We all need some help in understanding the world, and that is the starting point for political theory itself. The great works of other times and places can speak to us today, wherever we are. Political theory does this better than other subjects, in part because the theorist wants us to look around and think about the specifics of the world around us, but also to lift our heads and see farther than we normally do.
The theorists we will study in this course wanted very badly to reach their readers, to make them think about their world differently. They don't tell us what to think, but we don't see things in quite the same way after we read them. In fact, we do not read these books so much as we experience them. As you learn about Plato, Thucydides, and Hobbes, you may see connections between their times and our own. You may see how their insights apply to life today. I hope they will become companions that can help you to understand and explain the world in ways that sound bites on the nightly news cannot.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist revisits the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era and draws bold parallels to our own Age of Anxiety.
For five long years in the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist crusade dominated the American scene, terrified politicians, and destroyed the lives of thousands of our citizens. Haynes Johnson re-creates that time of crisis of President Eisenhower, who hated McCarthy but would not attack him; of the Republican senators who cynically used McCarthy to win their own elections; of Edward R. Murrow, whose courageous TV broadcast began McCarthy's downfall; and of mild-mannered lawyer Joseph Welch, who finally shamed McCarthy into silence.
The story is told through the lens of its relevance to our own times, when fear once again affects American behavior and attitudes. His masterful narrative also encompasses the story of his father, journalist Malcolm Johnson, whose articles on terrorism and murder led to the movie On the Waterfront and whose life was forever changed by charges that he was a communist.
Demokratie - das heißt Freiheit, Recht und Verantwortung. Verantwortung heißt: Wählen! Wählen heißt: sich eine Meinung bilden, sich entscheiden. Richtig entscheiden heißt: sich zu informieren, Bescheid zu wissen über sein Land, seine Menschen, das politische Koordinatensystem, in dem jeder Bürger eine gleiche Stimme zur Mitsprache hat. Demokratie eben!
Dieses Hörbuch macht Sie in 130 Minuten wieder fit als mündigen Bürger in unserem Lande. Es zeigt dessen steinigen Weg zur Demokratie, dem Wahlrecht für jedermann und -frau bis zur heutigen Verfassung, dem Föderalismus und zur Rolle der Parteien. Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist nicht perfekt, aber der beste Staat, den wir jemals hatten. Wir: das Volk, der Souverän, den die Geschichte nicht oft nach seiner Meinung gefragt hat. Also: Informieren, Meinung bilden, wählen! Weil zur Freiheit die Verantwortung jedes einzelnen gehört.
Feudalismus, Kaiserreich und Weimarer Republik sowie die Exzesse des 3. Reiches prägten die Entwicklung und Kodifizierung der 19 Grundrechtsartikel des Grundgesetzes der BRD.
Sie sind Ausdruck des Aufbruchs in eine aufgeklärte, freiheitliche Welt, in der staatliche Übergriffe und Fremdbestimmung der Vergangenheit angehören sollen. 'Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar', 'alle Menschen sind vor dem Gesetz gleich', 'Pressefreiheit', 'Asylrecht' oder 'Versammlungsfreiheit' ... sind Basis einer Grundwerteordnung, aus der auch die Drohung 'und wenn ich bis nach Karlsruhe gehen muss' resultiert.
Was steckt aber wirklich hinter den Grundrechten? Wie sind diese Eckpfeiler unserer heutigen Gesellschaft entstanden? Welche historischen und politischen Einflüsse führten zu ihrer heutigen Form und hat sich diese ethisch-politische Grundlage bisher bewährt?
Das Hörbuch bietet eine Einführung in dieses nur auf den ersten Blick 'trockene' Thema. Es gibt einen Überblick über alle Grundrechte und zeigt wichtige Entwicklungen ergänzt durch Fallbeispiele und Vorstellungen aktueller Karlsruher Urteile auf.
In Washington, D.C., where little stays secret for long, the identity of Deep Throat -- the mysterious source who helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein break open the Watergate scandal in 1972 -- remained hidden for 33 years. Now, Woodward tells the story of his long, complex relationship with W. Mark Felt, the enigmatic former No. 2 man in the Federal Bureau of Investigation who helped end the presidency of Richard Nixon.
"The Secret Man" chronicles the story in intimate detail, from Woodward's first, chance encounter with Felt in the Nixon White House, to their covert, middle-of-the-night meetings in an underground parking garage, to the aftermath of Watergate and decades beyond, until Felt finally stepped forward at age 91 to unmask himself as Deep Throat.
