Public Scholarship and Democracy Bibliography
DEMOCRACY & INTERDEPENDENCE: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
This annotated bibliography of monographs, government documents, and websites was created by Richard Fitzsimmons Ph.D., Librarian (Professor) and Director of the Library, Penn State Worthington Scranton, during the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy's 2007-2008 Seminar Series A Capacity to Sustain Democracy. These resources, which have the potential to expand ideas of citizenship not only to our local communities and our nations but also to our world, are focused on strengthening the cultural will towards democracy and interdependence in today’s global society.*
MONOGRAPHS
Addams, J. (1910). Twenty years at Hull-house. New York: The Macmillan Company.
The autobiography provides a lively, anecdotal account of Addams' early life on the Illinois prairie and the founding of Hull-House, the influential Chicago settlement that provided a broad variety of community services.
Allardt, E. (1981). Nordic democracy: ideas, issues, and institutions in politics, economy, education, social and cultural affairs of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Copenhagen, Denmark: Det Danske Selskab.
Arendt, H. (Ed.). (2000). The portable Hannah Arendt. New York: Penguin Books.
Arendt, a political philosopher, offers comments from her life’s work on the distinctions between philosophy and politics, thought and action, and thinking and doing. Her “dualism” affirms human freedom.
Bhagwati, J. (2004). In defense of globalization. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bhagwati’s book shows that there exist positive net benefits from globalization despite some social costs. Globalization could be made more beneficial by a regulatory environment that addresses some of its downsides as well as “accentuating the positive”. The book provides an excellent, even-handed analytic description of globalization and its side-effects for economists and even non-economists.
Barber, B. R. (2007). Consumed: how markets corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
Barber critiques global capitalism as a threat not only to democracy, but to capitalism itself. Through privatization of the public domain, branding, and “consumer totalitarianism”, capitalism sustains itself through the creation of false needs. He contends the market turns ever-younger kids into brand-loyal shoppers and adults into “kidults” who seek all that is simple, quick, and easy. Rather than false consciousness, consumerism creates “civic schizophrenia”, where private wants clash with public needs. Barber concludes by suggesting ways consumerism can correct itself from within.
Barber, B. R. (2001). Jihad vs. McWorld. New York: Ballantine Books.
The premise of the volume is simple: the world is presently torn between the globalizing effects of commercialism and the market, labeled "McWorld," and that of regional, particular, and parochial interests, labeled "Jihad."
Barnett, T. (2004). The pentagon’s new map: war and peace in the twenty-first century. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
The author contends that the countries of the world that have been successfully integrated into the globalized “functioning core” are not going to be a threat to world peace and stability, rather it is the “non-integrating gap” that will give rise to instability and terrorist threats in the future.
Bellah, R. N. (1991). The good society. New York: Knopf.
Bellah, a distinguished social scientist, and his four coauthors claim that in the US, trust in societal institutions has been declining, posing a threat to democracy. They see the problem as arising from Lockean individualism, a social philosophy that emphasizes an autonomous pursuit of individual self interest that is largely indifferent to the community.
Bendik-Keymer, J. (2006). The ecological life: discovering citizenship and a sense of humanity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc.
Written as a series of imagined lectures to undergraduates, this book allows readers to watch the dialectical nature of the author’s thought unfolding, concerning the ecological life and its relationship to people’s humanity and sense of citizenship. While this work is a fine student introduction to ecological issues, it does not supplant more rigorous studies.
Bimber, B. A. (2003). Information and American democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
The author argues that new technologies have produced the fourth in a series of “information revolutions” in the US, stretching back to the founding.
Boulding, E. (1988). Building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Elise Boulding describes those aspects of an evolving world civic culture that are oriented towards the control of war and violence, and then considers how ways of learning not usually found in school may further elaborate and extend civic culture. Boulding calls for a form of education that builds on the largely cognitive/analytical modes of knowledge characteristic of the West, by giving more attention to the use of imagination, intuition, and personal experience.
Breyer, S. (2005). Active Liberty. New York: Knopf.
Each individual belongs to the political community with the right to participate or not. “The people and their representatives must have the capacity to exercise their democratic responsibilities. They should possess the tools, such as information and education, necessary to participate and to govern effectively.” Breyer formulates a judicial doctrine of active liberty – i.e. the Constitution should be interpreted in ways that secure or support citizen participation.
Byrd, R. (2004). Losing America. New York: W.W. Norton.
Reminiscent of Sam Ervin pulling the Constitution from his pocket during the Watergate hearings, Senator Byrd (no one will accuse him of a non-partisan approach) is direct in his belief that a weak legislative branch enables the executive to fundamentally alter the balance of power and to challenge the theory and practice of checks and balances. Partisan and provocative.
Colby, A., Ehrlich, T., Beaumont, E., Stephens, J. (2003). Educating citizens: preparing America’s undergraduates for lives of moral and civic responsibility. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Educators concerned about the sustainability and advancement of democracy in the United States and throughout the world must believe that educating students to be morally and civically responsible citizens is a fundamental and critical role of higher education. This volume provides what is needed to understand the complex concepts of moral and civic learning and to consider what one has to do to help students become educated and motivated citizens who will ensure the future of democracy.
Dagger, R. (1997). Civic virtues: rights, citizenship, and republican liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Examines the political theory that too much weight is now attached to individual rights, resulting in an excess of individualism, which blinds people to the needs of the community or state which they belong.
