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2. Rights in the Liberal Tradition.
- Author
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Shklar, Judith N.
- Subjects
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LIBERALISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *HUMAN rights , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This is a republication of Judith N. Shklar's paper "Rights in the Liberal Tradition" first published in an issue of Colorado College Studies in 1992. This is the first time the piece has been made digitally available. Edward Hall and Matt Sleat provide a brief foreword to the essay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Conspiracy Theories and the Manufacture of Dissent: QAnon, the 'Big Lie', Covid-19, and the Rise of Rightwing Propaganda.
- Author
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DiMaggio, Anthony R.
- Subjects
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PHENOMENOLOGICAL sociology , *COVID-19 pandemic , *SOCIAL constructionism , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIAL systems - Abstract
This paper examines the impact of partisanship, rightwing media, and social media on attitudes about contemporary conspiracy theories. Mainstream scholarly views that 'both sides' of the political aisle indulge routinely in such theories are challenged. I adopt a Gramscian hegemonic framework that examines rising rightwing conspiracy theories as a manifestation of mass false consciousness in service of a political-economic system that serves upper-class interests. Issues examined include the QAnon movement, 'big lie' voter fraud conspiracism, and Covid-19 conspiracy theories, and the way they related to partisanship, rightwing media, and social media. I provide evidence that Republican partisanship, rightwing media consumption, and social media consumption are all significant statistical predictors of acceptance of modern conspiracy theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Democracy and Capitalism in the Interregnum: Trump's Failed Self-Coup and After.
- Author
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Antonio, Robert J.
- Subjects
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DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *CAPITALISM , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper addresses Trump's failed self-coup, its authoritarian backwash, and threats to democracy. It analyzes his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which contributed to his 2020 election loss and deepened the political polarization that led to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The essay also discusses how the forty-year acceleration of economic inequality and sociopolitical de-democratization generated a legitimacy crisis of the hegemonic, neoliberal regime that opened way for Trumpist ethnoracial nationalism. The Trump presidency and pandemic increased the intensity of the political-economic contradictions and transparency of the attenuated relationship of democracy and capitalism. In the consequent "interregnum," fundamental threats to democratic electoral institutions persist, yet a clear, realistic vision of an alternative democratic regime and the political bloc to bring it into being have yet to be forged. The fate of American democracy rides on overcoming the remarkable denial and normalization of the Trump coup attempt and on forging new safeguards for electoral institutions. Preventing a recurrence, however, requires a progressive transformation of Trumpism's de-democratized seedbed – neoliberal capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Comfortable bodies: sedentary affects.
- Author
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Bissell, David
- Subjects
- *
QUALITY of life , *CONSERVATISM , *SOCIOLOGY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *POLITICAL science , *SOCIAL sciences - Abstract
Whilst to be comfortable is often equated with conservatism and complacency, this paper considers the various and often complex configurations of comfort as a desirable corporeal sensibility. Subsequently, this paper considers what corporeal comfort as an affective sensibility is and can do to theorisations of the sedentary body. The sensibility of corporeal comfort induced through the relationality between bodies and proximate objects is explored to trace through some of the affectual circulations that flow through the sedentary body. With this in mind, forms of subjectivity engendered through the fragility of comfort are at once both active and performed, and folded through the inactive susceptibilities that are beyond activity. Drawing on such an immanent materialism enables us to take more seriously these susceptibilities of the sedentary body and the new moments and spatialities that emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. The Qualities of Statistics as Facts about Society.
