Twenty-First Century Democracy
Description
Topics in this collection of essays range from a utopian-style foray into possible structures for democratic governance at the global level to a Hobbesian analysis of the ongoing challenges that democratic theory faces; from an assertion of the importance of social and economic equality to a recognition of the limits of solidarity in the real world of pluralistic and divided societies in which we live; from identification with the cosmopolitan and the international to a defence of the national and the local; from a predilection for direct democracy and the lost community of republican theory, past and present, to a recognition of the fairly circumscribed ways in which these can ultimately be expressed in our day. In spite of the challenges facing global democracy, Resnick looks to the next millennium with renewed hope for the democratic project.
Reviews
"Resnick has set himself the ambitious task of elucidating some of the fundamental issues surrounding the practice of democracy at the end of the twentieth century, and to do so within a global context. He asks large questions that, given the breadth of the subjects touched upon and their highly speculative nature, cannot be answered fully. However, asking such large questions is inherently useful, and the essays are interesting, inventive, and thought provoking." Reg Whitaker, Department of Political Science, York University "Resnick articulates and defends some unique and provocative theses that will surely spark useful debate." Frank Cunningham, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto