[PDF] Democracy When The People Are Thinking P eBook
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Democracy requires a connection to the 'will of the people'. What does that mean in a world of 'fake news', relentless advocacy, dialogue mostly among the like-minded, and massive spending to manipulate public opinion? What kind of opinion can the public have under such conditions? What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? If they really 'deliberated' with good information about their political choices? This book argues that 'deliberative democracy' is not utopian. It is a practical solution to many of democracy's ills. It can supplement existing institutions with practical reforms. It can apply at all levels of government and for many different kinds of policy choices. This volume speaks to a recurring dilemma: listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public's concerns. Instead, there are methods for getting a representative and thoughtful public voice that is really worth listening to. Democracy is under siege in most countries, where democratic institutions have low approval and face a resurgent threat from authoritarian regimes. Deliberative democracy can provide an antidote and can reinvigorate our democratic politics. This book draws on the author's research with many collaborators on 'Deliberative Polling'-a process conducted in 27 countries on six continents. It contributes both to political theory and to the empirical study of public opinion and participation. It should interest anyone concerned about the future of democracy and how it can be revitalized.
. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.
This title describes a new method of consulting the public that has been tried successfully around the world. It combines the theory of democracy with actual practice.
Fathali M. Moghaddam explores how psychological factors influence the presence, potential development, or absence of democracy. Recommendations are given for promoting the psychological processes that foster democracy. Where democracy thrives, it seems far and away the best system of governance. Yet, relatively few countries have managed to transition successfully to democracy, and none of them have attained what Fathali M. Moghaddam calls "actualized democracy," the ideal in which all citizens share full, informed, equal participation in decision making. The obstacles to democratization are daunting, yet there is hope. What is it about human nature that seems to work for or against democracy? The Psychology of Democracy explores political development through the lens of psychological science. He examines the psychological factors influencing whether and how democracy develops within a society, identifies several conditions necessary for democracy (such as freedom of speech, minority rights, and universal suffrage), and explains how psychological factors influence these conditions. He also recommends steps to promote in citizens the psychological characteristics that foster democracy. Written in a style that is both accessible and intellectually engaging, the book skillfully integrates research and an array of illustrative examples from psychology, political science and international relations, history, and literature.
Featuring cases from India, China, Nepal, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Mongolia and Malaysia, the authors demonstrate and compare the differing uses of public deliberation in Asia. Many countries in Asia have long traditions of public deliberation, in both democratic and undemocratic settings, some of which continue today. Yet in the face of pressures from complex governance, popular protests and democratization, certain deliberative practices – notably deliberative polling – have been ‘parachuted’ into the region without regard to historical or traditional practices of deliberation. And, the motivations differ. Some states have made use of public deliberation in order to contain dissent, while others have more emancipatory goals in mind. The contributors to this book take a comparative perspective on the emergence and evolution of deliberative practices in Asia, and their relationships with democracy. They analyse the main motivations for introducing public deliberation in different political regimes and the effectiveness of public deliberation in Asian countries for solving problems and improving governance. In doing so they evaluate whether deliberative democratic tools, can apply to all societies regardless of their political and cultural differences. Essential reading for students and scholars of Asian Politics, this book will also be of great use to all political scientists with an interest in deliberative democracy.
In this short and powerful book, celebrated philosopher Martha Nussbaum makes a passionate case for the importance of the liberal arts at all levels of education. Historically, the humanities have been central to education because they have been seen as essential for creating competent democratic citizens. But recently, Nussbaum argues, thinking about the aims of education has gone disturbingly awry in the United States and abroad. We increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable, productive, and empathetic individuals. This shortsighted focus on profitable skills has eroded our ability to criticize authority, reduced our sympathy with the marginalized and different, and damaged our competence to deal with complex global problems. And the loss of these basic capacities jeopardizes the health of democracies and the hope of a decent world. In response to this dire situation, Nussbaum argues that we must resist efforts to reduce education to a tool of the gross national product. Rather, we must work to reconnect education to the humanities in order to give students the capacity to be true democratic citizens of their countries and the world. In a new preface, Nussbaum explores the current state of humanistic education globally and shows why the crisis of the humanities has far from abated. Translated into over twenty languages, Not for Profit draws on the stories of troubling—and hopeful—global educational developments. Nussbaum offers a manifesto that should be a rallying cry for anyone who cares about the deepest purposes of education.