- Author
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Thomas, Ray and Sewell, Martin
- Subjects
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SOCIOLOGY , *STATISTICIANS , *SOCIAL justice , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIAL sciences , *POLITICAL correctness , *SOCIAL movements , *CULTURAL awareness - Abstract
This paper aims to apply science to the evaluation of statistics as facts about society. The conventional treatment of quality as having only one dimension militates against such an evaluation. Evaluation of statistics as facts about society requires consideration of a range of qualities including the categorizations used, the population covered, and the forms of publication available. The paper argues that the education and training of statisticians should be extended to cover the social construction of statistics including the use of denominators. This extension should contribute to the proper scientific use of published statistics - both by professional statisticians and other users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
7. Marx, labour and emancipation in South African sociology: a preliminary rethinking.
- Author
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Dubbeld, Bernard
- Subjects
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CAPITALISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *PROFIT , *FRANKFURT school of sociology , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
In a university and disciplinary environment where knowledge is increasingly commodified, this paper sketches a reconstruction of the mature Marx's analysis of capitalism. I argue that his understanding remains methodologically powerful and helps to ground sociological analyses of the present. While accepting that there are good grounds for questioning the relevance of Marx in the wake of the South African political transition and the Post-Fordist transformation of labour, this interpretation departs significantly from how Marx has generally been interpreted by sociologists and other social scientists in the country by foregrounding the commodity as the starting point of his social critique. Indeed, I argue that 'class' and 'workplaces', long a focus of radical sociologists, are on their own inadequate to grasp Marx's concept of capitalism. Finally, drawing on the Frankfurt School, I suggest the importance of a critique of labour and the recognition of contradiction as the starting point of an emancipatory project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. Battling “Unhealthy Relations”: Soviet Youth Sexuality as a Political Problem.
- Author
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LIVSCHIZ, ANN
- Subjects
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WOMEN'S sexual behavior , *GIRLS' sexual behavior , *HUMAN sexuality , *CONSERVATISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *POLITICAL parties , *SOCIOLOGY , *CLASSISM , *SEX customs , *MANNERS & customs - Abstract
This paper explores the way Soviet party and education officials dealt with female youth sexuality, in an effort to get it under control in order to ensure that Soviet girls grew up to be productive members of Soviet society. Many of the policies enacted by the regime reflected profound social conservatism of the majority of the top political leadership of the country and their great fear of youth, and particularly female, sexuality, as a force that could not be overcome, controlled or fully harnessed for the service of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Need for Cognitive Closure and Conservative Political Beliefs: Differential Mediation by Personal Worldviews.
- Author
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Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka and Van Bergh, Agnieszka
- Subjects
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CONSERVATISM , *POLITICAL science , *SOCIOLOGY , *COGNITION , *SOCIAL perception , *SENSORY perception , *INTERPERSONAL relations , *COGNITIVE ability , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
The paper investigates the relationships between motivated social cognition (need for cognitive closure), personal worldviews (traditional, modern, or postmodern), and conservative political beliefs. The relationships were analyzed in a sample of 189 Polish adults. High need for closure was associated with support for both traditional and modern worldviews. Although different in content (i.e., endorsing different values and assumptions about the methods and limits of cognition), the worldviews share similar formal characteristics: Both assume the absolute nature of values and the existence of definite truths. However, acceptance of the traditional worldview was related to political conservatism (i.e., support for nationalist and isolationist opinions and a stronger role for traditional, religious values in public life), whereas acceptance of the modern worldview was associated with a rejection of conservative political beliefs. Moreover, personal worldviews mediated the relationship between need for closure and political beliefs: Support for social conservatism was mediated by acceptance of the traditional worldview, whereas acceptance of the modern worldview predicted rejection of conservative values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
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10. Democracy, Equality and Toleration.
