Daniel Judah Elazar

The late Daniel J. Elazar was increasingly concerned with the distortions of democracy in contemporary society. In Commonwealth, he brought together a distinguished group of political scientists to examine the Swiss model of democracy, in its original emphasis on community, or the "commonwealth." Contributors to the volume take the Swiss model as a base from which to critique the liberal model, best exemplified by the United States. While it is admittedly the best contemporary example of liberal democracy, or "civil society," America also displays the problems of this model. The modern idea of communal democracy has almost completely disappeared from the United States, contributors argue. In incisive and cogent essays, they suggest that the modern idea of communal democracy may not just be an alternative but a needed antidote to many of the problems with the American system. The scholars gathered in this important collection explore the question of how to maintain both community and liberty while at the same time adjusting to changes in the scale of political organization needed for economic prosperity and defense. The results yield a unique perspective on contemporary democracy for political theorists and concerned lay readers alike.

The Other Road to Democracy-- the Swiss Model of Democratic Self-government

Commonwealth

Many students of federalism confine themselves to considering the subject as a comprehensive system of political relationships which has to do with the combination of self-rule and shared rule within a matrix of constitutionally dispersed powers. Others, however, see federalism as the cornerstone of their world view, the fundamental principle underlying proper human relationships, and the source of the right grand design for the ideal world order. This volume, based on articles that previously appeared in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, presents the first collected treatment of federalism as grand design in the English language. Co-published with the Center for the Study of Federalism.

Political Philosophers and the Federal Principle

Federalism as Grand Design

Co-published with the Center for Jewish Community Studies, this volume is based on the finest fruits of a summer Colloquium of The Institute for Judaism and Contemporary Thought held at the Kibbutz Lavi in Israel. Explores Jewish political life and thought from the Biblical period to the present in order to ascertain the content and character of the Jewish political tradition and its relevance for our time.

The Jewish Political Tradition and Its Contemporary Uses

Kinship and Consent

What is the distinctive character of America's cities? How have our metropolitan regions evolved since the Colonial period? What effect will local politics have on the future of the American city? These are the questions Daniel J. Elazar addresses in this third volume of his highly-acclaimed 'Cities of the Prairie' trilogy. Recognizing the growing alienation from local institutions on the part of city-dwellers nation-wide, Elazar explains why the restoration of local attachments should be a matter of first priority. Co-published with Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

Urbanization and Suburbanization in a Frontier Society

Building Cities in America

Wyman Spano

Virginia Gray

For the first time in decades, here is an in-depth look at Minnesota government and politics, providing a useful overview of the history, structure, and distinctive characteristics of the political system in the North Star State. Minnesota?s government is often held up as a role model for other states. Drawing on survey research, electoral analysis, interview data, and political experience, the authors examine contemporary politics in Minnesota, emphasizing in particular its long-standing moralistic dimension. Attention is given to the major components of the state?s political system: the constitution, legislature, courts, relationship to both the federal system and local governments, lobbying, elections, campaign finance, and public attitudes toward taxes and services. Equally important, the authors assess various enduring myths and views about Minnesota politics, including its legendary liberalism and citizen involvement in the political scene, and even consider how its new governor, former wrestler Jesse Ventura, fits into Minnesota?s traditions.

Minnesota Politics and Government

Shmuel Sandler

Israel's Odd Couple analyzes the unusual 1984 Knesset elections and the unique government that resulted. For the first time in Israel's political history, the Jewish state emerged from an election so close that no major party could form a ruling coalition. The National Unity Government that emerged was based on a coalition that represented the two opposing blocs and three camps of Israeli society. The ten essays assembled here by editors Daniel J. Elazar and Shmuel Sandler describe and analyze these two major events and processes in Israel's electoral and political behavior. In the first part of the book, five Israeli political scientists and sociologists focus on the main actors and forces that participated in the 1984 elections: Likud, Labor, the religious parties, and the ethnic and Arab votes. Another chapter is dedicated to electoral financing. The second part of the book explores several aspects of the National Unity Government. In spite of the difficult circumstances surrounding its creation, the National Unity Government, against all expectations, served for the longest period in Israel's political history. At the same time, it was unable to resolve deeply rooted problems and cleavages in the Israeli polity.

The 1984 Knesset Elections and the National Unity Government

Israel's Odd Couple

Covenant and Constitutionalism, the third of four volumes in the series of volumes exploring the covenantal tradition in Western politics, traces the trends and the developing relationships of constitutionalism and covenant that ultimately led to the transformation of the latter into the former. It explores these first steps and the subsequent paths that emerged out of the constitutionalized covenantal tradition in Europe such as federalism, communitarianism, and the cooperative movement, and how these covenantal ideas and expressions were both supported by and challenged by liberal democracy and individualism as they unfolded in the latter part of the modern epoch and immediately thereafter. The book concludes with a look at the covenantal tradition at the beginning of the postmodern epoch and what may be a move to return to it in response to the crises accompanying the human transition to a new epoch after World War II.

The Great Frontier and the Matrix of Federal Democracy

Covenant and Constitutionalism

Chapters 1 Through 5 of The Covenant Idea in Politics

Covenant in the Jewish Political Tradition

Temple University. Center for the Study of Federalism

This book explores the decline of the political ideas of covenant and political compact as Americans passed from the Revolutionary period into the 19th century. A distinguished group of political scientists focus on the transformation from covenant to compact in the late 18th century, the diminishing use of both among intellectual and political pacesetters in the early 19th century, their partial revival at the time of the Civil War, and replacement by Social Darwinism in the late 19th century. By examining 19th-century politics, law, literature, and theology, they reconstruct the impact of the covenant idea on American politics and political thought. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Federalism.

The Decline of an American Political Tradition

Covenant in the Nineteenth Century

John Kincaid

American, European, political, and theological histories intersect in this important new exploration of the founding of the United States. The Covenant Connection examines the way in which the Protestant Reformation and federal covenant theology, which lay at the foundation of Reformed Protestantism in its Calvinist version, played a major role in shaping the political life and ideas of the colonies of British North America and ultimately the new United States of America. Contributors to the volume look at the most critical facets of this connection over nearly three centuries, from the beginning of the Reformation in sixteenth-century Zurich to the declaration of American independence and the writing of the U.S. Constitution. Individual chapters show how federal theology led to a revival of Biblical republicanism in Reformation Europe; how it was applied and modified in countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, Scotland, and England; and how it was carried across the Atlantic by the early settlers of North Americamost particularly the Puritans but also other groups such as the Dutch and the Scottishto form the matrix for American constitutionalism, democratic republicanism, and federalism. As a collection, The Covenant Connection provides an irrefutable analysis of the profound biblical and Reformation influences on the founding of America.

Daniel Judah Elazar

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