"This collection itself presents a significant public assembly, joining such prominent thinkers as Richard Rorty, Simon Schaffer, Peter Galison, and Peter Sloterdijk with the likes of Shakespeare, Swift, La Fontaine, and Melville. Ranging from the distant past to the troubled present, this collective effort examines the atmospheric conditions in which things are made public, and reinvests political representation with the materiality it has been lacking. This book, and the ZKM show that it accompanies, aims to trigger new political passions and interests in a time when people need, more than ever, new ways to have their voices heard."--BOOK JACKET.
Intensifying economic and political inequality poses a dangerous threat to the liberty of democratic citizens. Mounting evidence suggests that economic power, not popular will, determines public policy, and that elections consistently fail to keep public officials accountable to the people. McCormick confronts this dire situation through a dramatic reinterpretation of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought. Highlighting previously neglected democratic strains in Machiavelli's major writings, McCormick excavates institutions through which the common people of ancient, medieval and Renaissance republics constrained the power of wealthy citizens and public magistrates, and he imagines how such institutions might be revived today. It reassesses one of the central figures in the Western political canon and decisively intervenes into current debates over institutional design and democratic reform. McCormick proposes a citizen body that excludes socioeconomic and political elites and grants randomly selected common people significant veto, legislative and censure authority within government and over public officials.
Why are voters so easily hoodwinked? Why so many vote against their own interests? What is it about human beings that corrupts even the systems and organizations designed with the best of intentions? Why don't people or nations learn from experience, or from history? When is truth really relative, and when saying that is an excuse? What goes on inside people when they describe such different "realities" at the least whiff of a conflict of interests? Does thinking for yourself make you happier, unhappier, or are there different kinds of happiness? Why did the US democracy turn into a plutocracy, again? Many people ask these questions with mounting frustration, having to bear the compounding absurdities in relationships and systems, big and small. To really understand these issues we have to look at them from several viewpoints, because the real answer is multifaceted. When we analyze political behavior - or more broadly, when we want to understand what underpins and mediates the decisions we make -- much is lost if we do so only from the perspective of one discipline. Political behavior and political psychology can be analyzed from the perspective of history, anthropology, political science, economics, or psychology: cognitive, social, cultural, existential, or evolutionary psychology. Each perspective provides meaningful understandings. Here I create a framework combining multiple perspectives, and invite other thinkers and researchers to add and elaborate on each as well as on the whole. In the last three decades, excellent books and articles have been published about the human mind and more recently, about the brain. There is fascinating research about many issues mentioned here, studying specific phenomena within specific disciplines. There is both the need for specialization, as well as for creating comprehensive pictures, gestalts, to help us see how the parts fit together and interact. My contribution here is to present some new pieces of this puzzle, and together with the pieces described by others, fit them into a composite picture that hopefully enhances the meaning of the parts. I believe you will also find that some familiar concepts are presented in a new light. This is a book about what is necessary to make democracy real as well as sane, and create a benevolent society and culture for all its members. It is about how and why democratic institutions get hijacked by demagogues - heads of corporations, political manipulators and actual politicians with the active support of the media, often the academia, and the collusion of citizens who don't know how to think for themselves, nor wish to. Therefore, I will examine the "organ" where true sovereignty is supposed to reside: people's consciousness -- minds and hearts. At the same time, this book is about deep happiness, about healthier relationships and workplaces, and about living fuller lives. Those who manipulate people's consciousness already understand how people deceive themselves (intuitively at least) because knowing this is a set of social intuitions which are part of our evolutionary psychology. So it befits the rest of us to also understand this if we are to free ourselves from their manipulations. A commitment to continuously knowing ourselves better is essential to this freedom from the demagoguery/plutocracy/oligarchy that is a constant threat to actual government by the people, for the people. It also brings inner peace. So while I explain why most people are conformists, shuffling prefabricated ideas and assumptions rather than producing original and practical thinking; and I decry the culture of spin and all manner of manipulative methods -- I point to what is needed to develop a special sensitivity in the mind and the freedom to think for oneself. The book pivots on the things people care about most, yet often ignore or betray: things like truth, integrity, meaning in life, and most of all deep happiness.
Shows that current elitist theories are based on an inadequate understanding of the early writings of democratic theory and that much sociological evidence has been ignored.