Download or read book Rationalized and Extended Democracy written by Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue and published by Firenze University Press. This book was released on with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue asserts that the realization of the values and the implementation of the objectives as indicated in democratic constitutions (political, social rights and the people’s welfare) are hindered by structural defects of the legislative/government architecture and processes. Expertise and science have scarce say in politics and policy. The author suggests an innovative view through the ‘REDemo Project’. 1. Rationalization: the insertion of public scientists into legislative/executive mechanisms, with the creation in each democracy of a National Scientific Assembly – parallel to the extant partypolitical Chamber of Representatives – consisting of academic experts and researchers (legal scholars, political analysts, economists, sociologists, land/urban planners, industry/infrastructure designers, biotechnologists, agronomists, ecologists, educationists, specialists on public health, on cultural heritage, etc.) elected by universal suffrage; 2. Extension: the broadening of the institutions of direct democracy and reinforcement of the electorate as decision-maker of last resort. So the main themes and objectives of the book are an examination of the major flaws in today’s democracies (pars destruens) and a proposal for a renewed institutional framework (pars construens).
Download or read book Measuring Democracy written by Gerardo L. Munck and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although democracy is a widely held value, concrete measurement of it is elusive. Gerardo L. Munck’s constructive assessment of the methods used to measure democracies promises to bring order to the debate in academia and in practice. Drawing on his years of academic research on democracy and measurement and his practical experience evaluating democratic practices for the United Nations and the Organization of American States, Munck's discussion bridges the theories of academia with practical applications. In proposing a more open and collaborative relationship between theory and action, he makes the case for reassessing how democracy is measured and encourages fundamental changes in methodology. Munck’s field-tested framework for quantifying and qualifying democracy is built around two instruments he developed: the UN Development Programme’s Electoral Democracy Index and a case-by-case election monitoring tool used by the OAS. Measuring Democracy offers specific, real-world lessons that scholars and practitioners can use to improve the quality and utility of data about democracy.
Download or read book Democratic Republic of the Congo First Review Under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement Request for Modification of Performance Criteria and Financing Assurances Review Press Release Staff Report and Statement by the Executive Director for the Democratic Republic of the Congo written by International Monetary and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2022-01-05 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a third wave over the summer, COVID-19 cases are declining but vaccination has stalled. Economic activity has improved on the back of strengthened external demand, allowing for a stronger-than-envisaged buildup in international reserves. Inflation and the exchange rate have stabilized. Near-term challenges arise from uncertainty related to the pandemic and the gradual global economic recovery supporting high commodity prices.
Download or read book The Deliberative Turn in Democratic Theory written by Antonino Palumbo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy written by S.M. Amadae and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-09-15 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy, S. M. Amadae tells the remarkable story of how rational choice theory rose from obscurity to become the intellectual bulwark of capitalist democracy. Amadae roots Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy in the turbulent post-World War II era, showing how rational choice theory grew out of the RAND Corporation's efforts to develop a "science" of military and policy decisionmaking. But while the first generation of rational choice theorists—William Riker, Kenneth Arrow, and James Buchanan—were committed to constructing a "scientific" approach to social science research, they were also deeply committed to defending American democracy from its Marxist critics. Amadae reveals not only how the ideological battles of the Cold War shaped their ideas but also how those ideas may today be undermining the very notion of individual liberty they were created to defend.
Download or read book Democratic Republic of the Congo written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considerable macroeconomic gains were achieved in 2021: the economic rebound was stronger than envisaged, driven by the non-extractive sector; CPI inflation declined to 5.3 percent year-on-year, accompanied by a stable exchange rate as the central bank stopped providing financing to the government; and an improved external position supported reserves accumulation. The 2021 fiscal outturn was also better-than-projected although domestic arrears accumulated. Despite excess liquidity, the banking sector faces vulnerabilities. The war in Ukraine is pushing up the cost of living and rising the fiscal costs associated with the fuel subsidy. Despite this and deteriorating global economic prospects, the outlook remains favorable and provides opportunities to consolidate macro stability and scale up structural reforms, though significant downside risks remain, and severe fragility persists.
