Emergence of interest groups on hazardous waste siting: how do they form and survive

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, R.G.; Payne, B.A.

1985-01-01

This paper discusses the two components of the facilitative setting that are important for group formation. The first component, the ideological component, provides the basic ideas that are adopted by the emerging group. The ideological setting for group formation is produced by such things as antinuclear news coverage and concentration of news stories on hazardous waste problems, on ideas concerning the credibility of the federal government, and on the pervasivensee of ideas about general environmental problems. The organizational component of the facilitative setting provides such things as leadership ability, flexible time, resources, and experience. These are important for providing people, organization, and money to achieve group goals. By and large, the conditions conducive to group formation, growth, and survival are outside the control of decision-makers. Agencies and project sponsors are currently caught in a paradox. Actively involving the public in the decision-making process tends to contribute to the growth and survival of various interest groups. Not involving the public means damage to credibility and conflict with values concerning participatory democracy. Resolution in this area can only be achieved when a comprehensive, coordinated national approach to hazardous waste management emerges. 26 refs

The contradictions of democracy globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avramović Zoran

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The author deals with the problem of European (global democratization and not with its goals. The author defines the first group of problems as internal contradictions of modern democratic states. In addition to the existing historical-political criticisms of democratic rule, the author refers to critical analysis of democracy in John Keane’s works. According to Keane, modern democratic state gets involved in several ways in the field of free circulation of public opinion. Based on this and other analyses (Bobio, Dahl, the author concludes that in contemporary European democratic societies there also exist profound contradictions that are transferred to globalization of democracy, too. The author identifies the second problem concerning European democratization in its anthropological assumptions. With reference to Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America, the author states that American democracy man develops personality characteristics oriented to the acquisition of material goods (enrichment. The expansion of Euro-American picture of man to other democracies creates the tension between universal institutions and national cultural anthropology. The third problem concerning democracy is defined from the viewpoint of political relativism. The history of the world is the history of cultural differences. The short-term experience in European democratization proves that political relativism is not respected and that tendency to imposing Euro-American model is gaining in strength. This process endangers political identity of a nation, which becomes the source of confrontation and conflicts inside and between the states. In summary, the author suggests the solution of the problem in the spirit of political liberalism. States (or groups of states do not have the right to prescribe for other states how to define their public good, except in case they endanger other states (or in case they conduct massive killing of their own citizens.

Delegated democracy. Siting selection for the Swedish nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia

2008-11-01

part of the political preparatory work is delegated from parliamentary actors and arenas to sub-political actors and arenas. At the same time, this form of democracy is characterised by the final decisions being taken by elected representatives in the parliamentary arena. Most of the requisite information, however, is provided by a sub-political actor in sub-political arenas, as a result of the preparatory work having been delegated to SKB. This provision of information, however, is often intended to win support for SKB's activities. During the preparatory work, various forms of expertise are accorded great influence, while elected politicians, many of whom are laymen, have the final say in the decision making. This expert influence is also a consequence of the fact that the elected politicians have delegated the issue to a corporation and to opinion groups. The nuclear waste democracy is characterised by a division into two parts: on the one hand a process of deliberation between sub-political actors during the preparatory phase, and on the other a representative democracy in connection with decision-making. The large extent to which the preparatory work is delegated to sub-political actors, and the marginal degree of political decision making in parliamentary arenas are what make it possible to call this form of democracy delegated democracy. It will be of great future interest to study the government's public review process, investigation, and decision concerning SKB's application for a permit to construct a repository. First then will we learn the nature of the connection between the sub-political actors' preparatory work and the parliamentary actors' decision, or, put differently, we will then have a picture of how democratic the delegated handling of nuclear waste is

Direct Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beramendi, Virginia; Ellis, Andrew; Kaufman, Bruno

While many books on direct democracy have a regional or national approach, or simply focus on one of the many mechanisms associated with direct democracy, this Handbook delves into a global comparison of direct democracy mechanisms, including referendums, citizens' initiatives, agenda initiatives...... learned. In addition, the uniquely comprehensive world survey outlines direct democracy provisions in 214 countries and territories and indicates which, if any, of these provisions are used by each country or territory at both the national and sub-national levels. Furthermore, the world survey includes...

Designing For Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knutz, Eva; Markussen, Thomas; Mårbjerg Thomsen, Signe

2014-01-01

there are already a number of approaches available which in one way or the other address the relationship between design, democracy and power. We provide an account of participatory design, adversarial design and design activism thereby pointing towards design?s potential for re-distributing power and authority......n this paper we focus on ?patient-democracy? and ?shared decision-making? seen from the perspective of design practice and design research. In the research on democracy in healthcare it is rarely questioned what forms of democracy underlies these concepts. We have examined three different theories...... of democracy and the democratic practices that belong to each of these. For designers working to increase patient democracy it is of vital importance to be able to distinguish different structures underlying democratic practices and to work out methods for prototyping democracy. In design research...

Taiwan’s Democracy: Towards a Liberal Democracy or Authoritarianism?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dafydd J. Fell

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines how Taiwan moved from being viewed as a model Asian democracy to one allegedly suffering from democratic reversal. The reasons for the declining domestic and international reputation of Taiwan’s democracy are discussed. Lastly, some key political challenges facing Taiwan’s democracy are outlined.

Democracy and Sense

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Bent Erik

Democracy and sense questions practically all that happens in society today. Its aim is to raise a debate on the most urgent problems of economy, democracy, sustainable conduct and the framework for industry and business. A number of untraditional solutions are suggested, but without support...... to either rightwing or leftwing politics. In fact, one of the key points is that political parties have reduced democracy to one day of voting followed by four years of oligarchy. To regain a functioning democracy we must strengthen direct democracy and make the distance between population and government...

Does the digital age require new models of democracy? : lasswell's policy scientist of democracy vs. Liquid democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jelena Gregorius

2015-01-01

This essay provides a debate about Lasswell’s policy scientist of democracy (PSOD, 1948) in comparison to the model of liquid democracy (21st century) based on the question if the digital age requires new models of democracy. The PSOD of Lasswell, a disciplinary persona, is in favour of an elitist

Public interest group involvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shelley, P.

1986-01-01

Including public interest groups in the siting process for nuclear waste disposal facilities is of great importance. Controversial sitings often result in litigation, but involving public interest groups early in the process will lessen the change of this. They act as surrogates for the general public and should be considered as members of the team. It is important to remember though, that all public interest groups are different. In choosing public panels such as public advisory committees, members should not be chosen on the basis of some quota. Opposition groups should not be excluded. Also, it is important to put the right person in charge of the committee. The goal of public involvement is to identify the conflicts. This must be done during the decision process, because conflicts must be known before they can be eliminated. Regarding litigation, it is important to ease through and around legal battles. If the siting process has integrity and a good faith effort has been shown, the court should uphold the effort. In addition, it is important to be negotiable and to eliminate shortcuts

Mapping Deviant Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seeberg, Michael

2014-01-01

A number of countries have emerged as stable (though minimalist) democracies despite low levels of modernization, lack of democratic neighbouring countries and other factors consistently related to democratic stability in the literature. The study of these deviant democracies is a promising new...... research field but it is afflicted by a notable problem, viz. the lack of a consensus as to which countries are actually instances of deviant democracy. The present article attempts to solve this problem by carrying out a comprehensive mapping of deviant democracies. First, I review the existing literature...... to provide an overview of the cases most often identified as deviant democracies. Second, I use a large-N analysis to systematically map deviant democracies. The analysis includes 159 countries covering the time period 1993–2008. The analysis points to 12 cases that merits further attention, viz...

Thomas Docherty. Culture and a New Experience of Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erik S. RORABACK

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Thomas Docherty’s freshly printed volume from Stanford University Press, Aesthetic Democracy, is requisite reading for all those thinking beings out there interested in the question of the inter-relation and even inter-articulation between culture and experience for a possible new encounter with the political that would inch toward a truer form of democracy for our current postmodern social spheres and spaces. Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the University of Warwick, long ...

The concept and institutions of education for democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avramović Zoran M.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The paper comprises three sections: (a the concepts and institutions of democracy, (b the concept of education for democracy, and (c the role of school in democratic education. The concept of 'open society' is critical to the strategy of education for democracy. In addition to general conditions for establishing and functioning of democracy, the author points to some of its basic institutions: structured social groups, political parties, leader elections. The concept of 'education' is considered from the standpoint of goals - social, national and individual. It is pointed to tolerance as a key concept of the theory of education for democracy. School, being the most prominent institution in the process of education for democracy, places student and development of his/he; democratic characteristics and capacities in the focus of its strategy. All elements of teaching: curriculum, methods teacher, student, textbook are in the function of the basic idea of democratic education - tolerance and crisscrossed influences (practicing of getting used to differences. Apart from the development and acquisition of thinking in concepts about democracy, education for democracy should encompass knowledge for life at state and social institutions, for private and public life, acquisition of national values, rational decision-making discussion. The framework of strategy in question is certainly exercising of tolerance and getting used to crisscrossed influences.

A Narrative Approach to Both Teaching and Learning About Democracy with Young Children: A Theoretical Exploration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

maila dinia husni rahim

2016-03-01

Full Text Available As adults, we often believe that children are only interested with games and children’s ‘stuff’. However research has shown that children do indeed show a greater interest in the world around them, including about politics, elections, and democracy. If we need to teach children about democracy, what are the best methods of teaching democracy to young children? Narrative is considered as an effective medium to convey messages to children and discuss hard subjects. This paper is a theoretical exploration that looks at the narrative approach to teaching and learning about democracy with young children. The researchers has used a literature review to look at why narratives should be used, what narratives should be used and how to use narratives.

The Phenomenology of Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Robert

2009-01-01

Human beings originate votes, and democracy constitutes decisions. This is the essence of democracy. A phenomenological analysis of the vote and of the decision reveals for us the inherent strength of democracy and its deficiencies. Alexis de Tocqueville pioneered this form of enquiry into democracy and produced positive results from it.…

Homegrown Democracy, Homegrown Democrats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norman K. Denzin

2005-02-01

Full Text Available Written on the eve of the 2004 American presidential election, this political narrative offers a critical reading of two models of democracy: Instant-Mix imperial democracy (bring to a boil, add oil, then bomb, criticized by Arundhati Roy, and Garrison Keillor’s Homegrown Democrat. Keillor’s pastoral view of democracy is anchored in LakeWobegon, his imaginary utopian community. His homegrown democracy is narrow, provincial, and White. The author concludes that he must look elsewhere for his alternative view of democracy.

Democracy in Crisis?

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Brenda

2006-01-01

This article discusses the state of Canadian democracy. Although calling Canadian democracy as something to be in a crisis is still debatable, the author expresses worry over the declining turnout levels in recent elections. Canada--along with a number of other liberal democracies--has experienced a significant and consistent decline in election…

'Democracy is coming to the RSA': On democracy, theology, and futural historicity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert R. Vosloo

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This article brings the concept of democracy � as an open-ended tradition � in conversation with notions dealing with historicity and the future, such as �democracy to come�, �promise�, and �a democratic vision�. It is argued that although these notions are rightfully associated with the future, they also imply that democracy should not be disconnected from an emphasis on an inheritance from the past. With this emphasis in mind, the first part of the article attends to the French philosopher Jacques Derrida�s intriguing term, �democracy to come�, whereas the second part of the article takes a closer look at some aspects of the work of the South African theologian John de Gruchy on democracy, with special reference to his distinction between a democratic system and a democratic vision. The third, and final, part of the article brings some of the insights taken from the engagement with Derrida and De Gruchy into conversation with the continuing challenges facing theological discourse on democracy in South Africa today.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A constructive proposal is made that emphasises the futural openness of democracy in a way that challenges a vague utopianism.Keywords: Democracy; Derrida; De Gruchy; future; historicity

Globalization and democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DEEPAK NAYYAR

2015-09-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACTThe gathering momentum of globalization in the world economy has coincided with the spread of political democracy across countries. Economies have become global. But politics remains national. This essay explores the relationship between globalization and democracy, which is neither linear nor characterized by structural rigidities. It seeks to analyze how globalization might constrain degrees of freedom for nation states and space for democratic politics, and how political democracy within countries might exercise some checks and balances on markets and globalization. The essential argument is that the relationship between globalization and democracy is dialectical and does not conform to ideological caricatures.

Reinvigorating the role of science in democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, Andrew A; Halpern, Michael; Shulman, Seth; Wexler, Celia; Phartiyal, Pallavi

2013-01-01

Private and political interests routinely conspire to sideline and misrepresent science and evidence in the public policy process. The Center for Science and Democracy, a new initiative at the Union of Concerned Scientists, endeavors to change this dynamic to strengthen the role of science in decision making.

Special Interest Groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Degi, Bruce J.

1999-01-01

Offers a reflection on the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Notes how every special-interest group has used the tragedy to support its own point of view, and concludes that teachers have become bystanders in the education of America's children. (SR)

Democracy and identity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Milović Miroslav

2007-01-01

Full Text Available It might be that the crisis of democracy is crisis of thinking. Modern metaphysics affirms the monologue of the subject with respect to the problem of rationality, as well as in the social realm. It thus affirms liberal egoism. Such metaphysics structures modernity as a monologue. Thus the question arises: how to think the democracy within this monologue? Democracy appears to be a modern project impossible to achieve.

