The Challenge of Democracy
Author: Kenneth Janda
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 9780495975939
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Approaching Democracy
Author: Larry Berman
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-03-30
Total Pages: 976
ISBN-13: 100034522X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims and the storming of the US Capitol to the rampage of COVID-19 and racial injustice, this book covers the foundations, institutions, and processes of "the great American experiment" with a clear and resonant theme: Democracy cannot be taken for granted, whether at home or internationally, and eternal vigilance (along with civic intelligence) is required to protect it. Approaching Democracy provides students with a framework to analyze the structure, process, and action of US government, institutions, and social movements. It also invites comparison with other countries. This globalizing perspective gives students an understanding of issues of governance and challenges to democracy here and elsewhere. At a moment of growing domestic terrorism, political hyper-partisanship, populism, identity politics, and governmental dysfunction, there is no better time to bring Approaching Democracy--a textbook based on Vaclav Havel’s powerful metaphor of democracy as an ideal and the American experiment as the closest approach to it--to a new generation of political science undergraduate students. NEW TO THE NINTH EDITION Two new authors, Nadia E. Brown and Sarah Allen Gershon, who bring refreshing intellectual and diverse perspectives to the text. Includes the tumultuous political context surrounding the Trump presidency, the 2020 elections, the 116th Congress, the Supreme Court, the COVID-19 crisis, and the fight for social and racial justice. Figures and tables reflect the latest available data and surveys. Two new features--Diversity and Democracy, highlighting the experiences of America’s diverse social groups and the role of identity politics—and Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter, assessing critical thinking skills. Critical contemporary events are explored throughout the book, including the attempted coup following the 2020 elections, the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, protests in American cities that come to the epicenter of America’s approach to democracy, the changes in the Supreme Court and the federal court system, the growth of LGBTQ+ legal rights, and the alteration in American Federalism. New and updated data on public attitudes toward police brutality, DACA, voter suppression, healthcare, and the global climate movement are also covered.
Keeping Democracy at Bay
Author: Suzanne Pepper
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 476
ISBN-13: 9780742508774
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis thoroughly researched study provides an invaluable account of Hong Kong's political evolution from its founding as a British colony to the present. Exploring the interplay between colonial, capitalist, communist, and democratic forces in shaping Hong Kong's political institutions and culture, Suzanne Pepper offers a fresh perspective on the territory's development and a gripping account of the transition from British to Chinese rule. The author carries her narrative forward through the lives of significant figures, capturing the personalities and issues central to understanding Hong Kong's political history. Bringing a balanced view to her often contentious subject, she places Hong Kong's current partisan debates between democrats and their opponents within the context of China's ongoing search for a viable political form. The book considers Beijing's increasing intervention in local affairs and focuses on the challenge for Hong Kong's democratic reformers in an environment where ultimate political power resides with the communist-led mainland government and its appointees.
Democracy and Political Ignorance
Author: Ilya Somin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2013-10-02
Total Pages: 277
ISBN-13: 0804789312
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.
