Download or read book The Ennobling of Democracy written by Thomas L. Pangle and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1993-02 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on Lyotard, Vattimo, and Rorty, Pangle offers a searching critique of postmodernism and its implications for political life and thought. He examines the political dimensions of postmodernist teachings, including the rejection of the natural-rights doctrines of the Enlightenment. "A book to be commended both for its seriousness and its lucidity. . . ".--Stanley Fish, Duke University.
Download or read book The Ennobling of Democracy written by Thomas L. Pangle and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Against Democracy written by Jason Brennan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.
Download or read book The Search for Arab Democracy written by Larbi Sadiki and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to be a "democrat" and a "Muslim" at the same time is the subject of ongoing contests. This book maps out the variety of voices contesting "Islam" and "democracy" in the Arab world, insisting that neither category can be taken as unitary or fixed. In the Arab Middle East, the contest is over "which", "whose", and "how much" democracy takes place within an existing contest over "which", "whose", and "how much" Islam must be given pre-eminence in the political and cultural sphere. There is a "Democracy" and there are "democracies." There is an "Islam" and there are "islams." Larbi Sadiki deploys the conceptual tools of contemporary Western political philosophy and theory to articulate and defend some provocative theses. The book challenges Eurocentric conceptions of democracy that all-too-frequently display a lack of concern for specificity and context; analyzes and interrogates Orientalist and Occidentalist discourses on democracy; and considers some of the justifications for democracy in the global arena, giving space for self-representation by women and Islamists, among others. Using interviews with Muslims from every social and economic stratum, the book shows how Arabs themselves understand, imagine, and view democracy.
Download or read book Radicalizing Democracy for the Twenty first century written by Jane Mummery and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-11-18 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the subject of democracy has been explored by philosophers since ancient times, in the last few decades democracy has been taken for granted in the West as the political norm. The recognition of democracy as an empty concept in Western political discourse and the emergence of theories of radical democracy have renewed engagement in democratic theory and politics. Radicalizing Democracy for the Twenty-first Century explores the radicalizing movement in democratic thought and: • Introduces readers to the key debates in contemporary philosophical theories about democracy. • Confronts popular assumptions about democracy. • Provides a philosophical underpinning for the rise of radical democratic theories, movements and politics. • Examines how radical democracy can respond to the challenges of the contemporary world. Radicalizing Democracy for the Twenty-first Century is an important resource for students, scholars and university teachers in the field of political philosophy, political theory and international relations.
Download or read book Machiavelli and the Politics of Democratic Innovation written by Christopher Holman and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2018-08-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting a detailed reinterpretation and reconstruction of the political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli, Machiavelli and the Politics of Democratic Innovation uses original readings of Machiavelli’s texts to develop a new theoretical model of democratic practice. The book critically and creatively juxtaposes certain concepts drawn from Machiavelli’s work in order to produce new political insights. Christopher Holman identifies two unique ideas in Machiavelli through his rearrangement of Machiavellian concepts. The first, drawn primarily from The Prince, is an image of the individual human being as a creative subject that seeks the exteriorization of desire via political creation. The second, drawn primarily from The Discourses on Livy, is an image of the democratic republic as a form of regime in which this desire for creative self-expression is universalized, all citizens being able to affirm their psychic orientation toward innovation through their equal access to political institutions and orders. Such institutions and orders, to the extent that they function as media for the expression of a fundamental human creativity, must be arranged so that they are capable of continual interrogation and refinement. In the final instance, a new ethical ground for the normative defense of democratic life is constructed, one grounded in the orientation of individual beings toward novelty and innovation.