Dahl, R. A. (1982). Dilemmas of pluralist democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Discusses the problem of autonomous organizations to democratic nation-states, and suggests various remedies for balancing out autonomy and control.
Dahl, R. A. (2002). How democratic is the American Constitution? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
There is a tension between American belief in the Constitution’s legitimacy and public belief in the principles of democracy. Dahl suggests the Constitution represents non-democratic philosophy and practice rooted in the eighteenth century and argues that it was not intended as a sacred text. He suggests that it is time for significant amendment.
Dahl, R. A. (1998). On democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Provides a historical overview of democratic ideals, defines the scalability of democracy and its implementation, and discusses the conditions which favor democracy.
Davies, I. (1999). Good citizenship and educational provision. New York: Falmer Press.
The authors make recommendations based on discussions with 700 teachers about the meaning of citizenship and what might be done to implement effective citizenship education.
Di Palma, G. (1990). To craft democracies: an essay on democratic transitions. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Di Palma discusses, among other subjects, the politics of transitions, future implications of different kinds of transitions, the politics of consolidation and legitimacy, and the prospects of different countries currently moving toward democracy.
Dworkin, R. (2006). Is democracy possible here?: principles for a new political debate. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Dworkin, pursues two projects in this book. The first is to state certain core principles that he believes could be widely shared across the major divide expressed in the terminology of a “red” and “blue” political U.S. landscape. The second project is the application of the principles to several highly contentious issues in the forefront of political debate: the treatment of captives taken in the war on terror, the relation between religion and human dignity, and tax policy. Whether they will inspire the productive debate he wishes to instigate is the question the book asks of each reader.
Dzur, A. W. (2008). Democratic professionalism: citizen participation and the reconstruction of professional ethics, identity, and practice. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
An important defense of professionalism and its crucial relationship to democracy. As this work makes clear, a democratic theory that fails to adequately examine the relationship between citizen participation and expert knowledge in a technological information society can only fall short of the mark. Bringing expert knowledge to bear in an open and deliberative way to help solve pressing social problems is a major concern today, when technocratic and bureaucratic decision making often occurs with little or no input from the general public.
Eberly, R. A. & Cohen, J. (Eds.) (2006). A laboratory for public scholarship and democracy. [In series: New Directions for Teaching and Learning; no. 105] San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This volume offers insights into how and why public scholarship has grown and is beginning to sustain itself. Chapters examine the constitutional roots of public scholarship and distinguish between public scholarship and service, propose a framework for researching individual, organizational, and epistemological factors that shape faculty engagement in public scholarship, make baseline explications for assessing public scholarship outcomes, and provide a postmodern critique of expertise in the context of public scholarship. The final chapter looks at the promise of public scholarship for higher education and democracy.
Elkin, S. L., & Soltan, K. E. (Eds.). (1998). Citizen competence and democratic institutions. University Park, Pa: Penn State University Press.
Bringing together new work from many of the leading experts on democratic citizenship, this volume presents both normative argument and empirical analysis to help deepen our understanding of the various competences that citizens require if there is to be a flourishing democratic political order in our present age. The essays explore the following themes: (1) the essential components of democratic citizenship and how these can be fostered; (2) the state of citizen competence in various democratic regimes; (3) civil society as a crucial site for the exercise and development of democratic citizenship; (4) new findings that show democratic citizens have to have more political information and behave more rationally than hitherto supposed; and (5) the theory and practice of new institutional forms of democratic deliberation and democratic control.
Ester, P., Braun, M., & Mohler, P. (Eds.). (2006). Globalization, value change, and generations: a cross-national and intergenerational perspective. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
The 10th volume of the series reporting on large-scale, cross-national, and longitudinal research into fundamental values and their change in Western societies, European sociologists investigate such possibilities as a global world of global values, the individualization of family values, the end of traditional political values, and decreasing desires for income inequality.
Evans, S., & Boyte, H. C. (1986). Free spaces: the sources of democratic change in America. New York: Harper & Row.
The authors write about the voluntary associations "between the public world of politics and work and the private intimacy of the family" that enabled women to redefine both citizenship and the state.
Fishkin, J. S. (1986). The voice of the people: public opinion and democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Fishkin presents a highly readable scholarly rationale for a proposed deliberative poll. Neither the founders' "elite democracy," which maximizes deliberation and avoidance of tyranny, nor our current "mass democracy," which emphasizes but fails to achieve participation and equality, is complete. Fishkin seeks a "democracy of civic engagement".
Follett, M. P. (1998). The new state: group organization the solution of popular government. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Follett makes important arguments about the relationship between socialism and democracy. With preliminary essays by Benjamin Barber and Jane Mansbridge, plus a historical introduction provided by Kevin Mattson, this reissued edition will be of use to scholars and activists who are currently working on issues of democratic participation, civic education, and public deliberation.
Foner, E. (1998). The story of American freedom. New York: W.W. Norton.
Written prior to the current issues associated with Iraq, 9/11, and No Child Left Behind, Columbia historian Eric Foner’s very readable story adopts a familiar premise: freedom requires the ability to participate in public affairs. Foner warns that historically, mass hysteria has proven stronger than parchment barriers.
