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Democratic Capitalism: The Way to a World of Peace and Plenty
Ray Carey Manufacturer: AuthorHouse ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1418428108 |
Customer Reviews:
Why should democracy and capitalism be in conflict? .......2005-01-24
THE book for professors and teachers of economics.......2005-01-06
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Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy
Richard A. Posner Manufacturer: Harvard University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0674018494 |
Book Description
A liberal state is a representative democracy constrained by the rule of law. Richard Posner argues for a conception of the liberal state based on pragmatic theories of government. He views the actions of elected officials as guided by interests rather than by reason and the decisions of judges by discretion rather than by rules. He emphasizes the institutional and material, rather than moral and deliberative, factors in democratic decision making.
Posner argues that democracy is best viewed as a competition for power by means of regular elections. Citizens should not be expected to play a significant role in making complex public policy regarding, say, taxes or missile defense. The great advantage of democracy is not that it is the rule of the wise or the good but that it enables stability and orderly succession in government and limits the tendency of rulers to enrich or empower themselves to the disadvantage of the public. Posner's theory steers between political theorists' concept of deliberative democracy on the left and economists' public-choice theory on the right. It makes a significant contribution to the theory of democracy--and to the theory of law as well, by showing that the principles that inform Schumpeterian democratic theory also inform the theory and practice of adjudication. The book argues for law and democracy as twin halves of a pragmatic theory of American government.
Customer Reviews:
Dense, but gets better towards the end..........2006-06-12
Another brain-stunner from Judge Posner!!.......2003-04-08
Posner, and I agree with him, would rather "democracy" stand for a system where we vote for leaders so that they, not we, can take the interest in politics. Part of Posners point lies in highlighting that deliberative democracy (the kind outlined in the preceeding paragraph as opposed to his concept of pragmatic democracy)is prevelant amongst activists and academics precisely because they, being interested in political issues, find it easy to convince themselves that everyone else must be too. They are also more likely to associate with others that have similar intersts, helping to reinforce the belief. Posner's pragmatic democracy is defended against deliberative democracy from a variety of angles (winner take all or proportional representation, how far should free speech be taken, FEC regulations, majoritarianism or countermajoritarianism, state v. federal, etc.) Keep in mind that Posner is not arguing that we should not strive to increase peoples participation in politics, but that assuming everyone to be capable, intersted and responsible enough to live up to deliberative ideals is a goal just short of giving society a 100% makeover.
The second bit of the book is on law and the pragmatic concept: that is, law as an extension of practical reasoning, not legal reasoning, of which Posner argues there is no such concrete thing. Judges, while reccomended to stick to law if it it's instruction is undeniably clear, should look at difficult cases (where a clause may not have direct application or is simply ambiguous) as, in a sense, creating law where it did not exist before. All of this, he couches in the over-broad argument of reasoning from likely consequences. Why does this not, per se, lead him to out-and-out judicial activism? Becuase a few of the consequnces of such activism are loss of continuity if a clauses application is excessively changed, loss of judicial credibility, and decrease in peoples ability to follow law as they read it to apply. The average person, Posner suggests, should be able to predict how the judge will rule. All of this he applies to two cases in particular: Bush v. Gore and Clinton's impeachment (which due to Posner's tendency to wander into unrelated topics, he never quite gets around to). Unfortunately, this section can be skipped if you've read both Posner's "The Problems of Jurisprudence" (see my review) and his two books on Bush v. Gore and the Clinton impeachment.
Still there are some problems. The book being on the two subjects of pragmatic philosophy and pragmatic law, he never ties the two together. Maybe he assumed the connection was self evident but the one does not follow from the other. Also, Posner's polymathic tendency to wander from tangent to tangent sometimes in the space of a few pages, was more noticeable in this book then others. Especially the chapter on Kelsen v. Hayek on law stuck out as irrelevant. Another strange example is that Posner's first broaching of Bush v. Gore led to a lengthy digression on third parties and proportional representation that, while stimulating, was never tied back to Bush v. Gore as the chapter simply ends. Third fault: we've read many of these ideas before in Posners other books (which I strongly reccomend in addition to this one). This one is just a bit more in depth about what is meant by pragmatic law and democracy.
