Democracy And The Rule Of Law

Author : Adam Przeworski
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521532662
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Democracy and the Rule of Law written by Adam Przeworski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-07-21 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the question of why governments sometimes follow the law and other times choose to evade the law. The traditional answer of jurists has been that laws have an autonomous causal efficacy: law rules when actions follow anterior norms; the relation between laws and actions is one of obedience, obligation, or compliance. Contrary to this conception, the authors defend a positive interpretation where the rule of law results from the strategic choices of relevant actors. Rule of law is just one possible outcome in which political actors process their conflicts using whatever resources they can muster: only when these actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to la, does law rule. What distinguishes 'rule-of-law' as an institutional equilibrium from 'rule-by-law' is the distribution of power. The former emerges when no one group is strong enough to dominate the others and when the many use institutions to promote their interest.

Author : Guillermo O'Donnell
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN 13 : 0268160678
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Quality of Democracy written by Guillermo O'Donnell and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1996, Guillermo O’Donnell taught a seminar at the University of Notre Dame on democratic theory. One of the questions explored in this class was whether it is possible to define and determine the “quality” of democracy. Jorge Vargas Cullell, a student in this course, returned to his native country of Costa Rica, formed a small research team, and secured funding for undertaking a “citizen audit” of the quality of democracy in Costa Rica. This pathbreaking volume contains O’Donnell’s qualitative theoretical study of the quality of democracy and Vargas Cullell’s description and analysis of the empirical data he gathered on the quality of democracy in Costa Rica. It also includes twelve short, scholarly reflections on the O’Donnell and Cullell essays. The primary goal of this collection is to present the rationale and methodology for implementing a citizen audit of democracy. This book is an expression of a growing concern among policy experts and academics that the recent emergence of numerous democratic regimes, particularly in Latin America, cannot conceal the sobering fact that the efficacy and impact of these new governments vary widely. These variations, which range from acceptable to dismal, have serious consequences for the people of Latin America, many of whom have received few if any benefits from democratization. Attempts to gauge the quality of particular democracies are therefore not only fascinating intellectual exercises but may also be useful practical guides for improving both old and new democracies. This book will make important strides in addressing the increasing practical and academic concerns about the quality of democracy. It will be required reading for political scientists, policy analysts, and Latin Americanists.

Author : A. James McAdams
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies written by A. James McAdams and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first focused study on the relationship between the use of national courts to pursue retrospective justice and the construction of viable democracies. Included in this interdisciplinary volume are fascinating, detailed essays on the experiences of eight countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and South Africa. According to the contributors, the most important lesson for leaders of new democracies, who are wrestling with the human rights abuses of past dictatorships, is that they have many options. Democratizing regimes are well-advised to be attentive to the significant political, ethical, and legal constraints that may limit their ability to achieve retribution for past wrongs. On prudential ground alone, some fledgling regimes will have no choice but to restrain their desire for punishment in the interest of political survival. However, it would be incorrect to think that all new democracies are therefore bereft of the political and legal resources needed to bring the perpetrators of egregious human rights violations to justice. In many instances, governments have overcome the obstacles before them and, by appealing to both national and international legal standards, have brought their former dictators to trial. When these judicial proceedings have been properly conducted and insulated from partisan political pressures, they have provided tangible evidence of the guiding principles-equality, fairness, and the rule of law-that are essential to the post-authoritarian order. This collection shows that the quest for transitional justice has amounted to something more than merely a break with the past--it constitutes a formative act which directly affects the quality and credibility of democratic institutions.

Author : Wojciech Sadurski
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402038429
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law? written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-07-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The accession of eight post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (and also of Malta and Cyprus) to the European Union in 2004 has been heralded as perhaps the most important development in the history of European integration so far. While the impact of the enlargement on the constitutional structures and practices of the EU has already generated a rich scholarly literature, the influence of the accession on constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law among the new member states has been largely ignored. This book fills this gap, and addresses the question of the consequences of the "external force" of European enlargement upon the understanding and practice of democracy and the rule of law and among both the main legal-political actors and the general public in the new member-states. A number of leading legal scholars, sociologists and political scientists, both from Central and Eastern Europe and from outside, address these issues in a systematic and critical way. Taken together, these essays help answer a fundamental question: does the European Union have the potential of promoting and consolidate democracy and human rights?

