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How Change Happens--or Doesn't: The Politics of US Public Policy
by Elaine C. KamarckHow do transformative changes in public policy take place? Why do some issues rise to the top of the political agenda, while others are completely ignored? What makes some major policy initiatives succeed―at times, even when the odds are decidedly against them―while others fail or languish for decades? Answering those questions is the purpose of this book. Elaine Kamarck traces the paths of a series of modern policy initiatives from the orderly world of analysis to the messy world of partisan politics. Dissecting the reasons for policy success and failure, she offers an intriguing new perspective on how change happens in the space where politics and policy overlap.
How Children Succeed: Rethinking Character and Intelligence
by Paul Tough<P>Why do some children succeed while others fail? <P>The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. <P>But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. <P>How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories--and the stories of the children they are trying to help--Tough traces the links between childhood stress and life success. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do--and do not--prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to help children growing up in poverty. <P>Early adversity, scientists have come to understand, can not only affect the conditions of children's lives, it can alter the physical development of their brains as well. But now educators and doctors around the country are using that knowledge to develop innovative interventions that allow children to overcome the constraints of poverty. And with the help of these new strategies, as Tough's extraordinary reporting makes clear, children who grow up in the most painful circumstances can go on to achieve amazing things. <P>This provocative and profoundly hopeful book has the potential to change how we raise our children, how we run our schools, and how we construct our social safety net. It will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.
How China Escaped the Poverty Trap
by Yuen Yuen AngBefore markets opened in 1978, China was an impoverished planned economy governed by a Maoist bureaucracy. In just three decades it evolved into the world's second-largest economy and is today guided by highly entrepreneurial bureaucrats. In How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, Yuen Yuen Ang explains this astonishing metamorphosis. Rather than insist that either strong institutions of good governance foster markets or that growth enables good governance, Ang lays out a new, dynamic framework for understanding development broadly. Successful development, she contends, is a coevolutionary process in which markets and governments mutually adapt.By mapping this coevolution, Ang reveals a startling conclusion: poor and weak countries can escape the poverty trap by first harnessing weak institutions—features that defy norms of good governance—to build markets. Further, she stresses that adaptive processes, though essential for development, do not automatically occur. Highlighting three universal roadblocks to adaptation, Ang identifies how Chinese reformers crafted enabling conditions for effective improvisation.How China Escaped the Poverty Trap offers the most complete synthesis to date of the numerous interacting forces that have shaped China’s dramatic makeover and the problems it faces today. Looking beyond China, Ang also traces the coevolutionary sequence of development in late medieval Europe, antebellum United States, and contemporary Nigeria, and finds surprising parallels among these otherwise disparate cases. Indispensable to all who care about development, this groundbreaking book challenges the convention of linear thinking and points to an alternative path out of poverty traps.
How China Sees the World: Han-Centrism and the Balance of Power in International Politics
by Bradley A. Thayer John M. FriendHan-centrism, a virulent form of Chinese nationalism, asserts that the Han Chinese are superior to other peoples and have a legitimate right to advance Chinese interests at the expense of other countries. Han nationalists have called for policies that will allow China to reclaim the prosperity stolen by foreign powers during the “Century of Humiliation.” The growth of Chinese capabilities and Han-centrism suggests that the United States, its allies, and other countries in Asia will face an increasingly assertive China—one that thinks it possesses a right to dominate international politics. John M. Friend and Bradley A. Thayer explore the roots of the growing Han nationalist group and the implications of Chinese hypernationalism for minorities within China and for international relations. The deeply rooted chauvinism and social Darwinism underlying Han-centrism, along with China’s rapid growth, threaten the current stability of international politics, making national and international competition and conflict over security more likely. Western thinkers have yet to consider the adverse implications of a hypernationalistic China, as opposed to the policies of a pragmatic China, were it to become the world’s dominant state.
How China Sees the World: Insights From China’s International Relations Scholars
by Kai He Xiaojun Li Huiyun FengThis book intends to make sense of how Chinese leaders perceive China’s rise in the world through the eyes of China’s international relations (IR) scholars. Drawing on a unique, four-year opinion survey of these scholars at the annual conference of the Chinese Community of Political Science and International Studies (CCPSIS) in Beijing from 2014–2017, the authors examine Chinese IR scholars’ perceptions of and views on key issues related to China’s power, its relationship with the United States and other major countries, and China’s position in the international system and track their changes over time. Furthermore, the authors complement the surveys with a textual analysis of the academic publications in China’s top five IR journals. By comparing and contrasting the opinion surveys and textual analyses, this book sheds new light on how Chinese IR scholars view the world as well as how they might influence China’s foreign policy.
How China Works: An Introduction to China’s State-led Economic Development
by Xiaohuan LanThis book, a bestseller in China with over a million copies sold, depicts the role played by the Chinese government in China‘s economic development. It explains how the Chinese government has gradually established and improved market mechanisms while promoting economic growth. The book particularly points out that the Chinese government not only governs the economy through policy guidance but also directly participates in the process of urbanization and industrialization as part of the market. It also introduces the specific mechanisms of government involvement in economic activities, which forms a bridge between economic theory and the reality of China. This book, a winner of the Wenjin Book Award by the National Library of China, will be an invaluable reference for scholars seeking to understand China‘s economic policy and government system reform in the years to come.
How China Works: Perspectives on the Twentieth-Century Industrial Workplace (Routledge Studies in Asia's Transformations #Vol. 12)
by Jacob EyferthSpanning the whole of the twentieth century, How China Works examines the labour issues surrounding the workplace in China in both the Republican and People's Republic epochs. The international team of contributors treat China's twentieth-century revolution as an industrial revolution, stressing that China's recent emergence as the new workshop of the world was a gradual change, and not a recent phenomena led by external forces. Providing the reader with extensive ethnographic research on topics such as culture and community in the workplace, the rural-urban divide, industrialization, subcontracting and employment practices, How China Works really does ground the study of Chinese work in the daily interactions in the workplace, the labour process and the micropolitics of work.
How China is Transforming Brazil
by Rosana Pinheiro-Machado Mathias Alencastro Mariana Hase UetaThis book sets out to explore the new role of China in Brazilian politics and geopolitics. As China has become Brazil's biggest trade partner, Brazil's political economy has been transformed in subterranean ways, and China's role in the global economy has become a hot topic in Brazilian politics. By bringing into light a new generation of Brazilian scholars, this book seeks to consolidate the scholarship developed in the last decade and promote a new approach to Brazil-China relations, written from the perspective of the global south.
How Cities Become Brands: Developing City Brands Purposefully and Thoughtfully
by Jürgen Häusler Eric HäuslerThis book explores how the fragile and lengthy process of developing a city brand can be carefully managed. Necessary background information is explained, numerous experiences are reported, and targeted city branding is inspired in a variety of ways.The dream of every brand maker: to develop a city into a strong city brand - perhaps even a myth. The creation of myths remains a curiosity. Is it targeted, are there relevant recipes for success, and can those responsible be identified? Above all: Can the process be replicated? How do brand makers deal with the complexity of the phenomena of cities and city brands? How do they give the arduous process of creating a city brand a reasonable chance of success? How do brand makers deal with the often biting criticism from outside and the nagging self-doubt?Successful cityscapes arise from the trials and tribulations of complex and sometimes random processes. In the course of global city competition, this evolutionaryprocess is enriched with the achievements of the craft of branding. This is not a guarantee of success. Success depends on numerous prerequisites, which are discussed in detail. Finally, craft rules for good and at the same time sensitive city branding are mentioned.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules foreffective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emergefrom complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.nal criticism and self-doubts?City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussed conditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.City images emerge from complex and random processes. In global urban competition, this process is enriched with brand making achievements. Success isn't guaranteed, depending on discussedconditions. Lastly, rules for effective city branding are outlined.City images emerge from
How Cities Will Save the World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change and Economic Inequality (Urban Planning and Environment)
by Ray Brescia John Travis MarshallCities are frequently viewed as passive participants to state and national efforts to solve the toughest urban problems. But the evidence suggests otherwise. Cities are actively devising innovative policy solutions and they have the potential to do even more. In this volume, the authors examine current threats to communities across the U.S. and the globe. They draw on first-hand experience with, and accounts of, the crises already precipitated by climate change, population shifts, and economic inequality. This volume is distinguished, however, by its central objective of traveling beyond a description of problems and a discussion of their serious implications. Each of the thirteen chapters frame specific recommendations and guidance on the range of core capacities and interventions that 21st Century cities would be prudent to consider in mapping their immediate and future responses to these critical problems. How Cities Will Save the World brings together authors with frontline experience in the fields of city redevelopment, urban infrastructure, healthcare, planning, immigration, historic preservation, and local government administration. They not only offer their ground level view of threats caused by climate change, population shifts, and economic inequality, but they provide solution-driven narratives identifying promising innovations to help cities tackle this century’s greatest adversities.
