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Democracy for the Few: Oligarchy's Stealthy Grip on Power
Introduction:
We live in a world that ostensibly champions democracy. Yet, behind the façade of free and fair elections, a troubling reality often emerges: a "democracy for the few." This isn't a blatant dictatorship, but a more insidious form of power concentration where a select elite – whether through wealth, influence, or strategic manipulation – exert disproportionate control over political processes and societal outcomes. This blog post delves into the various ways this "democracy for the few" manifests, its historical roots, and the potential consequences for genuine democratic participation. We'll examine the mechanisms that allow the powerful to maintain their grip, explore the impact on social equity, and suggest avenues for fostering a more inclusive and representative democracy.
H2: The Mechanisms of Oligarchic Influence
The shift from a truly representative democracy to a system favoring the few is rarely achieved through brute force. Instead, it's a gradual erosion of democratic ideals achieved through several interconnected mechanisms:
#### H3: Lobbying and Campaign Finance:
Massive campaign donations and sophisticated lobbying efforts allow wealthy individuals and corporations to effectively purchase political influence. This creates an uneven playing field where the voices of ordinary citizens are drowned out by the well-funded interests of the elite. Policies often reflect the desires of these powerful donors, rather than the needs of the broader population.
#### H3: Media Control and Manipulation:
Control over media outlets, whether through ownership or strategic advertising, allows the elite to shape public opinion and narratives. This can range from subtle biases in reporting to outright propaganda designed to manipulate public perception and maintain the status quo. A critical and independent media is essential for a functioning democracy, but its erosion directly benefits those seeking to control the flow of information.
#### H3: Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression:
Manipulating electoral boundaries (gerrymandering) and implementing restrictive voting laws (voter suppression) are insidious tactics used to limit participation and disenfranchise specific demographics. This ensures that certain groups, typically those who might challenge the elite's power, have their voting power diluted or eliminated.
H2: The Historical Roots of Oligarchy
The concept of "democracy for the few" isn't new. Throughout history, various forms of oligarchy have existed, from ancient Greek city-states to modern plutocracies. Understanding these historical precedents can illuminate the recurring patterns and strategies employed by those seeking to concentrate power. The concentration of wealth often precedes and fuels the concentration of political power. Historical analysis reveals how economic inequalities consistently translate into political inequalities, undermining the very foundation of a democratic society.
H2: The Social and Economic Consequences
The consequences of a system where power is concentrated in the hands of a few are far-reaching and deeply detrimental:
#### H3: Increased Inequality:
A "democracy for the few" exacerbates existing social and economic inequalities. Policies tend to favor the wealthy, further widening the gap between the rich and the poor. This creates a vicious cycle where the elite benefit disproportionately while the majority struggle to access resources and opportunities.
#### H3: Erosion of Public Trust:
When citizens perceive that the political system is rigged in favor of a privileged few, trust in government and institutions erodes. This can lead to political apathy, cynicism, and even social unrest.
#### H3: Stagnation and Inefficiency:
A system dominated by a small elite often lacks the diversity of perspectives and experiences necessary for effective governance. This can lead to poorly conceived policies, missed opportunities, and an overall lack of responsiveness to the needs of the population.
H2: Pathways to a More Inclusive Democracy
Reversing the trend towards "democracy for the few" requires a multi-pronged approach:
#### H3: Campaign Finance Reform:
Stricter regulations on campaign finance are crucial to level the playing field and limit the influence of wealthy donors. This could include public financing of elections, stricter limits on individual and corporate donations, and increased transparency in campaign spending.
#### H3: Media Reform:
Promoting media diversity and accountability is essential. This includes supporting independent journalism, combating misinformation, and encouraging critical media literacy among citizens.
#### H3: Voter Empowerment:
Expanding access to voting, eliminating gerrymandering, and ensuring fair electoral processes are vital for ensuring that every citizen has an equal voice in the democratic process.
Conclusion:
The concept of "democracy for the few" represents a significant threat to the ideal of a truly representative government. By understanding the mechanisms that perpetuate this imbalance of power, and by actively working towards reforms that promote inclusivity and equity, we can strive towards a more just and democratic society where the voices of all citizens are heard and respected. The challenge lies not just in identifying the problem, but in actively participating in the solutions.
FAQs:
1. What's the difference between an oligarchy and a plutocracy? While both involve rule by a small elite, an oligarchy generally refers to rule by a small group based on power (wealth, military strength, etc.), while a plutocracy specifically points to rule by the wealthy.
2. Isn't lobbying a necessary part of a functioning democracy? Lobbying itself isn't inherently negative, but the issue arises when it becomes disproportionately weighted towards the wealthy and powerful, drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens.
3. How can I actively participate in combating "democracy for the few"? Engage in civic activities, support organizations advocating for campaign finance reform and voter rights, and critically analyze the information you consume from various media sources.
4. Are there successful examples of countering oligarchic influence? Many countries have seen success with campaign finance reforms, stronger regulations on lobbying, and improved voter registration processes, leading to more inclusive political systems.
5. What role does technology play in this issue? Technology can both exacerbate and mitigate the problem. Social media, while allowing for increased participation, is also susceptible to manipulation and the spread of misinformation, potentially strengthening the influence of the elite. Conversely, technology can also be used to enhance transparency and accountability in governance.
