By Michael Mandelbaum
It is a serious exam of the expansion, sustainability and destiny outlook for democracy during the global. within the 20th century, democracy skilled the identical of a growth, spreading outward from mere 10 democratic nations in 1900 to an overpowering a hundred and twenty of the world's one hundred ninety nations by way of the yr 2000. In "Democracy's solid Name", Michael Mandelbaum examines this seismic shift in governance, urging us to contemplate the background of democratic impression, its power for spreading and conserving peace, in addition to its destiny in key un-democratic outposts round the globe.While many people suppose democracy to be the typical order of items, Mandelbaum illustrates that its considered necessary elements - well known sovereignty and liberty - were traditionally particular political traditions (the marriage of which happened particularly past due during human history). How then, did this close to common recognition of contemporary democracy happen? And what are the bigger implications of its institution? during this sure-footed account, Michael Mandelbaum bargains us a cogent heritage of democracy and sheds mild at the symbiotic dating among it and the unfastened marketplace. In his research of the way forward for democracy, Michael Mandelbaum conscientiously assesses the most important exceptions to the guideline within the situations of China, Russia and the Arab global, and examines each one when it comes to strength conversion to democracy. Thoughtfully and provocatively argued, "Democracy's strong identify" deals perception into what's arguably the furthest attaining and strongest doctrine of our time.
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Extra resources for Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government
Example text
As it happens, the message the painting conveys is the opposite of what most observers of political affairs for most of history took to be the relationship between its two subjects. Rather than rallying to defend and promote liberty, it was generally thought, the people, if empowered, would crush it. Indeed, for most of recorded history the rule of the people was seen as a horrifying prospect. The risks it posed were con- The Origins of Democracy 17 sidered grave ones. 48 The rule of the people, it was believed, would lead to corruption, disorder, mob violence, and ultimately tyranny.
While the soil and the climate of particular regions do change, this happens very slowly, over hundreds, indeed thousands, of years. Political culture changes as well, and far more The Origins of Democracy 45 rapidly, but it does not change overnight. The skills and values in which democracy must be anchored cannot be called into existence by fiat any more than it is possible for an individual to master the techniques of basketball or ballet without an extended apprenticeship. The relevant unit of time for creating the social conditions conducive to democracy is the generation.
Victorious armies do not typically offer those they defeat the opportunity to try to regain power, nor are they solicitous of the liberties of those whom they have fought in the past and might therefore have to fight in the future. All this leads to a pessimistic conclusion about the prospects for democracy and makes the late-twentieth-century rise of democracy all the more puzzling. Undemocratic regimes governed everywhere for virtually all of human history for reasons The Origins of Democracy 41 that seem rooted in human nature: those who hold power ordinarily do not wish to risk giving it up peacefully and voluntarily by competing in free, fair elections.