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Perfecting parliament : constitutional reform, liberalism, and the rise of Western democracy / Roger D. Congleton.

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"This book explains why contemporary liberal democracies are based on historical templates rather than revolutionary reforms; why the transition in Europe occurred during a relatively short period in the nineteenth century; why politically and economically powerful men and women voluntarily sup...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Congleton, Roger D.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Subjects:
Democratization > Western countries > History > 19th century.
Democracy > Western countries > History > 19th century.
Constitutional history > Western countries.
Liberalism > Western countries > History > 19th century.
Western countries > Politics and government > 19th century.
Rational choice theory > Political aspects.
Table of Contents:
  • 1. On the origins of Western democracy
  • 2. Team production, organization, and governance
  • 3. Organizational governance in the long run
  • 4. The origins of territorial governance
  • 5. Constitutional exchange and divided governance
  • 6. The power of the purse and constitutional reform
  • 7. Suffrage without democracy
  • 8. Ideology, interest groups, and adult suffrage
  • 9. Setting the stage: philosophical, economic and political developments prior to the nineteenth century
  • 10. Liberalism and reform in the transformative century
  • 11. Fine-grained constitutional bargaining
  • 12. An overview of British constitutional history: the English king and the medieval parliament
  • 13. Constitutional exchange in the United Kingdom
  • 14. The Swedish transition to democracy
  • 15. Constitutional reform in the Netherlands: from republic to kingdom, to parliamentary democracy
  • 16. Germany: constitutional negotiations in an emerging state
  • 17. The Japanese transition to democracy and back
  • 18. The United States, an exception or further illustration?
  • 19. Quantitative evidence of gradual reform
  • 20. Ideas, interests, and constitutional reform
  • Appendix: methodological approach, limits, and extensions.

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