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This handbook assesses the phenomenon of populism—a concept frequently belabored, but often misunderstood in politics. Rising populism presents one of the great challenges for liberal democracies, but despite the large body of research, the larger picture remains elusive. This volume seeks to understand the causes and workings of modern-day populism, and plumb the depths of the fears and frustrations of people who have forsaken established parties. Although the main focus of this volume is political science, there are more disciplines represented in order to get a whole picture of the debate. It is comprised of strong empirical and theoretical papers that also bear social relevance.

The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization comprehensively and systematically explores the current understanding, and unchartered research paths, of autocratization.With wide-reaching regional coverage and expert analysis from Asia, North and South America, Europa, the Middle East, and North Africa, this handbook reveals cross-country, and cross-regional, analysis and insights and presents in-depth explanations and consequences of autocratization. Arranged in five thematic parts, chapters explore the basic aspects of conceptualization, theorization, and measurement of autocratization; the role of various political and non-political actors as perpetrators, supporters, bystanders, or defenders of democracy against autocratization processes; and the consequences across various policy fields. Showcasing cutting-edge research developments, the handbook illustrates the deeply complex nature of the field, examining important topics in need of renewed consideration at a time of growing concerns for democracy and the global spread of authoritarian challenges to democracy.The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization will be a key reference for those interested in, and studying authoritarianism, democratization, human rights, governance, democracy and more broadly comparative politics, and regional/area studies.Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

How can we explain policy preference mismatch between voters and their representatives?

Civil Democracy Protection is an overview of attempts by organisations to oppose groups that are perceived to threaten democracy.The book traces the history of civil democracy protection actors from the establishment of democratic constitutional states up to the present day and develops a set of systematic and comparative approaches. The central question it explores is: What significance do civil actors have for the establishment and consolidation of democratic constitutional states, especially in relation to the protection of democracy by state institutions? The volume includes contributions from historians and social scientists, who combine idiographic approaches that focus on the specifics of individual cases with nomothetic approaches that aim to provide generalisable insights, incorporating historical experiences from various European countries and the USA in the 20th and early 21st century.This book will be of interest to scholars of democracy protection, civil society, consolidation of democracy, and anti- extremism.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

Le présent collectif entend mettre entre les mains du lecteur une réflexion interdisciplinaire sur les thèmes de la démocratie, du pluralisme et des droits de l'Homme. En optant pour une perspective transculturelle, il soumet ce thème à des regards croisés qui divergent mais qui se complètent, dégageant ainsi des points de rencontres entre des contextes culturels et intellectuels différents. L'enjeu commun des différentes contributions est de montrer que la démocratie et les droits de l'Homme ne sont pas uniquement des moyens pour gérer le pluralisme culturel et politique, mais qu'ils peuvent, à leur tour, faire l'objet d'une pensée plurielle et décentralisée. Le pluralisme est, en effet, un impératif et non pas simplement un fait contingent.

Friend, enemy; loyalist, traitor: politics today seems caught in the grip of a binary reduction machine. Bidding us either with or against our neighbors as though we were already combined in, and owed allegiance to, mutually external, nameable collective entities - ‘communities', ‘nations', ‘races'– denominations in general. Beginning with an examination of processes (‘routines') of denomination in Northern Ireland, Maurice Macartney examines the era of Empire and enslavement to show that similar processes were at work then in ‘viceregally'arranged structures for the authorization and organization of the violence of hostility and of indifference to the suffering of others.Macartney then brings the analysis up to date, arguing that the hostility of populism and the indifference of the global market overlap to intensify the violence unfolding today. Finally, taking seriously the Copernican revolution of nonviolence, for which the enemy is not ‘the enemy', but violence itself, the book calls for a different kind of combination, for the coming together of a ‘community of others', commoners on the one common, working, for all our differences, toward the democratic empowerment of everyone in the neighborhood, in an equitable, sustainable, ‘neighborhood democracy'that would open beyond hostility, beyond denomination, beyond all boundaries.

The book provides a comprehensive and updated introduction to concept of territory in the study of democratic politics. Territory plays a rather marginal role in the traditional conceptions of democracy that in many ways still prevail today. Democratic politics is often analysed from the point of view of its institutions, citizens and voters, while little is said about the territory through which it is expressed – at most it provides a broader perimeter or context of political and institutional action. The book offers, instead, an introductory theoretically-oriented discussion of crucial issues such as the genesis of state-nation, the transformation of democratic citizenship, the current borders'policies, the rising of territorial populism and the experience of 19-covid pandemic.This is an open access book.

This book advances the theory that “democratic peace” does not exclusively refer to an absence of war among democracies but should also be thought of as a particular way of “doing, thinking, and feeling” peace. Democratic peace is not only then a statistical finding or a rhetorical commonplace invoked to justify foreign policy decisions. Rather, the notion also refers to a historically and culturally situated practice.Taking this reconceptualization as the theoretical point of departure, the author develops a historical reconstruction of democratic peace laying bare its historical background and assessing its political significance. Tentatively situating it within the cultural history of modernity, he reconstructs how the idea of a democratic peace informed diplomatic action at the onset of the Cold War and during the Arab Spring.The primary audience are researchers in international relations, specifically democratic peace theorists, peace researchers, cultural sociologists, and international practice theorists.

