Showing papers on "Democracy published in 1996"

Democracy and Disagreement

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction The Persistence of Moral Disagreement The Sense of Reciprocity The Value of Publicity The Scope of Accountability The Promise of Utilitarianism The Constitution of Deliberative Democracy The Latitude of Liberty The Obligations of Welfare The Ambiguity of Fair Opportunity Conclusion Notes Index

Democracy and Growth

Abstract: Growth and democracy (subjective indexes of political freedom) are analyzed for a panel of about 100 countries from 1960 to 1990 The favorable effects on growth include maintenance of the rule of law, free markets, small government consumption, and high human capital Once these kinds of variables and the initial level of real per capita GDP are held constant, the overall effect of democracy on growth is weakly negative There is a suggestion of a nonlinear relationship in which more democracy enhances growth at low levels of political freedom but depresses growth when a moderate level of freedom has already been attained Improvements in the standard of living—measured by GDP, health status, and education—substantially raise the probability that political freedoms will grow These results allow for predictions about which countries will become more or less democratic over time

Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model

Abstract: I What conditions make democracy possible and what conditions make it thrive? Thinkers from Locke to Tocqueville and A. D. Lindsay have given many answers. Democracy, we are told, is rooted in man's innate capacity for self-government or in the Christian ethical or the Teutonic legal tradition. Its birthplace was the field at Putney where Cromwell's angry young privates debated their officers, or the more sedate House at Westminster, or the rock at Plymouth, or the forest cantons above Lake Lucerne, or the fevered brain of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Its natural champions are sturdy yeomen, or industrious merchants, or a prosperous middle class. It must be combined with strong local government, with a twoparty system, with a vigorous tradition of civil rights, or with a multitude of private associations. Recent writings of American sociologists and political scientists favor three types of explanation. One of these, proposed by Seymour Martin Lipset, Philips Cutright, and others, connects stable democracy with certain economic and social background conditions, such as high per capita income, widespread literacy, and prevalent urban residence. A second type of explanation dwells on the need for certain beliefs or psychological attitudes among the citizens. A long line of authors from Walter Bagehot to Ernest Barker has stressed the need for consensus as the basis of democracy-either in the form of a common belief in certain fundamentals or of procedural consensus on the rules of the game, which Barker calls "the Agreement to Differ." Among civic attitudes

Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies

Abstract: Tables and Figures Preface 1. Introduction I. POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC 2. The Nature of Mass Beliefs 3. How We Participate 4. Who Participates? II. POLITICAL ORIENTATIONS 5. Values in Change 6. Issues and Ideological Orientations III. THE ELECTORAL CONNECTION 7. Elections and Political Parties 8. The Social Bases of Party Support 9. Partisanship and Voting 10. Attitudes and Voting Choice 11. Political Representation IV. DEMOCRACY AND THE FUTURE 12. Citizens and the Democratic Process Appendix A: Statistical Primer Appendix B: Major Data Sources Appendix C: World Values Survey Codebook References Index

Democracy and difference : contesting the boundaries of the political

Abstract: Introduction: The Democratic Moment and the Problem of Difference3Pt. 1Democratic Theory: Foundations and Perspectives191Three Normative Models of Democracy212Fugitive Democracy313Using Power/Fighting Power: The Polity464Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy675Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy956Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy120Pt. 2Equality, Difference, and Public Representation1377Dealing with Difference: A Politics of Ideas, or a Politics of Presence?1398Three Forms of Group-Differentiated Citizenship in Canada1539Diversity and Democracy: Representing Differences17110Democracy, Difference, and the Right of Privacy18711Gender Equity and the Welfare State: A Postindustrial Thought Experiment218Pt. 3Culture, Identity, and Democracy24312Democracy, Power, and the "Political"24513Difference, Dilemmas, and the Politics of Home25714Democracy and Multiculturalism27815The Performance of Citizenship: Democracy, Gender, and Difference in the French Revolution29516Peripheral Peoples and Narrative Identities: Arendtian Reflections on Late Modernity314Pt. 4Does Democracy Need Foundations?33117Idealizations, Foundations, and Social Practices33318Democratic Theory and Democratic Experience33619Democracy, Philosophy, and Justification34020Foundationalism and Democracy348List of Contributors361Index365

Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma

Abstract: Low voter turnout is a serious democratic problem for five reasons: (1) It means unequal turnout that is systematically biased against less well-to-do citizens. (2) Unequal turnout spells unequal political influence. (3) U.S. voter turnout is especially low, but, measured as percent of voting-age population, it is also relatively low in most other countries. (4) Turnout in midterm, regional, local, and supranational elections -- less salient but by no means unimportant elections -- tends to be especially poor. (5) Turnout appears to be declining everywhere. The inequality problem can be solved by institutional mechanisms that maximize turnout. One option is the combination of voter-friendly registration rules, proportional representation, infrequent elections, weekend voting, and holding less salient elections concurrently with the most important national elections. The other option, which can maximize turnout by itself, is compulsory voting. Its advantages far outweigh the normative and practical objections to it. This article has been removed from the eRepository website since it is now published: American Political Science Review vol. 91 (March 1997): 1-14.

Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy

Abstract: How can we create a vital and inclusive pluralistic democracy? Public Deliberation offers answers to this question by showing how democratic theory and democratic practice can be remade to face new challenges. Arguing against the skepticism about democracy that flourishes today on both ends of the political spectrum, James Bohman proposes a new model of public deliberation that will allow a renewed expansion of democratic practice, even in the face of increasing pluralism, inequality, and social complexity.Bohman builds on early Critical Theory and on the recent work of Jurgen Habermas and John Rawls (while taking into consideration criticisms of their work) to create a picture of a richer democratic practice based on the public reasoning of citizens. Starting with a pragmatic account of how deliberation actually works to promote agreements and cooperation, he develops a realistic model of deliberation by gradually introducing and analyzing the major tests facing deliberative democracy: cultural pluralism, social inequalities, social complexity, and community-wide biases and ideologies. The result is a new understanding of the ways in which public deliberation can be extended to meet the needs of modern societies.

Education and democratic citizenship in America

Abstract: Figures and Tables 1: Education and Democratic Citizenship in America: Enlightened Political Engagement 2: Enlightened Political Engagement: Characteristics of Democratic Citizenship and Their Relationship to Education 3: What Links Education to Enlightened Political Engagement? Cognitive and Positional Pathways 4: Integrating and Testing the Model 5: Confirming the Enlightenment and Political Engagement Dimensions 6: Reconceptualizing Educational Effects 7: Education and Democratic Citizenship from the 1970's to the 1990's: Defining and Operationalizing the Measures 8: Testing Educational Effects Over Time 9: Absolute and Relative Education in Synchronic Studies: Application to Cross-Sectional Surveys 10: Education and Democratic Citizenship in Other Nations: An Exploratory Comparative Analysis 11: The Future of Education and Democratic Citizenship: Some Implications of Our Findings App. A: 1990 Citizen Participation Study Questions App. B: Weighting Procedures for the 1990 Citizen Participation Study Data Martin Frankel App. C: Basic Model by Race and Gender App. D: Creating the Political Engagement and Enlightenment Scales App. E: Nonrecursive Specifications App. F: Educational Environment and Relative Education Measures Jean G. Jenkins App. G: Documentation of the Over Time Data App. H: Documentation of Unreported Coefficients Bibliography Index

The strange disappearance of civic America

Abstract: By Robert D. Putnam A more extended version of this article, complete with references, appears in the Winter 1995 issue of PS, a publication of the American Political Science Association. This work, originally delivered as the inaugural Ithiel de Sola Pool Lecture, builds on Putnam's earlier articles, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," Journal of Democracy (January 1995) and "The Prosperous Community," TAP (Spring 1993).

Democracy and development in Africa

Abstract: Despite three decades of preoccupation with development in Africa, the economies of most African nations are still stagnating or regressing. For most Africans, incomes are lower than they were two decades ago, health prospects are poorer, malnourishment is widespread, and infrastructures and social institutions are breaking down.An array of factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of development in Africa, including the colonial legacy, social pluralism, corruption, poor planning and incompetent management, limited in-flow of foreign capital, and low levels of saving and investment. Alone or in combination, these factors are serious impediments to development, but Claude Ake contends that the problem is not that development has failed, but that it was never really on the agenda. He maintains that political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development.In this book, Ake traces the evolution and failure of development policies, including the IMF stabilization programs that have dominated international efforts. He identifies the root causes of the problem in the authoritarian political structure of the African states derived from the previous colonial entities. Ake sketches the alternatives that are struggling to emerge from calamitous failure--economic development based on traditional agriculture, political development based on the decentralization of power, and reliance on indigenous communities that have been providing some measure of refuge from the coercive power of the central state. Ake's argument may become a new paradigm for development in Africa.