How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken (Constructs Series)
by Alex Marshall&“Marshall writes with wit, reason, and style . . . An excellent resource on the history and future of American cities.&” —Library Journal Do cities work anymore? How did they get to be such sprawling conglomerations of lookalike subdivisions, mega freeways, and &“big box&” superstores surrounded by acres of parking lots? And why, most of all, don't they feel like real communities? These are the questions that Alex Marshall tackles in this hard-hitting, highly readable look at what makes cities work. Marshall argues that urban life has broken down because of our basic ignorance of the real forces that shape cities—transportation systems, industry and business, and political decision-making. He explores how these forces have built four very different urban environments: the decentralized sprawl of California&’s Silicon Valley; the crowded streets of New York City&’s Jackson Heights neighborhood; the controlled growth of Portland, Oregon; and the stage-set facades of Disney&’s planned community, Celebration, Florida. To build better cities, Marshall asserts, we must understand and intelligently direct the forces that shape them. Without prescribing any one solution, he defines the key issues facing all concerned citizens who are trying to control urban sprawl and build real communities. His timely book is important reading for a wide public and professional audience.
How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken (Constructs Series)
by Alex MarshallDo cities work anymore? How did they get to be such sprawling conglomerations of lookalike subdivisions, megafreeways, and "big box" superstores surrounded by acres of parking lots? And why, most of all, don't they feel like real communities? These are the questions that Alex Marshall tackles in this hard-hitting, highly readable look at what makes cities work. Marshall argues that urban life has broken down because of our basic ignorance of the real forces that shape cities-transportation systems, industry and business, and political decision making. He explores how these forces have built four very different urban environments-the decentralized sprawl of California's Silicon Valley, the crowded streets of New York City's Jackson Heights neighborhood, the controlled growth of Portland, Oregon, and the stage-set facades of Disney's planned community, Celebration, Florida. To build better cities, Marshall asserts, we must understand and intelligently direct the forces that shape them. Without prescribing any one solution, he defines the key issues facing all concerned citizens who are trying to control urban sprawl and build real communities. His timely book will be important reading for a wide public and professional audience.
How Civic Action Works: Fighting for Housing in Los Angeles (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology #9)
by Paul LichtermanThe ways that social advocates organize to fight unaffordable housing and homelessness in Los Angeles, illuminated by a new conceptual framework for studying collective actionHow Civic Action Works renews the tradition of inquiry into collective, social problem solving. Paul Lichterman follows grassroots activists, nonprofit organization staff, and community service volunteers in three coalitions and twelve organizations in Los Angeles as they campaign for affordable housing, develop new housing, or address homelessness. Lichterman shows that to understand how social advocates build their campaigns, craft claims, and choose goals, we need to move beyond well-established thinking about what is strategic.Lichterman presents a pragmatist-inspired sociological framework that illuminates core tasks of social problem solving, both contentious and noncontentious, by grassroots and professional advocates alike. He reveals that advocates’ distinct styles of collective action produce different understandings of what is strategic, and generate different dilemmas for advocates because each style accommodates varying social and institutional pressures. We see, too, how patterns of interaction create a cultural filter that welcomes some claims about housing problems while subordinating or delegitimating others. These cultural patterns help solve conceptual and practical puzzles, such as why coalitions fragment when members agree on many things, and what makes advocacy campaigns separate housing from homelessness or affordability from environmental sustainability. Lichterman concludes by turning this action-centered framework toward improving dialogue between social advocates and researchers.Using extensive ethnography enriched by archival evidence, How Civic Action Works explains how advocates meet the relational and rhetorical challenges of collective action.
How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
by Barbara F. WalterA leading political scientist examines the dramatic rise in violent extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States. <p><p> Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country. <p><p> Perhaps surprisingly, both autocracies and healthy democracies are largely immune from civil war; it’s the countries in the middle ground that are most vulnerable. And this is where more and more countries, including the United States, are finding themselves today. <p><p> Over the last two decades, the number of active civil wars around the world has almost doubled. Walter reveals the warning signs—where wars tend to start, who initiates them, what triggers them—and why some countries tip over into conflict while others remain stable. Drawing on the latest international research and lessons from over twenty countries, Walter identifies the crucial risk factors, from democratic backsliding to factionalization and the politics of resentment. A civil war today won’t look like America in the 1860s, Russia in the 1920s, or Spain in the 1930s. It will begin with sporadic acts of violence and terror, accelerated by social media. It will sneak up on us and leave us wondering how we could have been so blind. <p><p> In this urgent and insightful book, Walter redefines civil war for a new age, providing the framework we need to confront the danger we now face—and the knowledge to stop it before it’s too late.
