Promoting Democracy. Social Movements: The Revolutions from within The Democratic Society)

PROMOTING DEMOCRACY.

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:

  THE REVOLUTIONS FROM WITHIN

THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

                                 by Diana Rogers

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Book description


My book is a compilation of my articles regarding the challenges faced by democracy and is focused on the idea of building a healthy and authentic civic society.


Convincing citizens to get involved in the democratic political process encourages the emergence of a participative civic culture that holds the keys to citizens’ exercising their democratic rights. 


The metaphor “the revolution from within” refers to the intervention or ascension of a factor or event of great social magnitude (social movements) in the actual democratic model that has the capacity to shift (change) perspectives and to modify the current configuration of power between the players of the democratic game: the political parties, the democratic society and the mass-media.


Social movements are the forces that can generate such extraordinary moments or exceptional times and become events of great sociopolitical importance by their social magnitude and by their capacity to “break” the current pattern regarding the decision-making process in the given democratic system.


The emergence of social movements that prove their ability to change the political decision of the political parties become rode blazing events for both political decision makers and citizens.


From that moment on, political decision makers will have to take into account the citizens’ agenda and citizens will become aware of their power and their capacity to generate political change on continuous bases by active involvement. 


The pattern that envisions the citizen’s power limited at the moment of casting his vote on Elections Day, once in four years, is gone.

The new pattern is the civic activist that has the power to produce political change, to act and react, to participate in the democratic decision-making process.


The citizen’s democratic “tools” or “means” of participating as decision-making agent in the democratic process are initiating or adhering to various civic movements that endorse given civic or political causes according to his strong personal beliefs and attitudes.

The paradigm shift “inside” the democratic model means changing the focus from the political decision maker to the citizen, in terms of the latter exercising his real power to initiate or change a public policy on matters of his concern.


The emergence of social movements proves the existence of the civic society that turns it into a real player in the democratic game.

It is a signal that the old ways of doing politics needs to be changed and that the citizen is the central piece in the democratic puzzle.


It is about citizens achieving conscious awareness of their power in the democratic game if they join forces in collective actions (social movements) in order to stand for their shared beliefs and to influence the political decision within the democratic system.


The emergence of a strong and healthy civic society is an element that is considered a paradigm shift regarding the manner the decision-making process functions in the given democratic system.


Therefore, turning an inert democratic society into an authentic and effervescent civic society is an extraordinary moment that changes the way the democratic mechanism functions.


Turning the passive and prone to absenteeism citizen into a social activist for a cause that matters to him is a shift in the citizen’s self-perception regarding his role and power in the democratic system. 


Promoting the social pattern of active citizenship involvement in political matters and proving the pattern works, in the sense that the previous similar citizens’ collective actions resulted in the expected outcome is a self-sustaining model that has the best chances to perpetuate and generate a progressively growing conscious awareness of each  citizen’s power to act and determine political change.  


The expected outcome of collective actions by citizens adhering to various social movements is the actual political change in terms of the specific political decisions or certain public policies in the direction intended by the cause of the movements.


You can read and purchase my book from The Amazon Kindle Store here.


Book  Title: Promoting Democracy. Social Movements: The Revolutions from within The Democratic Society
        By Diana Rogers


Table of Contents



1. The Revolutions within the Democratic Society
2. Democratic Society, Civic Society, Social Movements and Political Behavior
3. Types of Revolutions and Paradigm Shifts
4. The Rising Power of the Civic Society and the Change in the Balance of Power within the Democratic Game
5. Mapping the Local on the Global Scene
6. Reflections on Beliefs, Values, Attitudes and Behaviors (synthesis)

6.1. From Thought to Action

6.2. The Birth of Belief

6.3. From Action to Idea

6.4. The System of Core Values and Beliefs as the Resultant of Primary Socialization

6.5. The Prevalence of the Emotional over the Cognitive

6.6. Memorable Behaviors and Exceptional Times

6.7. Political Socialization versus Political Evolution

7. Political Participation in Democratic Societies

7.1. Voters versus Absentees

7.2. Political Involvement, Attachments and Identities

7.3. Emotional Involvement, Attachment and Identity

7.4. Civic or Political Involvement as Attachment

8. Political Participation and Civic Involvement (Case Study: E & C Europe)
9. Active and Reactive Voters
10. Absenteeism as Manifest Political Behavior of Dissent

10.1. My Theoretical Assumptions on Absenteeism

10.2. Absenteeism as Strategically Thinking

10.3. The Underlying Factors that determine Absenteeism

10.4. The Set of Political Attitudes of the Absentees who dissent the Political Class

10.5. Absenteeism as Political Dissent

10.6. The Political Anomy of the Citizens turning to Absenteeism

11. Mass-media and Political Parties as the “Designers” of the Political Reality
12. Pattern of Thoughts regarding Politics and the Political Class
13. Symbolic Legitimacy, Political Trust and Public Credibility
14. Solutions for changing the Negative Pattern of Thought regarding Politics and the Political Class
15. Setting the Stage for the Emergence of a New Civic or Political Movement
16. Social Movements. From Above to Below
17. Social Movements as the Political Solution for Change from within the Democratic System
18. Reactive Citizens and the Manifestation of the “Negative Vote”
19. Converting Absentees into Activists advocating for a Social Cause
20. The Birth of Civic or Political Movements
21. Engaging Reactive Citizens, amplifying Social Magnitude and becoming a Symbol of Democratic Change
22. Social Movements, Civic Society and Democratic Change 



* I updated the book cover of Promoting Democracy on July 8, 2014.

Here is the new book cover: