Showing papers on "Democracy published in 1979"

Capitalism, socialism and democracy

Abstract: C A P I T A L IS M and socialism are generally taken to be irreconcilable opposites, and the conflict between their adherents has seemed so intense as to threaten the survival of the human species. In practice, no doubt, all sorts of compromises, accommodations and mixtures of the two are possible, but conceptually, considered as blueprints for the organization of society, capitalist and socialist ownership of the means of production appear mutually exclysive. I shall argue that this is by no means the case-that capitalism and socialism are, in fact, conceptually quite compatible; that a society be at the same time capitalist and socialist (by that I do not refer to a 'mixed economy') involves no contradiction. For it turns out, on closer examination than the matter usually receives, that capitalism and socialism are features of different parts of the social structure, and are therefore not necessarily in competition or conflict with one another-at least, not conceptually (whether they could in practice coexist with one another is a different and empirical question, which is raised by, for example, 'functionalist' theories of social structure'). In brief, while capitalism is a feature of society's economic organization, socialism is rather an aspect of its political system. In fact, as we shall see, socialism is a part of political democracy, and any democratic political system is therefore necessarily socialist.

Democracy in plural societies : a comparative exploration

Abstract: While it may be difficult to achieve and maintain stable democratic governments in countries with deep religious, ideological, linguistic, cultural, or ethnic cleavages, Lijphart argues that it is not at all impossible. Through the analysis of political systems in six continents, he demonstrates that what he calls consociational democracy can be successful in severely divided or plural societies. "Here, once again, Arend Lijphart is directing our attention to matters which will surely engage much of the attention of students of comparative politics in the next decade." G. Bingham Powell, Jr., American Political Science Review "A study which can speak to such a wide audience in political science deserves a warm welcome from the profession." Government and Opposition "A copybook example of the comparative method of political analysis, as well as indispensable reading for all who have an interest in the nature and prospects of representative democracy, whether in Europe or beyond."-The Times Higher Education Supplement "This well-written work, containing a wealth of information on politics of many diverse nations, is highly recommended."-Library Journal

Democratic Political Theory

Abstract: Professor Pennock launches an encyclopedic study that evaluates and ultimately synthesizes a variety of democratic theories. After defining democracy and examining the basic tensions both within and between liberty and equality, and individualism and collectivism, the author sets forth two typologies of operational democratic theories, one related to power, the other related to motivation. In succeeding chapters, he analyzes a series of problems with which any operating democracy must contend, and then measures--on the basis of empirical work done in this area--the adequacy of the various theories in dealing with these problems.Originally published in 1979.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Chile: The Legacy of Hispanic Capitalism

Abstract: INTRODUCTION 1 LAND AND SOCIETY 2 THE POLITICS OF CONQUEST 3 HISPANIC CAPITALISM 4 INDEPENDENCE AND THE AUTOCRATIC REPUBLIC 5 MODERNIZATION AND MISERY 6 NITRATE 7 POLITICS, LABOUR AND THE SOCIAL QUESTION 8 CHILEAN DEMOCRACY 9 CHRISTIANS AND MARXISTS 10 DICTATORSHIP 11 CONCERTACION: THE PAST AND PRESENT

India's Political Economy, 1947-1977: The Gradual Revolution

Abstract: This book addresses the fundamental paradox of India's political economy: how can the goals of economic growth and reduction of economic and social disparities be reconciled without unleashing the disruptive violence of a direct attack on the propertied castes and classes. The author illuminates the contradiction between the practice of accommodative politics and the commitment to social change that characterized India's development policies. Using data from interviews conducted over a 30-year period, Professor Frankel analyses the strategy of democratic social transformation adapted from Gandhi's two-pronged approach: class accommodation combined with an indirect attack on the social basis of exploitation. She examines the failures in implementation of basic social reform that led India during the post-Nehru period into an economic and political impasse. The author shows how these failures not only limited India's progress toward economic growth and social justice, but also disrupted the political consensus that had made a stable democracy possible. The new chapters engage critically with the economic liberalization programme that India initiated since 1991.