How Civility Works
by Keith BybeeIs civility dead? Americans ask this question every election season, but their concern is hardly limited to political campaigns. Doubts about civility regularly arise in just about every aspect of American public life. Rudeness runs rampant. Our news media is saturated with aggressive bluster and vitriol. Our digital platforms teem with expressions of disrespect and trolls. Reflecting these conditions, surveys show that a significant majority of Americans believe we are living in an age of unusual anger and discord. Everywhere we look, there seems to be conflict and hostility, with shared respect and consideration nowhere to be found. In a country that encourages thick skins and speaking one's mind, is civility even possible, let alone desirable? In How Civility Works, Keith J. Bybee elegantly explores the "crisis" in civility, looking closely at how civility intertwines with our long history of boorish behavior and the ongoing quest for pleasant company. Bybee argues that the very features that make civility ineffective and undesirable also point to civility's power and appeal. Can we all get along? If we live by the contradictions on which civility depends, then yes, we can, and yes, we should.
How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) (Playaway Adult Nonfiction Ser.)
by David GoldmanYou've heard about the Death of the West.But the Muslim world is on the brink of an even greater collapse.WILL WE GO DOWN IN THE IMPLOSION?Thanks to collapsing birthrates, much of Europe is on a path of willed self-extinction. The untold story is that birthrates in Muslim nations are declining faster than anywhere else--at a rate never before documented. Europe, even in its decline, may have the resources to support an aging population, if at a terrible economic and cultural cost. But in the impoverished Islamic world, an aging population means a civilization on the brink of total collapse-- something Islamic terrorists know and fear.Muslim decline poses new threats to America, challenges we cannot even understand, much less face effectively, without a wholly new kind of political analysis that explains how desperate peoples and nations behave.In How Civilizations Die, David P. Goldman--author of the celebrated "Spengler" column read by intelligence organizations worldwide--reveals how, almost unnoticed, massive shifts in global power are remaking our future.Goldman reveals: How extinctions of peoples, cultures, and civilizations are not unthinkable--but certain How for the first time in world history, the birthrate in the West has fallen below replacement level Why birthrates in the Muslim world are falling even faster Why the "Arab Spring" is the precursor of much more violent change in the Islamic world Why looming demographic collapse may encourage Islamic terrorists to "go for broke" How the United States can survive the coming world turmoilIn How Civilizations Die, David P. Goldman has written an essential book for understanding what lies in the future for America and the world.
How Compassion can Transform our Politics, Economy, and Society
by Matt Hawkins Jennifer NadelHow Compassion can Transform our Politics, Economy, and Society draws together experts across disciplines – ranging from psychology to climate science, philosophy to economics, history to business – to explore the power of compassion to transform politics, our society, and our economy. The book shows that compassion can be used as the basis of a new political, economic, and social philosophy as well as a practical tool to address climate breakdown, inequality, homelessness, and more. Crucially, it also provides a detailed plan for its execution. It marks the first time that the study of compassion has been applied across multiple disciplines. The book provides a template for the study of compassion on an interdisciplinary basis and will appeal to academics, professionals, and the general reader searching for a fresh and inspiring approach to the seemingly intractable problems facing the world.
How Courts Impact Federal Administrative Behavior (Routledge Studies in North American Politics)
by Robert J. HumeWhat impact do federal courts have on the administrative agencies of the federal government? How do agencies react to the decisions of federal courts? This book answers these questions by examining the responses of federal agencies to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, revealing what happens inside agencies after courts rule against them. Robert J. Hume draws upon dozens of interviews with current and former administrators, taking readers behind the scenes of these organizations to reveal their internal procedures, their attitudes about courts, and their surprising capacity to be influenced by a judge’s choice of words. This fascinating study will be of interest to students and scholars of politics as well as those seeking great understanding of the intricacies of the US political system.
How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate
by Andrew J. HoffmanThough the scientific community largely agrees that climate change is underway, debates about this issue remain fiercely polarized. These conversations have become a rhetorical contest, one where opposing sides try to achieve victory through playing on fear, distrust, and intolerance. At its heart, this split no longer concerns carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, or climate modeling; rather, it is the product of contrasting, deeply entrenched worldviews. This brief examines what causes people to reject or accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Synthesizing evidence from sociology, psychology, and political science, Andrew J. Hoffman lays bare the opposing cultural lenses through which science is interpreted. He then extracts lessons from major cultural shifts in the past to engender a better understanding of the problem and motivate the public to take action. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate makes a powerful case for a more scientifically literate public, a more socially engaged scientific community, and a more thoughtful mode of public discourse.