| democracy for the few: Democracy for the Few Michael Parenti, 1995 Parenti's provocative critique of class power within traditional political institutions will arouse classroom debate and introduce students to a unique viewpoint of American capitalism. Unlike most texts on the American political system, DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW emphasizes the political economy of public policy and who gets what. |
| democracy for the few: For the Many or the Few John G. Matsusaka, 2008-09-15 Direct democracy is alive and well in the United States. Citizens are increasingly using initiatives and referendums to take the law into their own hands, overriding their elected officials to set tax, expenditure, and social policies. John G. Matsusaka's For the Many or the Few provides the first even-handed and historically based treatment of the subject. Drawing upon a century of evidence, Matsusaka argues against the popular belief that initiative measures are influenced by wealthy special interest groups that neglect the majority view. Examining demographic, political, and opinion data, he demonstrates how the initiative process brings about systematic changes in tax and expenditure policies of state and local governments that are generally supported by the citizens. He concludes that, by and large, direct democracy in the form of the initiative process works for the benefit of the many rather than the few. An unprecedented, comprehensive look at the historical, empirical, and theoretical components of how initiatives function within our representative democracy to increase political competition while avoiding the tyranny of the majority, For the Many or the Few is a most timely and definitive work. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy for Sale Edward Aspinall, Ward Berenschot, 2019-04-15 Democracy for Sale is an on-the-ground account of Indonesian democracy, analyzing its election campaigns and behind-the-scenes machinations. Edward Aspinall and Ward Berenschot assess the informal networks and political strategies that shape access to power and privilege in the messy political environment of contemporary Indonesia. In post-Suharto Indonesian politics the exchange of patronage for political support is commonplace. Clientelism, argue the authors, saturates the political system, and in Democracy for Sale they reveal the everyday practices of vote buying, influence peddling, manipulating government programs, and skimming money from government projects. In doing so, Aspinall and Berenschot advance three major arguments. The first argument points toward the role of religion, kinship, and other identities in Indonesian clientelism. The second explains how and why Indonesia's distinctive system of free-wheeling clientelism came into being. And the third argument addresses variation in the patterns and intensity of clientelism. Through these arguments and with comparative leverage from political practices in India and Argentina, Democracy for Sale provides compelling evidence of the importance of informal networks and relationships rather than formal parties and institutions in contemporary Indonesia. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy in Retreat Joshua Kurlantzick, 2013-03-19 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 |
| democracy for the few: Democracy for Realists Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels, 2017-08-29 Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy in One Book or Less David Litt, 2020-06-16 New York Times–Bestselling Author: “Brings Dave Barry-style humor to an illuminating book on what is wrong with American democracy—and how to put it right.” —The Washington Post The democracy you live in today is different—completely different—from the democracy you were born into. You probably don't realize just how radically your republic has been altered during your lifetime. Yet more than any policy issue, political trend, or even Donald Trump himself, our redesigned system of government is responsible for the peril America faces today. What explains the gap between what We, the People want and what our elected leaders do? How can we fix our politics before it's too late? And how can we truly understand the state of our democracy without wanting to crawl under a rock? That’s what former Obama speechwriter David Litt set out to answer. Poking into forgotten corners of history, translating political science into plain English, and traveling the country to meet experts and activists, Litt explains how the world’s greatest experiment in democracy went awry. (He also tries to crash a party at Mitch McConnell’s former frat house. It goes poorly.) The result is something you might not have thought possible: an unexpectedly funny page-turner about the political process. You’ll meet the Supreme Court justice charged with murder, learn how James Madison’s college roommate broke the Senate, encounter a citrus thief who embodies what’s wrong with our elections, and join Belle the bill as she tries to become a law (a quest far more harrowing than the one in Schoolhouse Rock!). Yet despite his clear-eyed assessment of the dangers we face, Litt remains audaciously optimistic. He offers a to-do list of bold yet achievable changes—a blueprint for restoring the balance of power in America. “In the book’s strongest contribution, Litt shows how radically our democracy has been altered in recent decades . . . [making] the case that nearly all of these negative trends are occurring by design.” —The Washington Post “Wry, quickly readable, yet informed.” —The Atlantic “Equal parts how-to, historical, and hilarious.” —Keegan-Michael Key |
| democracy for the few: The Decline and Rise of Democracy David Stasavage, 2020-06-02 One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation.—Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance. |
| democracy for the few: Against Democracy Jason Brennan, 2017-09-26 A bracingly provocative challenge to one of our most cherished ideas and institutions Most people believe democracy is a uniquely just form of government. They believe people have the right to an equal share of political power. And they believe that political participation is good for us—it empowers us, helps us get what we want, and tends to make us smarter, more virtuous, and more caring for one another. These are some of our most cherished ideas about democracy. But Jason Brennan says they are all wrong. In this trenchant book, Brennan argues that democracy should be judged by its results—and the results are not good enough. Just as defendants have a right to a fair trial, citizens have a right to competent government. But democracy is the rule of the ignorant and the irrational, and it all too often falls short. Furthermore, no one has a fundamental right to any share of political power, and exercising political power does most of us little good. On the contrary, a wide range of social science research shows that political participation and democratic deliberation actually tend to make people worse—more irrational, biased, and mean. Given this grim picture, Brennan argues that a new system of government—epistocracy, the rule of the knowledgeable—may be better than democracy, and that it's time to experiment and find out. A challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable, Against Democracy is essential reading for scholars and students of politics across the disciplines. Featuring a new preface that situates the book within the current political climate and discusses other alternatives beyond epistocracy, Against Democracy is a challenging critique of democracy and the first sustained defense of the rule of the knowledgeable. |
| democracy for the few: Too Dumb for Democracy? David Moscrop, 2019 Bad decisions down to a science. D'oh-mocracy at its finest. Brexit. Trump. Ford Nation. In this timely book, David Moscrop asks why we make irrational political decisions and whether our stone-age brains can process democracy in the information age. In an era overshadowed by income inequality, environmental catastrophes, terrorism at home and abroad, and the decline of democracy, Moscrop argues that the political decision-making process has never been more important. In fact, our survival may depend on it. Drawing on both political science and psychology, Moscrop examines how our brains, our environment, the media, and institutions influence decision-making. Making good decisions is not impossible, Moscrop argues, but the psychological and political odds are sometimes stacked against us. In this readable and provocative investigation of our often-flawed decisions, Moscrop explains what's going wrong in today's political landscape and how individuals, societies, and institutions can work together to set things right. |
