Format:
Video disc
Title:
Democracy and its alternatives
ISBN:
9781644653340
Edition:
Widescreen.
Publication:
Chantilly, VA : The Great Courses, [2022]
Physical Description:
4 videodiscs (approximately 552 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 course guidebook (ii, 151 pages : illustrations, maps ; 19 cm)
Series title(s):
General Note:
24 lectures (approximately 23 min. each).
Title from container.
"Course No. 8038."
Contents:
disc 1. Is democracy built to last ; Politics and personal sacrifice ; Government and the invention of law ; The rise of the modern state ; Nations, nationalism, and the Kurds ; Why care about Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau -- disc 2. Who gets to vote? ; Voters and the dangers of too much democracy ; Should presidents or parliaments lead? ; The vote counter decides everything ; Do political parties help or hurt? ; The problems with Federalism -- disc 3. Are courts and constitutions democratic? ; The controversial politics of central banks ; Who backs authoritarians? ; The dictator's playbook ; When states fail, what comes next? ; Partition, peacekeeping, and human crisis -- disc 4. What really causes wealth and poverty? ; The global fault lines of trade ; Is the European Union a success or failure? ; When the balance of power breaks down ; Why it's so hard to work together ; Gridlock and democracy.
Summary:
"Chances are, you live in a democracy. You elect representatives that swear allegiance to and abide by a written or living constitution. Your nation is one of laws, courts, and central banks. Perhaps you're even involved in politics. But what do you really know about politics--in your own country, certainly, but also around the world? What characteristics do democracies share? How do they differ? And what can alternatives to democracy--namely, authoritarianism and dictatorship--teach us about democracy itself? Democracy and Its Alternatives tackles these questions in 24 lectures designed and led by Ethan Hollander, professor of political science at Wabash College. This course is American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory rolled into one, touching on everything from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's social contract theory to Europe's sovereign debt crisis in 2007. It is an effort to understand democracy from all available angles--in theory and in practice, from ancient Greece to revolutionary America--the good and the bad, its present and its future."--Publisher's website.
Added Corporate Author: