Download or read book Daring Democracy written by Frances Moore Lappé and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An optimistic book for Americans who are asking, in the wake of Trump’s victory, What do we do now? The answer: We need to organize and fight to protect and expand our democracy. Americans are distraught as tightly held economic and political power drowns out their voices and values. Legendary Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé and organizer-scholar Adam Eichen offer a fresh, surprising response to this core crisis. This intergenerational duo opens with an essential truth: It’s not the magnitude of a challenge that crushes the human spirit. It’s feeling powerless—in this case, fearing that to stand up for democracy is futile. It’s not, Lappé and Eichen argue. With riveting stories and little-known evidence, they demystify how we got here, exposing the well-orchestrated effort that has robbed Americans of their rightful power. But at the heart of this unique book are solutions. Even in this divisive time, Americans are uniting across causes and ideologies to create a “canopy of hope” the authors call the Democracy Movement. In this invigorating “movement of movements,” millions of Americans are leaving despair behind as they push for and achieve historic change. The movement and democracy itself are vital to us as citizens and fulfill human needs—for power, meaning, and connection—essential to our thriving. In this timely and necessary book, Lappé and Eichen offer proof that courage is contagious in the daring fight for democracy.
Download or read book Daring Democracy written by Frances Moore Lappé and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An optimistic book for Americans who are asking, in the wake of Trump’s victory, What do we do now? The answer: We need to organize and fight to protect and expand our democracy. Americans are distraught as tightly held economic and political power drowns out their voices and values. Legendary Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé and organizer-scholar Adam Eichen offer a fresh, surprising response to this core crisis. This intergenerational duo opens with an essential truth: It’s not the magnitude of a challenge that crushes the human spirit. It’s feeling powerless—in this case, fearing that to stand up for democracy is futile. It’s not, Lappé and Eichen argue. With riveting stories and little-known evidence, they demystify how we got here, exposing the well-orchestrated effort that has robbed Americans of their rightful power. But at the heart of this unique book are solutions. Even in this divisive time, Americans are uniting across causes and ideologies to create a “canopy of hope” the authors call the Democracy Movement. In this invigorating “movement of movements,” millions of Americans are leaving despair behind as they push for and achieve historic change. The movement and democracy itself are vital to us as citizens and fulfill human needs—for power, meaning, and connection—essential to our thriving. In this timely and necessary book, Lappé and Eichen offer proof that courage is contagious in the daring fight for democracy.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Dare Are You One of the Daring Ones written by Dave Sinclair and published by Magus Books. This book was released on with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Philosophy of Dare, the Daring Philosophy, is all about being willing to take risks, to rise to challenges, to leave behind comfort zones and safe spaces, and seek out storms and wildernesses and mountaintops and all extreme, daring environments. One must always escape mediocrity, and wherever the mediocre congregate. Mediocrity is the original sin. The mediocre are the opposite of the daring. Danton said, "We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring!" Machiavelli said, "Never was anything great achieved without danger." Andre Gide said, "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." The daring don't stand around. They're active, proactive, the people doing things, making things happen, shaking things up. They're not the reactive masses, those that love to sit and wait for Godot. Godot isn't coming. Haven't you heard? William Makepeace Thackeray said, "Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb." The attackers always have the initiative. The world reacts to them. The daring decide the agenda. They force the issue. They are the organ grinders. Everyone else dances to the tune of the daring ones. "Who Dares Wins" is the motto of the Special Air Service, Britain's elite special forces unit. Theodore Roosevelt said, "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." The mediocrities avoid conflict. They duck out. They bale out. They opt out. They don't want to exert themselves. Too much effort. Are you afraid of losing it all? Then you are not one of the daring. Goethe said, "Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time." The daring are absolutely committed to leaving behind the mighty and sublime. They are the only ones who conquer time. They are the immortals. The great French revolutionary Saint-Just said, "Dare! – this word contains all the politics of our revolution." Will you risk it all? Do you dare? Trigger Warning (for those of a sensitive disposition): This content contains heavy satire, irony, sarcasm and black comedy. Keep your wits about you.