In this new edition of Matt Qvortrup's acclaimed book, the author shows how neuroscience can help us understand why people willingly give up their democratic rights or are unwillingly forced to do so.According to Plato, democracies die when people get angry. Resentment causes them to vote for demagogues. Recently, democratically elected politicians have used crises as a pretext for dismantling democracy, following a pattern we have seen since the dawn of civilization. Why do people fall for the lure of dictatorships? And what can we learn from the cause and effects of dictatorships to understand why democracies die?Death by a Thousand Cuts: Neuropolitics, Thymos, and the Slow Demise of Democracy is written in an accessible style with vignettes and new empirical data to provide historical context and neurological evidence on a much-discussed topic: the threat of democracy. This book will help readers who are concerned about the longevity of democracy understand when and why democracy is in danger of collapsing and alert them to the warning signs of its demise.

This book examines how contemporary militant democracies persist in the face of authoritarian abuses occurring during times of crisis. Focusing on founding members of the European Union, it explores how these democracies implemented anti-democratic measures without compromising their political rights and civil liberty ratings.By expanding the conceptual framework and theory of neo- and quasi-militant democracies through case studies and comparative analysis, the volume offers new insights into factors contributing to democratic endurance. Respective authors shift scholarly attention toward the epistemic construction of anti-democratic restrictions, arguing that epistemic fairness in defining anti-democratic threats plays a crucial role in preventing the erosion of democracy and, in doing so, enriches our understanding of legal definitions of enemies of democracy and their impact on the stability of political regimes. Investigating restrictions that target old and contemporary threats enhances our understanding of how Inner Six democracies survive under attack from populists seeking to expand their ruling competencies after the 2008 economic crisis, the 2015 European refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian War.This book is of key interest to scholars and students of European and Comparative Politics, Democratic Resilience and Backsliding, Legitimacy, Democracy and Dictatorship, Public Comparative Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law, Philosophy of Law, and Political Philosophy and Theory.

La sociedad actual adolece de una realidad velada que es el incremento de la pobreza, de la marginación de los inmigrantes, del racismo, del populismo y de la ultraderecha; mientras tanto quienes poseen los medios para fijar la agenda y cuyas voces se escuchan, para que sus políticas se implementen, defiende únicamente sus intereses egoístas y limitados, favoreciendo finalmente esta tendencia.'Democracia reaccionaria'es el uso del concepto de democracia y su idea fundamental de que el poder (kratos) lo tiene el pueblo (demos) como una manipulación más o menos consciente que utiliza la construcción del sentido común y'la voluntad del pueblo'para defender e impulsar ciertas ideas reaccionarias al servicio del poder político, y que frena así la posibilidad de una democracia que progrese hacia una mayor justicia social. Los autores nos aportan en este libro un marco analítico con el que entender el funcionamiento de esta realidad actual excluyente en el contexto mundial de nuestros días. Es una obra que se dirige quienes ocupan instituciones de privilegio, ya sea en los medios de comunicación, la academia o la política, para que detengan la legitimación y racionalización tanto del racismo como del clasismo, y luchen contra la reafirmación que ese está produciendo en su entorno de los sistemas de poder, privilegio y desigualdad.

“This is the first must-read of the 2024 election cycle if you want to understand the stakes.” –Nicolle WallaceFormer chief Republican strategist, Lincoln Project adviser, and bestselling author of It Was All a Lie, Stuart Stevens offers an ominous warning that the GOP is dragging our country toward autocracy—and if we don't wake up to the crisis in our system, 2024 may well be our last free and fair election. Today's Republican party is not a “normal” political party in the American tradition. It has become an autocratic movement masquerading as a political party. As Stuart Stevens argues in THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA, if we look away from that truth, we greatly increase the likelihood that the America we love will slip away, never to return. Whenever a democracy slides into autocracy, there are five critical elements at work: financers, propagandists, party support, legal theories to legitimize, and shock troops. THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA examines each of these driving forces on the Right and makes clear how they are working in concert to end our democracy as we know it. In the tradition of It Can't Happen Here and On Tyranny, THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA is a blinking red distress call about the dark intentions lurking within Stevens'old party and a rallying cry to beat back this perilous threat and save the Republic.

Examining cultural heritage within the context of democracy Cultural heritage is a powerful tool in society, capable of producing both social harms as well as social goods and benefits, which can be distributed unevenly via political channels. Reaching across disciplines and national boundaries, this volume examines cultural heritage work within the context of both democratic institutions and democratic practices, including participatory, deliberative, and direct democratic practices. Case studies highlight how democratic politics and cultural heritage shape, impact, and depend upon one another. The rising crisis of democracy across the globe brings these dynamics into sharp relief. The unfinished and fragile nature of democratic politics shines a spotlight on both its shortcomings and its aspirational potential. This is a paradox that heritage practitioners and stakeholders navigate daily, serving as both critics and collaborators of democracy. At the same time that heritage practice embraces participatory approaches, it must also address the challenge of reconciling multiple, often unequal, and frequently incompatible claims for control over heritage. Grappling with democracy's crises also increasingly means recognizing the power of heritage to reinforce or undermine democracy. These essays ask: What are the democratic motives of heritage practice? Why do democracies need heritage? How do the social and cultural referents of heritage infuse democratic practices? Emphasizing the interplay of heritage and democracy in practices and institutions across scales of governance, Heritage and Democracy pinpoints a dynamic that has not been widely examined.Contributors: Stacey L. Camp | Jon D. Daehnke | Kasey Diserens Morgan | Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann | Dorothy Ann Engmann | Bobbie Foster Bhusari | Peter G. Gould | Erin A. Hogg | Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels | Magda E. Mankel | Chelsea H. Meloche | George P. Nicholas | Ellen J. Platts | Jasmine Reid | Paul A. Shackel | John R. Welch A volume in the series Cultural Heritage Studies, edited by Paul A. Shackel

