Political Institutions and Practical Wisdom: Between Rules and Practice

ISBN-13: 9780190694333 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 232 str.

Maxwell A. Cameron

Opis

Cameron shows how institutions rely on rules and incentives, but they need practitioners with the virtues and character to make good decisions. Wise practitioners are not only an antidote to excessive partisanship, neoliberal competitiveness, and institutional corruption; they are an essential ingredient of any democracy based on citizenship and the common good.

Recenzje

Flaws in institutional performance are seen by Cameron as arising from the lack of practical wisdom and moral judgment of practitioners.The book draws from the tradition of virtue ethics starting with Aristotle, i.e., virtue meaning excellence in the classical Greek sense. Institutions thus depend on wise and moral practitioners to perform well.To this end, Cameron argues for more deliberation and compromise in democracy; moderate partisanship, not hyper-partisanship; weaker executives and stronger legislatures (separation of powers more generally); and more public goods. The book assesses several situations of applying practical wisdom to specific political challenges.It draws on an impressive range of readings and has a very thorough bibliography and a helpful glossary.This is mainly a work of political theory, but it provides quite useful context for American politics and comparative politics.

O autorze

Maxwell A. Cameron teaches comparative politics, constitutionalism, and democratization at The University of British Columbia. Since 2011, he has served as the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions in which capacity he is responsible for UBC's Summer Institute for Future Legislators. In 2013, Cameron won a UBC Killam Teaching Prize.