Democracy and Historical Writing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Baets, Antoon

2015-01-01

In this essay, we try to clarify the relationship between democracy and historical writing. The strategy is first exploring the general relationship between democracy and historical awareness, and then, studying the relationship between democracy and historical writing itself to find out whether

Participatory democracy, representative democracy, and the nature of diffuse and concentrated interests: A case study of public involvement on a national gorest district

Science.gov (United States)

Christine Overdevest

2000-01-01

To evaluate whether public involvement on a national forest district fairly represents the public's values, this article proposes four hypothesis tests. First, it is hypothesized that public-involvement programs operute according to a participatory democracy logic, in which broad cross sections of the public participate in public involvement opportunities. A...

(PostMaterialism, Satisfaction with Democracy and Support for Democracy in Eastern Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavlović, Zoran

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The materialist-postmaterialist value dimension, understood as assigning priority to self-expression and quality of life as opposed to physical and economic security, has been one of the most important heuristic tools in the analysis of the changes of predominant values in cross-cultural and comparative studies in past decades. In recent elaboration of self-expression and emancipative values (in both cases, with postmaterialism as the most important component, postmaterialist values have been viewed as an essence of democratic political culture and a cultural precondition of effective democracy. This study was aimed at analysing the relation between postmaterialist values (understood as a political/thick culture variable, satisfaction with country’s democracy (institutional/thin culture variable and support for democracy. The data from the European Values Survey (EVS, conducted on the nationally representative samples in twenty East European countries on the total of twenty countries and 30,393 respondents, were used. It is shown that postmaterialism is an important aspect of democratic political culture in Eastern Europe; in general, the most supportive of democracy are postmaterialists. On the other hand, there is a mixed pattern between the postmaterialist values and satisfaction with democracy – in some countries, citizens satisfied with democracy are more prone to choose postmaterialist items compared to the dissatisfied ones, while in some other countries the reverse is true. Both are, however, important predictors of the support for democracy as well as the country’s level of democracy development (measured by the EIU Democracy index. The relevance of postmaterialist values for the promotion of democratic political culture in Eastern Europe, possible alternative mechanisms of value change as well as the materialist-postmaterialist conception are discussed.

Democracy from Islamic law perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mubarak Abdulkadir

2016-01-01

Full Text Available It is frequently argued that because many Muslim states are monarchies or dictatorships or because of certain events that have taken place within their borders, Islamic law is not compatible with democracy and democracy is even neglected in the provisions of the holy Qur'an. Islamic law, according to what can be traced in its primary sources, not only supports democracy and people's participation in the state affairs but even possesses provisions in the Qur'an verses which encourage counselling and consultation and some scholars deem that to be democratic representation. Islamic Law, according to the provisions of some verses from the holy Qur'an encourages democracy but not liberal democracy like that of the western world. The religious democracy that can go with our modern time and solve many contemporary problems of the Muslim world is the model which was introduced by late Ayatollah Imam Khomeini after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. The author in this research work concludes by showing that the ideal democracy enshrined in the holy Qur'an, as the primary source of Islamic law, is not liberal democracy of the western world, but rather a religious democracy.

Contemporary theories of democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mladenović Ivan

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is two-fold: first, to analyze several contemporary theories of democracy, and secondly, to propose a theoretical framework for further investigations based on analyzed theories. The following four theories will be analyzed: pluralism, social choice theory, deliberative democracy and participatory democracy.

Rescheduling the special interest group.

Science.gov (United States)

Peace, Helen

1993-06-09

The committee members of the RCN Social Interest Group for Nurses Working Within Day Hospitals/Day Care for Older People would like to apologise to the large number of people who were interested in attending our conference, which unfortunately had to be postponed.

Democracy in the Middle East: A Goal or an Impossibility?

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Carignan, Jennie

2007-01-01

Since September 11, democracy has come to dominate the discourse as authoritarian Middle East regimes, even if they are friendly to Western interests, are perceived to be at the root of the existing...

Direct democracy and minority rights: same-sex marriage bans in the U.S.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Daniel C

2011-01-01

Objectives. A common critique of direct democracy posits that minority rights are endangered by citizen legislative institutions. By allowing citizens to directly create public policy, these institutions avoid the filtering mechanisms of representative democracy that provide a check on the power of the majority. Empirical research, however, has produced conflicting results that leave the question of direct democracy's effect on minority rights open to debate. This article seeks to empirically test this critique using a comparative, dynamic approach.Methods. I examine the diffusion of same-sex marriage bans in the United States using event-history analysis, comparing direct-democracy states to non-direct-democracy states.Results. The results show that direct-democracy states are significantly more likely than other states to adopt same-sex marriage bans.Conclusion. The findings support the majoritarian critique of direct democracy, suggesting that the rights of minority groups are at relatively higher risk under systems with direct democracy.

Cosmopolitan Democracy: A Restatement

Science.gov (United States)

Archibugi, Daniele

2012-01-01

Can democracy be expanded beyond borders? For many years, it was taken for granted that the norms and values of democracy could be applied within the boundaries of a state only. But over the last 20 years, it has been increasingly argued that democracy can also inform international organizations and global politics. This article recapitulates the…

Democracy as a Middle Ground: A Uni…ed Theory of Development and Political Regimes

OpenAIRE

Larsson, Anna; Parente, Stephen

2010-01-01

A large literature documents that autocratic regimes have not, on average, outperformed democratic regimes, although they do display greater variance in economic performance. At the same time, no long-lived autocracy currently is rich whereas every long-lived democracy is. This paper puts forth a theory to account for these observations. The theory rests on the idea that autocratic leaders are heterogenous in their preferences and the idea that special interest groups can successfully lobby a...

Democracy Aid and Electoral Accountability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heinrich, Tobias; Loftis, Matthew

2017-01-01

for this by analyzing incumbent turnover in elections following poor economic performance – the economic vote – as a measure of voting to achieve performance accountability. In our analysis of over 1,100 elections in 114 developing countries between 1975 and 2010, we find distinct evidence that increasing receipt......Although foreign policies often fail to successfully promote democracy, over a decade of empirical research indicates that foreign aid specifically for democracy promotion is remarkably successful at improving the survival and institutional strength of fragile democracies. However, these measures...... cannot tell us how well democracy aid supports the central promise of democracy: accountable government. Since institutions can be subverted in various ways that undermine accountability, it is vital to know whether democracy aid supports accountability to assess its overall success. We provide evidence...

Democracy and non-profit housing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anne Vorre; Langergaard, Luise Li

2017-01-01

Resident democracy as a special form of participatory democratic set-up is fundamental in the understanding, and self-understanding, of the non-profit housing sector in Denmark. Through a case study, the paper explores how resident democracy is perceived and narrated between residents and employees....... The tensions are related to representative versus participatory democracy; collectivity versus individuality; and service versus welfare. The tensions elucidate how resident democracy is squeezed between different logics, which result in an ambiguous setting for practising democracy. Based on the results...... at a housing association. The study indicates that the meta-story of democracy is disconnected from practice and the lived lives of residents. Three analytical tensions structure the analysis, which relate to the conditions for realizing the democratic ideal embedded in the structure of the sector...

'Decipio': examining Virchow in the context of modern 'democracy'.

Science.gov (United States)

Reilly, R Gregory; McKee, Martin

2012-04-01

More than 100 years ago Rudolf Virchow advocated for enhanced democracy and socioeconomic reforms in order that the state could empower people to achieve better health. With reference to these now famous assertions this article traces the promises and pit-falls of democracy from ancient Greece to neo-liberal economies, to ascertain if the democratic state is indeed the ideal mechanism for promoting public health. In the end we conclude that contemporary western political systems are not rooted in the interest of the people, but are rather deceptive forces of branding designed to promote underlining agendas. This 'decipractic' (decipo = to deceive) system of politics demands a vigilant analysis and response from those in the health and academic communities to ensure that governments can be a mechanism for positive change in the public's interest. Copyright © 2011 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Legitimacy of Constitutional Justice: Democracy, Constitutional Court and Theory Against Majority Interest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thaminne Nathalia Cabral Moraes e Silva

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article has as its theme the analysis of the separation of powers and the rule of democracy, in addition to the possibility of the Constitutional Court be composed of people appointed by the President of the Republic, not fulfilling the democratic rule, and make the control of constitutionality of laws, created through democratic process. Will be answered: the separation of powers obey the democratic rule? When the Legislature fails to fulfill its function of legislating, opens the opportunity for the Supreme Court, as the Constitutional Court that is, create, through judicial activism, silent rules? That injured the democratic rule?

Democracy, Support for Democracy and Corruption. A Longitudinal Study of Latin American Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davide Grassi

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Although often unable to satisfactorily solve the problem, democracy (especially enduring democracy is commonly believed to reduce corruption. Yet, both Transparency International and the World Bank continue to attach a high risk of corruption to Latin American countries: corruption and impunity remain prevalent in the area, despite consolidating democratic regimes and recent anticorruption reforms. Using level of democracy and its endurance, as well as information on the perceptions of democratic performance and corruption obtained from the Latinobarometro, we analyzed a panel data covering the period 2005-2010 in 14 Latin American countries. Our main results show that levels of democracy and citizens' assessment of government fairness have a positive impact on corruption. However, satisfaction towards democracy has the opposite effect: when citizens believed democratic governments and public administrations to be efficient, they also perceived that gains against corruption had significantly decreased.

Investigating Primary School Teachers' Perception about Democracy through Metaphor Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Nasirci, Hasan; Sadik, Fatma

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine democracy perception of classroom teachers via metaphor analysis. Study group for research is formed of 253 classroom teachers. "Democracy Metaphors Questionnaire" (DMQ) has been used in collecting data. Content analysis has been used on analysis of qualitative data of research and descriptive…

Deliberative democracy in health care: current challenges and future prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Safaei, Jalil

2015-01-01

There is a vast body of literature on deliberative, participative, or engaged democracy. In the area of health care there is a rapidly expanding literature on deliberative democracy as embodied in various notions of public engagement, shared decision-making (SDM), patient-centered care, and patient/care provider autonomy over the past few decades. It is useful to review such literature to get a sense of the challenges and prospects of introducing deliberative democracy in health care. This paper reviews the key literature on deliberative democracy and SDM in health care settings with a focus on identifying the main challenges of promoting this approach in health care, and recognizing its progress so far for mapping out its future prospects in the context of advanced countries. Several databases were searched to identify the literature pertinent to the subject of this study. A total of 56 key studies in English were identified and reviewed carefully for indications and evidence of challenges and/or promising avenues of promoting deliberative democracy in health care. Time pressure, lack of financial motivation, entrenched professional interests, informational imbalance, practical feasibility, cost, diversity of decisions, and contextual factors are noted as the main challenges. As for the prospects, greater clarity on conception of public engagement and policy objectives, real commitment of the authorities to public input, documenting evidence of the effectiveness of public involvement, development of patient decision supports, training of health professionals in SDM, and use of multiple and flexible methods of engagement leadership suited to specific contexts are the main findings in the reviewed literature. Seeking deliberative democracy in health care is both challenging and rewarding. The challenges have been more or less identified. However, its prospects are potentially significant. Such prospects are more likely to materialize if deliberative democracy is

National constitutional courts in the European Constitutional Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Komárek, Jan

2014-01-01

This article critically assesses the transformation of national constitutional courts’ place in the law and politics of the EU and its member states. This process eliminates the difference between constitutional and ordinary national courts, which is crucial for the institutional implementation...... of the discourse theory of law and democracy. It also disrupts the symbiotic relationship between national constitutional democracies established after World War II and European integration. The article argues that maintaining the special place of national constitutional courts is in the vital interest of both...... the EU and its member states, understood together as the European Constitutional Democracy—the central notion developed in this article in order to support an argument that should speak to both EU lawyers and national constitutionalists....

Debugging Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Likhotal

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. However since the beginning of the new century democracy has been clearly suffering from serious structural problems, rather than a few isolated ailments. Why has it run into trouble, can it be revived? In the consumption driven world people have started to be driven by the belief in economic prosperity as the guarantee of human freedom. As a result, human development and personal status have become hostages of economic performance, deforming basic civilisation’s ethical matrix. However in 10-15 years, the world may be completely different. We are looking at communications and technology revolutions occurring in very abbreviated time frames. Soon, billions of people will interact via a fast data-transferring Metaweb, and it will change social standards as well as human behaviour patterns. Integrated global economies functioning as holistic entities will spur a deep reframing of global governance, shaping a new configuration of political, economic and military power. One can hardly expect that these changes will leave democratic mechanisms intact. It’s a pivotal moment for all of us because we are facing paradigm changes in our way of life. We clearly need a new political vision that is deliverable quickly. Democracy can be reset if it can provide a platform for collective judgement and individual development—in a value-driven process, when values manifest themselves in concrete and socially meaningful issues, and are not reduced to the economic optimization and politics of the wallet. In other words, the only remedy to resolve the crisis of democracy is more democracy.

Egalitarian Democracy between Elitism and Populism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Cerovac

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In his influential book Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy Jacques Ranciere builds a substantial critique of liberal regimes present in most Western countries. He finds them defective because: (1 they allow wealth and economic power of groups and individuals to influence public decision-making, making those with economic power an elite group; (2 they allow knowledge and expertise of groups and individuals to influence public decision-making, making those with epistemic power an elite group; (3 they allow and encourage social and economic conditions that make people inappropriate for decision-making on important issues, making those with certain characteristics thus acquired an inferior group. We focus on the Ranciere’s second objection by relying on Estlund’s epistemic proceduralis approach and claim that one does not have to embrace postmodernist idea of reducing reason to relations of power in order to present a substantial critique of our contemporary society. Furthermore, we argue that one does not have to base egalitarian democracy on postmodernist ideas that reject the truth-tracking potential of democratic procedures – egalitarian democracy is perfectly compatible with the idea of truth in politics. Key words: , , , , ,

Multilingualism and Education for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Biseth, Heidi

2009-01-01

This essay attempts to show the importance of linguistic issues in education for democracy and the close relationship between democracy and multilingualism. Increasingly nation-states are having to adapt to linguistic diversity within their borders and to recognize that democracy requires the participation of all citizens, including those…

Law, Democracy & Development

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The evolution and implementation of democracy, good governance practices, human rights and socio-economic development are critical issues facing South Africa and Africa as a whole. Law interacts with this process in ways that may promote or inhibit it. Law, Democracy & Development addresses this interaction. Our aim ...

