Download or read book The Presidents and the People Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It written by Corey Brettschneider and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American presidents have often pushed the boundaries established for them by the Constitution; this is the inspirational history of the people who pushed back. Imagine an American president who imprisoned critics, spread a culture of white supremacy, and tried to upend the law so that he could commit crimes with impunity. In this propulsive and eminently readable history, constitutional law and political science professor Corey Brettschneider provides a thoroughly researched account of assaults on democracy by not one such president but five. John Adams waged war on the national press of the early republic, overseeing numerous prosecutions of his critics. In the lead-up to the Civil War, James Buchanan colluded with the Supreme Court to deny constitutional personhood to African Americans. A decade later, Andrew Johnson urged violence against his political opponents as he sought to guarantee a white supremacist republic after the Civil War. In the 1910s, Woodrow Wilson modernized, popularized, and nationalized Jim Crow laws. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon committed criminal acts that flowed from his corrupt ideas about presidential power. Through their actions, these presidents illuminated the trip wires that can damage or even destroy our democracy. Corey Brettschneider shows that these presidents didn’t have the last word; citizen movements brought the United States back from the precipice by appealing to a democratic understanding of the Constitution and pressuring subsequent reform-minded presidents to realize the promise of “We the People.” This is a book about citizens—Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Daniel Ellsberg, and more—who fought back against presidential abuses of power. Their examples give us hope about the possibilities of restoring a fragile democracy.
Download or read book The Oath and the Office A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents written by Corey Brettschneider and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A cleareyed, accessible, and informative primer: vital reading for all Americans." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Can the president launch a nuclear attack without congressional approval? Is it ever a crime to criticize the president? Can states legally resist a president’s executive order? In today’s fraught political climate, it often seems as if we must become constitutional law scholars just to understand the news from Washington, let alone make a responsible decision at the polls. The Oath and the Office is the book we need, right now and into the future, whether we are voting for or running to become president of the United States. Constitutional law scholar and political science professor Corey Brettschneider guides us through the Constitution and explains the powers—and limits—that it places on the presidency. From the document itself and from American history’s most famous court cases, we learn why certain powers were granted to the presidency, how the Bill of Rights limits those powers, and what “we the people” can do to influence the nation’s highest public office—including, if need be, removing the person in it. In these brief yet deeply researched chapters, we meet founding fathers such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, as well as key figures from historic cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Korematsu v. United States. Brettschneider breathes new life into the articles and amendments that we once read about in high school civics class, but that have real impact on our lives today. The Oath and the Office offers a compact, comprehensive tour of the Constitution, and empowers all readers, voters, and future presidents with the knowledge and confidence to read and understand one of our nation’s most important founding documents.
Download or read book Presidents Populism and the Crisis of Democracy written by William G. Howell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To counter the threat America faces, two political scientists offer “clear constitutional solutions that break sharply with the conventional wisdom” (Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling coauthor of How Democracies Die). Has American democracy’s long, ambitious run come to an end? Possibly yes. As William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe argue in this trenchant new analysis of modern politics, the United States faces a historic crisis that threatens our system of self-government—and if democracy is to be saved, the causes of the crisis must be understood and defused. The most visible cause is Donald Trump, who has used his presidency to attack the nation’s institutions and violate its democratic norms. Yet Trump is but a symptom of causes that run much deeper: social forces like globalization, automation, and immigration that for decades have generated economic harms and cultural anxieties that our government has been wholly ineffective at addressing. Millions of Americans have grown angry and disaffected, and populist appeals have found a receptive audience. These were the drivers of Trump’s dangerous presidency, and they’re still there for other populists to weaponize. What can be done? The disruptive forces of modernity cannot be stopped. The solution lies, instead, in having a government that can deal with them—which calls for aggressive new policies, but also for institutional reforms that enhance its capacity for effective action. The path to progress is filled with political obstacles, including an increasingly populist, anti-government Republican Party. It is hard to be optimistic. But if the challenge is to be met, we need reforms of the presidency itself—reforms that harness the promise of presidential power for effective government, but firmly protect against that power being put to anti-democratic ends.
Download or read book Hope for Democracy written by John Gastil and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concerned citizens across the globe fear that democratic institutions are failing them. Citizens feel shut out of politics and worry that politicians are no longer responsive to their interests. In Hope for Democracy, John Gastil and Katherine R. Knobloch introduce new tools for tamping down hyper-partisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process. They showcase the Citizens' Initiative Review, which convenes a demographically-balanced random sample of citizens to study statewide ballot measures. Citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts, then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters. Gastil and Knobloch reveal how this process has helped voters better understand the policy issues placed on their ballots. Placed in the larger context of deliberative democratic reforms, Hope for Democracy shows how citizens and public officials can work together to bring more rationality and empathy into modern politics.
