Democracy Books - Page 5

Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.

John Mueller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Democracy is overrated. Capitalism, on the other hand, doesn't get enough credit. In this provocative and engaging book, John Mueller argues that these mismatches between image and reality create significant political and economic problems--inspiring instability, inefficiency, and widespread cynicism. We would be far better off, he writes, if we recognized that neither system is ideal or disastrous and accepted instead the humdrum truth that both are "pretty good." And, to Mueller, that means good enough. He declares that what is true of Garrison Keillor's fictional store "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery" is also true of democracy and capitalism: if you can't get what you want there, "you can probably get along without it."

Mueller begins by noting that capitalism is commonly thought to celebrate greed and to require discourtesy, deceit, and callousness. However, with examples that range from car dealerships and corporate boardrooms to the shop of an eighteenth-century silk merchant, Mueller shows that capitalism in fact tends to reward behavior that is honest, fair, civil, and compassionate. He argues that this gap between image and reality hampers economic development by encouraging people to behave dishonestly, unfairly, and discourteously to try to get ahead and to neglect the virtuous behavior that is an important source of efficiency and gain.

The problem with democracy's image, by contrast, is that our expectations are too high. We are too often led by theorists, reformers, and romantics to believe that democracy should consist of egalitarianism and avid civic participation. In fact, democracy will always be chaotic, unequal, and marked by apathy. It offers reasonable freedom and security, but not political paradise. To idealize democracy, Mueller writes, is to undermine it, since the inevitable contrast with reality creates public cynicism and can hamper democracy's growth and development.

Mueller presents these arguments with sophistication, wit, and erudition. He combines mastery of current political and economic literature with references to figures ranging from Plato to P. T. Barnum, from Immanuel Kant to Ronald Reagan, from Shakespeare to Frank Capra. Broad in scope and rich in detail, the book will provoke debate among economists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the problems (or non-problems) of modern democracy and capitalism.

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Simply beautiful! 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This book took me back to my schooldays in the old Soviet Empire (not a capitalist one, and yet in a perpetual state of war both internally and externally). More specifically, to my mandatory propaganda classes run by highly trained and experienced Soviet counter-intelligence officers. This book is so smartly written it would make them proud! Why? Let me quote from memory "To get people to see things your way and join your cause follow few basic but very important rules: Speak to their instincts and their hearts; not to their minds. Attempts to reason with your targets at the intellectual level are bound to trigger critical thinking, at which point you as good as lost them. So do not engage in discussions and do not state facts to advance your cause, i.e. do not follow "there is X and there is Y therefore this is A". This makes your targets focus on X and Y which they may question, they may add a Z, and challenge your arrival at A as manipulation of facts. Which it needs to be - only smarter. Therefore, present targets with statement A first and win over their hearts and instincts. Then present facts X and Y selectively "to illustrate". Trick is that by then your targets will have already bought A and will happily accept X and Y as "factual justification". Of course they are only self-rationalizing why they bought your A in the first place, but this is exactly what you need to make A stick. Always use short simple sentences, big numbers, bigh words, bright colors, make sweeping statements... It may be counter-intuitive, but your targets will always have a propensity to believe big lies than small facts. And once they belive, they will be able to explain away anything that does not fit into their belief. This is how you set in motion self-sustaining process and know that you have succeeded." And so it goes. And this is what this book does, and this is why it is so effective. Have fun reading it! And remember Fox Mulder - "I want to believe" :)

Editorial Review:

With the positive spirit and intellectual depth that are the authors' hallmark, Multitude argues that some of the most troubling aspects of the new world order contain the seeds of radical global social transformation. The accelerating integration of economic, political and cultural powers in the world is actually a force for the good. No longer simply the silent, oppressed masses, the world's populations form a fluid and powerful network with the strength to bring about the most radical step in the liberation of humankind since the Industrial Revolution. This multitude, Hardt and Negri tell us, is the key to democracy on a global scale.