Recognition of Laborers as Citizens: First Worker Democracy versus Liberal Capitalist Democracy

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Brabec, Martin

2016-01-01

Roč. 15, 1/2 (2016), s. 157-165 ISSN 1569-1500 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA14-19416S Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : Athenian democracy * capitalism * citizenships * demos * exploitation * liberal democracy * peasants Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion

Quality of democracy in Venezuela

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Daniel H. LEVINE

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Discussions of democracy in contemporary Venezuela lack a settled definition of the subject, how to study it, or indeed of what counts as «democracy» in the first place. The regime has been described as everything from participatory democracy, hybrid, mixed, and personalist to populist, illiberal, or no longer democratic but rather competitive authoritarian. The goal of this article is to measure the quality of democracy in Venezuela, within the terms of a procedural concept of democracy as detailed in our earlier work. Empirical measurement of the quality of democracy on five dimensions (electoral choice, participation, responsiveness, accountability, sovereignty reveals a low level overall and deep institutional weakness under a personalist leadership, with little change from 2005 to 2010. Future scenarios, after the 2012 presidential election result, include reinforcement of authoritarian trends, open militarization, liberalization and institutional strengthening, or long term volatility and polarized conflict. All scenarios are contingent on the health of President Chávez, who is a central unifying factor for his movement and regime

RELIGIOUS DEMOCRATIZATION IN INDONESIA: STRENGTHENING THE PRO-CEDURAL AND SUBSTANTIAL RELIGIOUS DEMOCRACY

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Eka Hendry AR.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Inspired by the book of Michael Mann about the dark side of democracy that discusses the paradox between the ideality of democratic values and empirical realities of violence in the name of freedom (democracy, this paper begins with the exposure of the paradox, such as the rise of the violent conflict between groups of people (both ethnic and religious-based and the high prevalence of violence between religious groups in Indonesia. Even worse, a very wrenching violence involves state actors (rulers. This paper tries to understand the roots of the paradox, with a look at how the relationship between state and religion and the religious community trend of Indonesia (especially Muslims. The author argues that the democratization of religion is a solution to the issues. To answer what kind of religious democracy lives in Indonesia, the author analyzes through a religious procedural (or constitutional democratic dimension and religious substantial democratic dimension. The phenomenon of disobedience of law and system and the euphoria of law-making that reflects “intolerance” in several places in Indonesia display the fundamental issue in the religious procedural democracy. Whereas in the context of religious substantial democracy, the prevailing trend of religion that serves as a political and economic vehicle and ignores religion as a substantial aspect of the behavior of the Indonesian society has resulted in the marginalization of religious position and function. Then, the infiltration of the model of political Islam has also led to alienation of the character of the Islamic society of Indonesia, from a democratic pattern to a revival (radical one. In this light, the author needs to present a strategy to encourage religious democracy in Indonesia, structurally through formulating the ideal relation model between state and religion and culturally through a substantial pattern of religion embedded with the character of Indonesian religious

Conceptions of "Nordic Democracy" and European Integration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Uffe

Reluctance towards European integration in the Nordic countries is doubtlessly more connected to ideas on democracy than elsewhere. This goes not only for the (empirical) practicability of democracy but also for the (normative) desirability of democracy in the EU. After the Second World War, when...... and reborn after the Second World War as genuine democracy. However, a third narrative developed in which democracy was seen as having its roots in the Nordic countries dating back to the Viking Age or earlier. In the period from the 1940s to the 1980s, a number of Nordic anthologies contained articles...... the process of contemporary European integration was approaching, and the concept of democracy at the same time was heavily contested in public debates and among academics, two conceptions of democracy were struggling: On one hand, democracy was recognized as a European value developing in the form...

Quantifying and Interpreting Group Differences in Interest Profiles

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Armstrong, Patrick Ian; Fouad, Nadya A.; Rounds, James; Hubert, Lawrence

2010-01-01

Research on group differences in interests has often focused on structural hypotheses and mean-score differences in Holland's (1997) theory, with comparatively little research on basic interest measures. Group differences in interest profiles were examined using statistical methods for matching individuals with occupations, the C-index, Q…

Towards a Critique of Political Democracy

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Mario Tronti

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Starting from the idea that democracy always binds together a practice of domination and a project of liberation, Tronti formulates the conditions for a critique of democracy that would permit a rebirth of political thought in the current conjuncture. Bringing the heterodox Marxist traditions of ‘workerism’ and the ‘autonomy of the political’ together with the feminist thinking of difference, Tronti underscores the identitarian tendencies of democracy and the difficulties of combining democracy with a genuine notion of freedom. For Tronti, democracy is increasingly synonymous with the pervasiveness of capitalism understood as ‘bourgeois society’, and the victory of ‘real democracy’ (as one might speak of ‘real socialism’ is the sociological victory of the bourgeoisie. The homo oeconomicus and the homo democraticus are fused into the dominant figure of democracy, the ‘mass bourgeois’. Against the depoliticizing consequences of ‘democratic Empire’, Tronti proposes a profound rethinking of our notion of politics, one which should not shy from reconsidering the elitist critiques of democracy.

Adolescents' Conceptions of Democracy in Central/Eastern Europe and the United States

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Avery, Patricia G.; Levy, Sara A.; Simmons, Annette M. M.; Scarlett, Michael H.

2012-01-01

The term democracy has an overwhelmingly positive connotation for most people (Diamond & Plattner, 2008), yet it is a contested, fluid, and evolving concept that represents many different things to different people. This article presents our analysis of conceptions of democracy among groups of adolescents (n = 2,848, ages 13-19) in the Czech…

Freedom and the Non-Instrumental Value of Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rostbøll, Christian F.

This paper is an intervention in two debates, one concerning the instrumental vs noninstrumental value of democracy, the other concerning the relationship between freedom and democracy. I reject the purely instrumental justification of democracy and defend the idea that democracy has noninstrumen......This paper is an intervention in two debates, one concerning the instrumental vs noninstrumental value of democracy, the other concerning the relationship between freedom and democracy. I reject the purely instrumental justification of democracy and defend the idea that democracy has...... noninstrumental value. I see the noninstrumental value of democracy in terms of freedom rather than the now more common reference to equality or fairness. The freedom argument can better show the noninstrumenal value of democracy and can better respond to some core objections to democratic noninstrumentalism than...... the equality argument. A main aim of this paper is to show that freedom and democracy are not merely instrumentally linked but, rather, intrinsically related. I argue this mainly via a critical engagement with Philip Pettit’s conception of freedom as nondomination. My defense of the noninstrumental value...

Equality, Human Dignity and Minorities: A Social Democracy in Construction

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Jacson Gross

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article deals with equality, human dignity and the need to build a social democracy. Bringing equality concepts in a broad sense as foundation work, is set to develop writing by making some remarks on the dignity of the individual and minorities, often not heard, even within democratic scenarios since democracy is the voice the most by hiding voices and demands of sectors or groups excluded from the agenda. Minorities such as LGBT, black, residents of peripheral areas of large cities, among others, do not have their demands heard from this idea, we seek a concept of social democracy, which is wider than just the voice of the majority.

Power and democracy in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jørgen Goul; Jørgensen, Torben Beck; Valgårda, Signild

the numerous projects under the Power Study, and this book is a short presentation of these conclusions.The main focus of the book is the state of democracy in Denmark at the dawn of the 21st century. How has democracy fared, has the development made things better or worse, and to which extent does......In 1997, the Danish Parliament decided to launch a power study, officially An Analysis of Democracy and Power in Denmark. A steering committee consisting of five independent researchers was assigned responsibility for the project. The Steering Committee has gathered the overall conclusions from...... contemporary democracy live up to our democratic ideals? The answer is that in many ways democracy is doing better than we might have expected, considering the intense pressure on the nation state and the democratic institutions in the postwar period. The Danish population is still full of democratic life...

Democracy is a historical urgency

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Synek, Miroslav

2015-03-01

Survival of humanity, on this planet, may depend, heavily, on coping with advancing technology of nuclear missiles. Let us consider critical alternatives of powerful governments: democracy, as an alternative to dictatorship. Democracy is based on free elections, as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Democracy is a historical urgency, in the age of inter-continental nuclear missiles, computerized on a push-button, conceivably controllable by a very powerful, miscalculating and/or insane, dictator, capable of producing global nuclear holocaust, on our entire planet. Diplomacy, together with supporting activities, should be utilized, to help, in important steps, at this time, for achieving democracy in critical areas.

Deliberative democracy in health care: current challenges and future prospects

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Safaei J

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Jalil Safaei Department of Economics, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, CanadaBackground: There is a vast body of literature on deliberative, participative, or engaged democracy. In the area of health care there is a rapidly expanding literature on deliberative democracy as embodied in various notions of public engagement, shared decision-making (SDM, patient-centered care, and patient/care provider autonomy over the past few decades. It is useful to review such literature to get a sense of the challenges and prospects of introducing deliberative democracy in health care.Objective: This paper reviews the key literature on deliberative democracy and SDM in health care settings with a focus on identifying the main challenges of promoting this approach in health care, and recognizing its progress so far for mapping out its future prospects in the context of advanced countries.Method: Several databases were searched to identify the literature pertinent to the subject of this study. A total of 56 key studies in English were identified and reviewed carefully for indications and evidence of challenges and/or promising avenues of promoting deliberative democracy in health care.Results: Time pressure, lack of financial motivation, entrenched professional interests, informational imbalance, practical feasibility, cost, diversity of decisions, and contextual factors are noted as the main challenges. As for the prospects, greater clarity on conception of public engagement and policy objectives, real commitment of the authorities to public input, documenting evidence of the effectiveness of public involvement, development of patient decision supports, training of health professionals in SDM, and use of multiple and flexible methods of engagement leadership suited to specific contexts are the main findings in the reviewed literature.Conclusion: Seeking deliberative democracy in health care is both challenging and rewarding. The

PERCEPCIONES DE BIENESTAR SOCIAL, ANOMIA, INTERÉS E IMPOTENCIA POLÍTICA EN RELACIÓN CON LAS ACTITUDES HACIA LA DEMOCRACIA/ PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING, ANOMIE, POLITICAL INTEREST AND POWERLESSNESS IN RELATION WITH ATTITUDES TOWARDS DEMOCRACY

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Yunuen Ochoa Madrigal***

2011-04-01

Full Text Available RESUMENEste estudio empírico de corte transversal pone a prueba el supuesto de que las percepciones de bienestar social,anomia, interés político e impotencia política condicionan las actitudes hacia la democracia. Se tomó el modelo de cincodimensiones de Keyes (1998 para medir el bienestar social y se midió el constructo anomia desde la perspectiva psicosocialde Srole (1956. La muestra conformada por 568 sujetos mayores de edad de diferentes estados de México contestó unabatería que contenía cuatro cuestionarios: La Escala de Actitudes hacia la Democracia de Morales, Las Escalas de BienestarSocial de Keyes, La Escala de Anomia de Srole, La adaptación al español de la Escala de Impotencia Política y un ítem devalor único sobre Interés por la Política tomado de la Encuesta Social Europea 2006. Las correlaciones de bienestar social einterés por la política son positivas para la aceptación de la democracia. Los resultados muestran que a mayor percepciónde anomia e impotencia política mayor rechazo de la democracia.ABSTRACTThis empirical and transversal paper tests the hypothesis that perceived social well-being, anomie, political interest, andpolitical powerlessness condition attitudes towards democracy. We adopted the Keyes' five-dimension model to measuresocial well-being and the Srole's (1956 psychosocial perspective for anomie. A sample of 568 legally adult subjects ofdifferent states of Mexico filled out a battery containing four questionnaires: Morales' Attitudes Towards Democracy Scale,Keyes' Social Well-being Scales, Srole Anomie Scale, an adaptation into Spanish language of The Powerlessness Scale, andone item of unique value for Political Interest taken from the 2006 European Social Survey. Correlations between social wellbeing,political interest and acceptance of democracy were positives. Results show that higher perception of anomie andpolitical powerlessness indicates more rejection of democracy.

On Education and the Taste for Democracy.

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Freire, Paulo

1991-01-01

Argues that it is impossible to teach democracy without living democracy. Shows the need to create the taste for democracy, and the appetite for learning, taking risks, and for appreciating differences. Asserts that teachers are not actually champions of civil rights, freedom and democracy but will be called on to fight for these ideals. (PRA)

Democracy, education, and economics

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Emami, Z.; Davis, J.

2009-01-01

This paper examines the connections between democracy and education, particularly as it concerns economics. We adopt a pluralist proceduralist view of democracy, and argue that this requires a view of individuals as active decision-makers able to deliberate and reflect on their different ideas and

Örgütsel Demokrasi( Organizational Democracy

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Pınar ERKAL COŞAN

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The understanding of democracy that is shaped by contemporary economic, political, social and cultural developments makes us re-consider organizational life. The number of studies on organizational democracy rises exponentially whereby contributions to and complexities for the organization are discussed. In this context, this study begins with a conceptualization of organizational democracy from modern business management perspective, which is followed by respectively; a discussion of previous research on organizational democracy, the causes behind the new departure towards organizational democracy, the contributions to organizations, the complexities and problems faced during practical implementation, and finally a literature review on the ways and means of ensuring organizational democracy. With this study, the following questions will be raised to scholarly discussion; is organizational democracy just an ideal emphasizing the human element and employee satisfaction, or is it a strategy that needs managerial attention for attainment of organizational goals in 21 st century?