Fontana, B., Nederman, C., & Remer, G. (Eds.). (2008). Talking democracy: historical perspectives on rhetoric and democracy. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
The theory of deliberative democracy has been an important contribution to understanding polity, but it also has been limited by its assumptions about public disclosure. Talking Democracy engages many of the theory’s important statements and persistent problems, and offers a rich reformulation of discursive agency by drawing on the tradition of rhetoric.
Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Friedman’s central thesis is that advances in science and technology have flattened the playing field so that, regardless of national boundaries, work will flow to where it can be done most efficiently at the least expense. Friedman offers many challenging ideas for businessmen, economists, politicians, voters, and parents. The vaunted superiority in productivity enjoyed by the United States is imperiled by the surge in educational opportunities offered in India, China and other emerging nations. Friedman makes the point that terrorism and terrorists blossom in an environment where opportunities for education and improvement in living conditions are limited, while the Internet provides views of better conditions elsewhere as well as messages attracting frustrated, angry, and envious recruits to terrorist groups. The implications are obvious for U.S. immigration policies, encouragement for overseas investment, and the need for international cooperation.
Galston, W. A. (2002). Liberal pluralism: the implications of value pluralism for political theory and practice . New York: Cambridge University Press.
Galston argues against current mainstream, liberal political theories such as those of John Rawls in contending that it is possible to create a political system grounded in individual value differences, while locating them in a political philosophy connected to a broader set of moral theories about right and wrong.
Gans, H. J. (2003). Democracy and the news. New York: Oxford University Press.
Addresses the discrepancy between how things are and how we want them to be in terms of the role of journalism in a democratic society.
Grant, L. (2000). Too many people: the case for reversing growth. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press.
Too many people: the case for reversing growth is well written and very readable. It goes over all the ground that he (and others) have covered so well in the past and he gives us some new insights and the latest figures and facts of resources. It is well worth reading even if the readers of this publication feel that they know “all that”. In this short and readable book Grant prunes massive amounts of information to their essence and lays out his case for not only stopping but reversing growth.
Gunnell, J. G. (2004). Imagining the American polity: political science and the discourse of democracy. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Americans have long prided themselves on living in a country that serves as beacon of democracy to the world, but from the time of the founding they have also engaged in debates over what the criteria for democracy are as they seek to validate their faith in the United States as a democratic regime.
Halperin, M., Siegle, J., & Weinstein, M. (2005). The democracy advantage: how democracies promote prosperity and peace. New York: Routledge.
A forceful case for a “democracy centered” foreign policy argues that fostering democracy in poor countries enhances their prospects for economic growth and social welfare. This book is most insightful in identifying the moments when outside states can have an impact on democratization by fostering support for reformers and creating incentives for more accountable government.
Harrison, A. (Ed.). (2007). Globalization and poverty. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Globalization and Poverty brings together experts on both international trade and poverty to provide a detailed view of the effects of globalization on the poor in developing nations, answering such questions as: Do lower import tariffs improve the lives of the poor? Has increased financial integration led to more or less poverty? How have the poor fared during various currency crises? Does food aid hurt or help the poor? Poverty, the contributors show here, has been used as a popular and convenient catchphrase by parties on both sides of the globalization debate to further their respective arguments.
Havel, V. (1990). Open letters: selected writings, 1965-1990. New York: Knopf.
Havel argues for a new political tradition: liberate ourselves from petty, idiosyncratic concerns, live like citizens of the world, true cosmopolitans, aware of our common responsibility and solidarity.
Heater, D. B. (1999). What is citizenship? Malden, MA: Polity Press.
This book attempts to distinguish between two traditions and interpretations of the nature of citizenship.
Hertsgaard, M. (2002). The eagle’s shadow: why America fascinates and infuriates the world. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Herstgaard was already circling the globe investigating other nation’s perceptions of America when the 9/11 terrorist attacks lent an unanticipated urgency to his findings. Few of those he interviewed in the 15 countries he visited expressed anything like the deep hatred of the U.S. that motivated the terrorists. Many voiced warm admiration for America’s dynamic economy, vibrant culture, and open political system. However, these same people also complained bitterly about how Americans dominate a world we poorly understand, sanctimoniously boast of democratic virtues while ignoring our complicity in the crimes of authoritarian regimes, and destroy other countries’ deep-rooted cultural traditions by exporting our crass culture of self-indulgence and haste.
Honig, B. (2001). Democracy and the foreigner. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
What should we do about foreigners? Should we try to make them more like us or keep them at bay to protect our democracy, our culture, our well-being? Bonnie Honig reverses the question: What problems might foreigners solve for us? Instead of lauding achievements of individual foreigners, she probes a much larger issue – the symbolic politics of foreignness. In doing so she shows not only how our debates over foreignness help shore up our national or democratic identities, but how anxieties endemic to liberal democracy themselves animate ambivalence toward foreignness.
Janara, L. (2002). Democracy growing up. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Democracy Growing Up comments critically upon the peculiar gendered and familial foundations of modern Western democracy and upon the notion of democratic maturity that Tocqueville offers us.
Jomo K.S. (Jomo Kwame Sundaram) & Baudot, J. (2007). Flat world, big gaps: economic liberalization, globalization, poverty and inequality. New York: Zed Books Ltd.
