Micro Democracy

Micro Democracy PDF

Author: Aaron Ran

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Published: 2020-10-22

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1480894885

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Micro democracy is a scientific, revolutionary and executable total solution to implement true democracy, which maximizes social utility and social justice. Aaron Ran, a senior architect at IBM, is convinced that micro democracy can solve society’s most formidable challenges. In this book, he explains how modern information technology can help citizens participate directly in the decision-making of every public affair. Find out how we can use it to: • maximize the overall happiness of society as a whole; • curb the influence of special interest groups; • provide everyone with equal opportunities. Under micro democracy, relevant voters would participate in individual decisions—and voting rights could also be weighted on various factors. The system would allow the smallest units of a democratic society—citizens—to decide issues. Filled with theories, system designs, action plans, and insights on information technology, this book will help people build a better world based on social justice, efficiency, and quality.

Micro Democracy

Micro Democracy PDF

Author: Aaron Ran

Publisher: Xiao Song Ran

Published: 2020-07-04

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13:

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Micro democracy is a scientific, revolutionary and executable total solution to implement true democracy which maximizes social utility and social justice. Theories, system designs, action plans, roadmap are all in this book, for people to build a new world. It originated from the idea of direct democracy, and deeply optimized and reformed with the help of information technology. It achieves a perfect balance between social justice, decision-making efficiency, and quality. On this basis, a complete superstructure is established, including human rights, laws, and government. With it, people will be able to overthrow the existing political system entirely and create a governance platform that enables the self-evolution and peaceful development of civilization. In addition to theoretical analysis, this book also provides actionable implementation plans and roadmaps so that people can immediately begin to practice and create this new political system. Also, the book proposed a general quantitative model for the assessment of the democratic level of states and regimes, helping people to study the political characteristics of various countries objectively.

Against Democracy

Against Democracy PDF

Author: Jason Brennan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-09-26

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1400888395

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A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable.

Politics and Democracy in Microstates

Politics and Democracy in Microstates PDF

Author: Wouter Veenendaal

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1317646576

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Why are small states statistically more likely to have a democratic political system? By addressing this question from a qualitative and comparative methodological angle, this book analyses the effects of a small population size on political competition and participation. By comparing the four microstates of San Marino (Europe), St. Kitts and Nevis (Caribbean), Seychelles (Africa), and Palau (Oceania), it provides fresh and stimulating insight, concluding that the political dynamics of microstates are not as democratic as commonly believed. Instead, it is found in all four cases that smallness results in personalistic politics, dominance of the political executive, patron-client relations between citizens and politicians, and the circumvention of formal political institutions. In addition, the book suggests that the study of formal institutions provides an incomplete image of microstate democracy and that informal characteristics of politics in microstates also need to be explored in order to better explain the influence of smallness on democracy. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democracy, democratization, regional and decentralization studies and comparative politics.

Promoting Democracy

Promoting Democracy PDF

Author: Manal A. Jamal

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2019-08-20

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1479878456

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How Western donor assistance can both help and undermine democracy in different parts of the world Democracy promotion is a central pillar of the foreign policy of many states, but the results are often disappointing. In Promoting Democracy, Manal A. Jamal examines why these efforts succeed in some countries, but fail in others. A former journalist and researcher in the Palestinian territories, she offers an up-close perspective of the ways in which Western donor funding has, on one hand, undermined political participation in cases such as the Palestinian territories, and, on the other hand, succeeded in bolstering political engagement in cases such as El Salvador. Based on five fieldwork trips and over 150 interviews with grassroots activists, political leaders, and directors and program officers in donor agencies and NGOs, Jamal brings into focus an often-overlooked perspective: the experiences of those directly affected by this assistance. Promoting Democracy makes an important and timely argument about how political settlements ultimately shape democracy promotion efforts, and what political choices Western state sponsored donors can make to maximize successful outcomes in different contexts across the world.

Fragmented Democracy

Fragmented Democracy PDF

Author: Jamila Michener

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-22

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1108245323

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Medicaid is the single largest public health insurer in the United States, covering upwards of 70 million Americans. Crucially, Medicaid is also an intergovernmental program that yokes poverty to federalism: the federal government determines its broad contours, while states have tremendous discretion over how Medicaid is designed and implemented. Where some locales are generous and open handed, others are tight-fisted and punitive. In Fragmented Democracy, Jamila Michener demonstrates the consequences of such disparities for democratic citizenship. Unpacking how federalism transforms Medicaid beneficiaries' interpretations of government and structures their participation in politics, the book examines American democracy from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.

Big Data, Political Campaigning and the Law

Big Data, Political Campaigning and the Law PDF

Author: Normann Witzleb

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-12-06

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1000747395

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In this multidisciplinary book, experts from around the globe examine how data-driven political campaigning works, what challenges it poses for personal privacy and democracy, and how emerging practices should be regulated. The rise of big data analytics in the political process has triggered official investigations in many countries around the world, and become the subject of broad and intense debate. Political parties increasingly rely on data analytics to profile the electorate and to target specific voter groups with individualised messages based on their demographic attributes. Political micro-targeting has become a major factor in modern campaigning, because of its potential to influence opinions, to mobilise supporters and to get out votes. The book explores the legal, philosophical and political dimensions of big data analytics in the electoral process. It demonstrates that the unregulated use of big personal data for political purposes not only infringes voters’ privacy rights, but also has the potential to jeopardise the future of the democratic process, and proposes reforms to address the key regulatory and ethical questions arising from the mining, use and storage of massive amounts of voter data. Providing an interdisciplinary assessment of the use and regulation of big data in the political process, this book will appeal to scholars from law, political science, political philosophy and media studies, policy makers and anyone who cares about democracy in the age of data-driven political campaigning.

Politics and Democracy in Microstates

Politics and Democracy in Microstates PDF

Author: Wouter Veenendaal

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1317646584

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Why are small states statistically more likely to have a democratic political system? By addressing this question from a qualitative and comparative methodological angle, this book analyses the effects of a small population size on political competition and participation. By comparing the four microstates of San Marino (Europe), St. Kitts and Nevis (Caribbean), Seychelles (Africa), and Palau (Oceania), it provides fresh and stimulating insight, concluding that the political dynamics of microstates are not as democratic as commonly believed. Instead, it is found in all four cases that smallness results in personalistic politics, dominance of the political executive, patron-client relations between citizens and politicians, and the circumvention of formal political institutions. In addition, the book suggests that the study of formal institutions provides an incomplete image of microstate democracy and that informal characteristics of politics in microstates also need to be explored in order to better explain the influence of smallness on democracy. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democracy, democratization, regional and decentralization studies and comparative politics.

The UK's Changing Democracy

The UK's Changing Democracy PDF

Author: Patrick Dunleavy

Publisher: LSE Press

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 1909890464

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The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.