Political structures: democracy Books

This book identifies the different forms that protest voting can take in times when populism flourishes. Contrary to the popular view of protest voting as merely venting frustration, this book argues that protest voting can also be conceived of as a...

By studying the influence of the two main external actors in post-Soviet space, the EU and Russia,  this study contributes to the increasing body of literature that studies the causes of democratic recession and authoritarian backlash in post-Soviet...

Parties, governments and elites are at the core of the study of democracy. The traditional view is that parties as collective actors play a paramount role in the democratic process. However, this classical perspective has been challenged by political...

This book demonstrates the importance of democracy for understanding modern international relations and recovers the pluralist tradition of L.T. Hobhouse, G.D.H. Cole, and David Mitrany. It shows that pluralism's typical interest in civil society, trade...

This book, based on an empirical form of narration, outlines a short-medium term analysis of the social impact of austerity politics on urban life.. Set in Exarchia, a radical and anti-authoritarian neighbourhood located within the city centre of Athens,...

This edited volume assesses the quality of democracy in the Republic of Korea three decades after its formal democratization in 1987. It has been argued that Korea's two subsequent power turnovers prove that its democracy has been successfully...

This book explores the question of why and under which conditions right-wing populist parties receive electoral support. The author argues that neither economic variables, nor national culture or history are what account for their successes. Instead, he...

This monograph discusses the role of political parties in Paraguay's legislature. Using Paraguay as a case study, the author analyzes the phenomenon of legislative chaos. While chaos has been expected to exist in legislatures since at least 1785 (Arrow...

This book analyzes how mainstream and new parties are building their digital platforms and transitioning from traditional (offline) organizations into the digital world.The authors present an innovative empirical exploration...

The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics offers the first and only handbook in the field of Canadian politics that uses 'gender' (which it interprets broadly, as inclusive of sex, sexualities, and other intersecting identities)...

Nearly 80 years ago, Karl Popper gave a spirited philosophical defence of the Open Society in his two-volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. In this book, J. McKenzie Alexander argues that a new defence is urgently needed because, in the decades...

The democratization of international organizations is a theme increasingly debated all over the world. This is the first work on international democracy that systematically assesses the dynamics of democratization affecting most international...

This text summarizes the research on, and experiences of, democratic legislatures around the world. It focuses on what legislatures are and what they do - as both consequence of and contributor to democratic self-government.

This work represents the French Regulation School approach to the study of economics. Regulationists focus on the long-term evolution of capitalist economies with a strong emphasis on cross-country comparisons. Methodologically, their approach is...

Understanding Liberalism: A History of and analysis of the Politics of the Last Half-Century provides a panoramic critique of the liberal era asrelated to the Constitutional principles on which the United States wasfounded, the English roots of the...

This book is devoted to the study and analysis of the prospects for democracy among the Muslim ethnicities of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

This book explores the connection between strong democracy and neoliberal development schemes based on the concept of 'social entrepreneurship' in Thailand and Southern India.With an original approach, this book addresses the intersection between...

Only one country in the world--Switzerland--is a direct democracy, in which, to an extent, the people pass their own laws, judge the constitutionality of statutes, and even have written, in effect, their own constitution

The core of this book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from monarchy to democracy. Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy is a lesser evil than democracy, but outlines deficiencies in both. Its...

Sleepless Nights Scribbling is a collection of writings tracing the evolution of the writer over a decade. This book brings to the reader a refreshing look at stories and essays from the perspective of a millennial Indian facing the challenges of a...

Arshad examines the phenomenon of 'democratic backsliding' in post-2011 Egypt. Capturing a critical juncture in Egyptian politics, this book explains the failure of Egypt's nascent democratic experiment and its relapse into authoritarianism.

To counter pervasive levels of citizen disengagement from political institutions, this book examines democratic innovations that meaningfully engage with citizens to address some the deficits of western representative democracies. It will be required...

This volume demonstrates how Wittgenstein's philosophy can illuminate our understanding of politics and open new ways of conceptualizing democratic theory and practice. Its focus is on language, reason and communication as central to identifying present...

This book is the first of its kind to offer an understanding, analysis, and prediction of the state of civil society in Bangladesh in relation to development and democracy. It is  a research attempt to reveal the paradox found in developing...

