An Ecological Theory of Democracy : Steps Toward a Non-Equilibrium View of Politics

There are a number of people I wish to acknowledge for helping me write this book. First, the idea of politics as a nonequilibrium process owes its origins largely to a series of ongoing conservations I have had with Father Richard Telnack, o. c. s. o. Our discussions of Augustine's city of God and Hegel's Phenomenology in the hours before the night office led me to think about the world more as an ongoing flux than as a static rational order. The use of structurally unstable dynamical systems to. model democratic politics was greatly enhanced by my interactions with Professor Alex Kleiner, department of mathematics, Drake University. Professor Manfred Holler of the University of Aarhus provided a detailed critique of an earlier version. His insights and remarks were invaluable in improving the work's content and structure. I also wish to thank Dr. Werner A. Muller, director of Physica Verlag for his confidence in my work and his efforts on my behalf. Miss Jane Blevins was a patient and thorough typist. I thank her for her attention to the production of the manuscript. Finally, writing a book is in one way a moral act. It requires committment to pursue a line of thought to its conclusion when the final results are not clear. without the encouragement and support of my wife over a long period of time, I would have certainly faltered. Whatever good emerges from the work is due largely to her example and patient endurance. The subject of this monograph is to describe how different types of democracies might be expected to change through the course of time. There are three settings; the two party case, the multiple party case, and the constrained multiple party case. The most important feature of the work is its use of structurally unstable dynamical systems to model the evolution of different democratic policies. Methods are also introduced to deal with the nonequilibrium aspects of democratic practice. The fundamental argument presented by the book is that democracy is not and cannot be an equilibrium type of process. Democratic political systems have generally been modeled to reflect an equilibrium as the expected outcome. The purpose of this book is to argue that democracy is basically a nonequilibrium process. To this end, an ideal 2 party and -N- party and constrained -N- party democracy are modeled with mathematical systems which are structurally unstable. The results of these analyses are evaluated in light of democratic political theory Front Matter....Pages I-VIII Introduction....Pages 1-7 Describing Democracy Dynamically....Pages 8-41 What Does it Mean to Speak Dynamically About Democracy?....Pages 42-79 Two Party Dynamics....Pages 80-121 -N- Party Democracy: The Role of the Minimal State....Pages 122-159 Democratic Instability and the Role of Political Institutions....Pages 160-211 What are the Dynamic Prospects for Democracy?....Pages 212-239 Back Matter....Pages 240-260