Representative Democracy

Author : Nadia Urbinati
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226842800
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Representative Democracy written by Nadia Urbinati and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is usually held that representative government is not strictly democratic, since it does not allow the people themselves to directly make decisions. But here, taking as her guide Thomas Paine’s subversive view that “Athens, by representation, would have surpassed her own democracy,” Nadia Urbinati challenges this accepted wisdom, arguing that political representation deserves to be regarded as a fully legitimate mode of democratic decision making—and not just a pragmatic second choice when direct democracy is not possible. As Urbinati shows, the idea that representation is incompatible with democracy stems from our modern concept of sovereignty, which identifies politics with a decision maker’s direct physical presence and the immediate act of the will. She goes on to contend that a democratic theory of representation can and should go beyond these identifications. Political representation, she demonstrates, is ultimately grounded in a continuum of influence and power created by political judgment, as well as the way presence through ideas and speech links society with representative institutions. Deftly integrating the ideas of such thinkers as Rousseau, Kant, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Paine, and the Marquis de Condorcet with her own, Urbinati constructs a thought-provoking alternative vision of democracy.

Author : Bernard Manin
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521458917
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Principles of Representative Government written by Bernard Manin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-02-28 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thesis of this original and provocative book is that representative government should be understood as a combination of democratic and undemocratic, aristocratic elements. Professor Manin challenges the conventional view that representative democracy is no more than an indirect form of government by the people, in which citizens elect representatives only because they cannot assemble and govern in person. The argument is developed by examining the historical moments when the present institutional arrangements were chosen from among the then available alternatives. Professor Manin reminds us that while today representative institutions and democracy appear as virtually indistinguishable, when representative government was first established in Europe and America, it was designed in opposition to democracy proper. Drawing on the procedures used in earlier republican systems, from classical Athens to Renaissance Florence, in order to highlight the alternatives that were forsaken, Manin brings to the fore the generally overlooked results of representative mechanisms. These include the elitist aspect of elections and the non-binding character of campaign promises.

Author : Sonia Alonso
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139501178
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Future of Representative Democracy written by Sonia Alonso and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Representative Democracy poses important questions about representation, representative democracy and their future. Inspired by the last major investigation of the subject by Hanna Pitkin over four decades ago, this ambitious volume fills a major gap in the literature by examining the future of representative forms of democracy in terms of present-day trends and past theories of representative democracy. Aware of the pressing need for clarifying key concepts and institutional trends, the volume aims to break down barriers among disciplines and to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars. The contributors emphasise that representative democracy and its future is a subject of pressing scholarly concern and public importance. Paying close attention to the unfinished, two-centuries-old relationship between democracy and representation, this book offers a fresh perspective on current problems and dilemmas of representative democracy and the possible future development of new forms of democratic representation.

Author : Joshua Kurlantzick
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 030018896X
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Democracy in Retreat written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div

Author : Michael L. Mezey
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9780742547698
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Representative Democracy written by Michael L. Mezey and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2008 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although we tend to use the terms "representative democracy" and "democracy" as synonyms, Michael Mezey maintains that they are not. Democracy means that the people govern; representative democracy means that the people elect others to govern for them. This raises the question of the extent to which representative government approximates democracy-a question that turns on the relationship between representatives and those whom they represent. Mezey reviews the literature on the meaning of representation and its relationship to issues of citizen control. In the empirical sections that follow, he draws on data from the United States Congress and from legislatures outside the United States to discuss the extent to which the composition of a legislature reflects the demography of its nation. The author also examines a legislature's various political and economic interests and the extent to which representatives are responsive to specific requests for assistance from their constituents and to constituent opinions on public policy questions. He further looks at the effect that interest groups, political parties, and election systems have on the relationship between representatives and their constituents. Finally, Mezey addresses the criticisms that have been leveled against representative institutions: that they are slow to act, inefficient and uninformed when they do act, that they are too inclined to do what is popular rather than what is necessary and, conversely, that their members are too removed from the opinions of their constituents and therefore unfaithful to their democratic obligation to respond to the wishes of those whom they represent. Rich in thoughtful analysis, Representative Democracy incorporates normative, empirical and comparative perspectives on representation. It is perfectly suited for use in an upper-level course on the legislative process or Congress.