Download or read book Justice Among Nations written by Thomas L. Pangle and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 1999-06-30 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Pangle and Peter Ahrensdorf provide a critical introduction to the most important conceptions of international justice, spanning 2,500 years of intellectual history from Thucydides and Plato to Morgenthau and Waltz. Their study shows how older traditions of political philosophy remain relevant to current debates in international relations, and how political thinkers through the centuries can help us deepen our understanding of today's stalemate between realism and idealism. Pangle and Ahrensdorf guide the reader through a sequence of theoretical frameworks for understanding the moral basis of international relations: the cosmopolitan vision of the classical philosophers, the "just war" teachings of medieval theologians, the revolutionary realism of Machiavelli, the Enlightenment idealism of Kant, and the neo-realism of twentieth-century theorists. They clarify the core of each philosopher's conceptions of international relations, examine the appeal of each position, and bring these alternatives into mutually illuminating juxtaposition. The authors clearly show that appreciating the fundamental questions pursued by these philosophers can help us avoid dogmatism, abstraction, or oversimplification when considering the moral character of international relations. Justice Among Nations restores the study of the great works of political theory to its natural place within the discipline of international relations as it retrieves the question of international justice as a major theme of political philosophy. It provides our moral compass with new points of orientation and invites serious readers to grapple with some of the most perplexing issues of our time.
Download or read book John Dewey written by David Fott and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1998 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instructors of political theory will rejoice at this brief and original interpretation of the philosophical influences on John Dewey's political thought. Examining Dewey's evolving conception of liberalism, David Fott illuminates his subject's belief in democracy more fully than it has ever been explained before. By comparing and contrasting Dewey's thought with that of Socrates, Fott convincingly casts doubt on claims that Dewey offers a defensible middle ground between moral absolutism and moral relativism.
Download or read book Tocquevillian Ideas written by Zbigniew Rau and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a new, European-centered approach to Tocqueville’s thought. Although Tocqueville is often revered as a classic writer on the subject of American democracy, this book focuses on the multifaceted importance of his ideas within a European context. This collection of essays presents Tocqueville’s vision of a diverse and united Old Continent, exploring his ideas of liberty, virtue, religion, patriotism, greatness, civic participation and democracy. These thoughts are analyzed not only in the context of Tocqueville’s output, but also in the light of their potential to describe the dilemmas of contemporary Europe and to offer remedies for its problems.
Download or read book The Madisonian Constitution written by George Thomas and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2008-06-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book A Cultural History of Democracy in Antiquity written by Paul Cartledge and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-12-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume surveys democracy broadly as a cultural phenomenon operating in different ways across a very wide range of ancient societies throughout Antiquity. It examines the experiences of those living in democratic communities and considers how ancient practices of democracy differ from our own. The origins of democracy can be traced in a general way to the earliest civilizations, beginning with the early urban societies of the Middle East, and can be seen in cities and communities across the Mediterranean world and Asia. In classical Athens, male citizens enjoyed full participation in the political life of the city and a flourishing democratic culture, as explored in detail in this volume. In other times and places democratic features were absent from the formal structures of regimes, but could still be found in the participatory structures of local social institutions. Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: sovereignty; liberty and the rule of law; the “common good”; economic and social democracy; religion and the principles of political obligation; citizenship and gender; ethnicity, race, and nationalism; democratic crises, revolutions, and civil resistance; international relations; and beyond the polis. These ten different approaches to democracy in Antiquity add up to an extensive, synoptic coverage of the subject.
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 Lincoln s America written by Joseph R. Fornieri and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2016-12-21 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of original essays by ten eminent historians that explore religion, education, middle-class family life, the antislavery movement, politics, and law in "Lincoln's America."