The Irony of Democracy : An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics (Study Guide)

Thomas R. Dye

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Non-Voters Like Me Are Good for the Country! 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for an introductory political science course in junior college and I enjoyed it so much that, although I was not planning to be a political science major, I decided not to sell this book back to the college. This textbook is a thorough , well-written, and well-organized study of the basics of American democracy (or republicanism, if you will). The authors are brutally honest in their overview of the American democratic system. The irony of democracy?: "Elites-not masses-govern the United States" and, my favorite, "that democratic ideals survive because the masses are generally apathetic and inactive" (the masses breed intolerance, you see). Among the fifteen chapters is one entitled "Elite-Mass Communication: Television, the Press, and the Pollsters," which I found to be very interesting.

Editorial Review:

After 30 years in print, THE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY still offers the freshest, most eye-opening approach to American government of any text. In this millennial edition, the authors again present an unrepentant elitist approach to American democracy, contending that it is the elites, not the masses, that govern our country.

Runaway World : How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives

Anthony Giddens

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Globalization in 100 pages 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Sociologist Anthony Giddens has recently made some notable contributions to political discussion. This books is based on his radio lectures from 1999 which do not have much to do with Gidden's academic conributions. Instead, this is a practical book aimed at general public interested in the current world affairs. In just 100 pages, compact size and absent of academic buzzwords, the book makes an easy and fast read.

The book has five themes: globalization, risk, tradition, family and democracy. Giddens handles them in turn like he would be playing with his favourite football. Shifts feet, moves forward and kicks when the goal is sure. His playing is readable indeed.

One can rise a couple of leading themes from the book. One is the idea of cosmopolitan tolerance. The other one is the doublesided meaning of risk. On the one hand, risk is what globalization has brought to our daily lives and society at large. On the other hand, risk enables the speed of evolution we are now facing in this global village.

In some parts of the book, one can be very impressed how Giddens summarizes in about three paragraphs what others have written in a 300+ pages of treatise. This is the case of e.g. Soros on global capitalism, Bernstein on the meaning of risk and Castells on information society. Though there are no accurate references - there simply couldn't be - Giddens provides in the end a fifteen page list of selected readings with a short comment on each. I found it very helpful way to put my understanding in a more larger context.

Editorial Review:

In Runaway World, Anthony Giddens, intellectual pioneer of Third Way politics, shows how the globalization of science, technology and the economy impacts every human on earth. In his characteristically clear-headed manner, Giddens includes an overview of the New World global marketplace, but goes beyond a conventional economic perspective to look at such larger issues as marriage, gender and the family. Giddens finds the changes largely positive---liberating women, spreading democracy, and creating new wealth--but acknowledges there are potential hazards as well with so much money crossing so many borders and distant cultures colliding. Identifying globalization as a true cultural force, this eloquent and important volume is the staring point for anyone concerned about our increasingly interconnected world.

A fascinating assessment of the coming world order, Runaway World is an enlightening and thought-provoking read from one of our most incisive public thinkers.

European Democracies (5th Edition)

Jurg Steiner, Markus Crepaz

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Editorial Review:

With his new co-author, Markus Crepaz, Jurg Steiner has brought this best-selling text completely up-to-date.  Using a comparative approach, the text crosses national and political boundaries in its coverage of Europe.  Starting with detailed coverage of the basic differences between Europe and the United States in a new introductory chapter, the revision puts Europe in a global perspective and no longer divides its coverage between Western and Eastern Europe:  Europe is now treated as a single entity.

Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy

Natan Sharansky

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This should be required reading for every American 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Sharansky opens the book talking about his time in The Gulag and the type of character it takes to survive the brutality and torcher despensed at the hands of the KGB. He talks about the current utopian world vision that seeks to undermine the West and what it will take to defeat it. He wrote this book to America to inspire American's to live up to the ideals that beat back and defeated Communism and Natzism. Today we face the new ideology of Post Nationalism, an old idea dressed up in new clothing, couched in new retoric, but whose mission reamins the same.