- Author
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McKinnon, Catriona
- Subjects
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EQUALITY , *DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
In this paper I comment on a recent “letter” by Burleigh Wilkins addressed to nascent egalitarian democracies which offers advice on the achievement of religious toleration. I argue that while Wilkins’ advice is sound as far as it goes, it is nevertheless underdeveloped insofar as his letter fails to distinguish two competing conceptions of toleration – liberal-pluralist and republican-secularist – both of which are consistent with the advice he offers, but each of which yields very different policy recommendations (as can be seen by consideration of The United States v. Lee in America and, I’affaire du foulard in France). I argue that a democratic society of equals must be committed to liberal-pluralist rather than republican-secularist toleration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. Tocqueville and Guizot on democracy: from a type of society to a political regime
- Author
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Richter, Melvin
- Subjects
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SOCIAL structure , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIAL interaction , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
Did Tocqueville treat democracy as a type of society, as a political regime, or in terms of their interactions? This paper argues against the assumption that Tocqueville's concept of this relationship remained constant over his three decades as a theorist. Beginning with his literal acceptance of Guizot's doctrinaire definition of democracy as an e´tat social, Tocqueville then developed an eclectic political sociology. Without rejecting the significance of social organization for politics, he often reverted to Montesquieu's theory of the complex interaction between the social and political. Finally, after the Second Republic's violent end by the coup he had as a statesman sought to prevent, Tocqueville was disgusted by the pseudo-democratic Bonapartist arguments used by the Second Empire's apologists to legitimate it. His final position was that any adequate definition of democracy had to include, not only social equality, but also political liberty and the participation of citizens in a government incorporating a genuine political life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
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12. IDENTIFYING THE UNPRECEDENTED: HANNAH ARENDT, TOTALITARIANISM, AND THE CRITIQUE OF SOCIOLOGY.
- Author
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Baehr, Peter
- Subjects
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TOTALITARIANISM , *AUTHORITARIANISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
How does one identify a phenomenon as radically new or "unprecedented"? Do, in fact, "unprecedented" phenomena exist at all, as presumably some degree of continuity marks every state of affairs? If however, the idea of continuity is taken too far, are we not at risk of domesticating a radical tendency by conceptually transmuting it into something that is already known? These questions are of pressing importance since September 11th, as commentators warn that America and its allies face radically new enemies in the guise of "rogue" states, movements, and terrorist organizations. Yet sociology has had to grapple with similar issues before. In the 1930s and 1940s, the consolidation of fascist and Nazi movements also taxed sociological understanding and competence to the maximum. This article describes aspects of American sociology's response to that earlier challenge, contrasting it with the approach of Hannah Arendt, who condemned the discipline for systematically failing to appreciate the uniqueness, enormity, and gravity of the events that assailed the epoch. Arendt's critique of sociological methods is followed by a case study--Theodore Abel's investigation into National Socialism--that lends some credence to her misgivings. The work of other sociologists of this period--notably, Talcott Parsons's--is also briefly considered. The concluding section of the paper examines the theoretical problems involved in seeking to conceptualize an "unprecedented" event (movement, institution). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
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13. 'The Transition To The Human World Of Democracy': Notes for a History of the Concept of Transition, from Early Marxism to 1989.
- Author
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Guilhot, Nicolas
- Subjects
- *
COMMUNISM , *TOTALITARIANISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIOLOGY , *DEMOCRACY , *FEDERAL government - Abstract
Whether to a 'liberal' or a 'people's' democracy, the evolution of modern political systems has been consistently theorized as a 'transition'. Elaborated within Marxism as the 'transition to communism' and later recycled by modernization theory and comparative politics, this concept has been tightly connected to the development of macro-societal analysis. This paper argues that any attempt at writing its history should be sensitive to the deep-seated ambivalence of this concept, which has alternatively lent itself to either teleological or non-teleological interpretations. But far from matching the ready-made division between Marxist and non-Marxist political sociology, this ambivalence has always been internal to these different social scientific traditions. As a result, the same conceptual issues and tensions can be identified within the Marxist and, later, Soviet doctrine on the one hand, and Western social sciences on the other hand, from the sociology of development of the 1950s to comparative democratization in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
