“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others” once remarked Winston Churchill. In this day and age this quotation resonates more than ever. This book explores democracy from the perspective of social and cultural psychology, highlighting the importance of the everyday basis of democratic practices. This approach takes us beyond the simple understanding of democracy in its institutional guise of free elections and public accountability, and towards a focus on group dynamics and personal characteristics of the democratic citizen, including their mentalities, habits and ways of relating to others. The book features discussions of the two-way street between democracy and dictatorship; conflicts within protests, ideology and public debate; and the psychological profile of a democratic citizen and its critique. While acknowledging the limitations of today’s democratic systems, this volume aims to re-invigorate democracy by bringing psychology to the table of current debates on social change and citizenship.

Cultural psychology explores the mutual constitution of persons-minds and socialcultural worlds. It aims to be both transdisciplinary and international in its approach, and to develop theoretical models that remain faithful to people’s lived experiences. This volume further advances these objectives through an exploration of core concepts (especially, normativity, liminality, and resistance), cultural psychology’s foundations in philosophy, and the translation of theory into a methodology for investigating distinctly human ways of relating to the world.

This book is about all our futures and demonstrates how essential insights from political psychology can nurture and safeguard democracy.

Political plasticity refers to limitations on how fast, how much, and in what ways political behavior does (or does not) change. In a number of important areas of behavior, such as leader-follower relations, ethnicity, religion, and the rich-poor divide, there has been long-term continuity of human behavior. These continuities are little impacted by factors assumed to bring about change such as electronic technologies, major wars, globalization, and revolutions. In addition to such areas of low political plasticity, areas of high political plasticity are considered. For example, women in education is discussed to illustrate how rapid societal change can be achieved. This book explains the psychological and social mechanisms that limit political plasticity, and shape the possibility of changes in both democratic and dictatorial countries. Students, teachers, and anyone interested in political behavior and social psychology will benefit from this volume.

The first volume of the Yearbook of Idiographic Science (YIS) was published on 2009. In a nutshell, the idea at the grounds of the YIS project is that idiography and nomothetic are not juxtaposed logics and that the science cannot but be both nomothetic - in the aim - and idiographic - in the modes. About thirteen years later, the sense and the direction of the YIS project envisaged in the first volume’s introduction - together with the difficulties to pursue it - are still alive and valid. Thus, to both celebrate the milestone of the tenth issue and to plan the future, we asked to some colleagues, almost all contributors of previous volumes, to discuss what idiographic science means today, and what can mean tomorrow. The works they have generously provided are very instructive - each of them pictures a peculiar perspective on idiography that enables to recognize old and new challenges, thus paving the way to innovative ideas and directions.

This book explores the contribution of discursive psychology and discourse analysis to researching the relationship between history and collective memory. Analysing significant manifestations of the moral vocabulary of the Romanian transition from communism to democracy, the author demonstrates how discursive psychology can be used to understand some of the enduring and persistent dilemmas around the legacy of communism. This book argues that an understanding of language as an action-oriented, world-building resource can fill an important gap in the theorizing of public controversies over individual and collective meaning of the recent (communist) past. The author posits that discursive social psychology can serve as an intellectual and empirical bridge that can overcome several of the difficulties faced by researchers working in transitional justice studies and cognate fields. This reflective book will appeal to students and scholars of transitional justice, discursive psychology, memory studies, and the sociology of change.

It is a commonly held assumption among cultural, social, and political psychologists that imagining the future of societies we live in has the potential to change how we think and act in the world. However little research has been devoted to whether this effect exists in collective imaginations, of social groups, communities and nations, for instance. This book explores the part that imagination and creativity play in the construction of collective futures, and the diversity of outlets in which these are presented, from fiction and cultural symbols to science and technology. The authors discuss this effect in social phenomena such as in intergroup conflict and social change, and focus on several cases studies to illustrate how the imagination of collective futures can guide social and political action. This book brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from cultural, social, and political psychology to offer insight into our constant (re)imagination of the societies in which we live.

This book explores the conflict between the Catalan project to become independent and the Spanish state’s opposition to any attempt of secessionism. The volume addresses some of the key political and academic issues of contemporary European societies: nationalism, separatism and sovereignty. The banned referendum in Catalonia in October 2017 unveiled the existence of multiple crises, from territorial to economic and political. Indeed, the Catalan issue is about the crisis of sovereignty: who holds legitimacy to make decisions, and who is in power legally and politically? The book is structured according to three themes: sovereignty and its people, where the realignment to independence, populism and the definition of the demos are discussed; collective identities and actions, to account for the shaping of ‘us’, the importance of collective memory and the cross-alliances forged during the referendum; and internationalization, focusing on Europeanisation, international media and comparative constitutional perspectives.

Fathali M. Moghaddam explores how psychological factors influence the presence, potential development, or absence of democracy. Recommendations are given for promoting the psychological processes that foster democracy. Where democracy thrives, it seems far and away the best system of governance. Yet, relatively few countries have managed to transition successfully to democracy, and none of them have attained what Fathali M. Moghaddam calls "actualized democracy," the ideal in which all citizens share full, informed, equal participation in decision making. The obstacles to democratization are daunting, yet there is hope. What is it about human nature that seems to work for or against democracy? The Psychology of Democracy explores political development through the lens of psychological science. He examines the psychological factors influencing whether and how democracy develops within a society, identifies several conditions necessary for democracy (such as freedom of speech, minority rights, and universal suffrage), and explains how psychological factors influence these conditions. He also recommends steps to promote in citizens the psychological characteristics that foster democracy. Written in a style that is both accessible and intellectually engaging, the book skillfully integrates research and an array of illustrative examples from psychology, political science and international relations, history, and literature.

The Routledge International Handbook of Changes in Human Perceptions and Behaviors is the first edited volume to present multidisciplinary perspectives on various aspects of changes that humans experience. The handbook is designed to highlight the different contents, types, ways, meanings, applications, and moments of changes that have been recognized by experts in various fields within the life and social sciences. Comprised of four sections, the chapters address changes in a variety of contexts related to human perceptions and behaviors; the moment of change and fluctuations; changes in applied settings; and the meaning of changes, including resistance to change. Written by a range of expert international contributors, the book brings together discussions and insights about how different levels and types of changes in human perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors have been studied and considered in diverse fields. It also explores the various mechanisms that account for changes, exploring how and when changes occur and what changes mean to humans. Relevant for empirical and theoretical work, the handbook will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and postgraduate students across psychology, behavioral sciences, and social sciences.