From Deliberative Democracy to Communicative Democracy in the Classroom. A Response to "Education for Deliberative Democracy: A Typology of Classroom Discussions"

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Weasel, Lisa

2017-01-01

This response to Samuelsson's typology for assessing deliberative democracy in classroom discussions views his analysis through an equity lens. It offers Young's model of communicative democracy as a resource and argues that incorporating that model's emphasis on greeting, rhetoric, and storytelling into the typology can help to promote more…

Deliberative Democracy and Adult Civic Education

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Carcasson, Martin; Sprain, Leah

2012-01-01

Adult education programs should turn to the deliberative democracy movement in order to help their communities better address the "wicked problems" they face. The authors contend that due to the "wicked" nature of problems in the diverse democracies, communities must develop and sustain their capacity for deliberative democracy and collaborative…

Mass Media and Ideology Dissemination against Democracy in Thailand

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Songyot Buaphuean

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The study on “Mass Media and Ideology Dissemination against Democracy in Thailand” is qualitative study with the method of documentary research from text books, books, newspapers and online newspapers to find the definition of democracy which was the system of forming the elected government with the principle of sovereignty, majority, equality, freedom and laws. However, some mass media had false consciousness of democracy which included: election brought bad quality politicians; recruitment of persons to form the government was better than election; promotion of superstition; one man one vote was not for Thai society; capitalism deteriorated the nation; The Armed Forces worked for the people. Another concept was the idea that believed Thai society was praising the elite groups. The ideology said the society should obey the senior citizen who had morals, and the Armed Forces forced people to obey.

Conceptualizing and Measuring the Quality of Democracy: The Citizens’ Perspective

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Dieter Fuchs

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In recent years, several measurements of the quality of democracy have been developed (e.g. Democracy Barometer, Varieties of Democracy Project. These objective measurements focus on institutional and procedural characteristics of democracy. This article starts from the premise that in order to fully understand the quality of democracy such objective measurements have to be complemented by subjective measurements based on the perspective of citizens. The aim of the article is to conceptualize and measure the subjective quality of democracy. First, a conceptualization of the subjective quality of democracy is developed consisting of citizens’ support for three normative models of democracy (electoral, liberal, and direct democracy. Second, based on the World Values Survey 2005–2007, an instrument measuring these different dimensions of the subjective quality of democracy is suggested. Third, distributions for different models of democracy are presented for some European and non-European liberal democracies. They reveal significant differences regarding the subjective quality of democracies. Fourth, the subjective quality of democracy of these countries is compared with the objective quality of democracy based on three indices (electoral democracy, liberal democracy and direct popular vote developed by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem Project. Finally, further research questions are discussed.

African Americans, democracy, and biomedical and behavioral research: contradictions or consensus in community-based participatory research?

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Spigner, C

Individualism, in both its political and attitudinal senses, reinforces societal and institutional racism in the United States. Because of individualism's dominant focus on self-interest and self-reliance, any application of "participatory democracy" in community-based biomedical and behavioral research is fraught with dilemmas similar to those that Gunnar Myrdal observed between American racism and democracy. The research establishment is overwhelmed by well-meaning non-minorities who recognize racism and its consequences in health, but only greater representation of people-of-color in the health establishment can ameliorate the inherent contradictions of "participatory democracy" which is so fundamental to the process of community-based participatory research.

Lebanese Young Citizens’ Attitudes toward Peace and Democracy

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Khayrazad Kari Jabbour

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Lebanon is a small democratic country with a population of less than four million and a range of diversity; there are at least 18 different religious sects and 19 different political parties. The diversity among ethnic, religious and/or political groups has created conflicts that severely impact the Lebanese economy, environment, politics and most importance our young citizens. The aim of this investigation is to capture students’ awareness and attitudes toward the accountability and mechanisms of peace and democracy. Data for the study was obtained from extensive literature reviews and questionnaire surveys of 70 high school students. The investigation was conducted in the fall of the year 2013. The results of the study showed that most Lebanese young citizen view peace and democracy process associated with the end of violence and conflict behaviors; very small percent of respondents believe that bringing peace and democracy process should be answered by the people or by themselves. Results also indicate a lack of a sense of security among young citizen. This raises the urgent need to put into practice an effective peace education program that inspires and motivates young citizens to be involved in the peace and the democracy building process.

RETHINKING DEMOCRACY (reflections on John Dunn’s “Breaking democracy’s spell”

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P. S. Kanevskiy

2017-01-01

, but where there are very few attempts to understand reasons of its failures not through the lens of political process but looking at its symbolic meanings. Democracy remains not only key political symbol of our age, which once started spreading from the United States and France where its antique experience had been revised, it is also a cognitive labyrinth in which one finds it difficult to orientate. That is why every attempt to understand the structure of the labyrinth is should not be neglected. This article will be of interest to students and scholars in political science, political sociology, political linguistics, history of political thought.

Democracy and Teacher Education: Setting Priorities

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Goodman, Jesse H.

2009-01-01

As John Dewey noted in his last book, each generation, in its turn, must assume responsibility as caretaker of democracy. He noted that one should never take democracy for granted. Everyone lives in an imperfect democracy, and teacher educators should play their part in protecting, nurturing, and advancing democratic ideals, rituals, values, and…

Corruption, democracy and bureaucracy

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Aviral Kumar TIWARI

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the relationship of corruption with democracy and bureaucracy in the 82 countries in a panel framework. For the analysis we use rule of law, regulatory quality, control over corruption and secondary school enrollment ratio as control variables. We find that democracy, rule of law and control over corruption decreases the level of corruption. When we allowed for interaction effect among independent variables we find the evidence of strong interaction effect between all of the explanatory variables. We also find that, surprisingly, higher democracy and rule of law are positively associated with the level of corruption while higher bureaucracy negatively.

Democracy and development in Nigeria

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Tolu Lawal

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Democracy and development are global phenomena. Every country in the world aspires and claims to be democratic. This is because of the role of the latter in developmental process. This paper examined the linkage between democracy and development in Nigeria, using ethics as the yardstick for democratic adherence. The paper adopted content analysis approach to source its data and concluded that democracy is an ingredient of development. It must therefore be sustained to evolve and ensure sustainable development.

Successful corporate democracy: sustainable cooperation of capital and labor in the Dutch Breman Group

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de Jong, G.; van Witteloostuijn, A.

The typical modern corporation is based on the old-fashioned blueprint of the shareholder-driven hierarchy. A worthwhile question is how alternative blueprints of corporate democracy might better satisfy the requirements of modem knowledge economies. In this article, we introduce a model of

Dewey's Participatory Educational Democracy

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Višnovský, Emil; Zolcer, Štefan

2016-01-01

In this essay, Emil Višnovský and Štefan Zolcer outline John Dewey's contribution to democratic theory as presented in his 1916 classic "Democracy and Education." The authors begin with a review of the general context of Dewey's conception of democracy, and then focus on particular democratic ideas and concepts as presented in…

Individual decision making, group decision making and deliberation

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Radovanović Bojana

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Each of us makes a number of decisions, from the less important to those with far-reaching consequences. As members of different groups, we are also actors of group decision making. In order to make a rational decision, a choice-making procedure must satisfy a number of assumptions (conditions of rationality. In addition, when it comes to group decisions, those procedures should also be “fair.” However, it is not possible to define a procedure of choice-making that would transform individual orders of alternatives based on preferences of perfectly rational individuals into a single social order and still meet conditions of rationality and ethics. The theory of deliberative democracy appeared in response to the impossibility of Social Choice theory. The basic assumption of deliberative democracy is that individuals adjust their preferences taking into account interests of the community. They are open for discussion with other group members and are willing to change their attitudes in order to achieve common interests. Ideally, group members come to an agreement during public discussion (deliberation. Still, this concept cannot completely over­come all the difficulties posed by the theory of social choice. Specifically, there is no solution for strategic and manipulative behavior of individuals. Also, the concept of deliberative democracy faces certain problems particular to this approach, such as, to name but a few, problems with the establishment of equality of participants in the debate and their motivation, as well as problems with the organization of public hearings. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47009: Evropske integracije i društveno-ekonomske promene privrede Srbije na putu ka EU i br. 179015: Izazovi i perspektive strukturnih promena u Srbiji: Strateški pravci ekonomskog razvoja i usklađivanje sa zahtevima EU

Democracy and development: the Nigerian experience | Ebohon ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The conventional notions on the relationship between democracy and development are that democracy accelerates development. Based on the Nigeria experience, this paper argues that both democracy and authoritarianism are social system based political ideologies that derives their character from the wider society, ...

The Myth of Bourgeois Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mulvad, Andreas Christian Møller; Stahl, Rune Møller

representative democracy - not abolish it. Third, we highlight how Leninists and liberals have unknowingly colluded to sustain the myth that parliamentary democracy is essentially liberal. Finally, turning our attention to the current neoliberal conjuncture, we argue that Badiou’s and Žižek’s notion......This paper argues that the Left should move beyond the commonplace understanding – upheld by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek - that parliamentary democracy is essentially of a bourgeois nature. We show first how the introduction of parliamentary democracy – defined as constitutionalization of state...... power under a legislative body, with regular elections and universal suffrage – was everywhere a result of the pressure of social movements from below against the aspirations of both conservatives and liberals. Second, we reread Marx on the Paris Commune to discover how Marx wanted to radicalize...

Understanding of Democracy among Young People in Croatia

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Vladimir Vujčić

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The task of this paper was to explore how young people understand the values of democracy, how much they believe in democracy as a political system, how much they are satisfi ed with the way democracy works (“constitution at work”, and how much they trust government institutions. It is important to analyse the understanding of democracy, for democracy is dependent on the citizens’ opinions and the level of their political culture rather than on its normative constitution and formal value system. Thus, this analysis joins in the debate between foundationalists and antifoundationalists on democracy and its functioning. The present model of research has provided insights into the relationship between so-called diff use and specifi c support of democracy (D. Easton and an explanation of that which R. Dahl defi nes as the “democratic paradox” in contemporary democracies. This scrutiny shows that young people in Croatia understand democracy within the framework of liberal values, but also that they largely tend towards so-called consensual democracy and a socialist syndrome involving a prevalent aspiration to social equality and an economically interventionist state. Moreover, the analysis shows that young people in Croatia have a low level of democratic legitimation and an even lower level of trust in government institutions. This is not a good basis for the development of stable and well-functioning democracy in Croatian society. It all warns against serious shortcomings in the political education of young people in Croatia and in the development of democratic political culture and democratic citizenship.

Bioethics and deliberative democracy: five warnings from Hobbes.

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Trotter, Griffin

2006-06-01

Thomas Hobbes is one of the most ardent and thoroughgoing opponents of participatory democracy among Western political philosophers. Though Hobbes's alternative to participatory democracy-assent by subjects to rule by an absolute sovereign-no longer constitutes a viable political alternative for Westerners, his critique of participatory democracy is a potentially valuable source of insight about its liabilities. This essay elaborates five theses from Hobbes that stand as cogent warnings to those who embrace participatory democracy, especially those (such as most bioethicists) advocating for deliberative democracy based on a rational consensus model. In light of these warnings, the author suggests an alternative, modus vivendi approach to deliberative democracy that would radically alter the current practice of bioethics.

Interest group satisfaction with the European Commission's consultation agendas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hermansson, Henrik Alf Jonas

2016-01-01

Interest groups exist largely to raise awareness of particular problems or to avoid regulation by keeping items off the political agenda, it is a major component of their raison d'être. At the earliest stages of the European policy process, the European Commission presents an agenda in the form...... of a "call for consultation" which interest groups attempt to influence. Groups that have had a role in setting the Commission's agenda will likely show most satisfaction with the agenda, used here as a way to examine their agenda-setting power. Based on a novel dataset covering 190 policy issues and 469...... interest groups, unique issue-level data on the expertise held by interest groups, their privileged access and their resources, this paper evaluates whether it is the technical information provided by groups, their insider status or their ability to put pressure on the European institutions that form...

The American Dream, Democracy, and Participatory Theory.

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Wood, George H.

1983-01-01

America has moved from participatory democracy to protective democracy, with political elites making the decisions. The result has been a culturally disenfranchised people abandoning the political system which does not want them. Calls for a return to participatory democracy and citizenship education programs which foster it. (CS)

Democracy and the Moral Imperative to Philosophize

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Humphrey, J. F.

2008-12-01

Full Text Available An important part of Cornelius Castoriadis’ exploration into the adventure of modernity involves his reflections on democracy. Indeed, in no less than three works [Figures of the Thinkable, Rising Tide of Insignificancy (The Big Sleep, and World in Fragments], Castoriadis devotes a part, entitled Polis, in which he discusses democracy and its relation to modernity by beginning with the Greeks. In World in Fragments, the section, "The Greek and the Modern Political Imaginary" clearly indicates the relation existing between the ancient Greeks and democracy in his mind. In my paper, I have considered Castoriadis’ reflections on democracy and the way in which he employs the Greeks in his attempt to rethink modern democracies. I shall argue that if we are to follow Castoriadis in embracing an authentic emancipation promised by but not delivered by modernity, we will have to look to his understanding of democracy as providing the way beyond both the cynicism of post-modernism and false hopes of neo-modernism.

View of Electronic Participation and its Application in the Present Conditions of Democracy

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Kollár Vojtech

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Recently we have witnessed declining confidence of citizens in public authorities in developed countries. The paper provides an insight into the tools of e-democracy as a critical component of a developed democracy. We claim that one of the possible reasons for the loss of confidence of the citizens is that the traditional mechanisms of democracy do not often comply with the decision of those who govern. Only the citizens who show interest by watching and following current events, and who know where to look for this information, get to the final output in the form of regulations, decrees, laws, etc. Publication of the outcomes of public administration and governance on their web sites enables to keep track of the news and at the same time, creates a space for the development of the active participation of citizens in the management of public affairs with a feedback.

NGO structural adaptation to funding requirements and prospects for democracy: the case of the European Union

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Sanchez Salgado, R.

2010-01-01

Most studies on voluntary organisations and advocacy groups focus on their contribution to democracy through participation in the policy-making process. The uniqueness of this study consists in shifting the emphasis to participatory democracy at the implementation stage of the policy process. We

Democracy as a legitimizing ideology

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Henry, P.J.; Wetherell, G.A.; Brandt, M.

2015-01-01

Democracy as an abstract belief system bestows rights to individuals and serves egalitarian principles. However, the language of democracy may be used to justify harmful treatment of others in the world. Data from 3 representative samples of adults are presented demonstrating that satisfaction with

The Populist Conception of Democracy beyond Popular Sovereignty

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Pepijn Corduwener

2014-11-01

Full Text Available With populist parties making electoral progress across the European continent, the question of what their electoral success means for contemporary democratic systems has gained increasing significance. This article investigates how two populist radical right parties, the Austrian FPÖ and the Dutch PVV, conceptualise democracy, based on a wide range of party documents released over recent decades. It builds upon recent academic consensus that the relationship between populism and democracy is best understood from a ‘minimalist’ perspective, seeing populism not as antagonistic to democracy, but as an ideology that conceptualises democracy primarily in terms of popular sovereignty. The article adds to the existing literature by demonstrating that we can extend this understanding of the populist conception of democracy in three aspects: the populist emphasis on state neutrality; a two-fold notion of equality; and the extension of the political sphere in society. Based upon these three issues, the article concludes by exploring how the populist conception of democracy relates to the most dominant form of democracy practised nowadays, liberal democracy, and to what extent it reflects changes in our democratic political culture.

From Democracy to Socialism: Then and Now

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Raekstad, P.; Panitch, L.; Albo, G.

2017-01-01

In recent years, we’ve seen more and more calls for ‘democracy’ – not only among familiar reformist and liberal groups, but from far more radical ones as well. Radical calls for democracy are seen in movements and organizations from the Arab Spring, Occupy, and the Movement of the Squares to the

Is Democracy A Prerequisite

OpenAIRE

Abdiweli M. Ali

2011-01-01

The current literature is silent on whether democracies are more fragile or less susceptible to economic and political breakdowns. Using a host of political instability and policy instability variables, this paper explores empirically, whether political freedom (a proxy for democracy) has any effect on the stability of the political order. Furthermore, it also explores the possibility that political freedom explains differences in the stability of economic policies.

Practicing Democracy in the NCLB Elementary Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Margaret H.

2010-01-01

The practice of teaching democracy in school is diminishing. The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has forced teachers to teach to the test, and has required some to follow scripted curriculum, leaving little time or incentive for teaching democracy. This study examines the importance of practicing democracy and identifies ways in…

Liberty Challenge or Dangers of Liberal Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalia Eidukienė

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The article analyses dialectics of a modern democracy and liberalism through the new (from the quality point of view subsistence of liberty, the priority element of democracy, in liberal democracies. The significance of such discourse is determined by the existing social inequality and its conversion into political domain. Particular attention is paid to the social issue, which was treated by Max Weber already as the reason of death of the old, fanatic German “national liberalism”, since it has not managed to belong to the German environment. Even today, it still lies in the principles of life and reality of “young” democratic post­soviet states. Conversion of a social issue into political domain disorganises the society, and it is hardly capable to socialise its norms and values in order to be obligated with regard to civic goals. In other words, the social issue significantly adjusts the pace and direction of transformation of the society. Therefore, an immature “young” liberal democracy may become “less liberal” or no longer conform to the “strict” definition of liberal democracy. Referring to the above, we conclude that social composition should become the medium of political reconstruction for “young” democracies. This does not mean, however, the change of the genetic code of liberalism. This is a striving to vest it, as an ideology, additional powers for rationalisation of democracy by delivering to it the content and the meaning, which would answer the challenges and problems of the time. Liberalism should create a new, from the quality point of view, hierarchy of values and become a new context for both political thinking and democracy. This would render new impulses to economic and public politics, meanwhile developing new premises for a new, from the quality point of view, democracy that would help to consolidate the society for the becoming of liberal democracy.  

Community, Democracy, and Neighborhood News.

Science.gov (United States)

Hindman, Elizabeth Blanks

1998-01-01

Contributes to scholarship on democracy, community, and journalism by examining the interplay between communication, democracy, and community at an inner-city neighborhood newspaper. Concludes that, through its focus on neighborhood culture, acknowledgment of conflict, and attempts to provide a forum for the neighborhood's self-definition, the…

Democracy in the Arab World

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Given that liberalism contains principles that 'have been profoundly hostile to democracy', ..... The challenge posed for Arab democracy by Islamist thought and practice is probably the ..... (2nd edn), London: Malaysian Think Tank London. ...... Thus, the Jordanian treasury was not very dependent on internal taxes, certainly ...

Local democracy in large municipalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thuesen, Annette Aagaard

2017-01-01

Municipal amalgamations in Denmark in 2007 led to concern for local rural democracy, as the number of politicians from rural areas dropped after the reform. To preserve rural democracy, local councils at the village level were established in some municipalities, and they have begun to prepare local...

The Mirage of Global Democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Wilde, J.H.

The literature about global democracy deals with two different types of democratization: Type 1 is about spreading democracy across sovereign states as the basis for good governance. It focuses on the quality of the state/society-nexus: the balance between coercion, reward and identity. Type 2 is

Castoriadis’ Concept of Institution and Democracy

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Dahl Rendtorff, Jacob

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In this article I discuss the relation between institution and democracy in Castoriadis’ philosophy. The paper proposes an outline of the development of Castoriadis’ political philosophy with focus on institutionalization, imagination and self-limitation of democratic institutions as central elements in Castoridis’ thought. We begin with a short introduction to the concept of institution and institutionalization. Then we discuss the elements of Castoridis’ critique of bureaucracy as a way to distinguish between totalitarian society and democracy. This is the basis for understanding the relation between the imaginary, freedom and autonomy as basic elements of democracy. Finally the paper discusses Castoridis’ new notion of democracy as a kind of self-limitation and creation of collective meaning as the basis for social legitimacy.

Understanding the role of nationalism in "new democracies".

Science.gov (United States)

Matić, D

1999-06-01

The transition from communism to democracy has raised numerous discussions regarding the nature of postcommunism in Eastern Europe. According to the author, the two main approaches used to explain the collapse of communism--one that claims that resurrected civil society triumphed over totalitarianism, and, the other that avers Eastern Europe's propensity for irrationalism and a political behaviour based on ethnic exclusion and hatred--overlook the unique nature of postcommunism. In order to properly grasp the nature of this phenomena, the author argues that one must first understand the intrinsic nature of Eastern Europe's transformation. To do this requires an analysis of the social structures that drive political change and identifying the social group that is the main bearer of transformation. The author believes that though her analysis focuses primarily on the case of former Yugoslavia, and Croatia in particular, the conclusions she draws from it are also valid for other East European countries: that the nation is regarded as the principal catalyst for political change and that nationalism is the main legitimizing principle of emerging states. This analysis rejects the common view according to which nationalism is casually discounted as an irrational political movement that is fundamentally hostile to democracy and freedom. Quite the contrary. Throughout Eastern Europe nationalism has had a positive role in bringing down communism and creating a space for democracy to take root. Still, tension exists between nationalism and the democracy it spawned. To understand this paradox requires an extensive sociological and historical study of the particular conditions within which a particular community defines the goals of nationalism and the specific content of its main undergirding concepts like nation and state. Identifying the circumstances within which nationalism begins to act as an obstacle to the establishment of full-fledge democracy is key to understanding

Romanian Democracy, Theory and Method

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Romulus Brâncoveanu

2013-02-01

Full Text Available This is a comment on the type of democracy in Romania, as illiberal democracy. Given the Romanian democratization process, we can hope that, in the future, all populisms and politicization will cease, and a true liberal and constitutional democracy will be installed, which will not be a „Romanian democracy” as Paul Wolfowitz suggested to be exported in Iraq. The question is whether it is good or not to „export” such a political model. „Romanian democracy” could be an exporting model only as an alternative to dictatorship and under the assumption that it will be adjusted in time, under the external pressure.

Democracy Barometer. Methodology. Version 4

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Merkel, Wolfgang; Bochsler, Daniel;; Bousbah, Karima;

2014-01-01

Based on our theoretical concept of democracy, it is feasible to measure a country’s quality of democracy for a given point in time. Nevertheless, the quality of the whole endeavor is not only the result of an adequate theoretical concept but equally depends on the quality of the measurement itse...

Understanding Democracy

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Garcia, Gilberto

1998-01-01

.... Nevertheless, democracy is spreading, and today many countries are called democratic. This paper describes several countries, which are very different because of their history, culture, religion, people, education, and wealth...

Education for democracy in the Republic of Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minić Vesna Lj.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Considering to the fact that democracy, especially in the societies in transition, today has become the key question of their functioning and development, the discussion about this question have different reasons. The school as the educational institution in Serbia has numerous and responsible tasks in founding and developing of democratic relationships, mutual relations of the tolerance, respecting, peaceful solutions ect. By acquiring of needed knowledge and democratic values, students become competent for living with social differences, for taking responsibility and active functioning which is directed to the constructive way. Democracy is not just the form of political system, but also the mean for realizing of practical goals. Democratic consciousness and knowledge are mostly acquired in schools, in which the specific way of thinking, communication and readiness for practical acting are developing and that is the precondition for education for democracy. But, it is important to understand democracy in the proper way, because it is not meaning the absolute freedom, but respecting of rules and obligations which means harmonious living in the given social environment. Democratization in the Republic of Serbia is connected to the general process of globalization and appearing of new values such as tolerance, solidarity, personal rights ect. In school, it means learning about dialog and tolerance. Beside, it prepares students for living and working in democratic society, that is learning about democratic values, forming attitudes about and making the environment in which they can take participance in some social activities related to democratic relationships in school. By democratic knowledge and values, the student can learn about living in social, cultural and political differences, in conflict of interests, about taking of rights and obligations, taking of responsibility for decisions in which making one is taking part. Education for

Essay on legitimacy and democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia Kaplanova

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose and Originality: The aim of the paper is to deeply analyze a concept of legitimacy. Based on the classical works of Lipset and Habermas, the paper discusses conditions, efficiency, and presumptions on which a modern democratic political system stands. Method: The paper analyzes a relationship between positivist and normative understanding of legitimacy questioning a democratic political order. By a content analysis of two main theories of legitimacy, the paper examines a sense of democratic legitimacy in modern societies. Results: A legitimacy is a pillar of any democracy. From the structuralist point of view, in societies there are three main types of crises (economic, social, political, which are present constantly and interconnected by nature and implications. Each crisis creates a specific deficit and challenge for democracy. By overcoming, a stability of democracy is strengthened which makes a (crisis of legitimacy inevitable. Society: In a time of post-truth politics and crisis of democracy, there is a lack of research dealing with a legitimacy of the democratic regime. By pointing out classical approaches to a stability of democracy, there should be elaborated a new construct of democratic legitimacy reflecting structural conditions of modern societies. This paper is trying to offer an insight into a normative understanding of this construction. Limitations / further research: A theoretical approach could be verified by an empirical research.