This book shows how bringing together experts from the Global South and the Global North can help us to understand and combat global economic, political, and social inequalities. For too long, the world's problems have been viewed through the narrow conceptual lenses of the Global North. This book lays the groundwork for a new approach – a truly global approach to political economy.We are currently facing multiple and overlapping international crises. The current economic crisis, characterized by deepening inequalities, is closely intertwined with intensifying geopolitical rivalries and the environmental crisis. The dialogues in this book aim to move beyond the Eurocentric tradition and bring voices from the Global South to the forefront of the debate. Covering 11 key themes drawn from the United Nations'Agenda 2030, the book conceptualizes democracy, development, and sustainability not only as strategies, but also as values that are integrated into the same – and continuously changing – analytical process.This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, and experts in international relations, global development, and international political economy, and to anyone looking for new perspectives on pernicious problems.

From leading thinker Danielle Allen, a bold and urgent articulation of a new political philosophy: power-sharing liberalism. At a time of great social and political turmoil, when many residents of the leading democracies question the ability of their governments to deal fairly and competently with serious public issues, and when power seems more and more to rest with the wealthy few, this book reconsiders the very foundations of democracy and justice. Scholar and writer Danielle Allen argues that the surest path to a just society in which all are given the support necessary to flourish is the protection of political equality; that justice is best achieved by means of democracy; and that the social ideals and organizational design principles that flow from recognizing political equality and democracy as fundamental to human well-being provide an alternative framework not only for justice but also for political economy. Allen identifies this paradigm-changing new framework as “power-sharing liberalism.” Liberalism more broadly is the philosophical commitment to a government grounded in rights that both protect people in their private lives and empower them to help govern public life. Power-sharing liberalism offers an innovative reconstruction of liberalism based on the principle of full inclusion and non-domination—in which no group has a monopoly on power—in politics, economy, and society. By showing how we all might fully share power and responsibility across all three sectors, Allen advances a culture of civic engagement and empowerment, revealing the universal benefits of an effective government in which all participate on equal terms.

The new edition of Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy offers an updated overview and critical discussion of contemporary discourses around truth, misinformation, and democracy, while also mapping cutting-edge scholarship.Through in-depth analyses of news articles, commentaries, academic publications, policy briefs, and political speeches, the book engages with the underlying normative ideas that shape how fake news is being addressed across the globe. Doing so, it provides an innovative, critical contribution to contemporary debates on democracy, post-truth, and politics. Three new chapters: Chapter 2 provides an outline of the scholarly field of research into fake news; Chapter 5 examines how issues of fake news and (mis)information have become intertwined with contemporary crisis events; and Chapter 9 presents democratic alternatives to post-truth solutionism. A new foreword by Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser. Fully updated examples and studies from contemporary events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States Capitol attack, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Extended discussions on the causes of democratic decline, currently proposed solutions to fake news, and democratic alternatives to our current predicament. Interesting, informative, and well documented, Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy continues its commitment to understand and engage with the current state and future of democracy.

Der Band setzt sich mit den Krisen und Transformationsherausforderungen unserer Zeit, deren Management und der demokratischen Gestaltung mutiger Zukunftsvisionen auseinander. Ziel ist es, aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven das Verständnis für die anstehenden transformativen Herausforderungen zu schärfen und erste systematische Lösungsansätze zu skizzieren. Die Rahmenbedingungen und Charakteristika des Regierens in der Transformationsgesellschaft werden entlang der drei Transformationscluster Daseinsvorsorge, Demographie, Digitalisierung und dem übergeordneten Cluster Demokratie diskutiert. So richtet sich der Band nicht nur an einen wissenschaftlichen Leser•innenkreis, sondern adressiert auch dezidiert ein interessiertes Publikum außerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Betriebs.

Is it possible, in the complex modern world, to have a government ‘by the people'? Does, for example, digital technology help us to bring the reality closer to the ideal? Or does it actually make the ideal unattainable?The volume brings together conceptual historians, philosophers, political theorists and sociologists to discuss the criticisms and crises of democracy with fresh approaches to the idea of democracy, democratic theory, democratic institutions, trust and distrust, populism, and advancement of technologies in Western societies.

Using an elite consensus/conflict analytical frame, this book examines why some majority Muslim countries perform so much better at democracy and/or development than others, questioning received wisdoms that Islam, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment go together. Identifying four distinct democracy and development outcomes in the Muslim world, four case studies are interrogated to show that there is more variability in democracy and development outcomes in Muslim majority countries than macro-historical studies and aggregate data have shown.By demonstrating that democracy and development outcomes in Muslim countries are the consequence of elite conflict and elite consensus, rather than the precepts or institutions of Islam, the book places the competition for power among contending elites, rather than Islam, at the center of the story of democracy and development in the Muslim world.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political development/development studies, democratization and autocratization studies, democracy promotion, and more broadly comparative politics.