Download or read book Accidental Presidents written by Jared Cohen and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestselling “deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks—and déjà vu” (Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without being elected to it, showing how each affected the nation and world. The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected. John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Harry Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on Civil Rights but failed on Vietnam. Accidental Presidents shows that “history unfolds in death as well as in life” (The Wall Street Journal) and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.
Download or read book Coming Home written by Vernon Robinson and published by Humanix Books. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one would ever argue that America has not had deep, ugly flaws, slavery and segregation being by far the most notable. But, thanks to great leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Americans bled and died to bring such hideous tragedies to an end. Today, conservative activists Vernon Robinson and Bruce Eberle see a new threat the American republic – the radical left. The once great Democratic Party has been hijacked by radical leftists who spurn traditional American values, and seek to impose cradle to grave government control over our lives. Coming Home is not about just resisting these radicals, but triumphing over them – with a landslide victory for Donald Trump. Why are the authors of this book so certain that Donald Trump can route the radical left in 2020? The answer is a secret that they learned from the 2016 presidential campaign: black Americans not only gave Donald Trump his margin of victory in Pennsylvania, but they also did the same thing in the key state of Michigan. In reality, it was black Americans who made the election of President Trump possible. Tracing the historic events that caused black American disenfranchisement from the GOP, Coming Home also provides a strategic roadmap to persuading a crucial 20% or more of black Americans to vote for Donald Trump in 2020 – and ensure a second term.
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 Rebels with a Cause written by TTR Mohan and published by Penguin Random House India Private Limited. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democratic societies take pride in the freedom of expression. Indeed, the right to dissent and tolerance of diverse viewpoints distinguish a democratic society from a dictatorship. In his new book, Prof. T.T. Ram Mohan profiles well-known dissenters Arundhati Roy, Oliver Stone, Kancha Ilaiah, David Irving, Yanis Varoufakis, U.G. Krishnamurti and John Pilger to illustrate how, in practice, dissent tends to be severely circumscribed. It is only the celebrity status of these dissenters that has kept them from being actively harmed. Through an exploration of the lives and ideas of these personalities, the author argues that, while one may not agree with their positions on various issues, their views merit discussion and debate. Engaging with them and responding to their analyses holds out the prospect for substantive reform within the system. Yet, the dominant elites prefer not to do so, instead marginalizing and even ostracizing dissenters precisely because they find change of any sort threatening. Rebels with a Cause is a book that asks hard questions to challenge the way we view, and live in, the world-an important book for anyone who refuses to accept the status quo.
Download or read book When the State Speaks What Should It Say written by Corey Brettschneider and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should a liberal democracy respond to hate groups and others that oppose the ideal of free and equal citizenship? The democratic state faces the hard choice of either protecting the rights of hate groups and allowing their views to spread, or banning their views and violating citizens' rights to freedoms of expression, association, and religion. Avoiding the familiar yet problematic responses to these issues, political theorist Corey Brettschneider proposes a new approach called value democracy. The theory of value democracy argues that the state should protect the right to express illiberal beliefs, but the state should also engage in democratic persuasion when it speaks through its various expressive capacities: publicly criticizing, and giving reasons to reject, hate-based or other discriminatory viewpoints. Distinguishing between two kinds of state action--expressive and coercive--Brettschneider contends that public criticism of viewpoints advocating discrimination based on race, gender, or sexual orientation should be pursued through the state's expressive capacities as speaker, educator, and spender. When the state uses its expressive capacities to promote the values of free and equal citizenship, it engages in democratic persuasion. By using democratic persuasion, the state can both respect rights and counter hateful or discriminatory viewpoints. Brettschneider extends this analysis from freedom of expression to the freedoms of religion and association, and he shows that value democracy can uphold the protection of these freedoms while promoting equality for all citizens.
Download or read book Future Right written by Donald T. Critchlow and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to those who argue that demographics are political destiny, social trends are transforming identity categories of race, gender, and youth - all of which provide rich opportunities for Republicans to create a new majority. To accomplish this, Republicans will need imagination and political acumen if they are to win over those constituencies that have become the base of the Democratic Party: minorities, young women, and millennials. Behind the reality of current voting patterns, which without doubt presents a gloomy future for the Republican Party, social trends and a deeper analysis of political attitudes reveal there is much room for Republican optimism. In this critical, data-driven book, Future Right, Donald Critchlow explores strategies for the right that will help them succeed where Democrats are floundering: how to speak to the new population of a rising and successful minority class and how to reform the salacious alliance between the government and the one percent. It is time for Republicans to adapt to societal trends for the creation of a new, transformative politics that will not only help them win the future elections, but revive a system long overrun by outmoded, top-heavy politics.
Download or read book The Trouble with Lawyers written by Deborah L. Rhode and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad, comprehensive foray into the debate about the legal crisis, written by one of the most respected and authoritative scholars of the legal profession.