Flat World, Big Gaps critically considers the impact of economic liberalization and globalization on inequality and poverty. The first half surveys the major analytical issues in the recent study of global inequalities. The second half of the volume surveys recent inequality trends in various parts of the world including the OCED, the USA, Eastern Europe and the CIS economies, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, India, East Asia and China.
Katzenstein, P., & Keohane, R. (Eds.). (2007). Anti-Americanisms in world politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
The editors examine the nature and variety of the diverse attitudes of anti-Americanism in the world, in the light of the upsurge in those attitudes in recent years. The contributors bring a pluralistic analysis from different social science disciplines and various methodologies to discuss fluctuating anti-Americanism across space and time. The book emphasizes the multidimensional and heterogeneous nature of anti-Americanism, and the ambivalence often associated with it.
Kaufmann, B., & Waters, M. D. (Eds.). (2004). Direct democracy in Europe. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
With the European Union enlarging and the continent heading to its first referendum, the book offers background, facts, and analysis from more than 35 countries that will help the reader understand these important events.
Kothari, R. (1988). State against democracy: in search of humane governance. Delhi, India: Ajanta Publications.
Kranich, N. (2001). Libraries and democracy: the cornerstones of liberty. Chicago: American Library Association.
Offers a variety of perspectives on the role that libraries play in supporting a democratic society and developing an informed citizenry.
Kselman, T. A., & Buttigieg, J. A. (Eds.). (2003). European Christian democracy: historical legacies and comparative perspectives. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
These essays offer a comprehensive assessment of Christian democracy and the key role it played in establishing constitutional government and social policy in Western Europe.
Leib, E. J. (2004). Deliberative democracy in America: a proposal for a popular branch of government. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
The careful and nuanced thinking that Leib brings to this institutional context of checks and balances is the principle merit of the book. Leib makes a bold foray into the realm of Constitutional design that adds sorely needed suggestions for the fundamental institutional change into debates about deliberative democracy.
Leighninger, M. (2006). The next form of democracy: how expert rule is giving way to shared governance--and why politics will never be the same. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Leighninger argues that a generational shift is heralding the next stage in the development of the American political system in which citizens demand much more day-to-day involvement in the crafting of government policy.
Levine, P. (2007). The future of democracy: developing the next generation of American citizens. Medford, MA: Tufts University Press.
Although young people are generally tolerant, patriotic and idealistic, they are increasingly staying away from civic engagement. Most lack the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively address issues of public consequence. Levine is director of CIRCLE at U. Maryland. A philosopher by education, he employs survey research to identify and grapple with issues of political engagement among youth.
Lindblom, C. E. (1977). Politics and markets: the world's political economic systems. New York: Basic Books.
This landmark work, winner of the Woodrow Wilson Prize, analyzes the relationship between government and business, and evaluates the different forms of capitalism, socialism, and democracy in terms of efficiency and personal liberty.
Lippmann, W. (1927). The phantom public. New York: Macmillan.
Lippmann argues that since ordinary citizens have no sense of objective reality, and since their ideas are merely stereotypes manipulated at will by people at the top, deliberative democracy is an unworkable dogma or impossible dream.
Lummis, C. D. (1996). Radical democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
In brief but succinct essays, Lummis draws on his international experiences to add practical and global dimensions to a topic too often limited to rarefied theory or the US context.
Lyne, M. M. (2008). The voter’s dilemma and democratic accountability: explaining the democracy-development paradox. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Lyne’s book constructs a sophisticated micro-logic of citizens’ and politicians’ choices resulting in exchanges based on clientelistic side-payments or policies. Anyone interested in democratic accountability should read this book.
Macedo, S., (Ed.) (2005). Democracy at risk: how political choices undermine citizen participation, and what we can do about it. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute.
This collection by the American Political Science Association’s Standing Committee on Civic Education and Engagement is loaded with advice for improving civic participation. Of most interest to legislators and staff is a chapter dealing with the effects of public policy on citizen participation, especially voting. The recommendations in this chapter relating to low voter turnout are particularly interesting because they go beyond the mechanisms of election laws and address other factors such as the potential effect of civic education and political competitiveness on political participation. The book looks at what local governments, neighborhood organizations and communities can do to encourage political participation and the role associations and the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors play in promoting civic engagement.
Madison, J., Hamilton, A., & Jay, J. (1992). The Federalist papers. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books.
The entire purpose of The Federalist Papers was to gain popular support for the then-proposed Constitution. Some would call it the most significant public-relations campaign in history; it is, in fact, studied in many public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign.
Magstadt, T. (2004). An empire if you can keep it: power and principle in American foreign policy. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
America’s belief in principle, as hypocritical as it might be in practice, is a key to “America’s success”, argues political scientist Magstadt in his survey of American foreign policy. He examines the roots of American “moral leadership” on the world stage and traces its varying fortunes through post-World War II highs in Europe to the nadir of Vietnam and the current negative reactions to George W. Bush’s “preemptive’ unilateralism.
Mansbridge, J. (1980). Beyond adversary democracy. New York: Basic Books.
This work includes issues of representation, trust, the relation between coercion and deliberation in democracy, the public understanding of collective action problems, and the interaction between non-activists and social movements.
