Download or read book Uncommon Democracies written by T. J. Pempel and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of original essays, thirteen country specialists working within a common comparative frame of reference analyze major examples of long-term, single-party rule in industrialized democracies. They focus on four cases: Japan under the Liberal Democratic party since 1955; Italy under the Christian Democrats for thirty-five or more years starting in 1945; Sweden under the Social Democratic party from 1932 until 1976 (and again from 1982 until present); and Israel under the Labor party from pre-statehood until 1977.

Download or read book A Different Democracy written by Steven L. Taylor and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Four distinguished scholars in political science analyze American democracy from a comparative point of view, exploring how the U.S. political system differs from that of thirty other democracies and what those differences ultimately mean for democratic performance. This essential text approaches the following institutions from a political engineering point of view: constitutions, electoral systems, and political parties, as well as legislative, executive, and judicial power. The text looks at democracies from around the world over a two-decade time frame. The result is not only a fresh view of the much-discussed theme of American exceptionalism but also an innovative approach to comparative politics that treats the United States as but one case among many. An ideal textbook for both American and comparative politics courses"--

Download or read book The Awkward Embrace written by Hermann Giliomee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-08 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracies derive their resilience and vitality from the fact that the rule of a particular majority is usually only of a temporary nature. By looking at four case-studies, The Awkward Embrace studies democracies of a different kind; rule by a dominant party which is virtually immune from defeat. Such systems have been called Regnant or or Uncommon Democracies. They are characterized by distinctive features: the staging of unfree or corrupt elections; the blurring of the lines between government, the ruling party and the state; the introduction of a national project which is seen to be above politics; and the erosion of civil society. This book addresses major issues such as why one such democracy, namely Taiwan, has been moving in the direction of a more competitive system; how economic crises such as the present one in Mexico can transform the system; how government-business relations in Malaysia are affecting the base of the dominant party; and whether South Africa will become a one-party dominant system.

Download or read book The Awkward Embrace written by Charles Simkins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-08 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracies derive their resilience and vitality from the fact that the rule of a particular majority is usually only of a temporary nature. By looking at four case-studies, The Awkward Embrace studies democracies of a different kind; rule by a dominant party which is virtually immune from defeat. Such systems have been called Regnant or or Uncommon Democracies. They are characterized by distinctive features: the staging of unfree or corrupt elections; the blurring of the lines between government, the ruling party and the state; the introduction of a national project which is seen to be above politics; and the erosion of civil society. This book addresses major issues such as why one such democracy, namely Taiwan, has been moving in the direction of a more competitive system; how economic crises such as the present one in Mexico can transform the system; how government-business relations in Malaysia are affecting the base of the dominant party; and whether South Africa will become a one-party dominant system.

Download or read book The Great Experiment written by Yascha Mounk and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Barack Obama's Recommended Reads for Summer “[A] brave and necessary book . . . Anyone interested in the future of liberal democracy, in the US or anywhere else, should read this book.” —Anne Applebaum “A convincing, humane, and hopeful guide to the present and future by one of our foremost democratic thinkers.” —George Packer “A rare thing: [an] academic treatise . . . that may actually have influence in the arena of practical politics. . . . Passionate and personal.” —Joe Klein, New York Times Book Review From one of our sharpest and most important political thinkers, a brilliant big-picture vision of the greatest challenge of our time—how to bridge the bitter divides within diverse democracies enough for them to remain stable and functional Some democracies are highly homogeneous. Others have long maintained a brutal racial or religious hierarchy, with some groups dominating and exploiting others. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating members of many different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project in countries around the world. It is, Yascha Mounk argues, the greatest experiment of our time. Drawing on history, social psychology, and comparative politics, Mounk examines how diverse societies have long suffered from the ills of domination, fragmentation, or structured anarchy. So it is hardly surprising that most people are now deeply pessimistic that different groups might be able to integrate in harmony, celebrating their differences without essentializing them. But Mounk shows us that the past can offer crucial insights for how to do better in the future. There is real reason for hope. It is up to us and the institutions we build whether different groups will come to see each other as enemies or friends, as strangers or compatriots. To make diverse democracies endure, and even thrive, we need to create a world in which our ascriptive identities come to matter less—not because we ignore the injustices that still characterize the United States and so many other countries around the world, but because we have succeeded in addressing them. The Great Experiment is that rare book that offers both a profound understanding of an urgent problem and genuine hope for our human capacity to solve it. As Mounk contends, giving up on the prospects of building fair and thriving diverse democracies is simply not an option—and that is why we must strive to realize a more ambitious vision for the future of our societies.

Download or read book The Irony of Democracy written by Thomas R. Dye and published by Thomson Brooks/Cole. This book was released on 1984 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The elites and not the masses govern our country is the theme of this affordable THOMSON ADVANTAGE BOOKS version ofTHE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY. Known for its "elitist approach" to American Government, this text presents its argument in a new context--the politics of the 21st century--including the Clinton and Bush Administrations effects on government and politics the U.S.

