of the new democracies Some thoughts on the victory and future of democracy
Download or read book Political Leadership Nascent Statehood and Democracy written by Ulrika Möller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do political leaders determine whether a polity will receive a democratic future or not? Research and advocates of democracy agree on the significance of political elites for democratization, yet there is a need for a more specific understanding of their role. This book develops a theory of political leadership at the point of nascent statehood to explain the emergence of resilient democracies. It employs four diverse case studies to examine the role of leadership and democratic consolidation. In doing so, the book identifies certain capacities of political leaders at the critical moment of nascent statehood as decisive to the future democratic quality of their state. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, democratization studies, state building, leadership, nationalism, Middle Eastern studies and South Asian studies.
Download or read book Social Media and Democracy written by Nathaniel Persily and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.
Download or read book The State Democracy Nexus written by Jørgen Møller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great dilemma of democracy revolves around the state. Historically, the state has played a crucial role as enforcer of liberal democratic constitutions, but it has also been used by autocratic rulers to entrench their rule. The state is thus a two-edged sword: It can both be the guarantee of democratic rights and a tool that can be used to suppress such rights. One corollary of this is that the influence of state structures on democratic development depends on who holds government power. But the opposite observation can also be made, as governments play an important role in shaping the state apparatus. The state and the regime are thus intertwined. Against this backdrop, this book presents a series of attempts – authored by influential experts such as Francis Fukuyama and Gerardo Munck – to disentangle the relationship between the state and political regimes. The contributions differ in terms of their particular theoretical and empirical focus. But they share the assumption that three criteria need to be observed to achieve a better understanding of the state-democracy nexus. First, it is valuable to distinguish conceptually between different aspects of the state. Second, the potential relationships between democracy and these attributes of state should be carefully theorized. Third, the consequent propositions must be interrogated using comparative approaches. This book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.
Download or read book A Middle Quality Institutional Trap Democracy and State Capacity in Latin America written by Sebastián L. Mazzuca and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-11 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin America is currently caught in a middle-quality institutional trap, combining flawed democracies and low-to-medium capacity States. Yet, contrary to conventional wisdom, the sequence of development - Latin America has democratized before building capable States - does not explain the region's quandary. States can make democracy, but so too can democracy make States. Thus, the starting point of political developments is less important than whether the State-democracy relationship is a virtuous cycle, triggering causal mechanisms that reinforce each other. However, the State-democracy interaction generates a virtuous cycle only under certain macroconditions. In Latin America, the State-democracy interaction has not generated a virtuous cycle: problems regarding the State prevent full democratization and problems of democracy prevent the development of state capacity. Moreover, multiple macroconditions provide a foundation for this distinctive pattern of State-democracy interaction. The suboptimal political equilibrium in contemporary Latin America is a robust one.
Download or read book Democratization in America written by Desmond King and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-08-05 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume examine democracy’s development in the United States, demonstrating how that process has shaped—and continues to shape—the American political system. Scholars of American politics commonly describe the political development of the United States as exceptional and distinct from that of other advanced industrial democracies. They point to the United States as the longest-lived and most stable liberal democracy in history. What they often fail to mention, though, is that it took considerable time to extend democracy throughout the country. The contributors to this volume suggest that it is intellectually fruitful to consider the U.S. case in comparison to other countries. They argue that the development of democracy is ongoing in America; that even with a written constitution grounded in liberal democracy, the meaning and significance of U.S. democracy are still evolving. This volume shows that democratization and the pursuit of democracy are processes affected by multiple and continuing challenges—including such issues as citizenship, race, institution building, and political movements—as patterns and practices of politics and governance continue to change. This innovative approach contributes significantly to comparative democratization studies, a field normally confined to Latin America and former communist countries. The U.S. case is a unique reference point for students of American political development and comparative democratization.
Download or read book Power Sharing and Democracy in Post Civil War States written by Caroline A. Hartzell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides empirical evidence that power-sharing measures used to end civil wars can help facilitate a transition to minimalist democracy.
