This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

An Essay On Taste: To Which Are Annexed Three Dissertations On The Same Subject By De Voltaire, D'Alembert And De Montesquieu (1764)

History

Gérard, Alexander

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Kessinger Publishing

Why did precarious and collapsed democracies in Europe develop into highly stable democracies? Gerard Alexander offers a rational choice theory of democratic consolidation in a survey of the breakdowns of and transitions to democratic institutions. Through an analysis of developments in Spain, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, Alexander explores how key political sectors established the long-term commitment to democracy that distinguishes consolidated democracies. 
Alexander makes a highly accessible rationalist argument about the conditions under which such commitments emerge, arguing that powerful sectors abandon options for overthrowing democratic rules only when they predict low risks in democracy. The author's argument parallels established claims about the predictability essential to the development of modern capitalism. 
The Sources of Democratic Consolidation outlines Alexander's claim that a political precondition, rather than an economic or social precondition, exists for consolidated democracies. Drawing on interviews and archival research, the author links his argument to evidence from the five largest countries in Western Europe from the 1870s to the 1980s and also discusses the implications for the prospects for democratic consolidation in other regions. Political pacts, power-sharing, and institutional designs, he says, may help stabilize uncertain democracies, but they cannot create consolidation.

The Sources of Democratic Consolidation

Europe

Cornell University Press

An Essay on Taste

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Scholars' Facsimilies & Reprint

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher.  1759. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... E S S A Y O N T AS T E A Fragment found imperfect among the papers of the late President De MONTESQUIEU. TH E constitution of human nature in - it's present state, opens to the mind three different sources of pleasure; one in it's internal faculties and essence, another in it's union with the body, and a third in those impressions and prejudices, that are the result of certain institutions, customs, and habits. S These These different pleasures of the mind constitute the proper objects of ta/le, those objects which we term beautiful, good, agreeable, natural, delicate, tender, graceful, elegant, noble, grand, sublime, and majestick, as also the qualities to which we give the name of Je ne s$ai quoi. When, for instance, the pleasure we enjoy in the contemplation of any object is accompanied with a notion of it's utility to us, we call that object good; but when an object appears merely agreeable, without being advantageous, we then term it beautiful.  The ancients do not seem to have fully apprehended this important distinction ; they considered as things of a positive nature those qualities, or rather perceptions, which are merely relative to the nature and operations i of the foul. Hence, those dialogues so celebrated by the ancients, in which Plato gives us an ample account of the reasonings of his great master, are, in our times, unsusceptible of a rational defence, because they are founded upon the principles of a false philosophy. All the reasonings they contain ." " concerning concerning goodness, beauty, perfection, wisdom, folly, hardness, softness, &c. are intirely inconclusive (-f), as they suppose these various perceptions to be what they are not, real and positive qualities. The sources, therefore, of beauty, goodness, &c. lie within us, and, of conseque...

An essay on taste, 1759

Literature & Fiction

Scolar Press]

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Essai Sur Le Gout (1766) (French Edition)

Literary

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

The Pastoral Care

BiblioLife

Account Of Koonawur, In The Himalaya, Etc. (1841)

Travel

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