| democracy for the few: America Besieged Michael Parenti, 1998-05 America Besieged deals with the underlying forces within U.S. society that deeply affect our lives. Showing how we are being misled and harmed by those who profess to have our interests at heart, Michael Parenti writes: We are indeed a nation besieged, not from without but from within, not subverted from below but from above; the moneyed power exercises a near monopoly influence over our political life, over the economy, the state, and the media. Some Americans are astonished to hear of it. Others have had their suspicions, although they may not be quite sure how it all adds up. This book invites the reader to stop blaming the powerless and poor and, in that good old American phrase, start 'following the money.' That is the first and most important step toward lifting the siege and bringing democracy back to life. Michael Parenti, one of America's most astute and entertaining political analysts, is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism, Democracy for the Few, Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America, and many other books. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy Without Shortcuts Cristina Lafont, 2020 This book defends the value of democratic participation. It aims to improve citizens' democratic control and vindicate the value of citizens' participation against conceptions that threaten to undermine it. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy Unchained David Orr, Andrew Gumbel, Bakari Kitwana, William Becker, 2020-03-03 A stellar group of America's leading political thinkers explore how to reboot our democracy The presidential election of 2016 highlighted some long-standing flaws in American democracy and added a few new ones. Across the political spectrum, most Americans do not believe that democracy is delivering on its promises of fairness, justice, shared prosperity, or security in a changing world. The nation cannot even begin to address climate change and economic justice if it remains paralyzed by political gridlock. Democracy Unchained is about making American democracy work to solve problems that have long impaired our system of governance. The book is the collective work of thirty of the most perceptive writers, practitioners, scientists, educators, and journalists writing today, who are committed to moving the political conversation from the present anger and angst to the positive and constructive change necessary to achieve the full promise of a durable democracy that works for everyone and protects our common future. Including essays by Yasha Mounk on populism, Chisun Lee on money and politics, Ras Baraka on building democracy from the ground up, and Bill McKibben on climate, Democracy Unchained is the articulation of faith in democracy and will be required reading for all who are working to make democracy a reality. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction David W. Orr Part I. The Crisis of Democracy Populism and Democracy Yascha Mounk Reconstructing Our Constitutional Democracy K. Sabeel Rahman Restoring Healthy Party Competition Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson When Democracy Becomes Something Else: The Problem of Elections and What to Do About It Andrew Gumbel The Best Answer to Money in Politics After Citizens United: Public Campaign Financing in the Empire State and Beyond Chisun Lee Remaking the Presidency After Trump Jeremi Suri The Problem of Presidentialism Stephen Skowronek Part II. Foundations of Democracy Renewing the American Democratic Faith Steven C. Rockefeller American Land, American Democracy Eric Freyfogle Race and Democracy: The Kennedys, Obama, Trump, and Us Michael Eric Dyson Liberty and Justice for All: Latina Activist Efforts to Strengthen Democracy in 2018 Maria Hinojosa What Black Women Teach Us About Democracy Andra Gillespie and Nadia E. Brown Engines of Democracy: Racial Justice and Cultural Power Rashad Robinson Civic and Environmental Education: Protecting the Planet and Our Democracy Judy Braus The Supreme Court's Legitimacy Crisis and Constitutional Democracy’s Future Dawn Johnsen Part III. Policy Challenges Can Democracy Survive the Internet? David Hickton The New New Deal: How to Reregulate Capitalism Robert Kuttner First Understand Why They're Winning: How to Save Democracy from the Anti-Immigrant Far Right Sasha Polakow-Suransky No Time Left: How the System Is Failing to Address Our Ultimate Crisis Bill McKibben Powering Democracy Through Clean Energy Denise G. Fairchild The Long Crisis: American Foreign Policy Before and After Trump Jessica Tuchman Mathews Part IV. Who Acts, and How? The Case for Strong Government William S. Becker The States Nick Rathod Democracy in a Struggling Swing State Amy Hanauer Can Independent Voters Save American Democracy? Why 42 Percent of American Voters Are Independent and How They Can Transform Our Political System Jaqueline Salit and Thom Reilly Philanthropy and Democracy Stephen B. Heintz Keeping the Republic Dan Moulthrop The Future of Democracy Mayor Ras Baraka Building a University Where All People Matter Michael M. Crow, William B. Dabars, and Derrick M. Anderson Biophilia and Direct Democracy Timothy Beatley Purpose-Driven Capitalism Mindy Lubber Restoring Democracy: Nature's Trust, Human Survival, and Constitutional Fiduciary Governance 397 Mary Christina Wood Conclusion Ganesh Sitaraman |
| democracy for the few: Democracy for the Few Michael Parenti, 1974 Parenti's provocative critique of class power within traditional political institutions will arouse classroom debate and introduce students to a unique viewpoint of American capitalism. Unlike most texts on the American political system, DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW emphasizes the political economy of public policy and who gets what. |
| democracy for the few: The People Vs. Democracy Yascha Mounk, 2018-03-05 Uiteenzetting over de opkomst van het populisme en het gevaar daarvan voor de democratie. |
| democracy for the few: Deepening Local Democracy in Latin America Benjamin Goldfrank, 2015-09-10 The resurgence of the Left in Latin America over the past decade has been so notable that it has been called “the Pink Tide.” In recent years, regimes with leftist leaders have risen to power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela. What does this trend portend for the deepening of democracy in the region? Benjamin Goldfrank has been studying the development of participatory democracy in Latin America for many years, and this book represents the culmination of his empirical investigations in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In order to understand why participatory democracy has succeeded better in some countries than in others, he examines the efforts in urban areas that have been undertaken in the cities of Porto Alegre, Montevideo, and Caracas. His findings suggest that success is related, most crucially, to how nationally centralized political authority is and how strongly institutionalized the opposition parties are in the local arenas. |
| democracy for the few: In Defence of Democracy Roslyn Fuller, 2019-10-18 Should Brexit or Trump cause us to doubt our faith in democracy? Are ‘the people’ too ignorant or stupid to rule? Numerous commentators are seriously arguing that the answer to these questions might be ‘yes’. In this take-no-prisoners book, Canadian-Irish author Roslyn Fuller kicks these anti-democrats where it hurts the most – the facts. Fuller shows how many academics, journalists and politicians have embraced the idea that there can be ‘too much democracy’, and deftly unravels their attempts to end majority rule, whether through limiting the franchise, pursuing Chinese ‘meritocracy’ or confining participation to random legislation panels. She shows that Trump, Brexit or whatever other political event you may have disapproved of recently aren’t doing half the damage to democracy that elite self-righteousness and corruption are. In fact, argues Fuller, there are real reasons to be optimistic. Ancient methods can be combined with modern technology to revitalize democracy and allow the people to truly rule. In Defence of Democracy is a witty and energetic contribution to the debate on the future of democracy. |
| democracy for the few: Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age Aim Sinpeng, 2021-03-02 Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age is about why ordinary people in a democratizing state oppose democracy and how they leverage both traditional and social media to do so. Aim Sinpeng focuses on the people behind popular, large-scale antidemocratic movements that helped bring down democracy in 2006 and 2014 in Thailand. The yellow shirts (PAD—People’s Alliance for Democracy) that are the focus of the book are antidemocratic movements grown out of democratic periods in Thailand, but became the catalyst for the country’s democratic breakdown. Why, when, and how supporters of these movements mobilize offline and online to bring down democracy are some of the key questions that Sinpeng answers. While the book primarily uses a qualitative methodological approach, it also uses several quantitative tools to analyze social media data in the later chapters. This is one of few studies in the field of regime transition that focuses on antidemocratic mobilization and takes the role of social media seriously. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy in Iran Misagh Parsa, 2016-11-07 The Green Movement protests that erupted in Iran in 2009 amid allegations of election fraud shook the Islamic Republic to its core. For the first time in decades, the adoption of serious liberal reforms seemed possible. But the opportunity proved short-lived, leaving Iranian activists and intellectuals to debate whether any path to democracy remained open. Offering a new framework for understanding democratization in developing countries governed by authoritarian regimes, Democracy in Iran is a penetrating, historically informed analysis of Iran’s current and future prospects for reform. Beginning with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Misagh Parsa traces the evolution of Iran’s theocratic regime, examining the challenges the Islamic Republic has overcome as well as those that remain: inequalities in wealth and income, corruption and cronyism, and a “brain drain” of highly educated professionals eager to escape Iran’s repressive confines. The political fortunes of Iranian reformers seeking to address these problems have been uneven over a period that has seen hopes raised during a reformist administration, setbacks under Ahmadinejad, and the birth of the Green Movement. Although pro-democracy activists have made progress by fits and starts, they have few tangible reforms to show for their efforts. In Parsa’s view, the outlook for Iranian democracy is stark. Gradual institutional reforms will not be sufficient for real change, nor can the government be reformed without fundamentally rethinking its commitment to the role of religion in politics and civic life. For Iran to democratize, the options are narrowing to a single path: another revolution. |