O livro é fruto de uma pesquisa em que foi analisado o uso do Facebook por dois candidatos à Presidência da República nas eleições de 2018: Jair Bolsonaro e Fernando Haddad. O período escolhido para a seleção de postagens foi o de propaganda eleitoral, entre 16 de agosto e 5 de outubro de 2018 (primeiro turno) e entre 12 e 27 de outubro (segundo turno). O objetivo foi compreender de que maneira as campanhas se posicionaram, tendo em vista as características do exercício do poder na sociedade do espetáculo. Guy Debord é, portanto, a principal referência do trabalho. Com uma metodologia clara e importantes pontes bibliográficas, o autor busca inserir este estudo em um todo que, para além do registro histórico, será fundamental para compreender o fenômeno das redes e o grau de amadurecimento da nossa democracia. Em primeiro lugar, muito embora a polarização na internet já tenha sido notada em 2014, a'rivalidade'entre tucanos e petistas não pode ser comparada com o que foi feito pelos bolsonaristas a partir de 2018. Não só por abrirem um calabouço no que já parecia ser o fundo do poço em termos argumentativos e baixarem o debate ao nível mais rasteiro; mas também porque sua apropriação das redes foi inédita na política nacional, inclusive sendo motivo de inquérito no Congresso — apesar de ainda não haver condenações pela Justiça até o término deste livro. O nosso regime de democracia representativa é questionado constantemente por causa da demonização da política. No atual contexto de personalização da política, o outro é visto como inimigo, e não adversário. Veremos que a Lava Jato impulsionou esse processo no Brasil, conduzindo-nos para uma crise das instituições e para episódios em que a Constituição foi rasgada. Também são importantes os elementos que nos fizeram chegar até aqui, como a construção do sentimento antipetista. As postagens que selecionamos tiveram diferentes critérios, como alcance, repercussão, espetacularização e desinformação. Embora esse trabalho foque no período eleitoral, o mundo não parou de girar enquanto escrevíamos essa obra e muitas de nossas impressões sobre o viés autoritário do discurso de Bolsonaro foram comprovadas durante o governo do ex-presidente.

A reflection on the current state of and challenges to British democracy. In The Vitality of Democracy, British-German politician Gisela Stuart argues for the urgency of expanded participation in the democratic process and considers the risks democracy currently faces. Although democracy is rife with difficult choices, she shows that if the people do not appreciate what makes this system work, they risk losing it. While no individual holds the answers, democracy allows for power to change hands, giving opportunities for different sides to have a chance at improving government for all. Stuart reflects on challenges to British democracy since the mid-2010s. With the United Kingdom exiting the European Union and facing an overwhelming pandemic, restrictions to civil liberties were imposed that may have been unimaginable in the past. It is time to pause and reflect on the serious challenges currently posed to democracy and to the ability of the people to take part.

Since the Founding, America's faith in a democratic republic has depended on citizens who could be trusted to be communicators. Vigorous talk about equality, rights, and collaboration fueled the revolution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution with its amendments. In a republic, the people set the terms for their lives not individually, but in community. The genius of keeping it alive exists in how everyday citizens talk and listen, write and read, for a common good. Dialogue and deliberation—rather than an accumulation of individual preferences—sustains a republic, yet a diminished and scarred institution of journalism jeopardizes citizens'access to shared and truthful information. A disturbing “what's in it for me?” attitude has taken over many citizens, and a creeping, autocratic sense of dismissive accusation too often characterizes the political style of elected officials. The basic fuel for democracy is the willingness of informed citizens to take each other seriously as they talk about political choices. Once we begin to clam up, build walls, and dismiss each other, we unravel the threads tying us to the Founders'vision of a republic. A free press and free speech become meaningless if not supported by sustained listening to multiple positions. There are those who profit by dividing citizens into two camps: a comfortable “us” versus a scary “them.” They make their case with accusations and often with lies. They warp the very meaning of communication, hoping citizens never truly discover each other's humanity. Democracy's News discusses today's problems of public communication in the context of history, law, and interpersonal life. News should not be something to dread, mistrust, or shun. Aided by reliable, factual journalism, citizens can develop a community-based knowledge to cope with social issues great and small. They come to treat neighbors and strangers as more than stereotypes or opponents. They become collaborators with whom to identify and sustain a working republic where news, citizenship, and public discourse merge.

This book presents a comprehensive examination of public opinion in the democratic world. Built around chapters that highlight key explanatory frameworks used in understanding public opinion, the book presents a coherent study of the subject in a comparative perspective, emphasizing and interrogating immigration as a key issue of high concern to most mass publics in the democratic world. Key features of the book include: Covers several theoretical issues and determinants of opinion such as the effects of personality, age and life cycle, ideology, social class, partisanship, gender, religion, ethnicity, language, and media, highlighting over time the effects of political, social, and economic contexts. Each chapter explores the theoretical rationale, mechanisms of effect, and use in the scholarly literature on public opinion before applying these to the issue of immigration comparatively and in specific places or regions. Widely comparative using a nine-country sample (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America) in the analysis of individual-level determinants of public opinion about immigration and extending to other countries like Belgium, Brazil, and Japan when evaluating contextual factors. This edited volume will be essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in public opinion, political behaviour, voting behaviour, politics of the media, immigration, political communication, and, more generally, democracy and comparative politics.

There is a tendency in public debate to downplay the significance of populism by attributing its rise to the inadequacies of those who vote for populist leaders and parties. But this way of thinking prevents us from seeing that the rise of populism may be linked to problems and shortcomings in the way our democracies work. In this important book, Armin Schäfer and Michael Zürn argue that the rise of authoritarian populism is rooted in two developments that are specifically political in character: first, the unequal responsiveness of parliaments towards less privileged citizens; and second, the growing political role of non-majoritarian institutions, like central banks and international institutions, that remove decisions from public debate and entrust them to experts. Contemporary democracy is increasingly perceived as lacking openness and representativeness. More and more citizens come to feel that politics is made by a closed political class oblivious to the concerns of ordinary people, and those who share this view are more likely to vote for authoritarian populists. Although contemporary populists keep rubbing salt into the wound of liberal democracy, their responses fail to solve the problems of democratic politics. On the contrary, wherever authoritarian-populist parties have come to power, they have damaged democracy rather than expanding it or reducing existing inequalities.

If you feel like the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, you're not alone. If you often feel there's nothing you can do about it, you're also not alone. Along with this increasing anger, fear, and frustration, much confusion still prevails on the appropriate communication practices for responding to difficult situations and improving our lives. Communication experts Robert Danisch and William Keith explain why and how we can practice radical civility in this practical guide to everyday “political” communication.This guide begins with examples of radical civility to show the potential of this kind of communication to change minds and bridge differences. The authors then unpack the three foundational principles of radical civility as useful theoretical tools for thinking throughout interactions with others in civic spaces. This is then followed by a three-step process for practicing radical civility drawing on research into active listening and its importance for creating connections, validating other views, and opening up possibilities for future conversation. The guide concludes with evidence-based communication practices and prescriptive recommendations for how to do each and show examples of each in action.Radically Civil: Saving Democracy One Conversation at a Time is a much-needed communication-based antidote to polarization, preparing students, researchers, and community leaders to be responsible participants in today's society.

«Hace tiempo, en su clásico sobre la representación, Hanna Pitkin reconoció que no podemos entenderla plenamente sin adoptar una perspectiva sistémica. Sin embargo, ni Pitkin ni yo, al defender un enfoque sistémico, profundizamos en el tema. Felipe Rey ha elaborado la obra definitiva hasta la fecha». Así introduce la Profesora Emérita de Harvard Jane Mansbridge esta obra. Su autor nos sugiere que la democracia representativa como la conocíamos, localizada en las estructuras parlamentarias, ha dejado de existir. Rey introduce y desarrolla un concepto nuevo, el de los «sistemas representativos», en los cuales la representación política es una práctica mucho más extensa que es ejercitada tanto en los órganos oficiales como en la esfera civil. Una nueva y refrescante teoría de la representación para entender mejor nuestros mundos políticos contemporáneos.

The Rise and Decline of Modern Democracy assesses the rise of, subsequent political challenges to, and decline of, contemporary liberal democratic processes, in particular since the ‘third wave'of democratization from the 1990s.Democracy is in global decline. Fewer countries are democratic and fewer people, globally, live in substantive democracies. Autocracy is now the dominant political form and the future looks, at best, challenging for the retention of such democracies that remain. As they did a century ago, nationalism and populism have again reared their ugly heads, and more people are claiming that democracy no longer addresses their most compelling needs or interests. This book examines what democracy is and the circumstances that allowed – even encouraged – it to arise. Democracy has been a product of a need to find a political model that mediates between competing interests, building on conducive conditions. However, there have since been fundamental changes to those conditions, imbalances within democratic countries and between countries, that have diminished the strength of the democratic proposition. The question now arises as to whether democracy can continue as a matter of political will. Challengers to democracy, from the radical Right in developed countries to populist autocracy and state-centred authoritarianism in developing countries, have increasingly shown this may not be the case. Democracy may survive, as this book concludes, but is likely to do so only with more substantial and conscious commitment to the democratic project, with recognition of the need to replenish the fertility of the political soil in which democracy grows.This wide-ranging and empirically and theoretically rich book will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers of political science, international relations, history and democracy.

Wild Democracy calls for a more anarchic, more courageous democracy. This is an ethic for people who know the rights they hold, and who struggle to rule themselves. This is an ethic for unfinished revolutions; an ethic for those who will not be mastered. This is an ethic for those who hold fast to the rights they have by nature. This is an ethic that requires courage. Democracy is always a risky business; full of promise and danger. The promise is the freedom to rule ourselves. The danger is fear: fear of the unknown, fear of the unruly, fear of one another, fear of anarchy. Fear leads to authoritarianism. The fearful look for a strong hand, a powerful leader, a protector, a gun. Anarchy leads to courage, to self-reliance, self-discipline, self-rule, and solidarity. Anarchy is the nursery of democracy. It is not anarchy we have to fear, it is authoritarianism. We have been taught to see the people as a problem to be managed. Anne Norton sees them as a source of strength. Anarchic democracy grows wild: springing from the everyday actions of ordinary human beings. Liberalism and conservatism alike have turned away from the democratic, to institutions, rules, and regulations. Anne Norton turns to anarchic people who practice democratic ethics.

