Subject Area: Democracy

American Aerial Covert Operations During the Early Cold War: Espionage, Paramilitary, and Early Warning Systems During the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations
 Carter, John J.
2012 0-7734-4067-4 240 pages
National security poses a dilemma to our democratic desire for political transparency. If the government gives away information about its covert operations then it will jeopardize national security. The paradox is that without national security agencies in a free society democracy will be threatened externally, and with them democracy is threatened internally. While this book does not resolve this dilemma it provides readers with more knowledge of this dilemma, and thereby gives them a fighting chance to work for at least its partial resolution by showing how Truman and Eisenhower utilized covert military operations to swing the tides of the early Cold War.

Price: $179.95


Changing the Way America Votes - Election Reform, Incrementalism, and Cutting Deals
 Miller, Geralyn M.
2004 0-7734-6386-0 148 pages
Election 2000 made America aware that its voting system was rife with problems. In a country that prides itself on its self-governing ability, Election 2000 pointed to a crack in the foundation of the mechanism by which the majority of those who participate in the political process chose their leaders.

Since the Bush vs. Gore decision chartered the course of history in America, scholars and practitioners alike have struggled to arrive at a comprehensive plan of attack for improving the voting process. The President has signed into law a reform measure enacted by the United States Congress that is being billed as a sweeping bi-partisan effort to effectuate that change. The question is, will America really see a significant and fundamental improvement in the voting process, one that ensures the equal protection of voting rights for all of its citizens?

This book analyses electoral reforms in America in the context of the larger picture of public policy theory, specifically that represented by an incrementalist paradigm. Given that the current congressional reform measure is based on a set of ideological compromises, the likelihood that it will result in sweeping change is doubtful. It is more likely that this is a cosmetic attempt to resolve a systematic problem. Still, the measure has some features that could serve to enhance our democratic system of governance.

Price: $139.95


Communitarianism, Liberalism, and Social Responsibility
 Peden, W. Creighton
1992 0-7734-9656-4 336 pages
Papers selected from the International Social Philosophy Conference in Vermont, 1990. The papers provide a continuing discussion of the issues related to liberalism, communitarianism, and distributive justice among scholars in social philosophy, and for class reading and discussion in college and university courses on social philosophy and politics. Headings include: The Foundations of Liberal Moral Theory; Liberal Morality in Practice; Liberalism in a Conservative Society; Philosophy and Community.

Price: $219.95


Democracy - An Alternate View
 Riser, John
2004 0-7734-6439-5 231 pages
This book provides an examination of democracy in a different light, specifically in the author’s identification, explication and elaboration of three fundamental criteria. These three fundamental criteria of democracy and democratic practice often discounted or simply disregarded are: 1) democracy is a form of human activity relevant not just for the conventionally political state but also, as much or more, for other social contexts of various magnitudes and functions; 2) democracy is a practice of positive freedom, incorporating negative freedom but subsuming the latter within the project of the mutual empowerment of human beings in accordance with humanistic values; 3) democracy is embodied most adequately in a communally (not merely socially) cooperative model that is different, in most important respects, from unitary, adversary or deliberative models (herein subjected to critique).

Explicit analyses are provided of a variety of socio-political concepts that are philosophically integrated with these criteria, concepts such as representation, participation, elitism, preferences, interests, the common good, human needs and human rights, negative freedom and positive freedom, justice, equality, difference, legitimacy, obligation and loyalty. The author’s own model of democracy – acknowledged to be unrealizable at the level of the nation-state (where adversary quasi-democracy is most practicable) – is explicated, at the same time, dealing with problems and prospects for it and emphasizing its importance for the social activity of human beings in the immediacy of their lifeworld.

Price: $179.95


Economic Performance Under Democratic Regimes in Latin America in the Twenty-First Century
 Gustafson, Lowell S.
2003 0-7734-6584-7 250 pages
These essays explain and evaluate the experience of democracy in recent years, considering the historical, economic, cultural, and social factors that aided its re-emergence, as well as the continued poverty and inequality in the region that challenge it.

