Download or read book Participatory Democracy and Political Participation written by Thomas Zittel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-11-22 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed new examination of the initiatives governments are exploring to reform the institutions and procedures of liberal democracy in order to provide more opportunities for political participation and inclusion. Combining theory and empirical case studies, this is a systematic evaluation of the most visible and explicit efforts to engineer political participation via institutional reforms. Part I discusses the phenomenon of participatory engineering from a conceptual standpoint, while parts II, III and IV take a comparative, as well as an empirical, perspective. The contributors to these sections analyze participatory institutions on the basis of empirical models of democracy such as direct democracy, civil society and responsive government and analyze the impact of these models on political behaviour. Part V includes exploratory regional case studies on specific reform initiatives that present descriptive accounts of the policies and politics of these reforms. Delivering a detailed assessment of democratic reform, this book will of strong interest to students and researchers of political theory, democracy and comparative politics.
Download or read book Participation and Democratic Theory written by Carole Pateman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows that current elitist theories are based on an inadequate understanding of the early writings of democratic theory and that much sociological evidence has been ignored.
Download or read book Hearing the Other Side written by Diana C. Mutz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-03-13 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Religion and politics', as the old saying goes, 'should never be discussed in mixed company.'And yet fostering discussions that cross lines of political difference has long been a central concern of political theorists. More recently, it has also become a cause célèbre for pundits and civic-minded citizens wanting to improve the health of American democracy. But only recently have scholars begun empirical investigations of where and with what consequences people interact with those whose political views differ from their own. Hearing the Other Side examines this theme in the context of the contemporary United States. It is unique in its effort to link political theory with empirical research. Drawing on her empirical work, Mutz suggests that it is doubtful that an extremely activist political culture can also be a heavily deliberative one.
Download or read book Strong Democracy written by Benjamin Barber and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the chosen few: an enduring contribution to democratic thought."—Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
Download or read book Civility and Participatory Democracy written by Boje, Thomas P. and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-31 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thought-provoking book conceptualizes the importance of civil society and citizenship in building a sustainable and participatory democracy. It considers the ways in which networks and organizations promoting common interests contribute to this mediating space between the public and private spheres, examining the impacts of the diversity of values and attitudes held by these organizations. Taking a normative position, Thomas P. Boje argues for the importance of social justice and civility in an active, liberating, equitable and participatory society. This book concludes with a detailed discussion of the conditions required for a participatory democratic system in which all citizens are involved in the planning, decision-making and implementation of crucial decisions.
Download or read book The Politics of Local Participatory Democracy in Latin America written by Françoise Montambeault and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-14 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Participatory democracy innovations aimed at bringing citizens back into local governance processes are now at the core of the international democratic development agenda. Municipalities around the world have adopted local participatory mechanisms of various types in the last two decades, including participatory budgeting, the flagship Brazilian program, and participatory planning, as it is the case in several Mexican municipalities. Yet, institutionalized participatory mechanisms have had mixed results in practice at the municipal level. So why and how does success vary? This book sets out to answer that question. Defining democratic success as a transformation of state-society relationships, the author goes beyond the clientelism/democracy dichotomy and reveals that four types of state-society relationships can be observed in practice: clientelism, disempowering co-option, fragmented inclusion, and democratic cooperation. Using this typology, and drawing on the comparative case study of four cities in Mexico and Brazil, the book demonstrates that the level of democratic success is best explained by an approach that accounts for institutional design, structural conditions of mobilization, and the configurations, strategies, behaviors, and perceptions of both state and societal actors. Thus, institutional change alone does not guarantee democratic success: the way these institutional changes are enacted by both political and social actors is even more important as it conditions the potential for an autonomous civil society to emerge and actively engage with the local state in the social construction of an inclusive citizenship.