The Age of Foolishness is a doubter's guide to current lawyerly thinking about all things related to constitutionalism in a democracy. This book offers a thorough-going skeptical critique of the views that dominate our legal caste, including in law schools and among judges, and place too much weight on judges to resolve important social policy disputes and too little on democratic politics. The author argues that politics matters in a way that our legal orthodoxy often downplays.Attachments area

The Varieties of Democracy project (V-Dem) pioneered new ways to conceptualize and measure democracy, producing a multidimensional and disaggregated data set on democracy around the world that is now widely used by researchers, activists, and governments. Why Democracies Develop and Decline draws on this data to present a comprehensive overview and rigorous empirical tests of the factors that contribute to democratization and democratic decline, looking at economic, social, institutional, geographic, and international factors. It is the most authoritative and encompassing empirical analysis of the causes of democratization and reversals. The volume also proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework and presents an up-to-date description of global democratic developments from the French Revolution to the present. Each chapter leverages the specialized expertise of its authors, yet their sustained collaboration lends the book an unusually unified approach and a coherent theory and narrative.

This book offers an extensive comparative analysis of populism and radical democratic theories, tracing the line dividing the respective conceptions of ‘people'and ‘popular sovereignty'. Whereas populism is often said to intertwine with democracy in some way, the contention of this book is that it significantly departs from democratic theory and practice, and belongs to a distinct conceptual space. It cannot be made to overlap, for instance, with “illiberal democracy”, the “democratic myth”, a crude electoral majoritarianism, nor can it amount to hiding undemocratic policies into properly democratic justifications. These positions, frequent as they are in the literature, are contested on the grounds of the dividing line identified, which starts unfolding at the level of the conception of ‘the people'– i.e., of the sovereign – presupposed by populists and democrats. This book is of great interest to scholars involved in the study of democratic theory, contemporary challenges to democracy and the recent upsurge of populist discourse, as it helps better understand populism as a political phenomenon and more adequately defines it as a self-standing concept in political theory.

This book explores key contemporary issues of democracy in our globalized and highly technologized world. Written from an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions including the fields of philosophy, political science, media studies, linguistics, and aesthetics, it reflects on the characteristics of the democratic state and democratic social practices.The book features contributions on topics such as the status of political parties, the separation of powers and the rule of law, bureaucracy and meritocracy, equality, forms of democratic participation and governance, comparisons between historical and contemporary democratic practices, individual rights, propaganda, political engagement, and consent. Further, it discusses how global information flows and new technologies affect democratic processes, including topics such as cyber-activism and open-source software as a means of empowerment to ethnocentric and class-centric technological design, globalization and media neutrality, and the mechanization of public administration. Overall, the book demonstrates how historical, philosophical, technical, and institutional issues relate to contemporary democracy. It will appeal to political theorists, social scientists and everybody interested in contemporary democracy.

In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario).

Times have not been kind to democracy. This book is in its defense. In the new century, the triumph of democracy at the end of the Cold War turned to retrenchment. The core democracies, in America and Britain, succumbed to polarization and misrule. Dictatorships, such as China, made themselves assertive. New democracies in Central Europe turned to muddled ideologies of “illiberal democracy.” In this book, Stein Ringen offers a meditation on what democracy is, the challenges it faces, and how it can be defended. Ringen argues that democracy must be rooted in a culture that supports the ability of citizens to exchange views and information among themselves and with their rulers. Drawing on the ideas of Machiavelli, Aristotle, Tocqueville, Max Weber, and others, Ringen shows how power is the fuel of government, and statecraft turns power into effective rule. Democracy should prize freedom and minimizing unfairness, especially poverty. Altogether, Ringen offers powerful insight on the meaning of democracy, including a new definition, and how countries can improve upon it and make it function more effectively. Timely and thought-provoking, How Democracies Live is a sober reminder of the majesty of the democratic enterprise.

The Iran National Front and the Struggle for Democracy: 1949–Present explores the activities of the Iran National Front (INF). The INF is a coalition of parties, groups, and individuals and Iran's oldest and main pro-democracy political party. This book presents a political history of the INF from 1949 to the present day. It discusses the current platform of the INF, its leadership, policies, strategies, as well as criticisms and weaknesses. The volume draws on a rich range of primary sources, INF documents, and interviews, including translated transcripts with the top leader of the INF. As it is one of the major political parties opposing the current regime in Iran, the book also examines the current situation in the country. It provides an analysis of the nature of the political systems under the Shah and the Islamic Republic.

Drawing on classic and contemporary scholarship and empirical analysis of elections and public expenditures in 80 countries, the author argues for the existence of primary and secondary laws of politics.Starting with how basic elements of politics—leadership, organization, ideology, resources, and force—coalesce in the formation of states, he proceeds to examine the operations of those laws in democracies and dictatorships. Primary laws constrain the support that incumbents draw from the electorate, limiting their time in office. They operate unimpeded in democracies. Secondary laws describe the general tendency of the state to expand vis-à-vis economy and society. They exert their greatest force in one-party states imbued with a totalitarian ideology. The author establishes the primary laws in a rigorous analysis of 1,100 parliamentary and presidential elections in 80 countries, plus another 1,000 U.S. gubernatorial elections. Evidence for the secondary laws is drawn from public expenditure data series, with findings presented in easily grasped tables and graphs. Having established these laws quantitatively, the author uses Cuba as a case study, adding qualitative analysis and a practical application to propose a constitutional framework for a future Cuban democracy.Written in an engaging, jargon-free style, this enlightening book will be of great interest to students and scholars in political science, especially those specializing in comparative politics, as well as opinion leaders and engaged citizens.