Cities and Citizenship

Abstract: Cities and Citizenship is a prize-winning collection of essays that considers the importance of cities in the making of modern citizens. For most of the modern era the nation and not the city has been the principal domain of citizenship. This volume demonstrates, however, that cities are especially salient sites for examining the current renegotiations of citizenship, democracy, and national belonging. Just as relations between nations are changing in the current phase of global capitalism, so too are relations between nations and cities. Written by internationally prominent scholars, the essays in Cities and Citizenship propose that “place” remains fundamental to these changes and that cities are crucial places for the development of new alignments of local and global identity. Through case studies from Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America, the volume shows how cities make manifest national and transnational realignments of citizenship and how they generate new possibilities for democratic politics that transform people as citizens. Previously published as a special issue of Public Culture that won the 1996 Best Single Issue of a Journal Award from the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers, the collection showcases a photo essay by Cristiano Mascaro, as well as two new essays by James Holston and Thomas Bender. Cities and Citizenship will interest students and scholars of anthropology, geography, sociology, planning, and urban studies, as well as globalization and political science. Contributors . Arjun Appadurai, Etienne Balibar, Thomas Bender, Teresa P. R. Caldeira, Mamadou Diouf, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, James Holston, Marco Jacquemet, Christopher Kamrath, Cristiano Mascaro, Saskia Sassen, Michael Watts, Michel Wieviorka

Toward Consolidated Democracy

Abstract: It is necessary to begin by saying a few words about three minimal conditions that must obtain before there can be any possibility of speaking of democratic consolidation. First, in a modern polity, free and authoritative elections cannot be held, winners cannot exercise the monopoly of legitimate force, and citizens cannot effectively have their rights protected by a rule of law unless a state exists. In some parts of the world, conflicts about the authority and domain of the polis and the identities and loyalties of the demos are so intense that no state exists. No state, no democracy.

The Paradox of Civil Society

Abstract: The "civil society argument," as Michael Walzer calls it, is actually a complex set of arguments, not all of which are congruent. 1 In the rough pastiche that has become the commonly accepted version, a "dense network of civil associations" is said to promote the stability and effectiveness of the democratic polity through both the effects of association on citizens' "habits of the heart" and the ability of associations to mobilize citizens on behalf of public causes. Emergent civil societies in Latin America and Eastern Europe are credited with effective resistance to authoritarian regimes, democratizing society from below while pressuring authoritarians for change. Thus civil society, understood as the realm of private voluntary association, from neighborhood committees to interest groups to philanthropic enterprises of all sorts, has come to be seen as an essential ingredient in both democratization and the health of established democracies.

When parties matter: A review of the possibilities and limits of partisan influence on public policy

Abstract: This essay explores the possibilities and limits of partisan influence on public policy in democratic nations. It will be pointed out, that differences in party composition of govern- ment, in general, matter in public policy in constitutional democracy. However, the extent to which parties influence public policy is to a significant extent contingent upon the type of democracy and countermajoritarian institutional constraints of central state government. Large partisan effects typify majoritarian democracies and states, in which the legislature and the executive are 'sovereign'. More complex and more difficult to identify is the partisan influence on public policy in consensus democracies and in states, in which the political-institutional circumstances allow for co-governance of the opposition party. Narrowly circumscribed is the room to manoeuvre available to incumbent parties above all in political systems which have been marked by countermajoritarian institutional pluralism or institutional 'semi-sovereignty'. The article suggests, that it would be valuable if direct effects and interaction effects of the party composition of government and state structures featured more prominently in future research on comparative public policy.

Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work

Abstract: Tarrow initially provides a synopsis of Putnam’s widely heralded Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (1993 and with Leonardi and Nanetti). He is encouraging about Putnam’s early narrower project (see Putnam with Leonardi and Nanetti 1988), which shows how a 1970s central political reform was realized quite differently in the distinctive political cultures of northern and southern Italy. Tarrow agrees that this part of Putnam’s study demonstrates that distinctive political cultures are apt to shape initially similar institutions quite differently over time. So in this regard culture shapes political institutions. However, Putnam extended the initial scope of his analysis to inquire into the origins of these distinctive regional cultures, concluding that these regional peculiarities are long-standing, stemming from differences in civic republicanism (social capital or civil society) in the late medieval period that persist into the present. Thus, once again, Putnam portrays culture as shaping political institutions: Civic republicanism produces more thorough democracy. Tarrow disagrees with the causal flow Putnam suggests in his expanded project. Tarrow argues instead that, across this lengthy period, institutional differences shaped distinctive political cultures. Tarrow also thinks that Putnam’s operationalization of democracy has limitations, and we might add that Putnam’s indices of culture lack a theoretical superstructure.