The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution

Abstract: For purposes of review it is fruitful to examine Gary B. Nash's The Urban Crucible as if it were two books. One is a complex, largely descriptive study of the social, economic, and political history of the key port cities of colonial America--Boston, New York, and Philadelphia--from 1690 to 1776. The other, drawing its energy from the rich detail of the first, is an evolutionary study of the socio-economic origins of the American Revolution. The two are woven together by material, focus, and theme: usually neglected materials, such as wills, inventories of estates, tax rolls, poor relief lists, voting records, shipping logs, and records of construction starts are imaginatively used; the focus is on the 'lower orders' of colonial urban society; and emphasis is placed upon the theme of modernity. This is rendered as a fitful but clear movement in urban society in three possible directions: from corporatism to laissez-faire, from traditional, kinship, deferential society to acquisitive, atomistic, democratic society, or (in an ironic echo of Perry Miller) a declension from organic community to mechanistic, individualistic society. The 'first' book represents a much needed departure from the myriad town and regional studies which for more than a decade have dotted the historiography of early America. For although Nash scrupulously preserves the integrity of each city--making clear, for example, both that ethnic rivalries in Philadelphia were very different from political rivalries in New York and religious

Dictatorships and Double Standards

Abstract: Carter’s foreign policy, emphasizing human rights, made rather unrealistic demands on America’s allies who were dictators (such as the Shah, or Somoza in Nicaragua). Democracy takes a long time to develop. Over six centuries elapsed between the Magna Carta in 1215 and the British Reform Bills of 1884 and 1885. Carter refused to support either one when civil conflict forced both out of office, and radical dictatorships replaced them.

The Friends of Liberty: The English Democratic Movement in the Age of the French Revolution

Abstract: This book, originally published in 1979, traces the growth of English radicalism from the time of Wilkes to the final suppression of the radical societies in 1799. The metropolitan radical movement is described in the context of the general democratic evolution of the West in the age of the American and French revolutions, by showing how its direction was influenced by events in France, Scotland and Ireland. The book emphasizes the importance of the great regional centres of provincial radicalism and of the evolution of a local, radical press. It also throws light on the impact of Painite radicalism, the origins of Anglo-french hostilities in 1793, the English treason trials of 1794, the protest movement of 1795 and the final phase of Anglo-Irish clandestine republicanism.

Does politics matter: an analysis of the public welfare commitment in advanced democratic states

Abstract: The overriding conclusion of the majority of recent policy studies is that political factors play an insignificant role in influencing policy outputs. We establish a number of models, comprising both economic and political variables, which are used in an attempt to indicate the relative salience of rival determinants of public welfare commitment in advanced democratic states. Though we cannot dismiss some influence of economic factors, the main findings run counter to the conventional wisdom of policy studies in indicating the greater salience of political factors as determinants of public welfare outputs.

The Politics of Workplace Trade Unionism: Recent Tendencies and some Problems for Theory

Abstract: The aim of this chapter1 is above all to stimulate discussion: firstly about the nature and significance of the changes which have occurred in British trade unionism (particularly at shop-floor level) since the 1960s; secondly about the implications of these changes for the analyses of union democracy and union leadership which are popular on the left.2 Much of the argument is tentative or exploratory; constructive criticism will be very welcome.

Elites in French Society: The Politics of Survival

Abstract: Why do some elites survive while others do not? How do certain institutions manage to preserve their importance in the face of crises, instability, and change? How does a democratic society legitimize elitist institutions? Combining the use of important social theories--particularly those of Mosca, Schumpeter, Tocqueville, and Pareto--with empirical analysis, Ezra Suleiman tries to answer these questions in his examination of the dominance and stability of France's governing elites.The author draws on original survey data, historical evidence, and specialized documentary sources. His three part discussion deals, first, with the state institutions that nurture the French elite; second, with the organization, legitimization, and adaptation of the elite and its institutions; and third, with some of the policy and political implications of France's elitist system. In the final section of his book, he closely examines the relationship between elites in the public and private sectors. In his investigation of France's "state-created" elites, Professor Suleiman shows the great importance of the "grandes ecoles" in training and promoting the elites, and the "grand corps" in providing a base from which the elites launch themselves into extra-governmental careers. He also finds that the elites' capacity to adapt to an evolving social, political, and economic environment is a major factor in their ability to survive.Originally published in 1979.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905."

Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes

Abstract: Democracy in Deficit opened the door for much of the current work on political business cycles and the incorporation of public-choice considerations into macroeconomic theory. Even in the area of monetarism, Buchanan's landmark work has greatly influenced the sway of contemporary theorists away from the nearly universally held belief of Keynesian theory. Democracy in Deficit contributes greatly to Buchanan's lifelong fiscal and monetary rules to guide long-term policy in macroeconomics. The book serves to bolster Buchanan's central beliefs in the necessity of a balanced-budget amendment to the US Constitution and in monetary rules rather than central bank discretion.