Democracy is in crisis. Is there still time to save it?Democracies face external threat from aggressive authoritarian states. Internally, citizens have grown increasingly distrustful of politicians and more cynical about national and global governance institutions. The time is ripe for democracy to renew itself. This text offers a state-of-the art overview of democratic innovations today, moving beyond cries of the'death'or'end'of democracy to instead offer a range of practical solutions for how to save it and restore faith in democratic practice.'Old'democratic power, represented by existing structures, is being challenged.'New'power involves collaboration and rapid feedback loops, as well as increased citizen participation. The future of democracy, the authors demonstrate, will be about findings ways of melding'old'and'new'power practices. Offering a broad and accessible survey of what different forms of democracy and democratic innovations look like today, and how they can develop in future, Saving Democracy shows us the potential for transformation across the entire democratic process. Avoiding a reductive focus on simply getting citizens more involved in decision-making, this book uniquely argues for the importance of refining and monitoring how democratic decisions are made and followed through.

Democratic breakdown as a political and historic event can impact the fate of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people, by changing the political complexion of a country. This book attempts to systematically explain why democracies collapse.The author's main theoretical argument is based on the examination of two factors. One is political cleavages among voters. These can cause serious political conflicts and may lead to fierce political confrontation and major upheaval at the society level. The other revolves around the types of political and institutional arrangements under democratic regimes. Centrifugal democratic regimes are likely to weaken government capacity or state capacity, rendering governments incapable of effectively resolving political conflicts and, when these two factors come together, political conflicts are less likely to be controlled effectively. These situations can evolve into serious political crises and eventually lead to the collapse of democratic regimes. The empirical research of this book is based on a comparative historical analysis of Germany, Nigeria, Chile, and India.Examining democratic collapses from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, this book will be of interest to those engaged in the study of democracy, Political Science, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory.

»Wir holen euch ab!« ist ein Plädoyer, Politik anders zu denken. In einer sich immer stärker verändernden Gesellschaft gilt es, Menschen aus unterschiedlichsten Lebenswelten wieder in Kontakt, und Filterblasen zum Platzen zu bringen. Damit wir konstruktiver miteinander diskutieren und politisch bessere Entscheidungen fällen. Dabei haben sich Katharina Liesenberg und Linus Strothmann von »Es geht LOS« einer jahrtausendealten, urdemokratischen Methode bedient: des Losens. Indem sie im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes an Türen klingelten, haben sie Menschen in ihrer persönlichen Lebensrealität abgeholt und miteinander in Kontakt gebracht. Ein Buch voll inspirierender Beispiele, die ihren Praxistest alle bestanden haben.

The past two decades have witnessed an intensifying rise of populist movements globally, and their impact has been felt in both more and less developed countries. Engaging Populism: Democracy and the Intellectual Virtues approaches populism from the perspective of work on the intellectual virtues, including contributions from philosophy, history, religious studies, political psychology, and law. Although recent decades have seen a significant advance in philosophical reflection on intellectual virtues and vices, less effort has been made to date to apply this work to the political realm. While every political movement suffers from various biases, contemporary populism's association with anti-science attitudes and conspiracy theories makes it a potentially rich subject of reflection concerning the role of intellectual virtues in public life. Interdisciplinary in approach, Engaging Populism will be of interest to scholars and students in philosophy, political theory, psychology, and related fields in the humanities and social sciences.

Proponents of cryptocurrency have argued it has the potential to drive economic prosperity and to help reimagine social benefits in many spaces across the world. However, as the knowledge and use of cryptocurrency increases, so do questions about trust, identity, privacy, and security. This new book connects the literature on public policy and cryptocurrency, asking: What are the governance and democracy implications of the rise in cryptocurrency use? Beginning with a conceptual overview of cryptocurrency and how governmental actions (or inaction) led to its creation, author Donovan Johnson argues that symbiotic relationships can and do exist among cryptocurrency, democracy, and governance in the public policy/administration domain. Principles such as equity and inclusion, efficiency and effectiveness, accountability, and quality of life are explored as conduits through which cryptocurrency interfaces with public policy, democracy, and good governance. This informative and insightful book covers a range of public policy and public administration issues, offering readers an understanding of how cryptocurrency intersects with democracy, governance, fiscal and monetary policies, economic growth, corruption, and privacy. Cryptocurrency and Public Policy will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy and administration, finance, economics, and business.

Le rêve d'une France adaptée à la mondialisation se heurte à des réalités comptables et technocratiques ; les sacrifices demandés ne semblent plus avoir de fin. Le concept de « gouvernance » s'est imposé, se définissant avant tout comme une technique de gestion et de légitimation sociale. C'est une conception alternative de la démocratie qui met en crise nos institutions. Face à l'hubris de l'accumulation et de la toute-puissance de l'homme, il nous faut d'urgence retrouver le sens des limites.

This book offers a new approach for the future of democracy by advocating to give citizens the power to deliberate and to decide how to govern themselves.Innovatively building on and integrating components of representative, deliberative and participatory theories of democracy with empirical findings, the book provides practices and procedures that support communities of all sizes to develop their own visions of democracy. It revitalizes and reinfuses the ‘democratic spirit'going back to the roots of democracy as an endeavor by, with and for the people, and should inspire us in our search for the democracy we want to live in.This book is of key interest to scholars and students in democracy, democratic innovations, deliberation, civic education and governance and further for policy-makers, civil society groups and activists. It encourages us to reshape democracy based on citizens'perspectives, aspirations and preferences.

