What is the hangman but a servant of law? And what is that law but an expression of public opinion? And if public opinion be brutal and thou a component... part thereof, art thou not the hangman's accomplice?Writing in 1842, Lydia Maria Child articulates a crisis in the relationship of democracy to sovereign power that continues to occupy political theory today. Is sovereignty, with its reliance on singular and exceptional power, fundamentally inimical to democracy? Or might a more fully realized democracy distribute, share, and popularize sovereignty, thus blunting its exceptional character and its basic violence? In Democracy's Spectacle, Jennifer Greiman looks to an earlier moment in the history of American democracy's vexed interpretation of sovereignty to argue that such questions about the popularization of sovereign power shaped debates about political belonging and public life in the antebellum United States. In an emergent democracy that was also an expansionist slave society, Greiman argues, the problems that sovereignty posed were less concerned with a singular and exceptional power lodged in the state than with a power over life and death that involved all Americans intimately.Drawing on Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of the sovereignty of the people in Democracy in America, along with work by Gustave de Beaumont, Lydia Maria Child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, Greiman tracks the crises of sovereign power as it migrates out of the state to become a constitutive feature of the public sphere. Greiman brings together literature and political theory, as well as materials on antebellum performance culture, antislavery activism, and penitentiary reform, to argue that the antebellum public sphere, transformed by its empowerment, emerges as a spectacle with investments in both punishment and entertainment.

The form of democracy first introduced 2,500 years ago by Kleisthenes--introduced, some scholars say, for his own personal gain--is quite different from... what we call democracy today. And yet what was essentially a casual, practical solution to local Greek political difficulties has come to stand virtually unchallenged as the ground for modern political authority, and the questions which the Greeks first raised about the meaning of democratic rule still loom over our political and economic life. In Democracy, noted author John Dunn and twelve expert contributors trace the extraordinary political career of democracy from its appearance in ancient Greece to its recent resurrection in Eastern Europe. As the recent collapse of socialism demonstrates, the idea of democracy still holds a powerful attraction for us. By viewing its astonishing history across this great arc of time, the book shows why democracy today has both the power and the vulnerability which make it the key to understanding politics, and explains why it has triumphed so decisively in the modern world.

A political science text for the 21st Century, DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE has provided well over a million students with a comprehensive look at the... fundamentals of American Government. Milton Cummings, a respected scholar and academic, and David Wise, a best selling author and political analyst, bring their talents to bear on a text that conveys a balanced, realistic guide to American politics while describing the institutions of American government. In this 2006 election year update edition, the theme of "democracy under pressure" is highlighted fully in the narrative and in the boxed features. The text includes a discussion of the systems approach--a framework of analysis that discusses the political process in terms of inputs and outputs--as well as a key question and related questions to consider in each chapter. DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE focuses throughout on the gap that exists between rhetoric and reality in government today. Streamlined content in this edition makes the book even more accessible and appealing to students and instructors alike.

Master the fundamentals of American government with DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM, 2006 UPDATE, ALTERNATE... EDITION! This political science text provides a realistic guide to American politics and institutions while discussing the way democracy responds to challenges from diverse constituencies or dramatic public events. Studying is made easy with student-friendly tools including bold-faced terms, bulleted chapter highlights, and an end-of-chapter list of key terms with page references.

Master the fundamentals of American government with DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM, 2006 UPDATE! This... political science text provides a realistic guide to American politics and institutions while discussing the way democracy responds to challenges from diverse constituencies or dramatic public events. Studying is made easy with student-friendly tools including bold-faced terms, bulleted chapter highlights, and an end-of-chapter list of key terms with page references.

India's party system has undergone a profound transformation over the last decade. The Congress Party, a catch-all party that brought independence in... 1947 and governed India for much of the period since then, no longer dominates the electoral scene. Political parties which draw support from particular caste and religious groups are now more powerful than ever before. Democracy Without Associations explains why religious and caste-based political parties come to dominate the electoral landscape in 1990s India and why catch-all parties have declined. Arguing that political parties and state policy can make some social divisions more salient than others and also determine how these divisions affect the political system, the author offers an explanation for the relationship between electoral competition and the politicization of social differences in India. He notes that the relationship between social cleavages and the party system is not axiomatic and that political parties can influence the links they have to social cleavages. The argument developed for India is also used to account for emergence of class-based parties in Spain and the electoral success of a religious party in Algeria.Democracy Without Associations will interest scholars and students of Indian politics, and party politics, as well as those interested in the impact of social divisions on the political system.Pradeep K. Chhibber is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Director, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.

