Classical liberalism has typically sought to maintain as much room as possible for the exercise of personal initiative in the face of the encroachment of states. This book explores these questions of coercion and authority in the context of the size and scope of the state and argues that the state and its agents should be held to the same moral rules as are the individuals it rules over. The book considers how a distinct feature of the state is its police or coercive power, about which one may ask how the state acquires it and what if anything would justify its use. It considers the implication that there is nothing inherent about state agents that entitles one to behave in ways that we would not accept from a private actor, and how once that argument is made, the state’s claim to authority is weakened. The author also discusses the extent to which democracy has been thought to provide any sort of justification for coercion or authority. This book will be of interest to academics and students of political philosophy, especially classical liberalism, and legal philosophy.

Democracy, Freedom and Coercion is a welcome addition to the public choice literature. It steps outside of the often used contractarian perspective and recognizes that all governments are ultimately based on coercion. . . the volume s chapters make important contributions that should be of interest to public choice scholars engaged in this research program. Benjamin Powell, Public Choice The big picture here is the tension between coercion and freedom within democracy. Each essay offers a view of this big picture through a different lens: empirical, theoretical, comparative, etc.; and also offers a different focus: on the conceptualisation and measurement of power, the legitimacy of economic democracy, the identification of the developing pattern of democracy, the impact of political violence etc. But the essays combine well so that together they illuminate the big picture from a variety of perspectives. Thought provoking and challenging an excellent read for anyone interested in the more detailed analysis of the issues that make up the big picture. Alan Hamlin, University of Manchester, UK So much of the academic analysis of democracy focuses on agreement and ignores the fact that all government action ultimately is backed by coercion. This volume offers a thoughtful examination of the inherent tensions between liberty and coercion that are an inevitable part of democratic government. Randall G. Holcombe, Florida State University, US States need to be strong in order to enforce private property rights; yet, this very strength can cause problems as representatives of the state can misuse it for their individual goals. This dilemma of the strong state has been occupying political philosophers for centuries. In this volume, to which economists but also political scientists have contributed, a number of new and unexpected variations on the topic are explored. This makes the volume an exciting read. Stefan Voigt, University of Marburg, Germany The contribution covers the niche between law and economics and the political theory of the state and its constitution. Now we can integrate traditional political theory into our doctoral seminars in law and economics a long overdue step ahead. Jürgen G. Backhaus, Erfurt University, Germany The essence of democratic power lies in the capacity to protect individual freedom while organizing the necessary coercion associated with any form of government. Yet, as the authors of this book maintain, developing coercion in order to protect freedom, and containing coercion in order to further protect freedom, is an arduous task, and one that faces any democratic Leviathan. The aim of this book is to explore this paradox and to analyse the intricate balance of freedom and coercion in developing states. In so doing it considers the legal and institutional conditions under which coercion and violence are admitted and/or permitted, and how these conditions should be organized in order to preserve and develop freedom as far as possible. Democracy, Freedom and Coercion comprehensively covers both private and public law, both applied and theoretical issues, and will therefore be of great interest to students studying law and economics. It will also serve as a reference tool to those academics in the field of legal competition, especially from the perspective of European issues.

States of emergency are declared by governments with alarming frequency. When they are declared, it is taken for granted that their nature is understood. This book argues against this established view. Instead, the view advanced here analyzes what makes emergencies different from other types of similar events. Defending a hybrid liberal/republican approach, the book proposes that states of emergency are in fact poorly understood and therefore needlessly mismanaged when they occur. This mismanagement leads to a troubling derogation of established liberal democratic rights in the name of an unattainable form of hollow security. Further, the book argues that the existing rights of citizens ought to be defended (and not simply derogated) during states of emergency. Failure to do so is failure to comply with the formal values of liberal democracy itself.

Democracy is not naturally plausible. Why turn such important matters over to masses of people who have no expertise? Many theories of democracy answer by appealing to the intrinsic value of democratic procedure, leaving aside whether it makes good decisions. In Democratic Authority, David Estlund offers a groundbreaking alternative based on the idea that democratic authority and legitimacy must depend partly on democracy's tendency to make good decisions. Just as with verdicts in jury trials, Estlund argues, the authority and legitimacy of a political decision does not depend on the particular decision being good or correct. But the "epistemic value" of the procedure--the degree to which it can generally be accepted as tending toward a good decision--is nevertheless crucial. Yet if good decisions were all that mattered, one might wonder why those who know best shouldn't simply rule. Estlund's theory--which he calls "epistemic proceduralism"--avoids epistocracy, or the rule of those who know. He argues that while some few people probably do know best, this can be used in political justification only if their expertise is acceptable from all reasonable points of view. If we seek the best epistemic arrangement in this respect, it will be recognizably democratic--with laws and policies actually authorized by the people subject to them.

