The Clash of Rights: Liberty, Equality, and Legitimacy in Pluralist Democracy
by Paul M. Sniderman
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Description
Why do citizens in pluralist democracies disagree collectively about the very values they agree on individually? This provocative book highlights the inescapable conflicts of rights and values at the heart of democratic politics.Based on interviews with thousands of citizens and political decision makers, the book focuses on modern Canadian politics, investigating why a country so fortunate in its history and circumstances is on the brink of dissolution. Taking advantage of new techniques of show more computer-assisted interviewing, the authors explore the politics of a wide array of issues, from freedom of expression to public funding of religious schools to government wiretapping to antihate legislation, analyzing not only why citizens take the positions they do but also how easily they can be talked out of them. In the process, the authors challenge a number of commonly held assumptions about democratic politics. They show, for example, that political elites do not constitute a special bulwark protecting civil liberties; that arguments over political rights are as deeply driven by commitment to the master values of democratic politics as by failure to understand them; and that consensus on the rights of groups is inherently more fragile than on the rights of individuals. show lessTags
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Author Information
13 Works 156 Members
Paul M. Sniderman is Professor of Political Science at Stanford University.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Clash of Rights: Liberty, Equality, and Legitimacy in Pluralist Democracy
- Original publication date
- 1996
Classifications
- Genres
- Politics and Government, Nonfiction, Sociology
- DDC/MDS
- 321.8 — Society, government, & culture Political science Systems of governments and states Democratic government [formerly : Republic]
- LCC
- JC423 .C59 — Political Science Political theory Political theory. The state. Theories of the state Forms of the state
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 12
- Popularity
- 1,884,476
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
