Professor Moon Library Instruction: Democracy

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This volume is a collection of essays on an alternative understanding of Marxism, anchored in the ideas of humanism, democracy and pluralism.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, considerable changes have taken place in Marxist theory, and the 21st century has seen the relevance of Marx called into question.Several wars, a global economic crisis, ecological disasters, political dysfunctions have either challenged, undermined, or strengthened various strands of leftist thought that emerged from Marxist thought. This collection of original essays by key thinkers in the field aims to update the literature on the state of Marxism today. It engages with significant areas of debates, from the political thought of Nussbaum and Zizek to the politics of development, liberalism, justice, the role of revolution, imperialism, and economic and technological determinism. A thorough investigation, it incorporates a diversity of approaches, including analytical philosophy (contribution from Norman Geras, e.g.) and postmodern influences (contributions from Ronaldo Munck or Stuart Sim).These different perspectives, which also correspond to the contrasting views on the nature of post-Marxist theory, will make this collection a valuable text for courses in political theory, Marxist studies, as well as international relations, post-colonialism, and development.

Democracy and the Rule of Law in China is intended to make available to English-language readers debates among prominent Chinese intellectuals and academics over issues of political, constitutional, and legal reform; modes of governance in urban and rural China; and culture and cultural policy. The writers included in this book are individuals whose views have drawn some attention in the formulation of party and government policy, including the editor, Yu Keping, a prominent party intellectual, vice-director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau.

This comprehensive and lucid assessment of the historical and contemporary determinants of Sino-American relations explains the conflicted engagement between the two governments. Offering a welcome richness of discussion and analysis, distinguished analyst Robert G. Sutter explores the twists and turns of the relationship over the past two hundred years. The mixed historical record convincingly shows that strong differences and mutual suspicions persist, only partly overridden by a mutual pragmatism that shifts with circumstances. Sutter judiciously considers the evolution and status of current areas of convergence and divergence in the relationship. He identifies key domestic and international factors that have led to the current positive but fragile equilibrium and what is at stake for the respective interests of the United State and China and for international stability. As the only book on the subject that combines a unified assessment of the historical evolution, contemporary status, and likely prospects of U.S.-Chinese relations, this balanced and pragmatic study will be an essential resource for all concerned with the globe's most crucial bilateral partnership.

Twice in the winter of 1999-2000, citizens of the Russian Federation flocked to their neighborhood voting stations and scratched their ballots in an atmosphere of uncertainty, rancor, and fear. This book is a tale of these two elections--one for the 450-seat Duma, the other for President. Despite financial crisis, a national security emergency in Chechnya, and cabinet instability, Russian voters unexpectedly supported the status quo. The elected lawmakers prepared to cooperate with the executive branch, a gift that had eluded President Boris Yeltsin since he imposed a post-Soviet constitution by referendum in 1993. When Yeltsin retired six months in advance of schedule, the presidential mantle went to Vladimir Putin--a career KGB officer who fused new and old ways of doing politics. Putin was easily elected President in his own right. This book demonstrates key trends in an extinct superpower, a troubled country in whose stability, modernization, and openness to the international community the West still has a huge stake.

Drawn from outstanding articles published in the Journal of Democracy, The Global Divergence of Democracies follows the enthusiastically received earlier volume, The Global Resurgence of Democracy. The tremendous momentum of democratic expansion that characterized the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s has drawn to a halt. Significantly, this halt has not yet been followed by a "reverse wave"of democratic breakdowns, and democracy remains unchallenged as a global model and ideal of governance. The values of freedom, human rights, and popular sovereignty have continued to gain strength in the world. The first section of The Global Divergence of Democracies presents a few outstanding examples of the accumulating body of argument and evidence in favor of the universality of democratic principles and their basic compatibility with diverse religious and cultural traditions. Nonetheless, in practice, the performance of the world's newer democracies has become increasingly varied, a trend reflected in the title of this volume: The Global Divergence of Democracies. The divergence in the quality or depth of democracy is matched by a parallel divergence in progress toward the consolidation of democracy. The second section of this volume is devoted to the hotly contested debate among leading scholars of comparative democracy of the utility and meaning of the concept of consolidation. A third section examines some of the key building blocks of successful democracy, including political party systems, elections, federalism, the rule of law, a market economy, an independent judiciary, and civilian control of the military. The volume concludes with a series of appraisals of the divergent paths that democracy is taking both among and within various regions of the world, as well as in such key countries as Russia and China. With contributions by more than thirty of the world's leading scholars of democracy, this volume presents the most comprehensive assessment available of the state of democracy in the world at the beginning of the new millennium.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, foreign policy analysts and international relations scholars expected communist Cuba to undergo transitions to democracy and to markets as had the Eastern European nations of the former Soviet bloc. But more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Castro remains in power, with no sign that the Cuban government or economy is moving toward liberalization. In Democracy Delayed, political scientist Juan L#65533;pez offers a searching and detailed analysis of the factors behind Cuba's failure to liberalize. L#65533;pez begins by comparing the political systems of three Eastern European states-the former German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, and Romania-with that of Cuba, in order to identify the differences that have allowed Castro to maintain his hold over the government and the economy. L#65533;pez also shows the various conditions promoting change, including the development of civil society groups in Cuba, and discusses why some U.S. policies help the possibility of democratization in Cuba while others hinder it. While the Catholic Church in Poland and the Protestant Church in East Germany fostered change, the Catholic Church in Cuba has not taken a defiant stance against authoritarianism but seems instead to be biding its time until Castro is out of the picture. In conclusion, L#65533;pez argues that a political transition in Cuba is possible even under the government of Fidel Castro. Some necessary conditions have been missing, but it is possible that U.S. policies could lay the groundwork for democratic charge.