Marcus, G. E. (2002). The sentimental citizen: emotion in democratic politics. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
This book challenges the conventional wisdom that improving democratic politics requires keeping emotion out of it. Marcus advances the provocative claim that the tradition in democratic theory of treating emotion and reason as hostile opposites is misguided and leads contemporary theorists to misdiagnose the current state of American democracy. Marcus argues, democratic theorists need to understand that emotions are in fact a prerequisite for the exercise of reason and thus for rational democratic deliberation and political judgment.
Marcus, G. E., Hanson, R. L. (1993). Reconsidering the democratic public. University park, PA: Penn State University Press.
A re-examination of the evidence about citizens’ capacity for self-governance and what it means for the future of democratic politics, from both empirical and normative perspectives. This book shows that interesting and important things can happen when you bring democratic theory and the study of democratic politics together. Experiments like this could help revitalize the discipline. And the heartening substantive news is that democracy may be a more viable form of government, that the people may be more likely to govern themselves wisely and well, than political science has sometimes suggested.
Markovits, E. (2008). The politics of sincerity: Plato, frank speech, and democratic judgment. University park, PA: Penn State University Press.
This book contributes significantly to both classical political philosophy (the relationship of Plato’s dialogues to democracy, then and now) and democratic theory (deliberative democracy, participatory democracy, and feminist treatment of democracy). Markovits brilliantly connects her interpretations of Plato’s texts to our own thinking about important political questions, examining particularly the problematic role of sincerity in political communication.
Marshall, T. H. (1963). Class, citizenship, and social development, essays. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
In his writings on social policy, Marshall examines the associations between the institutions of citizenship and social class from a historical and comparative perspective.
Mattson, K. (1997). Creating a democratic public: the struggle for urban participatory democracy during the Progressive Era. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Mattson challenges readers to reconsider contemporary conceptions of democracy that view citizens as consumers, and he contributes to contemporary discussions of ways to invigorate democratic practice. In an era of quickening concern about citizenship and community in contemporary America, we have a lot to learn from the community-building activities of Progressive Era reformers.
Michnik, A. (1985). Letters from prison and other essays. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Michnik espouses that the natural rights of people to freedom under the rule of law is paramount in civil society. Freedom within the framework of law constitutes the essence of democratic order.
Modood, T., Triandafyllidou, A., Zapata-Barrero, R. (Eds.). (2006). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship. New York: Routledge.
Presents a case for a “European approach” to integrating Islamic minorities into mostly democratic and secular societies. Belgium, Britain, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Spain are examined in separate chapters. The essays are uniformly optimistic in their view that Islam is not anti-Western. They argue that European Muslims want essentially the sort of life-style others already have.
Morris, D., & Shapiro, I. (1993). The political writings / John Dewey. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
To Dewey, democracy encompasses how humans are to live, work, and learn together. An essential democracy, for Dewey, is rule by the people, and therefore a democratic government must serve the interests of the people, and the population must participate in the political process.
Mouffe, C. (Ed.). (1992). Dimensions of a radical democracy: pluralism, citizenship, community. New York: Verso.
A collection of essays which discuss radical democracy in the 21st century. From the preface: “A radical, democratic citizen must be an active citizen, somebody who acts as a citizen, who conceives of herself as a participant in a collective undertaking.”
Moyers, B. (2001). Doing democracy: the MAP model for organizing social movements. Gabriola Island, B.C: New Society Publishers.
Doing Democracy outlines the eight typical stages of social movements, the four roles of activists, and case studies from the civil rights, anti-nuclear energy, Central America, gay/lesbian, women's health (breast cancer), and globalization movements.
Mutz, D. (2006). Hearing the other side: deliberative versus participatory democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
‘Religion and politics’ as the old saying goes, ‘should never be discussed in mixed company.’ Fostering discussions that cross lines of political difference has long been a central concern of political theorists. It has also become a cause célèbre for pundits and civic-minded citizens wanting to improve the health of American democracy. Hearing the Other Side examines this theme in the context of the contemporary United States.
Myers, S. (1996). Democracy is a discussion: civic engagement in emerging democracies. New London, CT: Toor Cummings Center for International Studies.
Broken into seven thematic areas, this handbook provides readings and discussion questions which frame the essential aspects of building and sustaining democratic principles.
Myers, S. (2002). Democracy reader. New York: International Debate Education Association.
A comprehensive tool for understanding democracy and the central roles that citizens play in making democracy work. Outlines the obstacles encountered on the way to democracy, and strategies for addressing them.
Myers, S., & Barber, B.R. (Eds.). (2004). The interdependence handbook: looking back, living the present, choosing the future. New York: International Debate Education Association.
A compilation of works which addresses the notion of interdependency in our everyday lives. The Handbook seeks to expand the idea of civic responsibility to include all the citizens of the world.
Myers, S., Brodeur, P., (Eds.). (2006). The pluralist paradigm: democracy and religion in the 21st century. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press.
This book comes at an opportune moment. The complicated relations between religious belief of various kinds and modern democracy has emerged as a key issue for this century. The Pluralist Paradigm proposes a compelling framework for approaching this issue. It counters the prevalent gloom over these matters by providing digestible insights from major theorists of religion and democracy, along with encouraging cases of “fruitful encounters” among faiths and modern politics.
Noddings, N. (Ed.). (2005). Educating citizens for global awareness. New York: Teachers College Press.