| democracy for the few: How Democracy Ends David Runciman, 2018-06-05 How will democracy end? And what will replace it? A preeminent political scientist examines the past, present, and future of an endangered political philosophy Since the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get? In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable -- a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better. A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy in China Jiwei Ci, 2019-11-19 A respected Chinese political philosopher calls for the Communist Party to take the lead in moving China along the path to democracy before it is too late. With Xi Jinping potentially set as president for life, China’s move toward political democracy may appear stalled. But Jiwei Ci argues that four decades of reform have created a mentality in the Chinese people that is just waiting for the political system to catch up, resulting in a disjunction between popular expectations and political realities. The inherent tensions in a largely democratic society without a democratic political system will trigger an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy, forcing the Communist Party to act or die. Two crises loom for the government. First is the waning of the Communist Party’s revolutionary legacy, which the party itself sees as a grave threat. Second is the fragility of the next leadership transition. No amount of economic success will compensate for the party’s legitimacy deficit when the time comes. The only effective response, Ci argues, will be an orderly transition to democracy. To that end, the Chinese government needs to start priming its citizens for democracy, preparing them for new civil rights and civic responsibilities. Embracing this pragmatic role offers the Communist Party a chance to survive. Its leaders therefore have good reason to initiate democratic change. Sure to challenge the Communist Party and stir debate, Democracy in China brings an original and important voice to an issue with far-reaching consequences for China and the world. |
| democracy for the few: Against Empire Michael Parenti, 1995-05 Recommended by Jeff, City Lights Books Richly informed and written in an engaging style, Against Empire exposes the ruthless agenda and hidden costs of the U.S. empire today. Documenting the pretexts and lies used to justify violent intervention and maldevelopment abroad, Parenti shows how the conversion to a global economy is a victory of finance capital over democracy. As much of the world suffers unspeakable misery and the Third-Worldization of the United States accelerates, civil society is impoverished by policies that benefit rich and powerful transnational corporations and the national security state. Hard-won gains made by ordinary people are swept away. |
| democracy for the few: The Unbroken Machine Dale Smith, 2017-03-04 The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017 What if it is not our political system that is broken, but our understanding of it? Everybody thinks that it’s the system that’s broken in politics; but what if it’s not the system that’s broken but rather our understanding of it? What if everyone’s proposals to make the system “more democratic” only wind up making things worse, and weaken our systems of accountability so much as to make them meaningless? What if it’s our own ignorance that is killing democracy in this country? Dale Smith looks at the critical gaps in civic literacy that have become endemic within Canadian political culture, wading through buzzwords and meaningless proposals to suggest real solutions. Designed for the lay reader, The Unbroken Machine seeks to explore our lack of civic literacy and show how our system of democracy should work — if only we were to engage with it the way it was meant to be. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy for Sale Peter Geoghegan, 2020-05-14 The Sunday Times bestseller. 'A compulsively readable, carefully researched account of how a malignant combination of rightwing ideology, secretive money (much of it from the US) and weaponisation of social media have shaped contemporary British (and to a limited extent, European) politics... Remarkable' Observer, Book of the Week Democracy is in crisis, and unaccountable and untraceable flows of money are helping to destroy it. This is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy. Antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, secretive lobbying is bending our politics out of shape and Silicon Valley tech giants collude in selling out democracy. Politicians lie gleefully, making wild claims that can be shared instantly with millions on social media. Peter Geoghegan is a diligent, brilliant guide through the shadowy world of dark money and digital disinformation stretching from Westminster to Washington, and far beyond. Praise for Democracy for Sale: 'Thorough, gripping and vitally important' Oliver Bullough 'A brilliant description of the dark underbelly of modern democracy. Everyone should read it' Anne Applebaum 'A compelling and very readable story of the ongoing corruption of our government and therefore ourselves' Anthony Barnett 'As urgent as it is illuminating' Fintan O'Toole 'This urgent, vital book is essential reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics' Carole Cadwalladr 'This forensic and highly readable book shows how so many of our democratic processes have moved into the murky, unregulated spaces of globalisation and digital innovation' Peter Pomerantsev 'A call to arms for all those who value democracy' The Herald 'Geoghegan's words are those of someone who is prepared to keep fighting to defend and revitalise what shadows of democracy still remain'Scotsman |
| democracy for the few: The Assassination of Julius Caesar Michael Parenti, 2004-09-03 “A provocative history” of intrigue and class struggle in Ancient Rome—“an important alternative to the usual views of Caesar and the Roman Empire” (Publishers Weekly). Most historians, both ancient and modern, have viewed the Late Republic of Rome through the eyes of its rich nobility—the 1 percent of the population who controlled 99 percent of the empire’s wealth. In The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Michael Parenti recounts this period, spanning the years 100 to 33 BC, from the perspective of the Roman people. In doing so, he presents a provocative, trenchantly researched narrative of popular resistance against a powerful elite. As Parenti carefully weighs the evidence concerning the murder of Caesar, he adds essential context to the crime with fascinating details about Roman society as a whole. In these pages, we find reflections on the democratic struggle waged by Roman commoners, religious augury as an instrument of social control, the patriarchal oppression of women, and the political use of homophobic attacks. The Assassination of Julius Caesar offers a whole new perspective on an era thought to be well-known. “A highly accessible and entertaining addition to history.” —Book Marks |
| democracy for the few: Crises of Democracy Adam Przeworski, 2019-09-26 Examines the economic, social, cultural, as well as purely political threats to democracy in the light of current knowledge. |
| democracy for the few: Multilevel Democracy Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström, Yooil Bae, 2020-03-05 Explores ways to make democracy work better, with particular focus on the integral role of local institutions. |
| democracy for the few: The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy David Estlund, 2012-07-19 This volume includes 22 new pieces by leading political philosophers, on traditional issues (such as authority and equality) and emerging issues (such as race, and money in politics). The pieces are clear and accessible will interest both students and scholars working in philosophy, political science, law, economics, and more. |