The Nazis never won a majority in free elections, but soon after Hitler took power most people turned away from democracy and backed the Nazi regime. Hitler won growing support even as he established the secret police (Gestapo) and concentration camps. What has been in disputefor over fifty years is what the Germans knew about these camps, and in what ways were they involved in the persecution of 'race enemies', slave workers, and social outsiders. To answer these questions, and to explore the public sides of Nazi persecution, Robert Gellately has consulted an array of primary documents. He argues that the Nazis did not cloak their radical approaches to 'law and order' in utter secrecy, but played them up in the press and loudly proclaimed thesuperiority of their system over all others. They publicized their views by drawing on popular images, cherished German ideals, and long held phobias, and were able to win over converts to their cause. The author traces the story from 1933, and shows how war and especially the prospect of defeatradicalized Nazism. As the country spiralled toward defeat, Germans for the most part held on stubbornly. For anyone who contemplated surrender or resistance, terror became the order of the day.

The United Nations Democracy Agenda is a critical, conceptual-historical analysis of democracy at the United Nations, detailed in four 'visions' of democracy: civilization, elections, governance and developmental democracy. "I know it when I see it" were the famous words of US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart on defining obscenity. It is with the same conviction and (un)certainty with which liberal peacebuilders and democracy promoters have used democracy to achieve both the immediate goals of peacekeeping and the broader, global mission of the United Nations. Today democracy may have gained an international dimension, yet its success as an organizational practice depends on how democracy has been defined. Drawing on political theory and democratization scholarship, The United Nations Democracy Agenda questions the meaning of this well-'known' idea. The book analyses the way in which the UN, through its Secretary-General, relevant agencies and organizational practices, have thought about, conceptualized and used democracy. The United Nations Democracy Agenda shows that while the idea of democracy's 'civilizing' nature has played a prominent part in its use by the UN, an early focus on sovereignty and self-determination delayed the emergence of the democracy agenda until the 1990s. Today, a comprehensive democracy agenda incorporates not only elections but a broad range of liberal democratic institutions. Despite this, the democracy agenda is at an impasse, both practically and philosophically. The United Nations Democracy Agenda questions whether an extension of the UN democracy agenda to include 'developmental democracy' is feasible.

What role should the United Nations play in a globalising world? How can it support and embody international democracy? The decline of state sovereignty, an effect of globalisation, is bringing about a crisis both in politics, as a tool to pursue the common good, and in democracy, as the key instrument by which we can control our destinies. The UN, the only organisation with broad political goals and worldwide jurisdiction, has the potential to manage globalisation democratically and promote the common good of humanity. However, it is still controlled by nation states and operates according to power relations typical of the pre-globalisation era. UN reform is therefore crucial, today more than ever. This book examines two areas of reform: first, the creation of a democratic assembly in which world citizens are represented, in order to adapt democracy to meet the challenges of globalisation; and second, the strengthening of the Security Council through democratisation and regionalisation, in order to ensure world security, whose characteristics have evolved significantly in the global age. The contributors come from a wide variety of different backgrounds, including political science, sociology, economics, law, philosophy and history, providing a multifaceted and multidisciplinary debate on this important topic.