Democracy Defended

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-521-82708-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 500 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 955 g

Reihe: Contemporary Political Theory

Is there a public good? A prevalent view in political science is that democracy is unavoidably chaotic, arbitrary, meaningless, and impossible. Such scepticism began with Condorcet in the eighteenth century, and continued most notably with Arrow and Riker in the twentieth century. In this powerful book, Gerry Mackie confronts and subdues these long-standing doubts about democratic governance. Problems of cycling, agenda control, strategic voting, and dimensional manipulation are not sufficiently harmful, frequent, or irremediable, he argues, to be of normative concern. Mackie also examines every serious empirical illustration of cycling and instability, including Riker's famous argument that the US Civil War was due to arbitrary dimensional manipulation. Almost every empirical claim is erroneous, and none is normatively troubling, Mackie says. This spirited defence of democratic institutions should prove both provocative and influential.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mackie, Gerry

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftstheorie, Wirtschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. A long, dark shadow over democratic politics; 2. The doctrine of democratic irrationalism; 3. Is democratic voting inaccurate?; 4. The Arrow general possibility theorem; 5. Is democracy meaningless? Arrow's condition of unrestricted domain; 6. Is democracy meaningless? Arrow's condition of the independence of irrelevant alternatives; 7. Strategic voting and agenda control; 8. Multidimensional chaos; 9. Assuming irrational actors: the Powell Amendment; 10. Assuming irrational actors: the Depew amendment; 11. Unmanipulating the manipulation: the Wilmot proviso; 12. Unmanipulating the manipulation: the election of Lincoln; 13. Antebellum politics concluded; 14. More of Riker's cycles debunked; 15. Other cycles debunked; 16. New dimensions; 17. Plebiscitarianism against democracy; 18. Democracy resplendent.

Über Autor(innen)

Mackie, Gerry
Gerry Mackie is a Research Fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University.