Rational Foundations Of Democratic Politics

Author : Albert Breton
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781139440486
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Rational Foundations of Democratic Politics written by Albert Breton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-15 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is widely accepted today, perhaps as never before, as the most suitable form of government. But what is democracy, and does it always produce good government? Democracy is often associated with the existence of competitive elections. But theory and experience suggest that these are not sufficient for democracy to function reasonably well. In this book, which was originally published in 2003, a number of experts from North America and Europe use a rational choice approach to understand the 'foundations' of democracy - what makes democracy successful, and why. In doing so, they consider diverse problems of democratic governance such as the importance of morals or virtue in political life, negative advertising, the role of social capital and civil society in sustaining democracy, the constitutional and cultural prerequisites of democracy, and the interaction of democracy and markets.

Author : Ian Shapiro
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300189753
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Moral Foundations of Politics written by Ian Shapiro and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When do governments merit our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? Ian Shapiro explores this most enduring of political dilemmas in this innovative and engaging book. Building on his highly popular Yale courses, Professor Shapiro evaluates the main contending accounts of the sources of political legitimacy. Starting with theorists of the Enlightenment, he examines the arguments put forward by utilitarians, Marxists, and theorists of the social contract. Next he turns to the anti-Enlightenment tradition that stretches from Edmund Burke to contemporary post-modernists. In the last part of the book Shapiro examines partisans and critics of democracy from Plato’s time until our own. He concludes with an assessment of democracy’s strengths and limitations as the font of political legitimacy. The book offers a lucid and accessible introduction to urgent ongoing conversations about the sources of political allegiance.

Author : Irwin Lester Morris
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804745840
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Politics from Anarchy to Democracy written by Irwin Lester Morris and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the study of politics dates to ancient Greece, the basic questions that interested those earliest political scientists still linger with us today: What are the origins of government? What should government do? What conditions foster effective governance? Rational choice theory offers a new means for developing correctable answers to these questions. This volume illustrates the promise of rational choice theory and demonstrates how theory can help us develop interesting, fresh conclusions about the fundamental processes of politics. Each of the book’s three sections begins with a pedagogical overview that is accessible to those with little knowledge of rational choice theory. The first group of essays then discusses various ways in which rational choice contributes to our understanding of the foundations of government. The second set focuses on the contributions of rational choice theory to institutional analysis. The final group demonstrates ways in which rational choice theory helps to understand the character of popular government.

Author : Joe Oppenheimer
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107014883
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Principles of Politics written by Joe Oppenheimer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-30 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the rational choice theories of collective action and social choice, applying them to problems of public policy and social justice. Joe Oppenheimer has crafted a basic survey of, and pedagogic guide to, the findings of public choice theory for political scientists. He describes the problems of collective action, institutional structures, regime change, and political leadership.

Author : H.R.G. Greaves
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000519511
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Foundations of Political Theory written by H.R.G. Greaves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1958, The Foundations of Political Theory strives to answer essential questions of politics by studying its foundations. In this book, Mr. Greaves treats the state as only one among several associations whose function is to promote entirely human ends. He tries to reinterpret such ideas as ‘self-realization’ and the ‘good life’ in ways acceptable to students of contemporary philosophy, who reject the theological and metaphysical doctrines these ideas have been tied to in the past. He insists that men get their moral standards and their ideas about what makes life worth living by reflecting on their experience; that there are no ultimate and self-evident moral principles. While admitting that moral standards are subjective in the sense that we cannot explain how men come to have them except by showing how they serve their needs, he refuses to allow that rational argument about them is therefore impossible. Since men are rational, since they have purposes and ideals and not merely desires, and since they know that to realize these purposes they must live with others, there are moral standards acceptable to all men when their function is understood.

Author : Thomas A. Spragens
Publisher : Duke University Press Books
ISBN 13 : 9780822310501
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Reason and Democracy written by Thomas A. Spragens and published by Duke University Press Books. This book was released on 1990-07-20 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reason and Democracy breaks new ground in providing a plausible philosophical basis for the communitarian view of a healthy democracy as the rational pursuit of common purposes by free and equal citizens. Thomas A. Spragens Jr. argues that the most persistent paradigms of Western political rationality originated in classical philosophy, took their modern expression in the philosophies of Kant and Mill, and terminated in Max Weber’s pairing of purely technical rationality with arbitrary ends. Drawing on recent work in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of language, combined with appropriate analogies in political thought and action, Spragens maintains that it is possible to discern the outlines of a philosophically cogent and morally beneficial concept of rational practice on the part of a political community. This possibility, he contends, provides a philosophical basis for liberal democratic politics that is superior to utilitarian and deontological accounts.

Author : Jürg Steiner
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107015030
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Foundations of Deliberative Democracy written by Jürg Steiner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-21 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the interplay between the normative and empirical aspects of the deliberative model of democracy.

Author : Albert Breton
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521804417
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Political Extremism and Rationality written by Albert Breton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-01-07 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political extremism is widely considered to be the product of irrational behavior. The distinguishing feature of this collection by well-known economists and political scientists from North America, Europe and Australia is to propose a variety of explanations which all insist on the rationality of extremism. Contributors use variants of this approach to shed light on subjects such as the conditions under which democratic parties take extremist positions, the relationship between extremism and conformism, the strategies adopted by revolutionary movements, and the reasons why extremism often leads to violence. The authors identify four core issues in the study of the phenomenon: the nature (definition) of extremism and its origins in both democratic and authoritarian settings, the capacity of democratic political systems to accommodate extremist positions, the strategies (civil disobedience, assassination, lynching) chosen by extremist groups, and the circumstances under which extremism becomes a threat to democracy.

Author : James L. Hyland
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780719039416
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.1X/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Democratic Theory written by James L. Hyland and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this philosophically sophisticated textbook analysis of democracy, J. L. Hyland explores in depth the concept which has come to reign supreme in the pantheon of political ideas. He examines systematically the major topics and problems of democratic theory: the nature of democracy, majoritarianism, democracy and individual freedom, power and the relationship between socioeconomic factors and political equality. In assessing the work of the major democratic theorists, whose accounts frequently conflict, the author seeks to answer the central questions surrounding the subject: What is democracy? What values does it provide? Can democracy fulfil its promise, or is it an unachievable goal to which we merely pay lip-service? Is democracy always justified? What are the counter-democratic features of modern society?

Author : Anthony C. Patton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781628941685
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Political Spectrum written by Anthony C. Patton and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Political Spectrum' sets out to identify the timeless, universal principles of political philosophy that shape how we live as a society, from democracy in Ancient Greece and the aristocracies of the Enlightenment to the tribal lands of Pakistan and the modern state that is the United States of America.Unlike most political philosophies that rest on traditional foundations such as rights, private property, or human nature, The Political Spectrum focuses on the fundamental ideas dividing the left and the right today to identify a rational middle ground.Tracing the most insightful ideas from great thinkers in the Western tradition, The Political Spectrum identifies two fundamental institutions that all societies must manage in a rational way in order to survive.Along the way, the book explores the tension between liberty and the individual's duty to society and the proper roles of family and state. Basing the analysis on the four pillars of political philosophy--human nature, institutions, wealth, and justice--The Political Spectrum offers a vision for resolving the political divide in a way that promotes liberty and prosperity.