The Challenge of Sustaining Emergent Democracies
The Challenge of Sustaining Emergent Democracies

Author: Joseph Osei

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2009-07-24

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1469101017

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The recent political crises in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Georgia should alert all to the fact that the emergent democracies that mushroomed all over Africa and Eastern Europe at the end of the last century cannot be taken for granted. They face multiple obstacles including political manipulation, poverty, dependency, racism, ethnicism, religious extremism, short-sighted nationalism, fraud, and corruption of all types. Are these democracies sustainable? Were the skeptics right? Are the obstacles due to internal or external factors or both? Could democracy itself with its emphasis on freedom and self-determination cause ethnic conflicts? This book does not only identify and analyze the main obstacles but also argues that they can be overcome with thoughtful strategies. These include identifying the inherent strengths and weaknesses of democracy, contextualizing some democratic ideals and practices for developing economies, minimizing dependences, making religion an ally for fighting fraud, corruption, and for promoting peace and social transformation, and adopting a pro-democracy and pro-development philosophy of education. Rev Dr. Joseph Osei is Professor of Philosophy at Fayetteville State University, NC. His PHD in Philosophy is from The Ohio State University (1991), the M.A is from Ohio University (1986) and the B.A. in Philosophy & Religion is from The University of Ghana (1981). Osei is also a graduate of Trinity Theological Seminary (Legon) and an ordained minister of The Methodist Church, Ghana. He was born at Kokofu, Ashanti, Ghana in 1951 and is married to Victoria Osei. They have five kids: Lucy, Gina, Suzie, Miriam, and Emmanuel.

Governance, Democracy and Sustainable Development
Governance, Democracy and Sustainable Development

Author: James Meadowcroft

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1849807574

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ÔThe editors of this volume bring together an impressive cast of scholars on the critical relationship of democracy and governance in sustainable development. It offers an outstanding and timely contribution to the literatures in sustainability, political science, and comparative environmental politics.Õ Ð Daniel J. Fiorino, American University, US ÔThis very timely and important collection draws together some of the worldÕs leading thinkers on environment and development to debate one of the most important issues of our time: sustainable development. They very usefully remind us all that in order to be politically sustainable, the sustainability transition will have to find a way to maximise policy synergies in a democratically legitimate manner.Õ Ð Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK This insightful book deals with governance of the environment and sustainable development. The contributors explore the difficulties developed countries are experiencing in coming to terms with environmental limits and the resultant challenges to the democratic polity. They engage with different dimensions of the governance challenge including norms, public attitudes, citizen engagement, political conflict, policy design, and implementation, with a range of environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity/nature protection, and water management). The book concludes with an essay by William Lafferty that explores the flawed character of the contemporary democratic polity and offers his reflections on possible pathways to reform. This book will interest researchers, academics, and graduate students in environmental politics and public policy. It is ideal for use as supplementary reading in a wide range of university courses, while NGOS and policymakers will also find it of considerable value.

Listening to Ourselves
Listening to Ourselves

Author: Chike Jeffers

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2013-09-01

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1438447434

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Contemporary African philosophy in indigenous African languages and English translation. A groundbreaking contribution to the discipline of philosophy, this volume presents a collection of philosophical essays written in indigenous African languages by professional African philosophers with English translations on the facing pages—demonstrating the linguistic and conceptual resources of African languages for a distinctly African philosophy. Hailing from five different countries and writing in six different languages, the seven authors featured include some of the most prominent African philosophers of our time. They address a range of topics, including the nature of truth, different ways of conceiving time, the linguistic status of proverbs, how naming practices work, gender equality and inequality in traditional society, the relationship between language and thought, and the extent to which morality is universal or culturally variable.

The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies
The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies

Author: Ayelet Harel-Shalev

Publisher: Studies in Public Policy

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780739126844

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"Harel-Shalev's study is outstanding. Finally, a cogent and intelligent analysis of the myriad ways deeply divided societies maintain and negotiate democratic practices. This book will prove to be essential reading for anyone interested in the topics of identity politics, public policy, and democracy."---Rebecca Kook, Ben Gurion University --

Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy
Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy

Author: Isaac E. Ukpokolo

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-01-31

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 3319407961

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This volume provides the key to a deepened discourse on philosophy in Africa. Available literature and academic practice in African philosophy since the 1960s have largely featured discourses in the areas of origin, general meaning and nature of the discipline, with little attention given to specialized areas. By contrast, this book examines a noticeable shifting focus from such general concerns to more specific subject-matter, in such areas as epistemology, moral philosophy, metaphysics, aesthetics, and social and political philosophy in the light of the African experience. The volume includes specific discourses from expert contributors on the nature, history and scope of African ethics and metaphysics, while also discussing particular themes in African epistemology, philosophy of education, existentialism and political philosophy. Researchers seeking for new perspective on African philosophy will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa
Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan Africa