In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario).

A contrarian yet highly engaging account of the spread of illiberal and anti-democratic sentiment throughout our culture that places responsibility on the citizens themselves. Over the past three decades, citizens of democracies who claim to value freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law have increasingly embraced illiberal politicians and platforms. Democracy is in trouble--but who is really to blame? In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves. Nichols traces the illiberalism of the 21st century to the growth of unchecked narcissism, rising standards of living, global peace, and a resistance to change. Ordinary citizens, laden with grievances, have joined forces with political entrepreneurs who thrive on the creation of rage rather than on the encouragement of civic virtue and democratic cooperation. While it will be difficult, Nichols argues that we need to defend democracy by resurrecting the virtues of altruism, compromise, stoicism, and cooperation--and by recognizing how good we've actually had it in the modern world. Trenchant, contrarian, and highly engaging, Our Own Worst Enemy reframes the debate about how democracies have ended up in this dire state of affairs and what to do about it.

The Routledge Handbook of IIliberalism is the first authoritative reference work dedicated to illiberalism as a complex social, political, cultural, legal, and mental phenomenon.Although illiberalism is most often discussed in political and constitutional terms, its study cannot be limited to such narrow frames. This Handbook comprises sixty individual chapters authored by an internationally recognized group of experts who present perspectives and viewpoints from a wide range of academic disciplines. Chapters are devoted to different facets of illiberalism, including the history of the idea and its competitors, its implications for the economy, society, government and the international order, and its contemporary iterations in representative countries and regions.The Routledge Handbook of IIliberalism will form an important component of any library's holding; it will be of benefit as an academic reference, as well as being an indispensable resource for practitioners, among them journalists, policy makers and analysts, who wish to gain an informed understanding of this complex phenomenon.

Scholars widely agree that a federal system cannot work effectively without democracy. As a result of the division or sharing of powers between levels of government, there remains considerable uncertainty about how rules or patterns of politics between the executive and legislative branches interact. Combining theoretical analyses and selected case studies, Federal Democracies at Work contributes to our understanding of the complex relations between federalism and democracy. Throughout the volume, contributing authors elaborate and apply an innovative analytical framework to provide greater clarity on the complex relations between federalism and democracy. As a whole, the volume explores how different institutional configurations of federal democracies alleviate or intensify inherent tensions; how actors grapple and cope with the challenge of these complexities; and how structures evolve as a result of rising conflicts and institutional reforms or adjustments. In doing so, Federal Democracies at Work advances research on comparative federalism and works toward a better understanding of how these compound systems work.

Siamo entrati in una nuova era del dibattito pubblico caratterizzata da una crescente'disintermediazione'della politica, una proliferazione delle opportunità comunicative e una distribuzione del potere e della visibilità supportate anche dalla diffusione di internet. Il dibattito pubblico è quindi sempre più frutto di una sorta di collage nel quale confluiscono voci e posizioni autorevoli e ufficiali, voci dell'opposizione, voci minoritarie che chiedono rappresentanza, voci di cittadini scoraggiati o indispettiti, voci di troll di professione che cercano di aumentare il volume del rumore. È in questo scenario che vediamo emergere fenomeni come l'inciviltà, la disinformazione e la polarizzazione che sembrano rendere il clima sociale e politico più tossico. Gli autori mostrano, però, come si tratti di'sintomi'della trasformazione del dibattito pubblico e non di'cause'che ne determinano il deterioramento e come il dibattito pubblico sia ancora vivo e abbia un futuro, seppure con tratti profondamente diversi da quelli del passato.

Democracy is not easy. Citizens who disagree sharply about politics must nonetheless work together as equal partners in the enterprise of collective self-government. Ideally, this work would be conducted under conditions of mutual civility, with opposed citizens nonetheless recognizing one another's standing as political equals. But when the political stakes are high, and the opposition seems to us severely mistaken, why not drop the democratic pretences of civil partnership, and simply play to win? Why seek to uphold properly democratic relations with those who embrace political ideas that are flawed, irresponsible, and out of step with justice? Why sustain democracy with political foes? Drawing on extensive social science research concerning political polarization and partisan identity, Robert B. Talisse argues that when we break off civil interactions with our political opponents, we imperil relations with our political allies. In the absence of engagement with our political critics, our alliances grow increasingly homogeneous, conformist, and hierarchical. Moreover, they fracture and devolve amidst internal conflicts. In the end, our political aims suffer because our coalitions shrink and grow ineffective. Why sustain democracy with our foes? Because we need them if we are going to sustain democracy with our allies and friends.

Qui est le plus à même de prendre des décisions politiques? Quel doit être le rôle des élus, des experts et du peuple en démocratie? À quels acteurs, processus et niveaux de pouvoir les citoyens font-ils davantage confiance? Au coeur de ces interrogations se niche le concept de légitimité qui mérite d'autant plus d'être questionné que nos démocraties sont sous tensions. Cet ouvrage collectif de sciences politiques et sociales ambitionne d'aider à comprendre l'actualité de nos démocraties.