Author : Jennifer L. McCoy
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801884283
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela written by Jennifer L. McCoy and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2006-03 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For four decades, Venezuela prided itself for having one of the most stable representative democracies in Latin America. Then, in 1992, Hugo Chávez Frías attempted an unsuccessful military coup. Six years later, he was elected president. Once in power, Chávez redrafted the 1961 constitution, dissolved the Congress, dismissed judges, and marginalized rival political parties. In a bid to create direct democracy, other Latin American democracies watched with mixed reactions: if representative democracy could break down so quickly in Venezuela, it could easily happen in countries with less-established traditions. On the other hand, would Chávez create a new form of democracy to redress the plight of the marginalized poor? In this volume of essays, leading scholars from Venezuela and the United States ask why representative democracy in Venezuela unraveled so swiftly and whether it can be restored. Its thirteen chapters examine the crisis in three periods: the unraveling of Punto Fijo democracy; Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution; and the course of "participatory democracy" under Chávez. The contributors analyze such factors as the vulnerability of Venezuelan democracy before Chávez; the role of political parties, organized labor, the urban poor, the military, and businessmen; and the impact of public and economic policy. This timely volume offers important lessons for comparative regime change within hybrid democracies. Contributors: Damarys Canache, Florida State University; Rafael de la Cruz, Inter-American Development Bank; José Antonio Gil, Yepes Datanalisis; Richard S. Hillman, St. John Fisher College; Janet Kelly, Graduate Institute of Business, Caracas; José E. Molina, University of Zulia; Mosés Naím, Foreign Policy; Nelson Ortiz, Caracas Stock Exchange; Pedro A. Palma, Graduate Institute of Business, Caracas; Carlos A. Romero and Luis Salamanca, Central University of Venezuela; Harold Trinkunas, Naval Postgraduate School.

Author : Agnès Alexandre-Collier
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429649223
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Innovations, Reinvented Politics and Representative Democracy written by Agnès Alexandre-Collier and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the issue of change in democratic politics in terms of experimental or actual innovations introduced either within political parties or outside the party system, involving citizen participation and mobilization. Including a wide and diverse range of alternatives in the organization of groups, campaigning, conducting initiatives and enhancing practices, they not only question the relevance of traditional institutions in representing citizens’ values and interests, but also share a common goal which is precisely – and perhaps paradoxically – to reshape and invigorate representative democracy This book is of key interest to scholars and students of party politics, elections/electoral studies, social movement and democratic innovations and more broadly to comparative politics, political theory and political sociology.

Author : John Stuart Mill
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Considerations on Representative Government written by John Stuart Mill and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Stuart N. Soroka
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108491340
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Information and Democracy written by Stuart N. Soroka and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-03 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large-scale empirical investigation into the frequency and accuracy of media coverage of public policy.

Author : John Haskell
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429980612
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Direct Democracy Or Representative Government? Dispelling The Populist Myth written by John Haskell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Direct Democracy or Representative Government? John Haskell develops a devastating critique of direct democracy by exposing the central flaw in populist thinking. Contrary to the beliefs of populist advocates of direct democracy, the popular will cannot be interpreted from the results of the plebiscite. John Haskell presents a defense of representative institutions that brings to bear, in an understandable way, the findings of public choice scholars. Haskell covers the clash of ideas between populists and constitutionalists throughout American history. He follows the development of direct democracy during the twentieth century, especially the dramatically increased use of initiatives and referenda in the last decade. As Americans become increasingly frustrated with the workings of the institutions of government at the state and national levels, and as populist ideas gain greater currency, new forms of direct and participatory democracy making use of the latest computer technology appeal to more people. Haskell speculates as to the likely future direction of direct democracy in the U.S. He describes in clear language the fundamental problem with the premise of populist thinking and explains why direct democracy presents a threat to minority rights and only promises irresponsible and unaccountable governance.