Price: $179.95


Electoral Conditions of Economic Cooperation. How Democracies Select Their Leaders Affects Their Foreign Policy
 Rey, Denis
2010 0-7734-3764-9 164 pages
Examines whether electoral rules impact the level of multilateralism, or cooperative policies, that countries pursue. Specifically, this research looks at International Governmental Organization membership, foreign aid donations, and trade tariffs to determine whether some democracies, because of the degree of representativeness afforded by their political institutions, pursue such preferences to a greater extent than others.

Price: $159.95


How America Markets Its Wars: A Case Study
 Lauck-Dunlop, Penny L.
2013 0-7734-4541-2 228 pages
Democratic governments who need public opinion on their side to make decisions use different strategies to win popular support for their wars. This book chronicles that process in specific how popular support for the Iraq Wars were won by the two Bush Presidents, and how the leaders can often twist the truth. There is a tacit assumption that the public wants to trust the President, and that there are things the leaders know that the general public is not privy to. In certain cases, like wars of retaliation, little marketing is necessary. The use of polling data can also aide the government in determining with certainty which marketing strategies will convince people to support the war policy.

Price: $179.95


Impact of Democratization on the Utilization of Clientelistic Styles of Ruling Parties in East Asia
 Stockton, Hans
2003 0-7734-6546-4 200 pages


Price: $159.95


Iranian History (1921-2021): A Century of Repression and Resistance
 Razavi, Reza
2023 1-4955-1157-X 648 pages
"The relationship between state and society in Iran has evolved in the last hundred years and the state's grip on power has increased. ...State repression and public resistance have developed hand-in-hand and have formed a major part of Iran's contemporary history. Iran has experienced reform, revolution and military coups in the last century. ...The aim [of this book is] to concentrate on the certain aspects of Iranian history that have contributed to the state's repressive policy and public resistance." -Reza Razavi (Preface)

Price: $339.95


Max Weber's Theory of Parliamentary Democracy: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Bureaucracy
 Senigaglia, Cristiana
2017 1-4955-0629-0 584 pages
This is the first comprehensive book that discusses thoroughly Weber's political thought from the parliamentary perspectives including interpreting his views on bureaucracy. It is a welcome response to the view initiated by Wolfgang J. Mommsen that Weber had in this last years given up parliamentarism in favor of presidentialism and plebiscitarian leadership democracy.

Price: $319.95


National and Human Security Issues in Latin America
 Pattnayak, Satya R.
2006 0-7734-5765-8 276 pages
In this book, an international group of distinguished scholars analyze how Latin Americans are struggling with the question of how they can provide for their security while they govern themselves. They explain Latin Americans’ complex definitions of security and current threats to it. Various external forces – from Al Qaeda and the International Monetary Fund to certain policies of the United States government – threaten Latin Americans’ autonomy.

Economic and political elites may restrict popular self-government, sometimes by promising to provide for security at the cost of liberty. The lives, property, and well-being of Latin American peoples often remain in the balance. The authors show how Latin American nations, individuals, and peoples are seeking to make themselves more secure through their democracies. They consider how Latin Americans are asserting their democratic rights and seeking to deepen the practices of freedom during the current domestic transitions and the war on terror. They judge the prospects for the success of Latin American democracies meeting the severe threats to the region’s security. Given Latin American political history and contemporary insecurities, the chapters demonstrate why the future of these democracies is at risk.

Price: $199.95


Nigeria Since Independence and the Impact of Non-Governmental Organizations on Democratization
 Bradley, Matthew Todd
2003 0-7734-6688-6 224 pages


Price: $179.95


Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project: The Role of Charitable Organizations in Politicizing American Universities
 Ulloth, Dana
2023 1-4955-1144-8 36 pages
This is a softcover book. "For many years, an active exchange of journalists between newsroom and classroom have been fostered in the view that is essential to improving standards. This is the story of one reporter's complicated path to becoming a faculty member. In 2020, the Hussman School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill opened discussions with Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist and opinion writer at the New York Times, about joining its faculty. Hannah-Jones had been responsible for "The 1619 Project," and effort that tried to recast the American story around the role that slavery had played." -from the author's Introduction

Price: $39.95


Our Culture Left or Right. Littérateurs Confront Nihilism
 Eidelberg, Paul
1992 0-7734-9171-6 232 pages
Considers the effects of moral relativism on the writings of prominent authors in the fields of literature, foreign policy, economics, social policy, education, philosophy, and theology. Discusses the relevance of the political regime of modern democracy and the intellectual regime of modern science to the pervasive influence of moral relativism in our culture.

