My Review of Rick Hasen's Cheap Speech

 

Here's an excerpt: 

"Suppose you are on a sea vessel that is rapidly taking on water. You are given an honest description of the cracks in the hull, and you are told, too, what steps the crew and passengers might take toward mending those holes and what the realistic chances are that any of these procedures might do all that could reasonably be expected of them. This crisis response, which I take to be analogous to what Hasen has provided in the area of democracy, would all be well and good, I think, if (i) water were not being taken on in an amount and speed that will surely sink the ship within an hour, and (ii) the crew were not simply passing out a couple dozen ladles."

You can read the whole thing here

What makes for a stable democratic regime?

In my newly published paper on Harry Eckstein's "congruence theory" of democratic stability, I make a plea for political scientists to attempt either to confirm or disconfirm my simplified "majoritarian consonance" version.

My sense is that a comparative politics guru could likely settle this "authority patterns" doctrine once and for all quite quickly. So I hope some of those folks will check it out!

(BTW, if my article seems dry or abstruse, it may help to contemplate while reading it that after escaping Nazi Germany as a child and in spite of publishing a ton of important work and teaching at Princeton as an adult, Eckstein somehow also managed to get married four times.)

Democratic Theory Naturalized is Out in Paperback!

Lexington Books has just notified me that my book, Democratic Theory Naturalized, will available in paperback this Fall at a price of $39.99.

I like this of course, but if you don't want to wait until September, there's already an e-book version available at $45, and Amazon is currently selling the hardback for $53 (unlike R & L, which still lists it for over $100). See this for details.

I'd naturally like to see a price that's in the vicinity $9.99--I mean, in spite of the fact that the book is...you know... absolutely life-altering, priceless stuff! But even a slightly cheaper imprint is obviously a good thing. And, as the book attempts to pound home repeatedly, The more good, the better.

Anyhow, if you've been waiting patiently for a paperback version, you can now order a copy at Rowman & Littlefield or Amazon! Cheers!