Editorial Review:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Case for Democracy, a piercing examination of the dominant force that shapes political interactions.

Who is better prepared to confront challenges and defend principles in a volatile modern world? Those with strong national, religious, ethnic, or tribal identities who accept democracy, or democrats who renounce identity as a kind of divisive prejudice?

Natan Sharansky, building on his personal experience as a dissident, argues that valueless cosmopolitanism, even in democracies, is dangerous. Better to have hostile identities framed by democracy than democrats indifferent to identity.

In a vigorous, insightful challenge to the left and right alike, Natan Sharansky, as he has proved repeatedly, is at the leading edge of the issues that frame our times.

Democracy in America (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Alexis De Tocqueville

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Astute observer of America 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Alexis De Tocqueville was simply of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that Tocqueville was a social scientist before Marx! He compares European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observes in America. He is very much impressed with what he sees taking place in America in the 1830's and hopes it will spread to Europe. He at first believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and their distance from powerful neighbors, he abandons this idea after his visit to America. He comes to realize that the West is not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believes have no adversity to taking risks." Tocqueville comes to see that Americans are the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretells America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into two or three countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater then most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization, and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. I am convinced that Tocqueville is still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. A must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.

Editorial Review:

The complete edition based on the revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition

Originally penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This edition, meticulously edited by the distinguished de Tocqueville scholar J. P. Mayer, is widely recognized as the preeminent translation.

Democracy in Latin America: Political Change in Comparative Perspective

Peter H. Smith

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

studies a continent-wide trend 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Across a diversity of countries, Smith explains a sea change in Latin America since the 1960s. Now, most are democracies, however flawed. Whereas previously, there had been several military dictatorships, and a cycle of elected governments being replaced or ousted by the military. The attention given to each country is necessarily abbreviated, given the space constraints of the text. But he gives enough detail to explain the salient events.

Also, by comparing trends throughout the region, he demonstrates that there was a mutually reinforcing aspect. Where now it is considered strongly inappropriate for a nation's generals to take power.

Editorial Review:

Democracy in Latin America examines the processes of democratization in Latin America over the past twenty years. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the issues inherent in the move toward democracy--including elections, culture, representation, poverty, and criminality. Organized thematically, with a unique historical perspective, the book focuses on six paradigmatic case studies in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance

William T. Gormley Jr., Steven J. Balla

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Editorial Review:

How should your students understand the role of bureaucracy in American democracy? With a focus on accountability, this work examines the factors that ultimately lead to bureaucratic successes and shortcomings.

Reaganism & the Death of Representative Democracy

Walter Williams

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is a reasoned but passionate look at how Reaganism - the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan - has severely damaged representative democracy as created by America's founders. According to Williams, Reagan and his foremost disciple George W. Bush have created a plutocracy where the United States is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people but is ruled by the wealthiest individuals and corporate America. Unafraid to point out that Reaganism's anti-government fundamentalism stands on feet of clay, Walter Williams asks that Americans move from their political apathy to pay attention to the politicians and the corporations lurking behind the power curtain to see the dangers they represent to the true essential of the American way of life. Williams' most important contribution is his extended analysis of the central role the key institutions - the presidency, Congress, the federal agencies - must play for the US government to be capable in both sustaining representative democracy and protecting the safety and economic security of the American people. A clear result of the weakened institutions has been the grossly inadequate homeland security effort following September 11, and the massive corporate fraud revealed by Enron and other large firms that robbed the nation of hundreds of billions of dollars in stock values and depleted the pension savings of millions of people. The initial destructive blow that damaged the institutions of governance can be traced to Ronald Reagan and his simplistic antigovernment philosophy that fostered rapacious business practices and personal greed. The book also takes the media to task, criticizing the dismal record of failing to investigate the political and corporate chicanery that has brought us to this pass. Keenly argued and scrupulously documented, Walter Williams has written a stinging wake-up call to the dangers of the demise of representative democracy and the rise of plutocracy that American citizens can ignore only at their peril.