Download or read book Democratic Republic of the Congo Request for a Three Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility Review of Performance Under the Staff Monitored Program Press Release Staff Report and Statement by the Executive Director for the Democratic Republic of Congo written by International Monetary and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-07-28 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a fragile state and vulnerable to recurrent shocks. Relations with the Fund have been quite active since early 2019, with a Staff Monitored Program (SMP) coupled with a Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) disbursement in December 2019 and a second RCF disbursement in April 2020 to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Economic activity decelerated sharply in 2020 because of the crisis and reserves decreased to less than two weeks of imports. President Tshisekedi requested a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement to support his medium-term reform program.
Download or read book Of Empires and Citizens written by Amaney A. Jamal and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-09 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the post-Cold War era, why has democratization been slow to arrive in the Arab world? This book argues that to understand support for the authoritarian status quo in parts of this region--and the willingness of its citizens to compromise on core democratic principles--one must factor in how a strong U.S. presence and popular anti-Americanism weakens democratic voices. Examining such countries as Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, Amaney Jamal explores how Arab citizens decide whether to back existing regimes, regime transitions, and democratization projects, and how the global position of Arab states shapes people's attitudes toward their governments. While the Cold War's end reduced superpower hegemony in much of the developing world, the Arab region witnessed an increased security and economic dependence on the United States. As a result, the preferences of the United States matter greatly to middle-class Arab citizens, not just the elite, and citizens will restrain their pursuit of democratization, rationalizing their backing for the status quo because of U.S. geostrategic priorities. Demonstrating how the preferences of an international patron serve as a constraint or an opportunity to push for democracy, Jamal questions bottom-up approaches to democratization, which assume that states are autonomous units in the world order. Jamal contends that even now, with the overthrow of some autocratic Arab regimes, the future course of Arab democratization will be influenced by the perception of American reactions. Concurrently, the United States must address the troubling sources of the region's rising anti-Americanism.
Download or read book The Burden of Democracy written by Geneviève Souillac and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an original contribution to the debate on contemporary democratic ethics. It argues that public culture provides the mediating spaces required for processes of encounter, but should be supplemented with an open dialog on history, memory, and identity. Since democratic modernity is consolidating its new phase characterized by the multiplicity of perspectives, the mediation of conflict, identity, and memory are required to continue fostering mutual understanding and the identification of issues of common concern. The historical emergence of a public culture is a democratic gain. Recognizing this offers opportunities for ethical transformation that respects diversity but also addresses the realities of conflict under conditions of post modernity.
Download or read book Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation written by Guido Pincione and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-24 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive and sustained critique of theories of deliberative democracy.
Download or read book Readings in the Philosophy of Technology written by David M. Kaplan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readings in the Philosophy of Technology is a collection of the important works of both the forerunners of philosophy of technology and contemporary theorists, addressing a full range of topics on technology as it relates to ethics, politics, human nautre, computers, science, and the environment.
Download or read book Democracy after Virtue written by Sungmoon Kim and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Confucianism compatible with democracy? Ongoing debates among political theorists revolve around the question of whether the overarching goal of Confucianism -- serving the people's moral and material well-being -- is attainable in modern day politics without broad democratic participation and without relying on a "one person, one vote" system. One side of the debate -- voiced by "traditional" Confucian meritocrats -- argues that only certain people are equipped with the moral character needed to lead and ensure broad public well-being. They emphasize moral virtue over civic virtue and the family over the state as the quintessential public institution. Moreover, they believe that a system of rule headed by meritorious elites can better handle complex modern public affairs than representative democracy. The other side -- voiced by Confucian democrats -- argues that unless all citizens participate equally in the public sphere, the kind of moral growth Confucianism emphasizes cannot be fully attained. Despite notable differences in political orientation, scholars of both positions acknowledge that democracy is largely of instrumental value for realizing Confucian moral ends in modern society. It would seem that Confucians of both types have largely dismissed democracy as a political system that can mediate clashing values and political views -- or even that Confucian democracy is a system marked by pluralism. In this book, Sungmoon Kim lays out a normative theory of Confucian democracy -- pragmatic Confucian democracy -- to address questions of the right to political participation, instrumental and intrinsic values of democracy, democratic procedure and substance, punishment and criminal justice, social and economic justice, and humanitarian intervention. As such, this project is not only relevant to the much debated topic of Confucian democracy as a cultural alternative to Western-style liberal democracy in East Asia, but it further investigates the philosophical implications of the idea and institution of Confucian democracy in normative democratic theory, criminal justice, distributive justice, and just war. Ultimately, Kim shows us that the question is not so much about the compatibility of Confucianism and democracy, but of how the two systems can benefit from each other.