| democracy for the few: Democracy Rules Jan-Werner Müller, 2021-07-06 A much-anticipated guide to saving democracy, from one of our most essential political thinkers. Everyone knows that democracy is in trouble, but do we know what democracy actually is? Jan-Werner Müller, author of the widely translated and acclaimed What Is Populism?, takes us back to basics in Democracy Rules. In this short, elegant volume, he explains how democracy is founded not just on liberty and equality, but also on uncertainty. The latter will sound unattractive at a time when the pandemic has created unbearable uncertainty for so many. But it is crucial for ensuring democracy’s dynamic and creative character, which remains one of its signal advantages over authoritarian alternatives that seek to render politics (and individual citizens) completely predictable. Müller shows that we need to re-invigorate the intermediary institutions that have been deemed essential for democracy’s success ever since the nineteenth century: political parties and free media. Contrary to conventional wisdom, these are not spent forces in a supposed age of post-party populist leadership and post-truth. Müller suggests concretely how democracy’s critical infrastructure of intermediary institutions could be renovated, re-empowering citizens while also preserving a place for professionals such as journalists and judges. These institutions are also indispensable for negotiating a democratic social contract that reverses the secession of plutocrats and the poorest from a common political world. |
| democracy for the few: Trading Democracy for Justice Traci Burch, 2013-08-21 The United States imprisons far more people, total and per capita, and at a higher rate than any other country in the world. Among the more than 1.5 million Americans currently incarcerated, minorities and the poor are disproportionately represented. What’s more, they tend to come from just a few of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the country. While the political costs of this phenomenon remain poorly understood, it’s become increasingly clear that the effects of this mass incarceration are much more pervasive than previously thought, extending beyond those imprisoned to the neighbors, family, and friends left behind. For Trading Democracy for Justice, Traci Burch has drawn on data from neighborhoods with imprisonment rates up to fourteen times the national average to chart demographic features that include information about imprisonment, probation, and parole, as well as voter turnout and volunteerism. She presents powerful evidence that living in a high-imprisonment neighborhood significantly decreases political participation. Similarly, people living in these neighborhoods are less likely to engage with their communities through volunteer work. What results is the demobilization of entire neighborhoods and the creation of vast inequalities—even among those not directly affected by the criminal justice system. The first book to demonstrate the ways in which the institutional effects of imprisonment undermine already disadvantaged communities, Trading Democracy for Justice speaks to issues at the heart of democracy. |
| democracy for the few: Protest and Democracy Moises Arce, Roberta Rice, 2019-06-15 In 2011, political protests sprang up across the world. In the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, the United States unlikely people sparked or led massive protest campaigns from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. These protests were made up of educated and precariously employed young people who challenged the legitimacy of their political leaders, exposed a failure of representation, and expressed their dissatisfaction with their place in the aftermath of financial and economic crisis. This book interrogates what impacts--if any--this global protest cycle had on politics and policy and shows the sometimes unintended ways it continues to influence contemporary political dynamics throughout the world. Proposing a new framework of analysis that calls attention to the content and claims of protests, their global connections, and the responsiveness of political institutions to protest demands, this is one of the few books that not only asks how protest movements are formed but also provides an in-depth examination of what protest movements can accomplish. With contributions examining the political consequences of protest, the roles of social media and the internet in protest organization, left- and right-wing movements in the United States, Chile's student movements, the Arab Uprisings, and much more this collection is essential reading for all those interested in the power of protest to shape our world. |
| democracy for the few: Freedom in the World 2018 Freedom House, 2019-01-31 Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development. |
| democracy for the few: How to Lose a Country Ece Temelkuran, 2024-10-08 “Essential.” —Margaret Atwood An urgent call to action and a field guide to spotting the insidious patterns and mechanisms of the populist wave sweeping the globe from an award-winning journalist and acclaimed political thinker. How to Lose a Country is a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep. Award-winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world from Eastern Europe to South America, in order to arm the reader with the tools to recognise it and take action. Weaving memoir, history and clear-sighted argument, Temelkuran proposes alternative answers to the pressing—and too often paralysing—political questions of our time. How to Lose a Country is an exploration of the insidious ideas at the core of these movements and an urgent, eloquent defence of democracy. This 2024 edition includes a new foreword by the author. |
| democracy for the few: Brand Command Alex Marland, 2016-03-15 The pursuit of political power is strategic as never before. Ministers, MPs, and candidates parrot the same catchphrases. The public service has become politicized. And decision making is increasingly centralized in the Prime Minister’s Office. What is happening to our democracy? In this persuasive book, Alex argues that political parties and government are beholden to the same marketing principles used by the world’s largest corporations. Called branding, the strategy demands repetition of spoken, written, and visual messages, predetermined by the leader’s inner circle. Marland warns that public sector branding is an unstoppable force that will persist no matter who is in power. It also creates serious problems for parliamentary democracy that must be confronted. This book will fascinate anyone who is interested in how Ottawa works and where Canadian politics is headed. |
| democracy for the few: The Eyes of the People Jeffrey Edward Green, 2010 For centuries it has been assumed that democracy must refer to the empowerment of the People's voice. In this pioneering book, Jeffrey Edward Green makes the case for considering the People as an ocular entity rather than a vocal one. Green argues that it is both possible and desirable to understand democracy in terms of what the People gets to see instead of the traditional focus on what it gets to say.The Eyes of the People examines democracy from the perspective of everyday citizens in their everyday lives. While it is customary to understand the citizen as a decision-maker, in fact most citizens rarely engage in decision-making and do not even have clear views on most political issues. The ordinary citizen is not a decision-maker but a spectator who watches and listens to the select few empowered to decide. Grounded on this everyday phenomenon of spectatorship, The Eyes of the People constructs a democratic theory applicable to the way democracy is actually experienced by most people most of the time.In approaching democracy from the perspective of the People's eyes, Green rediscovers and rehabilitates a forgotten plebiscitarian alternative within the history of democratic thought. Building off the contributions of a wide range of thinkers-including Aristotle, Shakespeare, Benjamin Constant, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, and many others-Green outlines a novel democratic paradigm centered on empowering the People's gaze through forcing politicians to appear in public under conditions they do not fully control.The Eyes of the People is at once a sweeping overview of the state of democratic theory and a call to rethink the meaning of democracy within the sociological and technological conditions of the twenty-first century. |
| democracy for the few: Open Democracy Hélène Landemore, 2022-03-08 To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Hélène Landemore demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, more than ever, urgently needed. -- Cover page 4. |
| democracy for the few: Beasts and Gods Roslyn Fuller, 2015-11-15 Democracy does not deliver on the things we have assumed are its natural outcomes. This, coupled with a growing sense of malaise in both new and established democracies forms the basis to the assertion made by some, that these are not democracies at all. Through considerable, impressive empirical analysis of a variety of voting methods, across twenty different nations, Roslyn Fuller presents the data that makes this contention indisputable. Proving that the party which forms the government rarely receives the majority of the popular vote, that electoral systems regularly produce manufactured majorities and that the better funded side invariably wins such contests in both elections and referenda, Fuller's findings challenge the most fundamental elements of both national politics and broader society. Beast and Gods argues for a return to democracy as perceived by the ancient Athenians. Boldly arguing for the necessity of the Aristotelian assumption that citizens are agents whose wishes and aims can be attained through participation in politics, and through an examination of what “goods” are provided by democracy, Fuller offers a powerful challenge to the contemporary liberal view that there are no goods in politics, only individual citizens seeking to fulfil their particular interests. |
