2020ok  Directory of FREE Online Books and FREE eBooks

Free eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics > General > The Theory Of The State

The Theory Of The State

by Johann Caspar Bluntschli, Trans. By David George Ritchie


Download Book
(Respecting the intellectual property of others is utmost important to us, we make every effort to make sure we only link to legitimate sites, such as those sites owned by authors and publishers. If you have any questions about these links, please contact us.)


link 1
link 2



About Book

From Publishers Weekly
In this comprehensive and intelligent survey of democratic theory, Shapiro argues that the goal of democracy should not be to achieve a "common good," but rather to manage the "power relations to minimize domination." In presenting his evidence, Shapiro analyzes the political theories of dozens of philosophers and academics, from the celebrated 18th-century thinkers Rousseau and Madison to the more modern theorists Schumpeter and Foucault. His perspective is essentially pragmatic. Whether evaluating hierarchical relations, the exercise of governmental power or the position of the vulnerable, his primary aim is to assess how various theoretical frameworks ignore, or address, "the actual operation of democratic politics." What is most important, he believes, is to consider "what we should expect of democracy, and how those expectations might best be realized in practice." Such a down-to-earth approach is refreshing; however, Shapiro's dense, jargon-filled prose makes this book more appropriate for academics and specialists than for general readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Iris Young, University of Chicago : What does recent research tell us about how well democracies actually correspond to the hopes and aspirations we have for them? In this well-crafted and readable analysis, Ian Shapiro gives a sobering but not pessimistic answer to this question. A must read for democratic theorists and citizens alike!


Brian Barry, Columbia University : Shapiro delivers what the title suggests: a survey of the issues most discussed by political theorists and the main positions taken, with plenty of references to the literature for those who wish to pursue the subject further. But he succeeds in doing much more than this. If, as he suggests, the point of democracy is to strengthen the position of the dispossessed and vulnerable, there is a lot wrong not only with the practice of democracy but with much of the theorizing about it. Indeed, Shapiro argues that the most popular nostrums currently put forward by theorists would make matters worse. Even those familiar with the literature discussed will be intrigued and challenged by Shapiro's analysis.


Nancy Hirschmann, University of Pennsylvania : This book is smart, erudite, but accessible. The examples Shapiro draws on to illustrate his points--South Africa, the Middle East, U.S. court cases--give the argument immediacy and relevance. It makes a valuable contribution to political theory, and should encourage political theorists to think about real-life politics


Clarissa Rile Hayward, Ohio State University : Shapiro articulates an incisive critique of deliberative theory--the reigning orthodoxy in contemporary normative theorizing about democracy--in a way that will be accessible to an unusually broad audience of political theorists and social scientists, students as well as scholars.


Book Description

What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action.

Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good. Shapiro reveals the shortcomings of both, arguing instead that democracy should be geared toward minimizing domination throughout society. He contends that Joseph Schumpeter's classic defense of competitive democracy is a useful starting point for achieving this purpose, but that it stands in need of radical supplementation--both with respect to its operation in national political institutions and in its extension to other forms of collective association. Shapiro's unusually wide-ranging discussion also deals with the conditions that make democracy's survival more and less likely, with the challenges presented by ethnic differences and claims for group rights, and with the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth.

Ranging over politics, philosophy, constitutional law, economics, sociology, and psychology, this book is written in Shapiro's characteristic lucid style--a style that engages practitioners within the field while also opening up the debate to newcomers.



From the Inside Flap

"What does recent research tell us about how well democracies actually correspond to the hopes and aspirations we have for them? In this well-crafted and readable analysis, Ian Shapiro gives a sobering but not pessimistic answer to this question. A must read for democratic theorists and citizens alike!"--Iris Young, University of Chicago

"Shapiro delivers what the title suggests: a survey of the issues most discussed by political theorists and the main positions taken, with plenty of references to the literature for those who wish to pursue the subject further. But he succeeds in doing much more than this. If, as he suggests, the point of democracy is to strengthen the position of the dispossessed and vulnerable, there is a lot wrong not only with the practice of democracy but with much of the theorizing about it. Indeed, Shapiro argues that the most popular nostrums currently put forward by theorists would make matters worse. Even those familiar with the literature discussed will be intrigued and challenged by Shapiro's analysis."--Brian Barry, Columbia University

"This book is smart, erudite, but accessible. The examples Shapiro draws on to illustrate his points--South Africa, the Middle East, U.S. court cases--give the argument immediacy and relevance. It makes a valuable contribution to political theory, and should encourage political theorists to think about real-life politics"--Nancy Hirschmann, University of Pennsylvania

"Shapiro articulates an incisive critique of deliberative theory--the reigning orthodoxy in contemporary normative theorizing about democracy--in a way that will be accessible to an unusually broad audience of political theorists and social scientists, students as well as scholars."--Clarissa Rile Hayward, Ohio State University



From the Back Cover

"What does recent research tell us about how well democracies actually correspond to the hopes and aspirations we have for them? In this well-crafted and readable analysis, Ian Shapiro gives a sobering but not pessimistic answer to this question. A must read for democratic theorists and citizens alike!"--Iris Young, University of Chicago

"Shapiro delivers what the title suggests: a survey of the issues most discussed by political theorists and the main positions taken, with plenty of references to the literature for those who wish to pursue the subject further. But he succeeds in doing much more than this. If, as he suggests, the point of democracy is to strengthen the position of the dispossessed and vulnerable, there is a lot wrong not only with the practice of democracy but with much of the theorizing about it. Indeed, Shapiro argues that the most popular nostrums currently put forward by theorists would make matters worse. Even those familiar with the literature discussed will be intrigued and challenged by Shapiro's analysis."--Brian Barry, Columbia University

"This book is smart, erudite, but accessible. The examples Shapiro draws on to illustrate his points--South Africa, the Middle East, U.S. court cases--give the argument immediacy and relevance. It makes a valuable contribution to political theory, and should encourage political theorists to think about real-life politics"--Nancy Hirschmann, University of Pennsylvania

"Shapiro articulates an incisive critique of deliberative theory--the reigning orthodoxy in contemporary normative theorizing about democracy--in a way that will be accessible to an unusually broad audience of political theorists and social scientists, students as well as scholars."--Clarissa Rile Hayward, Ohio State University



About the Author
Ian Shapirois Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. Among his many books are "The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences" and, with Michael J. Graetz, "Death by a Thousand Cuts" (both Princeton); and "The Moral Foundations of Politics".

Comments

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the article, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Related Free eBooks

Related Tags

DIGG This story   Save To Google   Save To Windows Live   Save To Del.icio.us   diigo it   Save To blinklist
Save To Furl   Save To Yahoo! My Web 2.0   Save To Blogmarks   Save To Shadows   Save To stumbleupon   Save To Reddit