Download or read book Democracy s Guardians written by Justin Collings and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its six-decade history, the German Federal Constitutional Court has become one of the most powerful and influential constitutional tribunals in the world. It has played a central role in the establishment of liberalism, democracy, and the rule of law in post-war West Germany, and it has been a model for constitutional tribunals in many other nations. The Court stands virtually unchallenged as the most trusted institution of the German state. Written as a complete history of the German Federal Constitutional Court from its founding in 1951 up into the twenty-first century, this book explores how the court became so powerful, and why so few can resist its strength. Founded in 1951, the Court took root in a pre-democratic political culture. The Court's earliest contributions were to help establish liberal values and fundamental rights protection in the young Federal Republic. The early Court also helped democratize West German politics by reinforcing rights of speech and information, affirming the legitimacy of parliamentary opposition, and checking executive power. In time, as democratic values took hold in the country at large, the Court's early role in nurturing liberalism and democracy led many West Germans to view the Court not as a constraint on democracy, but as a bulwark of democracy's preconditions. In later decades, the Court played a stabilizing role - mediating political conflicts and integrating societal forces. Citizens disenchanted with partisan politics looked to the Court as a guardian of enduring values and a source of moral legitimacy. Through a comprehensive narrative of the Court's remarkable rise and careful analysis of its periodic crises, the work carefully dissects the success of the Court, presenting not only a traditional work of legal history, but a public history - both political and societal - as well as a doctrinal and jurisprudential account. Structured around the Court's major decisions from 1951 to 2001, the book examines popular and political reactions to those decisions, drawing heavily on newspaper accounts of major judgments and material from the archives of individual politicians and judges. The result is an impressive case study of the global phenomenon of constitutional justice.
Download or read book Centering written by Mitra Rahnema and published by Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This book was released on 2017 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 2015, a group of distinguished UU religious professionals of color gathered together in Chicago to embark on a radical project. The conference was sponsored by the UUMA’s Committee on Antiracism, Anti-oppression, and Multiculturalism. It started with the premise that discussions of race in Unitarian Universalism have too often presupposed a White audience and prioritized the needs, education, and emotions of the White majority. The goal was to reframe Unitarian Universalist anti-oppression work by putting the voices, experiences and learnings of people of color at the center of the conversation. The resulting book, Centering, captures the papers that were presented and the rich dialogue from the conference to share personal stories and address the challenges that religious leaders of color face in exercising power, agency, and authority in a culturally White denomination. Centering explores how racial identity is made both visible and invisible in Unitarian Universalist ministries.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought written by Paul Barry Clarke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Containing almost 200 entries from 'accountability' to the 'Westminster model' the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought explores all the ideas that matter to democracy past, present and future. It is destined to become the first port-of-call for all students, teachers and researchers of political science interested in democratic ideas, democratic practice, and the quality of democratic governance. The Encyclopedia provides extensive coverage of all the key concepts of democratic thought written by a stellar team of distinguished international contributors. The Encyclopedia draws on every tradition of democratic thought, as well as developing new thinking, in order to provide full coverage of the key democratic concepts and engage with their practical implications for the conduct of democratic politics in the world today. In this way, it brings every kind of democratic thinking to bear on the challenges facing contemporary democracies and on the possibilities of the democratic future. The Encyclopedia is global in scope and responds in detail to the democratic revolution of recent decades. Referring both to the established democratic states of Western Europe, North America and Australasia, and to the recent democracies of Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Africa and Asia, classical democratic concerns are related to new democracies, and to important changes in the older democracies. Supplemented by full bibliographical information, extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought is a unique work of reference combining the expertise of many of the world's leading political scientists, political sociologists and political philosophers. It will be welcomed as an essential resource for both teaching and for independent study, and as a solid starting point both for further research and wider exploration.
