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03_Developing Democracy Second, in making recommendations for institutional reform, the Council must remain sensitive to the complexities of democracy in different member states, the power relationships that are embedded in particular institutional forms and the influence of history in shaping existing institutional structures. Second, democracy is not a tangible outcome that can be reached by all forty-five member states of the Council of Europe but is, rather, an incomplete project which is continuously under development in all nations that strive for democracy. Democracy as a fundamental component of European life is enshrined in the Council’s statute, which both commits member states to general democratic principles and establishes an operational structure based upon the institutions of democracy among member states. www.coe.int /t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/05_key_texts/01_analytical_summary/03_Developing%20Democracy.asp   (15103 words)

Direct democracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Direct democracy was first experimented with in the ancient Athenian democracy of ancient Greece (beginning circa 508 BC (Finley, 1973)), which was governed for two centuries by a general assembly of all male citizens, by randomly selected officials, and ten annually elected representatives charged to command the army of the city (strategos). Modern mass-suffrage democracies generally rely on representatives elected by citizens (that is, representative democracy). Even in states where direct democracy components are scant or nonexistent at the state level, there often exists local options for deciding specific issues, such as whether a county should be "wet" or "dry" in terms of whether alcohol sales are allowed. en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Direct_democracy   (2643 words)

[No title]   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10) In a third, very common sense, democracy is taken to refer to some combination of the voting procedures (as in the second sense) and the particular political and legal procedures of the speaker’s country. The value of democracy in its constitutionally-limited sense lies in its attempt to recognize the sovereignty of the individual — legitimate government requires the consent of the governed — and in its intent to limit the opportunities for abuse of centralized authority. Democracy is or should be a method for running government with the aim of creating and enforcing a system of laws that protect the liberty of citizens. www.extropy.org /politicaltheory.htm   (1509 words)

Arming Civil Society Worldwide: Getting democracy to work in the emergent American Empire? The Second Amendment Foundation is specifically devoted to the articulation of the arguments defending the principles it enshrines in the protection of democracy. In the light of the principles of the long-tested Second Amendment, and the role it performs in ensuring the security of the State in a democratic country, it is clearly essential that citizens newly liberated from the yoke of tyranny in non-democratic countries should have every right to bear arms. It is unfortunate that this is not recognized as an exemplification of principles enshrined in the Second Amendment as indicative of a degree of disposition to adopt American-style democracy. www.laetusinpraesens.org /docs00s/demomil.php   (5230 words)

Democracy and Network Interconnectivity Second, none of the traditional variables which measure and guide foreign assistance policies with respect to promoting democracy seem to cause the desired effect. Furthermore, to the extent that interconnectivity as a predictor for democracy is measured imprecisely, the effect is reduced statistical significance of the predictor. Second, none of the traditional variables which measure and guide foreign assistance policies with respect to promoting democracy and peace seem to produce the desired effect. www.isoc.org /HMP/PAPER/134/html/paper.html   (4970 words)

The Second Superpower Deliberation in the second superpower is evolving rapidly in both cultural and technological terms. The second superpower can put pressure on politicians around the world to stiffen their resolve to confront the US government in any ways possible. Second, and ironically, the future of the second superpower depends to a great extent on social freedoms in part determined by the first superpower. cyber.law.harvard.edu /people/jmoore/secondsuperpower.html   (3521 words)

Issues of Democracy, May 2000 -- Towards A Community of Democracies Democracy promoters have failed in many cases to develop a sophisticated understanding of the societies in which they function, content with the misguided idea that their knowledge of democracy alone is sufficient basis for the fostering of democracy. Democracy programs present a challenge for evaluators because of the difficulty of agreeing on precise criteria of success in the political domain and of establishing clear causal links between specific projects and larger political trends. The analysis of democracy aid presented here highlights a central cautionary lesson: No dramatic or quick results should be expected from democracy promotion efforts, especially in the case of those countries where the mix of economic, social and political forces remains hostile to the development of democracy. www.usinfo.state.gov /journals/itdhr/0500/ijde/carothers.htm   (2141 words)