Participatory and Dialogue Democracy in U.S. Mathematics Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Mukhopadhyay, Shiuli

2009-01-01

Teaching math to reflect values of democracy has to begin with some consideration of how democracy is conceptualized. A review of various theories of democracy conducted by Hagen (1992) provides everyone with a good starting point as it identifies three primary forms of democracy: competitive, participatory, and dialogue. In this essay, the author…

Cyber Space and Digital Democracy in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jin Ro

2017-03-01

Korea is a very interesting case. Korea shows rapid growth of the Internet users, and largertrade surplus in telecommunication industry with the help of government’s successful information technology policy. And Koreans also made their country more democratic with active participation. This paper analyzed the growth of the Internet and SNS in South Korea. The Internet and SNS created cyber space. They have several advantages as an effective means of communication. Cyber space is influenced by three subjects such as the government [state], the market [capital], and citizens [people]. There are two research questions. First question is how the Korean CMC industry can grow fast after its birth. Three main subjects were dealt with in this research. They are the State, the Market, and the Citizen. I divided the history of Korean CMC industry into three periods. The first formation stage is from the birth of CMC in Korea between from 1980 and1990. The government initiated the monopolistic CMC market. Several conglomerates participated to co-operate the government. But the users are very small. The second growthstage is between from 1990 to 1995. The government also deregulated the Market with changing policy from ‘appointment’ to ‘registration’. The companies increased investment for the possibility of wide diffusion of CMC use. The third prosperity stage is between 1995 and 2010. The government promoted the CMC market’s competition with ‘notice’ policy. And citizens actively enjoy and apply CMC services. However, the fourth shift stage to smart phone faced several problems such as less democracy and one way communication which will weaken the creativity of the content. Second question is what the roles of three subjects are. I examined the cyber space by the uses of digital media with three subjects. Even though the state and the market have limits to promote democracy, the citizens are expected to make the digital society moredemocratic. If the state

Delegated democracy. Siting selection for the Swedish nuclear waste; Demokrati paa delegation. Lokaliseringen av det svenska kaernavfallet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia

2008-11-15

studies can be described as delegated democracy. This means that a large part of the political preparatory work is delegated from parliamentary actors and arenas to sub-political actors and arenas. At the same time, this form of democracy is characterised by the final decisions being taken by elected representatives in the parliamentary arena. Most of the requisite information, however, is provided by a sub-political actor in sub-political arenas, as a result of the preparatory work having been delegated to SKB. This provision of information, however, is often intended to win support for SKB's activities. During the preparatory work, various forms of expertise are accorded great influence, while elected politicians, many of whom are laymen, have the final say in the decision making. This expert influence is also a consequence of the fact that the elected politicians have delegated the issue to a corporation and to opinion groups. The nuclear waste democracy is characterised by a division into two parts: on the one hand a process of deliberation between sub-political actors during the preparatory phase, and on the other a representative democracy in connection with decision-making. The large extent to which the preparatory work is delegated to sub-political actors, and the marginal degree of political decision making in parliamentary arenas are what make it possible to call this form of democracy delegated democracy. It will be of great future interest to study the government's public review process, investigation, and decision concerning SKB's application for a permit to construct a repository. First then will we learn the nature of the connection between the sub-political actors' preparatory work and the parliamentary actors' decision, or, put differently, we will then have a picture of how democratic the delegated handling of nuclear waste is

Solving Local Violence by Cosmopolitan Democracy Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Luthfil Hakim

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The implementation of democracy intensified since the fall of the new order era has some failures. One of the factors is violence phenomena still continue in the region. This study aims to discuss the violence in the region by presenting cosmopolitan democracy as a new design of more humane democracy. In addition, this research method uses library research, because library research can understand the problem in-depth to find the pattern and recommendation from the violence problems which happens in Indonesia. This study uses Hannah Arendt observations on the phenomenon of violence. In addition, the concept of cosmopolitan democracy is referred from Daniele Archibugi, David Held, and Ulrich Beck is presented as a draft of new democracy direction which is more inclusive and humane. The result of this study discloses that the occurrence of incidence is triggered by failed implementation of the democratic system in Indonesia.

Mathematics Education and Democracy Education

Science.gov (United States)

Çetin, Ömer Faruk

2015-01-01

Democracy is a most accepted form of government system and has a great importance for citizens by allowing them equal and active participation in common life. As its development and characteristics are important for all citizens of a country, each democratic country puts much emphasis on democracy education in its educational curricula. In recent…

Democracy and Development: The Nigerian Experience (1999-2010 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Democracy and Development: The Nigerian Experience (1999-2010). Jebbin Maclean Felix. Abstract. This article is a contribution to the debate on democracy and development. It examines the relationship between democracy and development, using a contextual analysis of the Nigerian democratic experience. The key ...

Flavor Democracy in Particle Physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sultansoy, Saleh

2007-01-01

The flavor democracy hypothesis (or, in other words, democratic mass matrix approach) was introduced in seventies taking in mind three Standard Model (SM) families. Later, this idea was disfavored by the large value of the t-quark mass. In nineties the hypothesis was revisited assuming that extra SM families exist. According to flavor democracy the fourth SM family should exist and there are serious arguments disfavoring the fifth SM family. The fourth SM family quarks lead to essential enhancement of the Higgs boson production cross-section at hadron colliders and the Tevatron can discover the Higgs boson before the LHC, if it mass is between 140 and 200 GeV. Then, one can handle 'massless' Dirac neutrinos without see-saw mechanism. Concerning BSM physics, flavor democracy leads to several consequences: tanβ ≅ mt/mb ≅ 40 if there are three MSSM families; super-partner of the right-handed neutrino can be the LSP; relatively light E(6)-inspired isosinglet quark etc. Finally, flavor democracy may give opportunity to handle ''massless'' composite objects within preonic models

Interests and Values in Obama's foreign Policy: Leading from Behind?

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MARIA HELENA DE CASTRO SANTOS

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract This study will exam the relative importance of values and interests in Obama's foreign policy, focusing on crucial cases: the military actions related to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Non-Syria, Al-Qaeda and ISIL. We will argue that his "leading from behind" strategy is not very distant from the foreign and defense strategies of his post-Cold War predecessors, by which democracy is seen as an assurance to security. According to Obama's strategy, Americans will only provide support for the building of democracy in the target countries, while this task should be performed by the locals themselves. Americans will provide military training to the new governments as well so they can be responsible for their own security, including preventing regrouping of terrorists in their soil. If Obama opposes the imposing of democracy by the use of force, empirical data shows that his administration is "not prepared to accept" any option that threats US security or American liberal-democratic values, bringing in this way values and interests very close to each other.

Universal Democracy Instead of Anarchy

CERN Document Server

Branco, G C; Silva-Marcos, J I

2013-01-01

We propose for the flavour structure of both the quark and lepton sectors, the principle of Universal Democracy (UD), which reflects the presence of a $Z_3$ symmetry. In the quark sector, we emphasize the importance of UD for obtaining small mixing and flavour alignment, while in the lepton sector, large mixing, including the recently measured value of $U_{e3}$, is obtained in the UD framework through the seesaw mechanism. An interesting correlation between the values of $U_{e3}$ and $\\sin^2(\\theta_{23})$ is pointed out, with the prediction of $\\sin^2(\\theta_{23})\\approx 0.42$ in the region where $U_{e3}$ is in agreement with the DAYA-BAY experiment.

The Non-Instrumental Value of Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rostbøll, Christian F.

2015-01-01

rejected in this debate. But in order to understand the intrinsic value of democracy, we cannot ignore the relationship between freedom and democracy. Moreover, the freedom argument can better respond to the epistemic challenge to intrinsic accounts than can the equality argument. However, the freedom......A current debate in democratic theory concerns whether we can explain democratic legitimacy purely with reference to the intrinsic value of the public affirmation of equality, or whether we must invoke extra-democratic epistemic standards to do so. The freedom side of democracy is ignored or even...

Elementary Students' Metaphors for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Dundar, Hakan

2012-01-01

The purpose of the research was to reveal elementary 8th grade students' opinions concerning democracy with the aid of metaphors. The students were asked to produce metaphors about the concept of democracy. 140 students from 3 public schools in Ankara (Turkey) participated in the research. 55% of the students were females and 45% were males. The…

Choices have Consequences: REDD+ and Local Democracy in Kenya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Chomba

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The extent to which the United Nations Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation programme (REDD+ addresses critical issues of governance is hotly contested. This article focuses on the local institutions chosen as partners by a prominent REDD+ project in Kenya and the implications of this choice for local democracy. The REDD+ project briefly partnered with state-appointed local authorities to represent local interests, bypassing elected ones. Shortly after, the state-appointed authorities were abandoned in favour of 'project-created' carbon committees and civil society organisations. The choice to recognise some institutions while excluding others, was justified by the levels of downward accountability and of corruption, and arguments that state-sanctioned institutions were overburdened and inefficient. However, the article contends that this preference for carbon committees and civil society organisations over state-sanctioned institutions, and particularly the aversion to democratically elected ones, was not conducive for long-term strengthening of local democracy. The analysis pinpoints a tension between setting up parallel models of authority that can act as exemplars of democratic practice, while undermining democratically elected institutions that, in Kenya, are struggling to exercise newly devolved powers. Explicit strategies are required to enable learning from parallel governance models and for their migration into mainstream local governance structures, if local democracy is to be strengthened rather than undermined.

Democracy against the odds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seeberg, Michael

Why have a number of poor countries sustained electoral democracy against the odds? The extant literature on democracy and democratization consistently points to the importance of socioeconomic development and democratic neighboring countries, in particular, as important prerequisites for a stable...... demonstrates the enormous potential of political parties and civil society in processes of democratization. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hvorfor opretholder en række fattige lande en demokratisk styreform imod alle odds? Demokratiforskere forventer, at et land må have et...

Structure of Vocational Interests for Diverse Groups on the 2005 Strong Interest Inventory

Science.gov (United States)

Kantamneni, Neeta; Fouad, Nadya

2011-01-01

This study was designed to examine the structure of vocational interests in a diverse sample of individuals who completed the 2005 revision of the Strong Interest Inventory. We examined the fit of three racial/ethnic groups (African American, Caucasian, and Latino/a), both genders, and three levels of professional status (GRS participant, student,…

‘Democracy always comes first’ : Adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwelink, H.; Dekker, P.; Geijsel, F.; ten Dam, G.

2016-01-01

Research shows adolescents to be positively oriented towards democracy, but little is known about what it actually means to them and what their views are on decision-making in both everyday situations and political democracy. To gain insight into these aspects of adolescents’ democratic views, we

Public Interest vs. Interest Groups: Allowance Allocation in the EU Emission Trading Scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anger, Niels; Oberndorfer, Ulrich (Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim (Germany)); Boehringer, Christoph (Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Oldenburg (Germany))

2008-07-01

We assess the political-economy determinants of allowance allocation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). A common-agency model suggests that the government considers the preferences of sectoral interest groups when allocating emissions permits, so that industries with a more powerful lobby face a lower regulatory burden. An empirical analysis of the first trading phase of the EU ETS corroborates our theoretical prediction, but also reveals that the political-economy determinants of permit allocation are more complex. Employing instrumental-variable estimation technique, we find that large carbon emitters that were represented by powerful interest groups received higher levels of emissions allowances

Modernizing dermatology interest groups in medical school: Certificate programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jordan V; Korta, Dorota Z; Keller, Matthew

2017-11-15

This commentary addresses the increasingly competitive nature of applying to dermatology residency programs and how both interest groups in medical schools and their dermatology departments can help to better prepare applicants. As previous literature argued that dermatology has been underemphasized in medical school curricula, we propose five fundamental options that interest groups can implement in order to offer increased exposure to our field in medical training. Furthermore, with therecent trend of many schools conferring certificates in various specialized concentrations, we also discuss interest groups pioneering certificate-grantingprograms in dermatology competency. The pros and cons of having a recognized certificate program in dermatology are presented.

Interest group opinions about fuel reduction in southern Appalachia

Science.gov (United States)

Carin E. Vadala; Robert D. Bixler; Thomas A. Waldrop

2013-01-01

Opinions of interested publics and interest groups (n = 640) about fuel reduction (FR) in the Southern Appalachian Mountains were investigated through social survey using both pictorial and written questions. The study identified three discrete groups based on knowledge of forest history in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, attitudes toward social and ecological...

Why Choice Matters: Revisiting and Comparing Measures of Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heiko Giebler

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Measures of democracy are in high demand. Scientific and public audiences use them to describe political realities and to substantiate causal claims about those realities. This introduction to the thematic issue reviews the history of democracy measurement since the 1950s. It identifies four development phases of the field, which are characterized by three recurrent topics of debate: (1 what is democracy, (2 what is a good measure of democracy, and (3 do our measurements of democracy register real-world developments? As the answers to those questions have been changing over time, the field of democracy measurement has adapted and reached higher levels of theoretical and methodological sophistication. In effect, the challenges facing contemporary social scientists are not only limited to the challenge of constructing a sound index of democracy. Today, they also need a profound understanding of the differences between various measures of democracy and their implications for empirical applications. The introduction outlines how the contributions to this thematic issue help scholars cope with the recurrent issues of conceptualization, measurement, and application, and concludes by identifying avenues for future research.

Globalization, democracy, and child health in developing countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Welander, Anna; Lyttkens, Carl Hampus; Nilsson, Therese

2015-07-01

Good health is crucial for human and economic development. In particular poor health in childhood is of utmost concern since it causes irreversible damage and has implications later in life. Recent research suggests globalization is a strong force affecting adult and child health outcomes. Yet, there is much unexplained variation with respect to the globalization effect on child health, in particular in low- and middle-income countries. One factor that could explain such variation across countries is the quality of democracy. Using panel data for 70 developing countries between 1970 and 2009 this paper disentangles the relationship between globalization, democracy, and child health. Specifically the paper examines how globalization and a country's democratic status and historical experience with democracy, respectively, affect infant mortality. In line with previous research, results suggest that globalization reduces infant mortality and that the level of democracy in a country generally improves child health outcomes. Additionally, democracy matters for the size of the globalization effect on child health. If for example Côte d'Ivoire had been a democracy in the 2000-2009 period, this effect would translate into 1200 fewer infant deaths in an average year compared to the situation without democracy. We also find that nutrition is the most important mediator in the relationship. To conclude, globalization and democracy together associate with better child health in developing countries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE: INGREDIENTS FOR ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

status on democracy, good governance and socio-economic development. Democracy is being embraced across the globe by most civilized and ... amenities and infrastructure, employment, health, security and constant power ... based on life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic ..... In some Asian.

Metaphors of Social Studies Teacher Candidates on Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Tural, Aysegül

2018-01-01

Democracy is a form of government in which principle of equality is based, human rights and freedoms are protected. In this research, it is aimed to reveal democracy perceptions of social science teacher candidates through metaphors. Towards this aim, 105 social science teacher candidates are consulted about their democracy opinions. Study is a…

Media Education and the Practice of Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Ferguson

2006-02-01

Full Text Available They do say that all ideas have their time, and in media education it seems that it is the time for democracy. Books and papers begin to appear and there are conferences with democracy in their titles to replace a focus on the postmodern, or identity. There seems to be a general consensus that democracy is a ‹good thing›. But, as with most other significant terms which hold centre stage for a while, they need to be interrogated with some care. For some more critical educators democracy takes its place alongside Gandhi’s comment when asked about Western Civilisation – he said it would be a good idea. The ‹practice› of democracy takes on a poignant, ironic, desperate or cynical cloak in the light of recent world events and the rise of terrorism as a political weapon. It depends where you stand. Democracy is not something that thrills the hearts and minds of the vast majority of citizens who live in nations who declare themselves to be democratic. Apathy and cynicism work together against democratic growth. But so do governments whose declared democratic aims pay scant attention to the people they are supposed to represent. And then there are the ‹democratic› exercises which supposedly involve the people in a conversation (‹we are listening› they say which results in the status quo being implemented by politicians with morally superior physiognomies. After all, they say, we did ask your opinions. We did ask you to participate. And so democracy staggers from crisis to disaster...