Is the Third Wave Over

Abstract: Since the overthrow of Portugal's dictatorial regime in April 1974, the number of democracies in the world has multiplied dramatically. Before the start of this global trend toward democracy, there were roughly 40 countries that could be classified as more or less democratic. The number increased moderately through the late 1970s and early 1980s as a number of states experienced transitions from authoritarian (predominantly military) to democratic rule. In the mid-1980s, however, the pace of global democratic expansion accelerated markedly, and today there are between 76 and 117 democracies, depending on how one counts. How one counts is crucial, however, to thinking about whether democracy will continue to expand in the world, or even hold steady at its current level. In fact, it raises the fundamental question of what we mean by democracy.

Islam and Democracy

Abstract: Religious resurgence and democratization have been two of the most significant developments of the last quarter of the twentieth century. Frequently they work together; other times they are at odds. In the muslim world, this relationship is of special importance because of the strength of the Islamic resurgence, and the intensity of muslim demands for greater popular participation in political processes. Esposito and Voll use six case studies to look at the history of this relationship and the role played by new Islamic movements. At one end of the spectrum, Iran and Sudan represent two cases of militant, revolutionary Islam opposing the political system. In Algeria and Malaysia however, the new movements have been legally recognized and made part of the political process. The authors identify several important factors, such as the legality or illegality of the new Islamic movements and the degree to which they co-operate with existing rulers, as being key to understanding the success or failure of these movements. Still, the case studies prove that despite the commonalities, differing national contexts and identities give rise to differences in agenda and method. This broad spectrum of experience contains important lessons for understanding this complex and subtle relationship, and will also provide insight into the powerful forces of religion and democracy in a broader global context.

Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony

Abstract: Introduction: from East-West to North-South: US intervention in the 'new world order' 1 From 'straight power concepts' to 'persuasion' in US foreign policy 2 Political operations in US foreign policy 3 The Philippines: 'molded in the image of American democracy' 4 Chile: ironing out a 'Fluke' of the political system 5 Nicaragua: from low-intensity warfare to low-intensity democracy 6 Haiti: the 'practically insolvable problem' of establishing consensual domination 7 Conclusions: the future of polyarchy and global society

Does Television Erode Social Capital? A Reply to Putnam

Abstract: During the past thirty-five years many commentators have expressed concern about declining support for the American political system, noting familiar evidence of the steady erosion in electoral turnout (Stanley and Niemi 1995, 78; Teixeira 1992), falling participation in political parties (Rosenstone and Hansen 1993), plummeting levels of political trust (Lipset and Schneider 1987), and weakening civic engagement (Putnam 1995a). Evidence for declining confidence in American government is well-established. The standard National Election Study measures show that in 1954 three-quarters of the American public trusted government in Washington to do what was right ‘just about always or most of the time’. By 1994, a quarter of the public proved as trusting. Moreover how far Americans trust each other—or social trust—has also fallen by more than a third since the early sixties (Uslaner 1995; Putnam 1995a).Not all the evidence points in the same direction, and some alternative forms of political activity may have risen over time (Verba et al. 1995, 70–71). Moreover comparative research (Klingemann and Fuchs 1995) provides no evidence for a uniform secular decline in electoral turnout and confidence in government across advanced democracies, as sometimes assumed by observers. Nevertheless it is widely believed that American democracy has been experiencing a crisis of legitimacy, with angry voters disillusioned by Washington politics as usual.

A Renaissance of Political Culture

Abstract: Theory: Cultural differences drive significant elements of political and economic life. Hypotheses: (1) effective govemance hinges critically on traditions of civic engagement; (2) political culture fundamentally drives economic performance and democratic stability. Method: Reanalysis of two data sets: (1) the first includes information collected by Putnam (1993) on a variety of political, economic and social indicators for the 20 Italian regions; (2) the second includes comparable information collected by Inglehart (1990) for the industrial democracies. Results: We find little evidence to indicate a systematic relationship between political culture and political and economic performance.

