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In liberal democracies there is a belief that citizens ought to take an active interest in what is happening in the political world. Political debate in modern Western democracies is a complex and often rowdy affair. There are three fundamental political issues: 'politics', 'power' and 'justice', which feature in almost all political discussions and conflicts. The book assesses the degree to which the state and state sovereignty are disappearing in the modern world of 'globalised' politics, economics and culture and new international institutions. The main features of the nation and the problems of defining it are outlined: population, culture, history, language, religion, and race. Different types of democracy and their most important features are discussed. 'Freedom' is usually claimed to be the prime objective of political activity. The book discusses equality of human rights, distributional equality, equality before the law, the claims for group equality on the grounds of race, gender, class. Rights, obligations and citizenship are closely associated. Ideology is the driving force of political discourse. The book also discusses nationalism's growth and development over the last two centuries with particular reference to its main features and assumptions. It outlines the development of conservatism as a political ideology and movement in Britain during the last two centuries. An overview of liberalism, socialism, Marxism, anarchism, and Fascism follows. Environmentalism and feminism are also discussed. Finally, the book talks about how ideological change occurs and stresses the importance of rationality in politics.
states, others, like the GATT [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade], were only for the capitalist world. There was an order, which, in theory, combined Western democracy with a more-or-less regulated capitalism: the so-called liberal order – although perhaps ‘liberal’ isn’t the most precise term, either in political or economic terms. There were of course other characteristics. The promotion of human rights became one, for example, albeit selective. When South Korea was still under dictatorship, we would ask ‘What about South Korea? Shouldn’t it
. ( 2013 ), ‘ 21st Century Welfare ’, New Left Review , 84 , 5 – 40 . Lebaron , G. and Ayers , A. ( 2013 ), ‘ The Rise of a “New Slavery”? Understanding Unfree Labour through Neoliberalism ’, Third World Quarterly , 34 : 5 , 837 – 92 . Mair , P. ( 2013 ), Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy ( London : Verso ). Meagher , K. ( 1990 ), ‘ The Hidden Economy: Informal and Parallel Trade in Northwestern Uganda ’, Review
). Domestically some scholars – such as Robert Putnam – argue that 240 AREAS the multiplicity of groups in US society and the diversity of experience between rural and urban America and between immigrants and non-immigrants harms the level of social capital, therefore damaging the resilience of democracy. Other scholars have emphasized how variations between states about voter registration may discriminate between citizens (for example, the disbarring of former felons in some states). Globally the United States’ role as a defender of Western democracy against extremist
This chapter is divided into three main sections. The first part presents the reader with the accumulated body of facts with regard to the Israeli response to extremist phenomena and political violence throughout the history of the State of Israel. The second part of the chapter assumes a comparative perspective between the Israeli response and that of other Western democracies, principally, the United States and Germany. The third part of the chapter highlights the theoretical developments accompanying the analysis and submits questions which remain unresolved and worthy of future investigation.
-trained doctors and nurses when ill, and claim state benefits when unemployed, sick or retired. Political debate in modern Western democracies is a complex and often rowdy affair. It often gives the impression that it involves little thought and contemplation beyond shouting and opposing whatever the other side proposes as the solution to the ills of society. Indeed, it may have contributed to declining voter turnout in most
their mentors in those Western democracies that have already undergone a significant incremental growth in judicial power (Sweet 2000). How far is judicial power compatible with democratic government? That key question will be addressed in the following way. First, the source and growth of judicial power in the Anglo-American tradition of jurisprudence will be outlined. Second, the United Kingdom’s experience of adopting the Human Rights Act 1998 is discussed as an example of a potential shift from political decision-making to judge-made decisions, and this potential
citizens and increasingly delegate the policing of public places to private security firms. However, this thesis is too crude. In western democracies, the number and categories of people considered outlaws and suitable for imprisonment has risen at such a rate as to constitute a qualitative transformation of criminal policies. Both governments and public opinion appear to believe that current circumstances require a much broader
groups are chosen by competition and merit, with a very limited role for the populace. Democracy may be a political and ideological tool of government, but one with a very limited reality in modern Western democracies (a fact welcomed by anti-democrats). The majority of the population are incapable of effective self-government: liberal concerns Plato associated democracy with passion dominating over reason
exploitation of the less developed part of the world. By the twentieth century, this model of nationalism became allied with conservatism, so closely that the radical and socialist left worked hard in most Western democracies to distance themselves from the nationalism of their political opponents and, hence, from nationalism altogether. Reactionary nationalism may stress patriotism and the unique nature of the