Download or read book Participatory Democracy versus Elitist Democracy Lessons from Brazil written by W. Nylen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Nylen begins by discussing North Americans' love-hate relationship with politics and politicians, then shows how Brazilians feel the same way (as do many citizens of democracies throughout the world). He argues that this is so because contemporary democracies have increasingly trickled up and away from so-called 'average citizens'. We now live in a world of 'Elitist Democracies' essentially constructed of, by and for moneyed, well-connected and ethically-challenged elites. Fortunately, there are alternatives, and that's where Brazil offers valuable lessons. Experiments in local-level participatory democracy, put into practice in Brazil by the Workers Party show both the promise and the practical limitations of efforts to promote 'popular participation' and citizen empowerment.
Download or read book The Participatory Democracy Turn written by Laurence Bherer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1960s, participatory discourses and techniques have been at the core of decision making processes in a variety of sectors around the world – a phenomenon often referred to as the participatory turn. Over the years, this participatory turn has given birth to a large array of heterogeneous participatory practices developed by a wide variety of organizations and groups, as well as by governments. Among the best-known practices of citizen participation are participatory budgeting, citizen councils, public consultations, etc. However, these experiences are sometimes far from the original 1960s’ radical conception of participatory democracy, which had a transformative dimension and aimed to overcome unequal relationships between the state and society and emancipate and empower citizens in their daily lives. This book addresses four sets of questions: what do participatory practices mean today?; what does it mean to participate for participants, from the perspective of citizenship building?; how the processes created by the participatory turn have affected the way political representation functions?; and does the participatory turn also mean changing relationships and dynamics among civil servants, political representatives, and citizens? Overall, the contributions in this book illustrate and grasp the complexity of the so-called participatory turn. It shows that the participatory turn now includes several participatory democracy projects, which have different effects on the overall system depending on the principles that they advocate. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Civil Society.
Download or read book Democracy Reinvented written by Hollie Russon Gilman and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Participatory Budgeting—the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States. Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called "revolutionary civics in action" by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds. Democracy Reinvented places participatory budgeting within the larger discussion of the health of U.S. democracy and focuses on the enabling political and institutional conditions. Author and former White House policy adviser Hollie Russon Gilman presents theoretical insights, indepth case studies, and interviews to offer a compelling alternative to the current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government. She offers policy recommendations on how to tap online tools and other technological and civic innovations to promote more inclusive governance. While most literature tends to focus on institutional changes without solutions, this book suggests practical ways to empower citizens to become change agents. Reinvesting in Democracy also includes a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that come with using digital tools to re-engage citizens in governance.
Download or read book Punishment Participatory Democracy and the Jury written by Albert W. Dzur and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-13 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing democratic theory on the pressing issue of punishment, this book argues for participatory institutional designs as antidotes to the American penal state.
Download or read book Inspiring Participatory Democracy written by Tom Hayden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The famous 1962 Port Huron Statement by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) introduced the concept of participatory democracy to popular discourse and practice. In Inspiring Participatory Democracy Tom Hayden, one of the principal architects of the statement, analyses its historical impact and relevance to today's movements. Inspiring Participatory Democracy includes the full transcript of the Port Huron statment and shows how it played an important role in the movements for black civil rights, against the Vietnam war and for the Freedom of Information Act. Published during the year of Port Huron's 50th anniversary, Inspiring Participatory Democracy will be of great interest to readers interested in social history, politics and social activism.
Download or read book Participatory Democracy in Southern Europe written by Joan Font and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Citizen participation is a central component of democratic governance. As participatory schemes have grown in number and gained in social legitimacy over recent years, the research community has analyzed the virtues of participatory policies from several points of view, but usually giving focus to the most successful and well-known grass-roots cases. This book examines a wider range of participatory interventions that have been created or legitimized by central governments, providing original exploration of institutional democratic participatory mechanisms. Looking at a huge variety of subnational examples across Italy, Spain and France, the book interrogates the rich findings of a substantial research project. The authors use quantitative and qualitative methods to compare why these cases of participatory mechanisms have emerged, how they function, and what cultural impact they’ve achieved. This allows highly original insights into why participatory mechanisms work in some places, but not others, and the sorts of choices that organizers of participatory processes have to consider when creating such policies.
