The story of liberal democracy over the last half century has been a triumphant one in many ways, with the number of democracies increasing from a minority of states to a significant majority. Yet ...substantial problems afflict democratic states, and while the number of democratic countries has expanded, democratic practice has contracted. This book introduces a novel framework for evaluating the rise and decline of democratic governance. Examining three mature democratic countries – Britain, Australia and New Zealand – the authors discuss patterns of governance from the emergence of mass democracy at the outset of the twentieth century through to its present condition. The shared political cultures and institutional arrangements of the three countries allow the authors to investigate comparatively the dynamics of political evolution and the possibilities for systemic developments and institutional change.
China is facing a national identity crisis. This is compounded by Tibet and Taiwan, where significant proportions of both populations do not identify with the Chinese nation-state. Could democracy ...realistically address the problems in China's national identity? Chinese nationalists argue it cannot; Chinese liberals remain unduly silenced. Baogang He opens up a dialogue in which Chinese liberals can offer viable alternatives in defence of key democratic principles and governance. He upholds the search for a political space in which democratic governance in China can feasibly be developed.
This book is the first major account of political thought in twentieth-century Europe, both West and East, to appear since the end of the Cold War. Skillfully blending intellectual, political, and ...cultural history, Jan-Werner Mller elucidates the ideas that shaped the period of ideological extremes before 1945 and the liberalization of West European politics after the Second World War. He also offers vivid portraits of famous as well as unjustly forgotten political thinkers and the movements and institutions they inspired.Mller pays particular attention to ideas advanced to justify fascism and how they relate to the special kind of liberal democracy that was created in postwar Western Europe. He also explains the impact of the 1960s and neoliberalism, ending with a critical assessment of today's self-consciously post-ideological age.
Intensifying economic and political inequality poses a dangerous threat to the liberty of democratic citizens. Mounting evidence suggests that economic power, not popular will, determines public ...policy, and that elections consistently fail to keep public officials accountable to the people. McCormick confronts this dire situation through a dramatic reinterpretation of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought. Highlighting previously neglected democratic strains in Machiavelli's major writings, McCormick excavates institutions through which the common people of ancient, medieval and Renaissance republics constrained the power of wealthy citizens and public magistrates, and he imagines how such institutions might be revived today. It reassesses one of the central figures in the Western political canon and decisively intervenes into current debates over institutional design and democratic reform. McCormick proposes a citizen body that excludes socioeconomic and political elites and grants randomly selected common people significant veto, legislative and censure authority within government and over public officials.
Individual decision making can often be wrong due to misinformation, impulses, or biases. Collective decision making, on the other hand, can be surprisingly accurate. InDemocratic Reason, Hélène ...Landemore demonstrates that the very factors behind the superiority of collective decision making add up to a strong case for democracy. She shows that the processes and procedures of democratic decision making form a cognitive system that ensures that decisions taken by the many are more likely to be right than decisions taken by the few. Democracy as a form of government is therefore valuable not only because it is legitimate and just, but also because it is smart.
Landemore considers how the argument plays out with respect to two main mechanisms of democratic politics: inclusive deliberation and majority rule. In deliberative settings, the truth-tracking properties of deliberation are enhanced more by inclusiveness than by individual competence. Landemore explores this idea in the contexts of representative democracy and the selection of representatives. She also discusses several models for the "wisdom of crowds" channeled by majority rule, examining the trade-offs between inclusiveness and individual competence in voting. When inclusive deliberation and majority rule are combined, they beat less inclusive methods, in which one person or a small group decide.Democratic Reasonthus establishes the superiority of democracy as a way of making decisions for the common good.
The theme of care, one of the most significant theoretical models in the late 20th century philosophical thought, is today at the core of national and international debate. The lack of attention ...towards care activities has generated a serious crisis that highlights the injustices intrinsic to social production processes and the importance of reproductive work. In this conceptual framework, care becomes a practice, a cultural and ethical value on which it is necessary to set up new policies focused on listening, inclusion, production of public space and of proximity democracies, which in turn generate places of care becoming common goods. In this light, the article describes two practices of care and common good which, although not yet fully developed, have given rise to urban relation, protection and sharing spaces: a collective space, iMorticelli in Salerno, aspiring to become a community landmark through collaborative processes and educational, cultural and research activities; a territorial relation and protection space around genderqueer issues, the LGBTQIA+ Centre in Prato. Keywords: care places; common good; communities; inclusion; caring democracy. Il tema della cura, uno dei piu significativi modelli teorici nel pensiero filosofico del tardo Novecento, e oggi al centro del dibattito nazionale ed internazionale. La mancanza di attenzione verso le attivita di cura ha generato una grave crisi che evidenzia le ingiustizie intrinseche ai processi di produzione sociale e l'importanza dei lavori riproduttivi. In questo quadro concettuale, la cura diviene una pratica, un valore culturale ed etico sulla base del quale e necessario impostare nuove politiche incentrate sull'ascolto, l'inclusione, la generazione di spazio pubblico e di democrazie di prossimita, a loro volta generatrici di luoghi di cura che diventano beni comuni. In tale prospettiva, il contributo descrive due pratiche di cura e bene comune che, sebbene ancora non pienamente sviluppate, hanno dato luogo a spazi urbani di relazione, presidio e condivisione: uno spazio collettivo, iMorticelli a Salerno, che ambisce ad essere un punto di riferimento per la comunita attraverso processi collaborativi e attivita didattiche, culturali e di ricerca; uno spazio di relazione e presidio sul territorio circa i temi del genderqueer, il Centro LGBTQIA+ a Prato. Parole-chiave: luoghi della cura; bene comune; comunita; inclusione; democrazia della cura.
