Democracy and Global Warming
Published on 1. September 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
194 pages
978-0-8264-5070-8 (ISBN)
Description
How can democracy facilitate an effective response to the problem of global warming? Barry Holden discusses this question from two perspectives. First he looks at the suitability, in principle, of democratic decision-making for generating responses to the problem. Second, he looks at the issue of whether, or to what extent, democracy can exist on a supranational scale, since according to received ideas, democracy occurs only within states and has not been thought applicable to the international realm. The author also explores the role of cosmopolitan democracy in helping to overcome the crucial difficulty of generating, in a world of individual sovereign states, the collective global response that the global warming problem requires. The work concludes with an assessment of the extent to which contentions of this sort are - or need to be - realistic rather than utopian.
Reviews / Votes
"Holden's careful and complete mode of investigation and argument makes his book accesible to students and researchers alike...I would recommend it to anyone dealing with the varied yet connected issues of global warming, cosmopolitanism, the contemporary state and representation, democracy and globalisation" -- Andrew Dobson Holden examines the impact of global warming on the structure of the international system. Some environmentalists contend that in the light of the complexity and urgency of problems such as global warming.. democracy should be scrapped in favor of authoritarian rule by experts. Taking issue with that view, Holden argues that the answer is not eliminating democracy but extending it beyond the constricting boundaries of the nation-state....Holden envisions an international system that would place "global and universal" interests ahead of those of individual nations. Recommended. Upper division undergraduates and above --Choice "Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."--Choice, April 2003 "There can be no question that Holden has produced an important book that makes a significant contribution to the theorization of the political challenge of combating global climate change." --Democratization (Frank Cass Publishers) Autumn 2003/Volume 10, No. 3 * Blurb from reviewer *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
262 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8264-5070-8 (9780826450708)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Barry Holden lectured in Politics at the University of Reading from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. His publications include The Nature of Democracy (1974); Understanding Liberal Democracy (1988 and 1993) and (as editor) Global Democracy: Key Debates (1999).
Content
Popular decision making and global warming; cosmopolitan democracy; cosmopolitan democracy and global warming; realism versus utopianism.