Download or read book Recovering Truth Freedom and Democracy written by John Gishler and published by Gishler Group. This book was released on 2024-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A call to challenge false woke totalitarian truths and destruction and recover the Christian foundation of spiritual truth free and thriving democracies are built on.

Download or read book Post Truth Fake News and Democracy written by Johan Farkas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-23 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western societies are under siege, as fake news, post-truth and alternative facts are undermining the very core of democracy. This dystopian narrative is currently circulated by intellectuals, journalists and policy makers worldwide. In this book, Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou deliver a comprehensive study of post-truth discourses. They critically map the normative ideas contained in these and present a forceful call for deepening democracy. The dominant narrative of our time is that democracy is in a state of emergency caused by social media, changes to journalism and misinformed masses. This crisis needs to be resolved by reinstating truth at the heart of democracy, even if this means curtailing civic participation and popular sovereignty. Engaging with critical political philosophy, Farkas and Schou argue that these solutions neglect the fact that democracy has never been about truth alone: it is equally about the voice of the democratic people. Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy delivers a sobering diagnosis of our times. It maps contemporary discourses on truth and democracy, foregrounds their normative foundations and connects these to historical changes within liberal democracies. The book will be of interest to students and scholars studying the current state and future of democracy, as well as to a politically informed readership.

Download or read book Democracy and Truth written by Sophia Rosenfeld and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fake news," wild conspiracy theories, misleading claims, doctored photos, lies peddled as facts, facts dismissed as lies—citizens of democracies increasingly inhabit a public sphere teeming with competing claims and counterclaims, with no institution or person possessing the authority to settle basic disputes in a definitive way. The problem may be novel in some of its details—including the role of today's political leaders, along with broadcast and digital media, in intensifying the epistemic anarchy—but the challenge of determining truth in a democratic world has a backstory. In this lively and illuminating book, historian Sophia Rosenfeld explores a longstanding and largely unspoken tension at the heart of democracy between the supposed wisdom of the crowd and the need for information to be vetted and evaluated by a learned elite made up of trusted experts. What we are witnessing now is the unraveling of the détente between these competing aspects of democratic culture. In four bracing chapters, Rosenfeld substantiates her claim by tracing the history of the vexed relationship between democracy and truth. She begins with an examination of the period prior to the eighteenth-century Age of Revolutions, where she uncovers the political and epistemological foundations of our democratic world. Subsequent chapters move from the Enlightenment to the rise of both populist and technocratic notions of democracy between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the troubling trends—including the collapse of social trust—that have led to the rise of our "post-truth" public life. Rosenfeld concludes by offering suggestions for how to defend the idea of truth against the forces that would undermine it.

Download or read book Reset written by Ronald J. Deibert and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 2020 CBC Massey Lectures, bestselling author and renowned technology and security expert Ronald J. Deibert exposes the disturbing influence and impact of the internet on politics, the economy, the environment, and humanity. Digital technologies have given rise to a new machine-based civilization that is increasingly linked to a growing number of social and political maladies. Accountability is weak and insecurity is endemic, creating disturbing opportunities for exploitation. Drawing from the cutting-edge research of the Citizen Lab, the world-renowned digital security research group which he founded and directs, Ronald J. Deibert exposes the impacts of this communications ecosystem on civil society. He tracks a mostly unregulated surveillance industry, innovations in technologies of remote control, superpower policing practices, dark PR firms, and highly profitable hack-for-hire services feeding off rivers of poorly secured personal data. Deibert also unearths how dependence on social media and its expanding universe of consumer electronics creates immense pressure on the natural environment. In order to combat authoritarian practices, environmental degradation, and rampant electronic consumerism, he urges restraints on tech platforms and governments to reclaim the internet for civil society.

Download or read book Freedom in the World 2018 written by Freedom House and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 1040 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom in the World is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The methodology of this survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories.

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

Download or read book Truth and Democracy written by Jeremy Elkins and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political theorists Jeremy Elkins and Andrew Norris observe that American political culture is deeply ambivalent about truth. On the one hand, voices on both the left and right make confident appeals to the truth of claims about the status of the market in public life and the role of scientific evidence and argument in public life, human rights, and even religion. On the other hand, there is considerable anxiety that such appeals threaten individualism and political plurality. This anxiety, Elkins and Norris contend, has perhaps been greatest in the humanities and in political theory, where many have responded by either rejecting or neglecting the whole topic of truth. The essays in this volume question whether democratic politics requires discussion of truth and, if so, how truth should matter to democratic politics. While individual essays approach the subject from different angles, the volume as a whole suggests that the character of our politics depends in part on what kinds of truthful inquiries it promotes and how it deals with various kinds of disputes about truth. The contributors to the volume, including prominent political and legal theorists, philosophers, and intellectual historians, argue that these are important political and not merely theoretical questions.

Download or read book Healing the Heart of Democracy written by Parker J. Palmer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hope for American democracy in an era of deep divisions In Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker J. Palmer quickens our instinct to seek the common good and gives us the tools to do it. This timely, courageous and practical work—intensely personal as well as political—is not about them, "those people" in Washington D.C., or in our state capitals, on whom we blame our political problems. It's about us, "We the People," and what we can do in everyday settings like families, neighborhoods, classrooms, congregations and workplaces to resist divide-and-conquer politics and restore a government "of the people, by the people, for the people." In the same compelling, inspiring prose that has made him a bestselling author, Palmer explores five "habits of the heart" that can help us restore democracy's foundations as we nurture them in ourselves and each other: An understanding that we are all in this together An appreciation of the value of "otherness" An ability to hold tension in life-giving ways A sense of personal voice and agency A capacity to create community Healing the Heart of Democracy is an eloquent and empowering call for "We the People" to reclaim our democracy. The online journal Democracy & Education called it "one of the most important books of the early 21st Century." And Publishers Weekly, in a Starred Review, said "This beautifully written book deserves a wide audience that will benefit from discussing it."

Download or read book Reclaiming Democracy written by Albena Azmanova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is in shambles economically and politically. The recent economic meltdown in Europe and the U.S. has substituted democratic deliberation with technocratic decisions. In Athens, Madrid, Lisbon, New York, Pittsburgh or Istanbul, protesters have denounced the incapacity and unwillingness of elected officials to heed to their voices. While the diagnosis of our political-economic illness has been established, remedies are hard to come. What can we do to restore our broken democracy? Which modes of political participation are likely to have an impact? And what are the loci of political innovation in the wake of the crisis? It is with these questions that Reclaiming Democracy engages. We argue that the managerial approach to solving the crisis violates ‘a right to politics’, that is, a right that our collective life be guided by meaningful politics: by discussion of and decision among genuinely alternative principles and policies. The contributors to this volume are united in their commitment to explore how and where this right can be affirmed in a way that resuscitates democracy in the wake of the crisis. Mixing theoretical reflection and empirical analysis the book offers fresh insights into democracy’s current conundrum and makes concrete proposals about how ‘the right to politics’ can be protected.

Download or read book America s Battle for Media Democracy written by Victor Pickard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from extensive archival research, the book uncovers the American media system's historical roots and normative foundations. It charts the rise and fall of a forgotten media-reform movement to recover alternatives and paths not taken.

Download or read book Truth Recovery and Transitional Justice written by Iosif Kovras and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-16 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates why some societies defer transitional justice issues after successful democratic consolidation. Despite democratisation, the exhumation of mass graves containing the victims from the violence in Cyprus (1963-1974) and the Spanish civil war (1936-1939) was delayed until the early 2000s, when both countries suddenly decided to revisit the past. Although this contradicts the actions of other countries such as South Africa, Bosnia, and Guatemala where truth recovery for disappeared/missing persons was a central element of the transition to peace and democracy, Cyprus and Spain are not alone: this is an increasing trend among countries trying to come to terms with past violence. Truth Recovery and Transitional Justice considers the case studies of Spain and Cyprus and explores three interrelated issues. First, the book examines which factors can explain prolonged silence on the issue of missing persons in transitional settings. It then goes on to explore the transformation of victims’ groups from opponents of truth recovery to vocal pro-reconciliation pressure groups, and examines the circumstances in which it is better to tie victims’ rights to an overall political settlement. Finally, the author goes on to compare Spain and Cyprus with Greece- a country that remains resistant to post-transitional justice norms. This book will be of interest to students of transitional justice, human rights, peace and conflict studies and security studies in general.

Download or read book Freedom in the World 2004 written by Aili Piano and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom in the World contains both comparative ratings and written narratives and is now the standard reference work for measuring the progress and decline in political rights and civil liberties on a global basis.

