Democracy, Participation and Contestation: Civil society, governance and the future of liberal democracy

Description

The establishment of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic has not been a smooth evolution towards an idealized presumed endpoint. Far from it, democratization has been marked by setbacks and victories, a process often referred to as ‘contested democracy’. In view of recent mobilizations such as the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, in which new technologies have played a key role, there is a need for a renewed analysis of the long-term evolution of US and UK political systems. Using new areas of research, this book argues that the ideals and the practices of Anglo-American democracy can be best understood by studying diverse forms of participation, which go beyond classical expressions of contestation and dissent such as voting. The authors analyze political parties, social movements, communications and social media, governance, cultural diversity, identity politics, public-private actors and social cohesion to illustrate how the structure and context of popular participation play a significant role in whether, and when, citizens´ efforts have any meaningful impact on those who exercise political power. In doing so, the authors take crucial steps towards understanding how a vigorous public sphere and popular sovereignty can be made to work in today’s global environment. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, British and US history, democracy, political participation, governance, social movements and politics. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: “Contested democracy”: A critical evaluation Part I Contested definitions of democracy 1 Rethinking 1828: The emergence of competing democracies in the United States 2 Some ideological aspects of the “battle of Cable Street” 3 Democracy inc. and radical criticism in the US 4 Is equality the goal? Challenging economic inequality in the US and UK Part II Who participates? Political inclusion and exclusion 5 Democracy: America’s other “peculiar institution” 6 Undocumented immigrants, from pariahs to citizens? Mobilizations and arguments in favour of inclusion 7 Productive protest? The contested higher education reforms in England under the Coalition Government 8 A tale of polarizations: Stress, inertia and social change in the New Gilded Age Part III Governance and the management of democratic processes 9 Public participation, planning and housing: A changing balance of power? 10 The English regions since 1994: Decentralization and the contested terrain of territorial governance 11 The European Citizens’ Initiative: The influence of Anglo-American governance ideology on recent EU institutional reforms 12 Channeling Indigenous contestation of uranium mining in Australia: Legislation, negotiation, co-optation 13 Partners not protesters? Managing contests to traditional democracy through expanded public input into political decision-making Part IV A changing public sphere: New spaces and new tools 14 Contested boundaries of representation: Patterns of transformation in black petitioning in Massachusetts, 1770–1850 15 Social networks and democracy: Fightbacks and backlashes in the world wide agora 16 Local democracy and public spaces in contest: Graffiti in San Francisco 17 A faux-public sphere: Liberty Mutual markets an online conversation economy for citizen-consumers 18 Social media and political activism: Breaking the offline and online division Concluding remarks: Does democracy have a future? Index