Download or read book Theocracy Can Democracy Survive Fundamentalism written by P. J. Tierney and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past forty years, there has been extraordinary growth in the impact of religion on nations all over the world. The number of religious adherents has spiked, their zeal has intensified, and their political influence has expanded dramatically. Religious zeal has become the single most significant cause of conflicts between nations and of power struggles within nations. In Theocracy: Can Democracy Survive Fundamentalism, author P. J. Tierney examines political efforts by fundamentalists, particularly in the United States. Drawing upon current events, history, psychology, ethics, and the Bible, Tierney delves into some of the excesses of contemporary Christian fundamentalism in its efforts to advance the vision of a form of American theocracy. This study defines fundamentalism, particularly Christian fundamentalism; differentiates fundamentalism from traditional Christian renditions; explains fundamentalisms root causes, goals, and express strategies; describes its political evolution; identifies fundamentalisms departures from previous Christian efforts to influence society and government; examines its efforts and their underlying motivations through several lenses, including history, psychology, political theory, ethics, logic, current events, and the Bible; seeks to identify some of the excesses of the contemporary Christian fundamentalist approach; and offers other options for people of faith. Tierney offers practical suggestions for coping with the inroads of fundamentalism in order to strengthen democracy within pluralistic American society. He presents a powerful argument for the separation of religion and politics.
Download or read book Theocracy Can Democracy Survive Fundamentalism written by P. J. Tierney and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-07 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author examines political efforts by fundamentalists, particularly in the United States. Drawing upon current events, history, psychology, ethics, and the Bible, Tierney delves into some of the excesses of contemporary Christian fundamentalism in its efforts to advance the vision of a form of American theocracy.
Download or read book The Third Wave written by Samuel P. Huntington and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-06 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1974 and 1990 more than thirty countries in southern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe shifted from authoritarian to democratic systems of government. This global democratic revolution is probably the most important political trend in the late twentieth century. In The Third Wave, Samuel P. Huntington analyzes the causes and nature of these democratic transitions, evaluates the prospects for stability of the new democracies, and explores the possibility of more countries becoming democratic. The recent transitions, he argues, are the third major wave of democratization in the modem world. Each of the two previous waves was followed by a reverse wave in which some countries shifted back to authoritarian government. Using concrete examples, empirical evidence, and insightful analysis, Huntington provides neither a theory nor a history of the third wave, but an explanation of why and how it occurred. Factors responsible for the democratic trend include the legitimacy dilemmas of authoritarian regimes; economic and social development; the changed role of the Catholic Church; the impact of the United States, the European Community, and the Soviet Union; and the "snowballing" phenomenon: change in one country stimulating change in others. Five key elite groups within and outside the nondemocratic regime played roles in shaping the various ways democratization occurred. Compromise was key to all democratizations, and elections and nonviolent tactics also were central. New democracies must deal with the "torturer problem" and the "praetorian problem" and attempt to develop democratic values and processes. Disillusionment with democracy, Huntington argues, is necessary to consolidating democracy. He concludes the book with an analysis of the political, economic, and cultural factors that will decide whether or not the third wave continues. Several "Guidelines for Democratizers" offer specific, practical suggestions for initiating and carrying out reform. Huntington's emphasis on practical application makes this book a valuable tool for anyone engaged in the democratization process. At this volatile time in history, Huntington's assessment of the processes of democratization is indispensable to understanding the future of democracy in the world.
Download or read book The Destiny of Modern Societies written by Milan Zafirovski and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a sociological analysis of the relationship between modern society, in particular America, and Calvinism in the Weberian tradition. While the book continues this tradition, it further expands, elaborates on, and goes beyond earlier sociological analyses. The book examines the impact of Calvinism on modern society as a whole, thus extending, elaborating on, and going beyond the previous analyses of the influence of the Calvinist religion only on the capitalist economy. It analyzes how Calvinism has determined most contemporary social institutions, including political, civic, cultural, and economic, in its respective societies, particularly, through its derivative Puritanism, America. For that purpose, the book applies the idea of the destiny of societies or nations to American society in particular. It argues, demonstrates, and illustrates the Calvinist societal "predestination," through the Puritan determination, of American society .
Download or read book End of History and the Last Man written by Francis Fukuyama and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-03-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since its first publication in 1992, the New York Times bestselling The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. "Profoundly realistic and important...supremely timely and cogent...the first book to fully fathom the depth and range of the changes now sweeping through the world." —The Washington Post Book World Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
Download or read book The Islamic Paradox written by Reuel Marc Gerecht and published by A E I Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph concludes that, paradoxically, those who have hated the United States the most now hold the keys to spreading democracy in the Muslim Middle East.
Download or read book Taking America Back for God written by Andrew L. Whitehead and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do white Protestants in America embrace a president who seems to violate their basic standards of morality? The answer, Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry argue, is "Christian nationalism," the belief that the United States is -- and should be -- a Christian nation. Knowing someone's stance on Christian nationalism, this book shows, tells us more about his or her political beliefs than race, religion, or political party. Drawing on national survey data and interviews with Americans across the political spectrum, Taking America Back for God illustrates the tremendous influence of Christian nationalism on debates about the most contentious issues dominating American public life.
Download or read book American Fascists written by Chris Hedges and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-01-08 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the celebrated author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" comes a startling expos of the political ambitions of the Christian Right--a clarion call for everyone who cares about freedom.
