Hope for Democracy

Hope for Democracy PDF

Author: John Gastil

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-12-20

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190084553

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Concerned citizens across the globe fear that democratic institutions are failing them. Citizens feel shut out of politics and worry that politicians are no longer responsive to their interests. In Hope for Democracy, John Gastil and Katherine R. Knobloch introduce new tools for tamping down hyper-partisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process. They showcase the Citizens' Initiative Review, which convenes a demographically-balanced random sample of citizens to study statewide ballot measures. Citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts, then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters. Gastil and Knobloch reveal how this process has helped voters better understand the policy issues placed on their ballots. Placed in the larger context of deliberative democratic reforms, Hope for Democracy shows how citizens and public officials can work together to bring more rationality and empathy into modern politics.

Hope for Democracy

Hope for Democracy PDF

Author: John Gastil

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190084529

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Hope for Democracy recognizes the primary problems that plague contemporary democracy and offers a solution. It tells the story of one civic innovation, the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR), which asks a small group of citizens to analyze a ballot measure and then provide recommendations on that measure for the public to use when voting. It relies on narratives of the civic reformers who developed and implemented the CIR and the citizens who participated inthe initial review. Coupled with extensive research, the book uses these stories to describe how the review came into being and what impacts it has on participants and the public.

Prometheus Wired

Prometheus Wired PDF

Author: Darin Barney

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0774842164

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In Prometheus Wired, Darin Barney debunks claims that a networked society will provide the infrastructure for a political revolution and shows that the resources we need for understanding and making sound judgments about this new technology are surprisingly close at hand. By looking to thinkers who grappled with the relationship of society and technology, such as Plato, Aristotle, Marx, and Heidegger, Barney critically examines such assertions about the character of digital networks.

Learning How to Hope

Learning How to Hope PDF

Author: Sarah M. Stitzlein

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0190062657

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Democracy is struggling in America. Citizens increasingly feel cynical about an intractable political system, while hyper-partisanship has dramatically shrank common ground and intensified the extremes. Out of this deepening sense of political despair, philosopher of education Sarah M. Stitzlein seeks to revive democracy by teaching citizens how to hope. Offering an informed call to citizen engagement, Stitzlein directly addresses presidential campaigns, including how to select candidates who support citizens in enacting and sustaining hope. Drawing on examples from American history and pragmatist philosophy, this book explains how hope can be cultivated in schools and sustained through action in our communities -- it describes what hope is, why it matters to democracy, and how to teach it. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Two Cheers for Politics

Two Cheers for Politics PDF

Author: Jedediah Purdy

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 154167300X

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One of the country’s most astute legal scholars explains how American political culture disempowers ordinary citizens and makes the case for a reinvigorated democracy Americans across the political spectrum agree that our democracy is in crisis. We view our political opponents with disdain, if not terror, and an increasing number of us are willing to consider authoritarian alternatives. In Two Cheers for Politics, Jedediah Purdy argues that this heated political culture is a symptom not of too much democracy but too little. Today, the decisions that most affect our lives and our communities are often made outside the political realm entirely, as market ideology, constitutional law, and cultural norms effectively remove broad swaths of collective life from the table of collective decision. The result is a weakened and ineffective political system and an increasingly unequal and polarized society. If we wish to renew that society, we’ll need to claw back the ground that we’ve ceded to anti-politics and entrust one another with the power to shape our common life.

Days of Hope

Days of Hope PDF

Author: Patricia Sullivan

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2014-11-18

Total Pages: 646

ISBN-13: 0807864897

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In the 1930s and 1940s, a loose alliance of blacks and whites, individuals and organizations, came together to offer a radical alternative to southern conservative politics. In Days of Hope, Patricia Sullivan traces the rise and fall of this movement. Using oral interviews with participants in this movement as well as documentary sources, she demonstrates that the New Deal era inspired a coalition of liberals, black activists, labor organizers, and Communist Party workers who sought to secure the New Deal's social and economic reforms by broadening the base of political participation in the South. From its origins in a nationwide campaign to abolish the poll tax, the initiative to expand democracy in the South developed into a regional drive to register voters and elect liberals to Congress. The NAACP, the CIO Political Action Committee, and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare coordinated this effort, which combined local activism with national strategic planning. Although it dramatically increased black voter registration and led to some electoral successes, the movement ultimately faltered, according to Sullivan, because the anti-Communist fervor of the Cold War and a militant backlash from segregationists fractured the coalition and marginalized southern radicals. Nevertheless, the story of this campaign invites a fuller consideration of the possibilities and constraints that have shaped the struggle for racial democracy in America since the 1930s.

Democracy and Globalization

Democracy and Globalization PDF

Author: Josep M. Colomer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-06-02

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1000053636

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As democracy is disrupted by globalization, the solution is to globalize democracy. This book explores the causes of the current crisis of democracy and advocates new ways for more representative, effective, and accountable governance in an interdependent world. Part 1 analyzes the split of the middle class and the subsequent political polarization which underlies people’s dissatisfaction with the way democracy works in developed countries. It also addresses the role of political emotions, including disappointments about unmet expectations, anger incited from opposition candidates, fear induced from government, and hope wrapping up new proposals for reform and change. In Part 2, the authors argue that a more effective governance would require reallocations of power at local, national, continental and global levels with innovative combinations of direct democracy, representative government, and rule by experts. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, comparative politics, international relations, political economy and democratic theory, as well as general readers interested in politics and current events.

Dare to Hope

Dare to Hope PDF

Author: Jason West

Publisher: Miramax

Published: 2005-08-24

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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From a passionate new voice in American politics comes a clear-eyed vision for fixing the nation's moribund democracy.

The Politics of Hope

The Politics of Hope PDF

Author: Donna Zajonc

Publisher: BookPros, LLC

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 9780974764481

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[i]The Politics of Hope[/i] presents cogent research on human potential and leadership against the backdrop of an insider's political war stories. The result is a clear picture of American democracy as an exciting four-step evolutionary process that mirrors the macrocosm of the evolution of all humanity. That the scope of our world has narrowed due to rapid and chaotic social change brought on by the Internet and other global communication technologies, is a fact not lost on Zajonc. [i]The Politics of Hope[/i] is a call to action for American citizens, recognizing that to revive the dream of democracy worldwide, our nation must set the stage for political greatness on a global scale.

Where Hope Takes Root

Where Hope Takes Root PDF

Author: Aga Khan IV

Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre Limited

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 9781553653660

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In Where Hope Takes Root, the Aga Khan sets out the principles that inform his vision. Democracy, he says, must be nurtured in ways that are practical and flexible. Pluralism must be embraced, so that it exists both in fact and in spirit. A diverse, engaged civil society will advance these values. Education is also a critical component, not only in developing countries but in the West. Until the Western world acquires a deeper knowledge of Muslim civilizations, His Highness asserts, no truly meaningful dialogue can take place. In a world too often divided along economic, political, ethnic and religious lines, the Aga Khan's words are welcome. Eloquent, inspiring and deeply challenging, they express the hope - and the conviction - that profound change is possible.