Download or read book Gettysburg Replies written by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost five months after the Civil War’s deadliest clash, President Abraham Lincoln and other Union leaders gathered to dedicate the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The program for the occasion featured music, prayer, orations, and benedictions. In the middle of it all, the president gave a few commemorative remarks, speaking for just two minutes, delivering what we now know as the Gettysburg Address. Challenged to mark the enormity of the battle—which had turned the tide of the war, though neither side realized it yet—Lincoln used 272 words in ten sentences to rededicate the Union to the preservation of freedom. It remains the most important statement of our nation’s commitment to personal liberty since the Revolutionary War and has become one of the most important speeches in American history, a cornerstone of who we are as a country. A century and a half later, we still hold Lincoln’s message in our hearts. For Gettysburg Replies, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum challenged presidents, judges, historians, filmmakers, poets, actors, and others to craft 272 words of their own to celebrate Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, or a related topic that stirs their passions. President Jimmy Carter reveals how the Gettysburg Address helped bring Egypt and Israel closer at the Camp David Peace Accords. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor reflects on Lincoln’s dedication to the importance of civic education. General Colin Powell explains how Martin Luther King Jr. took up Lincoln’s mantle and carried it forward. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg touches on the benefits and perils of hero worship. Poet Laureate Billy Collins explores the dichotomy between the private man who wrote poetry (“My Childhood Home I See Again”) and the president who stood before all. Attorney Alan Dershowitz echoes Lincoln’s words to rally us to the freedom from weapons of mass destruction. Gettysburg Replies features images of important Lincoln documents and artifacts, including the first copy of the address that Lincoln wrote out after delivering it, the program from the cemetery dedication, Lincoln’s presidential seal, and more. Together, these words and images create a lasting tribute not only to Lincoln himself but also the power of his devotion to freedom.
Download or read book The Case against Democracy written by Steven Michels and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The case for democracy is an intrinsic part of our political culture. This non-partisan book provides the other side of the story via well-researched history and current events that illuminate the theory and practice of democracy. Are the politics of the United States to blame for its current unsteady footing in the 21st century? This book aims to answer this uncomfortable but relevant question by examining the strengths and weaknesses of democracy, addressing complex topics such as the history of liberalism, the relationship between democracy and capitalism, the nature of representation, and the difference between government and politics. Each of the book's chapters focuses on a recognized shortcoming of popular government, such as inefficiency, self-interestedness, and non-participation. Each section begins by focusing on current events and tracing issues back through history—through to the American founding, and in many instances, to antiquity. In the conclusion, the author proposes a series of thought-provoking fixes.
Download or read book Democracy Revisited written by Sujit Kumar Chattopadhyay and published by Literatureslight Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy Revisited is a critical as well as uncritical approach to the study and review of democracy today. The objective of the first chapter is to deal with some theoretical reasons of the decline of democracy such as lack of holistic approach, omission of civil society and varied forms of democracy. Out of many theoretical defects the book especially highlights the problem of precision regarding the meaning and nature of democracy and omission of civil society in democracy. Omission of civil society in democratic discourses has been a direct cause of the decline of democracy. That the people are ignored in practical democracy is due to the fact that civil society is absolutely omitted from the democratic narratives. The book also highlights some of major practical problems that are downgrading the importance, implication and relevance of democracy today in reality. Such practical problems are corruption, rule of the elites in lieu of rule of the people, inequality of race, gender and religion and lack of leadership. Under this perspective, it is necessary to have an open look towards the positive points of democracy. Since, there is no much better alternative than democracy we must have to highlight its strong points such as scope of debate, discussion, participation and formation of opinion by which democracy can be a people-friendly political system as well as an ideology and a cultural practice. Thus, this book is not only a criticism of democracy, but also a call for revisiting its strength by which democracy can still claim to be a suitable alternative of all types of statecraft, political systems and social and cultural pattern of life.
Download or read book Debating Democracy s Discontent written by Anita L. Allen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1998-10-15 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely and provocative volume, some of the world's leading political and constitutional theorists come together to debate Michael Sandel's celebrated thesis that the United States is in the the grip of a flawed public philosophy - "procedural liberalism". Beginning with an original stage-setting introduction by Ronald Beiner, and ending with a reply by Michael Sandel, Sandel's liberal and feminist critics square off with his communitarian and civic republican sympathizers in a lively and wide-ranging discussion spanning constitutional law, culture, and political economy. Practical, topical issues of immigration, gay marriage, federalism, adoption, abortion, corporate speech, militias, and economic disparity are debated alongside theories of civic virtue, citizenship, identity, and community. Not only does this volume provide the most comprehensive and insightful critique of Sandel's Democracy's Discontent to date - it also makes a very significant, substantive contribution to contemporary political and legal philosophy in its own right. It will prove essential reading for all those interested in the future of American politics, law, and public philosophy.
