Approaches to Democracy

Fülszöveg

This book deals with the theory of modern liberal democracy, in particular the questions of the relevance of democratic theory to democracy, the insufficiency of the existing 'justifications' of democracy, and the limitations of empirical democratic theory. It is a commentary on current ways of thinking about the democratic system and its values. It is also a discussion of the social and political predicaments of our time which are often neglected by political theorists: civil disobedience, coercion, violence, social change - which are analysed here in the philosophical sense, in terms of ideas rather than as sociological 'facts'. It deals with some currently popular issues of democratic theory, like 'participation' and 'socialization' in relation to basic traditional issues such as majority rule and representation. As in his previous book. Aspects of Political Theory : Classical Concepts in an Age of Relativism, Professor Stankiewicz takes relativism as the main unifying... Tovább

Fülszöveg

This book deals with the theory of modern liberal democracy, in particular the questions of the relevance of democratic theory to democracy, the insufficiency of the existing 'justifications' of democracy, and the limitations of empirical democratic theory. It is a commentary on current ways of thinking about the democratic system and its values. It is also a discussion of the social and political predicaments of our time which are often neglected by political theorists: civil disobedience, coercion, violence, social change - which are analysed here in the philosophical sense, in terms of ideas rather than as sociological 'facts'. It deals with some currently popular issues of democratic theory, like 'participation' and 'socialization' in relation to basic traditional issues such as majority rule and representation. As in his previous book. Aspects of Political Theory : Classical Concepts in an Age of Relativism, Professor Stankiewicz takes relativism as the main unifying element of the book and examines the far-reaching effects of relativism on contemporary thought together with the impact of scientism and empiricism. He enquires whether our contemporary political theorists are providing a relevant analysis of our society and whether our society is viable.
The book does not simply give an account of what various writers had to say on the subject of democratic political theory and relativism but takes issue with a number of leading theorists such as Schumpeter, Tingsten, Niebuhr, Mayo, Macpherson, Marcuse and Rawls, and suggests how to look differently at political theory. Vissza