Beasts and gods : how democracy changed its meaning and lost its purpose /: how democracy changed its meaning and lost its purpose. (2015)

• Record Type: Book
• Further Information: Note: Roslyn Fuller.
• Authors: Fuller, Roslyn
• Contents: Front Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Beasts and Gods -- Introduction: What Is Democracy? -- Part I -- 1: Democracy in Athens: People Power is Born -- How Athenian Democracy Worked -- Random Power: The Key to Democratic Success in Athens -- 2: The Myth of Representation -- First-Past-the-Post: The Winner Takes It All -- Other Electoral Systems -- Modern Democracy as Symbolic Democracy -- 3: Buying and Selling Elections -- The High Cost of Campaigning -- You Get What You Pay for: The Vicious Circle of Political Donations and Government Action -- A Fistful of Euros: Buying Irish Local Elections -- Representative Democracy: Second Place is the First Loser -- Why Referenda Fail -- Why Regulation Fails -- Elections: The Perfect Habitat for Manipulation -- 4: Participation: Bought In or Locked Out? -- The Struggle to Participate in Modern Democracy -- Participation in Modern Democracy: Running to Stand Still -- The Athenian View on Participation -- Different But (More) Equal: Decision-Making in Athens -- From Ancient Duty to Modern Privilege -- 5: Modern Democracy and the International System: A Perfect Storm -- The United Nations -- The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund -- At the International Casino the House Always Wins -- 6: Non-Governmental Organizations and the Civil Society Chimera -- The Nature of Modern NGOs: Charity Begins in the Boardroom -- The Dark Underbelly of NGO Lobbying: Roundtables, Drugs and Lots of Cash -- Representative Democracy and the International System: Fertile Ground for Oligarchy -- 7: How Did Things Get to Be This Way? The Roman Republican System and the Founding Fathers of America -- Roman Politics: Déjà Vu -- All Sizzle and No Steak: The Roman System Rots at the Core. Forgotten Fathers: Anti-Federalists, Republicans and the Battle for the US Constitution -- Part II -- 8: The Way Forward: Digital Democracy -- The Long-Term Dangers of Electoral Democracy -- Why International Power Cannot Fix Democracy -- Digital Democracy Takes Off: Citizens' Budgets and Crowdsourced Constitutions -- The Next Frontier: Online Decisions with Loomio and DemocracyOS -- 9: Disinformed is Disenfranchised: Why Taming Mass Media is a Necessary Step Towards Democracy -- The Medium and the Message: How Communication Methods Affect Decision-Making -- Using Mass Media to Guide Public Discourse -- The Meaning of Mass Media for Democracy -- Battlefield Internet: How Many Soldiers Does It Take to Run a Facebook Account? -- Reclaiming the Narrative by Funding Massive Participation Instead of Mass Media -- Mass Media: The Single Biggest Threat to Democracy -- 10: Democracy and Dissent: The Balance Between Individual and Community -- The Truth about Individual Rights in Athens -- Fact is Stranger than Fiction: The Extraordinary Trial of Socrates -- Protecting Democracy from Dissenters -- A Fragile Balance: The Economy, the Rule of Law and Democracy -- Rebalancing the Economy Today -- The Old Bugbear: Tyranny of the Majority -- Community and the Individual: Yin and Yang -- 11: Direct Democracy Today: Cutting the Gordian Knot -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover.
• Publisher Details: London : Zed Books
• Publication Date: 2015
• Extent: 1 online resource
• Subjects: 321.8; Democracy; Democracy -- History; Political structures: democracy; POLITICAL SCIENCE -- General; Democracy; Electronic books; Electronic books; History
• Languages: English
• ISBNs: 9781783605446; 1783605448; 9781783605453; 1783605456
• Related ISBNs: 9781783605439; 9781783605422
• Notes: Note: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Note: Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed December 2, 2015).
• Access Rights: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).
• Access Usage: Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force.