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Engendered Economics: Incorporating Diversity into Political Economy
by Heather Boushey Ellen Mutari William FraherThis book provides an overview of current developments within feminist political economy, including reformulations of economic theory, historical and empirical research on the economic roles and status of women and people of color, as well as proposals for broadening the public policy agenda. Rather than offering a feminist critique of neoclassical economics, this volume presents feminist economics in dialogue with progressive economic theory and public policy. It differentiates itself further by addressing issues of class, race and sexuality in interaction with gender.
Suffrage Outside Suffragism: Britain 1880-1914
by M. Boussahba-BravardThis collection of essays systematically explores how a sample of political groupings not founded on suffrage reacted and accommodated the issue of suffrage within their official discourses and structures. The volume leads to the heart and core of suffragism while examining the dynamics and versatilities of the Edwardian political fabric.
The Safety Utopia: Contemporary Discontent and Desire as to Crime and Punishment
by Hans BoutellierMy ?rst encounter with the world of crime and punishment was more than two decades ago, and it has since undergone vast changes. No one could have foreseen that crime-related problems would occupy such a prominent position in cultural awareness. Crime is on the rise, the public attention devoted to it has increased even more, and its political importance has mushroomed. The major change in the 1990s was perhaps the transformation of crime into a safety issue. Crime is no longer a matter involving offenders, victims, the police and the courts, it involves everyone and any number of agencies and institutions from security companies to the local authorities and from schools to pub and restaurant owners. Crime has become a much larger complex than the judicial system—a complex organized mentally and institutionally around this one concept of safety. In this book I make an effort to get to the bottom of this complex. It is the sequel to my dissertation Crime and Morality—The Moral Signi?cance of Criminal Justice in a Postmodern Culture (2000), where I hold that the victim became the essence of crime in Western culture, and that this in turn shaped public morality. In the second half of the twentieth century, a personal morality based on an awareness of our own and other people’s vulnerability, i. e. potential victimhood, succeeded the ethics of duty.
Crime and Morality: The Significance of Criminal Justice in Post-modern Culture
by J.C. BoutellierOver the last twenty-five years the significance of criminal justice has dramatically changed. In a "post-modern" culture, criminal law serves more and more as a focal point in public morality. The "discovery" of the victim of crime can be seen as the marking point by which criminal justice got its central position in the maintenance of social order. It is the result of a general "victimalization" of today's morality. This ingenious book - according to Michael Tonry - combines insights from criminology, sociology and moral philosophy. It is especially inspired by the work of Richard Rorty, who stresses the sensibility for suffering as the major source of morality in post-modern times. It describes the arousal of attention for victims and the development of crime prevention. More specifically, it analyzes child sexual abuse and prostitution. This "illuminating" book will be an eye-opener for theorists in criminology and moral philosophy, but will also be an inspiring work for policy makers in the area of criminal justice.
Time of Nature and the Nature of Time: Philosophical Perspectives of Time in Natural Sciences (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science #326)
by Christophe Bouton Philippe HunemanThis volume addresses the question of time from the perspective of the time of nature. Its aim is to provide some insights about the nature of time on the basis of the different uses of the concept of time in natural sciences. Presenting a dialogue between philosophy and science, it features a collection of papers that investigate the representation, modeling and understanding of time as they appear in physics, biology, geology and paleontology. It asks questions such as: whether or not the notions of time in the various sciences are reducible to the same physical time, what status should be given to timescale differences, or what are the specific epistemic issues raised by past facts in natural sciences. The book first explores the experience of time and its relation to time in nature in a set of chapters that bring together what human experience and physics enable metaphysicians, logicians and scientists to say about time. Next, it studies time in physics, including some puzzling paradoxes about time raised by the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The volume then goes on to examine the distinctive problems and conceptions of time in the life sciences. It explores the concept of deep time in paleontology and geology, time in the epistemology of evolutionary biology, and time in developmental biology. Each scientific discipline features a specific approach to time and uses distinctive methodologies for implementing time in its models. This volume seeks to define a common language to conceive of the distinct ways different scientific disciplines view time. In the process, it offers a new approach to the issue of time that will appeal to a wide range of readers: philosophers and historians of science, metaphysicians and natural scientists - be they scholars, advanced students or readers from an educated general audience.
