Geographical Perspectives on Citizenship, Participation and Representation
'This volume successfully exposes the "ghostly presence" of democracy in the field of geography and shows the value of thinking about democracy geographically. It is a major contribution to serious examination of a normative political issue from a geographical perspective. This is welcome above all because geography is a field whose cultural and ......
Since the 1970s, the number of formally democratic states has grown exponentially whilst coherent alternatives to democracy have steadily diminished in terms of their global relevance. Yet, democracy remains an extremely problematic, conflictual and unfinished enterprise - as a process and a project. The progress of democratization, inside nation states and globally, is partial, unsteady and at times thin, and efforts to extend democratization outside the nation state, whether to international bodies or civil society or the private sphere of the family and even intimate social relations, are sometimes highly contested. For researchers and scholars, there is an undoubted challenge in understanding and interpreting the multi-layered and multi-dimension processes of democratization and gauging their significance for the social and political world. This collection explains aspects or experiments in democratization across the world and relates the substantial body of work on comparative, cross-regional and cross-case work across thematic fields of research. With this collection, researchers, policy makers, students, social and economic organizations such as businesses and labour movements, and NGOs in fields such as development, democracy promotion, social rights and international relations, can make sense of the best of a broad and potentially intimidating field of study. Volume One: Theories, Methods and Historical Perspectives Volume Two: States and Political Economies of Democratization Volume Three: Civil Society, Human Rights and Culture in Democratization Volume Four: The Global Politics and Globalization of Democratization
A comprehensive examination of the concept of "civil society", in which international scholars analyze civil society and democracy, citizenship, race and ethnicity and post-communism. Issues addressed include: The extent to which actual societies exhibit the features of the "ideal-type" civil society; the consequences of institutionalizing the ......
"The Theory of Democracy Revisited" is divided into two parts, each of which is self contained. Volume I deals, in the main, with issues that have surfaced in the last decade while Volume II covers themes whose discussion began in ancient Greece. The two volumes, however, also differ in their respective underlying threads. The classical theory of democracy did not draw, in any systematic manner, a distinction between ideal system and reality. Today, however, we are all highly sensitized to the hiatus between the ideal and the real. The normative (prescriptive) theory, now, by and large, applies to, and elaborates on, the ideals and values of democracy while empirical (descriptive) theory describes how democracies actually perform. The crucial problems thus become: to what extent and in what manner are ideals realized and realizable. This is very much the focus of Volume I. Volume II is more historical and considers the endless debate on power, coercion, liberty, equality, laws, rights, justice, representation, that shaped the vocabulary of politics from Aristotle to Tocqueville.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965, he explained that "[t]his act flows from a clear and simple wrong...Millions of Americans are denied the vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify." Now, in the fortieth anniversary year of its passage, readers can learn about the history, impact, and significance of this landmark event through the dynamic pairing of essays and primary source documents that define CQ Press's Landmark Events in U.S. History Series. The fifth volume in this award-winning collection, The Voting Rights Act, explores the origin, development, and consequences of this landmark legislation, and shows how its legacy continues to shape many aspects of U.S. government and politics. Eminent scholars who have particular expertise in the subjects addressed write the insightful essays contained in this volume. Following these essays are related primary sources from the late nineteenth century to the present that add a dynamic "you are there" immediacy to the coverage. Readers will find excerpts from relevant Supreme Court cases, key civil rights speeches and legal documents, and excerpts from speeches, hearings, and other documents related to the Voting Rights Act. Each document includes helpful head notes that give valuable context. As with all volumes in the Landmark Events in U.S. History Series, The Voting Rights Act presents a thorough and balanced treatment of a major historical event. The uniquely engaging approach will bring to life the history and significance of the Voting Rights Act for a wide range of library patrons, including high school and college-level students, as well as general readers and researchers looking for coverage of major U.S. events that is as interesting as it is informative.
"Stuckey's perceptive study of presidential rhetoric shows how technological changes have emptied presidential discourse of political substance, weakening American democracy. Her fascinating, widely ranging book is essential reading for presidency watchers, media scholars, and everyone who cares about the quality of American politics." - Doris A. Graber University of Illinois at Chicago