Download or read book The Invention of Jewish Theocracy written by Alexander Kaye and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is about the attempt of Orthodox Jewish Zionists to implement traditional Jewish law (halakha) as the law of the State of Israel. These religious Zionists began their quest for a halakhic sate immediately after Israel's establishment in 1948 and competed for legal supremacy with the majority of Israeli Jews who wanted Israel to be a secular democracy. Although Israel never became a halachic state, the conflict over legal authority became the backdrop for a pervasive culture war, whose consequences are felt throughout Israeli society until today. The book traces the origins of the legal ideology of religious Zionists and shows how it emerged in the middle of the twentieth century. It further shows that the ideology, far from being endemic to Jewish religious tradition as its proponents claim, is a version of modern European jurisprudence, in which a centralized state asserts total control over the legal hierarchy within its borders. The book shows how the adoption (conscious or not) of modern jurisprudence has shaped religious attitudes to many aspects of Israeli society and politics, created an ongoing antagonism with the state's civil courts, and led to the creation of a new and increasingly powerful state rabbinate. This account is placed into wider conversations about the place of religion in democracies and the fate of secularism in the modern world. It concludes with suggestions about how a better knowledge of the history of religion and law in Israel may help ease tensions between its religious and secular citizens"--
Download or read book Holy Ignorance written by Roy Olivier and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Olivier Roy, world-renowned authority on Islam and politics, finds in the modern disconnection between faith communities and socio-cultural identities a fertile space for fundamentalism to grow. Instead of freeing the world from religion, secularization has encouraged a kind of holy ignorance to take root, an anti-intellectualism that promises immediate, emotional access to the sacred and positions itself in direct opposition to contemporary pagan culture. The secularization of society was supposed to free people from religion, yet individuals are converting en masse to fundamentalist faiths, such as Protestant evangelicalism, Islamic Salafism, and Haredi Judaism. These religions either reconnect adherents to their culture through casual referents, like halal fast food, or maintain their momentum through purification rituals, such as speaking in tongues, a practice that allows believers to utter a language that is entirely their own. Instead of a return to traditional religious worship, we are now witnessing the individualisation of faith and the disassociation of faith communities from ethnic and national identities. Roy explores the options now available to powers that hope to integrate or control these groups; and whether marginalisation or homogenisation will further divide believers from their culture.
Download or read book Crediting God written by Miguel E. Vatter and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this book shed interdisciplinary and multicultural light on a hypothesis that helps to account for such an unexpected convergence of enlightenment and religion in our times: Religion has reentered the public sphere because it puts into question the relation between God and the concept of political sovereignty.
Download or read book Democracy written by Inter-parliamentary Union and published by Inter-Parliamentary Union. This book was released on 1998 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Principles to realization - Cherif Bassiouni
Download or read book The Inner Enemies of Democracy written by Tzvetan Todorov and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political history of the twentieth century can be viewed as the history of democracy’s struggle against its external enemies: fascism and communism. This struggle ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet regime. Some people think that democracy now faces new enemies: Islamic fundamentalism, religious extremism and international terrorism and that this is the struggle that will define our times. Todorov disagrees: the biggest threat to democracy today is democracy itself. Its enemies are within: what the ancient Greeks called 'hubris'. Todorov argues that certain democratic values have been distorted and pushed to an extreme that serves the interests of dominant states and powerful individuals. In the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’, the United States and some European countries have embarked on a crusade to enlighten some foreign populations through the use of force. Yet this mission to ‘help’ others has led to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, to large-scale destruction and loss of life and to a moral crisis of growing proportions. The defence of freedom, if unlimited, can lead to the tyranny of individuals. Drawing on recent history as well as his own experience of growing up in a totalitarian regime, Todorov returns to examples borrowed from the Western canon: from a dispute between Augustine and Pelagius to the fierce debates among Enlightenment thinkers to explore the origin of these perversions of democracy. He argues compellingly that the real democratic ideal is to be found in the delicate, ever-changing balance between competing principles, popular sovereignty, freedom and progress. When one of these elements breaks free and turns into an over-riding principle, it becomes dangerous: populism, ultra-liberalism and messianism, the inner enemies of democracy.
Download or read book Is There a Culture War written by James Davison Hunter and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of a bitter presidential campaign and in the face of numerous divisive policy questions, many Americans wonder if their country has split in two. Is America divided so clearly? Two of America's leading authorities on political culture lead a provocative and thoughtful investigation of this question and its ramifications.
Download or read book Islam and Democracy written by John L. Esposito and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-05-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are Islam and democracy on a collision course? Do Islamic movements seek to "hijack democracy?" How have governments in the Muslim world responded to the many challenges of Islam and democracy today? A global religious resurgence and calls for greater political participation have been major forces in the post-Cold War period. Across the Muslim world, governments and Islamic movements grapple with issues of democratization and civil society. Islam and Democracy explores the Islamic sources (beliefs and institutions) relevant to the current debate over greater political participation and democratization. Esposito and Voll use six case studies--Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Sudan--to look at the diversity of Muslim experiences and experiments. At one end of the spectrum, Iran and Sudan represent two cases of militant, revolutionary Islam establishing political systems. In Pakistan and Malaysia, however, the new movements have been recognized and made part of the political process. Egypt and Algeria reveal the coexistence of both extremist and moderate Islamic activism and demonstrate the complex challenges confronting ruling elites. These case studies prove that despite commonalities, differing national contexts and identities give rise to a multiplicity of agendas and strategies. This broad spectrum of case studies, reflecting the multifaceted relationship of Islam and Democracy, provides important insight into the powerful forces of religious resurgence and democratization which will inevitably impact global politics in the twenty first century.
Download or read book Toward Freedom written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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.
