Democracy: Problems and Perspectives provides a critical review of the scholarly and political debates about democratic thought and of arguments about democratic practice. On the basis of an interpretation of Immanuel Kant's political philosophy, the book presents democracy as a regime type in which citizens, who are united to give law, rule themselves and where such self-rule is exercised by citizens who embrace local and global patriotism. In the course of developing this idea of democracy, the book addresses issues such as human rights and their relationship to democracy; the policy of the...

Democracy: Problems and Perspectives provides a critical review of the scholarly and political debates about democratic thought and of arguments about democratic practice. On the basis of an interpretation of Immanuel Kant's political philosophy, the book presents democracy as a regime type in which citizens, who are united to give law, rule themselves and where such self-rule is exercised by citizens who embrace local and global patriotism. In the course of developing this idea of democracy, the book addresses issues such as human rights and their relationship to democracy; the policy of the...

This textbook is designed for first-time students of politics. It provides an ideal introduction and survey to the key themes and issues central to the study of democratic politics today.

The text is structured around three major parts: concepts, institutions and political behaviour; and ideologies and movements. Within each section a series of short and accessible chapters serve to both introduce the key ideas, institutional forms and ideological conflicts central to the study of democratic politics and provide a platform for further, in-depth studies.

Each chapter contains a...

This book addresses one of the classical concerns of comparative politics: the formation and maintenance of stable democracies. How have political scientists analyzed democracy? What are the ideas and ideals that are contained in the concept of democracy? How are notions of sovereignty, territoriality, nation, multiculturalism, representation, rights of individuals, of groups and of communities implicated in our understanding of democracy? What institutional manifestations have these ideas, ideals and theoretical constructs in the real world? How will democracy and democratic institutions...

Einubung, Ausubung und Duldung von Macht konnen von Gesellschaft zu Gesellschaft sehr verschieden sein. Wie kommt es, dass Gentlemen und Puritaner Englands Charakter entscheident gepragt haben, Beamte und Hoflinge jedoch die Kultur des alten Osterreich?
Das vorliegende Buch liefert einen originaren Beitrag zur historischen Soziologie der Staatsbildung zwischen 1700 und 1900.
Die Autoren erganzen die Makroperspektive und eine empirisch und theoretisch informierte Soziologie der Emotionen. Sie stellen "Autoritat" in ihren historischen Auspragungen in einen direkten Bezug zu Gefuhlen und...

This text investigates the increasing "globalization" of the world - the ever-increasing international and transnational economic, political and cultural interdependence. Processes of global integration and fragmentation of political, economic and cultural structures spur local
and regional conflicts, and dislocations are counterbalanced by moves towards unification, integration and co-operation. This is a
multi-disciplinary assessment from a group of scholars of how globalization has affected established paradigms, and a discussion of
what impact it has on Europe.

This book presents a cross-disciplinary and methodologically innovative study, combining historical macro-sociology and a sociology of emotions with historical anthropology and cultural studies. Drawing on the concepts and theories of Norbert Elias on the Civilizing Process, it sets out to pin down and compare qualities that are simultaneously instantly recognisable and highly elusive, that is a kind of typical 'Englishness' and of 'Austrianness' that developed contemporaneously in the period up to the First World War. The authors chart the development of political authority structures in...