| democracy for the few: Rich Media, Poor Democracy Robert W. McChesney, 2016-03-01 An updated edition of the “penetrating study” examining how the current state of mass media puts our democracy at risk (Noam Chomsky). What happens when a few conglomerates dominate all major aspects of mass media, from newspapers and magazines to radio and broadcast television? After all the hype about the democratizing power of the internet, is this new technology living up to its promise? Since the publication of this prescient work, which won Harvard’s Goldsmith Book Prize and the Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, the concentration of media power and the resultant “hypercommercialization of media” has only intensified. Robert McChesney lays out his vision for what a truly democratic society might look like, offering compelling suggestions for how the media can be reformed as part of a broader program of democratic renewal. Rich Media, Poor Democracy remains as vital and insightful as ever and continues to serve as an important resource for researchers, students, and anyone who has a stake in the transformation of our digital commons. This new edition includes a major new preface by McChesney, where he offers both a history of the transformation in media since the book first appeared; a sweeping account of the organized efforts to reform the media system; and the ongoing threats to our democracy as journalism has continued its sharp decline. “Those who want to know about the relationship of media and democracy must read this book.” —Neil Postman “If Thomas Paine were around, he would have written this book.” —Bill Moyers |
| democracy for the few: Democracy in Chains Nancy MacLean, 2017-06-13 Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the National Book Award The Nation's Most Valuable Book “[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right.”—The Atlantic “This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains. . . . If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be.”—NPR An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution. Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect—the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan—and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan’s work in teaching others how to divide America into “makers” and “takers.” And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government. |
| democracy for the few: Ruling Canada Jamie Brownlee, 2005 The economic elite has long been thought to cooperate at a corporate level to impact state and national policies and programs at the expense of the Canadian citizenry. However, this work reveals the expanding reach of the elite and their current encroachment into the noncorporate arena as yet another opportunity to exert their formidable influence. Citing the increasingly unified and class-conscious aspects of the group, this text reveals the degree to which this minority continues to prosper, dominate, and threaten Canadian democracy through numerous unifying mechanisms: corporate director interlocks; concentrated economic ownership; ties to the mass media; and the many business-oriented think tanks, philanthropic foundations, and corporate policy organizations. Maintaining that these existing relations need not be considered inevitable, the author challenges concerned citizens to come together to disrupt the political and economic status quo. |
| democracy for the few: Power and the Powerless Michael Parenti, 1978 |
Democracy for the Few - bev.berkeley.edu
The general thrust of these books is this: a strong democracy rests on three cultural foundations: the strength of social bonds, the level of deliberative civil discourse, and the level of economic …
Democracy For The Few (PDF) - netsec.csuci.edu
A "democracy for the few" exacerbates existing social and economic inequalities. Policies tend to favor the wealthy, further widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
Parenti, M. (1996). Democracy for the few. Boston: Bedford / …
Parenti, M. (1996). Democracy for the few. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s. (pp. 63 – 75). Chapter 5. The Rise of the Corporate State. Although the decisions of government are made in the …
Michael Parenti Democracy For The Few
texts on the American political system DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW emphasizes the political economy of public policy and who gets what Democracy for the Few + the Democratic Debate …
52 Chapter 5 SOURCE: Michael Parenti: “Democracy for the …
Democracy for the Few (Kindle) AIG is a giant insurance company whose reckless speculation and pre-datory lending practices led to its own collapse, sending shockwaves through the …
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the Few. Boston, MA: St.
Only during a relatively few periods—most notably the 1960s—did the High Court become an active supporter of individual rights and economic reform on behalf of the poor. Through most …
ON DEMOCRACY - The New University in Exile Consortium
democracy—centralized monarchy, hereditary aristocracy, oligarchy based on narrow and exclusive suffrage—had lost their legitimacy in the eyes of much of humankind.
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the few, 6th ed. Boston, …
Democracy for the few, 6. th. ed. Boston, MA: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 242-265. Chapter 16 . The President: Guardian of the System . In this chapter our task is to take a nonworshipful look at …
WHAT DEMOCRACY IS
Let us begin by broadly defining democracy and the generic concepts that distinguish it as a unique system for organizing relations between rulers and the ruled. We will then briefly review …
Democracy for the few: How local governments empower …
INTRODUCTION. All societies are governed by a set of rules, laws, customs and mores and they form the parameters that dictate what people can or cannot do, what is acceptable behavior …
Michael Parenti Democracy For The Few
Democracy for the Few Michael Parenti,2002 Parenti's provocative critique of class power within traditional political institutions will arouse classroom debate and introduce students to a unique …
HAT EMOCRACY IS NOT - Harvard University
Mar 6, 2024 · In the classic conception, democracy is rule by “the people” or rule by “the many,” as opposed to rule by one (monarchy or tyr- anny) and rule by the few (aristocracy or …
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the few, 6th ed. Boston: …
The framers of the Constitution separated governmental functions into executive, legislative, and judicial branches and installed a system of checks and balances to safeguard against both the …
THE DEMOCRACY PLAYBOOK: Preventing and Reversing …
• Model organizationally what they seek to achieve in a democracy. • Establish defined goals, a clear vision, and an actionable agenda. • Be prepared to use diverse and varied nonviolent ...
Money and Politics: The Effects of Campaign Spending …
Among the many factors critical for a properly functioning democracy, few have been as widely debated as campaign financing. For some, money in politics serves as an expression of free …
The Many and the Few: On Machiavelli's 'Democratic …
Abstract: Through an extended critical engagement with John P. McCormick's. Machiavellian Democracy, this paper aims to shed light on Machiavelli's account of relations among the …
Parenti, M. (2008). Democracy for the few, 8th edition.
Democracy for the few, 8th edition. Boston: Thomson . Wadsworth. Chapter 13 Mass Media: For the Many, By the Few. The mainstream media claim to be free and independent, objective and …
Democracy For The Few 9th Edition Summaries (Download …
Patterns of Democracy Arend Lijphart,2012-01-01 Examining 36 democracies from 1945 to 2010, this text arrives at conclusions about what type of democracy works best. It demonstrates that …
Country Report Egypt - V-Dem
Figure 1 shows the development of democracy in Egypt since 1900. The six indices included are the electoral democracy index, the liberal component index, the deliberative component index, …
PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND …
Democracy as a system of government is an age long phenomenon that originated from ancient Greek. In the ... mention but a few. In place of these, autocratic government with might and power were the order of the day whereas, the rule of law also went in abeyance. The eventual hand over of the military rule to civilian rule by the
Democracy for the few: How local governments empower …
few complaints of police brutality are investigated, few of the officers against whom a complaint had been lodged are ever reprimanded. Although not stated, but nevertheless implied, a police officer’s life is valued more highly by the state than the life of an ordinary citizen. This tacit understanding is in conflict with the American
1 Introduction: British Parliamentary Democracy - Springer
the quality of our democracy. Few other countries in the world - and none across Europe, North America and the Commonwealth - possess a form of popular representation that is as concentrated into one set of elections as in the United Kingdom. A general election has a double claim to be regarded as the main political event
3 The Story of Indian Democracy - NCERT
Moder n society, with its size and complexity, offers few opportunities for direct democracy. T oday, the most common form of democracy, whether for a town of 50,000 or nations of 1 billion, is representative democracy, in which citizens elect of ficials to make political decisions, for mulate laws, and administer programmes for the public good.