Educating African American Students: And How Are the Children?
by Gloria Swindler BoutteFocused on preparing educators to teach African American students, this straightforward and teacher-friendly text features a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, research-based case studies of model teachers, and tested culturally relevant practical strategies and actionable steps teachers can adopt. Its premise is that teachers who understand Black culture as an asset rather than a liability and utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to work can and do have specific positive impacts on the educational experiences of African American children.
Educating African American Students: And How Are the Children?
by Gloria Swindler BoutteFocused on preparing educators to teach African American students, this straightforward and teacher-friendly text features a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, research-based case studies of model teachers, and tested culturally relevant practical strategies and actionable steps teachers can adopt. Its premise is that teachers who understand Black culture as an asset rather than a liability and utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to work can and do have specific positive impacts on the educational experiences of African American children.
Educating African American Students: And How Are the Children?
by Gloria Swindler BoutteThis straightforward and reader-friendly text provides strategies for P-12 educators who are interested in ensuring the cultural and academic excellence of African American students. It presents a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant teaching, and research-based cases of teachers who excel at teaching Black children. Examples from multi-ethnic teachers across P-12 grades and content areas (e.g., ELA, science, mathematics, social studies, arts) are presented so that others can extrapolate in their respective educational settings. This book explains Black culture, anti-Black racism, African Diaspora Literacy, African American Language, and pro-Black and actionable steps that educators can adopt and implement. Examples of culturally relevant family and community involvement are provided. As with the previous edition, readers will appreciate a multitude of resources. After reading this book, educators will view educating African American students as exhilarating and rewarding and Black students will flourish.
Educating African American Students: And How Are the Children?
by Gloria Swindler BoutteThis straightforward and reader-friendly text provides strategies for P-12 educators who are interested in ensuring the cultural and academic excellence of African American students. It presents a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant teaching, and research-based cases of teachers who excel at teaching Black children. Examples from multi-ethnic teachers across P-12 grades and content areas (e.g., ELA, science, mathematics, social studies, arts) are presented so that others can extrapolate in their respective educational settings. This book explains Black culture, anti-Black racism, African Diaspora Literacy, African American Language, and pro-Black and actionable steps that educators can adopt and implement. Examples of culturally relevant family and community involvement are provided. As with the previous edition, readers will appreciate a multitude of resources. After reading this book, educators will view educating African American students as exhilarating and rewarding and Black students will flourish.
Wittgenstein Reads Freud: The Myth of the Unconscious
by Jacques Bouveresse Carol Cosman Vincent DescombesDid Freud present a scientific hypothesis about the unconscious, as he always maintained and as many of his disciples keep repeating? This question has long prompted debates concerning the legitimacy and usefulness of psychoanalysis, and it is of utmost importance to Lacanian analysts, whose main project has been to stress Freud's scientific grounding. Here Jacques Bouveresse, a noted authority on Ludwig Wittgenstein, contributes to the debate by turning to this Austrian-born philosopher and contemporary of Freud for a candid assessment of the early issues surrounding psychoanalysis. Wittgenstein, who himself had delivered a devastating critique of traditional philosophy, sympathetically pondered Freud's claim to have produced a scientific theory in proposing a new model of the human psyche. What Wittgenstein recognized--and what Bouveresse so eloquently stresses for today's reader--is that psychoanalysis does not aim to produce a change limited to the intellect but rather seeks to provoke an authentic change of human attitudes. The beauty behind the theory of the unconscious for Wittgenstein is that it breaks away from scientific, causal explanations to offer new forms of thinking and speaking, or rather, a new mythology. Offering a critical view of all the texts in which Wittgenstein mentions Freud, Bouveresse immerses us in the intellectual climate of Vienna in the early part of the twentieth century. Although we come to see why Wittgenstein did not view psychoanalysis as a science proper, we are nonetheless made to feel the philosopher's sense of wonder and respect for the cultural task Freud took on as he found new ways meaningfully to discuss human concerns. Intertwined in this story of Wittgenstein's grappling with the theory of the unconscious is the story of how he came to question the authority of science and of philosophy itself. While aiming primarily at the clarification of Wittgenstein's opinion of Freud, Bouveresse's book can be read as a challenge to the French psychoanalytic school of Lacan and as a provocative commentary on cultural authority.