The Challenge of Democracy: American Government in Global Politics, The Essentials
Author: Kenneth Janda
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Published: 2013-06-25
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781133602309
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTHE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IN GLOBAL POLITICS, THE ESSENTIALS introduces new co-author Debra Schildkraut to this stellar author team. This best-selling American government text is highly acclaimed for the non-ideological framework it uses to explore three themes: freedom, order, and equality as political values; the majoritarianism versus pluralism debate; and globalization’s effect on American politics. Using an easy to follow approach, with chapters and subheadings numbered and organized by learning outcomes, and a new end of chapter “Assessing Your Understanding” section where students can test their knowledge, the ninth edition provides a solution for teaching and assessing course learning outcomes. Extensively updated, this condensed edition includes new examples, figures, data, and current discussions. The authors include balanced coverage of Obama’s historical presidency and coverage and analysis of the 2012 presidential primary campaign and election. This ninth edition of THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY, THE ESSENTIALS is an abridged version of the twelfth edition of THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY. See “Features” for details. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
Democracies Divided
Author: Thomas Carothers
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2019-09-24
Total Pages: 298
ISBN-13: 081573722X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“A must-read for anyone concerned about the fate of contemporary democracies.”—Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die 2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Why divisions have deepened and what can be done to heal them As one part of the global democratic recession, severe political polarization is increasingly afflicting old and new democracies alike, producing the erosion of democratic norms and rising societal anger. This volume is the first book-length comparative analysis of this troubling global phenomenon, offering in-depth case studies of countries as wide-ranging and important as Brazil, India, Kenya, Poland, Turkey, and the United States. The case study authors are a diverse group of country and regional experts, each with deep local knowledge and experience. Democracies Divided identifies and examines the fissures that are dividing societies and the factors bringing polarization to a boil. In nearly every case under study, political entrepreneurs have exploited and exacerbated long-simmering divisions for their own purposes—in the process undermining the prospects for democratic consensus and productive governance. But this book is not simply a diagnosis of what has gone wrong. Each case study discusses actions that concerned citizens and organizations are taking to counter polarizing forces, whether through reforms to political parties, institutions, or the media. The book’s editors distill from the case studies a range of possible ways for restoring consensus and defeating polarization in the world’s democracies. Timely, rigorous, and accessible, this book is of compelling interest to civic activists, political actors, scholars, and ordinary citizens in societies beset by increasingly rancorous partisanship.
The Challenge of Democracy
Author: Kenneth Janda
Publisher:
Published: 2020
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 9780357025413
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Problem of Democracy
Author: Nancy Isenberg
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2020-04-14
Total Pages: 578
ISBN-13: 0525557520
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Told with authority and style. . . Crisply summarizing the Adamses' legacy, the authors stress principle over partisanship."--The Wall Street Journal How the father and son presidents foresaw the rise of the cult of personality and fought those who sought to abuse the weaknesses inherent in our democracy. Until now, no one has properly dissected the intertwined lives of the second and sixth (father and son) presidents. John and John Quincy Adams were brilliant, prickly politicians and arguably the most independently minded among leaders of the founding generation. Distrustful of blind allegiance to a political party, they brought a healthy skepticism of a brand-new system of government to the country's first 50 years. They were unpopular for their fears of the potential for demagoguery lurking in democracy, and--in a twist that predicted the turn of twenty-first century politics--they warned against, but were unable to stop, the seductive appeal of political celebrities Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. In a bold recasting of the Adamses' historical roles, The Problem of Democracy is a major critique of the ways in which their prophetic warnings have been systematically ignored over the centuries. It's also an intimate family drama that brings out the torment and personal hurt caused by the gritty conduct of early American politics. Burstein and Isenberg make sense of the presidents' somewhat iconoclastic, highly creative engagement with America's political and social realities. By taking the temperature of American democracy, from its heated origins through multiple upheavals, the authors reveal the dangers and weaknesses that have been present since the beginning. They provide a clear-eyed look at a decoy democracy that masks the reality of elite rule while remaining open, since the days of George Washington, to a very undemocratic result in the formation of a cult surrounding the person of an elected leader.
The Politics Industry
Author: Katherine M. Gehl
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Published: 2020-06-23
Total Pages: 316
ISBN-13: 1633699242
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLeading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.
The Challenge of Politics
Author: Neal Riemer
Publisher: CQ Press
Published: 2015-12-17
Total Pages: 791
ISBN-13: 1506323499
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Challenge of Politics introduces students to the fundamental questions of political science. With a distinctive normative approach that portrays politics as a potentially humanizing enterprise, authors Neal Riemer, Douglas W. Simon and Joseph Romance equip readers to recognize major forms of government, evaluate research findings, and understand how policy issues directly affect people’s lives. This comprehensive text balances classic and contemporary political theory with current events and empirical study. The Fifth Edition is fully revised to reflect recent national and international developments, including a new chapter on American Politics and Government.