Download or read book Cities in Our Future written by Robert Geddes and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Cities in Our Future, case studies of five North American metropolitan areas - New York, Toronto, Cascadia (Vancouver, Seattle, Portland), Mexico City, and Los Angeles - are presented, with in-depth analyses of their physical terrain, design, planning, and development. Contributors discuss problems that the cities have experienced, how those problems have been handled, and strategies for avoiding or managing similar problems in the future.
Download or read book The Road to Somewhere written by David Goodhart and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A robust and timely investigation into the political and moral fault-lines that divide Brexit Britain and Trump's America -- and how a new settlement may be achieved. Several decades of greater economic and cultural openness in the West have not benefited all our citizens. Among those who have been left behind, a populist politics of culture and identity has successfully challenged the traditional politics of Left and Right, creating a new division: between the mobile "achieved" identity of the people from Anywhere, and the marginalized, roots-based identity of the people from Somewhere. This schism accounts for the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump, the decline of the center-left, and the rise of populism across Europe. David Goodhart's compelling investigation of the new global politics reveals how the Somewhere backlash is a democratic response to the dominance of Anywhere interests, in everything from mass higher education to mass immigration.
Download or read book Surviving Autocracy written by Masha Gessen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “When Gessen speaks about autocracy, you listen.” —The New York Times “A reckoning with what has been lost in the past few years and a map forward with our beliefs intact.” —Interview As seen on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and heard on NPR’s All Things Considered: the bestselling, National Book Award–winning journalist offers an essential guide to understanding, resisting, and recovering from the ravages of our tumultuous times. This incisive book provides an essential guide to understanding and recovering from the calamitous corrosion of American democracy over the past few years. Thanks to the special perspective that is the legacy of a Soviet childhood and two decades covering the resurgence of totalitarianism in Russia, Masha Gessen has a sixth sense for the manifestations of autocracy—and the unique cross-cultural fluency to delineate their emergence to Americans. Gessen not only anatomizes the corrosion of the institutions and cultural norms we hoped would save us but also tells us the story of how a short few years changed us from a people who saw ourselves as a nation of immigrants to a populace haggling over a border wall, heirs to a degraded sense of truth, meaning, and possibility. Surviving Autocracy is an inventory of ravages and a call to account but also a beacon to recovery—and to the hope of what comes next.
Download or read book How to Run A Government written by Michael Barber and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2015-03-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Billions of citizens around the world are frustrated with their governments. Why is this? And what can we do about it? In this groundbreaking book Michael Barber draws on his wealth of international experience advising political leaders, to show how those in power can make good on their promises. 'Refreshingly ruthless ... has an uplifting brio to it' Economist 'Michael Barber is a source of inspiration and wisdom' Andrew Adonis, New Statesman 'Excellent ... there is a lot of common sense and practical wisdom ... a breath of fresh air' David Willetts,Standpoint 'Barber is the global overlord of public policy ... a record around the world of actually achieving change' Philip Collins, Prospect
Download or read book Friends Voters Countrymen written by Boris Johnson and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2002 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively, idiosyncratic, witty look at the heart of our political process by a man who has crossed over from observer to activist, to become one of our newest members of parliament. Boris Johnson, celebrated for his blonde thatch of hair as well as for his brilliant writing in the newspapers, and much liked for his appearances on television and radio, took notes throughout his period as prospective candidate and the election campaign. The result is a book that is lovely and fascinating, outspoken and funny, and yet raises real questions about the democratic process. Have you ever wondered about becoming a Member of Parliament? Or why other people do? Or considered what the prospective parliamentary candidates do as they stump around the constituency - making speeches, kissing babies, knocking on front doors, providing newspaper copy? Or what difference it makes to us? Boris Johnson has been a candidate in two elections. As a journalist, he is used to writing about politicians. Now he is himself being interviewed. So what does it feel like, with the tables turned? In his own inimitable style, Boris Johnson writes about his views on the role of MPs and what they can achieve today. He comments on life on the stump, and the pleasure (mostly) of meeting voters, on political parties, current issues, and how to persuade people to vote - all interwoven with stories of what happened to him on his way to a meeting...
Download or read book Veterans Lament written by Oliver L. North and published by Fidelis Books. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is happening to our country? This question is heard more and more frequently these days as Americans worry about the unrelenting attacks by so-called progressives on the foundation, core values, and history of our nation. Nobody is more concerned than those Americans who volunteered to serve in uniform and willingly put their lives on the line to protect the United States and all it represents. Based on interviews by the authors, this book explains why many of our American heroes believed in and loved our nation enough to go into harm’s way to defend it, and why so many of them now question if America is still the country they fought for. More importantly, it asks—is America still worth fighting for?