14. Political Behavior in the Social Milieu: Toward Rehabilitation of the Classical Tradition of Political Sociology.
- Author
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Zafirovski, Milan
- Subjects
- *
SOCIOLOGY , *POLITICAL science , *ECONOMISTS , *SOCIOECONOMICS , *SOCIOLOGISTS , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIAL choice - Abstract
Are sociologists in danger of losing, or perhaps we have already lost, political sociology to economists attempting to reduce it to political economy? In recent years, various proposals have been advanced for altering classical political sociology and its sub-disciplines into the "new" political economy or public choice theory. Thus, some sociologists propose what is called a nascent rational choice research program in political sociology to illustrate an alternative methodology, to be applied to all political phenomena, including power and ideology. The rationale for advancing a "new" political economy as an alternative to classical political sociology is found in that this latter has not supposedly developed a consistent theoretical framework but only a "set of tacit agreements about certain areas of inquiry, including social order, legitimacy and consensus." In general, "homo politicus" or the autonomous political actor is subsumed under "homo economicus," with most political economists being disinclined to see any major differences between the two. As an illustration, some political economists complain that even modern neoclassical economists do not go far enough in conceiving political and other social actors, especially in new democracies, as equivalent to rational economic agents. The above argument on the affinity between classical political sociology and the "new" political economy is elaborated in the remainder of this paper as follows. In the first section, the subject-matter and method of classical political sociology are re-defined, especially in relation to those of the "new" political economy.
- Published
- 1999
- Full Text
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15. The Politics of STS
- Author
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Radder, Hans
- Subjects
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NEUTRALITY , *COMMITMENT (Psychology) , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIAL sciences , *SOCIOLOGY , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
The topic of neutrality versus commitment within the sociology of scientific knowledge was the direct cause of the Special Issue of the journal "Social Studies of Science." The set of papers as a whole embraces many aspects of the theme under discussion. In this brief Response, the author will focus on two central questions. The first is whether science and technology studies (STS) accounts should stick to descriptive analyses of the politics of science and technology, or whether they should also engage in normative criticisms, assessments or recommendations. It is concluded that a certain type of STS normativity is legitimate, and may constitute a specific contribution to political debates on science and technology. The second question concerns the realism-relativism issue. It is argued that this issue continues to integrate descriptively adequate and normatively engaged accounts of science and technology.
- Published
- 1998
- Full Text
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16. Images of Nature and Culture in British and French Representations of Caste.
- Author
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Whitehead, Judy
- Subjects
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SOCIOLOGY , *CULTURE , *ANTHROPOLOGY , *NINETEENTH century , *TWENTIETH century , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
This paper compares British and French representations of caste in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a formative period in the development of sociology and social anthropology in the two countries. The concepts of 'nature' and 'culture' in the two sociological traditions are examined with respect to their analyses of caste. The two discourses are also analyzed in relation to their respective colonial histories and national political cultures during this epocho [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1992
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. CONTEMPORARY CURRENTS IN MARXIST THEORY.
- Author
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Burawoy, Michael
- Subjects
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COMMUNISM , *SOCIAL structure , *CAPITALISM , *SOCIOLOGY , *FAMILIES , *LAW , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
This short paper presents a few of the issues which divide contemporary Marxists and shows how their debates relate to Marx's original work In the first part, I discuss the family, law and the world system in the light of two notions of social structure. In the second part, I consider the dynamics of capitalism and the struggles between classes, races and genders as potential motors of change. This is followed by an outline of Marx's understanding of the persistence of capitalism, the notion of reproduction of social relations, and how the state becomes involved in the organization of struggles and in the preservation of the conditions of accumulation In the final part, the past is examined for the light it may shed on the future Has history a prior purpose, or telos? How did Marx and how do Marxists conceive of the transition from one period of history to another? What can we say about the transition to socialism based on the experience of the last hundred years? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1978
18. Conservative Economics and Globalisation.
- Author
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EVANS, TIM
- Subjects
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CONSERVATISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *POLITICAL science , *SOCIOLOGY , *GLOBALIZATION , *INTERNATIONAL trade - Abstract
Since 1979, modern Conservatism has been torn between a traditional regard for the nation state and a powerful, internationalising, global capitalism. Increasingly, radical free marketeers in the party reject the diffuse and patriotic political economy of big government. Instead, they prefer the consumption ethic of radical supply side reform and privatisation. However, in a country in which private healthcare is expanding, in which private schools and home education are booming, and in which for every one state policeman there are now at least two private security guards, how far will this process go? When a Labour government issues a green paper highlighting the scope for the greater use of private military companies and it accepts the commodification of public space through the use of road pricing, what room is left for Conservatives who believe that 'the people should be big and the state small'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
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19. Cosmopolitanism, Global Sociology, and Southern Theory.
