Defining Democracy: Voting Procedures in Decision-Making, Elections and Governance

Author:   Peter Emerson
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
Edition:   2nd ed. 2012
ISBN:  

9783642209031


Pages:   192
Publication Date:   07 December 2011
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
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Defining Democracy: Voting Procedures in Decision-Making, Elections and Governance


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Overview

Defining Democracy looks both at the theory of why and the history of how different voting procedures have come to be used – or not, as the case may be – in the three fields of democratic structures: firstly, in decision-making, both in society at large and in the elected chamber; secondly, in elections to and within those chambers; and thirdly, in the various forms of governance, from no-party to multi-party and all-party, which have emerged as a result.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Emerson
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
Edition:   2nd ed. 2012
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9783642209031


ISBN 10:   3642209033
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   07 December 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

"Foreword by Professor Arend Lijphart.- Part I: Decision-Making.- 1 The Myths of Majority Rule.- 2 Pluralist Decision-Maing.- Part II:  Elections.- 3 ""Party-ocracies"".- 4 The Candid Candidate.- Part III: The Art of Governance.- 5 The Elected Dictator.- 6 Governance.- Appendices.- Chronology.- References.- Index."

Reviews

It is a thesis and its wide-ranging and informative overview of various forms of democratic mechanism is conducted in light of this thesis. ... author clearly delights in expounding his thesis and he retains the attention of the reader throughout with engaging insights and entertaining asides. ... Appendices are informative and thought-provoking and make an essential contribution to the book, further demonstrating that the author's thesis is based on an impressively wide historical and geographical scope of knowledge on the topic. (Katy Hayward, Representation, Vol. 51 (2), 2015) Peter Emerson's book covers a range of very important issues that stretch from the theory of democracy, across decision-making procedures, to electoral systems. Hence, the book is of extreme importance for students of these areas of political science. ... book is worth reading and studying. Emerson's work is both academic treatise and 'policy paper' advocating new voting procedures that are very different from those commonly used and that would be highly likely to have far reaching consequences for democratic polities. (Milos Brunclik, Central European Political Studies Review, cepsr.com, Vol. XV (4), 2013) It is a handbook on how to organise democracy in different ways. Emerson describes in different kinds of electoral and governmental systems, explains how each works in practice and weighs the pros and cons of each. The result is thought-provoking guide to what democracy actually means and how best it can be achieved. (Books Ireland, October, 2012)


“It is a thesis and its wide-ranging and informative overview of various forms of democratic mechanism is conducted in light of this thesis. … author clearly delights in expounding his thesis and he retains the attention of the reader throughout with engaging insights and entertaining asides. … Appendices are informative and thought-provoking and make an essential contribution to the book, further demonstrating that the author’s thesis is based on an impressively wide historical and geographical scope of knowledge on the topic.” (Katy Hayward, Representation, Vol. 51 (2), 2015) “Peter Emerson’s book covers a range of very important issues that stretch from the theory of democracy, across decision-making procedures, to electoral systems. Hence, the book is of extreme importance for students of these areas of political science. … book is worth reading and studying. Emerson’s work is both academic treatise and ‘policy paper’ advocating new voting procedures that are very different from those commonly used and that would be highly likely to have far reaching consequences for democratic polities.” (Miloš Brunclík, Central European Political Studies Review, cepsr.com, Vol. XV (4), 2013) “It is a handbook on how to organise democracy in different ways. Emerson describes in different kinds of electoral and governmental systems, explains how each works in practice and weighs the pros and cons of each. The result is thought-provoking guide to what democracy actually means and how best it can be achieved.” (Books Ireland, October, 2012)


It is a thesis and its wide-ranging and informative overview of various forms of democratic mechanism is conducted in light of this thesis. ... author clearly delights in expounding his thesis and he retains the attention of the reader throughout with engaging insights and entertaining asides. ... Appendices are informative and thought-provoking and make an essential contribution to the book, further demonstrating that the author's thesis is based on an impressively wide historical and geographical scope of knowledge on the topic. (Katy Hayward, Representation, Vol. 51 (2), 2015) Peter Emerson's book covers a range of very important issues that stretch from the theory of democracy, across decision-making procedures, to electoral systems. Hence, the book is of extreme importance for students of these areas of political science. ... book is worth reading and studying. Emerson's work is both academic treatise and 'policy paper' advocating new voting procedures that are very different from those commonly used and that would be highly likely to have far reaching consequences for democratic polities. (Milos Brunclik, Central European Political Studies Review, cepsr.com, Vol. XV (4), 2013) It is a handbook on how to organise democracy in different ways. Emerson describes in different kinds of electoral and governmental systems, explains how each works in practice and weighs the pros and cons of each. The result is thought-provoking guide to what democracy actually means and how best it can be achieved. (Books Ireland, October, 2012)


From the reviews of the second edition: It is a handbook on how to organise democracy in different ways. Emerson describes in different kinds of electoral and governmental systems, explains how each works in practice and weighs the pros and cons of each. The result is thought-provoking guide to what democracy actually means and how best it can be achieved. (Books Ireland, October, 2012)


It is a thesis and its wide-ranging and informative overview of various forms of democratic mechanism is conducted in light of this thesis. ... author clearly delights in expounding his thesis and he retains the attention of the reader throughout with engaging insights and entertaining asides. ... Appendices are informative and thought-provoking and make an essential contribution to the book, further demonstrating that the author's thesis is based on an impressively wide historical and geographical scope of knowledge on the topic. (Katy Hayward, Representation, Vol. 51 (2), 2015) Peter Emerson's book covers a range of very important issues that stretch from the theory of democracy, across decision-making procedures, to electoral systems. Hence, the book is of extreme importance for students of these areas of political science. ... book is worth reading and studying. Emerson's work is both academic treatise and `policy paper' advocating new voting procedures that are very different from those commonly used and that would be highly likely to have far reaching consequences for democratic polities. (Milos Brunclik, Central European Political Studies Review, cepsr.com, Vol. XV (4), 2013) It is a handbook on how to organise democracy in different ways. Emerson describes in different kinds of electoral and governmental systems, explains how each works in practice and weighs the pros and cons of each. The result is thought-provoking guide to what democracy actually means and how best it can be achieved. (Books Ireland, October, 2012)


Author Information

Peter Emerson is the director of the de Borda Institute, an NGO which promotes the use of inclusive voting procedures, especially in conflict zones. The child of a Southern Irish Protestant father and a Northern English Catholic mother, he has been based in Belfast for the last thirty five years. As part of this work, he has travelled extensively, observing several elections for the osce, and his latest deployment was as a translator for the eu Monitoring Mission for South Ossetia.  In between such duties, he has lectured in countless universities and other institutes, throughout Europe, in East and Southern Africa, and across the United States. Since 1990 has published extensively on consesus politics in newspapers and books.

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