Democracy is not in steady state and democratizations are open-ended processes; they depend on structures and functions in systemic contexts that idiosyncratically evolve in tone, tenor, direction, and pace. They affect and are affected by scores of determinants, both perceived and hypothetical. In interlinked chapters that span a number of disciplines, this volume reexamines the basic traits, the comparable outcomes, and the self-defining dynamics of some of the more widely attempted versions of democracy across the world. It discusses some of (...) the controversies that can speed up or slow democratizations. The crucial question these chapters address is whether democratization is possible without an understanding of what is expected from a mode of citizenship inseparable from an ethic of freedom. (shrink)

This volume examines continuities and change in the normative underpinnings of both ancient and modern practices of political governance, public duties, private virtues, and personal responsibilities. As such, it stands at the cross-disciplinary intersection between the practice of democratic citizenship and the exercise of political ethics. Contributors address law and morality in history, from Ancient Mesopotamia and Enlightenment Europe to modern America and the new millennium's scientific and technological transformations; the links among different systems of belief; and complex ethical issues (...) in domestic and international democratic governance in the context of today's globalized world. (shrink)

Some philosophers conceive freedom as a state; others view it as an ideal. A songwriter sees it as a way of life: "Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." The embattled statesman and the political idealist perceive causal links among personal freedoms, societal democracy, and global peace. In this cross-disciplinary volume, the contributors reassess and rephrase the conceptualizations and theorizations of freedom and their applicability to (...) daily life. Framed by historical contexts, their field-specific studies help reconcile theory and practice. Their shared and unique ideational framework can be paraphrased in six words, a question mark, and a exclamation point: Freedom? Beware what you wish for. (shrink)

Formal thinking about certainty/uncertainty gained greater focus in scientific domains with the advent of particle physics and quantum mechanics. Concern with the exact predictability of events under guidance from scientific determinism led to speculation, then acknowledgement of quantum indeterminacy. But distinctions were made between what is physically indeterminate out there and what is indeterminable by human observation or in human action--over here, on the inside, right now. The implications of these insights into indeterminacy and indeterminabilities for practical and theoretical knowledge (...) span physics, philosophy, ontology, causality, and the philosophy of mind. In this book, contributors from a range of disciplines consider the concept of indeterminacy and a few varieties of indeterminability, with attention to the distinctions between the two phenomena, appropriate approaches for examining both, and the differences vis-à-vis uncertainty, vagueness, and ambiguity. (shrink)

The ongoing expansion in the field of citizenship studies is one of the most important and remarkable recent trends in social sciences and humanities research. Some scholars raise questions about citizenship within a larger critique of liberalism and its institutions; others point to citizenship's inherently exclusionary nature. This volume examines--without advocating any ideological agenda--the evolving meaning of citizenship, with an eye to the future. The contributors--writing from the perspectives of anthropology, sociology, psychology, law, history, and other disciplines--examine four modes of (...) citizenship in comparative global context: Differentiated, Divided, Dispersed, and Deterritorialized. The future of citizenship, they argue, may be a worldwide "citizenship by association," tantamount to a global civic interface. (shrink)