Contentious Politics and Participatory Democracy in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Wampler

2014-12-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2014v13n28p199 Contentious politics helps individuals and groups with limited political voice to place their ideas and interests on the political agenda. Contentious politics were long thought to occur when politically marginalized group had no other means to advance their political agenda. The June 2013 social mobilization in Brazil caught most political observers by surprise, especially given the creation of a large, wide-spread participatory architecture (national conferences, councils, participatory budgeting. The innovative institutions emerging in Brazil created a policy environment in which millions of citizens have regular access to state policymaking bodies. How does the institutionalization of a broader network of participatory institutions make it easier for citizens to engage in contentious politics? In what ways does this institutionalization make it more difficult for some citizens to engage in contentious politics? In what ways has the vast network of participatory institutions been largely irrelevant to how citizens use contentious politics? This article explore how the institutionalization of an extensive participatory democracy system in Brazil alters the incentive structures that encourage citizens to engage in contentious collective action.

Redefining Democracy for the Modern State.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahe, Paul A.

1992-01-01

Draws distinctions between classical and modern concepts of democracy. Contrasts Pythagoras' dislike of factions with Madison's support for economic differentiation and religious toleration. Discusses Aristotle's and Noah Webster's ideas on addressing class tensions. Examines early U.S. theorists' suspicions of direct democracy and support for…

Malawi's Traditional Leadership and Democracy Consolidation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

is that the tendency to brand traditional leadership as undemocratic masks debate on its great potential for the promotion of democracy. The article contends that efforts towards democracy consolidation require foregoing harmonious power relations and linkages between traditional leaders and elected local governments; ...

Duality and 'particle' democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Castellani, Elena

2017-08-01

Weak/strong duality is usually accompanied by what seems a puzzling ontological feature: the fact that under this kind of duality what is viewed as 'elementary' in one description gets mapped to what is viewed as 'composite' in the dual description. This paper investigates the meaning of this apparent 'particle democracy', as it has been called, by adopting an historical approach. The aim is to clarify the nature of the correspondence between 'dual particles' in the light of a historical analysis of the developments of the idea of weak/strong duality, starting with Dirac's electric-magnetic duality and its successive generalizations in the context of (Abelian and non-Abelian) field theory, to arrive at its first extension to string theory. This analysis is then used as evidential basis for discussing the 'elementary/composite' divide and, after taking another historical detour by analyzing an instructive analogy case (DHS duality and related nuclear democracy), drawing some conclusions on the particle-democracy issue.

Democracy, political participation and good governance in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dare E. Arowolo

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The practice of democracy in Nigeria over a decade ago has not yielded much needed good governance. This is because democracy is practiced in such a way that responsible and competent people are scared away. Scholars and keen observers have attempted at unraveling the factors militating against translating democracy into good governance. The paper revealed that democratisation in Nigeria is pervaded by electoral violence, manipulation of election results and political participation constraints. These identified challenges have made it impossible to attain consolidated democracy that can, in turn, facilitate good governance. Democracy is a catalyst for accountability, transparency and responsive government which brings about good governance. The paper insisted that governance collapse in Nigeria is reflexive of the perfunctory role of the political actors and it adopted elite theory to reinforce this argument. The paper adopted content analysis as a means of data gathering. It dwelt extensively on the synergy between democracy, political participation and good governance but queried the artificial gulf between them in Nigeria. It concluded by putting forth viable and pragmatic way forward.

Popular democracy and waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wallis, L.R.

1986-01-01

The US has moved from representative democracy to popular democracy and public scrutiny is unrelenting. Any hope of success on their part in resolving the nuclear waste question hinges on their ability to condition themselves to operate in a popular democracy environment. Those opposed to the siting of high- and low-level waste repositories have already developed a set of recurring themes: (1) the siting criteria are fatally flawed; (2) the criteria are not adequate; (3) the process is driven by politics not science; (4) unrealistic deadlines lead to dangerous shortcuts; (5) transportation experience is lacking; (6) the scientific community does not really know how to dispose of the wastes. They must continue to tell the public that if science has brought us problems, then the answer can be only more knowledge - not less. Failure by their profession to recognize that popular democracy is a fact and that nuclear issues need to be addressed in humanistic terms raises the question of whether America is philosophically suited for the expanded use of nuclear power in the future - or for that matter for leadership in the world of tomorrow

Democracy as a social technology on schools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kofod, Kasper

2009-01-01

" democracy. The democratic influence in schools thus spans from "big" parliamentary democracy to small participatoruy democracy - a dichotomy schooll leadership must maneuvre within using democratic procedures and leadership as social technologies. This article argues that a positive coinnectiion exists...... between strong leadership and having wello-functioning democratic processes in schools and the introduction of tests, quality reports and these approaches does not weaken democratic processes in schools. This connection is nonetheless changing the logics of the state, market, and the civil society vectors.......On a formal level, the influence og "big" parlamentary democracy is enhanced because parliamentary control in individual schools has become stronger; and the formal democratic influence of parents has been strengthned by their membership on school boards, the latter being an example of "small...

How Terrorism Affects Attitudes toward Democracy: Tunisia in 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Robert; Brym, Robert

2017-11-01

Tunisia is the only country that emerged from the Arab Spring as a democracy. However, Tunisian democracy is threatened by political divisions, economic problems, and the threat of terrorist attacks. We shed light on Tunisia's democratic prospects by examining (1) the degree to which major terrorist attacks in 2015 influenced Tunisian public opinion on democracy and (2) the extent to which preference for a democratic system affected opinions on the prospects for democracy in Tunisia. We use data from three waves of a nationwide survey conducted just before and just after Tunisia's first major terrorist attack, and just after the country's second major terrorist attack. We demonstrate that after the attacks the Tunisian public became less favourable toward democracy and less optimistic that Tunisia would soon be ready for it. Such scepticism was widespread, affecting people who preferred democracy as much as those who did not. We conclude that the prospects for Tunisian democracy are more precarious than is sometimes assumed. © 2017 Canadian Sociological Association/La Société canadienne de sociologie.

A New Index of Democracy

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Jesús M. de Miguel

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The present paper analyses and revises the latest Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the United Kingdom. We analyze the changes produced in the index from 2006 to 2011, as well as in the five basic factors that constitute the index: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. The analysis of these factors ?measured by sixty variables? has made it possible to develop a new index, based on the data from 167 countries, and calculate a revised ranking. Countries have been classified into four types: democracies, flawed democracies, mixed systems, and authoritarian/totalitarian regimes. The new index permits a better understanding of the impact of the crisis through variables such as economic growth, human development, quality of life, corruption, and violence.

Anti-discrimination Philosophy and the Decline of Post-capitalist Democracies

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Dan Pavel

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The author is trying to explain the contrasts existing between the expanding universe of anti-discrimination sanctions and the decline in legitimacy of democracy. The declining legitimacy affects both consolidated democracies, and newborn democracies. Inequality in the USA, but also at global level is illustrated with relevant statistics. The convergence between the crisis of democracy and the financial and economic global crisis is a major social and political threat. At the global level, after the Arab Spring, the third wave of democratization continued, while the quality of democracy substantially diminished. In the newborn Islamic democracies, discrimination against women, Christians, Jews, gay & lesbians, etc. continued, leading to arson, torture and killings.

Interest Groups and Trade Reform in Mexico

OpenAIRE

Luis Sanchez-Mier

2005-01-01

Mexico experienced widespread economic reform in the last two decades. From being a protectionist economy with a policy of import substitution, it has turned into an export-oriented open economy. Why was protectionism a stable policy, and how was it overturned by a reform that went against entrenched interests? I apply a game theoretic model of political influence and economic reform to answer these questions using data to calculate the payoffs for the relevant interest groups. In the underly...

Is There Muslim Exceptionalism in Democracy Research?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hariri, Jacob Gerner

to and between the 16th and 18th centuries are relatively less democratic today. The negative effect of early statehood on current levels of democracy is mediated by European colonization and settlement: Europeans were less likely to colonize and settle in territories with more developed state institutions......, also, to alternative theories of the causes and correlates of democracy. This paper presents evidence against the notion of Muslim exceptionalism in democracy research. Thus, outside the European continent, territories that were governed earlier and more consistently by state organizations up...... and were therefore less likely to bring nascent legalistic and representative institutions to these territories. When we remove the autocratic legacy of early statehood and the influence of European settlement, there is nothing signicantly negative about the degree of democracy in Muslim-majority countries....

Are coups good for democracy?

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George Derpanopoulos

2016-02-01

Full Text Available A number of recent studies argue that coups can help usher in democracy. We examine this relationship empirically by looking at the political regimes that follow coups in autocracies, as well as the level of repression against citizens. We find that, though democracies are occasionally established in the wake of coups, more often new authoritarian regimes emerge, along with higher levels of state-sanctioned violence.

Conceptual Foundations Of Deliberative Democracy

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Елизавета Васильевна Золотарева

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to the analysis of theoretical foundations of deliberative model of democracy that is formed on the basis of synthesis of traditionally opposing approaches to research of democracy — liberal political philosophy (J. Rawls and critical social theory (J. Habermas. Special attention is paid to the problems of testing of normative requirements to the public discourse as the basis of deliberative process.

Community Engagement for Big Epidemiology: Deliberative Democracy as a Tool

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Rebekah E. McWhirter

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Public trust is critical in any project requiring significant public support, both in monetary terms and to encourage participation. The research community has widely recognized the centrality of public trust, garnered through community consultation, to the success of large-scale epidemiology. This paper examines the potential utility of the deliberative democracy methodology within the public health research setting. A deliberative democracy event was undertaken in Tasmania, Australia, as part of a wider program of community consultation regarding the potential development of a Tasmanian Biobank. Twenty-five Tasmanians of diverse backgrounds participated in two weekends of deliberation; involving elements of information gathering; discussion; identification of issues and formation of group resolutions. Participants demonstrated strong support for a Tasmanian Biobank and their deliberations resulted in specific proposals in relation to consent; privacy; return of results; governance; funding; and, commercialization and benefit sharing. They exhibited a high degree of satisfaction with the event, and confidence in the outcomes. Deliberative democracy methodology is a useful tool for community engagement that addresses some of the limitations of traditional consultation methods.

Community Engagement for Big Epidemiology: Deliberative Democracy as a Tool

Science.gov (United States)

McWhirter, Rebekah E.; Critchley, Christine R.; Nicol, Dianne; Chalmers, Don; Whitton, Tess; Otlowski, Margaret; Burgess, Michael M.; Dickinson, Joanne L.

2014-01-01

Public trust is critical in any project requiring significant public support, both in monetary terms and to encourage participation. The research community has widely recognized the centrality of public trust, garnered through community consultation, to the success of large-scale epidemiology. This paper examines the potential utility of the deliberative democracy methodology within the public health research setting. A deliberative democracy event was undertaken in Tasmania, Australia, as part of a wider program of community consultation regarding the potential development of a Tasmanian Biobank. Twenty-five Tasmanians of diverse backgrounds participated in two weekends of deliberation; involving elements of information gathering; discussion; identification of issues and formation of group resolutions. Participants demonstrated strong support for a Tasmanian Biobank and their deliberations resulted in specific proposals in relation to consent; privacy; return of results; governance; funding; and, commercialization and benefit sharing. They exhibited a high degree of satisfaction with the event, and confidence in the outcomes. Deliberative democracy methodology is a useful tool for community engagement that addresses some of the limitations of traditional consultation methods. PMID:25563457

"Views of democracy and peace” inequality, minorities and radical democracy

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TizianoTelleschi

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Democracy is a moral and practical system conveying living proximity, including definition of love-AGAPE, conflict, inequality, power. First we highlight “what it is” love and “what it is” power. Then, in order to overcome inequality weapply the love theory to an acknowledgment theory to figure out the mediator figure, that is able to build a social space where love-AGAPE may thrive and power may be restored to its relational nature, that is negotiable. From this point we go on analyzing the distributed power (horizontal. At last, thank to A. Gramsci’s hegemony notion, we point out the ideal of radical democracy as the most fertile along the others, to which a common action from different types of qualified mediators should tend.

Education for Deliberative Democracy: A Typology of Classroom Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Samuelsson, Martin

2016-01-01

The theory of deliberative democracy places public deliberations at the heart of democracy. In order to participate in democratic deliberations, citizens need certain skills, attitudes, and values. Within the field of education for deliberative democracy, it is assumed that these are learned through participation in democratic deliberation. Thus,…

Inventions and developments of democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Uffe

2010-01-01

In traditional approaches to the history of political ideas, the history of democracy is uniformly studied concerning the point of departure, selection of canonical texts, etc. The paper introduces the Koselleckian conceptual history approach (Begriffsgeschichte) and the principle of a broader...... selection of texts than in the traditional history of ideas to provide a fuller account of usages of the concept, thereby opening up for alternative conceptions of the inventions and development of democracy....

Policy evaluation and democracy: Do they fit?