Download or read book We Decide written by Michael Menser and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Participatory democracy calls for the creation and proliferation of practices and institutions that enable individuals and groups to better determine the conditions in which they act and relate to others. Michael Menser’s timely book We Decide! is arguably the most comprehensive treatment of participatory democracy. He explains the three waves of participatory democracy theory to show that this movement is attentive to the mechanics of contemporary political practices. Menser also outlines “maximal democracy,” his own view of participatory democracy that expands people’s abilities to shape their own lives, reduce inequality, and promote solidarity. We Decide! draws on liberal, feminist, anarchist, and environmental justice philosophies as well as in-depth case studies of Spanish factory workers, Japanese housewives, and Brazilian socialists to show that participatory democracy actually works. Menser concludes his study by presenting a reconstructed version of the state that is shaped not by corporations but by inclusive communities driven by municipal workers, elected officials, and ordinary citizens working together. In this era of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, the participatory democracy proposed in We Decide! is more significant than ever.
Download or read book Power and Empowerment written by Peter Bachrach and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What role should political theory play in activating workers to engage in class struggle to extend participatory rights in the workplace and, in the process, expand and revitalize American democracy? Bachrach and Botwinick argue that the answer is to construct a theory of participatory democracy that would include a democratic concept of class struggle; a concept that provides workers and their allies an effective and legitimate course of political action. They see this concept not only as a means to encourage workers to become politically active to gain participatory rights, but also as a means to strengthen the democratic process as a whole. The authors contend that working-class struggle should be encouraged as a way of promoting the realignment of political parties along class lines and expanding citizen participation and public awareness of issues of national concern.To illustrate their theory, the authors describe and evaluate worker self-management programs in Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, England, and the United States. Hoping to spur Americans to confront their crisis of democracy with boldness and imagination, Bachrach and Botwinick demonstrate that class politics is on the agenda and that the categories of class and class struggle are now up for democratic definition in a way that is unique in this country. Author note: Peter Bachrach is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Temple University. >P>Aryeh Botwinick is Professor of Political Science at Temple University and the author of Skepticism and Political Participation (Temple).
Download or read book Non Western Social Movements and Participatory Democracy written by Ekim Arbatli and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes social movements across a range of countries in the non-Western world: Bosnia, Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Turkey and Ukraine in the period 2008 to 2016. The individual case studies investigate how political and social goals are framed nationally and globally, and the types of mobilization strategies used to pursue them. The studies also assess how, in the age of transnationalism, the idea of participatory democracy produces new collective-action frames and mass-mobilization strategies. The book challenges the view that most social movements unequivocally seek to achieve higher levels of democratization. Instead, the authors argue that protesters across different movements advocate more involved forms of citizen participation, since passive representation through liberal democratic institutions fails to address mass grievances and demands for accountability in many countries.
Download or read book Militants and Citizens written by Gianpaolo Baiocchi and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brazils democracy has frequently been described as unconsolidated, its citizens as apathetic and uninterested in politics. But in Porto Alegre, a host city to the World Social Forum, thousands of ordinary citizens participate in local governance, making binding decisions on urban policy on a daily basis. While there has been immense attention paid to the practice of participatory democracy in Porto Alegre, this is the first book to examine the politics, culture, and day-to-day activities of its citizens. Drawing on the rich tradition of urban ethnography and political theory, the book argues that Porto Alegres importance may lie not just with its effective governance, but with its new political logic, namely a greater access to government functions and government officials for traditionally disenfranchised citizens. In an age characterized by seemingly strong voter apathy, this study has global implications. The author shows that in the discussions on the failings of democracy in industrialized countries like the United States, most people may be missing what is central to civic engagement--unimpeded access to government.
Download or read book Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy written by Shawn J. Spano and published by Hampton Press (NJ). This book was released on 2001 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents a case-study account of a community project designed to enhance the quality of public communication through assisting academics, public professionals, and communication practitioners in developing community-building programmes.
