-PDF Download- The Shortest History Of Democracy EBOOK

The Shortest History of Democracy

Author: John Keane

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2023-01-12

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 9390742943

"Indispensable for understanding democracy today' Michael Schudson A bold new history of democracy from the popular assemblies of Syria-Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent to present-day challenges around the world. From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege, and why. For democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures. In this vigorous, illuminating history, acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces its byzantine history, from the age of assembly democracy in Athens, to European-inspired electoral democracy and the birth of representative government, to our age of monitory democracy. He gives new reasons why democracy is a precious global ideal, and shows that as the world has come to be shaped by democracy, it has grown more worldly. In today’s age of populist strongmen threatening democracy in India, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US and elsewhere, we need its radical potential more than ever. Does democracy have a future, or will the demagogues and despots win? We are about to find out."

The Life and Death of Democracy

Author: John Keane

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-06-01

Total Pages: 717

ISBN-13: 1847377602

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps? The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.

The Shortest History of Democracy: 4,000 Years of Self-Government - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)

Author: John Keane

Publisher: The Experiment, LLC

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1615198970

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The full chronological sweep of democracy, from the assemblies of ancient Mesopotamia and Athens to present perils around the globe. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. This compact history unspools the tumultuous global story that began with democracy’s radical core idea: We can collaborate, as equals, to determine our own futures. Acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces how this concept emerged and evolved, from the earliest “assembly democracies” in Syria-Mesopotamia to European-style “electoral democracy” and to our uncertain present. Today, thanks to our always-on communication channels, governments answer not only to voters on Election Day but to intense scrutiny every day. This is “monitory democracy”—in Keane’s view, the most complex and vibrant model yet—but it’s not invulnerable. Monitory democracy comes with its own pathologies, and the new despotism wields powerful warning systems, from social media to election monitoring, against democracy itself. At this urgent moment, when despots in countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia reject the promises of democratic power-sharing, Keane mounts a bold defense of a precious global ideal.

Democracy and Truth

Author: Sophia Rosenfeld

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2018-11-29

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0812250842

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"Fake news," wild conspiracy theories, misleading claims, doctored photos, lies peddled as facts, facts dismissed as lies—citizens of democracies increasingly inhabit a public sphere teeming with competing claims and counterclaims, with no institution or person possessing the authority to settle basic disputes in a definitive way. The problem may be novel in some of its details—including the role of today's political leaders, along with broadcast and digital media, in intensifying the epistemic anarchy—but the challenge of determining truth in a democratic world has a backstory. In this lively and illuminating book, historian Sophia Rosenfeld explores a longstanding and largely unspoken tension at the heart of democracy between the supposed wisdom of the crowd and the need for information to be vetted and evaluated by a learned elite made up of trusted experts. What we are witnessing now is the unraveling of the détente between these competing aspects of democratic culture. In four bracing chapters, Rosenfeld substantiates her claim by tracing the history of the vexed relationship between democracy and truth. She begins with an examination of the period prior to the eighteenth-century Age of Revolutions, where she uncovers the political and epistemological foundations of our democratic world. Subsequent chapters move from the Enlightenment to the rise of both populist and technocratic notions of democracy between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the troubling trends—including the collapse of social trust—that have led to the rise of our "post-truth" public life. Rosenfeld concludes by offering suggestions for how to defend the idea of truth against the forces that would undermine it.

The Shortest History of Democracy

Author: John Keane

Publisher: The Experiment

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781615198962

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In an age of intense social and political polarization, the radical potential of democracy is more important than ever, as revealed in this illuminating history by a celebrated political theorist. From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia and Athens to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervor in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege—and why. Democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures. In The Shortest History of Democracy, acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces its byzantine history, from the age of assembly democracy in the Middle East and Greece to European-inspired electoral democracy and the birth of representative government to our age of “monitory democracy”—a helpful concept the author introduces to describe how democratic governments today are under constant media-driven public scrutiny (monitoring) and held accountable by watchdog organizations of every stripe. Keane calls this “the most complex and vibrant form of democracy yet,” reaching far beyond just casting one’s vote on election day. Democracy today is defined by the rapid growth of many new kinds of extra-governmental watchdog mechanisms that reach into every aspect of public and private life—think investigative journalism, activism, strikes, election monitoring, climate action networks, public outcries against scandal and corruption. As the world has come to be shaped by democracy, it has grown more worldly; American-style liberal democracy is giving way to regional varieties in places such as Taiwan, India, Senegal, and South Africa. Meanwhile, despotic regimes in Turkey, Russia, Hungary, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and China reject the promises of power-sharing democracy. Keane gives new reasons why democracy is a precious global ideal, and how the voice and vote of the average citizen has multiplied through the proliferation of different power-checking outlets. In an age of crisis, he argues, we need the “radical potential of democracy” more than ever. Does democracy have a future, or will the demagogues and despots win? We are about to find out.

A Short History of American Democracy

Author: John Donald Hicks

Publisher:

Published: 1946

Total Pages: 870

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Shortest History of Europe: How Conquest, Culture, and Religion Forged a Continent - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History)

Author: James Hirst

Publisher: The Experiment, LLC

Published: 2022-11-08

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1615199152

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Uncover the decisive moments that shaped a world-changing continent. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. Celebrated historian John Hirst draws from his own lectures to deliver this ultra-accessible master class on the making of modern Europe, from Ancient Greece through World War II. With over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, this brief history is a global sensation propelled by a thesis of astonishing simplicity: Just three elements—German warfare, Greek and Roman culture, and Christianity—come together to explain everything else, from the Crusades to the Industrial Revolution. Hirst’s razor-sharp grasp of cause and effect helps us see with sparkling clarity how the history of Europe—the crucible of liberal democracy—shapes the way we live today.

The Confidence Trap

Author: David Runciman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-10-31

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0691178135

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Why democracies believe they can survive any crisis—and why that belief is so dangerous Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.

Democracy: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Bernard Crick

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2002-10-10

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0191577650

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

No political concept is more used, and misused, than that of democracy. Nearly every regime today claims to be democratic, but not all 'democracies' allow free politics, and free politics existed long before democratic franchises. This book is a short account of the history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, from ancient Greece and Rome through the American, French, and Russian revolutions, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Can Democracy Work?

Author: James Miller

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2018-09-18

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0374717249

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A new history of the world’s most embattled idea Today, democracy is the world’s only broadly accepted political system, and yet it has become synonymous with disappointment and crisis. How did it come to this? In Can Democracy Work? James Miller, the author of the classic history of 1960s protest Democracy Is in the Streets, offers a lively, surprising, and urgent history of the democratic idea from its first stirrings to the present. As he shows, democracy has always been rife with inner tensions. The ancient Greeks preferred to choose leaders by lottery and regarded elections as inherently corrupt and undemocratic. The French revolutionaries sought to incarnate the popular will, but many of them came to see the people as the enemy. And in the United States, the franchise would be extended to some even as it was taken from others. Amid the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century, communists, liberals, and nationalists all sought to claim the ideals of democracy for themselves—even as they manifestly failed to realize them. Ranging from the theaters of Athens to the tents of Occupy Wall Street, Can Democracy Work? is an entertaining and insightful guide to our most cherished—and vexed—ideal.