Author: Ufuoma Akpojivi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 3319753010

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This book examines the media reform processes and re-democratization projects of Ghana and Nigeria’s emerging democracies. It evaluates and critiques these reform processes, arguing that because of dependency approaches resulting from the transplanting of policy framework from the West into these emerging democracies, the policy goals and objectives of the reforms have not been achieved. Consequently, the inherent socio-cultural, economic and political factors, coupled with the historical antecedents of these countries, have also affected the reform process. Drawing from policy documents, analyses and interviews, Ufuoma Akpojivi argues that the lack of citizens’ active participation in policy processes has led to neo-liberalization and the continued universalization of Western ideologies such as democracy, media freedom and independence. Akpojivi posits that the recognition of socio-cultural, political and economic factors inherent to these emerging democracies, coupled with the communal participation of citizens, will facilitate true media reform processes and development of these countries.

Electing to Fight
Electing to Fight

Author: Edward D. Mansfield

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2007-01-26

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 026226384X

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Does the spread of democracy really contribute to international peace? Successive U. S. administrations have justified various policies intended to promote democracy not only by arguing that democracy is intrinsically good but by pointing to a wide range of research concluding that democracies rarely, if ever, go to war with one another. To promote democracy, the United States has provided economic assistance, political support, and technical advice to emerging democracies in Eastern and Central Europe, and it has attempted to remove undemocratic regimes through political pressure, economic sanctions, and military force. In Electing to Fight, Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder challenge the widely accepted basis of these policies by arguing that states in the early phases of transitions to democracy are more likely than other states to become involved in war. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative analysis, Mansfield and Snyder show that emerging democracies with weak political institutions are especially likely to go to war. Leaders of these countries attempt to rally support by invoking external threats and resorting to belligerent, nationalist rhetoric. Mansfield and Snyder point to this pattern in cases ranging from revolutionary France to contemporary Russia. Because the risk of a state's being involved in violent conflict is high until democracy is fully consolidated, Mansfield and Snyder argue, the best way to promote democracy is to begin by building the institutions that democracy requires—such as the rule of law—and only then encouraging mass political participation and elections. Readers will find this argument particularly relevant to prevailing concerns about the transitional government in Iraq. Electing to Fight also calls into question the wisdom of urging early elections elsewhere in the Islamic world and in China.

Sustaining Democracy
Sustaining Democracy

Author: Robert B. Talisse

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0197556477

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Democracy is not easy. Citizens who disagree sharply about politics must nonetheless work together as equal partners in the enterprise of collective self-government. Ideally, this work would be conducted under conditions of mutual civility, with opposed citizens nonetheless recognizing one another's standing as political equals. But when the political stakes are high, and the opposition seems to us severely mistaken, why not drop the democratic pretences of civil partnership, and simply play to win? Why seek to uphold properly democratic relations with those who embrace political ideas that are flawed, irresponsible, and out of step with justice? Why sustain democracy with political foes? Drawing on extensive social science research concerning political polarization and partisan identity, Robert B. Talisse argues that when we break off civil interactions with our political opponents, we imperil relations with our political allies. In the absence of engagement with our political critics, our alliances grow increasingly homogeneous, conformist, and hierarchical. Moreover, they fracture and devolve amidst internal conflicts. In the end, our political aims suffer because our coalitions shrink and grow ineffective. Why sustain democracy with our foes? Because we need them if we are going to sustain democracy with our allies and friends.

The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy
The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy

Author: Yoav Peled

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1134448937

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Ethnic democracy is a form of democratic ethnic conflict regulation in deeply divided societies. In The Challenge of Ethnic Democracy, Yoav Peled argues that ethnic democracy is constituted by the combination of two contradictory constitutional principles: liberal democracy and ethno-nationalism, and that its stability depends on the existence of a third, mediating constitutional principle of whatever kind. This central argument is supported by an analysis of the history of three ethnic democracies; Northern Ireland under Unionist rule, where ethnic democracy was stable for almost 50 years (1921-1969), then collapsed; The Second Polish republic (1918-1939), where ethnic democracy was written into the constitution but was never actualised; and Israel within its pre-1967 borders, where ethnic democracy was stable for 35 years (1966-2000) but may now be eroding. This book examines the different trajectories of the case studies, demonstrating that Poland lacked a third, mediating constitutional principle, while Israel and Northern Ireland did have such a principle – civic republicanism in Israel, and populism in Northern Ireland. The collapse of ethnic democracy in Northern Ireland resulted from the weakening of populism, that depended on British monetary subsidies for its implementation, whilst the erosion of ethnic democracy in Israel resulted from the decline of civic republicanism since the onset of economic liberalization in 1985. Dealing with ethnic democracy in a comparative framework, this book will appeal to students, scholars and researchers of Sociology, Political Science and Middle East Studies.