In conclusion, this book is still spectacular, engaging and exemplary of Posner's intense and sparkling wit. I did not deduct any stars from the three above faults because had those faults not been present, this book may have had 7 stars (if that were only possible!) Like many others, I disagree with much of Posner (preferring a textualism closer to Scalia) but have to admit that without this guy, law might be a bit more dull!!
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Legal Pragmatism: Community, Rights, and Democracy (American Philosophy)
Michael Sullivan Manufacturer: Indiana University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0253348870 |
Book Description
In Legal Pragmatism, Michael Sullivan looks closely at the place of the individual and community in democratic society. After mapping out a brief history of American legal thinking regarding rights, from communitarianism to liberalism, Sullivan gives a rich and nuanced account of how pragmatism worked to resolve conflicts of self-interest and community well-being. Sullivan's view of pragmatism provides a comprehensive framework for understanding democracy, as well as issues such as health care, education, gay marriage, and illegal immigration that will determine its character in the future. Legal Pragmatism is a bold, carefully argued book that presents a unique understanding of contemporary society, law, and politics.Customer Reviews:
Legal Pragmatism: Community,Rights, and Democracy.......2007-10-06
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Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy
Richard A. Posner Manufacturer: NY ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000MUDNFW |
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Capital, Power, and Inequality in Latin America (Latin American Perspectives Series)
Manufacturer: Westview Pr (Short Disc) ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0813321166 |
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Capital, Power and Inequality in Latin America
Sandor Halebsky Manufacturer: Westview ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000INV5SA |
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Capital, Power and Inequality in Latin America
Sandor Halebsky Manufacturer: Westview ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000IO0JVI |
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Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom: Deregulation and the Japanese Economy
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0815731264 |
Book Description
Japan today is caught up in chronic economic crisis, its financial system wracked by record-breaking bankruptcies and its companies hobbled by bad balance sheets, overproduction, and weak consumer demand. In turn, Japan's faltering fortunes have sent shock waves across Asia, triggering the collapse of economies in South Korea, Thailand, and other Asian countries that followed its model for rapid growth and development. While a growing chorus of Japanese politicians, business leaders, and economic analysts blame the current troubles on the misguided policies of Japan's Ministry of Finance, the root of Japan's malaise lies more fundamentally in the contradictory relationship that first made it an economic powerhouse: the combination of businesses that aggressively compete for profits in the best tradition of free enterprise with a government bureaucracy that controls the economy with a heavy thicket of regulation and guidance. And so far, despite ringing declarations of reform, the entrenched bureaucracy shows little willingness or ability to make the significant reforms that Japan (and its Asian economic disciples) needs to recover. In this book, a cross-section of Japanese, American, and European journalists and authorities in the business, political, and economic sectors examine the problems caused by over-regulation, and offer solutions for reshaping the Japanese marketplace. In Part One, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Vice Minister of Finance Eisuke Sakakibara, and some of America's and Japan's leading experts on the Japanese economy map out the long road to regulatory reform. They analyze the postwar origins of today's bureaucracy, current attitudes toward regulation among politicians and the public, and the changes in both policymaking and mind set that must occur to achieve true reform. Part Two focuses on the effects of over-regulation, using illuminating case studies involving Japan's financial system, insurance markets, non-profit industries, and regulatory agencies. It is time, as Japanese politician Ichiro Ozawa once famously put it, for Japan to become a "normal country." This book not only underlines the critical nature of the problem, but explains how it can be solved.Customer Reviews:
informative but boring.......1999-03-09
The piece by Eisuke Sakakibara, vice minister for international affairs at the Finance Ministry, is a great look into the mindset of Japanese bureaucrats. Most of the other articles give good insights into small parts of the bureaucratic control over the Japanese economy, but the writing starts to get a bit repetitive by the time the book ends.
