Good Government : Democracy beyond Elections / Pierre Rosanvallon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosanvallon, Pierre, author.

Contributor:

DeBevoise, M. B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Few would disagree that Western democracies are experiencing a crisis of representation. In the United States, gerrymandering and concentrated political geographies have placed the Congress and state legislatures in a stranglehold that is often at odds with public opinion. Campaign financing ensures that only the affluent have voice in legislation. Europeans, meanwhile, increasingly see the European Union as an anti-democratic body whose "diktats" have no basis in popular rule. The response, however, has not been an effective pursuit of better representation. In Good Government, Pierre Rosanvallon examines the long history of the alternative to which the public has gravitated: the empowered executive. Rosanvallon argues that, faced with everyday ineptitude in governance, people become attracted to strong leaders and bold executive action. If these fail, they too often want even stronger personal leadership. Whereas nineteenth-century liberals and reformers longed for parliamentary sovereignty, nowadays few contest the "imperial presidency." Rosanvallon traces this history from the Weimar Republic to Charles De Gaulle's "exceptional" presidency to the Bush-Cheney concentration of executive power. Europeans rebelling against the technocratic EU and Americans fed up with the "administrative state" have turned to charismatic figures, from Donald Trump to Viktor Orbán, who tout personal strength as their greatest asset. This is not just a right-wing phenomenon, though, as liberal contentment with Obama's drone war demonstrates. Rosanvallon makes clear that contemporary "presidentialism" may reflect the particular concerns of the moment, but its many precursors demonstrate that democracy has always struggled with tension between popular government and concentrated authority.-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Introduction: From one Democracy to Another

PART I. Executive Power

1. Consecration of the Law and Demotion of the Executive

2. The Cult of Impersonality and Its Metamorphoses

3. The Age of Rehabilitation

4. Two Temptations

PART II. The Presidentialization of Democracies

5. The Pioneering Experiments: 1848 and Weimar

6. From Gaullist Exception to Standard Model

7. Unavoidable and Unsatisfactory

8. Limiting Illiberalism

PART III. A Democracy of Appropriation

9. The Governed and Their Governors

10. Legibility

11. Responsibility

12. Responsiveness

PART IV. A Democracy of Trust

13. The Good Ruler in Historical Perspective

14. Truthfulness

15. Integrity

Conclusion: The Second Democratic Revolution

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Aug 2018)

ISBN:

9780674986329

0674986326

9780674986312

0674986318

OCLC:

1024312635