The Causes of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran

Abstract: Marx, the prophet of revolution, may no longer haunt conservative politicians, but Marx, the theorist of revolution, continues to both attract and arouse social scientists. In the words of one student of politics, the social sciences, especially political sociology, can be described as a ‘century-long dialogue with Karl Marx.’ And as one prominent historian of ideas has aptly stated, Marx can properly be called the midwife of twentieth-century social thought, ‘for in the process of discarding what they had found invalid in Marxism and explaining what aspects of it had proved helpful, the innovators of the late nineteenth century took their first steps towards constructing a more general theory of social reality.’ For example, Emile Durkheim developed the paradigm of ‘mechanical and organic solidarity’ to counter the theory of class struggle. Vilfred Pareto and Gaetano Mosca stressed the dichotomy between ruling elites and ruled masses to supplant the concept of socioeconomic classes. Robert Michels formulated the ‘iron law of oligarchy’ to warn that popular organizations, such as the Social Democratic Parties, would bring in not the era of democratic socialism but the autocracy of bureaucratic socialists.’ And Max Weber, of course, devoted much of his career to showing that the dynamics of class conflict should be studied concomitantly with the heavy weights of conservative ideologies, traditional religions, ethnic castes, and bureaucratic institutions.

The Christian Democratic parties of Western Europe

Abstract: The Christian Democratic political parties of Western Europe emerged primarily after 1945 in the peculiar climate following the war, and since that time they have played an important, sometimes even decisive, role. Not only are they to be found in most countries of the European Community but in Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, and the Scandinavian countries as well. Although many appeared to be declining by the 1960s, from the mid-1970s some have recovered much of the electoral strength they were losing. Christian Democracy will continue to be a significant political force in Europe during the 1980s, and it deserves closer study. Thus, Professor Ronald Irving's book, commissioned for Chatham House, is a most timely and welcome addition to the literature on this important and heretofore much neglected subject. Irving suggests that Christian Democracy is not an ideology in the sense of a precise corpus of doctrine or 'coherent view of politics based on a precise programme and objectives' (p 56), though he insists that it can be distinguished from its predecessors such as the German Centre party, as well as from its present competitors on the left and right. In general terms, Christian Democratic parties are 'committed to certain common ideas and principles' (p 29). In response to the spread of communism they support the need to defend Christian values and human rights, and in reaction to Fascism/Nazism come out strongly for a reformed pluralistic society. Christian Democratic parties have usually sought to break out of a narrow confessional framework and to develop into people's parties. The main body of the book (pp 59-233) presents chapter by chapter accounts of Christian Democratic parties in Italy, Germany, Belgium,

Aristippus in and out of Athens

Abstract: This article has two purposes. The first is to show how some of the central principles of classical Greek political theory became anachronistic as a result of massive transformations in the underlying structure of European society. These principles, it is argued, were originally dependent on an empirical premise that the polity is a “whole” encompassing individual “parts,” or (stated differently) that the polity is identical with total society. This whole/part schematization of the polity seemed plausible in the ancient city since most sectors of polis life had political connotations or overtones. The same schema, however, became an archaism in modern Europe, chiefly because of the emphatic emergence of a distinction between state and society–one aspect of a more general increase in the structural differentiation of society. The second and closely related purpose is to explore the feasibility of a claim once advanced by Benjamin Constant: that the organizational transformations involved in the modernization of European society have created a novel rhetorical opportunity, the possibility of defending tyranny in the name of freedom and democracy.

Karl Kautsky and the Socialist Revolution 1880-1938

Abstract: This first modern study provides an original and balanced perspective of a theorist whom Lenin referred to as both 'master of Marxism' and 'renegade'. Examining Kautsky's political thought over a period stretching from the Paris Commune to the Second World War, the author argues for the consistency with which Kautsky developed his positions on socialism, democracy, political parties and the role of the proletariat. While Salvadori's analysis is grounded in the debates within the Communist International and the German labour movement, Kautsky emerges as a distinctly modern thinker who produced a Marxist theory of the state, and originated critique of the USSR as a 'state capitalist' system. At this level, it provides a serious and measured exposition of the terms on which arguments for socialist strategy currently move.

Democracy and Welfare Economics

Abstract: This is a fully revised and updated version of Hans van der Doel's Democracy and Welfare Economics. It presents the economic theory of political decision-making (otherwise knownn as new political economy, or public choice), providing students with an accessible and clear introduction to this important subject. The authors identify four different methods of decision-making by which the political process transforms the demands of individual citizens into government policy and public goods and services: negotiation, majority decision, representations and bureaucratic implementation. These are analysed, in turn, as independent decision-making models whose effectiveness is examined with reference to economic theory. A final chapter draws conclusions from this analysis, arguing that the size of the public sector is a result of forces that work in different directions at different stages of the political process.

