Showing results for "Science and Democracy" in World

India’s Five-Year Plans were one of the developing world’s most ambitious experiments. After nearly two centuries of colonial rule, planning the economy was meant to be independent India’s route from poverty to prosperity. Planning Democracy explores how India married liberal democracy to...

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.

This tumultuous global story begins with democracy's radical core idea: We can collaborate, as equals, to determine our own lives and futures. John Keane traces how this concept emerged and evolved, from the earliest "assembly democracies" to European-style electoral democracy to our present system of "monitory democracy." Keane calls this media- and communication-driven system "the most complex and vibrant form of democracy yet"—but it is not invulnerable. At this urgent moment, Keane's book mounts a new defense of a precious global ideal.

For 200 years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full account of liberal internationalism’s long journey from its 19th-century roots to today’s fractured political moment.

With the ideology under more global scrutiny than ever in the wake of the war on Iraq and suspicions over election results, David Beetham offers new insights into democracy. He looks at real examples, such as the role of the citizen and how large corporations affect democracy. He also contemplates the future of democracy in the developed and developing worlds.

Latin America has often been condemned to failure. Neither poor enough to evoke Africa’s moral crusade nor as explosively booming as India and China, it has largely been overlooked by the West. Yet this vast continent, home to half a billion people, the world’s largest reserves of arable land, and 8.5 percent of global oil, is busily transforming its political and economic landscape.

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. 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 about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.

Barely a year after the self-immolation of a young fruit seller in Tunisia, a vast wave of popular protest has convulsed the Middle East, overthrowing long-ruling dictators and transforming the region’s politics almost beyond recognition. But the biggest transformations of what has been labeled as the “Arab Spring” are yet to come. An insider to both American policy and the world of the Arab public, Marc Lynch shows that the fall of particular leaders is but the least of the changes that will emerge from months of unrest.

When Alexis de Tocqueville journeyed through America in the 1830s, he encountered a vibrant democracy unlike any he had witnessed before. His keen observations on American society and its political landscape, captured in the two-volume classic he authored, continue to resonate with remarkable relevance today. Join us as we explore Tocquevilles insights that shed light on the enduring principles of democracy. (Summary by the Bookworm)

Amidst the turmoil of the failed 1905 revolution in Russia, Lenin provides a critical analysis of the Bolshevik political program and tactics, contrasting them with the erratic and subservient factions within the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. Join us as we explore this insightful examination of revolutionary strategy and political clarity. (Summary by Christian Pecaut) This edition was edited by George Hanna.

Parce que la liberté n'est jamais un acquis, l'auteur de ces quelques pages restées célèbres nous rappelle avec justesse que si les démocraties modernes furent construites afin de promouvoir la liberté des individus citoyens, faut-il encore que ceux-ci ne se replient pas sur la défense de leurs intérêts particuliers et ne s'abstiennent pas de faire vivre cette citoyenneté au sein d'une démocratie à laquelle chacun doit s'efforcer de participer.