- Author
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Bhambra, Gurminder K.
- Subjects
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COSMOPOLITANISM , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIOLOGY , *EUROCENTRISM , *EUROPEAN history - Published
- 2011
20. Imagining Politicians: The Theory of Democracy Meets the Sociology of Professions.
- Author
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Borchert, Jens
- Subjects
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POLITICIANS , *DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *SOCIOLOGY of professions , *IDEALISM , *REALISM - Abstract
Discusses theories of democracy and the role of politicians. Characteristics of politicians in idealist and realist models of democracy; Sociological aspects of the political profession; Relationship of professional politicians with the society according to William J. Goode.
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
21. Geometries of Order, Power and Marginality: A Long Historical Perspective.
- Author
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Joenniemi, Pertti and Parker, Noel
- Subjects
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SOCIAL marginality , *SOCIOLOGY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *INTERNATIONAL relations - Abstract
Are there long-term structural/historical conditions that alter the importance of the marginal, and the possibilities confronting those who find themselves there? By correlating the principle underpinning the political order, together with the dominant forms and sites of power, to the world-historical predominance of different forms of organization, this paper offers an explanatory account of how and why the meaning and impact of margins has varied across long historical time. Using broad-brush ideal types, the forms of organization are categorized into: "pre-modern"/imperial, "modern"/national-state-dominated, "post-modern". Various possibilities can follow from the findings. They offer, for example, an interpretation of the relative decline of lateral division of space as it functioned in national states' mutual non-interference through their recognition (at least in principle) of sovereign eachothers' autonomy. More broadly they provide a basis for a model of the marginal position with which to compare the way that marginality manifests itself at different times and places, and the possibilities that implies for those at the margin. Such a model can be employed to make an intelligent prognosis of what the future holds for the ever larger number of ?marginal? players on the international scene. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
22. On the Sources and Origins of Social Capital.
- Author
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Radcliff, Benjamin
- Subjects
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SOCIAL capital , *SOCIOLOGY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *REPRESENTATIVE government , *DEMOCRACY , *U.S. states - Abstract
This paper examines and evaluates arguments about how, and in what way, various societal institutions foster higher levels of social capital across the industrial democracies and the American states. The principal finding is that, contrary to much e [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
23. Bad Civil Society and Its Effects on Democratic Consolidation.
- Author
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Schapker, Lauren
- Subjects
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CIVIL society , *SOCIAL capital , *SOCIOLOGY , *DEMOCRACY , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
While civil society and social capital are so often considered essential to democratic consolidation, in Russia, the emergence of bad civil society and the failure of social capital to adhere are increasingly deterring democratic development. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
24. Community Heterogeneities, Social Capital, and Political Institutions.
- Author
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Machida, Satoshi
- Subjects
- *
DEMOCRACY , *SOCIAL capital , *POLITICAL doctrines , *POLITICAL science , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This study shows that consensus types of democracies are more effective than majoritarian democracies in producing bridging social capital in heterogeneous environments. It also incorporates the effects of regime longevity into the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
25. A Liberalism of Commitment.
- Author
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Kelts, Steven
- Subjects
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LIBERALISM , *INDIVIDUALISM , *SOCIOLOGY , *POLITICAL doctrines , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
Liberalism now suffers from excess individualism. Citizens believe they owe nothing that they did not contract to give. I argue that our obligations to our fellow citizens arise not from individual contract, but from systemic commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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