|
Comparative
This volume contains two plenary addresses and a selection of papers that were delivered at the PSA conference in London in 2000. Robert Dahl's address deals eloquently with the links that run 'ever deeper' between political equality, democracy and fundamental rights, liberties and opportunities. In her plenary address, Elinor Ostrom discusses issues of decentralisation by applying common pool arguments to natural resource systems. The remaining thirteen chapters range from Jonathan Wolf's tentative acceptance of 'levelling down' consequences of certain arguments in favour of egalitarianism to a reconsideration of turnout at (British) general elections by R. Johnston and Ch. Pattie, and, more broadly, the usefulness of the concept of 'social capital' for explaining differences in voter turnout by Henry Milner. The 'model' of deliberative democracy is scrutinised to see how it holds up 'empirically' when applied to Swiss referenda (John Parkinson) and local politics in Barcelona (Georgina Blakeley). Tim Jordan looks at new forms of political activism using Internet and new technologies ('hacktivism'); and Pippa Norris revisits some debates on the impact of political communications in post-industrial democracies. G. Pridham looks at the impact transnational party co-operation has on party development in post-communist Europe, while P. Burnell discusses the possible effect that the 'international community' may have on parties and party systems in 'new democracies'. Policies of regulatory reform and liberalisation are analysed from a comparative perspective by M. Lodge; and Perri 6 discusses the effect of e-government on bureaucracy.
Every reader will have her or his own list of the challenges that face democracy in the 21st century, from racism, sexism, 'fundamentalism' and ecological crisis to immigration, the European Union and 'globalisation'. Such challenges are defined in the OECD world differently from outside of it; and what is perceived as a challenge also depends on how we define democracy. None of these issues is addressed in the book, however. As a PSA Yearbook, the volume reflects poorly the diverse, high-quality research that is conducted in Britain on these issues.
The broader question this book raises about the nature of public
policy and administrative decision making should be challenged and
evaluated. To what extent shall we insist that all policy must be
based solely on empirical science? How can a political process of
deliberation, discourse, compromise, and power be transformed into
the "rational" decision model that Bowen requires? Would we really
want it to be?
|