Despite its democratic structure, Japan's government has been dominated by a single party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1955. This book... offers an explanation for why, even in the face of great dissatisfaction with the LDP, no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a credible challenger in Japan. Understanding such failure is important for many reasons, from its effect on Japanese economic policy to its implications for what facilitates democratic responsiveness more broadly. The principal explanations for opposition failure in Japan focus on the country's culture and electoral system.

Democratic states must protect the liberty of citizens and must accommodate both religious liberty and cultural diversity. This democratic imperative... is one reason for the increasing secularity of most modern democracies. Religious citizens, however, commonly see a secular state as unfriendly toward religion. This book articulates principles that enable secular governments to protect liberty in a way that judiciously separates church and state and fully respects religious citizens. After presenting a brief account of the relation between religion and ethics, the book shows how ethics can be independent of religion-evidentially autonomous in a way that makes moral knowledge possible for secular citizens-without denying religious sources a moral authority of their own. With this account in view, it portrays a church-state separation that requires governments not only to avoid religious establishment but also to maintain religious neutrality. The book shows how religious neutrality is related to such issues as teaching evolutionary biology in public schools, the legitimacy of vouchers to fund private schooling, and governmental support of "faith-based initiatives." The final chapter shows how the proposed theory of religion and politics incorporates toleration and forgiveness as elements in flourishing democracies. Tolerance and forgiveness are described; their role in democratic citizenship is clarified; and in this light a conception of civic virtue is proposed. Overall, the book advances the theory of liberal democracy, clarifies the relation between religion and ethics, provides distinctive principles governing religion in politics, and provides a theory of toleration for pluralistic societies. It frames institutional principles to guide governmental policy toward religion; it articulates citizenship standards for political conduct by individuals; it examines the case for affirming these two kinds of standards on the basis of what, historically, has been called natural reason; and it defends an account of toleration that enhances the practical application of the ethical framework both in individual nations and in the international realm.

As the world's fifth-largest country, Brazil presents a compelling example of democracy in action. In this sequel to their landmark study Democratic... Brazil, editors Peter Kingstone and Timothy Power have assembled a distinguished group of U.S.- and Brazilian-based scholars to assess the impact of competitive politics on Brazilian government, institutions, economics, and society.The 2002 election of Lula da Silva and his Worker's Party promised a radical shift toward progressive reform, transparency, and accountability, opposing the earlier centrist and market-oriented policies of the Cardoso government. But despite the popular support reflected in his 2006 reelection, many observers claim that Lula and his party have fallen short of their platform promises. They have moved to the center in their policies, done little to change the elitist political culture of the past, and have engaged in “politics as usual” in executive-legislative relations, leading to allegations of corruption.Under these conditions, democracy in Brazil remains an enigma. Progress in some areas is offset by stagnation and regression in others: while the country has seen renewed economic growth and significant progress in areas of health care and education, the gap between rich and poor remains vast. Rampant crime, racial inequality, and a pandemic lack of personal security taint the vision of progress. These dilemmas make Brazil a particularly striking case for those interested in Latin America and democratization in general.

Many fear that democracies are suffering from a legitimacy crisis. This book focuses on "democratic deficits," reflecting how far the perceived... democratic performance of any state diverges from public expectations. Pippa Norris examines the symptoms by comparing system support in more than fifty societies worldwide, challenging the pervasive claim that most established democracies have experienced a steadily rising tide of political disaffection during the third-wave era. The book diagnoses the reasons behind the democratic deficit, including demand (rising public aspirations for democracy), information (negative news about government), and supply (the performance and structure of democratic regimes). Finally, Norris examines the consequences for active citizenship, for governance, and ultimately, for democratization. This book provides fresh insights into major issues at the heart of comparative politics, public opinion, political culture, political behavior, democratic governance, political psychology, political communications, public policymaking, comparative sociology, cross-national survey analysis, and the dynamics of the democratization process.