Illuminating Insights By New Authors.......1998-03-11
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Digital Marketing: The Future on CD-ROM, Kiosks Internet and Interactive TV
Tim Clarke Manufacturer: Kogan Page ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0749420278 |
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Credit Card Services: A Report on the Supply of Credit Card Services in the United Kingdom (CM)
Great Britain Manufacturer: Bernan Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0101071825 |
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Service, Service, Service: A Secret Weapon for Your Growing Business
Steve Albrecht Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1558507582 |
Book Description
For many small and growing businesses, first-rate customer service can often be the key factor between success and failure. Service, Service, Service shows small businesses like yours how to develop winning service programs that keep the customers coming back and leave the competition in the dust.Customer service at its best
Service, Service, Service was written with your needs and the needs of your business in mind. Albrecht covers essential customer service topics to give you an edge, including:
How to create and embrace a customer service mission statement
Training employees the right way-"smile-training" doesn't cut it anymore
Identifying customer service problems-is it your employees, the managers, or the program?
Empowering your employees-you have to give a little to get a little
...Plus so much more!
Packed with real-life success stories, ten critical success factors, and plans for a service recovery program, Service, Service, Service can be every business's secret weapon. Written for the small business person on the go, this book is clear, concise, and easy-to-read. Let Service, Service, Service give you a helping hand today!
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Cooperation and Competition in a Common Market: Studies on the Formation of MERCOSUR (Contributions to Economics)
Jaime Behar Manufacturer: Physica-Verlag Heidelberg ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 3790812803 |
Book Description
This book analyses the economic implications of the most important regional integration agreement in Latin America, the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR). Accordingly empirical evidence and theoretical arguments on the costs and benefits of MERCOSUR are provided and the effects of the elimination of custom barriers to intra-regional trade on trade patterns, product differentiation and cost efficiency are quantified. Other issues considered are the obstacles to policy coordination, in particular national divergences in income levels and growth rates. As an up-to-date and comprehensive study of trade flows and economic conditions within the MERCOSUR this book will be an essential reading for all those who wish to get behind the immediate arguments about the future of integration in South America and the prospects of further economic and monetary cooperation in that region.Customer Reviews:
Everyone studing Mercosur formation should read this book.......2001-03-19
Very useful as un update and to undertand the prospects of future integration in this developing region.
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On Argentina and the Southern Cone: Neoliberalism and National Imaginations (Globalizing Regions)
Alejandro Grimson , and Gabriel Kessler Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0415947642 |
Book Description
Currently, Argentina is one of the most closely watched nations in the world, largely because it has failed to live up to grand expectations and has been experiencing a financial and social meltdown.
In this book, Alejandro Grimson and Gabriel Kessler offer an overview of Argentina's recent history that will contextualize the country's position within the currents of globalization. The authors then consider how globalization is impacting contemporary Argentina-via regional trading blocs, through migrations across its borders, and through the emerging transnational border regions that it shares with other Latin American nations. Overshadowing all of these trends is the current crisis brought on by both international financial institutions possessing an increasing say over how the country is run and internal elites trying to use Argentina's integration into the world financial system to their own advantage. Argentina has long imagined itself as a European nation, qualitatively different from its Latin American neighbors. But recent events are forcing it to change its perception of itself. As the size of Argentina's transnational community continues to swell, and as the nation continues its financial and social implosion, Argentinians are being forced to re-imagine the nation as being Latin American, replete with the histories and problems of that part of the world.
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Codigos Para Integrar la Historia Argentina en el Mercosur (Biblioteca de Estudios Historicos)
Rafael Garzon Manufacturer: Ediciones Theoria ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 9879048199 |
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El Asesinato De Juan Jose Torres : Banzer Y El MERCOSUR De La Muerte
Martin Sivak Manufacturer: Ediciones del Pensamiento Nacional ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 9505818157 |
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The European Union, Mercosul and the New World Order
Helio Jaguaribe Manufacturer: Routledge ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0714683388 |
Book Description
This volume, to which various prominent European and Latin American scholars have contributed, provides critical insight into the politics and economics of relations between the EU and Latin America, particularly Mercosul, and on the significance of such relations for multilateralism and the international order.
The events of 11 September shed new light on the analyses provided, and give even more credence to the point made in many chapters regarding the serious obstacles to the creation of an international order firmly based on universally accepted norms and rules in which regional groupings would play a greater role. The book provides a timely reminder of just how important less politically visible but consistent efforts at multilaterally focused regional integration projects can be to counteracting the force of unilateral action and zero-sum power politics.
