I. List of participants.

This volume brings together a range of theoretical responses to issues in Irish politics. Its organising ideas: recognition, equality, and democracy set the terms of political debate within both jurisdictions. For some, there are significant tensions between the grammar of recognition, concerned with esteem, respect and the symbolic aspects of social life, and the logic of equality, which is primarily concerned with the distribution of material resources and formal opportunities, while for others, tensions are produced rather by certain interpretations of these ideas while alternative readings may, by contrast, serve as the basis for a systematic account of social and political inequality. The essays in this collection will explore these interconnections with reference to the politics of Northern Ireland and the Republic. The Republic has gone through a period in which its constitution was the focus for a liberal politics aimed at securing personal autonomy, while Northern Ireland’s political landscape has been shaped by the problem of securing political autonomy and democratic legitimacy. While the papers address key questions facing each particular polity, the issues themselves have resonances for politics on each side of the border.

"In the intellectual life of a scholar, it is not infrequent for a research question to rattle around in the back of the mind for years. Then all of a sudden comes the realisation that the time is ripe to tackle the topic, and that an attempt has to be made at presenting, discussing and empirically analysed it. I will not go into the reasons why I think that this is now the right moment to address the question on the implementation of the two traditional democratic values, and their transformations over recent years, partly as a consequence of the economic crisis, and its prospective sustainability. Maybe in his Discorsi Machiavelli was only right when he recommends going back to values in times of crisis. There are, of course, other objective and subjective reasons, and the former will emerge directly and indirectly in the first chapter"--.

The original essays in this volume discuss ideas relating to democracy, political justice, equality and inequalities in the distribution of resources and public goods. These issues were as vigorously debated at the height of ancient Greek democracy as they are in many democratic societies today. Contributing authors address these issues and debates about them from both philosophical and historical perspectives. Readers will discover research on the role of Athenian democracy in moderating economic inequality and reducing poverty, on ancient debates about how to respond to inborn and social inequalities, and on Plato’s and Aristotle’s critiques of Greek participatory democracies. Early chapters examine Plato’s views on equality, justice, and the distribution of political and non-political goods, including his defense of the abolition of private property for the ruling classes and of the equality of women in his ideal constitution and polis. Other papers discuss views of Socrates or Aristotle that are particularly relevant to contemporary political and economic disputes about punishment, freedom, slavery, the status of women, and public education, to name a few. This thorough consideration of the ancient Greeks' work on democracy, justice, and equality will appeal to scholars and researchers of the history of philosophy, Greek history, classics, as well as those with an interest in political philosophy.

This volumes explores the whole range of Alexis Tocqueville's ideas, from his political, literary and sociological theories to his concept of history, his religious beliefs, and his philosophical doctrines. Among the topics considered are: Tocqueville's beliefs about foreign policy as applied to American democracy; Tocqueville and Machiavelli on the art of being free; Tocqueville and the historical sociology of state; virtue and politics in Tocqueville; Tocqueville's debt to Rousseau and Pascal; Tocqueville's analysis of the role of religion in preserving American democracy; Tocqueville and American literary critics; and Tocqueville and the postmodern refusal of history. The different approaches to Tocqueville's classical work represented in this book, combined with the frequent use of unpublished sources, present a fresh and renewed vision of his classic Democracy in America, reinforcing after a century and a half its reputation as the most modern, provocative, and profound attempt to explain the nature of democracy. Contributing to the volume are: Pierre Birnbaum (University of Sorbonne), Herbert Dittgen (University of Goettingen), Joseph Alulis (Lake Forest College), Dalmacio Negro (Universidad Complutense, Madrid), Peter A. Lawler (Berry College), Catherine Zuckert (Carleton College), Francesco de Sanctis (Naples University), Hugh Brogan (University of Essex), Cushing Strout (Cornell University), Gisela Schlueter (Universitaet Hannover), Roger Boesche (Occidental College), Edward T. Gargan (University of Wisconsin), and James T. Schleifer (College of New Rochelle).

This book analyses social democratic parties’ attempts to tackle inequality in increasingly challenging times. It provides a distinctive contribution to the literature on the so-called ‘crisis’ of social democracy by exploring the role of equality policy in this crisis. While the main focus is on analysing Australian Labor governments, examples are also given from a wide range of parties internationally. The book traces how a traditional focus on class has expanded to include other forms of inequality, including issues of gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality and explores both the intersections and potential tensions that result. Meanwhile there are new challenges for equality policy arising from a changing geo-economics (the rise of Asia), the legacies of neoliberalism and the impact of technological disruption.

Dr. Sunic examines the principal themes which have concerned the thinkers of the New Right since its inception by Alain de Benoist in 1968, and also discusses the significance of some of the older authors who have been particularly influential on the development of the movement, including Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt, and Vilfredo Pareto.

This book is about the status of political equality under global political conditions. If political equality generally is considered a core feature of democracy, it has received little attention among theorists concerned with global governance. Given the enormous emphasis on democracy as legitimizing factor in global politics, this neglect is noteworthy. This book sets out to address what accounts for the neglect, on the one hand, and how it may be remedied, on the other. The overall aim is to revitalize the debate on the status of political equality in transnational democracy.

Challenging common interpretations of the political thought of John Adams and Adam Smith, Democracy, Equality and Justice offers an engaging and novel portrait of the political economy in America at its founding. The founders believed that liberty should not trump community, but should exist within the context of community. Drawing on extensive written records of the thought of John Adams and Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, Dr. John E. Hill argues that these two great men advocated a balanced, values-based, and just political economy. Adams, historically misperceived as a rugged individualist who favored aristocracy over democracy, actually emphasized political balance with no one socio-economic class dominating any other. Smith, incorrectly portrayed as a supporter of laissez-faire government, advocated economic balance with no class or individual receiving special treatment from the government. Applying their values of universalism and moderation today would significantly broaden the definition of morality in contemporary politics. Democracy, Equality and Justice is a stimulating and sophisticated text that will encourage debate over the relationship between historical ideas and contemporary economic problems.

The first of the Yugoslav successor states to successfully build a democratic system and to enter the European Union, Slovenia stands as a model for democratic transition. This ground-breaking volume analyzes the challenges confronting the post-Communist government and evaluates the strategies adopted in refashioning its value system. Sabrina P. Ramet and Danica Fink-Hafner have assembled a team of outstanding specialists to analyze various aspects of the country’s transformation from socialism to democracy. The editors note that while a great deal has been written on political and economic questions, relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation and transmission of values and norms in Eastern Europe over the past fifteen years. Slovenia’s experience, reflected in these pages, demonstrates how a small country has created the preconditions necessary to the construction of a civic, democratic culture. Six values are emphasized as central to this project: tolerance, equality, church-state separation, respect for democratic procedure and the rule of law, human rights, and civic-mindedness. The volume editors join the other contributors in discussing the way in which Slovenia has set out to build democracy, the ways in which values are transmitted, the role of the media in a free society, the structure of educational systems, and other questions which are of concern not just to Slovenes, but to everyone who aspires to live in an open, democratic society.