By Richard Swift
Following the commercial meltdown and the triumph of Barack Obama, have the possibilities of real democracy superior? during this up to date variation of the No-Nonsense consultant to Democracy, Richard rapid considers the several instruments humans in strength have used to govern democratic ideas, reminiscent of freedom, to their virtue. The publication comprises chapter-length discussions of themes reminiscent of the commercial meltdown, Barack Obama, eco-democracy, democratizing the financial system and democracy within the international south. it's also a advisor to the wealthy range of sorts of elected govt and includes useful rules for empowering today's citizens world wide.
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Extra resources for The No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy (No-Nonsense Guides)
Sample text
Already Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, (alias Twinkletoes) has been hit by scandal when it was discovered that some $220,000 came to his campaign from 90 fictitious donors, including dead people. His predecessor Ichiro Ozawa, of the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party, was forced to resign because of just this kind of issue. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party, elected at the end of August 2009, promised (you guessed it) ‘change’ and ‘honesty’ but plus ça change. It is little wonder that the global political class was so generous in its bail-outs of banks and other wealth-holders.
The then-emerging 41 Weak and strong democracy market is seen as a more-or-less natural way of ordering human affairs. But it must as much as possible be left to its own devices. It is not hard to see in this early ‘possessive individualism’ the kernel of contemporary arguments now fashionable with the New Right. Get government off our backs! Don’t shackle wealth! Roll back government through a process of privatization, tax cuts, deregulation and so forth. Allow for the ‘natural’ operation of the market.
It is being recast in contemporary terms, around issues of globalization and economic equality, and more demo cratic outbursts are just over the horizon. There are many positive signs that the stagnation in democratic political thought is coming to an end. The concern with ‘liberation’ that accompanied the 1960s’ outbreaks is now shifting to one that explores the ways in which the exercise of popular power can actually shape social decisions. The trick will be to ride this ferment of movements and ideas and use it to effect a long-term transformation that institutionalizes popular power and underpins a strong democracy.