Download or read book Reclaiming The American Democratic Impulse written by Thomas E. Vass and published by First Edition Design Pub.. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his recent book, The Liberty Amendments, Mark Levin promotes the enactment of 10 amendments to the U. S. Constitution, using the second method of amendment outlined in Article V of the Constitution of 1788. Levin offers no clues to how or why he thinks on the 1000th effort, this path of amendment would be successful.

Download or read book The Impossibility of Religious Freedom written by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Constitution may guarantee it. But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs. Boca Raton, a recent case concerning the laws that protect the free exercise of religion in America. The trial, for which the author served as an expert witness, concerned regulations banning certain memorials from a multiconfessional nondenominational cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. The book portrays the unsuccessful struggle of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families in Boca Raton to preserve the practice of placing such religious artifacts as crosses and stars of David on the graves of the city-owned burial ground. Sullivan demonstrates how, during the course of the proceeding, citizens from all walks of life and religious backgrounds were harassed to define just what their religion is. She argues that their plight points up a shocking truth: religion cannot be coherently defined for the purposes of American law, because everyone has different definitions of what religion is. Indeed, while religious freedom as a political idea was arguably once a force for tolerance, it has now become a force for intolerance, she maintains. A clear-eyed look at the laws created to protect religious freedom, this vigorously argued book offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society. It will have broad appeal not only for religion scholars, but also for anyone interested in law and the Constitution. Featuring a new preface by the author, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society.

Download or read book Freedom in the World 2015 written by Freedom House and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-12-24 with total page 877 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fourteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

Download or read book Journalism and the Future of Democracy written by Denis Muller and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-09 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about how journalism can contribute to the recovery of democracy from the crisis exemplified by the Trump presidency, the Brexit referendum and the rise of populism across the Western world. It explores the ethical concepts that provide the foundation for journalism in modern democracies: pluralism, liberalism, tolerance, truth, free speech, and impartiality. History has shown that crisis brings opportunity for change on a scale that is unachievable under ordinary political conditions, and this book proposes fundamental ways in which journalism can help democratic societies seize the moment. It traces the development of traditional mass media and social media and explores how the two might work better together to benefit democratic life. The development of press theory is described, and enhanced by a proposed new theory, Democratic Revival.