Wittgenstein Reads Freud: The Myth of the Unconscious
by Jacques Bouveresse Carol Cosman Vincent DescombesDid Freud present a scientific hypothesis about the unconscious, as he always maintained and as many of his disciples keep repeating? This question has long prompted debates concerning the legitimacy and usefulness of psychoanalysis, and it is of utmost importance to Lacanian analysts, whose main project has been to stress Freud's scientific grounding. Here Jacques Bouveresse, a noted authority on Ludwig Wittgenstein, contributes to the debate by turning to this Austrian-born philosopher and contemporary of Freud for a candid assessment of the early issues surrounding psychoanalysis. Wittgenstein, who himself had delivered a devastating critique of traditional philosophy, sympathetically pondered Freud's claim to have produced a scientific theory in proposing a new model of the human psyche. What Wittgenstein recognized--and what Bouveresse so eloquently stresses for today's reader--is that psychoanalysis does not aim to produce a change limited to the intellect but rather seeks to provoke an authentic change of human attitudes. The beauty behind the theory of the unconscious for Wittgenstein is that it breaks away from scientific, causal explanations to offer new forms of thinking and speaking, or rather, a new mythology. Offering a critical view of all the texts in which Wittgenstein mentions Freud, Bouveresse immerses us in the intellectual climate of Vienna in the early part of the twentieth century. Although we come to see why Wittgenstein did not view psychoanalysis as a science proper, we are nonetheless made to feel the philosopher's sense of wonder and respect for the cultural task Freud took on as he found new ways meaningfully to discuss human concerns. Intertwined in this story of Wittgenstein's grappling with the theory of the unconscious is the story of how he came to question the authority of science and of philosophy itself. While aiming primarily at the clarification of Wittgenstein's opinion of Freud, Bouveresse's book can be read as a challenge to the French psychoanalytic school of Lacan and as a provocative commentary on cultural authority.
Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War
by Tim Bouverie'Appeasing Hitler is an astonishingly accomplished debut' ANTONY BEEVOR‘One of the most promising young historians to enter our field for years’ MAX HASTINGS‘Brilliant and sparkling … reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put it down’ PETER FRANKOPANOn a wet afternoon in September 1938, Neville Chamberlain stepped off an aeroplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, ‘peace for our time’. Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began.Appeasing Hitler is a compelling new narrative history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy and parliamentary infighting that enabled Nazi domination of Europe. Beginning with the advent of Hitler in 1933, it sweeps from the early days of the Third Reich to the beaches of Dunkirk. Bouverie takes us into the backrooms of 10 Downing Street and Parliament, where a small group of rebellious MPs, including the indomitable Winston Churchill, were among the few to realise that the only choice was between ‘war now or war later’. And we enter the drawing rooms and dining clubs of fading imperial Britain, where Hitler enjoyed surprising support among the ruling class and even some members of the Royal Family.Drawing on deep archival research, including previously unseen sources, this is an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, aristocrats and amateur diplomats who, through their actions and inaction, shaped their country's policy and determined the fate of Europe. Both sweeping and intimate, Appeasing Hitler is not only eye-opening history but a timeless lesson on the challenges of standing up to aggression and authoritarianism – and the calamity that results from failing to do so.
The Social Sciences and Democracy
by Jeroen Van BouwelProminent researchers from philosophy and the social studies of science present a collection of articles that together constitute a systematic and comprehensive investigation of how to understand the relation between the social sciences and democracy.