Educating students about their roles as “global citizens” is a challenge that has taken on increasing importance in recent years. In this volume, prominent educators join Noddings to address the issue of global citizenship, what this means, and how it should shape curriculum and teaching in K-12 classrooms.
Noddings, N. (2006). Philosophy of education. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Noddings writes straightforwardly and lucidly about the complex ideas of both classic and contemporary philosophers of education. She has the rare ability to show the relevance of philosophy to the concrete practical problems that teachers face in the classroom. This text includes an entirely new chapter on problems of school reform, examining issues of equality, accountability, standards, and testing.
Nye, J. (2002). The paradox of American power: why the world’s superpower can’t go it alone. New York: Oxford University Press.
Globalization and the information revolution have dramatically enhanced America’s hard and soft power while allowing other actors a global voice. What occurs in the arena of foreign affairs is quite important. Nye advocates a middle ground between unilateralism and multilateralism, because what America stands for is equally important, indeed at times more important. Nye cautions that U.S. leaders must respect and fully understand soft power because its consequences and benefits transcend immediate global concerns.
Ober, J., & Hedrick, C. (Eds.). (1996). Demokratia: a conversation on democracies, ancient and modern. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
This book is the result of a long and fruitful conversation among practitioners of two very different fields: ancient history and political theory. The topic of the conversation is classical Greek democracy and its contemporary relevance. The issues and tensions examined here are basic to both history and political theory: revolution versus stability, freedom and equality, law and popular sovereignty, cultural ideals and social practice.
Orrill, R. (Ed.). (1997). Education and Democracy: re-imagining liberal learning in America. New York: The College Board Publications.
These 15 spirited essays reflect the convergence of thought and discussion about how a liberal education with a pragmatic focus can be advanced. Individual authors discuss the educational and social consequences of what such an agenda would be. Their thoughts provide a thorough and frank discussion of the obstacles to change of any sort in American education. The collective work provides a complete picture of the interaction of trends and countertrends in American college curriculum.
Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1984 is George Orwell’s dark vision of the future. Written while Orwell was dying and based on the work of the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin, it is a chilling depiction of how the power of the state could come to dominate the lives of individuals through cultural conditioning.
Parenti, M. (1977). Democracy for the few. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Democracy for the Few tries to strike a balance; it tries to explain how democracy is incongruous with modern-day capitalism and is consistently violated by a capitalist social order, and yet how democracy refuses to die and continues to fight back and even make gains despite the great odds against popular forces.
Peterson, R. (1996). Democratic philosophy and the politics of knowledge. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
This rigorously argued and well organized book is an extremely impressive attempt to produce a democratic philosophy that is rigorous and compelling. During an era in which postmodern theorists are attempting to undercut some of the premises of democratic philosophy – just at the moment when the democratic revolution is appearing to triumph politically on a world-scale – it is heartening to see someone like Peterson commit himself to developing a serious democratic philosophy.
Phillips, A. (1991). Engendering democracy. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Essential reading for political scientists wanting to see how feminist theory is transforming their discipline and a major new contribution to progressive thought on the topical issue of democracy. Gives sustained treatment to the intersection of feminism with democratic theory.
Phillips, A. (1993) Democracy and difference. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
A focus on the issues of class has provided much of the content of twentieth-century debates on democracy, with liberal democrats seeking to discount class differences and social democrats trying to find ways to eliminate them. Within this framework, attention has historically been given such questions as the substantive conditions necessary to fulfill the promise of political equality, the appropriate scope of democratic decision-making, and the tension between individualist politics of rights and more collective notion of common good.
Posner, R. A. (2003). Law, pragmatism, and democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making.
Przeworkski, A. (Ed.). (1995). Sustainable democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
The joint report of twenty-one social scientists who collaborated over two years under the name of the Group on East-South Systems Transformations (ESST) identifies the principle political and economic choices confronting new democracies in Southern and Eastern Europe and South America.
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work: civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
This volume is the result of two decades of empirical research in Italy focusing on the performance of regional governments set up in 1970. It represents a collaborative project involving both American and Italian scholars designed to evaluate the performance of the new regional governments in a variety of policy domains.
Rabb, T. K., & Suleiman, E. N. (Eds.). (2003). The making and unmaking of democracy. New York: Routledge.
How does democracy spread? What can be done to encourage and support it? This collection brings together some of the best minds in a variety of disciplines to discuss the conditions that promote and sustain, or undermine and extinguish democratic institutions and ideas.
Riker, W. H. (1982). Liberalism against populism: a confrontation between the theory of democracy and the theory of social choice. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
This book first summarizes social choice theory in order to explain the full force of its critique. Then it explains, in terms of social choice theory, how politics and public issues change and develop. Finally, it reconciles democratic ideals with this new understanding of politics.
Sandel, M. (1996). Democracy’s discontent: America in search of a public philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
“Sandel contrasts the civic republican approach to American politics with that of liberal neutrality and shows how the two views have played out over the course of U.S. history. Sandel argues that liberal neutrality is overwhelmingly dominant today, and he argues a return to a more Aristotelian, republican politics.
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960). The semisovereign people: a realist's view of democracy in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Schudson, M. (1998). The good citizen: a history of American civic life. New York: Free Press.
Trained as a sociologist at Harvard and chaired in Communication at UC San Diego, Schudson suggests that despite the numbers, democratic citizenship is not in decline. Although now a decade old, the books history is instructive and focused on the construct of citizenship.
