Crafting Constitutional Democracies

Author : Edward V. Schneier
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742530744
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crafting Constitutional Democracies written by Edward V. Schneier and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining the institutions of government through the lens of constitution-making, Crafting Constitutional Democracies provides a broad and insightful introduction to comparative politics. Drawn from a series of lectures given in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the drafting of the U.S. constitution, the book illustrates the problems faced by generations of founders, through numerous historic and contemporary examples. Both Indonesia in 1999 and the United States in 1789 faced the same basic issue: how to construct a central government for a large and diverse nation that allowed the majority of the people to govern themselves without intruding on the rights of minorities. What kinds of institutions make for 'good government'? What factors need to be considered in designing a government? Author Edward Schneier explores these questions through a rich variety of examples from both recent and historic transitions to democracy. Drawing frequently upon the arguments of the American Federalist Papers and more contemporary theories of democratization, Crafting Constitutional Democracies lucidly explores the key questions of how and why democracies succeed and fail. A concluding chapter on constitutional change and decline raises provocative and important questions about the lessons that citizens of the world's older democracies might take from the struggles of the new.

Author : Alfred Stepan
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 0801899427
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crafting State-Nations written by Alfred Stepan and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political wisdom holds that the political boundaries of a state necessarily coincide with a nation's perceived cultural boundaries. Today, the sociocultural diversity of many polities renders this understanding obsolete. This volume provides the framework for the state-nation, a new paradigm that addresses the need within democratic nations to accommodate distinct ethnic and cultural groups within a country while maintaining national political coherence. First introduced briefly in 1996 by Alfred Stepan and Juan J. Linz, the state-nation is a country with significant multicultural—even multinational—components that engenders strong identification and loyalty from its citizens. Here, Indian political scholar Yogendra Yadav joins Stepan and Linz to outline and develop the concept further. The core of the book documents how state-nation policies have helped craft multiple but complementary identities in India in contrast to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka, which contributed to polarized and warring identities. The authors support their argument with the results of some of the largest and most original surveys ever designed and employed for comparative political research. They include a chapter discussing why the U.S. constitutional model, often seen as the preferred template for all the world’s federations, would have been particularly inappropriate for crafting democracy in politically robust multinational countries such as India or Spain. To expand the repertoire of how even unitary states can respond to territorially concentrated minorities with some secessionist desires, the authors develop a revised theory of federacy and show how such a formula helped craft the recent peace agreement in Aceh, Indonesia. Empirically thorough and conceptually clear, Crafting State-Nations will have a substantial impact on the study of comparative political institutions and the conception and understanding of nationalism and democracy.

Author : Mark A. Graber
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190889004
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? written by Mark A. Graber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is the world facing a serious threat to the protection of constitutional democracy? There is a genuine debate about the meaning of the various political events that have, for many scholars and observers, generated a feeling of deep foreboding about our collective futures all over the world. Do these events represent simply the normal ebb and flow of political possibilities, or do they instead portend a more permanent move away from constitutional democracy that had been thought triumphant after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1989? Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? addresses these questions head-on: Are the forces weakening constitutional democracy around the world general or nation-specific? Why have some major democracies seemingly not experienced these problems? How can we as scholars and citizens think clearly about the ideas of "constitutional crisis" or "constitutional degeneration"? What are the impacts of forces such as globalization, immigration, income inequality, populism, nationalism, religious sectarianism? Bringing together leading scholars to engage critically with the crises facing constitutional democracies in the 21st century, these essays diagnose the causes of the present afflictions in regimes, regions, and across the globe, believing at this stage that diagnosis is of central importance - as Abraham Lincoln said in his "House Divided" speech, "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."

Author : Ray A. Moore
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195171761
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Partners for Democracy written by Ray A. Moore and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945 Emperor Hirohito signed Japan's unconditional surrender to the United States and its allies. Tackling a timely subject this work takes the controversial stand that the constitution of Japan was not imposed as a document of defeat.

Author : Giuseppe Di Palma
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520072146
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book To Craft Democracies written by Giuseppe Di Palma and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1990-11-05 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Giuseppe Di Palma's book could not be more timely, given the snowballing events that are gaining momentum in Eastern and Western Europe. . . . It represents a truly fresh look at the red-hot issue of transitions to democracy."—Joseph LaPalombara, Yale University

Author : Walter F. Murphy
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801884702
Total Pages : 588 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constitutional Democracy written by Walter F. Murphy and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description

Author : Frank I. Michelman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400823366
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Brennan and Democracy written by Frank I. Michelman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-17 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Brennan and Democracy, a leading thinker in U.S. constitutional law offers some powerful reflections on the idea of "constitutional democracy," a concept in which many have seen the makings of paradox. Here Frank Michelman explores the apparently conflicting commitments of a democratic governmental system where key aspects of such important social issues as affirmative action, campaign finance reform, and abortion rights are settled not by a legislative vote but by the decisions of unelected judges. Can we--or should we--embrace the values of democracy together with constitutionalism, judicial supervision, and the rule of law? To answer this question, Michelman calls into service the judicial career of Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, the country's model "activist" judge for the past forty years. Michelman draws on Brennan's record and writings to suggest how the Justice himself might have understood the judiciary's role in the simultaneous promotion of both democratic and constitutional government. The first chapter prompts us to reflect on how tough and delicate an act it is for the members of a society to attempt living together as a people devoted to self-government. The second chapter seeks to renew our appreciation for democratic liberal political ideals, and includes an extensive treatment of Brennan's judicial opinions, which places them in relation to opposing communitarian and libertarian positions. Michelman also draws on the views of two other prominent constitutional theorists, Robert Post and Ronald Dworkin, to build a provocative discussion of whether democracy is best conceived as a "procedural" or a "substantive" ideal.

Author : Todd A. Eisenstadt
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107168228
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constituents Before Assembly written by Todd A. Eisenstadt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When building democracy through new constitutions, the level of participation matters more than the content of the constitution itself. This book examines this theory.

Author : Alexander Hamilton
Publisher : DigiCat
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 502 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Federalist Papers (Including Declaration of Independence & United States Constitution) written by Alexander Hamilton and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-12-12 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Federalist Papers, originally written and published during 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers, intended to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution. They were widely read and respected for their masterly analysis and interpretation of the Constitution and constitutional principles upon which the government of the United States was established. This influential collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay remains to this day a treasured historical document for anyone who wants to understand the U.S. Constitution.

Author : Stephen Breyer
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307424618
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Active Liberty written by Stephen Breyer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitution’s primary role is to preserve and encourage what he calls “active liberty”: citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitution’s lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.