Download or read book Democracy s Edge written by Frances Moore Lappe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2005-10-28 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three out of five Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, feel our country is headed in the wrong direction. America is at the edge, a critical place at which we can either renew and revitalize or give in and lose that most precious American ideal--democracy--and along with it the freedom, fairness, and opportunities it assures. Democracy's Edge is a rousing battle cry that we can--and must--act now. From Jefferson to Eisenhower, presidents from both parties have warned us of the danger of letting a closed, narrow group of business and government officials concentrate power over our lives. Yet today, a small and unrepresentative group of people is making vital decisions for all of us. But this crisis is only a symptom, Lappé argues. It's a symptom of thin democracy, something done to us or for us, not by or with us. Such democracy is always at risk of being stolen by private interests or extremist groups, left and right. But there is a solution. The answer, says Lappé, is Living Democracy, a powerful yet often invisible citizens' revolution surging in communities across America. It's not random, disjointed activism but the emergence of a new historical stage of democracy in which Americans realize that democracy isn't something we have but something we do. Either we live it or lose it, says Lappé.
Download or read book Making Democracy Work written by Robert D. Putnam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1994-05-27 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in such fields as agriculture, housing, and health services, they reveal patterns of associationism, trust, and cooperation that facilitate good governance and economic prosperity.
Download or read book Democracy written by Alecos Papadatos and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the team behind the international phenomenon Logicomix -which was on the New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks, won numerous international prizes, and to date has been sold into more than twenty-five languages-comes a new graphic novel, Democracy, written and illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and in collaboration with Abraham Kawa. Democracy opens in 490 B.C., when Athens is at war. The hero of the story, Leander, is trying to rouse his comrades for the morrow's battle against a far mightier enemy. Leander begins to recount his own life, bearing direct witness to the evils of the old tyrannical regimes and to the birth of a new political system. The story that emerges, of the death of the gods and the tortuous birth of democracy, is crammed with extraordinary characters and tells in incident and vivid detail how this greatest of civic inventions came about. We see that democracy was born through a combination of chance and historical contingency-but also through the cunning, courage, and willful action of a group of highly talented and driven individuals.
Download or read book Dare to Struggle written by Richard M. Berthold and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2009 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHY SHOULD YOU READ A GREEK HISTORY? Because you simply cannot consider yourself an educated person unless you know something about the society of ancient Greece. Because the Greeks discovered the foundation elements of Western society: constitutionalism, rationalism, humanism and the individual. Because Greek history is in effect our own history. Because the Greeks were seriously cool. WHY SHOULD YOU READ THISGREEK HISTORY? Because it answers the important questions that others do not. Because it relates Greek history to contemporary society. Because it covers ALL the topics. Because it is NOT boring or politically correct.
Download or read book Contemporary Germany written by Mark Allinson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-30 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for combined Language and Social Science 2nd and 3rd year courses on Germany found in departments of, German, Politics, Modern Language and European Studies. This book charts the post-war development of Germany - East & West - through to reunification and Germany's evolving role in world politics and economics. It combines a concise yet comprehensive introduction in English to contemporary German politics, society & economics with extensive authentic extracts from German language publications backed up with specially developed language exercises
Download or read book Fugitive Democracy written by Sheldon S. Wolin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative collection of the most important writings of an influential political thinker Sheldon Wolin was one of the most influential and original political thinkers of the past fifty years. In Fugitive Democracy, the breathtaking range of Wolin’s scholarship, political commitment, and critical acumen are on full display in this authoritative and accessible collection of essays. This book brings together his most important writings, from classic essays to his late radical essays on American democracy such as "Fugitive Democracy," in which he offers a controversial reinterpretation of democracy as an episodic phenomenon distinct from the routinized political management that passes for democracy today. Wolin critically engages a diverse range of political theorists, and grapples with topics such as power, modernization, the sixties, revolutionary politics, and inequality, all the while showcasing enduring commitment to writing civic-minded theoretical commentary on the most pressing political issues of the day. Fugitive Democracy offers enduring insights into many of today’s most pressing political predicaments, and introduces a whole new generation of readers to this provocative figure in contemporary political thought.
