The Real World of Democratic Theory

The Real World of Democratic Theory PDF

Author: Ian Shapiro

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2010-11-22

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1400836832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this book Ian Shapiro develops and extends arguments that have established him as one of today's leading democratic theorists. Shapiro is hardheaded about the realities of politics and power, and the difficulties of fighting injustice and oppression. Yet he makes a compelling case that democracy's legitimacy depends on pressing it into the service of resisting domination, and that democratic theorists must rise to the occasion of fashioning the necessary tools. That vital agenda motivates the arguments of this book. Tracing modern democracy's roots to John Locke and the American founders, Shapiro shows that they saw more deeply into the dynamics of democratic politics than have many of their successors. Drawing on Lockean and Madisonian insights, Shapiro evaluates democracy's changing global fortunes over the past two decades. He also shows how elusive democracy can be by exploring the contrast between its successful establishment in South Africa and its failures elsewhere--particularly the Middle East. Shapiro spells out the implications of his account for long-standing debates about public opinion, judicial review, abortion, and inherited wealth--as well as more recent preoccupations with globalization, national security, and international terrorism. Scholars, students, and democratic activists will all learn from Shapiro's trenchant account of democracy's foundations, its history, and its contemporary challenges. They will also find his distinctive democratic vision both illuminating and appealing.

Reconstructing the Third Wave of Democracy

Reconstructing the Third Wave of Democracy PDF

Author: Rita Kiki Edozie

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0761841415

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Since the 1990s, trends in African politics require the realization that the public policy practice and the theoretical analysis of 'democracy and democratization' are becoming increasingly important tenets for understanding the contemporary political science of the region. Reconstructing the Third Wave of Democracy explains these new political processes and ideas. Author Rita Kiki Edozie identifies factors that Africans have encountered since the foundation of the modern African state and presents a critical analysis of African politics through the lenses of post-colonial discourse by uniquely employing the ideas of democratic theory to guide an analysis of the Continent's democratic development and performance. Edozie presents an intra-regional comparative analysis of democratic politics in Africa in ways that few books on the same subject do for the continent. Her methodology for examining democracy in Africa reveals the dynamism of several country cases and several more regime experiences with democracy encountered from the post-World War II period to the current post-Cold War period.

The African National Congress and Participatory Democracy

The African National Congress and Participatory Democracy PDF

Author: Heidi Brooks

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-08-15

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 3030257444

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book examines the development of democratic thought in the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, with a focus on the movement’s ideas about participatory democracy. It makes particular reference to two key periods: the 1980s ‘people’s power’ movement and the subsequent years of policy formulation from 1990 when the ANC began to design and implement a system of participatory democracy alongside a representative government. Through the examination of historic documents and in-depth interviews with former ANC activists, government officials and those involved in policy development, the author explores the inspiration for the party’s commitment to establishing participatory democracy. The book combines democratic theory and political and intellectual history to look at the role of popular participation as part of a broader trajectory of the ANC’s democratic thought. It critically engages with concepts used in the party’s participatory discourse with a view to deepening our understanding of how ideas have shaped the construction of South Africa’s democracy.

Democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa PDF

Author: Nic Cheeseman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1316239489

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes