Democratization by Institutions

Democratization by Institutions PDF Author: Leslie E. Anderson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047205323X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The case of Argentina demonstrates that formal government institutions can facilitate democratization

Democratization by Institutions

Democratization by Institutions PDF Author: Leslie E. Anderson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047205323X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
The case of Argentina demonstrates that formal government institutions can facilitate democratization

Democratization by Institutions

Democratization by Institutions PDF Author: Leslie E Anderson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472122320
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In this pioneering study of democratization in Argentina, Leslie Anderson challenges Robert Putnam’s thesis that democracy requires high levels of social capital. She demonstrates in Democratization by Institutions that formal institutions (e.g., the executive, the legislature, the courts) can serve not only as operational parts within democracy but as the driving force toward democracy. As Anderson astutely observes, the American founders debated the merits of the institutions they were creating. Examining how, and how well, Argentina’s American-style institutional structure functions, she considers the advantages and risks of the separation of powers, checks and balances, legislative policymaking, and strong presidential power. During the democratic transition, the Argentinian state has used institutions to address immediate policy challenges in ways responsive to citizens and thereby to provide a supportive environment in which social capital can develop. By highlighting the role that institutions can play in leading a nation out of authoritarianism, even when social capital is low, Anderson begins a new conversation about the possibilities of democratization. Democratization by Institutions has much to say not only to Latin Americanists and scholars of democratization but also to those interested in the U.S. constitutional structure and its application in other parts of the world.

Building Democratic Institutions

Building Democratic Institutions PDF Author: G. Shabbir Cheema
Publisher: Kumarian Press
ISBN: 1565491971
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Annotation Bridges the gap between theoretical literature and the tools and practices needed to strengthen or rebuild democratic institutions and reform governance systems. Through case studies and examples of good practices of governance, Cheema assesses the conditions that make democracy work.

Democratization in Africa

Democratization in Africa PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309047978
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
The global movement toward democracy, spurred in part by the ending of the cold war, has created opportunities for democratization not only in Europe and the former Soviet Union, but also in Africa. This book is based on workshops held in Benin, Ethiopia, and Namibia to better understand the dynamics of contemporary democratic movements in Africa. Key issues in the democratization process range from its institutional and political requirements to specific problems such as ethnic conflict, corruption, and role of donors in promoting democracy. By focusing on the opinion and views of African intellectuals, academics, writers, and political activists and observers, the book provides a unique perspective regarding the dynamics and problems of democratization in Africa.

The Politics of Local Participatory Democracy in Latin America

The Politics of Local Participatory Democracy in Latin America PDF Author: Françoise Montambeault
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804796572
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Participatory democracy innovations aimed at bringing citizens back into local governance processes are now at the core of the international democratic development agenda. Municipalities around the world have adopted local participatory mechanisms of various types in the last two decades, including participatory budgeting, the flagship Brazilian program, and participatory planning, as it is the case in several Mexican municipalities. Yet, institutionalized participatory mechanisms have had mixed results in practice at the municipal level. So why and how does success vary? This book sets out to answer that question. Defining democratic success as a transformation of state-society relationships, the author goes beyond the clientelism/democracy dichotomy and reveals that four types of state-society relationships can be observed in practice: clientelism, disempowering co-option, fragmented inclusion, and democratic cooperation. Using this typology, and drawing on the comparative case study of four cities in Mexico and Brazil, the book demonstrates that the level of democratic success is best explained by an approach that accounts for institutional design, structural conditions of mobilization, and the configurations, strategies, behaviors, and perceptions of both state and societal actors. Thus, institutional change alone does not guarantee democratic success: the way these institutional changes are enacted by both political and social actors is even more important as it conditions the potential for an autonomous civil society to emerge and actively engage with the local state in the social construction of an inclusive citizenship.

The Democratization of International Institutions

The Democratization of International Institutions PDF Author: Lucio Levi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781857437041
Category : POLITICAL SCIENCE
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
""Discusses the dynamics of democratization affecting most international institutions. Provides a general theoretical assessment of the process of democratization of international organizations and integrates case studies from global, regional and inter-regional organizations"--Provided by publisher"--Provided by publisher.

Institutions and Democracy in Africa

Institutions and Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107148243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
Offers new research on the vital importance of institutions, such as presidential term-limits in the African democratisation processes.

Democratization in South Asia

Democratization in South Asia PDF Author: Mahfuzul H. Chowdhury
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351773917
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Title first published in 2003. Chowdhury looks at the problems of democratization and development as it relates to building democratic institutions in the newly democratizing countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Democratizing Finance

Democratizing Finance PDF Author: Clifford N. Rosenthal
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525536621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Decades before Occupy Wall Street challenged the American financial system, activists began organizing alternatives to provide capital to “unbankable” communities and the poor. With roots in the civil rights, anti-poverty, and other progressive movements, they brought little training in finance. They formed nonprofit loan funds, credit unions, and even a new bank—organizations that by 1992 became known as “community development financial institutions,” or CDFIs. By melding their vision with that of President Clinton, CDFIs grew from church basements and kitchen tables to number more than 1,000 institutions with billions of dollars of capital. They have helped transform community development by providing credit and financial services across the United States, from inner cities to Native American reservations. Democratizing Finance traces the roots of community development finance over two centuries, a history that runs from Benjamin Franklin, through an ill-starred bank for African American veterans of the Civil War, the birth of the credit union movement, and the War on Poverty. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with CDFI leaders, presidential archives, and congressional testimony, Democratizing Finance provides an insider view of an extraordinary public policy success. Democratizing Finance is a unique resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and social investors.

Organizing Democracy

Organizing Democracy PDF Author: Paul Poast
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226543345
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In the past twenty-five years, a number of countries have made the transition to democracy. The support of international organizations is essential to success on this difficult path. Yet, despite extensive research into the relationship between democratic transitions and membership in international organizations, the mechanisms underlying the relationship remain unclear. With Organizing Democracy, Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen argue that leaders of transitional democracies often have to draw on the support of international organizations to provide the public goods and expertise needed to consolidate democratic rule. Looking at the Baltic states’ accession to NATO, Poast and Urpelainen provide a compelling and statistically rigorous account of the sorts of support transitional democracies draw from international institutions. They also show that, in many cases, the leaders of new democracies must actually create new international organizations to better serve their needs, since they may not qualify for help from existing ones.