Compulsory voting has operated in Australia for a century, and remains the best known and arguably the most successful example of the practice globally. By probing that experience from several disciplinary perspectives, this book offers a fresh,...

This book examines the structures and processes of political decision-making and governance in Nigeria. Since Nigeria returned to elected government in 1999, it has been observed  that several factors account for the differences between the design...

This book systematically maps the evolution of the party-voter nexus of the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). In doing so, it argues that these parties rely mostly on a complex Web of patronage-based networks to mobilise...

This research explores one of the baffling mysteries in contemporary non-Western democracies.  The conversion to a mixed system of the first-past-the-post system and proportional representation for the Japanese House of Representatives in 1994...

This book analyses social democratic parties' attempts to tackle inequality in increasingly challenging times. It provides a distinctive contribution to the literature on the so-called 'crisis' of social democracy by exploring the role of equality policy...

This book explores the institutionalization process with regard to the Parliament in Bangladesh, and seeks to identify the main constrains that hinder the Parliament from serving as the uppermost representative body for all segments of society.This book...

This book delves into the limitations of Singapore's authoritarian governance model. In doing so, the relevance of the Singapore governance model for other industrialising economies is systematically examined. Research in this book examines the...

"The Republican Agenda: Undoing 200 Years of Democracy for a Dictatorship" offers a chilling examination of how the current Republican agenda is steering the United States toward authoritarianism. This shift poses serious threats to all Privileged White...

Section 1 One of the big problems facing us is the need to plan for the betterment and improvement of society. In any status quo there are many unsatisfactory moments and experience shows that with changing conditions, even...

Jens Walther analysiert, unter welchem Mehrheitswahlsystem die Vermittlung demokratischer Legitimität besser gewährleistet wird: dem absoluten oder dem relativen Mehrheitswahlsystem. In Anbetracht divergierender Einschätzungen des Gesetzgebers und der...

Christian Wöhst untersucht die demokratietheoretische Argumentationsweise des Bundesverfassungsgerichts im Verlauf der demokratiegeschichtlichen Entwicklung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Er verfolgt die These, dass das Gericht im Verlauf seiner...

Dieser Band bündelt zwei Studien zum Thema „wahre Demokratie" und „Volksgemeinschaft" als zentrale Motive rechtsextremer Ideologie und Programmatik. So fordert die NPD ein „plebiszitäres Präsidialystem", das sich nicht mit der...

After World War II, states transformed into 'collective fortresses' in order to protect competing ideological systems. The debate on post-modern statehood heavily built on ideological disputes between liberalism and communism,...

This book examines how patterns of political representation, party system, and political culture have changed in Southern Europe following the "Great Recession" of 2008. It draws on the experience of Portugal to argue that austerity measures have...

This book focuses on the triadic relationship between electoral candidates and the two other poles of the delegation and accountability triangle-political parties and voters. The chapters rely mostly on the Belgian Candidate Survey (CCS project),...

This book analyzes social movements across a range of countries in the non-Western world: Bosnia, Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Turkey and Ukraine in the period 2008 to 2016. The individual case studies investigate how political...

This book shows that democratization in sub-Saharan Africa can be successful, even if the government remains dominated by one major political party. If an institutionalized and strong opposition party - even when too weak to take power - challenges the...

This book explores the forces that shape Latino political preferences, arguing that social identities are at the center of Latino partisanship.  Despite hopes of the Republican Party for bringing in Latinos through religious and moral issues,...

This book examines the reasons why young people vote. Viewing political behavior through a psychological lens, this book uses psychological developmental models to test the theory of political identity development and explain how and why young people...

This book argues that the design of built spaces influences civic attitudes, including prospects for social equality and integration, in America. Key American architects and planners-including Frederick Law Olmsted, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Moses, and...

This book provides the first systematic and comparative analysis of the German right-wing populist protest movement "PEGIDA". It offers an in-depth reconstruction of the movement's historical development, its organisational structure and its programmatic...

This book examines the theoretical and practical relevance and challenges of the consociationalist model of democracy. Since the publication of the Politics of Accommodation (1968) and Democracy in Plural Societies (1977) Professor Lijphart's theories...

This edited collection outlines the issues central to youth engagement in research and social innovation. Youth-driven innovation for social change is increasingly recognized as holding potential for the development of sustainable strategies to tackle...