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The Fight to Vote
Michael Waldman
Simon and Schuster, Esfand 4, 1394 AP - History - 384 pages
From the president of NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice and the author of The Second Amendment, the history of the long struggle to win voting rights for all citizens.
In The Second Amendment, Michael Waldman traced the ongoing argument on gun rights from the Bill of Rights to the current day. Now in The Fight to Vote, Michael Waldman takes a succinct and comprehensive look at a crucial American struggle: the drive to define and defend government based on “the consent of the governed.” From the beginning, and at every step along the way, as Americans sought to right to vote, others have fought to stop them. This is the first book to trace the full story from the founders’ debates to today’s challenges: a wave of restrictive voting laws, partisan gerrymanders, the flood of campaign money unleashed by Citizens United. Americans are proud of our democracy. But today that system seems to be under siege, and the right to vote has become the fight to vote.
In fact, that fight has always been at the heart of our national story, and raucous debates over how to expand democracy have always been at the center of American politics. At first only a few property owners could vote. Over two centuries, working class white men, former slaves, women, and finally all Americans won the right to vote. The story goes well beyond voting rules to issues of class, race, political parties, and campaign corruption. It's been raw, rowdy, a fierce, and often rollicking struggle for power. Waldman’s The Fight to Vote is a compelling story of our struggle to uphold our most fundamental democratic ideals.
Values, Economic Crisis and Democracy
Mălina Voicu, Ingvill C. Mochmann, Hermann Dülmer
Routledge, Bahman 9, 1394 AP - Business & Economics - 344 pages
For the past decade European countries have undergone a severe economic crisis, with severe consequences both for individuals and for governments. Unemployment and rising poverty have compelled individuals to reconsider their own priorities and goals, while governments have been forced to rethink social policies on the national level, as well as their international economic and political agreements. Some countries have been more deeply affected by the crisis than others, and the impact of economic shortage on individuals and governments has differed, not only because of the different magnitudes of the crisis, but also because individuals react differently to the contextual changes.
This book makes use of cross-national survey data to explore the impact of wealth and economic contexts on social values. Instead of attempting to explain how aggregate changes occur (as previous volumes have done) the chapters in this collection focus on micro-level effects to interrogate more deeply the interplay between attitudes and values – and the way both can change as a result of transformation of economic context. This book elaborates on several dimensions of value change:
- the measurement model and the way it changes under the impact of economic shortage;
- the connection between universal value orientations and attitudes towards different objects (e.g. the welfare state, immigrants and ethnic groups);
- the effects of economic factors and vulnerability on values and attitudinal orientations;
- how particular political and economic contexts produce changes in political orientations.
This book focuses on the interrelationship of social values, attitudes and economic scarcity in the context of the last economic crisis experienced by many European countries. It will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, political science and economics.
Securing Democracy: Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe
Geoffrey Pridham
Routledge, Bahman 9, 1394 AP - Political Science - 242 pages
When this book first published in 1990, several ‘new’ democracies were emerging in Southern Europe. Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece were generally seen as conforming to the western European model of liberal democracy. But the process of democratization is a gradual one, and each national democracy is moulded by its own political, social, and economic characteristics. In particular, the active role of national political parties is of prime importance.
The contributors to this volume focus on party systems in the democracies of Greece, Spain and Portugal since the end of their authoritarian regimes, and on Italy in the post-war period. This title will be of interest to students of politics, European Studies, and development studies.
Democracy Reinvented: Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in America
Hollie Russon Gilman
Brookings Institution Press, Dey 15, 1394 AP - Political Science - 200 pages
Participatory Budgeting—the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States.
Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology and innovation. This global phenomenon, which has been called “revolutionary civics in action” by the New York Times, started in Brazil in 1989 but came to America only in 2009. Participatory budgeting empowers citizens to identify community needs, work with elected officials to craft budget proposals, and vote on how to spend public funds.
Democracy Reinvented places participatory budgeting within the larger discussion of the health of U.S. democracy and focuses on the enabling political and institutional conditions. Author and former White House policy adviser Hollie Russon Gilman presents theoretical insights, indepth case studies, and interviews to offer a compelling alternative to the current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government. She offers policy
recommendations on how to tap online tools and other technological and civic innovations to promote more inclusive governance.
While most literature tends to focus on institutional changes without solutions, this book suggests practical ways to empower citizens to become change agents. Democracy Reinvented also includes a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that come with using digital tools to re-engage citizens in governance.
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