Dewey’s Democratic Conception in Education and Democratic …
Democracy is in crisis around the globe, especially in the United States due to the results of the presidential election in 2016; it is now a bitterly divid- ... its centenary also in 2016. A few key concepts of Dewey’s ideas and structural features of democratic schooling were combined to develop a conceptual frame-work to analyze democratic ...
Political Freedom and Human Prosperity - Hoover Institution
intervening variable in the relationship between democracy and prosperity is good governance: transparency, the rule of law, and a state regulatory environment that encourages investment and innovation. Singapore has managed to become rich by achieving good governance without democracy. Few
Pericles on Democracy: Thucydides 2.37 - wrobertconnor.com
nian democracy; readers are, in effect, challenged to make up their own minds as they read ahead. A second detail of phrasing, when carefully analyzed, also indi-cates that Pericles speaks in positive terms about Athenian democracy: “ . . . we govern not for the few but the many”. The phrase, often trans -
Democracy in Higher Education - JSTOR
liberty and honor at stake and only a few American dollars. But, when our property was jeopardized in the Middle East, the Marines landed. Since the noble enunciation and ignoble denunciation of the 14 Points, we have heard the complaint, "Democracy has failed in the nation and in the world ; its tenets are not sufficient to guide a modern ...
Wealth Inequality and Democracy - JSTOR
Oct 4, 2023 · between wealth inequality and democracy, we constructed a panel data set of 149 countries for the period from 1987 to 2017 and examined the impact of our measure of wealth inequality using measures of democracy from Polity, the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project, and the continuous Machine Learning Democracy Index. Although these
Recovery for All or Recovery for the Few? - The Center for …
The Center for Popular Democracy is a nonprofit organization that promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing ... partnership a few weeks after it came to light that Barbara Dalio had called to ask the partnership’s CEO to resign after just six weeks in the role. 20
FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2022
democracy and authoritarianism, meanwhile, are increasingly tilting toward the latter. The global order is nearing a tipping point, and if democracy’s defenders do not work together to help guarantee freedom for all people, the authoritarian model will prevail. The present threat to democracy is the product of 16
Robert Michels, the iron law of oligarchy and dynamic …
helpfully explained that it was drawn from the Greek “oligarches”, made up of “olig” (“few”) and “arch¯ es” (“ruler”). An¯ oligarch is a “member or supporter of an oligarchy”, and “oligarchy” is “a government in which a small group exercises
Aristotle and Democracy - Cambridge University Press
have power in a democracy and th 'e few ' in an oligarchy is an incidental factor. The real difference lies in the contrasting ideologies of the two constitutions. In oligarchy wealth is the criterion for status, in democracy the possession of freedom, whic ihs the asset of all citizens including the poor (1279b34-80a6). Both rich and poor, in
Globalization and Democracy 17 - National Bureau of …
The connections between globalization and democracy are a classic question in international political economy and a topic much debated in foreign policy circles. While the analytical literature is extensive, few previous studies have acknowledged the possibility of bidirectional causality or
DEMOCRACY The Fight for Democracy - Brennan Center for …
There’s encouraging news. Over the past few years, a democracy movement has been born. Diverse and multiracial, it draws on the energies of millions across the country. It insists that the answer to attacks on democracy is to strengthen democracy. We can’t address the climate crisis — or gun violence, health care,
principles of American constitutional democracy
Fundamental values of American constitutional democracy I. The public or common good. The citizen should attempt to determine the public good and seek to promote it. II. Individual rights. Individual rights may be divided into the three forms stated in the Declaration of Independence.
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the Few. Boston, MA: St.
Democracy for the Few. Boston, MA: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 289 – 311. Chapter 16 The Supremely Political Court Article III, Section I of the U.S. Constitution reads: "The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
Democracy for the Few - wazhi.com.cn
Democracy for the Few tries to strike a balance. It tries to show how de-mocracy is violated by corporate oligopoly, and yet how popular forces have fought back and occasionally made gains. They also have suffered serious losses, as we shall …
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the Few. Boston, MA: St.
Democracy for the Few. Boston, MA: St. Martin’s Press, pp. 289 – 311. Chapter 16 The Supremely Political Court Article III, Section I of the U.S. Constitution reads: "The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
The Philosopher of Jeffersonian Democracy - JSTOR
a few months. Why he disliked holding the office is not clear, but it is certain that the leaders of the Jeffersonian group strong-ly wished to have him remain in the Senate.8 He again served in that body for a few months in 1803, and also from December, 1822, until his death in August, 1824. He served, too, a number of terms in the Virginia ...
Does Democracy Promote Economic Openness? - Boston …
of democracy on economic performance, or growth.2 But with few exceptions (see below), little systematic, crossnational empirical research on the impact of democracy (or authoritarianism) on economic openness has been conducted. This omission is particularly noteworthy given the popular and academic attention given to
COMPETITIVE AUTHORITARIANISM: The Origins and …
A level playing field is implicit in most conceptualizations of democracy. Few analysts would classify as democratic a regime in which governing parties virtually monopolize access to the media and finance. Indeed, much of what we associate with an uneven playing field could be conceptualized as part of “free and fair elections” or “civil
52 Chapter 5 SOURCE: Michael Parenti: “Democracy for the …
SOURCE: Michael Parenti: “Democracy for the Few”, (Wadsworth, 2011), pg. 52-57. retirement support, minimum-wage laws, unemployment compensation, occu-pational safety, and injury compensation laws. They assure us that private charity can take care of needy and hungry people, and that there is no need
Israel, Saudi Arabia, & Turkey - 7th/8th Grade Social Studies
parliamentary democracy to a presidential one over the 3. _____ A a king has total 4. _____ form of government where citizens directly 5. What is the voting age in both Turkey and Israel? 6. _____ country has a parliamentary democracy 7. A form of government in which a ruler has _____ In this country, the supreme power is in the
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? WHY DEMOCRACY?
democracy necessary Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy. democracies. One simple factor common to all democracies is: the government is chosen by the people. We could thus start with a simple definition: democracy is a form of
Political Participation and Civic Courage: The Negative Effect …
While the benefits of disclosure for democracy seem self-evident, the costs have not been explored very much (Briffault 2010; Cain 2010). Recent incidents involving retaliation and ... Only a few studies have looked directly at how secrecy, or its absence, affects political behavior. In studies of voting behavior, the underlying rationale is ...
The Rise of Democracy
26.3 Oligarchy: A Few People Share Power By 800 B.C.E., most Greek city-states were ruled by a small group of wealthy men. These men were called oligarchs, from ... Ancient Greek democracy was different from democracy today. The government of Athens was a direct democracy. In this type of government, every citizen can vote on every issue ...
Democracy for the few: How local governments empower …
few complaints of police brutality are investigated, few of the officers against whom a complaint had been lodged are ever reprimanded. Although not stated, but nevertheless implied, a police officer’s life is valued more highly by the state than the life of an ordinary citizen. This tacit understanding is in conflict with the American
Democracy for the few: How local governments empower …
few complaints of police brutality are investigated, few of the officers against whom a complaint had been lodged are ever reprimanded. Although not stated, but nevertheless implied, a police officer’s life is valued more highly by the state than the life of an ordinary citizen. This tacit understanding is in conflict with the American
Schumpeter's Leadership Democracy - JSTOR
welcome socialism, but even less did he welcome popular democracy.2 A few chapters of his book offered a debunking redefinition of democracy, a construction intended to preserve elite domination in the unwelcome social ist democracies of the future.3 In the name of realism, his definition stripped ...
Athens & Sparta: Democracy vs. Dictatorship - University of …
Athens, for it was here that democracy was born. Athens’ democratic government and open culture stood in stark contrast to the government and society of its chief rival Sparta. Sparta was a warrior society ... Few ancient remains of Sparta exist. 1 Poleis is …
DEMOCRACY REPORT 2022 Autocratization Changing Nature
democracy. Like many other observers around the world, we are deeply concerned with the decline of democracy over the past decade. This year’s Democracy Report documents a continuation of that trend during 2021. This intensifying wave of autocratization around the world highlights the need for new initiatives to defend democracy.
Democracy for Cadettes - Rancho Oaks Service Unit 558
Democracy for Cadettes DEMOCRACY FOR CADETTES 1. 2 e e ep. Find out about e! local government When most people think of “government,” ... the news for a few days. Is there an issue rising to the surface that’s important to you? Do you think there’s something more that
Rethinking Athenian Democracy - Scholars at Harvard
!Conventional accounts of classical Athenian democracy represent the assembly as the primary democratic institution in the Athenian political system. This looks reasonable in the light of modern democracy, which has typically developed through the democratization of legislative assemblies. Yet it conflicts with the evidence at our disposal.
NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY AND THE CRISIS OF POLITICAL …
governance, and third, as it directly concerns the theme of today, enable me to put in a few words in the hope that it will translate into increased understanding of Nigeria’s electoral system. In this regard, June 12 serve as both a unifying force and a challenge to all of us. ... 4 Direct democracy (also known as pure democracy) is a form ...
Democracy and Authoritarianism in the 21st Century: A sketch
routine change of government but rather the last chance to save democracy as we have come to know it. So common are such concerns today that it is legitimate to ask whether we are perhaps exaggerating the challenges faced by democracy today. Yet, the growing evidence that democracy is in trouble cannot be ignored.-
Globalization and Democracy - JSTOR
historical and cultural distinctiveness of the respective cases. A few authors, observing the "historical clustering," offered an analysis of Europe's southern rim. Then, in the 1980s, several Latin American countries embarked on the transition to democracy. A new "transitions" literature connected these 1980 events to those of the 1970s.
Philosophy and Social Criticism A militant defence of …
The book is a militant defence of democracy in hard times. But it is not a defence of democracy against sceptics or oligarchs. Rather, it is a restatement of what democracy is all about. It is a message from one democratic citizen to other democratic citizens that tries to remind us of what is at stake for democracy in these critical times.
“Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy - ResearchGate
“Few deny the emergence and importance of post-truth politics, fake news, and the changing impact of the public and social media on democratic politics, though it is difficult to find compelling ...
The Global State of Democracy 2019: Key Findings - ide, a
The state of democracy in Africa and the Middle East KEY FINDINGS: AFRICA Positive developments • The expansion of democracy in Africa since 1975 is second only to Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa has experienced a remarkable democratic expansion in the last few decades, particularly since the early 1990s when many countries in the
Parenti, M. (1995). Democracy for the few, 6th ed. Boston: …
Democracy for the few, 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, pp. 220 – 241. Chapter 13 Congress: The Pocketing of Power The framers of the Constitution separated governmental functions into executive, legislative, and judicial branches and installed a system of checks and balances to safeguard against both the
NEW DEMOCRACY
“China’s New Democracy” by Mao Tse-tung is one of the essential documents for evaluating the current Chinese crisis. This booklet may present a few difficulties to the average American reader, for it is thoroughly Chinese and at the same-time thoroughly Marxian, and proceeds from many assumptions and
9‐12 Democracy & the People Democracy in the World
Write the word “democracy” on the board prior to class. INSTRUCTIONS Begin class by asking students to write a definition for the word “democracy” on a sheet of paper. Allow 1 minute (maximum) to write. Have a few students read their definitions, then explain the Greek roots of the word. In Greek, demos means “people,” and ...
Democracy in Bhutan - Druk Journal
The essence of the democratic impulse is to constrain the power of the few by asserting the will and authority of the (informed) many (the public). ... cited the American libertarian James Bovard’s observation that “Democracy must be something more than a few wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner”. Liberty and equal rights ...
Democracy and Decay - Scholars at Harvard
democracy: mass assemblies of ordinary citizens decided all policy and legislation. Modern democracy is representative: a small number of specially chosen individuals decide policy and ... Few citizens spoke in the assembly; few advanced proposals; few took the lead as ambassadors or generals. Those who devoted themselves to political life ...
Who Rules? Name Reading, pg 1 - monroe.k12.nj.us
Direct Democracy In a direct democracy all citizens have a chance to participate. The people directly control and are responsible for the laws that govern their ... but the literal definition of oligarchy is “rule by the few.” This means that a few people hold all the power based on military strength (known as a military junta), family ...
Michael Parenti Democracy For The Few
Democracy for the Few Michael Parenti,2002 Parenti s provocative critique of class power within traditional political institutions will arouse classroom debate and introduce students to a unique viewpoint of American capitalism Unlike most texts on the American political system DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW emphasizes the political economy of public ...
Defining and Measuring Democracy - University of Notre Dame
rather than for representatives; they considered democracy impossible in states with more than a few thousand citizens; and they considered public-spirited harmony, not a competition among interests, essential to the nature of democracy.8 By these …
Democracy: Its Meaning and Dissenting Opinions of the …
democracy in which the whole body of all eligible citizens remain the sovereign power but political power is exercised indirectly through elected representatives. ... the few to many, “them and us”, government and its subjects or the state and its citizens”. Appadorai (1974) states that “when a body of people is clearly organized as a ...
Democracy, financial development, and economic growth: an …
The causality from democracy to financial development have not been the topic of many theoretical and empirical contribution and most of them have been published in the recent years.
