Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed Its Meaning and Lost Its Purpose

ISBN-13: 9781783605422 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 424 str.

Roslyn Fuller

Opis

Democracy is sold to us on its ability to deliver equal opportunity, and to give every citizen an equal voice. Yet time and again we see that this is not the case: power and spoils alike flow to the few, while the many are left with no recourse. What is wrong with democracy?
Nothing, says Roslyn Fuller: what we have simplyisn tdemocracy it s a perversion of it, created by poorly designed electoral systems, weak campaign laws, and broad limitations on participation and representation at nearly every level. Backing her argument with copious empirical data analyzing a wide variety of voting methods across twenty nations, Fuller makes her conclusion irrefutable: if we want true democracy, we have to return to the philosophical insights that originally underpinned it, and thoroughly reexamine the goals and methods of democracy and democratic participation. A radical, damning, yet at the same time fiercely hopeful work, Beasts and Godsaims to reconfigure the very foundations of modern society."

Spis treści

Introduction: What is Democracy? Part I 1. Democracy in Athens: People Power is Born 2. The Myth of Representation 3. Buying and Selling Elections 4. Participation: Bought In or Locked Out? 5. Modern Democracy and the International System: A Perfect Storm 6. Non-Governmental Organizations and the Civil Society Chimera 7. How Did Things Get to Be this Way? The Roman Republican System and the Founding Fathers of America Part II 8. The Way Forward: Digital Democracy 9. Disinformed is Disenfranchised: Why Taming Mass Media is a Necessary Step towards Democracy 10. Democracy and Dissent: The Balance between Individual and Community 11. Direct Democracy Today: Cutting the Gordian Knot