Democracy Defended (Contemporary Political Theory)

Democracy Defended (Contemporary Political Theory)
- Used Book in Good Condition
Is there a public good? A prevalent view in political science is that democracy is unavoidably chaotic, arbitrary, meaningless, and impossible. Such scepticism began with Condorcet in the eighteenth century, and continued most notably with Arrow and Riker in the twentieth century. In this powerful book, Gerry Mackie confronts and subdues these long-standing doubts about democratic governance. Problems of cycling, agenda control, strategic voting, and dimensional manipulation are not sufficiently harmful, frequent, or irremediable, he argues, to be of normative concern. Mackie also examines every serious empirical illustration of cycling and instability, including Rikers famous argument that the US Civil War was due to arbitrary dimensional manipulation. Almost every empirical claim is erroneous, and none is normatively troubling, Mackie says. This spirited defence of democratic institutions should prove both provocative and influential.
Country USA
Brand Cambridge University Press
Manufacturer Cambridge University Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 14826
Model 14826
ReleaseDate 2004-01-12
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780521534314

You might also like...