Why democracy is wrong Democracy is a form of government in which the major decisions of government -- or the direction of policy behind these decisions -- rests directly or indirectly on the freely given consent of the majority of the adults governed. Democracy is a political system in which different groups are legally entitled to compete for power and in which institutional power holders are elected by the people and are responsible to the people. Democracy exists where the principal leaders of a political system are selected by competitive elections in which the bulk of the population have the opportunity to participate. web.inter.nl.net /users/Paul.Treanor/democracy.html   (20186 words)

Freedom Party of Ontario (CANADA) - Consent Special 1 - Dec 1990 For it is this second democracy --- when you think it through --- which explains why Eurocommunism broke down, why nothing in political science or application comes close to its degree of democracy, consent, efficiency, and self-government. But the upshot of marketplace democracy is still service to the trading partner, enhancement of social amity, realization that the other fellow, whoever and wherever he is, is vital to your health, happiness, and prosperity, and emergence of a binding-together and economic uplifting of different regions, countries, and continents --- of Planet Earth itself. Of course, critics of this economic democracy may protest that while the consumer may be sovereign, this process of one- dollar-one-vote confers more votes on the rich than on the nonrich, really on the successful in the marketplace rather than on the less successful. www.freedomparty.org /consent/consde_1.htm   (3023 words)

Democracy: Is It for Everyone? - Council on Foreign Relations   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10) Second, democracy, it seems to me, at least in the way in which I’ve defined it, is simply a way of constituting, limiting and changing governments. Democracy is not a system that comes into being all at once after liberal institutions and practices have been secured. From such a perspective, liberal democracy may still seem a distant goal, but the path forward is clear, since it begins where one is and not where one would like to be, and it is accessible even to those who have the longest way to travel. www.cfr.org /publication/47/democracy.html   (7947 words)

World Movement for Democracy - Second Assembly Report Democracy does not put an end to injustice, but it does establish the conditions that allow us to aspire to achieve effective justice as a value present in the everyday life of citizens. Democracy is rooted in equality and, for it to be fully realized, it is essential that each citizen be able to identify the possibilities for improving his situation and that of his family. Therefore we must consider that we are living on the threshold of a new era, in which democracy is even stronger because it is imbued not only with classic values but with new values that go beyond the limits of the nation-state. www.wmd.org /second_assembly/cardoso.html   (1129 words)

Johns Hopkins University Press | Books | The Global Resurgence of Democracy In its first edition, The Global Resurgence of Democracy brought together essays on democratization written from 1989 to 1991 by internationally prominent scholars, intellectuals, and political leaders. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition extends that work with a wealth of fresh material on a wide range of conceptual, historical, institutional, and policy issues. "This is an anthology of articles from The Journal of Democracy, a quarterly sponsored by the quasi-official National Endowment for Democracy. www.press.jhu.edu /books/title_pages/2638.html   (140 words)

Issues of Democracy, May 2000 -- Towards A Community of Democracies Democracy promoters' growing emphasis on civil society is itself part of the learning curve; they are seeking to go beyond elections and state institutions, to turn democratic forms into democratic substance. Democracy promoters have failed in many cases to develop a sophisticated understanding of the societies in which they function, content with the misguided idea that their knowledge of democracy alone is sufficient basis for the fostering of democracy. The analysis of democracy aid presented here highlights a central cautionary lesson: No dramatic or quick results should be expected from democracy promotion efforts, especially in the case of those countries where the mix of economic, social and political forces remains hostile to the development of democracy. usinfo.state.gov /journals/itdhr/0500/ijde/carothers.htm   (2141 words)

