Political Philosophy is a discipline that aims to clarify our most fundamental ethical questions as human beings living in societies under conditions of scarce resources and unequal power. How should we live? What does a good life look like and what kind of social and political arrangements are most conducive to living good lives? Democracy has been one influential answer to these questions. Democratic political arrangements are thought to be essential to the maximisation of human happiness and flourishing by many around the world. In this book I examine some enduring puzzles that have to do with the most important pillars of democracy: freedom, rights, equality, justice and legitimate authority.

This book focuses on the specificities and the nuances of the state systems of India and Pakistan. It examines in detail the balance of authority and power between popular or elected politicians and the state apparatus through substantial historical analysis. A comparative analysis as well as a historical overview of the two countries, this book constitutes essential reading for students of South Asian History and Politics. It is a useful and balanced introduction to the politics of India and Pakistan.

Political scientists have worried about declining levels of citizens' support for their regimes (legitimacy), but have failed to empirically link this decline to the survival or breakdown of democracy. This apparent paradox is the 'legitimacy puzzle', which this book addresses by examining political legitimacy's structure, sources, and effects. With exhaustive empirical analysis of high-quality survey data from eight Latin American nations, it confirms that legitimacy exists as multiple, distinct dimensions. It finds that one's position in society, education, knowledge, information, and experiences shape legitimacy norms. Contrary to expectations, however, citizens who are unhappy with their government's performance do not drop out of politics or resort mainly to destabilizing protest. Rather, the disaffected citizens of these Latin American democracies participate at high rates in conventional politics and in such alternative arenas as communal improvement and civil society. And despite regime performance problems, citizen support for democracy remains high.

American democracy is commonly described as "majoritarian," but Robert W. Bennett argues that it is more usefully understood as "an extraordinary engine for producing conversation about public affairs" that involves essentially the entire adult citizenry. In Bennett's view, many central features of American democracy act as spurs to wide-ranging conversational interaction between the government and the governed. These included a separately elected executive, bicameralism, federalism, localism, single-member legislative districts, and heightened constitutional protection for speech and the press. Bennett asserts that the resulting democratic conversation plays an important role in holding the entire nation together and in inducing fidelity on the part of citizens to actions taken in its name.Bennett's groundbreaking conversational account also illuminates facets of American democracy which, he says, have heretofore "been blurry, if visible at all." He focuses on four puzzles of American democracy that can be "solved" through his approach. These are: lack of concern about the apportionment of the United States Senate; inattention to the anomalous political treatment of children; the perceived "counter-majoritarianism" of judicial review in enforcement of the U.S. Constitution; and the much-discussed paradox of voting: why do so many citizens vote when their individual ballots have almost no chance of changing election outcomes? Bennett also treats methodological questions of just what makes theories of complex social phenomena (like American democracy) more or less successful.

Ever since the revival of Kant's Perpetual Peace thesis, the linkages between democracy and peace has been a central topic in international relations research, with sustained debate over whether it exists and if it does, why it does. In this stimulating volume, two leading IR scholars place the democratic peace debate within a broader context, including the extent of threats in international relations, degree of satisfaction with the status quo, the diffusion of democracy, and the rise of the trading state. Step by step, Thompson and Rasler examine the democratic peace through a series of puzzles concerning arguments at the dyadic, systemic, and individual state levels. Synthesizing a broad range of knowledge and linking islands of theory, Puzzles of the Democratic Peace provides a distinctive look at the state of the field and paths forward.

Western democracy is being questioned around the world. At the same time, Western aid groups are quick to say that they are not trying to impose a particular style of democracy on others and that they are open to supporting local, alternative forms of democracy. This book examines what it is about Western democracy that non-Westerners are reacting negatively to and whether the critics often are equating a dislike for certain Western social or economic features with an aversion to of Western political systems. It also explores the current state of debate about alternative forms of democratic practice in different regions—Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America—and then puts forward ideas about how Western actors engaged in democracy support can do a better job of incorporating new thinking about alternative democratic forms into their efforts.

One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.

A compelling new approach to public policy-making as problem processing, bringing together aspects of puzzling, powering and participation and relating them to cultural theory, issues about networks, models of democracy and modes of citizen participation.

Understanding the formation of governments has always been central to political science. Traditionally this topic has been considered from a rational choice theory perspective and the empirical testing of these theories; however neither approach alone is able to explain a large proportion of actual coalition formations. This comparative volume brings together a rational choice theory perspective and the empirical testing of these theories to study government formation. It provides in-depth studies of government formations in Europe that cannot be accounted for by existing coalition theory in order to identify potential explanatory factors that have been neglected so far. These ‘coalition puzzles’ are reconstructed by country experts based on secondary sources, newspaper accounts, internal party documents, and interviews in an effort to understand why particular governments were formed. In conclusion, this book assesses whether new factors can be integrated into rational choice theories or whether these analyses point to the need for a different paradigm. This important volume will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, European politics and comparative politics.

Introduction -- American dreams : access, mobility, fairness -- Free minds : educating democratic citizens -- Hard facts : knowledge creation and checking power -- Purposeful pluralism : dialogue across difference on campus -- Conclusion.