Democracy and Human Rights

by Beetham, David

• ISBN13: 9780745623153
• ISBN10: 0745623158
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

What is democracy? How do we know when we have it? Is liberal democracy merely one, or the only, version of democracy, realizable at governmental level? What is the relation between democracy and human rights? Do economic and social rights really count as human rights, and are they necessary to democratic citizenship? These are some of the questions addressed in this original book.The volume is organized around an interlinked set of problems: democracy's definition and justification; its institutional and societal conditions; the relation between democracy and human rights; the assessment of democracy through democratic audit, and the criteria for its consolidation, development and deepening.Democracy and Human Rights will be of particular value to students of politics who are interested in democracy both as an idea and as a political and social practice, and to those concerned with issues of human rights and their relation to democracy.

Author Biography

David Beetham is Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre of Democratization Studies at the University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	vi
Defining and Justifying Democracy	1	(30)
Some Conditions for Democracy	31	(56)
Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Democratization	33	(17)
Market Economy and Democratic Polity	50	(17)
Conditions for Democratic Consolidation	67	(20)
Democracy and Human Rights	87	(62)
Human Rights and Democracy: a Multi-faceted Relationship	89	(26)
What Future for Economic and Social Rights?	115	(21)
Human Rights as a Model for Cosmopolitan Democracy	136	(13)
Auditing Democracy	149	(46)
Key Principles and Indices for a Democratic Audit	151	(19)
Democratic Criteria for Electoral Systems	170	(25)
Notes	195	(25)
Index	220