Takis Fotopoulos - Transitional strategies and the Inclusive Democracy project The parallel degradation of social democracy and the reversal of most of its conquests (comprehensive welfare state, state commitment to full employment, significant improvement in the distribution of income) has clearly shown that supporters of the revolutionary approach were always right on the impossibility of bringing about a systemic change through reforms. Furthermore, in the LM scheme there is no conception of ‘democracy in the social realm’ (the workplace, education institutions, the household etc)—something that rendered it vulnerable to accusations by feminists, social statists and others that it effectively ignores the issues of ‘identity differences’, and the differences between citizens as workers and citizens as citizens. Thus, once the institutions of Inclusive Democracy begin to be installed, and people, for the first time in their lives, start obtaining real power to determine their own fate, then the gradual erosion of the dominant social paradigm and of the present institutional framework will be set in motion. www.democracynature.org /dn/vol8/takis_transitional.htm   (10478 words)

AMERICAN FUTURE: The Spreading Democracy Debate -- Second Rebuttal   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10) As for promting democracy everythere, the U.S. is going to have to look after its vital interests and put resources into promoting democracy where it will do us the most good. My argument was that democracy is not going to end terrorism because the terrorists' goals are not going to be met by democracy (at least the Salafists). My point is that democracy will not end terrorism or drain its support - at least in the short term - so there is no support for the assertion that military intervention is a more direct route to achieving these ends than other diplomatic and softer tactics. americanfuture.typepad.com /american_future/2005/06/the_spreading_d_1.html   (4244 words)

America's Other Democracy   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10) What is more, this second democracy, while hardly perfection, is strictly voluntary, self-regulating, and a lot more moral than the first democracy. In the second democracy, billions of votes are cast daily to make phone calls or watch TV or pay rent or use some other market facility such as a bank, restaurant, gas station, motel, newspaper, coin laundry, supermarket, brokerage office, country club, corner bar, and now interactive TV or the modernized PC. Note too that in marketplace democracy every producer-candidate is held strictly accountable, that he runs scared all the time, that he daily tries to score with a better product at less cost for the sovereign consumer-sovereign because of his life-or-death power of the purse. www.libertyhaven.com /politicsandcurrentevents/democracy/amedemocra.shtml   (1032 words)

Cuba, Us, Democracy William Blum During the Clinton administration, the sentiment has been proclaimed on so many occasions by the president and other political leaders, and dutifully reiterated by the media, that the thesis: "Cuba is the only non-democracy in the Western Hemisphere" is now nothing short of received wisdom in the United States. Indeed, numerous pronouncements emanating from Washington officialdom over the years make plain that "democracy," at best, or at most, is equated solely with elections and civil liberties. Indeed, it would be difficult to name a brutal right-wing dictatorship of the second half of the twentieth century that was not supported by the United States - not merely supported, but often put into power and kept in power against the wishes of the populace. www.thirdworldtraveler.com /Global_Secrets_Lies/CubaUS_Democracy.html   (635 words)

Press Center - Press Releases The New York Democracy Forum is a joint venture of the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which aims to bring to New York audiences key figures in the global democracy movement who are leading the way in the advance of democratic values and institutions around the world. Democracy is the fundamental struggle of our time, and therefore it is critical that the world's leading commercial center engage with those who are part of that struggle. WASHINGTON-The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is pleased to announce the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows in residence at the Endowment in 2004—2005. www.ned.org /press/releases.html   (7813 words)

History of the Second International The little town of Chur was chosen and the Belgian socialists, the French Parti Ouvrier, the German social democracy, and the Swiss social democracy, participated in the preparations for the congress which would lead to the founding of the Socialist International. She was critical of Lenin's centralised methods of organisation (See Russian Social-democracy) and was a foremost advocate of the mass strike as opposed to parliamentary activity (See The Mass Strike). In 1889 she was a delegate in Paris for the founding of the Second International. www.marxists.org /history/international/social-democracy/index.htm   (3325 words)

