Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Author: Daron Acemoglu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9780521855266

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy. Different social groups prefer different political institutions because of the way they allocate political power and resources. Thus democracy is preferred by the majority of citizens, but opposed by elites. Dictatorship nevertheless is not stable when citizens can threaten social disorder and revolution. In response, when the costs of repression are sufficiently high and promises of concessions are not credible, elites may be forced to create democracy. By democratizing, elites credibly transfer political power to the citizens, ensuring social stability. Democracy consolidates when elites do not have strong incentive to overthrow it. These processes depend on (1) the strength of civil society, (2) the structure of political institutions, (3) the nature of political and economic crises, (4) the level of economic inequality, (5) the structure of the economy, and (6) the form and extent of globalization.


Money Talks

Money Talks

Author: Martin H. Redish

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2001-08

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 9780814775387

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Drawing together a number of articles he has written or co-written since 1990 and some original chapters, Redish (law and public policy, Northwestern U.) defends unlimited political contribution, advertising, and other forms by which the rich and powerful stay rich and powerful. Any restriction, he says, threatens First Amendment rights. c. Book News Inc.


Democracy Against Domination

Democracy Against Domination

Author: K. Sabeel Rahman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 019046853X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How do realize democratic values in a complex, deeply unequal modern economy and in the face of unresponsive governmental institutions? Drawing on Progressive Era thought and sparked by the real policy challenges of financial regulation, Democracy Against Domination offers a novel theory of democracy to answer these pressing questions.


Democracy and the Economy in Finland and Sweden since 1960

Democracy and the Economy in Finland and Sweden since 1960

Author: Ilkka Kärrylä

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 3030806316

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores the relationship between democracy and the economy in contemporary political thought and policy-making. Using the concepts of economic, industrial and enterprise democracy, the author focuses on the history of Finland and Sweden during the latter part of the twentieth century. The three concepts are discussed in relation to various political groups, such as social democrats, conservatives and liberals, and the reforms that they were associated with, painting a picture of changing economic thought in the Nordic countries, and the West more generally. Arguing that the concept of democracy has evolved from representative parliamentary democracy towards ‘participation’ in civil society, this book demonstrates how the ideal of individual freedom and choice has surpassed collective decision-making. These shared characteristics between Finland, Sweden and other Western countries challenge the view that the Nordic countries have been exceptional in resisting neoliberalism. In fact, as this book shows, neoliberalism has been influential to the Nordics since the 1970s. Offering an innovative and conceptual perspective on European political history, this book will appeal to scholars interested in Nordic political history and modern European history more generally.


A Preface to Democratic Theory

A Preface to Democratic Theory

Author: Robert A. Dahl

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1956

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9780226134260

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Robert Dahl's Preface helped launch democratic theory fifty years ago as a new area of study in political science, and it remains the standard introduction to the field. Exploring problems that had been left unsolved by traditional thought on democracy, Dahl here examines two influential models--the Madisonian, which represents prevailing American doctrine, and its recurring challenger, populist theory--arguing that they do not accurately portray how modern democracies operate. He then constructs a model more consistent with how contemporary democracies actually function, and, in doing so, develops some original views of popular sovereignty and the American constitutional system.


Economic Democracy

Economic Democracy

Author: Allan Engler

Publisher: Fernwood Books Limited

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 9781552663462

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Identifying capitalism as a system of socialized labour, privately owned capitalist collectives (corporations) and workplace (dictatorships), this book proposes economic democracy as an alternative form of organization. Unlike the capitalist system, which centralizes power with a small elite, economic democracy entitles everyone to a voice and equal vote in their communities' economic and political decisions. Workplace and community democracy will replace capitalist (corporate) dictatorship. Engler proposes that working-class change will be based on workplace organizations, community mobilizations and democratic political action; on gains and reforms that improve living conditions while methodically replacing wealthholders' entitlement with human entitlement, capitalist ownership with community ownership and master-servant relations with workplace democracy."--Publisher's website.


Goliath

Goliath

Author: Matt Stoller

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 1501182897

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Every thinking American must read” (The Washington Book Review) this startling and “insightful” (The New York Times) look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism has transformed American politics, and business. Going back to our country’s founding, Americans once had a coherent and clear understanding of political tyranny, one crafted by Thomas Jefferson and updated for the industrial age by Louis Brandeis. A concentration of power—whether by government or banks—was understood as autocratic and dangerous to individual liberty and democracy. In the 1930s, people observed that the Great Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of a few whose misuse of their power induced a financial collapse. They drew on this tradition to craft the New Deal. In Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has brought to the fore dangerous forces that many modern Americans never even knew existed. Today’s bitter recriminations and panic represent more than just fear of the future, they reflect a basic confusion about what is happening and the historical backstory that brought us to this moment. The true effects of populism, a shrinking middle class, and concentrated financial wealth are only just beginning to manifest themselves under the current administrations. The lessons of Stoller’s study will only grow more relevant as time passes. “An engaging call to arms,” (Kirkus Reviews) Stoller illustrates here in rich detail how we arrived at this tenuous moment, and the steps we must take to create a new democracy.


Power Diffusion and Democracy

Power Diffusion and Democracy

Author: Julian Bernauer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-05-16

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1108483380

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Presents a theoretically and methodologically sophisticated remapping and analysis of political-institutional power diffusion in democracies.