It is becoming common in many states: the opportunity to reclaim government from politicians by simply signing a petition to put an initiative on the... ballot and then voting for it. Isn't this what America ought to be about? Proposition 13 in California's 1978 election paved the way; the past decade saw more than 450 such actions; now in many states direct legislation dominates the political agenda and defines political-and public-opinion. While this may appear to be democracy in action, Richard Ellis warns us that the initiative process may be putting democracy at risk. In Democratic Delusions he offers a critical analysis of the statewide initiative process in the United States, challenging readers to look beyond populist rhetoric and face political reality. Through engaging prose and illuminating (and often amusing) anecdotes, Ellis shows readers the "dark side" of direct democracy-specifically the undemocratic consequences that result from relying too heavily on the initiative process. He provides historic context to the development of initiatives-from their Populist and Progress roots to their accelerated use in recent decades-and shows the differences between initiative processes in the states that use them. Most important, while acknowledging the positive contribution of initiatives, Ellis shows that there are reasons to use them carefully and sparingly: ill-considered initiatives can subvert normal legislative checks and balances, undermine the deliberative process, and even threaten the rights of minority groups through state-sanctioned measures. Today's initiative process, Ellis warns, is dominated not by ordinary citizens but by politicians, perennial activists, wealthy interests, and well-oiled machines. Deliberately misleading language on the ballot confuses voters and influences election results. And because many initiatives are challenged in the courts, these ostensibly democratic procedures have now put legislation in the hands of the judiciary. Throughout his book he cites examples drawn from states in which initiatives are used intensively-Oregon, California, Colorado, Washington, and Arizona-as well as others in which their use has increased in recent years. Undoing mistakes enacted by initiative can be more difficult than correcting errors of legislatures. As voters prepare to consider the host of initiatives that will be offered in the 2002 elections, this book can help put those efforts in a clearer light. Democratic Delusions urges moderation, attempting to teach citizens to be at least as skeptical of the initiative process as they are of the legislative process-and to appreciate the enduring value of the representative institutions they seek to circumvent.

The signing of the Dayton Peace Accords brought more than peace to Bosnia-Herzegovina; it also brought an influx of international aid workers intent on... helping Bosnia and Bosnians out of war. Democratic Designs examines the tool kit, experiences, and understandings of these "internationals" charged with bringing democracy to postconflict societies around the world.Democratic Designs is an ethnography of the practices of international intervention and democracy building. Coles examines both the lives of internationals and the work they performed in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina, in order to demonstrate how democracy---as a set of meanings and practices---is built through routine, instrumental, and procedural actors like audit reports, signatures, voter registers, and election supervisors. Over a period covering five election cycles, Coles had unique access to electoral forms and reforms as they were put into practice and documents exactly how the privileged lives of the internationals---above the state institutions they were building and far from the realities of normal life in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina---interacted with their democratic works."Perceptive anthropology meets international democracy promotion---the result is an arresting, original study of the controversial effort to build Bosnian democracy."---Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"Democracy projects have become a field of expertise and a tool of empire. Democratic Designs is a brilliant exploration of this paradoxical world."---Timothy Mitchell, Professor of Politics, Director of International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University"Democratic Designs is a careful, detailed and thoughtful ethnography of electoral practices in one case of internationally imposed 'democracy.' Coles had access to the day-to-day practices of producing democratic elections, and recounts these in an accessible way. The account makes a number of important contributions to the growing anthropological literature on the sociality of bureaucracy---and internationalist bureaucracy in particular."---Annelise Riles, Professor of Law and Anthropology at Cornell University and author and editor of several books, including The Network Inside OutKimberley Coles is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Redlands.

This collection brings into dialogue authors from a range of disciplines and perspectives to address the thorny question of how to balance the demands... of « democratic dialogue with the reality of a world in which each voice does not carry equal weight. Should rules be in place, for example, that correct for such imbalances by privileging some voices or muting others? Should separate spaces be created from traditionally disadvantaged groups to speak only among themselves? Is democratic dialogue in an inclusive sense even a possibility in a world divided by multiple dimensions of power and privilege? Leading theorists from several countries share a concern for social justice and present radically different interpretations of what democracy means for educational practice. In a format unusual for such collections, the essays speak directly to each other about significant moral, philosophical, and practical differences regarding how to effectively engage students as critical participants in classrooms fraught with power and difference. The authors draw from philosophy, critical race theory, sociology, feminist, and poststructural studies to address topics including hate speech, freedom of expression, speech codes, the meanings of silence, conceptions of voice and agency, and « political correctness. They explore honestly and self-critically the troubling and disturbing dimensions of speech and silence that situate the classroom as a volatile microcosm of contemporary political contradictions.