Download or read book Rationalizing Justice written by Wolf Heydebrand and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1990-09-11 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book connects the history and organization of the federal district courts to the emergence of a new technocratic form of justice. The centerpiece of this study is the clash between adjudication — the traditional model of dispute resolution — and the introduction of modern management techniques. From the perspective of the federal trial courts, the authors examine the tension between adjudication and administration. They show dramatic changes in the nature of judicial decision-making and the emergence of new forms of court organization. These changes signal a potential crisis of the judicial system, and Heydebrand and Seron provide insights into its nature and direction, and the immense structural forces underlying the administration of justice in America.
Download or read book Greek Tragedy and Contemporary Democracy written by Mark Chou and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-10-04 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging work tells the story of democracy through the perspective of tragic drama. It shows how the ancient tales of greatness and its loss point to the potential dangers of democracy then and now. Greek Tragedy dramatized a variety of stories, characters, and voices drawn from reality, especially from those marginalized by Athens's democracy. It brought up dissident figures through its multivocal form, disrupting the perception of an ordered reality. Today, this helps us grasp the reality of Athenian democracy, that is, a system steeped in patriarchy, slavery, warmongering, and xenophobia. The book reads through two renditions of Aeschylus' Suppliants as democratic texts for the twenty-first century, to show how such multivocal dramas actually address not only the pitfalls of our contemporary democracy, but also a range of environmental, security, socio-economic, and political dilemmas that afflict democratic politics today. Written in a very accessible manner, Greek Tragedy and Contemporary Democracy is a lively book that will appeal to any political science and international relations student interested in issues of democracy, governance, democratic peace, and democratic theory.
Download or read book Between Reason and Experience written by Andrew Feenberg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-04-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading philosopher of technology calls for the democratic coordination of technical rationality with everyday experience. The technologies, markets, and administrations of today's knowledge society are in crisis. We face recurring disasters in every domain: climate change, energy shortages, economic meltdown. The system is broken, despite everything the technocrats claim to know about science, technology, and economics. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that today powerful technologies have unforeseen effects that disrupt everyday life; the new masters of technology are not restrained by the lessons of experience, and accelerate change to the point where society is in constant turmoil. In Between Reason and Experience, leading philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg makes a case for the interdependence of reason—scientific knowledge, technical rationality—and experience. Feenberg examines different aspects of the tangled relationship between technology and society from the perspective of critical theory of technology, an approach he has pioneered over the past twenty years. Feenberg points to two examples of democratic interventions into technology: the Internet (in which user initiative has influenced design) and the environmental movement (in which science coordinates with protest and policy). He examines methodological applications of critical theory of technology to the case of the French Minitel computing network and to the relationship between national culture and technology in Japan. Finally, Feenberg considers the philosophies of technology of Heidegger, Habermas, Latour, and Marcuse. The gradual extension of democracy into the technical sphere, Feenberg argues, is one of the great political transformations of our time.
Download or read book What Is Democracy written by Alain Touraine and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequel to A Critique of Modernity, Alain Touraine questions the social and cultural content of democracy today. At a time when state power is being increasingly eroded by the economic might of transnational capital, what possible value can we ascribe to a democratic idea that is defined merely as a set of guarantees against the totalitarian state?If democracy is to survive in the postcommunist world, Touraine argues, it must accomplish two urgent goals: It must somehow protect the power of the nation-state at the same time as it limits that power (for only the state has sufficient means to counterbalance the global corporate wielders of money and information); and it must reconcile social diversity with social unity and individual liberty with integration.This is not merely a philosophical problem but a dilemma whose resolution will dramatically affect the immediate future of people everywhere. If we want a resolution in democracy's favor, then it is time, in Touraine's view, for us to redefine democracy in terms of active intervention rather than mere passive institution. To preserve the power and effectiveness of our states and societies, we must make visible strides?and soon?away from a politics of particularity and toward the integration and balancing of women and minorities, of immigrants, of rich and poor. If our states become too weakened, too debased by the politics of competing identities and interest groups, we will one day find ourselves without the means to protect the very values we believe we are fighting to uphold.