Download or read book Must Global Politics Constrain Democracy written by Alan Gilbert and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-06 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As each power vies for its national interests on the world stage, how do its own citizens' democratic interests fare at home? Alan Gilbert speaks to an issue at the heart of current international-relations debate. He contends that, in spite of neo-realists' assumptions, a vocal citizen democracy can and must have a role in global politics. Further, he shows that all the major versions of realism and neo-realism, if properly stated with a view of the national interest as a common good, surprisingly lead to democracy. His most striking example focuses on realist criticisms of the Vietnam War. Democratic internationalism, as Gilbert terms it, is really the linking of citizens' interests across national boundaries to overcome the antidemocratic actions of their own governments. Realist misinterpretations have overlooked Thucydides' theme about how a democracy corrupts itself through imperial expansion as well as Karl Marx's observations about the positive effects of democratic movements in one country on events in others. Gilbert also explodes the democratic peace myth that democratic states do not wage war on one another. He suggests instead policies to accord with the interests of ordinary citizens whose shared bond is a desire for peace. Gilbert shows, through such successes as recent treaties on land mines and policies to slow global warming that citizen movements can have salutary effects. His theory of "deliberative democracy" proposes institutional changes that would give the voice of ordinary citizens a greater influence on the international actions of their own government.
Download or read book Women Who Changed the World 4 volumes written by Candice Goucher and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-01-24 with total page 2347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This indispensable reference work provides readers with the tools to reimagine world history through the lens of women's lived experiences. Learning how women changed the world will change the ways the world looks at the past. Women Who Changed the World: Their Lives, Challenges, and Accomplishments through History features 200 biographies of notable women and offers readers an opportunity to explore the global past from a gendered perspective. The women featured in this four-volume set cover the full sweep of history, from our ancestral forbearer "Lucy" to today's tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams. Every walk of life is represented in these pages, from powerful monarchs and politicians to talented artists and writers, from inquisitive scientists to outspoken activists. Each biography follows a standardized format, recounting the woman's life and accomplishments, discussing the challenges she faced within her particular time and place in history, and exploring the lasting legacy she left. A chronological listing of biographies makes it easy for readers to zero in on particular time periods, while a further reading list at the end of each essay serves as a gateway to further exploration and study. High-interest sidebars accompany many of the biographies, offering more nuanced glimpses into the lives of these fascinating women.
Download or read book A Greater Democracy Day by Day written by Sally Mahe and published by Council Oak Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The word democracy has been over-used and misused to the point it has begun to lose its meaning for many of us. When people start brandishing that word, we often suspect that they have a political agenda. A Greater Democracy Day by Day rehabilitates the word by bringing together 365 thought-provoking quotes from around the world and through time, all centered on this concept that is the keystone of modern society. The book presents a theme for each month and a quote about that theme to ponder on each day of the year. Like fingers pointing to the moon, these diverse daily readings point to the singular essence of democracy -- a greater democracy than any nation on earth has been able to achieve thus far -- the fuller democracy toward which we are growing. The format is user-friendly as well as inspirational. Throughout the year, the book focuses on twelve characteristic democratic themes such as interdependence or creativity and provides related quotations from individuals both famous and lesser-known. What emerges is a powerful sense of both the fragility and the durability of democracy in its many forms, as well as the ways its promise continues to prompt ordinary people to bring the angels of their better nature to the challenges they face. Quoted are such diverse figures as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Plato, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Socrates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, St. Francis of Assisi, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Whoopi Goldberg, and all sort of less well-known individuals who have given thought and voice to the meaning of democracy (and in many cases acted on their ideals). This inspirational book cuts through the rhetoric to integrate practicalspiritual themes. It re-infuses democracy with meaning and inspires readers to new vision and positive action.
Download or read book Defence of the National Democracy Against the Attack of Judge Douglas constitutional Rights of the States written by Judah Philip Benjamin and published by . This book was released on 1860 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Architecture and Participation written by Peter Blundell Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together leading international practitioners and theorists in the field, ranging from the 1960s pioneers of participation to some of the major contemporary figures in the field, Architecture and Participation opens up the social and political aspects of our built environment, and the way that the eventual users may shape it. Divided into three sections, looking at the politics, histories and practices of participation, the book gives both a broad theoretical background and more direct examples of participation in practice. Respectively the book explores participation's broader context, outlining key themes and including work from some seminal European figures and shows examples of how leading practitioners have put their ideas into action. Illustrated throughout, the authors present to students, practitioners and policy makers an exploration of how a participative approach may lead to new spatial conditions, as well as to new types of architectural practices, and investigates the way that the user has been included in the design process.