Download or read book Comparative Democratization and Peaceful Change in Single Party Dominant Countries written by M. Rimanelli and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the more positive international trends as of late has been the transformation of several countries from authoritarian-based dictatorships and single party systems into multi-party democracies characterized by peaceful political transitions. In this volume, a group of experts are gathered to analyse this progression on a comparative level. The scholars examine previously right-wing regimes in Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa, former Communist states in Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and single party-dominant democracies in Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Israel. The essays reveal how the dramatic collapse of the USSR functioned as a crucial catalyst in allowing pent-up domestic pressures for change to emerge in a less charged international environment. In addition, the chapters study the historical and current evolution of these countries, focusing on their success in developing long-term pluralistic structures, and gauging whether these recent trends are more overnight fads than long lasting advancements.

Download or read book Is Democracy Possible Here written by Ronald Dworkin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics in America are polarized and trivialized, perhaps as never before. In Congress, the media, and academic debate, opponents from right and left, the Red and the Blue, struggle against one another as if politics were contact sports played to the shouts of cheerleaders. The result, Ronald Dworkin writes, is a deeply depressing political culture, as ill equipped for the perennial challenge of achieving social justice as for the emerging threats of terrorism. Can the hope for change be realized? Dworkin, one the world's leading legal and political philosophers, identifies and defends core principles of personal and political morality that all citizens can share. He shows that recognizing such shared principles can make substantial political argument possible and help replace contempt with mutual respect. Only then can the full promise of democracy be realized in America and elsewhere. Dworkin lays out two core principles that citizens should share: first, that each human life is intrinsically and equally valuable and, second, that each person has an inalienable personal responsibility for identifying and realizing value in his or her own life. He then shows what fidelity to these principles would mean for human rights, the place of religion in public life, economic justice, and the character and value of democracy. Dworkin argues that liberal conclusions flow most naturally from these principles. Properly understood, they collide with the ambitions of religious conservatives, contemporary American tax and social policy, and much of the War on Terror. But his more basic aim is to convince Americans of all political stripes--as well as citizens of other nations with similar cultures--that they can and must defend their own convictions through their own interpretations of these shared values.

Download or read book Loser s Consent Cep c C written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on data from democracies across the globe, this book examines how election losers and their supporters respond to their loss and how institutions shape losing"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Presidentialism Parliamentarism and Democracy written by Jose Antonio Cheibub and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book questions the reasons why presidential democracies more likely to break down than parliamentary ones.

Download or read book Introducing Democracy written by David Beetham and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a selection of questions and answers covering the principles of democracy, including human rights, free and fair elections, open and accountable government, and civil society.

Download or read book Dominant Political Parties and Democracy written by Matthijs Bogaards and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines dominant parties in both established democracies and new democracies and explores the relationship between dominant parties and the democratic process. Bridging existing literatures, the authors analyse dominant parties at national and sub-national, district and intra-party levels and take a fresh look at some of the classic cases of one-party dominance. The book also features methodological advances in the study of dominant parties through contributions that develop new ways of conceptualizing and measuring one-party dominance. Combining theoretical and empirical research and bringing together leading experts in the field - including Hermann Giliomee and Kenneth Greene - this book features comparisons and case studies on Japan, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Italy, France and South Africa. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, democracy studies, comparative politics, party politics and international studies specialists.

Download or read book Party Politics in an Uncommon Democracy written by Neil Harvey and published by University of London Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Critical Readings on the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan written by Robert Pekkanen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Brill Critical Readings on the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan collects seminal scholarship on the LDP including its structure and organization (e.g. factions, koenkai), historical development, policy-making, and leadership by Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe.

Download or read book Responsible Parties written by Frances Rosenbluth and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making have made governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long-term interests. They argue that to restore confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.

Download or read book Parliamentary Opposition in Old and New Democracies written by Ludger Helms and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies, this volume offers a broad comparative assessment of the many faces of parliamentary opposition in different political, legal and cultural settings. Issues of political opposition, and of parliamentary opposition in particular, are at the very heart of the study of democratic processes in different parts of the world. Written by leading scholars in the field, this book looks both at the core features of the parliamentary opposition itself and its role in the legislative and wider political process. This includes an inquiry into the manifold challenges that the parliamentary opposition in many countries has come to face in the more recent past, in particular the rise of different non-parliamentary opposition actors. The countries covered in this volume include the old democracies of the Anglo-Saxon world, continental Europe and Japan, and the new democracies and democratizing regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Africa. Another chapter looks at the manifestations of parliamentary opposition within the multi-level system of the European Union

Download or read book Dynasties and Democracy written by Daniel M. Smith and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although democracy is, in principle, the antithesis of dynastic rule, families with multiple members in elective office continue to be common around the world. In most democracies, the proportion of such "democratic dynasties" declines over time, and rarely exceeds ten percent of all legislators. Japan is a startling exception, with over a quarter of all legislators in recent years being dynastic. In Dynasties and Democracy, Daniel M. Smith sets out to explain when and why dynasties persist in democracies, and why their numbers are only now beginning to wane in Japan—questions that have long perplexed regional experts. Smith introduces a compelling comparative theory to explain variation in the presence of dynasties across democracies and political parties. Drawing on extensive legislator-level data from twelve democracies and detailed candidate-level data from Japan, he examines the inherited advantage that members of dynasties reap throughout their political careers—from candidate selection, to election, to promotion into cabinet. Smith shows how the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for representation, vary significantly with the institutional context of electoral rules and features of party organization. His findings extend far beyond Japan, shedding light on the causes and consequences of dynastic politics for democracies around the world.