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Justice and Democracy: Essays for Brian Barry
Edited with Robert E. Goodin and Carole Pateman
Cambridge University Press, 2004
In a specially written volume in honour of Brian Barry eleven political philosophers consider the links between justice and democracy. 'Jusice and 'democracy' have alternated as dominant themes over the last fifty years. Since its revival in the middle of the twentieth century political philosophy has focused on first one and then the other of these two themes. Rarely, however, has it succeeded in holding them both in joint focus. This volume remedies this by bringing togereht leading authors to consider the relationship of democracy and justice.
Contributors include Richard Arneson, Keith Dowding, Jon Elster, Robert E. Goodin, Russell Hardin, Julian Le Grand, David Miller, Carole Pateman, Philip Pettit, Norman Schofield and Albert Weale.
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The Ethics of Stakeholding
Edited with Jurgen De Wispelaere and Stuart White
Palgrave, 2003
The past twenty years have seen a massive increase in the inequality of incomes and, even more, in the inequality of wealth... The obvious solution is distribute wealth and income unconditionally, at the expense of those who have so much as to threaten the foundations of human solidarity and democracy. This book contains the best available discussion of alternative ways of realizing freedom and justice in this way. Brian Barry.
Which way forward for our welfare states? No promising answer can be given to this question without a resolute broadening of the narrow limits of what looks politically possible. But no sensible answer can be given to this question without our reflecting both on underlying principles and specific designs, as in this lucid, demanding multi-faceted dialogue on basic income versus basic endowment. Philippe van Parijs
This excellent collection contains many new insights and powerful arguments, providing a useful addition to a rapidly expanding literature ... The editors' opening chapter provides a very helpful survey of the range of policy options, the arguments that have been advanced for them ad the key issues affecting their design. John Baker Political Studies.
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Challenges to Democracy
Edited with James Hughes and Helen Margetts
Palgrave, 2001
This collection brings together leading political scientists in order to address the challenges faced by democracy in the 21st century. The contributors tackle the changing nature of democratic ideas, in particular equality in society and the satisfaction of citizens. They examine changing patterns of political involvement, from voting to new forms of participation and protest using the Internet and new technologies. Finally, they look at the challenge to democracy posed by the changing nature of state institutions: party systems, bureaucracy and e-government, regulation and the processes of institutional development.
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Power
Open University Press, 1996
Provides an introduction to the concept and study of political power that overcomes many of the old disputes over the nature and structure of power in society. The text makes a distinction between power and luck, and develops the concept of systematic luck.
Dowding has written a short yet encompassing account of power in the modern world Lynn Woolley, Roundabout.
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Preferences, Institutions, and Rational Choice
Edited with Desmond King
Oxford University Press, 1995
Rational choice theory has gained considerable influence in politics and sociology over the past thirty years. The use of rational choice methods has proliferated in all areas of social inquiry. From the early days of formal proofs and unrealistic assumptions, rational choice is increasingly being used to model authentic situations and institutions. This collection of essays from leading British writers in the rational choice paradigm concentrates upon the tow key aspects of rational choice analysis: preferences and institutions. The essays encompass both theoretical inquiries and empirical analyses. This volume is a vital addition to the growing literature on the problems and the application of rational choice in social enquiry.
This book spans almost all field of political science from political theory, to political history, to political economy, to voting, to international relations, and revolutions. Indeed, the table of contents reads like a "who's who" of the British rational choice school ... each of the chapters criticizes or relaxes some of the standard assumptions of rational choice modelling in order to increase the fit with reality. This is the common enterprise that all social scientists engage in: building a bridge between realism and rationalism George Tsebelis, West European Politics
Each of these essays reinforces the fundamental idea that the translation of the results of formal rational choice models into social scientific explanations requires subtle attention to questions of interpretation and empirical testing. Jack Knight, American Political Science Review.
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The Civil Service
Routledge, 1995
Keith Dowding provides an introduction to the civil service today which both describes its operation and places recent developments within a theoretical context, critically examining current theories of bureaucracy. The radical reforms of the 1980s and 90s have broken up the old unified hierarchical structures. In their place are peripheral agencies concerned with policy-making. Keith Dowding examines these reforms in terms of the public choice and public management theories which underpin them.
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Rational Choice and Political Power
Edward Elgar, 1991
This book applies rational choice theory to the power debate, demonstrating the fallacious arguments of all sides. Power is analysed as a bargaining game where the power of actors is assessed in terms of the resources to which they have access. By distinguishing luck from power it shows that many groups widely regarded as powerful are merely lucky, albeit their luck is based upon systematic features of society. This conceptual book on power directly engages both classical and modern empirical debates on the power structure at both local and national level.
There have been many books about power, but nobody before Keith Dowding has understood as he does the significance of rational choice theory for the central issues in the academic debates about power. Deploying the basic ideas of rational choice theory, with special attention to to the problem of collective action, Dowding illuminates the philosophic literature on the definition of power and offers a trenchant critical reanalysis of the best empirical studies of power. Nobody with an interest in social power can fail to be instructed by Dowding's book Brian Barry, Columbia University, New York
This is a very good book. Dowding sensibly and deftly explores a set of theoretical issues that too often only generate sterile controversy. In the process, he both illuminates the notion of power and demonstrates the value of rational choice analysis for social and political theory more generally ... Buy and read this book if you are lucky enough to be able to afford it. But read it in any case. James Johnson Ethics
Rational Choice and Political Power is perhaps the most profound, original and convincing analysis of power in the last decades. Vittorio Bufacchi Razionalita E Potere
This engaging book breathes new life into the rather sterile debate about power through the use of the tools of rational choice theory. In a refreshing shift of emphasis, Keith Dowding also challenges the standard antagonistic relationship between rational choice and structuralism by indicating how rationality can lie at the heart of structural theory. Mark Wickham-Jones Political Studies
This book sheds light on some of the hitherto murkier aspects of the literature on political power. Peter Morriss Utilitas |
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