How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
by Daniel Ziblatt Steven Levitsky<P>A bracing, revelatory look at the demise of liberal democracies around the world—and a road map for rescuing our own Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? <P>Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. <P>The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
How Democracies Live: Power, Statecraft, and Freedom in Modern Societies
by Stein RingenTimes have not been kind to democracy. This book is in its defense. In the new century, the triumph of democracy at the end of the Cold War turned to retrenchment. The core democracies, in America and Britain, succumbed to polarization and misrule. Dictatorships, such as China, made themselves assertive. New democracies in Central Europe turned to muddled ideologies of “illiberal democracy.” In this book, Stein Ringen offers a meditation on what democracy is, the challenges it faces, and how it can be defended. Ringen argues that democracy must be rooted in a culture that supports the ability of citizens to exchange views and information among themselves and with their rulers. Drawing on the ideas of Machiavelli, Aristotle, Tocqueville, Max Weber, and others, Ringen shows how power is the fuel of government, and statecraft turns power into effective rule. Democracy should prize freedom and minimizing unfairness, especially poverty. Altogether, Ringen offers powerful insight on the meaning of democracy, including a new definition, and how countries can improve upon it and make it function more effectively. Timely and thought-provoking, How Democracies Live is a sober reminder of the majesty of the democratic enterprise.
How Democracy Ends
by David RuncimanHow will democracy end? And what will replace it? A preeminent political scientist examines the past, present, and future of an endangered political philosophySince the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get?In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable--a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better.A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life.
How Democracy Survives: Global Challenges in the Anthropocene (Democratization and Autocratization Studies)
by R. S. Deese Michael HolmHow Democracy Survives explores how liberal democracy can better adapt to the planetary challenges of our time by evolving beyond the Westphalian paradigm of the nation state. The authors bring perspectives from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, their chapters engaging with the concept of transnational democracy by tracing its development in the past, assessing its performance in the present, and considering its potential for survival in this century and beyond. Coming from a wide array of intellectual disciplines and policymaking backgrounds, the authors share a common conviction that our global institutions—both governments and international organizations—must become more resilient, transparent, and democratically accountable in order to address the cascading political, economic, and social crises of this new epoch, such as climate change, mass migration, more frequent and severe natural disasters, and resurgent authoritarianism. This book will be relevant for courses in international relations and political science, environmental politics, and the preservation of democracy and federalism around the world.
How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
by Robert A. DahlDahl starts with the assumption that the legitimacy of the American Constitution derives solely from its utility as an instrument of democratic governance. Dahl demonstrates that, due to the context in which it was conceived, our Constitution came to incorporate significant antidemocratic elements. Because the Framers of the Constitution had no relevant example of a democratic political system on which to model the American government, many defining aspects of our political system were implemented as a result of short-sightedness or last-minute compromise.
How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
by Robert A. DahlIn this provocative book, one of our most eminent political scientists poses the question, "Why should we uphold our constitution?" The vast majority of Americans venerate the American Constitution and the principles it embodies, but many also worry that the United States has fallen behind other nations on crucial democratic issues, including economic equality, racial integration, and women's rights. Robert Dahl explores this vital tension between the Americans' belief in the legitimacy of their constitution and their belief in the principles of democracy. Dahl starts with the assumption that the legitimacy of the American Constitution derives solely from its utility as an instrument of democratic governance. Dahl demonstrates that, due to the context in which it was conceived, our constitution came to incorporate significant antidemocratic elements. Because the Framers of the Constitution had no relevant example of a democratic political system on which to model the American government, many defining aspects of our political system were implemented as a result of short-sightedness or last-minute compromise. Dahl highlights those elements of the American system that are most unusual and potentially antidemocratic: the federal system, the bicameral legislature, judicial review, presidentialism, and the electoral college system. The political system that emerged from the world's first great democratic experiment is unique-no other well-established democracy has copied it. How does the American constitutional system function in comparison to other democratic systems? How could our political system be altered to achieve more democratic ends? To what extent did the Framers of the Constitution build features into our political system that militate against significant democratic reform? Refusing to accept the status of the American Constitution as a sacred text, Dahl challenges us all to think critically about the origins of our political system and to consider the opportunities for creating a more democratic society.