[PDF] Democracy And The Left eBook

Author : Evelyne Huber
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 36,62 MB
Release : 2012-09-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0226356558

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Although inequality in Latin America ranks among the worst in the world, it has notably declined over the last decade, offset by improvements in health care and education, enhanced programs for social assistance, and increases in the minimum wage. In Democracy and the Left, Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens argue that the resurgence of democracy in Latin America is key to this change. In addition to directly affecting public policy, democratic institutions enable left-leaning political parties to emerge, significantly influencing the allocation of social spending on poverty and inequality. But while democracy is an important determinant of redistributive change, it is by no means the only factor. Drawing on a wealth of data, Huber and Stephens present quantitative analyses of eighteen countries and comparative historical analyses of the five most advanced social policy regimes in Latin America, showing how international power structures have influenced the direction of their social policy. They augment these analyses by comparing them to the development of social policy in democratic Portugal and Spain. The most ambitious examination of the development of social policy in Latin America to date, Democracy and the Left shows that inequality is far from intractable—a finding with crucial policy implications worldwide.

Author : Geoff Eley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 724 pages
File Size : 22,9 MB
Release : 2002-04-11
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780198021407

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Democracy in Europe has been a recent phenomenon. Only in the wake of World War II were democratic frameworks secured, and, even then, it was decades before democracy truly blanketed the continent. Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve organically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came to form the very fiber of Europe's current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together. Geoff Eley has given us the first truly comprehensive history of the European Left--its successes and failures; its high watermarks and its low tides; its accomplishments, insufficiencies, and excesses; and, most importantly, its formative, lasting influence on the European political landscape. At a time when the Left's influence and legitimacy are frequently called into question, Forging Democracy passionately upholds its vital contribution.

Author : Evelyne Huber
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 29,34 MB
Release : 2012-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0226356523

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Although inequality in Latin America ranks among the worst in the world, it has notably declined over the last decade, offset by improvements in health care and education, enhanced programs for social assistance, and increases in the minimum wage. In Democracy and the Left, Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens argue that the resurgence of democracy in Latin America is key to this change. In addition to directly affecting public policy, democratic institutions enable left-leaning political parties to emerge, significantly influencing the allocation of social spending on poverty and inequality. But while democracy is an important determinant of redistributive change, it is by no means the only factor. Drawing on a wealth of data, Huber and Stephens present quantitative analyses of eighteen countries and comparative historical analyses of the five most advanced social policy regimes in Latin America, showing how international power structures have influenced the direction of their social policy. They augment these analyses by comparing them to the development of social policy in democratic Portugal and Spain. The most ambitious examination of the development of social policy in Latin America to date, Democracy and the Left shows that inequality is far from intractable—a finding with crucial policy implications worldwide.

Author : Kenneth M. Roberts
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 42,50 MB
Release : 1998
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780804731942

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Through a comparative analysis of the political Left and social movements in Chile and Peru, this book explores the structural and institutional forces which have limited the scope and quality of democracy in contemporary Latin America.

Author : Hans Keman
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 37,9 MB
Release : 2017-06-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1351679422

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5.4 Office- and policy-seeking performance of Social Democracy -- 5.5 The use of public powers through government by Social Democracy -- 6 The use of public powers: Social Democratic policy formation and policy performance -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 The interdependence between state and society: intervention and care -- 6.3 The Dual Welfare State as a policy profile of Social Democracy -- 6.4 Does Social Democratic policy formation matter? -- 6.5 Towards a Social Democratic society? -- 7 Searching for a new direction: Third Ways, Europe and globalisation -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Globalisation, European integration and national welfare -- 7.3 A new Social Democratic model? From Dual Welfare State to social investment state -- 7.4 Social Democratic programmatic change: from Left to Right? -- 7.5 Maintaining power resources of Social Democracy: votes or office? -- 7.6 The policy performance of the 'new' Social Democracy -- 7.7 Global change and flexible adjustments: Social Democracy in flux -- 8 Varieties of Social Democracy: pathways to power and mission performance -- 8.1 Epitome: Social Democracy - unity and diversity and development -- 8.2 Democratisation and the development of Social Democratic power resources -- 8.3 Ideological change and its ramifications for the Social Democratic project and model -- 8.4 Gaining political powers and party control to develop the Dual Welfare State -- 8.5 From diversity to mainstreaming: Social Democracy moving into the 21st century -- Appendix -- Index.

