Authority And Democracy Routledge Library Editions Political Science Volume 5

This book debates the nature and functions of authority: it examines how far our inherited images of authority derive from an aristocratic and traditional order and considers which models of authority are still relevant in a democratic and rationalist society. It discusses the characteristics of the authority relationship, whether political authority differs from other kinds of authority, how authority relates to power and whether authority should be distinguished from the concept of legitimate rule. The latter part of the book explores the relevance or irrelevance of authority in contemporary society. In particular it examines recent libertarian arguments for the rejection of all forms of authority and the special problems of creating and maintaining authority after revolution.

This book, originally published in 1983 examines how effectively in Britain central government is equipped to secure efficiency and responsiveness and argues that as a result of shifts in the balance of power between the executive arm of government in Whitehall and the legislature in Parliament, the British system of government is neither as efficient, nor as responsive to popular will, as a strong democracy requires. The book considers which reforms are most likely to improve the efficiency of the government and to prove acceptable to British political and historical traditions. It reviews the way in which public debate is informed by government release of information and by the press and raises the question of how good a guide to the popular will referenda and public opinion polls are.

Although a powerful, independent bureaucracy poses a threat to democracy, it is indispensable to its proper functioning. This book provides an overview of the complex relationship between bureaucracy and the politics of democracy and is essential reading for students of sociology, political science and public administration. It is designed to guide students through the maze of classical and modern theories on the topic, to give them basic information on the historical developments in this area and the present them with case histories of the actual relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in democratic societies.

Mini-set B: Democracy reprints 11 volumes, by authors such as April Carter, Paul Q. Hirst, Gunnar Heckscher, Peter Pulzer and Douglas Wass. The volumes discuss the democratic process in politics, as well as direct action and social principles within the democratic state.

Mini-set B: Democracy reprints 11 volumes, by authors such as April Carter, Paul Q. Hirst, Gunnar Heckscher, Peter Pulzer and Douglas Wass. The volumes discuss the democratic process in politics, as well as direct action and social principles within the democratic state.

This book challenges conventional conceptions of politics which focus largely on the institutions of government and the associated struggles for power around them. It argues that politics is involved in all the activities of cooperation and conflict whereby people organize the use, production and distribution of human, natural and material resources. Found in all human groups, institutions and societies, politics everywhere influences and reflects the structures of power, social organization, culture and ideology. These central themes are illustrated by drawing on a wide range of societies, including the !Kung hunter-gatherers, the pre-Columbian Aztecs and the Pastoral Maasai, as well as modern Britain and Third World societies from Chile to China. Other examples - of village communities, a typical university department and the World Bank - show how institutions may also be analyzed in terms of the definition of politics used here. It is equally central to the argument that many of the most critical problems occurring in societies can be attributed to their politics, and this theme is explored looking at such problems as poverty, famines, epidemics, violence and unemployment in Britain and throughout the world.

This book, originally published in 1959, makes explicit the social principles which underlie the procedures and political practice of the modern democratic state. The authors take the view that in the modern welfare state there are porblems connected with the nature of law, with concepts like rights, justice, equality, property, punishment, responsibility and liberty and which modern philosophical techniques can illuminate.