Summary
Contents
Subject index
From the award-winning team behind the International Encyclopaedia of Political Science... Moving beyond mainstream “traditional” approaches to bring you a new advanced-level introduction to political science. A perfect introduction for postgraduates who are new to political science, as well as upper-level undergraduates looking to broaden and deepen their understanding of core topics, this progressive account: • Guides you through all key areas of political science: origins, methodological foundations, key topics, and current issues • Takes an international and pluralist perspective with all issues explored in a comparative way related to different cultural and historical contexts • Includes pulled-out descriptions of major concepts, further reading and self-assessment questions at the end of each chapter.
Political Participation, Social Movements, Protests, Revolutions
Political Participation, Social Movements, Protests, Revolutions
Key terms
- Alienation
- Collective action
- Free rider
- Identification
- Mobilization
Introduction
Political participation is defined as actions by citizens trying to influence political decisions. As such, it lies at the core of all democracies. No modern democracies are possible without electoral participation (see also Chapter 14). But democracy is unthinkable if political institutions and laws do not open the way also for a wide range of other social actions for citizens to participate in, such as demonstrations, strikes, rallies, debates, free discussions. From this point of view, democracy is considered as an achievement of human virtue which was already underlined by Aristotle: human beings must be considered as ‘zoon politikon’, i.e. as political animals who are naturally prone to participate in ...
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