MIFTAH.ORG--Palestine: The Region's Second Democracy? For a democracy to emerge, thrive, and be sustained, it requires a certain degree of stability and prosperity. One of the primary reasons for the malfunction of the Palestinian Authority, the spread of corruption and inefficiency, and perhaps even for the breakdown of the peace process, was the failure of the Palestinians to conduct routine and periodic elections. Elections alone cannot make a democracy; they must be matched by efforts to address the complex economic and social problems in the Palestinian society, particularly poverty and unemployment. www.miftah.org /PrinterF.cfm?DocId=6749   (787 words)

Political Theory & Practice There was an additional condition for the Athenian direct democracy to work well: in order for each citizen to participate effectively into the collective decision-making process, he (only male was allowed to vote) must have enough free time to attend the frequently held Assembly meetings, engage in time-consuming debates, and take part in public administration. The irony was that direct democracy for a subset of privileged men in Athens was possible precisely because of the undemocratic elements of the larger system: the existence of slavery and the exclusion of women created one necessary condition for active and direct self-government among qualified "citizens." Democracy marginalizes the wise." (Held) Finally, Plato was also worried that the notions of liberty and political equality are "inconsistent with the maintenance of authority, order and stability... www.oycf.org /Perspectives/1_083199/politics.htm   (1823 words)

Lenin: Second Congress of the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad During the second half of the Congress, too, a compact majority was formed, only it now consisted of a coalition of the Martovites plus the “Marsh” plus the Rabocheye Dyelo and Bund compact minority. [3] The Second Congress of the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad was held in Geneva on October 13-18 (26-31), 1903; it was called at the insistence of the Mensheviks. The Iskra-ists were the leading spirits in setting up, at the Pskov conference of November 2-3 (15-16), 1902, the Organising Committee for convening the Second Party Congress, and to this com mittee they handed over all their contacts. www.marxists.org /archive/lenin/works/1904/jan/31a.htm   (5621 words)

Equality and Democracy Rousseau is regarded as the father of the modern theory of democracy. In other words, modern democracy goes beyond what is required by liberalism (i.e., equalities that aim to protect and strengthen individual liberty) and demands more equalities, and it does so at the expense of some liberty (within certain limits). Second, for democracy to take hold as a popular institution of politics, a shared cultural belief in something similar to Dahl's logic of political equality is needed. www.oycf.org /Perspectives/4_022900/equality_and_democracy.htm   (2725 words)

Center for Voting and Democracy An increasing number of pollsters are publicly asking for voters' second choices in the multi-candidate race for the Democratic nomination and analyzing their impact. Second choices were also recently solicited in a recent survey about who Americans admire most and in last fall's gubernatorial recall election in California. One effect of the caucus process is to concentrate candidate support, as supporters of candidates receiving relatively little support have the opportunity to shift their support to their second choice candidate as the caucus progresses. www.fairvote.org /articles/ranked-choicesurvey.htm   (1698 words)

Democracy Promotion as a World Value First, democracy as an international norm is stronger today than ever, and democracy itself is widely regarded as an ideal system of government. Democracy also has near-universal appeal among people of every ethnic group, every religion, and every region of the world. Second, democracy promotion as a foreign policy goal has become increasingly acceptable throughout most of the international community. www.twq.com /05winter/index.cfm?id=137   (670 words)

DEMOCRACY & NATURE - EDITORIAL The contributions to the second theme in effect introduce the theme of ‘Democracy, Ecology and Ethics’ which will be the subject of a future issue of the journal. For this purpose he introduces the distinction between ‘qualitative’ democracy and ‘quantitative democracy, which he defines as ‘the procedure by which each individual participant in a democratic society can directly vote his or her particular preference for an amount or magnitude of something in question, with the democratically determined, societally desired amount unequivocally resulting’. Not accidentally, the author states that ‘whether "representative" democracy is a fairly close approximation to democracy would appear to be situation-dependent’—a statement which implies a serious problem as regards the author’s conception of democracy. www.inclusivedemocracy.org /dn/vol5/editorial_3.htm   (1015 words)

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