Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Good Government : Democracy beyond Elections / Pierre Rosanvallon.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Description: 1 online resource (352 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674986312
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 321.8 23
LOC classification:
  • JC423 .R169313 2018eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction: From one Democracy to Another -- PART I. Executive Power -- 1. Consecration of the Law and Demotion of the Executive -- 2. The Cult of Impersonality and Its Metamorphoses -- 3. The Age of Rehabilitation -- 4. Two Temptations -- PART II. The Presidentialization of Democracies -- 5. The Pioneering Experiments: 1848 and Weimar -- 6. From Gaullist Exception to Standard Model -- 7. Unavoidable and Unsatisfactory -- 8. Limiting Illiberalism -- PART III. A Democracy of Appropriation -- 9. The Governed and Their Governors -- 10. Legibility -- 11. Responsibility -- 12. Responsiveness -- PART IV. A Democracy of Trust -- 13. The Good Ruler in Historical Perspective -- 14. Truthfulness -- 15. Integrity -- Conclusion: The Second Democratic Revolution -- Notes -- Index
Summary: Few would disagree that Western democracies are experiencing a crisis of representation. In the United States, gerrymandering and concentrated political geographies have placed the Congress and state legislatures in a stranglehold that is often at odds with public opinion. Campaign financing ensures that only the affluent have voice in legislation. Europeans, meanwhile, increasingly see the European Union as an anti-democratic body whose “diktats” have no basis in popular rule. The response, however, has not been an effective pursuit of better representation. In Good Government, Pierre Rosanvallon examines the long history of the alternative to which the public has gravitated: the empowered executive. Rosanvallon argues that, faced with everyday ineptitude in governance, people become attracted to strong leaders and bold executive action. If these fail, they too often want even stronger personal leadership. Whereas nineteenth-century liberals and reformers longed for parliamentary sovereignty, nowadays few contest the “imperial presidency.” Rosanvallon traces this history from the Weimar Republic to Charles De Gaulle’s “exceptional” presidency to the Bush-Cheney concentration of executive power. Europeans rebelling against the technocratic EU and Americans fed up with the “administrative state” have turned to charismatic figures, from Donald Trump to Viktor Orbán, who tout personal strength as their greatest asset. This is not just a right-wing phenomenon, though, as liberal contentment with Obama’s drone war demonstrates. Rosanvallon makes clear that contemporary “presidentialism” may reflect the particular concerns of the moment, but its many precursors demonstrate that democracy has always struggled with tension between popular government and concentrated authority.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674986312

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Introduction: From one Democracy to Another -- PART I. Executive Power -- 1. Consecration of the Law and Demotion of the Executive -- 2. The Cult of Impersonality and Its Metamorphoses -- 3. The Age of Rehabilitation -- 4. Two Temptations -- PART II. The Presidentialization of Democracies -- 5. The Pioneering Experiments: 1848 and Weimar -- 6. From Gaullist Exception to Standard Model -- 7. Unavoidable and Unsatisfactory -- 8. Limiting Illiberalism -- PART III. A Democracy of Appropriation -- 9. The Governed and Their Governors -- 10. Legibility -- 11. Responsibility -- 12. Responsiveness -- PART IV. A Democracy of Trust -- 13. The Good Ruler in Historical Perspective -- 14. Truthfulness -- 15. Integrity -- Conclusion: The Second Democratic Revolution -- Notes -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Few would disagree that Western democracies are experiencing a crisis of representation. In the United States, gerrymandering and concentrated political geographies have placed the Congress and state legislatures in a stranglehold that is often at odds with public opinion. Campaign financing ensures that only the affluent have voice in legislation. Europeans, meanwhile, increasingly see the European Union as an anti-democratic body whose “diktats” have no basis in popular rule. The response, however, has not been an effective pursuit of better representation. In Good Government, Pierre Rosanvallon examines the long history of the alternative to which the public has gravitated: the empowered executive. Rosanvallon argues that, faced with everyday ineptitude in governance, people become attracted to strong leaders and bold executive action. If these fail, they too often want even stronger personal leadership. Whereas nineteenth-century liberals and reformers longed for parliamentary sovereignty, nowadays few contest the “imperial presidency.” Rosanvallon traces this history from the Weimar Republic to Charles De Gaulle’s “exceptional” presidency to the Bush-Cheney concentration of executive power. Europeans rebelling against the technocratic EU and Americans fed up with the “administrative state” have turned to charismatic figures, from Donald Trump to Viktor Orbán, who tout personal strength as their greatest asset. This is not just a right-wing phenomenon, though, as liberal contentment with Obama’s drone war demonstrates. Rosanvallon makes clear that contemporary “presidentialism” may reflect the particular concerns of the moment, but its many precursors demonstrate that democracy has always struggled with tension between popular government and concentrated authority.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Aug 2021)