Download or read book Democratization Without Representation written by Kenneth C. Shadlen and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-11-09 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When countries become more democratic, new opportunities arise for individuals and groups to participate in politics and influence the making of policy. But democratization does not ensure better representation for everyone, and indeed some sectors of society are ill-equipped to take advantage of these new opportunities. Small industry in Mexico, Kenneth Shadlen shows, is an excellent example of a sector whose representation decreased during democratization. Shadlen’s analysis focuses on the basic characteristics of small firms that complicate the process of securing representation in both authoritarian and democratic environments. He then shows how increased pluralism and electoral competition served to exacerbate the political problems facing the sector during the course of democratization in Mexico. These characteristics created problems for small firms both in acting collectively through interest associations and civil society organizations and in wielding power within political parties. The changes that democratization effected in the structure of corporatism put small industry at a significant disadvantage in the policy-making arena even while there was general agreement on the crucial importance of this sector in the new neoliberal economy, especially for generating employment. The final chapter extends the analysis by making comparisons with the experience of small industry representation in Argentina and Brazil. Shadlen uses extensive interviews and archival research to provide new evidence and insights on the difficult challenges of interest aggregation and representation for small industry. He conducted interviews with a wide range of owners and managers of small firms, state and party officials, and leaders of business associations and civil society organizations. He also did research at the National Archives in Mexico City and in the archives of the most important business organizations for small industry in the post-World War II period.
Download or read book Democratization by Institutions written by Leslie E. Anderson and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The case of Argentina demonstrates that formal government institutions can facilitate democratization
Download or read book Democracy in What State written by Giorgio Agamben and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Is it meaningful to call oneself a democrat? And if so, how do you interpret the word?" In responding to this question, eight iconoclastic thinkers prove the rich potential of democracy, along with its critical weaknesses, and reconceive the practice to accommodate new political and cultural realities. Giorgio Agamben traces the tense history of constitutions and their coexistence with various governments. Alain Badiou contrasts current democratic practice with democratic communism. Daniel Bensaid ponders the institutionalization of democracy, while Wendy Brown discusses the democratization of society under neoliberalism. Jean-Luc Nancy measures the difference between democracy as a form of rule and as a human end, and Jacques Rancière highlights its egalitarian nature. Kristin Ross identifies hierarchical relationships within democratic practice, and Slavoj Zizek complicates the distinction between those who desire to own the state and those who wish to do without it. Concentrating on the classical roots of democracy and its changing meaning over time and within different contexts, these essays uniquely defend what is left of the left-wing tradition after the fall of Soviet communism. They confront disincentives to active democratic participation that have caused voter turnout to decline in western countries, and they address electoral indifference by invoking and reviving the tradition of citizen involvement. Passionately written and theoretically rich, this collection speaks to all facets of modern political and democratic debate.
Download or read book The Third Wave written by Samuel P. Huntington and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1974 and 1990 more than thirty countries in southern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe shifted from authoritarian to democratic systems of government. This global democratic revolution is probably the most important political trend in the late twentieth century. In The Third Wave, Samuel P. Huntington analyzes the causes and nature of these democratic transitions, evaluates the prospects for stability of the new democracies, and explores the possibility of more countries becoming democratic. The recent transitions, he argues, are the third major wave of democratization in the modem world. Each of the two previous waves was followed by a reverse wave in which some countries shifted back to authoritarian government. Using concrete examples, empirical evidence, and insightful analysis, Huntington provides neither a theory nor a history of the third wave, but an explanation of why and how it occurred. Factors responsible for the democratic trend include the legitimacy dilemmas of authoritarian regimes; economic and social development; the changed role of the Catholic Church; the impact of the United States, the European Community, and the Soviet Union; and the "snowballing" phenomenon: change in one country stimulating change in others. Five key elite groups within and outside the nondemocratic regime played roles in shaping the various ways democratization occurred. Compromise was key to all democratizations, and elections and nonviolent tactics also were central. New democracies must deal with the "torturer problem" and the "praetorian problem" and attempt to develop democratic values and processes. Disillusionment with democracy, Huntington argues, is necessary to consolidating democracy. He concludes the book with an analysis of the political, economic, and cultural factors that will decide whether or not the third wave continues. Several "Guidelines for Democratizers" offer specific, practical suggestions for initiating and carrying out reform. Huntington's emphasis on practical application makes this book a valuable tool for anyone engaged in the democratization process. At this volatile time in history, Huntington's assessment of the processes of democratization is indispensable to understanding the future of democracy in the world.
