Melissa S. Williams – författare

Does fair political representation for historically disadvantaged groups require their presence in legislative bodies? The intuition that women are best represented by women, and African-Americans by other African-Americans, has deep historical roots. Yet the conception of fair representation that prevails in American political culture and jurisprudence--what Melissa Williams calls "liberal representation"--concludes that the social identity of legislative representatives does not bear on their quality as representatives. Liberal representation's slogan, "one person, one vote," concludes that the outcome of the electoral and legislative process is fair, whatever it happens to be, so long as no voter is systematically excluded. Challenging this notion, Williams maintains that fair representation is powerfully affected by the identity of legislators and whether some of them are actually members of the historically marginalized groups that are most in need of protection in our society. Williams argues first that the distinctive voice of these groups should be audible within the legislative process.Second, she holds that the self-representation of these groups is necessary to sustain their trust in democratic institutions. The memory of state-sponsored discrimination against these groups, together with ongoing patterns of inequality along group lines, provides both a reason to recognize group claims and a way of distinguishing stronger from weaker claims. The book closes by proposing institutions that can secure fair representation for marginalized groups without compromising principles of democratic freedom and equality.

Criminaltribunals, truth commissions, reparations, apologies and memorializations arethe characteristic instruments in the transitional justice toolkit that can helpsocieties transition from authoritarianism to democracy, from civil war topeace, and from state-sponsored extra-legal violence to a rights-respectingrule of law. Over the last several decades, their growing use has establishedtransitional justice as a body of both theory and practice whose guiding normsand structures encompasses the range of institutional mechanisms by whichsocieties address the wrongs committed by past regimes in order to lay thefoundation for more legitimate political and legal order. In TransitionalJustice, a group of leadingscholars in philosophy, law, and political science settles some of the keytheoretical debates over the meaning of transitional justice while opening upnew ones. By engaging both theorists and empirical social scientists in debatesover central categories of analysis in the study of transitional justice, italso illuminates the challenges of making strong empirical claims about theimpact of transitional institutions. Contributors:Gary J. Bass, David Cohen, David Dyzenhaus, Pablo de Greiff, Leigh-AshleyLipscomb, Monika Nalepa, Eric A. Posner, Debra Satz, GopalSreenivasan, AdrianVermeule, and Jeremy Webber.

What makes a government legitimate? Why do people voluntarily comply with laws, even when no one is watching? The idea of political legitimacy captures the fact that people obey when they think governments' actions accord with valid principles. For some, what matters most is the government's performance on security and the economy. For others, only a government that follows democratic principles can be legitimate. Political legitimacy is therefore a two-sided reality that scholars studying the acceptance of governments need to take into account. The diversity and backgrounds of East Asian nations provides a particular challenge when trying to determine the level of political legitimacy of individual governments. This book brings together both political philosophers and political scientists to examine the distinctive forms of political legitimacy that exist in contemporary East Asia. It is essential reading for all academic researchers of East Asian government, politics and comparative politics.

What makes a government legitimate? Why do people voluntarily comply with laws, even when no one is watching? The idea of political legitimacy captures the fact that people obey when they think governments' actions accord with valid principles. For some, what matters most is the government's performance on security and the economy. For others, only a government that follows democratic principles can be legitimate. Political legitimacy is therefore a two-sided reality that scholars studying the acceptance of governments need to take into account. The diversity and backgrounds of East Asian nations provides a particular challenge when trying to determine the level of political legitimacy of individual governments. This book brings together both political philosophers and political scientists to examine the distinctive forms of political legitimacy that exist in contemporary East Asia. It is essential reading for all academic researchers of East Asian government, politics and comparative politics.

In a world no longer centered on the West, what should political theory become? Although Western intellectual traditions continue to dominate academic journals and course syllabi in political theory, up-and-coming contributions of 'comparative political theory' are rapidly transforming the field. Deparochializing Political Theory creates a space for conversation amongst leading scholars who differ widely in their approaches to political theory. These scholars converge on the belief that we bear a collective responsibility to engage and support the transformation of political theory. In these exchanges, 'deparochializing' political theory emerges as an intellectual, educational and political practice that cuts across methodological approaches. Because it is also an intergenerational project, this book presses us to re-imagine our teaching and curriculum design. Bearing the marks of its beginnings in East Asia, Deparochializing Political Theory seeks to de-center Western thought and explore the evolving tasks of political theory in an age of global modernity.

First published in 1999 , this book provides an analysis of the role of constitutional governance from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. The range of disciplines represented in the collection of papers aims to open new perspectives on topics that are frequently left to the expert hands of political scientists and layers alone. It reveals scope for the further study of historical, cultural and rhetorical approaches in tandem with traditional approaches. The blend of cross-national experience and comparisons and the fertilisation of one discipline by another should appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience.

First published in 1999 , this book provides an analysis of the role of constitutional governance from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. The range of disciplines represented in the collection of papers aims to open new perspectives on topics that are frequently left to the expert hands of political scientists and layers alone. It reveals scope for the further study of historical, cultural and rhetorical approaches in tandem with traditional approaches. The blend of cross-national experience and comparisons and the fertilisation of one discipline by another should appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience.

A collection of essays that unpacks the history, nature, development, and beliefs of American ConservatismThe topic of American conservatism is especially timely—and perhaps volatile. Is there what might be termed an "exceptional" form of conservatism that is characteristically American, in contrast to conservatisms found in other countries? Are views that are identified in the United States as conservative necessarily congruent with what political theorists might classify under that label? Or does much American conservatism almost necessarily reflect the distinctly liberal background of American political thought?In American Conservatism, a distinguished group of American political and legal scholars reflect on these crucial questions, unpacking the very nature and development of American conservative thought. They examine both the historical and contemporary realities of arguments offered by self-conscious conservatives in the United States, offering a well-rounded view of the state of this field. In addition to synoptic overviews of the various dimensions of American conservative thought, specific attention is paid to such topics as American constitutionalism, the role of religion and religious institutions, and the particular impact of the late Leo Strauss on American thought and thinkers. Just as American conservatism includes a wide, and sometimes conflicting, group of thinkers, the essays in this volume themselves reflect differing and sometimes controversial assessments of the theorists under discussion.