Property and Contract Rights in Autocracies and Democracies

Abstract: We present and test empirically a new theory of property and contract rights. Any incentive an autocrat has to respect such rights comes from his interest in future tax collections and national income and increases with his planning horizon. We find a compelling empirical relationship between property and contract rights and an autocrat's time in power. In lasting—but not in new—democracies, the same rule of law and individual rights that ensure continued free elections entail extensive property and contract rights. We show that the age of a democratic system is strongly correlated with property and contract rights.

Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study

Abstract: Empirical findings for a panel of around 100 countries from 1960 to 1990 strongly support the general notion of conditional convergence. For a given starting level of real per capita GDP, the growth rate is enhanced by higher initial schooling and life expectancy, lower fertility, lower government consumption, better maintenance of the rule of law, lower inflation, and improvements in the terms of trade. For given values of these and other variables, growth is negatively related to the initial level of real per capita GDP. Political freedom has only a weak effect on growth but there is some indication of a nonlinear relation. At low levels of political rights, an expansion of these rights stimulates economic growth. However, once a moderate amount of democracy has been attained, a further expansion reduces growth. In contrast to the small effect of democracy on growth, there is a strong positive influence of the standard of living on a country's propensity to experience democracy.

Sources of Inefficiency in a Representative Democracy: A Dynamic Analysis

Abstract: This paper studies the efficiency of policy choice in representative democracies. It extends the citizen-candidate model of democratic policy-making to a dynamic environment. Equilibrium policy choices are shown to be efficient in the sense that in each period, conditional on future policies being selected through the democratic process, there exists no alternative current policy choices which can raise the expected utilities of all citizens. However, policies that would be declared efficient by standard economic criteria are not necessarily adopted in political equilibrium. The paper argues that these divergencies are legitimately viewed as "politicalfailures."

Politics, Media, and Modern Democracy: An International Study of Innovations in Electoral Campaigning and Their Consequences

Abstract: Tables Series Foreword Politics, Media and Modern Democracy: Introduction by Paolo Mancini and David L. Swanson Campaign Innovations in Established Democracies with Stable Political Cultures Politics, Media and Modern Democracy: The United States by Dan Nimmo Modern Communications vs. Traditional Politics in Britain: Unstable Marriage of Convenience by Jay G. Blumler, Dennis Kavanagh, and T. J. Nossiter The Modernization of Swedish Campaigns: Individualization, Professionalization and Medialization by Kent Asp and Peter Esaiasson The "Americanization" of German Election Campaigns: Any Impact on the Voters? by Klaus Schoenbach Campaign Innovations in New and Restored Democracies Television, Campaigning and Elections in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia by Ellen Mickiewicz and Andrei Richter Television and Elections in Post-1989 Poland: How Powerful Is the Medium? by Karol Jakubowicz Political Communication and Electoral Campaigns in the Young Spanish Democracy by Juan I. Rospir Campaign Innovations in Democracies Facing Potentially Destabilizing Pressures American-Style Electioneering in Israel: Americanization versus Modernization by Dan Caspi Patterns and Effects of Recent Changes in Electoral Campaigning in Italy by Gianpietro Mazzoleni Secular Politics: The Modernization of Argentine Electioneering by Silvio R. Waisbord Politics, Media and Modern Democracy: The Case of Venezuela by Jose Antonio Mayobre Patterns of Modern Electoral Campaigning and Their Consequences by David L. Swanson and Paolo Mancini Selected Bibliography Index

The Puzzle of Indian Democracy: A Consociational Interpretation

Abstract: India has been the one major deviant case for consociational (power-sharing) theory, and its sheer size makes the exception especially damaging. A deeply divided society with, supposedly, a mainly majoritarian type of democracy, India nevertheless has been able to maintain its democratic system. Careful examination reveals, however, that Indian democracy has displayed all four crucial elements of power-sharing theory. In fact, it was a perfectly and thoroughly consociational system during its first two decades. From the late 1960s on, although India has remained basically consociational, some of its power-sharing elements have weakened under the pressure of greater mass mobilization. Concomitantly, in accordance with consociational theory, intergroup hostility and violence have increased. Therefore, India is not a deviant case for consociational theory but, instead, an impressive confirming case.

Who Deliberates?: Mass Media in Modern Democracy

Abstract: Preface 1: Public Deliberation and Democracy 2: The New York Times Goes to War with Iraq 3: Assigning Blame for the Los Angeles Riots 4: Zoe Baird, Nannies, and Talk Radio Jason Tannenbaum, Benjamin I. Page. 5: Conclusion: Successes and Failures of Mediated Deliberation References Index