Liberal Democracy and Group Rights: The Legacy of Individualism and its Impact on American Indian Tribes

Abstract: Individualism is the foundation of democratic theory and practise in the United States. A multi-ethnic, but not really a multi-communal society in the same sense as Northern Ireland or India, the United States has not generally had to confront the nature and justification of its historical opposition to group rights and communal social and political organization. Only the American Indian tribes, with their treaty-mandated communalism, have presented exceptions to this pattern. This paper explores the assumptions underlying liberal democratic attitudes towards communalism, the ways in which group claims pose challenges to conventional notions of justice and equality, and the utility of introducing alternative assumptions about the nature and role of groups in democratic society. Discussion centers on the most recent attempt to reduce the group rights of American Indian tribes.

Scientific Knowledge, Public Policy, and Democracy: A Review Essay

Abstract: knowledge, its production, and its codification is intrinsically linked to power and influence. The political role of science, apparent since World War II, has shaped the development of scientific fields and the structures through which knowledge is employed for political objectives. After the war science flourished: there were about 100,000 researchers throughout the world in 1940: a million by the late 1950s. Then Sputnik called attention to the strategic importance of science for international competition and prestige and for national economic growth, ’ This led to a further expansion of research with its promise of long-term applications, an increased integration of scientific knowledge as an instrument

The Dimensionality of Party Identification Cross-National Perspectives

Abstract: Rigorous description of reality is of crucial concern to the social sciences. Frequently the predictions of common sense or the conventional wisdom have proven unfounded when confronted with systematically collected and carefully analyzed data. As important as the establishment of facts is, however, real advances are only made when facts are fitted together in a framework or theory that both renders explicable their relation to one another and leads to the postulation of new hypotheses. The confirmation (or rejection) of these hypotheses then adds to the store of facts and thus to the refinement, modification, or even rejection of the theory leading to their generation. Progress lies in abstraction and generalization from raw facts. One abstraction that tremendously advanced the study of electoral behavior was the concept of party identification. Long before the authors of The American Voter operationally defined this concept in the now classic way,1 it had been recognized that voters did not approach elections with completely open minds. Without the benefit of modem social science, Washington, Madison, Hume, and Calhoun all recognized the importance of the "spirit of party" or "party attachments" in influencing electoral behavior. The advance for which Angus Campbell et al. deserve credit is the casting of this fact in a socialpsychological framework. Once party identification was likened to other psychological predispositions, it could be fitted into a more comprehensive theory of electoral choice. Additionally, a variety of hypotheses concerning the acquisition of partisanship were suggested, many of which have been verified by subsequent investigation. Party identification has become a key concept in the study of mass political behavior in democratic countries. For all its operational specificity and theoretical centrality, however, the

Islam in Politics: The Case of Turkey *

Abstract: ONCE IRAN HAD CALLED FOR AN ISLAMIC REVOLUTION, THERE was speculation that the message might elicit a similar response elsewhere in the Islamic world. In fact, soon after the events in Iran, a group of foreign journalists arrived in Turkey and rumour had it that they had come to report on the Islamic revolt expected in Turkey as well. The expected, however, did not take place: instead, had the journalists stayed on, what they would have witnessed was the breakdown of democraci, and the installation of authoritarian rule by the staunchest de enders of secularism, the Turkish military. Islamic politics had been instrumental in exacerbating the democratic crisis, and hence the military takeover was partially directed against the Islamic politics of the National Salvation Party (NSP) and the street politics of radical Islamic groups. Islamic politics was strong enough to figure in the equation of democratic breakdown, but far too weak to detonate an Islamic revolution. The purpose of this essay is to look into the nature of Islamic politics in Turkey in terms of its past ventures in society, its recent involvement in party politics and its prospects for the future. Our fundamental assumption is that the specific characteristics of Islamic politics in Turkey are closely bound up with the state-dominant nature of Turkish political culture and society. More specifically, we attempt to show that changes in the nature of Islamic politics and movements, their organization, aims and strategies, have been in large part shaped by the changing structure and ideology of the state and the centralist elites.

Technological Decisions and Democracy: European Experiments in Public Participation@@@Basic Human Needs: A Framework for Action

Abstract: Using data from European experiments permitting the public to help determine the usage of technological innovation, Dorothy Nelkin provides information on a process involving difficult social choices. She examines the question of whether the public should be entitled to a say in determining the impact of technological processes on their daily lives. She details individual government efforts to promote broader public participation in decision-making. The book will be of value to all those concerned wth the social and policy dimensions of science and technology. 'Professor Nelkin's essay is written with the clarity and precision characteristic of her earlier writings. Apart from its value as a summary of information not readily available elsewhere, it will stimulate the American and British reader to reflect on the arrangements for participation in their own countries.' -- Nature Vol 280, 30 August 1979

Authority and Democracy

Abstract: 1. Authority in the Ancien Regime 2. Defining Authority 3. The Nature of Political Authority 4. Political Authority and Political Power 5. Authority in the Modern World 6. Authority and Revolution