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The State of Democratic Theory
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The State of Democratic Theory
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? This work offers an assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, and explores its implications for policy and political action. It includes accounts of democracy's purposes that focus on aggregating preferences.
What does recent research tell us about how well democracies actually correspond to the hopes and aspirations we have for them? In this well-crafted and readable analysis, Ian Shapiro gives a sobering but not pessimistic answer to this question. A must read for democratic theorists and citizens alike! -- Iris Young, University of Chicago Shapiro delivers what the title suggests: a survey of the issues most discussed by political theorists and the main positions taken, with plenty of references to the literature for those who wish to pursue the subject further. But he succeeds in doing much more than this. If, as he suggests, the point of democracy is to strengthen the position of the dispossessed and vulnerable, there is a lot wrong not only with the practice of democracy but with much of the theorizing about it. Indeed, Shapiro argues that the most popular nostrums currently put forward by theorists would make matters worse. Even those familiar with the literature discussed will be intrigued and challenged by Shapiro's analysis. -- Brian Barry, Columbia University This book is smart, erudite, but accessible. The examples Shapiro draws on to illustrate his points--South Africa, the Middle East, U.S. court cases--give the argument immediacy and relevance. It makes a valuable contribution to political theory, and should encourage political theorists to think about real-life politics -- Nancy Hirschmann, University of Pennsylvania Shapiro articulates an incisive critique of deliberative theory--the reigning orthodoxy in contemporary normative theorizing about democracy--in a way that will be accessible to an unusually broad audience of political theorists and social scientists, students as well as scholars. -- Clarissa Rile Hayward, Ohio State University
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Description
What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action.
Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good. Shapiro reveals the shortcomings of both, arguing instead that democracy should be geared toward minimising domination throughout society. He contends that Joseph Schumpeter's classic defence of competitive democracy is a useful starting point for achieving this purpose, but that it stands in need of radical supplementation—both with respect to its operation in national political institutions and in its extension to other forms of collective association.
Shapiro's unusually wide-ranging discussion also deals with the conditions that make democracy's survival more and less likely, with the challenges presented by ethnic differences and claims for group rights, and with the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth. Ranging over politics, philosophy, constitutional law, economics, sociology, and psychology, this book is written in Shapiro's characteristically lucid style—a style that engages practitioners within the field while also opening up the debate to newcomers.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Ian Shapiro's The State of Democratic Theory is highly praised for skillfully integrating normative democratic theory, empirical studies on democratisation, and discussions on power dynamics. Critics commend Shapiro's adept inclusion of varied disciplines such as economic theory, ethnography, and constitutional law, highlighting the book's analytical depth and accessibility to a broad audience. The clear and concise writing ensures it is both authoritative and highly readable, bridging gaps between political theory and empirical scholarship effectively.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780691123967
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 16 January 2006
Country: United States
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 235.0mm
Weight: 28g
Pages: 200
About the Author
Ian Shapirois Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. Among his many books are The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences and, with Michael J. Graetz, Death by a Thousand Cuts (both Princeton); and The Moral Foundations of Politics.
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