Price: $179.95


Political Alienation and Voting Turnout in the United States, 1960-1988
 Chen, Kevin
1992 0-7734-9833-8 272 pages
Using 1960-1988 cumulative survey data from the National Election Study, this study identifies four basic dimensions of political alienation; uses regression and algebraic decomposition methods to examine the increases in alienation and decline in voter turnout; probes the relationship between the two; examines the sources for the decline in turnout.

Price: $199.95


Politics of Democratisation in Rural Mozambique Grassroots Governance in Mecúfi
 Harrison, Graham
2000 0-7734-7652-0 236 pages


Price: $179.95


Private Diary of Geoff Forrester on Indonesia’s Turbulent Decade, 1996-2005: Writing History as It Happens
 Monfries, John
2011 0-7734-1584-X 332 pages
This book is a collection of works by the late Geoffrey Forrester, an Australian analyst who spent over 40 years closely observing the end of Indonesia’s first presidency.

Price: $219.95


THE POLITICS OF REFORM IN IRAN (1997-2005): The Development of Electoral Processes, the Evolution of Civil Society, and the Rise of Political Movements
 Razavi, Reza
2011 0-7734-1439-8 388 pages
An examination of Iran’s post-revolutionary political system. In particular, the study analyzes contemporary Iranian history and the composition of competing political factions. The tension between the central authority of the Supreme Leader and these factions continues to be a major source of instability in the country.

Price: $239.95


THE THEORETICAL EXAMINATION OF POLITICAL VALUES AND ATTITUDES IN NEW AND OLD DEMOCRACIES
 Kenney, Matthew T.
2003 0-7734-6581-2 198 pages
This book examines the interplay between political values and the health and stability of today’s liberal democracies. It examines a set of core political values by drawing on the insights and arguments of leading political theorists past and present. The new democracies are represented by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, and the established democracies by Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. The study uses data from the 1990 and 1995-7 World Values Surveys. Statistical analyses provide strong support for the theoretical claims of John Rawls and others that such liberal virtues as tolerance, trust, independence, and responsibility are conducive to democratic stability and to a more robust version of citizenship that goes well beyond the unfettered pursuit of private interests. Instead, this study argues that individuals who score high on the index of liberal virtues are more likely to discuss politics, to participate in politics, to resist authority, to view democracy as the best form of governance, and to demand equality of opportunity for all. This bridging of classical normative theory and contemporary empirical analysis in this work represents a much-needed contribution to scholarship in both political theory and comparative politics.

Price: $159.95


Village Elections in China
 Tan, Qingshan
2006 0-7734-5537-X 376 pages
This study considers the institutional evolution and progress of village elections in China. China’s dramatic economic growth in less than 30 years is the result of economic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, and thus has lifted more than 200 million people out of poverty. This change began with the “household responsibility system” permitting peasants to farm their own land, which eventually led to the abolishment of the commune system. In an effort to establish viable rural governance after de-communization, villagers took the initiative in establishing village self-government and electing their own leaders to manage village affairs. This book studies the creation and evolution of democratic institution of village election. It examines the causes of village election, the making of state and provincial election legislation, state implementation and improvement of village election rules and procedures, and the role of domestic and foreign players in influencing electoral institutionalization of village self-governance, and it assesses the impact of village election on Chinese political development. It argues for the institutional buildup of democratic infrastructures to ensure what could eventually be the beginning of a more extensive move towards democracy.

Price: $239.95