Democracy in Theory and Practice presents an authoritative overview of democratic theory today. Its distinctive approach links theory to practice, emphasizing the wide variety of institutions and procedures through which core democratic principles are implemented and the normative and practical dimensions of the choices to be made among these alternatives. Designed for courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, the book features eighteen chapters organized thematically and divided into sections and subsections for easy reference; historical and current examples, citations for specific ideas, annotated references, and further readings throughout enhance the volume's utility for students, scholars, and researchers. Sidebars give biographical sketches of classic theorists and democratic ideas from the US founders and constitutional tradition. Featured topics discussed include: Majority Rule; Participation; Deliberation; Accountability; Representation; Constitutionalism; Electoral Laws; Parties; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Functions. The Boundary Problem; The "All-Affected" Principle; Contested Senses of Liberal and Procedural Democracy; The Pros and Cons of Term Limits; Proportional Representation; Referendums; Problems of Democratic Transparency and Reversibility. Written by a leading authority in the field, Frederick G. Whelan encourages us to think of the many alternative ways of putting democracy into practice and of these alternatives as requiring choices. This diversity means that there is no unique or correct democratic outcome from a given set of preferences, since outcomes are shaped by the methods followed in reaching them.

This far-ranging volume offers both a broad overview of the role of the military in contemporary Asia and a close look at the state of civil-military relations in sixteen Asian countries. It discusses these relations in countries where the military continues to dominate the political realm as well as others where it is disengaging from politics.

A signal feature of legal and political institutions is that they exercise coercive power. The essays in this volume examine institutional coercion with the aim of trying to understand its nature, justification and limits. Included are essays that take a fresh look at perennial questions. Leading scholars from philosophy, political science and law examine these and related questions shedding new light on an apparently inescapable feature of political and legal life: Coercion.

This volume brings together the recent essays of Richard Ned Lebow, one of the leading scholars of international relations and US foreign policy. Lebow's work has centred on the instrumental value of ethics in foreign policy decision making and the disastrous consequences which follow when ethical standards are flouted. Unlike most realists who have considered ethical considerations irrelevant in states' calculations of their national interest, Lebow has argued that self interest, and hence, national interest can only be formulated intelligently within a language of justice and morality. The essays here build on this pervasive theme in Lebow's work by presenting his substantive and compelling critique of strategies of deterrence and compellence, illustrating empirically and normatively how these strategies often produce results counter to those that are intended. The last section of the book, on counterfactuals, brings together another set of related articles which continue to probe the relationship between ethics and policy. They do so by exploring the contingency of events to suggest the subjective, and often self-fulfilling, nature of the frameworks we use to evaluate policy choices.

An innovative study explaining the emergence of French fascism in the 1930s, first published in 1997.

Containing almost 200 entries from 'accountability' to the 'Westminster model' the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought explores all the ideas that matter to democracy past, present and future. It is destined to become the first port-of-call for all students, teachers and researchers of political science interested in democratic ideas, democratic practice, and the quality of democratic governance. The Encyclopedia provides extensive coverage of all the key concepts of democratic thought written by a stellar team of distinguished international contributors. The Encyclopedia draws on every tradition of democratic thought, as well as developing new thinking, in order to provide full coverage of the key democratic concepts and engage with their practical implications for the conduct of democratic politics in the world today. In this way, it brings every kind of democratic thinking to bear on the challenges facing contemporary democracies and on the possibilities of the democratic future. The Encyclopedia is global in scope and responds in detail to the democratic revolution of recent decades. Referring both to the established democratic states of Western Europe, North America and Australasia, and to the recent democracies of Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Africa and Asia, classical democratic concerns are related to new democracies, and to important changes in the older democracies. Supplemented by full bibliographical information, extensive cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, the Encyclopedia of Democratic Thought is a unique work of reference combining the expertise of many of the world's leading political scientists, political sociologists and political philosophers. It will be welcomed as an essential resource for both teaching and for independent study, and as a solid starting point both for further research and wider exploration.