Author : Cristina Nicolescu-Waggonner
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 1438462638
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book No Rule of Law, No Democracy written by Cristina Nicolescu-Waggonner and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2016-11-10 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that new democracies face consolidation challenges due to campaign finance corruption and the unwillingness of politicians to reform rule of law enforcement. Mainstream theories assert that democracy cures corruption. In market economies, however, elections are expensive and parties, with ever-thinning memberships, cannot legally acquire the necessary campaign funds. In order to secure electoral funds, a large number of politicians misappropriate public funds. Due to the illicit character of these transactions, high officials with conflicts of interest prefer to leave anticorruption enforcement mechanisms unreformed and reserve the right to intervene in the judicial process, with dire consequences for the rule of law. In No Rule of Law, No Democracy, Cristina Nicolescu-Waggonner demonstrates that when corrupt politicians are in power—true of nearly all new democracies—they will protect their office and fail to implement rule of law reforms. Consequently, these polities never reach a point where democracy could and would cure corruption. This dysfunction is tested in one hundred cases over sixteen years with significant results. In the case of the Czech Republic, for example, which is regarded as a consolidated democracy, there is systematic corruption, misappropriation of state funds, an unreformed judiciary, and arbitrary application of law. The only solution is a powerful, independent, well-funded anticorruption agency. Romania, one of the most corrupt countries in Europe, established, at the European Union’s request, powerful anticorruption bodies and punished corrupt leaders, which created the predictability of enforcement. It is the certainty of punishment that curtails corruption and establishes true rule of law.

Author : Leonardo Morlino
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004181695
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Rule of Law and Democracy written by Leonardo Morlino and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a reappraisal of rule of law and democracy the contributors provide for a fresh set of inquiries, from the State, consolidated and transitional democracies, to interstate, European and global scenarios. They converge in tackling empirical and normative questions, and suggest further connections between rule of law and democracy.

Author : Rebecca Bill Chavez
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804748124
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Rule of Law in Nascent Democracies written by Rebecca Bill Chavez and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how the rule of law emerges and how it survives in nascent democracies. The question of how nascent democracies construct and fortify the rule of law is fundamentally about power. By focusing on judicial autonomy, a key component of the rule of law, this book demonstrates that the fragmentation of political power is a necessary condition for the rule of law. In particular, it shows how party competition sets the stage for independent courts. Using case studies of Argentina at the national level and of two neighboring Argentine provinces, San Luis and Mendoza, this book also addresses patterns of power in the economic and societal realms. The distribution of economic resources among members of a divided elite fosters competitive politics and is therefore one path to the requisite political fragmentation. Where institutional power and economic power converge, a reform coalition of civil society actors can overcome monopolies in the political realm.

Author : Enrique Peruzzotti
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822972883
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Enforcing the Rule of Law written by Enrique Peruzzotti and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2006-04-07 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling account of how civic and media-based initiatives have successfully fought for greater governmental accountability in the emerging democracies of Latin America.

Author : Keping Yu
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004190317
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Democracy and the Rule of Law in China written by Keping Yu and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-05-20 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy and the Rule of Law in China is intended to make available to English-language readers debates among prominent Chinese intellectuals and academics over issues of political, constitutional, and legal reform; modes of governance in urban and rural China; and culture and cultural policy. The writers included in this book are individuals whose views have drawn some attention in the formulation of party and government policy, including the editor, Yu Keping, a prominent party intellectual, vice-director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau.

Author : Edward M. Harris
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199899169
Total Pages : 488 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Rule of Law in Action in Democratic Athens written by Edward M. Harris and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Law in Action in Democratic Athens is the first extensive study of the importance of the rule of law in Athenian democracy.