Democracy In Theory And Practice

Democracy in Theory and Practice presents an authoritative overview of democratic theory today. Its distinctive approach links theory to practice, emphasizing the wide variety of institutions and procedures through which core democratic principles are implemented and the normative and practical dimensions of the choices to be made among these alternatives. Designed for courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, the book features eighteen chapters organized thematically and divided into sections and subsections for easy reference; historical and current examples, citations for specific ideas, annotated references, and further readings throughout enhance the volume's utility for students, scholars, and researchers. Sidebars give biographical sketches of classic theorists and democratic ideas from the US founders and constitutional tradition. Featured topics discussed include: Majority Rule; Participation; Deliberation; Accountability; Representation; Constitutionalism; Electoral Laws; Parties; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Functions. The Boundary Problem; The "All-Affected" Principle; Contested Senses of Liberal and Procedural Democracy; The Pros and Cons of Term Limits; Proportional Representation; Referendums; Problems of Democratic Transparency and Reversibility. Written by a leading authority in the field, Frederick G. Whelan encourages us to think of the many alternative ways of putting democracy into practice and of these alternatives as requiring choices. This diversity means that there is no unique or correct democratic outcome from a given set of preferences, since outcomes are shaped by the methods followed in reaching them.

The book examines the origin and evolution of democracy from the ancient to modern times both comprehensively and analytically. In this context, the importance of both India and China have been highlighted along with contributions made by the Greeks and t

Democracy is an issue of major importance in theory and practice in politics throughout the world. However, democracy’s study and advancement has been significantly compromised by a dichotomy between theorising about democracy, and empirical studies of democracy in practice. In addition to highlighting the need for this gap to be overcome, this book contributes to overcoming this divide, by demonstrating a number of ways that democracy in theory and practice can be synthesised; deepening our understanding of the relationship between democracy in theory and practice in the process. Different, but related, democratic principles and concepts are considered such as legitimacy, political equality, deliberation, and participation. A range of practical contexts are also investigated including multi-level polities, deeply divided societies, whole polities, local rural and urban areas, and a range of democratic processes, innovations and spectacular events. Moreover, the book sets the agenda for future work to combine democracy in theory and practice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Representation.

A collection of articles on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy edited by Robert Cavalier.

Democracy is the ability to participate freely and equally in the political and economic affairs of the country. Americans have relied on philosophical pragmatism and on the impulse of political progressivism to express those creedal democratic values. Achieving Democracy argues that, in the last 30 years, however, by focusing on free markets and small government, America has since lost its grasp on these crucial democratic values. Economically, the vast majority of Americans have been made worse off due to a historically unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the top one percent. Politically, partisan gridlock has hampered efforts to seek fairer taxes, responsive and effective regulation, reliable health care, and better education, among other needs. Achieving Democracy critiques the history of the last 30 years of neoliberal government in the United States, and enables an understanding of the dynamic and changing nature of contemporary government and the future of the regulatory state. Sidney A. Shapiro and Joseph P. Tomain demonstrate how lessons from the past can be applied today to regain essential democratic losses within the successful framework of a progressive government to ultimately construct a good society for all citizens.

In past decades, democratic theory has been on the defensive, largely as a result of the disappointments of democratic practice. The essays in this volume reflect critically on the theory in the light of those failures and with the corresponding assumption of an indissoluble connection between theory and practice. If theory maintains a monastic impeccability, untouched by the world, it will be sterile and fit merely for arid disputes. Nor can practice stand alone: it varies and changes and is subject to different interpretations. Success will come to it partly through the impact of empirical and prescriptive analysis. The volume is organised in sections, dealing in turn with the changing meanings and evaluations of democracy with classical theories with the revisions and critiques of these theories deriving from existing circumstances and with attempts to extend and to consolidate more adequate and secure theories of democracy. Among the thinkers considered are Mill, de Tocqueville, Marx and Marcuse, while the topics include bureaucracy, feminism, corporatism and social democracy. Together the essays will provide comprehensive review of the past condition and future prospects for democratic theory in practice.

This book makes an important contribution to contemporary debates over the place of civic participation in democratic theory and practice. Drawing on a detailed case study of the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford, the book employs a novel empirical approach to ask whether widespread participation in civic life can enhance the prospects for democracy, given the low levels of participation which tend to exist in deprived areas. Throughout, it presents an account of participation rooted in the history and development of the case, in order to avoid the kinds of abstraction which are characteristic of many existing studies in the area. The book will appeal to scholars working on democratic theory in applied settings, and will be of interest to anyone concerned with inequalities in civic participation.