This is a study of conceptualizations and applications of the idea of democracy in international and transnational politics (outside the confines of constituted political states, or outside a broadly understood domestic political sphere), which uses a politically realist methodology. This study provides a critical survey of current conceptual positions assumed in this area, and tests these against specific real world events, using the invasion and occupation of Iraq by a US-UK led coalition as a case study. Several aspects of this context are examined here, with a view to discerning how existing conceptualizations of democracy in the international/transnational domain impinge upon and are tested by the real world. Ultimately, this study focuses on the confusions and obfuscations that follow from conflating the normative connotations of democracy with the oligarchic multiparty elective arrangements that are denoted as democratic. The book is divided into two parts - the first examines the six prevailing conceptual positions on democracy in the international/transnational domain in terms of: their normative and legislative connotations; and the manner in which they negotiate boundaries. The second part tests the observations made in Part 1 against real-world events, using the build up to military intervention in and subsequent occupation of Iraq. During these events, the notion of democracy was continually being deployed and dissected in a wide variety of different ways: justifications for and against military action were constantly framed in terms of democracy; the democratic structure and credentials of the UN were stretched almost to breaking point; mass marches and rallies were claimed as a democratic expression of protest; and a discourse of 'democratization' has dominated the occupation period.
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A study of conceptualizations and applications of the idea of democracy in international and transnational politics. This book provides a critical survey of conceptual positions assumed in this area, and tests these against specific real world events, using the invasion and occupation of Iraq by a US-UK led coalition as a case study.
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Introduction; Chapter 1: The Politically Realist Methodology; Part I; Chapter 2: Democracy and Political Realism; Chapter 3: Cosmopolitan Democracy. Chapter 4: Rawls and Liberal Democracy; Chapter 5: Habermas and Deliberative Democracy; Chapter 6: Radical Democracy; Chapter 7: Democratization Studies and Comparative Politics; Chapter 8: Democracy and the Real World; Part II; Chapter 9: The Context; Chapter 10: Dossiers and the Justifications for Invading Iraq; Chapter 11: UN Security Council Debates; Chapter 12: Protest Rallies; Chapter 13: Reconstructing a "Democratic" Iraq Conclusion; Chapter 14: Iraq-invasion-democracy.
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Examines the various conceptual positions on democracy in the international domain, and then tests these against specific world events using the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a case study.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780826496386
Publisert
2007-07-20
Utgiver
Vendor
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Vekt
370 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
240

Forfatter

Biographical note

Suman Gupta is a Senior Lecturer in Literature at the Open University; Director of the international collaborative project on Globalization, Identity Politics and Social Conflict; and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Human Rights, Roehampton University. He is the author of six books - including Marxism, History and Intellectuals, Corporate Capitalism and Political Philosophy, and The Replication of Violence: Thoughts on International Terrorism After 11 September 2001, and has edited several books and published numerous scholarly papers.