The African Origins of Democracy challenges the myth that democracy was born in ancient Greece. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and political science, Bernd Reiter shows that egalitarian African societies practiced self-rule tens of thousands of years earlier—and that these traditions spread outward through migration and exchange. At the heart of the book is Botswana, where dikgotla—village assemblies—still embody living democracy today. Bold and provocative, this b...

With this book, Bernd Reiter reflects on over three decades of research on race, exclusion, inequality, white supremacy, and the defense of privilege in Brazil to explore how social hierarchies, honor, and dignity perpetuate systemic disparities in Latin America. Status, as a structuring force of societies, Reiter argues, offers a different lens through which to analyze Latin American societies.Combining the works of Tönnies, Weber, and Bourdieu with those of Guerreiro Ramos, Raymu...

Political representation and democracy are at odds and we need new models to organize politics without relying so heavily on elected representatives. Similarly, capitalism undermines markets, as the rich and wealthy shield their assets and make them untenable for average earners.Elitism thus undermines both democracy and markets and we need to devise ways to limit the power of professional politicians, as well as the asset holdings of the rich so that the goods they hold can re-ent...

In Decolonizing the Social Sciences and the Humanities Bernd Reiter contributes to the ongoing efforts to decolonize the social sciences and humanities, by arguing that true decolonization implies a liberation from the elite culture that Western civilization has perpetually promoted.Reiter brings together lessons learned from field research on a Colombian indigenous society, a maroon society, also in Colombia, from Afro-Brazilian religion, from Spanish Anarchism, and from ...

One of the few interdisciplinary volumes on Bahia available, The Making of Brazil’s Black Mecca: Bahia Reconsidered contains contributions covering a wide chronological and topical range by scholars whose work has made important contributions to the field of Bahian studies over the last two decades. The authors interrogate and problematize the idea of Bahia as a Black Mecca, or a haven where Brazilians of African descent can embrace their cultural and spiritual African heritage wi...

Indigenous people and African descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean have long been affected by a social hierarchy established by elites, through which some groups were racialized and others were normalized. Far from being “racial paradises” populated by an amalgamated “cosmic race” of mulattos and mestizos, Latin America and the Caribbean have long been sites of shifting exploitative strategies and ideologies, ranging from scientific racism and eugenics to the more sophisticated o...

This book proposes a radical new way of thinking about our democratic future, our ecological survival, and our ways to keep economies fair. It shows that adopting upper limits to wealth and income; replacing elections with local direct democracy and legal duty involving randomly selected citizens; and replacing welfare and redistribution policies with pre-distribution and reparations promises new solutions to political apathy, discontent, manipulation, economic inequality, unfairness, uneq...

This book proposes a radical new way of thinking about our democratic future, our ecological survival, and our ways to keep economies fair. It shows that adopting upper limits to wealth and income; replacing elections with local direct democracy and legal duty involving randomly selected citizens; and replacing welfare and redistribution policies with pre-distribution and reparations promises new solutions to political apathy, discontent, manipulation, economic inequality, unfairness, uneq...

This book proposes a radical new way of thinking about our democratic future, our ecological survival, and our ways to keep economies fair. It shows that adopting upper limits to wealth and income; replacing elections with local direct democracy and legal duty involving randomly selected citizens; and replacing welfare and redistribution policies with pre-distribution and reparations promises new solutions to political apathy, discontent, manipulation, economic inequality, unfairness, uneq...

What does it mean to be a citizen? What impact does an active democracy have on its citizenry and why does it fail or succeed in fulfilling its promises? Most modern democracies seem unable to deliver the goods that citizens expect; many politicians seem to have given up on representing the wants and needs of those who elected them and are keener on representing themselves and their financial backers. What will it take to bring democracy back to its original promise of rule by the people? ...

Mit einem Gedicht "Apokalyptische Reiter in Paris" vorangestellt, wird in diesem Buch der Zustand und der Geist Europas in aller Offenheit konzentriert zum Ausdruck gebracht, wie er glasklar bei der Eröffnung der Olympischen Spiele 2024 in Paris gezeigt wurde. Europas Eliten, Europas Regierungspolitiker gleichen sonst getarnten Apokalyptischen Reitern, sie arbeiten, mit einer für den Normalbürger oft schwer zu durchschauenden und schwer begreifbaren ideologischen Verblendung, direkt auf de...

In den letzten Jahren sind mehrere Biografien über Carmen Sylva und Neuausgaben ihrer literarischen Werke in Rumänien, Deutschland und Frankreich erschienen, die heute wieder an die einstmals weltweit bekannte Schriftstellerin auf dem Königsthron erinnern. Das wirft Fragen auf nach der Bedeutung von Eigen- und Fremdbildern Königin Elisabeths und wie ihre schriftstellerische Tätigkeit in ihrer Position als Monarchin zu bewerten ist. In diesem Zusammenhang können neuere geschichts- und liter...