Philosophy of Leisure: Foundations of the good life (Routledge Critical Leisure Studies)
by Johan Bouwer Marco van LeeuwenWhat is leisure? How does leisure relate to leading a good life? This critical and intelligent study interrogates the basic principles of leisure and demonstrates the continuing relevance of these questions for our society today. It not only explores the traditional philosophical concepts at the heart of leisure studies, but also pursues new possibilities for reconceptualising leisure that have emerged from recent developments in society, technology and the broader discipline of philosophy itself. Approaching leisure from a philosophically inquisitive perspective, the book argues that leisure revolves around the pursuit of happiness, human flourishing and well-being, making it both a state of mind and a state of being. Its exploration of the meaning of leisure addresses key issues such as identity, ethics, spirituality, human experience, freedom, technology, embodiment, well-being, the fundamental properties of leisure and the challenge of offering a meaningful definition. Revitalising the subject of leisure studies with its originality, Philosophy of Leisure: Foundations of the Good Life is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of leisure studies, philosophy, sociology, psychology and ethics.
Philosophy of Leisure: Foundations of the good life (Routledge Critical Leisure Studies)
by Johan Bouwer Marco van LeeuwenWhat is leisure? How does leisure relate to leading a good life? This critical and intelligent study interrogates the basic principles of leisure and demonstrates the continuing relevance of these questions for our society today. It not only explores the traditional philosophical concepts at the heart of leisure studies, but also pursues new possibilities for reconceptualising leisure that have emerged from recent developments in society, technology and the broader discipline of philosophy itself. Approaching leisure from a philosophically inquisitive perspective, the book argues that leisure revolves around the pursuit of happiness, human flourishing and well-being, making it both a state of mind and a state of being. Its exploration of the meaning of leisure addresses key issues such as identity, ethics, spirituality, human experience, freedom, technology, embodiment, well-being, the fundamental properties of leisure and the challenge of offering a meaningful definition. Revitalising the subject of leisure studies with its originality, Philosophy of Leisure: Foundations of the Good Life is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of leisure studies, philosophy, sociology, psychology and ethics.
Natural Language Processing and Information Systems: 5th International Conference on Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems, NLDB 2000, Versailles, France, June 28-30, 2000; Revised Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #1959)
by Mokrane Bouzeghoub Zoubida Kedad Elisabeth MetaisThis book includes the papers presented at the fifth International Conference on Application of Natural Language to Information Systems (NLDB 2000) which was held in Versailles (France) on June 28-30. Following NLDB95 in Versailles, NLDB96 i n Amsterdam, NLDB97 i n Vancouver, and NLDB99 i n Klagenfurt, NLDB 2000 was a forum for exchanging new research results and trends on the benefits of integrating Natural Language resources in Information System Engineering. Since the first NLDB workshop in 1995 it has become apparent that each aspect of an information system life cycle may be improved by natural language techniques: database design (specification, validation, conflict resolution), database query languages, and application programming that use new software engineering research (natural language program specifications). As information systems are now evolving into the communication area, the term databases should be considered in the broader sense of information and communication systems. The main new trend in NLDB 2000 is related to the WEB wave: WEB querying, WEB answering, and information retrieval. Among 47 papers submitted from 18 countries, the program committee selected 29 papers to be presented during the conference. Besides these regular papers, two invited talks (given by Pr. Reind P. van de Riet and Pr. Maurice Gross), and a set of posters and demonstrations are also included in these proceedings.
Public Management And Governance
by Tony Bovaird Elke LöfflerThe role of government in managing society has once again become a hot topic worldwide. A more diverse society, the internet, and new expectations of citizens are challenging traditional ways of managing governments. The second edition of Public Management and Governanceexamines key issues in efficient management and good quality service in the public sector. With contributions from leading authors in the field, it goes beyond the first edition, looking at the ways in which the process of governing needs to be altered fundamentally to remain legitimate and to make the most of society's many resources. Key themes include: challenges and pressures facing modern governments worldwide the changing role of the public sector in a 'mixed economy' of provision governance issues such as ethics, equalities, and citizen engagement This new edition has an increased international scope and includes new chapters on partnership working, agency and decentralised management, process management, and HRM. Comprehensive and detailed, it is an ideal companion for undergraduate and postgraduate students of public management, public administration, government and public policy.
