This text explains the different models of democracy and the varied approaches taken by a number of international actors to promote (or impose) democratic and economic reform.

Feminist Geneaologies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures provides a feminist anaylsis of the questions of sexual and gender politics, economic and cultural marginality, and anti-racist and anti-colonial practices both in the "West" and in the "Third World." This collection, edited by Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, charts the underlying theoretical perspectives and organization practices of the different varieties of feminism that take on questions of colonialism, imperialism, and the repressive rule of colonial, post-colonial and advanced capitalist nation-states. It provides a comparative, relational, historically grounded conception of feminist praxis that differs markedly from the liberal pluralist, multicultural understanding that sheapes some of the dominant version of Euro-American feminism. As a whole, the collection poses a unique challenge to the naturalization of gender based in the experiences, histories and practices of Euro-American women.

Global Democratic Theory is the first comprehensive introduction to the changing contours of democracy in today’s hyperconnected world. Accessibly written for readers new to the topic, it considers the impact of globalization and global forms of governance and activism on democratic politics and examines how democratic theory has responded to address these challenges, including calls for new forms of democracy to be developed beyond the nation-state and for greater public participation and accountability in existing global institutions. Divided into two parts, the book shows how globalization provides both new obstacles and new opportunities for democracy. Part I explores the shifts underway at the national and international levels that are challenging democracy within nation-states around the world. In response, new proposals for global and transnational democracy have emerged. Part II critically analyses five main approaches of ‘global democratic theory’ Ð liberal internationalism, cosmopolitan democracy, deliberative democracy, social democracy and radical democracy, focusing on their specific interpretation of the problems facing democracy, their normative claims, and the feasibility of their proposed pathways of democratization. The book’s extensive account of the problems and possibilities facing democracy today will be essential reading for students and scholars of politics, political theory and political philosophy.

Our democracies repeatedly fail to safeguard the future. From pensions to pandemics, health and social care through to climate, biodiversity and emerging technologies, democracies have been unable to deliver robust policies for the long term. In this book, Graham Smith asks why. Exploring the drivers of short-termism, he considers ways of reshaping legislatures and constitutions and proposes strengthening independent offices whose overarching goals do not change at every election. More radically, Smith argues that forms of participatory and deliberative politics offer the most effective democratic response to the current political myopia, as well as a powerful means of protecting the interests of generations to come.

Introduction : Democracy's anxious returns / David Kyuman Kim and John L. Jackson, Jr. - "Look, baby, we got Jesus on our flag" : robust democracy and religious debate from the era of slavery to the age of Obama / Edward J. Blum -- Forerunner : the campaigns and career of Edward Brooke / Jason Sokol -- Iran's French Revolution : religion, philosophy, and crowds / Roxanne Varzi - Democracy's new song : Black reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 and the melodramatic imagination / Marina Bilbija - Habits of the heart : youth religious participation as progress, peril, or change? / Monica R. Miller and Ezekiel J. Dixon-Roman - Populism and late liberalism : a special affinity? / Jean Comaroff -- Chadors, feminists, terror : the racial politics of U.S. media representations of the 1979 Iranian women's movement / Sylvia Chan-Malik -- The end of neoliberalism : what is left of the left / John Comaroff - Religion as race, recognition as democracy : Lemba "Black Jews" in South Africa / Noah Tamarkin - The race toward caraqueño citizenship : negotiating race, class, and participatory democracy / Giles Harrison-Conwill - The racialization of Islam in American law / Neil Gotanda

Democracy has changed considerably in recent years to the extent that our contemporary understanding differs greatly from long-held democratic values. In this collection, renowned democratic theorists from Noam Chomsky to Francis Fukuyama give their thoughts on 'new democratic theory' and its implications for the study and practice of democracy.

Every day and everywhere, China figures prominently in global attention: companies and banks weigh billions in investments; hedge fund managers assess and speculate on downside risks; commodity traders and natural resource producers salivate over China’s energy appetite; intelligence agencies carefully track China’s growing global footprint; militaries monitor China’s growing military capabilities; diplomats grapple with a new assertiveness in China’s diplomatic posture; scholars try to understand the shifting dynamics and sources of China’s behaviour; while journalists track the latest changes in China’s economy, polity, and society. Charting China’s Future provides informed analysis on the complexities of today’s China, and where these complexities may lead, from some of the world’s leading Asia experts. The contributors have provided clear, intelligible, and forward-looking analyses, free of social science jargon and extensive footnotes. Probing into many of the key domestic and external issues facing China today from political, economic and social perspectives the book proffers a forward-looking analysis that will appeal to anyone with a professional, academic or personal interest in the big issues facing today's China and its interaction with the world. Readers will find much to contemplate about China’s future in this volume, and will gain a clearer sense of the key variables and possible trajectories of one of the most consequential countries on the planet.

This open access edited volume investigates children and youth's deep entanglement in today's major global, national, and local transformations and processes: wherein they are not mere spectators and objects of transformations but instead actively shape them through various social, economic, and political representations. International contributions illuminate the problems that arise when children's rights and participation become a site of contestation and power over who represents whom, what, when, and where. The authors do not provide simple solutions, instead offering an understanding of the fundamental nature of these problems as founded in the application of rights and the nature of representation in modern society. Together, the authors emphasize that child representation must take into account the local and spatial context of how representations of children are discussed, as well as possible discrepancies between local, regional, national, and global processes.

This critical introduction to democracy promotion seeks to provide students with an understanding of some of the key dynamics and contentions revolving around this controversial policy agenda. Specifically, this textbook examines democracy promotion through seeking to answer, from the perspective of an approach informed by ‘critical theory’, a set of important questions often posed to democracy promoters, such as: Who is involved in democracy promotion today and what kinds of power relations are embedded in it? Is democracy promotion driven by the values or interests of key actors? Is democracy promotion regime-change by another name? Is democracy promotion ‘context-sensitive’ or an imposition of Western powers? Is democracy promotion about achieving liberal economic reform in target states? Is democracy promotion a tool of the powerful, a form of hegemonic control of target populations? The book suggests a set of provocative answers to these questions and also puts forward a set of challenges for democracy promoters and supporters to take on today. Democracy Promotion serves as an effective introduction to an increasingly topical policy agenda for students and general readers and, at the same time, seeks to advance an important set of new critical perspectives for practitioners and policy-makers of democracy promotion to consider.

Social scientists and legal scholars from different disciplines and perspectives explore the intersection of labor and democracy.