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International Commercial Arbitration in Latin America: Regulation and Practice In MERCOSUR and the Associated Countries
Jan Kleinheisterkamp Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0379215365 |
Book Description
International commercial arbitration has undergone fundamental changes in most countries of Latin America in the last decade, especially in the countries of the MERCOSUR and the associated countries. This manual provides practitioners and scholars alike with quick access to and in-depth
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Latin America - MERCOSUR (International Handbooks on Economic Integration)
Manufacturer: Springer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 079238153X |
Book Description
Latin America's experience with regional economic integration has been only slightly shorter than that of Europe. In fact, the first attempt at integration started as early as 1960, with the creation of LAFTA - the Latin American Free Trade Area (subsequently replaced by LAIA - the Latin American Integration Association). LAFTA, composed of 11 countries, sought, unsuccessfully, to create a free trade area in 12 years. In 1969, the Andean pact, which sought, also unsuccessfully, to create a sub-regional free trade area, was set up. Recently the Presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay signed the Treaty of Asuncion aimed at creating a common market as from 1st January, 1995. This common market, MERCOSUR, will be completed by 2006. In comparison with the earlier and unsuccessful attempts at integration, and despite challenges and problems, both internal and external, MERCOSUR is working, and trade between the member States is increasing. Furthermore, as with the case of the European Union (EU), serious attempts (notably between Argentina and Brazil) are being made to co-ordinate economic and monetary policies. The most important evidence of these moves is the introduction of hard currencies, the reduction in the size of the public sector and the privatization of State assets. These are clearly exciting times for Latin American integration. In this book, the first in a new series of books on International Economic Integration, the authors examine the experience of MERCOSUR in the Latin American integration progress. After an analysis of the history of the moves towards integration in South America, the case of each Member State and the Associate Country is examined and perspectives for the future are assessed.
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Liberalizacion comercial e integracion regional: De NAFTA a MERCOSUR (Coleccion Estudios internacionales)
Manufacturer: Distribuidor exclusivo, Emece Editores ProductGroup: Book Binding: Unknown Binding ASIN: 9506942544 |
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Mercosur: Between Integration And Democracy
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 3906769836 |
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Mercuosur: Trade and Investment amid Financial Crisis (International Economic Development Law, 18)
Jorge Guira Manufacturer: Kluwer Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 9041199187 |
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Economic Instruments of Pollution Control in an Imperfect World: Theory and Implications for Carbon Dioxide Emissions Control in China
Tingsong Jiang Manufacturer: Edward Elgar Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1843766256 |
Book Description
In this book, Tingsong Jiang extensively discusses the wider issues of economic instruments of pollution control as well as paying specific attention to the control of carbon dioxide emissions in China.The book begins with a general analysis of economic instruments of pollution control, and is followed by the application of these in CO2 emission control. The former presents the discussion of pollution control policies in general equilibrium settings, focusing on the comparison of pollution taxes and tradable permits in certain kinds of circumstances with imperfections such as uncertainty and pre-existing distortions. An empirical evaluation of China's environmental policies is also included. The latter brings the discussion into the area of global warming policies with the focus on the implications to China. A dynamic general equilibrium model, G-Cubed-T, is developed to produce CO2 emissions projections from China, the US and the rest of the world, and to simulate various policy targets and instruments China may adopt to control its CO2 emissions.
With its systematic evaluation of China's environmental policy, this thorough and rigorous assessment will be invaluable reading for academics in environmental economics and environmental management, policy analysts in environmental protection and global warming fields, policymakers and government officials around the world, as well as China specialists.
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Mozambique Business & Investment Opportunities Yearbook
USA International Business Publications Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0739748211 |
Book Description
This yearbook contains basic information on export-import, investment and business opportunities in the respected country. Provides information on government structure, economy, business climate, regulations, and more... Includes basic statistics, information on the most important business contacts and business travel. Updated annually.
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Mozambique Business and Investment Opportunities Yearbook (Russian Regional Investment and Business Library)
Manufacturer: Intl Business Pubns USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0739776967 |
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