Kristeva in America: Re-Imagining the Exceptional (Pivotal Studies in the Global American Literary Imagination)
by Carol Mastrangelo BovéThis Pivot studies the influence of Julia Kristeva’s work on American literary and film studies. Chapters consider this influence via such innovative approaches as Hortense Spillers’s and Jack Halberstam’s to Paule Marshall’s fiction and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, respectively. The book also considers how critics in the United States receive Kristeva’s work on French feminism, semiotics, and psychoanalytic writing in complex, controversial ways, especially on the question of marginalized populations. Examples include Kelly Oliver and Benigno Trigo on Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil as well as Frances Restuccia on David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Carol Mastrangelo Bové also examines Kristeva’s take on the US in her essays and fiction, which provide a vital part of the dialogue with American critics. Like them, Bové incorporates Kristeva’s thought in her own creative readings of little-known authors and directors including Christiane Rochefort, Nancy Savoca, and Frank Lentricchia.
Love’s Shadow
by Paul A. BovéA case for literary critics and other humanists to stop wallowing in their aestheticized helplessness and instead turn to poetry, comedy, and love.Literary criticism is an agent of despair, and its poster child is Walter Benjamin. Critics have spent decades stewing in his melancholy. What if instead we dared to love poetry? To choose comedy over Hamlet’s tragedy, romance over Benjamin’s suicide on the edge of France, of Europe, of civilization?Paul Bové challenges young lit critters to throw away their shades and let the sun shine in. Love’s Shadow is his three-step manifesto for a new literary criticism that risks sentimentality and melodrama and eschews self-consciousness. The first step is to choose poetry. There has been since the time of Plato a battle between philosophy and poetry. Philosophy has championed misogyny, while poetry has championed women, like Shakespeare’s Rosalind. Philosophy is ever so stringent; try instead the sober cheerfulness of Wallace Stevens. Bové’s second step is to choose the essay. He praises Benjamin’s great friend and sometime antagonist Theodor Adorno, who gloried in the writing of essays, not dissertations and treatises. The third step is to choose love. If you want a Baroque hero, make it Rembrandt, who brought lovers to life in his paintings.Putting aside passivity and cynicism would amount to a revolution in literary studies. Bové seeks nothing less, and he has a program for achieving it.
The Biotechnology Debate: Democracy in the Face of Intractable Disagreement (Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy #29)
by Bernice BovenkerkThis book grounds deliberative democratic theory in a more refined understanding of deliberative practice, in particular when dealing with intractable moral disagreement regarding novel technologies. While there is an ongoing, vibrant debate about the theoretical merits of deliberative democracy on the one hand, and more recently, empirical studies of specific deliberative exercises have been carried out, these two discussions fail to speak to one another. Debates about animal and plant biotechnology are examined as a paradigmatic case for intractable disagreement in today’s pluralistic societies. This examination reveals that the disagreements in this debate are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional and can often be traced to fundamental disagreements about values or worldviews. “One of the acute insights to emerge from this examination is that deliberation can serve different purposes vis-à-vis different types of problem. In the case of deeply unstructured problems, like the modern biotechnology debate, the aim of inclusion is more appropriate than the aim of consensus. This book highlights the importance of political culture and broader institutional settings in shaping the capacity and propensity of citizens to engage in deliberation and the degree to which governments are prepared to relinquish authority to deliberative mini-publics."Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne, Australia
Animal Ethics in the Age of Humans: Blurring boundaries in human-animal relationships (The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics #23)
by Bernice Bovenkerk Jozef KeulartzThis book provides reflection on the increasingly blurry boundaries that characterize the human-animal relationship. In the Anthropocene humans and animals have come closer together and this asks for rethinking old divisions. Firstly, new scientific insights and technological advances lead to a blurring of the boundaries between animals and humans. Secondly, our increasing influence on nature leads to a rethinking of the old distinction between individual animal ethics and collectivist environmental ethics. Thirdly, ongoing urbanization and destruction of animal habitats leads to a blurring between the categories of wild and domesticated animals. Finally, globalization and global climate change have led to the fragmentation of natural habitats, blurring the old distinction between in situ and ex situ conservation. In this book, researchers at the cutting edge of their fields systematically examine the broad field of human-animal relations, dealing with wild, liminal, and domestic animals, with conservation, and zoos, and with technologies such as biomimicry. This book is timely in that it explores the new directions in which our thinking about the human-animal relationship are developing. While the target audience primarily consists of animal studies scholars, coming from a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethology, literature, and film studies, many of the topics that are discussed have relevance beyond a purely theoretical one; as such the book also aims to inspire for example biologists, conservationists, and zoo keepers to reflect on their relationship with animals.
Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene (The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics #33)
by Bernice Bovenkerk Jozef KeulartzThis Open Access book brings together authoritative voices in animal and environmental ethics, who address the many different facets of changing human-animal relationships in the Anthropocene. As we are living in complex times, the issue of how to establish meaningful relationships with other animals under Anthropocene conditions needs to be approached from a multitude of angles. This book offers the reader insight into the different discussions that exist around the topics of how we should understand animal agency, how we could take animal agency seriously in farms, urban areas and the wild, and what technologies are appropriate and morally desirable to use regarding animals. This book is of interest to both animal studies scholars and environmental ethics scholars, as well as to practitioners working with animals, such as wildlife managers, zookeepers, and conservation biologists.
Coping: A Philosophical Guide
by Luc BovensCoping and Philosophy is a collection of philosophical essays on how we deal with life’s challenges. We hope for better times, but what is hope and is it a good thing to hope? How do we look back and make sense of our lives in the face of death? What is the nature of love and how do we deal with its hardships? What makes for a genuine apology and is there too much or too little apologizing in this world? Can we effect changes in ourselves to adapt to our circumstances? And how can we sense of all the counsel that people have: be grateful, don’t cry over spilled milk, eat well, … This volume is a perfect companion text for courses such as Philosophy of Life, The Meaning of Life, or for a moral psychology component in an Ethics course. The material is written for readers who are new to philosophy and progresses in short blog-style sections. It draws on literature, music, podcasts, and news items. Each chapter has a set of questions for discussion or essay writing and suggestions for material to explore the topic further.
Justice in Climate Policy: Distributing Climate Costs Fairly (Research for Policy)
by Mark Bovens Victor Toom Annick de Vries Gijsbert Werner Elsenoor Wijlhuizen Suzanne HulscherThis open access book is looking into ways to achieve just climate policy within a country. The authors of this monograph share a unique, timely and original vision: continuous support for climate policy is more likely to emerge when citizens find that the distribution of the bill for climate costs is fair. But what is a fair distribution of climate costs? This is an important question because financial costs of mitigation (reducing greenhouse gases), adaptation (adapting to climate change) and damage (compensating or compensating after weather extremes) increase significantly in the coming decades. Drawing on philosophy and ethics, the authors propose ten principles for achieving just distributions of domestic climate costs. Examples of such principles are individual responsibility, the polluter pays, greatest utility and capacity to pay. Yet what a fair distribution is, depends on, for example, political preferences and the policy issue at hand. Empirical research on designing climate policies, however, shows that distributive principles are not part of the political, policy, and public discussions. The authors therefore argue that explicit attention to principles of just distribution at the start of a policy process contributes to support for climate policy. This book provides tools to professionals and students to achieve justice in climate policy.
Diploma Democracy: The Rise of Political Meritocracy
by Mark Bovens Anchrit WilleLay politics lies at the heart of democracy. Political offices are the only offices for which no formal qualifications are required. Contemporary political practices are diametrically opposed to this constitutional ideal. Most democracies in Western Europe are diploma democracies - ruled by those with the highest formal qualifications. Citizens with low or medium educational qualifications currently make up about 70 percent of the electorates, yet they have become virtually absent from almost all political arenas. University graduates have come to dominate all political institutions and venues, from political parties, parliaments and cabinets, to organised interests, deliberative settings, and Internet consultations. This rise of a political meritocracy is part of larger trend. In the information society, educational background, like class or religion, is an important source of social and political divides. Those who are well educated tend to be cosmopolitans, whereas the lesser educated citizens are more likely to be nationalists. This book documents the context, contours, and consequences of this rise of a political meritocracy. It explores the domination of higher educated citizens in political participation, civil society, and political office in Western Europe. It discusses the consequences of this rise of a political meritocracy, such as descriptive deficits, policy incongruences, biased standards, and cynicism and distrust. Also, it looks at ways to remedy, or at least mitigate, some of the negative effects of diploma democracy.