Download or read book They Don t Represent Us written by Lawrence Lessig and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An impassioned call to all Americans to fight for equal representation.” — Kirkus Reviews “This bracing report on the state of American politics offers valuable insights for the 2020 elections.” — Publishers Weekly “A thoughtful, illuminating, nonpartisan, and pragmatic analysis of the changes needed to restore power to the public… In this bold and compelling book, Lessig both scrutinizes the laws and forces that led us to this point and guides us towards visionary changes that can reset and restore our faith in our democracy. Given the complexities of the tasks at hand, this a must-read and a much-needed wake up call.” — Booklist “Lessig tells it with skill, citing a plethora of studies and historical examples to make a persuasive case about the unrepresentativeness of America’s political institutions.” — New York Time Book Review “Lessig paints a searing portrait of a defective political system that is nonetheless full of hope, community spirit, self-empowered individuals, and ways to fix what is broken.” — Foreign Affairs “Lessig is right that a representative American democracy, desirable in itself, would also solve most of the problems that now seem insoluble. It is hard to imagine a more thoughtful and appealing companion in the hard work to move our system to where it ought to be: in our own hands.” — Timothy Snyder, bestselling author of On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom “Lessig, a leading proponent of campaign finance reform, now aims at something even bigger: fixing our broken system of representative democracy. This book is brimming with promising and provocative proposals to fix campaign finance, gerrymandering, the electoral college, the filibuster, and the mind-numbing effects of cable news and social media. It is a bold and bracing repair manual for government of, by, and for the people.” — Michael J. Sandel, bestselling author of What Money Can’t Buy “Lessig is a modern-day Paul Revere with a warning we must heed: Our representative democracy no longer represents us. The change we need is deep and serious. And it can’t be fixed with by one election, party, or politician. This urgent book offers not only a clear-eyed explanation of the forces that broke our politics, but a thoughtful and, yes, patriotic vision of how we create a government that’s truly by and for the people. We ignore his alarm at our own peril.” — David Daley, bestselling author of Ratf**ked and Unrigged “Everything Lessig writes should be carefully read. Read it, consider it, and most important, act on it. Our democracy is at stake.” — Nancy MacLean, bestselling author of Democracy in Chains “The American experiment in representative government is on life support. In his brilliant book, Lessig provides the medical record and a recommended course of care to save the patient. Every American should read it ... stat!” — Roger McNamee bestselling author of Zucked “Full of original, provocative insights and surprising stories, this book is for all who seek to create effective democracy in America.” — Frances Moore Lappé, bestselling author of Diet for a Small Planet and coauthor with Adam Eichen of Daring Democracy “Lessig proposes the making of a nonpartisan politics to breathe life into the corpse of America’s dysfunctional democracy. He does so with fierce and plainspoken clarity. A challenging work of the political imagination, unsweetened with pious cant.” — Lewis H. Lapham, editor and founder of Lapham’s Quarterly “Lessig is the thinking man’s popular reformer and this book is a powerful, patriotic and above all useful guide to the fixes for American representative democracy. Agree or disagree, it every citizen should read this book.” — Tim Wu, bestselling author of The Curse of Bigness “Lessig has long been the leading voice on how corruption undermines American democracy. In this book, he trains his trademark wit and incisiveness on an even bigger problem: Our political institutions, he shows, are deeply unrepresentative. Thankfully, Lessig has an original plan for how to build on the principles of the Founding Fathers to make our institutions serve all Americans.” — Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy “American democracy is buckling under the weight of the public’s deep cynicism. Lessig’s book brings clarity to the many factors feeding this civic deterioration, from our warped campaign finance system to the increasingly balkanized media to the pernicious power of our ‘vetocracy.’ Charting a new course that can revitalize our Republic will demand a reckoning with these deep-seated challenges. This book is a clarion call to do just that.” — Representative John P. Sarbanes “This book is a tour de force by one of America’s most interesting thinkers about democracy. Lessig finds democratic sclerosis not only in the institutions and arrangements of government, but also among we the people. Although Lessig considers familiar policy proposals such as campaign finance reform and breaking up social media monopolies, conventional reforms are far from enough to solve the problem of a democracy under extreme stress. He offers proposals aimed at getting us out of our silos, educated, organized, and deliberating toward a more perfect union.” — Richard L. Hasen, author of Election Meltdown “This book brilliantly diagnoses some of the fundamental ailments of American democracy. Lessig provides an original and illuminating analysis of how we have been led astray by our reliance on public opinion polling in a fractured media and social media landscape. This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand — and indeed hoping to reclaim — our democracy.” — Deb Roy, Professor of Media Arts & Sciences, MIT and Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Cortico “In classic Lessig fashion, this book connects one of society’s biggest challenges—the impact of technology on our society and democracy—to the evolution of our constitution to show how we’ve lost our voice in our system of government. But as the reader descends into a spiral of despair, he pulls them up with the hope of potential interventions that could successfully enact positive change.” — Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab “Lessig has long been a leader in the fight to save our democracy. In this book, Larry again brings his characteristic, inspirational passion and insight to the most pressing challenge of our time—the fate of our Republic. His new insights into “unrepresentativeness” are a distinctive contribution to the national discussion—in particular, his contention that the problem is not just “they” but also “us”. If you’re concerned about our democracy, it’s a proverbial must-read. And along with his deep thinking, Larry brings a keen sense of humor and awareness of the absurd that made us wryly chuckle out loud.” — Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter, authors of Why Competition in the Politics Industry Is Failing America: A strategy for reinvigorating our democracy. “Lessig eloquently advances his diagnosis of our democratic condition. He then helps us understand how remedies might be possible. A book of lasting importance.” — James Fishkin, Stanford University professor and author of Democracy When the People Are Thinking “A sweeping analysis by one of America’s most astute and passionate political voices. Lessig shows how America suffers both from a dysfunctional government and from the deficiencies of an increasingly polarized and poorly-informed public. More importantly, he points us toward the reforms we need to repair our representative democracy by making elected officials more responsive to the public and making the public more worthy of responding to. A compelling new contribution to the most important discussion of our time.” — Martin Gilens, Professor of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs “Hard-hitting analysis… Lessig persuasively supports his argument that the U.S. political system is unrepresentative.” — EMissourian.com