Schweitzer, G. & Schweitzer, C. (2006). America on Notice: stemming the tide on anti-Americanism. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
The authors of this work recognize the primary importance of objections to American foreign policy in generating hostility towards the United States around the Muslim world. They describe how American foreign policy, in combination with other economic and cultural factors, generate “anti-Americanism” and set forth a plan for reducing such feeling. Their plan rests on assistance on job creation and educational opportunities, turning away from military interventions, supporting the fight against infectious diseases in developing countries, addressing the American double-standard on nuclear weapons, strengthening the role of the United Nations in preventing and resolving international security crises, and being more assertive in attempting to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Scott, D., & Lawson, H. (Eds.). (2002). Citizenship education and the curriculum. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishers.
Examines the relationship between curriculum and citizenship education, making reference to a number of important debates in these fields: universality and equal opportunity, social literacy, race, civic education, assessment, cultivating respect in human relations, and global citizenship education.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Knopf.
Sen's thesis is that development stems from freedom, and freedom manifests itself in a variety of ways, unequally in different cultures. A matrix of freedoms in the economic, political, opportunistic, educational, and social realms ultimately determines an individual's ability to live a fulfilled life.
Shapiro, I. (1996). Democracy's place. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Shapiro’s essays ambitiously examine the tension between democracy and social justice that remains unresolved. Shapiro offers an alternative that posits democracy as flawed (particularly to the extent it can create social injustice) but better than any other option.
Shapiro, I. (1999). Democratic justice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
In this ambitious and closely reasoned treatise, which elaborates on the ideas Shapiro presented in Democracy's Place, he argues that the concepts of democracy and justice work against one another but should nonetheless be linked and that together they represent a feasible alternative to what he considers the flawed political ideas of liberalism and communitarianism.
Singer, P. (2002). One world: the ethics of globalization. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Derived from his Terry Lectures of November 2001, the author lays out broadly utilitarian arguments for globalized institutions and policies. His work is another in the growing literature investigating alternatives to the nation-state model of political identity and governance. Taking up a theme developed in earlier works, he concludes by arguing for a global ethic that would obligate rich nations and individuals to give aid to the poorest in the world community.
Skocpol, T. & Fiorina, M. (Eds.). (1999). Civic engagement in American democracy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institute Press.
A collaborative volume produced by historians, sociologists, and political scientists. Deep data-based background on social capital and civic engagement, and related constructs.
Skocpol, T. (2003). Diminished democracy: from membership to management in American civic life. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Skocpol is a chaired professor of government and sociology at Harvard. She suggests that while Americans do take part in voluntary organizations and that the number of civically engaged organizations has increased, the nature of the organization has changed. Today they are managed by professionals. Rather than participating directly in the democracy, citizens now contribute financially to have organizations and their managers engage for them. This in turn removes individuals from the political process. Skocpol documents this phenomenon as a change in American democracy – one that she does not support.
Soros, G. (1998). The crisis of global capitalism: open society endangered. New York: PublicAffairs.
Soros dissects the current crisis and economic theory in general, revealing how theoretical assumptions have combined with human behavior to lead today’s mess. He shows how unquestioning faith in market forces blinds us to crucial instabilities, and how those instabilities have chain-reacted to cause the current crisis – a crisis that has the potential to get much, much worse.
Soros, G. (2002). George Soros on globalization. New York: PublicAffairs.
In this new volume, Soros extends his views on the need for safety nets in developing countries and public goods production (e.g., education and environmental protection) and discusses the greater likelihood for financial crises due to the greater freedom now available for volatile international finance flows.
Soros, G. (2000). Open society: reforming global capitalism. New York: PublicAffairs.
In The Crises of Global Capitalism Soros presents lifetime reflections on economics, politics, philosophy, and history. His thesis is that the world’s economic, financial, and political systems, driven by market fundamentalism and national sovereignty, are defective, making the world prone to financial and political instability and periodic crises and strife. Global capitalism, motivated to achieve private interests and wealth, is not synonymous with the common good and establishing freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.
Starr, P. (2007). Freedom’s power: the true force of liberalism. New York: Basic Books.
A Princeton professor of sociology and public policy with a Pulitzer Prize for his analysis of the political origins of modern communications, Starr’s text is not about republicans and Democrats, but about the waning of a public philosophy in liberalism. Starr begins with the 17th century enlightenment and concludes in a post-communist environment in which he calls upon readers to “reclaim” the American inventions of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Stephan, A. (Ed.). (2006). The Americanization of Europe: culture, diplomacy, and anti-Americanism after 1945. New York: Berghan Books.
An analysis of how the U.S. has influenced European culture since 1945. The book also looks at how Europeans resisted that U.S. influence to the point it could be labeled anti-Americanism. In the process, the book treats 11 countries. In each country, the authors examine the role of cultural diplomacy, which is dubbed “soft power”.
Stiglitz, J. (2003). Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton.
Globalization and Its Discontents is mainly a book of reflections on international economic policy, with a special emphasis on the errors made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Stiglitz concludes that global economic institutions need to be rethought and that they need to adopt a single-minded strategy to assure that the benefits of globalization reach the world’s poor.
Tocqueville, A. (1945). Democracy in America. New York: Vintage.
A classic analysis of the link between political parties and free associations, with reflections on such matters as religion and public life.
Villa, D. R. (2001). Socratic citizenship. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Engaging current debates among political and social theorists, this insightful book shows how to re-conceive of the ideal of good citizenship if we are to begin to address the shaky fundamentals in America today.
Weithman, P. J. (2002). Religion and the obligations of citizenship. New York: Cambridge University Press.
This book takes issue with those who would seek to place restrictions on the participation of religious organizations in politics, arguing that their position underestimates the benefits, and overestimates the costs of having religiously motivated citizens participate in the way.
West, C. (2004). Democracy matters: winning the fight against imperialism. New York: Penguin Books.
Democracy Matters discusses “ugly imperialism”, which has grown dramatically with the ascension of the Bush administration and the subsequent military expansion of the “U.S. Empire”.
Wilentz, S. (2005). The rise of American democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: Norton.
A significant historical work, this tomb provides in-depth background. Fundamental to Wilentz’s history is that democracy was not, and is not inevitable. Education, the press, fidelity to rule of law, and therefore citizen engagement, stand out as variables necessary to his vision of democratic sustainability.
Zolo, D. (1992). Democracy and complexity: a realistic approach. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
Pluralist democracy has become the only respectable political practice to survive the end of the twentieth century. But at the same time, or so the central argument of Zolo’s study can be summarized, the intellectual foundations of democratic theory seem shakier than ever. After performing a skillful act of demolition on the legitimating arguments of both classical and neo-classical democratic theory, the author concludes his own revision of democratic revisionism with views that are surprisingly reminiscent of the founding fathers of modern political theory.
Zumbrunnen, J. G. (2008). Silence and democracy: Athenian politics in Thucydides’ history. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.
The role of elites vis-à-vis the mass public in the construction and successful functioning of democracy has long been a subject of central interest to political theorists. In this book, John Zumbrunnen explores this theme in Thucydides’ famous history of the Peloponnesian War as a way of rendering our thoughts about this relationship in our own modern democracy more perspicacious.
WEBSITES
GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/
The Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State publishes five electronic journals under the USA logo that examine major issues facing the United States and the International community: Economic Perspectives, Global Issues, Issues of Democracy, and Foreign Policy Agenda.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/eidhr/
The EIDHR is a European Union program that aims to promote and support human rights and democracy in developing countries.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the official with principal responsibility for United Nations human rights activities, including the prevention of human rights violations throughout the world.
The Department of Democratic and Political Affairs, within the Organization of American States, is responsible for promoting democracy and resolving conflict between its member states.
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Public Governance and Management website tracks the efforts of the agency to foster democracy and good governance, including government/citizen relations.
http://portal.unesco.org/education/
The Education for Citizenship program provides educational programs on the responsibilities of citizenship.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance works with established and newly instituted democracies to foster a culture of democracy.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age.
The Centre for World Dialogue is founded on the conviction that all people have the right to engage in the free and open discussion of ideas. Its mission is to promote greater understanding and co-operation at all levels through initiating and encouraging discussion on issues of global concern.
http://www.co-intelligence.org/
CII promotes awareness of a shared, integrated form of intelligence and addresses issues of democratic renewal, community problems, organizational transformation, national and global crises and strives for the creation of just, vibrant, sustainable cultures.
http://www.civworld.org/declaration.cfm
The CivWorld Citizens Campaign for Democracy begins with the premise that people - citizens of their own communities, their nations and the world - can and must be the driving force and the principal agents of change for a more democratic world.
http://www.degreesofdemocracy.mcgill.ca/
The aim of the Degrees of Democracy project is to explore relationships between public opinion and policy. This website provides an introduction to some past research in the field, and describes our ongoing work covering a number of different countries and policy issues.
http://www.democracycollaborative.org/
Through programs of theoretical and practical research, the Democracy Collaborative works to strengthen democracy and civil society locally, nationally, and globally.
Democratiya is a free bi-monthly online review of books. “Interests range over war, peace, just war, and humanitarian interventionism; human rights, genocide, crimes against humanity and the responsibility to protect and rescue; as well as democratization, social and labor movements, ‘global civil society’, ‘global social democracy’, and Sennian development-as-freedom. We will strive to be non-sectarian and ecumenical, and our pages are open to a wide range of political views, a commitment to pluralism reflected in our advisory editorial board.”
The National Endowment for Democracy is a private, nonprofit organization created to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts, and guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values.
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/
The World Social Forum is an open meeting where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations debate ideas democratically, formulate proposals, and network for effective action.
*Many more items can be found in The Penn State Libraries Online Catalog (The CAT), under general subject headings, such as: Political Theory, Political Institutions, Social History, Political Sociology, Social Aspects of Education, Education Philosophy, World Citizenship, International Education, Civics, Citizenship Education, Democracy, and Economic History. In addition, there are literally thousands of journal articles available in Penn State’s online databases. Databases to note: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online), ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center), and Education Abstracts (full text). The World Bank E-Library and SourceOECD databases provide access to the publications of two international agencies with significant interest in democratic and free market societies. The Armed Conflict Database, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), monitors the status of conflicts around the world. All are available on the Penn State University Libraries’ E-Resources A-Z list.
Additions/questions may be submitted to Richard Fitzsimmons at rxf7@psu.edu.
April 11 , 2008
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