Encyclopedia Of Democratic Thought

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Encyclopedia Of Democratic Thought

by: Paul Barry Clarke.

Publication date: 2005
Topics: Encyclopedias,Democracy,Philosophy,Politics,Ideas.
Collection: opensource
Language: English
Item Size: 654.5M

Edited by Paul Barry Clarke and Joe Foweraker.

Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge, 29West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001.

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2005.

0-203-44308-X (Adobe e-Reader Format)

1003 pages.

Source.

“Containing almost 200 entries from 'accountability' to the'Westminster model' the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought exploresall the ideas that matter to democracy past, present and future. Itis destined to become the first port-of-call for all students,teachers and researchers of political science interested indemocratic ideas, democratic practice, and the quality of democraticgovernance. The Encyclopedia provides extensive coverage of all thekey concepts of democratic thought written by a stellar team ofdistinguished international contributors. The Encyclopedia draws onevery tradition of democratic thought, as well as developing newthinking, in order to provide full coverage of the key democraticconcepts and engage with their practical implications for the conductof democratic politics in the world today. In this way, it bringsevery kind of democratic thinking to bear on the challenges facingcontemporary democracies and on the possibilities of the democraticfuture. The Encyclopedia is global in scope and responds in detail tothe democratic revolution of recent decades. Referring both to theestablished democratic states of Western Europe, North America andAustralasia, and to the recent democracies of Latin America, Easternand Central Europe, Africa and Asia, classical democratic concernsare related to new democracies, and to important changes in the olderdemocracies. Supplemented by full bibliographical information,extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, theEncyclopedia of Democratic Thought is a unique work of referencecombining the expertise of many of the world's leading politicalscientists, political sociologists and political philosophers. Itwill be welcomed as an essential resource for both teaching and forindependent study, and as a solid starting point both for furtherresearch and wider exploration.” Publisher’s Note via Amazon.

From page 606 in the article concerning Deliberative andparticipatory democracy :

“ … Because popular participation is highly constrained,official accountability is relatively limited. Citizens do not knowenough either to instruct or to judge government. In the democraticvision, government and governors are the agents of the citizens, butin fact our agents are peculiarly our rulers. Hence, our fundamentalproblem, if participation must be as constrained as it is and seemslikely to be, is to structure government institutions in ways thatmake them responsive to the interests of citizens. For all its flaws,representative democratic government, with officials subject toelectoral sanction, seems to be the best device we have yetdiscovered for doing this. The scale of modern states, the complexityof many issues in them, and the extent of political ignorance in themthreaten this device.”

Comment:

But we do have elections where citizens are deemed to know enoughto elect a government as a whole.

The advent of high speed information technology shines a new lighton whether general elections every 3,4 or 5 years are now the bestway to inform democracy.

One could imagine, with all the very necessary safeguards, aparticipatory system where eligible citizens vote on issues of theday through their digital device. Initially of course such votingwould be only for information purposes. Until the system had settleddown over time, perhaps months and years rather than days. One couldthen further contemplate that a government wanting to introduce aparticularly sensitive piece of legislation might require say 60% ofeligible voters to confirm acceptability of that legislation. Overtime one can imagine such a system developing in maturity andsophistication so that government becomes more response to citizensneeds.

In democracies driven by the graffiti of social media, perhapssuch a change should be sooner rather than later.

GHM.