"The Secret Man" is an intense 33-year journey, providing a one-of-a-kind study of trust, deception, pressures, alliances, doubts and a lifetime of secrets. Woodward has spent more than three decades asking himself why Mark Felt became Deep Throat. Now the world can see what happened and why, bringing to a close one of the last chapters of Watergate.
With a Reporter's Assessment by Carl Bernstein.
Sowell explains that most people have one of two contrasting visions, 'constrained' and 'unconstrained,' described in terms we recognize as associated with the political Right and political Left. At the heart of the conflict of visions are questions about the moral and intellectual capabilities of human beings. The historical record shows these assumptions to be shockingly different from what is commonly believed about the basic premises of the Left and Right.
Natan Sharansky has lived an unusual life, spending nine years as a Soviet political prisoner and nine years as an Israeli politician. In this brilliantly analytical yet personal book, Sharansky and his longtime friend and advisor Ron Dermer make the case for democracy. The authors put nondemocratic societies under the microscope to reveal the mechanics of tyranny that sustain them, and explain why democracy is essential for our security.
Freedom, Sharansky claims, is rooted in the right to dissent, and societies that do not protect that right can never be reliable partners for peace. But lasting tyranny can be consigned to history's dustbin if the free world stays true to its ideals. The question is not whether we have the power to change the world, but whether we have the will to move beyond Right and Left and start thinking about right and wrong.
Common Sense examines how Americans defended the right to resist unjust laws and how this right of resistance was transformed into a right of revolution. It examines Thomas Paine's views on the difference between society and government, his defense of republican government, his total rejection of hereditary monarchy, and his belief that Americans should take up arms against the English government. The Declaration of Independence articulates the principles of the American Revolution. This program discusses natural rights, government by consent, the social contract, the difference between alienable and inalienable rights, and the right of revolution against oppressive governments.
Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the grim Cold War era of nuclear confrontation and oppressive ideologies. The notoriously proclaimed 'end of history', the triumph of liberal democracy over Communist tyranny, proved to be an illusion, and we awoke in the anxious grip of globalization, unpredictable terrorism and unforeseen war. Has the twenty-first century resolved the question of postmodernism or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Recorded in association with Icon Books.
"If Clinton had fought back, the attacks on September 11, 2001, might never have happened." Years before the public knew about bin Laden, Bill Clinton did. Bin Laden first attacked Americans during Clinton's presidential transition in December 1992. He struck again at the World Trade Center in February 1993. Over the next eight years the arch-terrorist's attacks would escalate, killing hundreds and wounding thousands - while Clinton did his best to stymie the FBI and CIA, and refused to wage a real war on terror. Why? The answer is here in investigative reporter Richard Miniter's stunning exposé that includes exclusive interviews with both of Clinton's National Security Advisors, Clinton's counter-terrorism czar, his first Director of Central Intelligence, his Secretary of State, top CIA and FBI agents, lawmakers from both parties and foreign intelligence officials from France, the Middle East and Egypt, as well as on-the-scene coverage. Losing bin Laden takes you inside the Oval Office, the White House Situation Room and some of the deadliest terrorist cells that America has ever faced. It is a riveting account of a terror war that bin Laden openly declared, but that Clinton left largely unfought.
As America's leaders fight pre-emptive wars abroad and ordinary Americans fight to keep their heads above water here at home, Arianna Huffington offers a no-holds-barred account of where we stand and a clear and remarkable vision of where we should be headed.
Taking aim at the ruthless fanatics in the Bush White House and the feckless fools in the all-too-compliant Democratic opposition, the best-selling author of Pigs at the Trough paints a scathing picture of our contemporary political landscape—peopled with scoundrels and cowards, and awash in the constant and corrosive tow of dirty money.
But the book doesn't stop there. Over the course of her run for governor of California, Arianna Huffington learned that criticism and outrage are not enough. She lays out her game plan for winning back America from our not-so-compassionately-conservative president, now firmly and happily in the grip of right-wing radicals like Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and John Ashcroft. With the 2004 election fast approaching, Arianna Huffington sees fire in the ashes of the Democratic Party and reason for hope that this can be the year that the people finally take back control of their government and their country.
Fearless, funny, in full command of the facts, and ever passionate, Arianna Huffington offers not just a chapter-and-verse diagnosis of the fanaticism that drives the Bush White House but a bold vision of New Responsibility for rebuilding our broken democracy. If you want to know what you can do to restore America to the promise and moral greatness envisioned by our greatest leaders, from Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt to FDR and Bobby Kennedy, this book is required reading. These are big dreams, but, as Arianna argues, anything smaller guarantees the reelection of George Bush.
