Centripetal Democracy

Download or read book Centripetal Democracy written by Joseph Lacey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasised on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union and the conditions required to bring it about. Part One presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part Two defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part Three explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part Four presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

Download or read book A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance written by John Gerring and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-08 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines the importance of political institutions in achieving good governance within a democratic polity.

Download or read book Power Diffusion and Democracy written by Julian Bernauer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a theoretically and methodologically sophisticated remapping and analysis of political-institutional power diffusion in democracies.

Download or read book Politics of Democratic Breakdown written by Gangsheng Bao and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-05-30 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democratic breakdown as a political and historic event can impact the fate of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people, by changing the political complexion of a country. This book attempts to systematically explain why democracies collapse. The author's main theoretical argument is based on the examination of two factors. One is political cleavages among voters. These can cause serious political conflicts and may lead to fierce political confrontation and major upheaval at the society level. The other revolves around the types of political and institutional arrangements under democratic regimes. Centrifugal democratic regimes are likely to weaken government capacity or state capacity, rendering governments incapable of effectively resolving political conflicts and, when these two factors come together, political conflicts are less likely to be controlled effectively. These situations can evolve into serious political crises and eventually lead to the collapse of democratic regimes. The empirical research of this book is based on a comparative historical analysis of Germany, Nigeria, Chile, and India. Examining democratic collapses from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, this book will be of interest to those engaged in the study of democracy, Political Science, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory.

Download or read book Democracy in Divided Societies written by Ben Reilly and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text examines the potential of electoral engineering as a mechanism of conflict management in divided societies. It focuses on the little-known experience of a number of divided societies which have used vote-pooling electoral systems.

Download or read book Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy written by Daniel Ziblatt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do democracies form and what makes them die? Daniel Ziblatt revisits this timely and classic question in a wide-ranging historical narrative that traces the evolution of modern political democracy in Europe from its modest beginnings in 1830s Britain to Adolf Hitler's 1933 seizure of power in Weimar Germany. Based on rich historical and quantitative evidence, the book offers a major reinterpretation of European history and the question of how stable political democracy is achieved. The barriers to inclusive political rule, Ziblatt finds, were not inevitably overcome by unstoppable tides of socioeconomic change, a simple triumph of a growing middle class, or even by working class collective action. Instead, political democracy's fate surprisingly hinged on how conservative political parties - the historical defenders of power, wealth, and privilege - recast themselves and coped with the rise of their own radical right. With striking modern parallels, the book has vital implications for today's new and old democracies under siege.

Download or read book Elite Origins of Democracy and Development in the Muslim World written by Michael T. Rock and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using an elite consensus/conflict analytical frame, this book examines why some majority Muslim countries perform so much better at democracy and/or development than others, questioning received wisdoms that Islam, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment go together. Identifying four distinct democracy and development outcomes in the Muslim world, four case studies are interrogated to show that there is more variability in democracy and development outcomes in Muslim majority countries than macro-historical studies and aggregate data have shown. By demonstrating that democracy and development outcomes in Muslim countries are the consequence of elite conflict and elite consensus, rather than the precepts or institutions of Islam, the book places the competition for power among contending elites, rather than Islam, at the center of the story of democracy and development in the Muslim world. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political development/development studies, democratization and autocratization studies, democracy promotion, and more broadly comparative politics.