Natasha Piano argues that the Italian School of Elitism—comprising Pareto, Mosca, and Michels—has been consistently misread. These thinkers did not, as alleged, oppose electoral politics. Rather, they saw elections as just one component of democracy and warned that equating the two leaves publics disillusioned and vulnerable to elite capture.
This book is a highly original and provocative contribution to democratic theory. Zolo argues that the increasing complexity of modern societies represents a fundamental challenge to the basic assumptions of the Western democratic tradition and calls for a reformulation of some of the key questions of political theory. Zolo maintains that, as modern societies become more complex and more involved in the "information revolution," they are subjected to new and unprecedented forms of stress--as manifested, for instance, in the growing autonomy and power of political parties, and in new kinds of political communication which create the fiction of consensus. These stresses have become so serious that they threaten to undermine some of the values traditionally associated with democracy, such as the rationality and autonomy of the individual, and the visibility and accountability of power. In conclusion, Zolo develops a set of proposals which seek to renew democratic values and to contribute to a fundamental reform of Western political systems.
Against the Modern World is the first history of Traditionalism, an important yet surprisingly little-known twentieth-century anti-modern movement. Comprising a number of often secret but sometimes very influential religious groups in the West and in the Islamic world, it affected mainstream and radical politics in Europe and the development of the field of religious studies in the United States, touching the lives of many individuals. French writer Rene Guenon rejected modernity as a dark age and sought to reconstruct the Perennial Philosophy - the central truths behind all the major world religions. Guenon stressed the urgent need for the West's remaining spiritual and intellectual elite to find personal and collective salvation in the surviving vestiges of ancient religious traditions. A number of disenchanted intellectuals responded to his call. In Europe, America, and the Islamic world, Traditionalists founded institutes, Sufi brotherhoods, Masonic lodges, and secret societies. Some attempted unsuccessfully to guide Fascism and Nazism along Traditionalist lines; others later participated in political terror in Italy. Traditionalist ideas were the ideological cement for the...
A study of the Italian Christian Democratic Party from its birth to the present day. It is the most successful political party in any Western democracy and has been in power since 1945. This book analyzes its ideological foundations, electorate, organization and ties to the Catholic world.
Capitulo 1: ¿una nueva crisis de la democracia? / Capítulo 2: La democracia como gobierno del pueblo / Capítulo 3: ¿Cúan democrático es un Estado democrático? / Capítulo 4: Las dificultades de la democracia / Capítulo 5: Los contrapoderes / Capítulo 6: Más allá de la democracia / Capítulo 7: Perspectivas actuales.
Il comune denominatore di tutte le questioni politicamente rilevanti.
Includes entries for maps and atlases.
Includes entries for maps and atlases.
Each vol. includes an annual bibliography; 1915-20 consist of bibliography only.
Vols. 1-4 include material to June 1, 1929.