Author : Benjamin Goldfrank
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 36,76 MB
Release : 2015-09-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0271074515

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The resurgence of the Left in Latin America over the past decade has been so notable that it has been called “the Pink Tide.” In recent years, regimes with leftist leaders have risen to power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela. What does this trend portend for the deepening of democracy in the region? Benjamin Goldfrank has been studying the development of participatory democracy in Latin America for many years, and this book represents the culmination of his empirical investigations in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In order to understand why participatory democracy has succeeded better in some countries than in others, he examines the efforts in urban areas that have been undertaken in the cities of Porto Alegre, Montevideo, and Caracas. His findings suggest that success is related, most crucially, to how nationally centralized political authority is and how strongly institutionalized the opposition parties are in the local arenas.

Author : Adrian Pabst
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 127 pages
File Size : 36,24 MB
Release : 2019-07-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1509528482

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Liberals blame the global retreat of liberal democracy on globalisation and authoritarian leaders. Only liberalism, so they assume, can defend democratic rule against multinationals or populists at home and abroad. In this provocative book, Adrian Pabst contends that liberal democracy is illiberal and undemocratic – intolerant about the values of ordinary people while concentrating power and wealth in the hands of unaccountable elites. Under the influence of contemporary liberalism, democracy is sliding into oligarchy, demagogy and anarchy. Liberals, far from defending open markets and free speech, promote monopolies such as the new tech giants that undermine competition and democratic debate. Liberal individualism has eroded the social bonds and civic duties on which democracy depends for trust and cooperation. To banish liberal democracy’s demons, Pabst proposes radical ideas for economic democracy, a politics of persuasion and a better balance of personal freedom with social solidarity. This book’s defence of democratic politics against both liberals and populists will speak to all readers trying to understand our age of upheaval.

Author : Jodi Dean
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 18,62 MB
Release : 2009-09-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0822390922

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Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies is an impassioned call for the realization of a progressive left politics in the United States. Through an assessment of the ideologies underlying contemporary political culture, Jodi Dean takes the left to task for its capitulations to conservatives and its failure to take responsibility for the extensive neoliberalization implemented during the Clinton presidency. She argues that the left’s ability to develop and defend a collective vision of equality and solidarity has been undermined by the ascendance of “communicative capitalism,” a constellation of consumerism, the privileging of the self over group interests, and the embrace of the language of victimization. As Dean explains, communicative capitalism is enabled and exacerbated by the Web and other networked communications media, which reduce political energies to the registration of opinion and the transmission of feelings. The result is a psychotic politics where certainty displaces credibility and the circulation of intense feeling trumps the exchange of reason. Dean’s critique ranges from her argument that the term democracy has become a meaningless cipher invoked by the left and right alike to an analysis of the fantasy of free trade underlying neoliberalism, and from an examination of new theories of sovereignty advanced by politicians and left academics to a look at the changing meanings of “evil” in the speeches of U.S. presidents since the mid-twentieth century. She emphasizes the futility of a politics enacted by individuals determined not to offend anyone, and she examines questions of truth, knowledge, and power in relation to 9/11 conspiracy theories. Dean insists that any reestablishment of a vital and purposeful left politics will require shedding the mantle of victimization, confronting the marriage of neoliberalism and democracy, and mobilizing different terms to represent political strategies and goals.

Author : Ashley Lavelle
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 22,9 MB
Release : 2016-03-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1317036379

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Whereas many writers and scholars interested in the field of social democracy have focused on factors such as the role of economic globalization and electoral pressures, Ashley Lavelle explores the importance of the collapse of the post-war economic boom and lower growth rates since then. He examines how these pressures have led social democrats to embrace neo-liberal policies and become threatened by minor parties and independent politicians. Providing an original argument about the decline of social democracy, the author investigates how its decline has increased the popularity of minor parties and independents, along with the reasons for social democratic membership and electoral decline. This is an important book for scholars of social democracy and the broader themes of world politics, political parties, social movements and globalization.