Science.gov (United States)

Sager, Fritz

2017-08-05

The papers assembled in this special issue shed light on the question of the interrelation between democracy and policy evaluation by discussing research on the use of evaluations in democratic processes. The collection makes a case for a stronger presence of evaluation in democracy beyond expert utilization. Parliamentarians prove to be more aquainted with evaluations than expected and the inclusion of evaluations in policy arguments increases the deliberative quality of democratic campaigns. In sum, evaluation and democracy turn out to be well compatible after all. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Membership ballots and the value of intra-party democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wolkenstein, Fabio

2016-01-01

On the face of it, membership ballots present a clear case in which intra- party democracy comes into collision with core principles of representative democracy: they weaken the autonomy of representatives, and undermine the authority of the voters. In this article, I investigate whether this is ......On the face of it, membership ballots present a clear case in which intra- party democracy comes into collision with core principles of representative democracy: they weaken the autonomy of representatives, and undermine the authority of the voters. In this article, I investigate whether...

Just Democracy. A Radical Assessment.

OpenAIRE

Jacquemain, Marc

2012-01-01

This paper is a tentative assessment of the Rawls-Machiavelli program by Philippe Van Paris, who proposes that justice is the main goal of political action (in a Rawlsian perspective) and democracy is only instrumental (the Machiavellian part of the program). The paper adresses three questions to the proposal of Philippe Van Paris : 1) Can democracy be properly defined without a condition of public debate ? 2) Don't "realistic politics" underestimate the margin of possibility we have to chang...

Power and democracy in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jørgen Goul; Jørgensen, Torben Beck; Valgårda, Signild

In 1997, the Danish Parliament decided to launch a power study, officially An Analysis of Democracy and Power in Denmark. A steering committee consisting of five independent researchers was assigned responsibility for the project. The Steering Committee has gathered the overall conclusions from...... the numerous projects under the Power Study, and this book is a short presentation of these conclusions.The main focus of the book is the state of democracy in Denmark at the dawn of the 21st century. How has democracy fared, has the development made things better or worse, and to which extent does......, and the political institutions show considerable democratic robustness. However, not everything has gone or is going well. There are still pronounced social divisions in Danish society, although their nature has changed somewhat. The ideal of an informed public debate does not always enjoy the best conditions...

Electronic Democracy and Environmental Governance: A Survey of the States

OpenAIRE

Beierle, Thomas; Cahill, Sarah

2000-01-01

Just as information technology is rapidly changing how we work, shop, and play, it is changing how we practice democracy. This paper focuses on one area where the Internet is broadening public participation in governance: the administration of environmental laws and regulations. It describes a survey of how each of the 50 states is using the Internet to provide citizens with environmental information, gather public input on agency decisions, and foster networks of interested citizens. As "lab...

Improving school governance through participative democracy and the law

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Marius H Smit

2011-01-01

Full Text Available There is an inextricable link between democracy, education and the law. After 15 yearsofconstitutional democracy, the alarming percentage of dysfunctional schools raises questions about the efficacy of the system of local school governance. We report on the findings of quantitative and qualitative research on the democratisation of schools and the education system in North-West Province. Several undemocratic features are attributable to systemic weaknesses of traditional models of democracy as well as the misapplication of democratic and legal principles. The findings of the qualitative study confirmed that parents often misconceive participatory democracy for political democracy and misunderstand the role of the school governing body to be a political forum. Despite the shortcomings, the majority of the respondents agreed that parental participation improves school effectiveness and that the decentralised model of local school governance should continue. Recommendations to effect the inculcation of substantive democratic knowledge, values and attitudes into school governance are based on theory of deliberative democracy and principles of responsiveness, accountability and justification of decisions through rational discourse.

Utility of a dermatology interest group blog: the impact of medical student interest groups and Web 2.0 tools as educational resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalalat, Sheila Z; Wagner, Richard F

2014-01-01

The open access University of Texas Dermatology Interest Group blog was established in 2004 for the purposes of increasing communication and collaboration between medical students and dermatology faculty, residents, and alumni, as well as to promote educational opportunities and the missions for which the interest group was created. This blog is unique because of its longevity and continuous postings directed toward the educational and professional needs of medical students and residents. A blog user survey was performed to assess viewers' thoughts, purpose of viewing, demographic profile, subscriber status, usage of the blog and other Web 2.0 tools (forums, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, podcasts), and perceived usefulness. Sixty-one anonymous online surveys were completed during a 1-month period. Statistical analyses of the responses demonstrated that the utilization of web-based tools and the blog were valuable resources for students, especially for blog subscribers, those more involved in an interest group, and those reading the blog for a longer period of time. The usefulness and impact of this method of communication and dissemination of information in medical education may encourage other student groups, faculty advisors, and educators to implement similar educational tools at their institutions.

Democracy, Corruption and the Politics of Spirits in Contemporary Indonesia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bubandt, Nils Ole

Indonesia has been an electoral democracy for more than a decade, and yet the political landscape of the world’s third-largest democracy is as complex and enigmatic as ever. Indonesia is simultaneous a country that has achieved a successful transition to democracy and a flawed, illiberal......, and predatory democracy. This book provides a portrait of Indonesia’s contradictory democracy through a series of biographical accounts of political entrepreneurs, from the political ‘periphery’ of North Maluku and the ‘political centre’ of East Java respectively. Each biographical account is focused on one...... contentious area of democracy in Indonesia – elections, corruption, decentralization, and regional representation. The chapters explore the intimate ways in which the political world and the spirit world are entangled. The core argument of the book is that Indonesia’s seemingly peculiar problems...

The Internet and Democracy: Global Catalyst or Democratic Dud?

Science.gov (United States)

Best, Michael L.; Wade, Keegan W.

2009-01-01

In this study, we explore the global effect of the Internet on democracy over the period of 1992 to 2002 by observing the relationships between measures related to democracy and Internet prevalence. Our findings suggest that while Internet usage was not a very powerful predictor of democracy when examining full panel data from 1992 to 2002, it was…

Direct Democracy in Local Politics in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svensson, Palle

2007-01-01

Elements of  direct democracy at the local level does exist in Denmark, but it is little known, because no formal rules regulate this aspect of political life, because results from popular initiatives and referendums are not recorded in official statistics, and because few systematic analyses have...... been published. This paper, accordingly, has an explorative nature and asks two basic questions: What is the current state of direct democracy at the local level in Denmark, and what are the prospects for a further development of direct democracy at the local level in Denmark? The paper is based...

Internet and Democracy: Is the Internet an Important Predictor for Physical Education Teacher Candidates' Attitudes towards Democracy?

Science.gov (United States)

Ünlü, Hüseyin

2017-01-01

Today, in the digital age, the Internet usage is common among university students. The Internet is also an important platform for actively participating in democracy. This study explores physical education (PE) candidate teachers' attitudes toward the Internet and democracy. It also explores whether the Internet is an important predictor for…

Theoretical Models of Deliberative Democracy: A Critical Analysis

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Tutui Viorel

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract: My paper focuses on presenting and analyzing some of the most important theoretical models of deliberative democracy and to emphasize their limits. Firstly, I will mention James Fishkin‟s account of deliberative democracy and its relations with other democratic models. He differentiates between four democratic theories: competitive democracy, elite deliberation, participatory democracy and deliberative democracy. Each of these theories makes an explicit commitment to two of the following four “principles”: political equality, participation, deliberation, nontyranny. Deliberative democracy is committed to political equality and deliberation. Secondly, I will present Philip Pettit‟s view concerning the main constraints of deliberative democracy: the inclusion constraint, the judgmental constraint and the dialogical constraint. Thirdly, I will refer to Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson‟s conception regarding the “requirements” or characteristics of deliberative democracy: the reason-giving requirement, the accessibility of reasons, the binding character of the decisions and the dynamic nature of the deliberative process. Finally, I will discuss Joshua Cohen‟s “ideal deliberative procedure” which has the following features: it is free, reasoned, the parties are substantively equal and the procedure aims to arrive at rationally motivated consensus. After presenting these models I will provide a critical analysis of each one of them with the purpose of revealing their virtues and limits. I will make some suggestions in order to combine the virtues of these models, to transcend their limitations and to offer a more systematical account of deliberative democracy. In the next four sections I will take into consideration four main strategies for combining political and epistemic values (“optimistic”, “deliberative”, “democratic” and “pragmatic” and the main objections they have to face. In the concluding section

Populisms and liberal democracy – business as usual?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thompson, Grahame Frederick

2017-01-01

Populism is often thought to mark a sharp break with liberal democracy. But to what extent is this the case? In this contribution the connections between populism and liberal democracy are sketched in the context of several areas where discussions about populisms have stressed their discontinuity...... in these relationships. The contribution ends with a discussion of how it might be possible to defend liberal democracy from a non-liberal position in the face of the critique from populisms....

Democracy and shareholder's participation

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Radulović Vuk

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Democracy and participation of shareholders or the demand for their active participation in the meetings of the Assemblyhas increasingly gained in importance in modern conditions. This is because, negative trends of passivation, the limitations of democratic potential of shareholders and shareholders' rights abuse by the management body, especially in the work control and compensation policy of shareholders, have been observed in a detailed analysis of the application and results of the Shareholder Rights Directive. The passivity of shareholders, as one of the most striking features of their position in the joint stock company today, is the biggest problem and threat to democratic processes within the company. If we bear in mind that the most common definition of shareholder democracy is 'ability of shareholders to influence the management of the company', we can notice a clear picture of the seriousness and importance of the lack of shareholder participation. This is the reason why the author of this paper gradually examines the causes and consequences of the passivity of shareholders, the proposed changes in this context in the Law of the European Union and the practical implications of such solutions in practice. In addition, the author examines contemporary forms and conditions for shareholder democracy and the legal framework in the European Union and the Republic of Serbia. In this way, we analyze the situation in this area and point out shortcomings of certain solutions, as well as the implications they cause in practice. The main thesis from which starts the scientific work and which will be gradually proven through theoretical and practical analysis is that the wider social processes directly reflect on the state of the joint-stock companies, or the state of corporate governance. This means that the negative trends of modern democracy (in the constitutional sense are almost mirrored in economic capital (EC and our attempt in this paper

Small groups, large profits: Calculating interest rates in community-managed microfinance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Ole Dahl

2012-01-01

Savings groups are a widely used strategy for women’s economic resilience – over 80% of members worldwide are women, and in the case described here, 72.5%. In these savings groups it is common to see the interest rate on savings reported as "20-30% annually". Using panel data from 204 groups...... in Malawi, I show that the right figure is likely to be at least twice this figure. For these groups, the annual return is 62%. The difference comes from sector-wide application of a non-standard interest rate calculations and unrealistic assumptions about the savings profile in the groups. As a result......, it is impossible to compare returns in savings groups with returns elsewhere. Moreover, the interest on savings is incomparable to the interest rate on loans. I argue for the use of a standardized comparable metric and suggest easy ways to implement it. Developments of new tools and standard along these lines...

Science is a gateway for democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaoua, Mohamed

2014-06-01

The Arab Spring of 2011 has highlighted an unprecedent fact in the region: it was the young and educated population who established the spearheading of change, and led their countries to democracy. In this paper, we try to analyze how science has been a key factor in these moves, in Tunisia as well as in Egypt, and how it can help to anchor democracy in these countries.

Democracy, Resistance, and the Practice of Literature: Introduction

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Arka Chattopadhyay

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Recent world politics has witnessed the rise of a certain style of authoritarianism. It can be roughly characterized with a cult of masculine leadership, a popular rhetoric of foreign investment and development, and a phobia of the illegal immigrant made into an ethical obligation. These contradictory forms of politics – the paean to multinational corporations, free trade, and the ‘bloc’-ing of power and the simultaneous mobilization of hyper-nationalism in the form of censoring books and throttling subversive aesthetic practices – characterize the conception and practice of what may be called “authoritarian democracy.” Considering the democratically elected basis of this authoritarianism, it becomes all the more important to ask if democracy paves the way for it. In that case, where do we locate democracy today? Is it right to say that the real democratic space unfolds itself in people’s movements and not in the electoral process? If this is the case, a radical conception of democracy would have to account for a shift of emphasis from the locus of governance to that of resistance and co-option. Historically speaking, democracy may not always be the means but it has been one of the ends for the various acts of resistance such as the working class, anti-colonial, nationalist, feminist, LGBT, or constitutional multiculturalism. In our sour and hungry times, when state aggression is overpowering the geographical marking (Russia’s in Ukraine or Israel’s in Palestine, or strangling the voice of internal resistance (North Eastern regions in India, not to mention religious fundamentalism, we need to rethink the old questions of democracy and resistance. With the ISIS, Boko Haram or the Taliban practice, we have seen how resistance itself can produce a dangerous authoritarianism which further complicates the relations between democracy, authoritarianism, and resistance. How do we historicize and ethically theorize resistance in

Climate change policies: The role of democracy and social cognitive capital.

Science.gov (United States)

Obydenkova, Anastassia V; Salahodjaev, Raufhon

2017-08-01

The impact of democracy on governments' choice of environmental policies has attracted significant academic attention in recent years. However, less attention has been devoted to the role of the social cognitive capital of the national population. Does society's cognitive capital matter in governmental choice regarding environmental policies, if at all? This study addresses this question through a large-N analysis of 94 countries accounting for the role of both political regimes and social capital in governmental choice of climate change policies. We find that higher social cognitive capital within a democratic state radically increases that state's commitment to adopt environmental policies. More specifically, a 1-point increase in the democracy index is associated with nearly 5 points increase in the adoption of the Climate Laws, Institutions and Measures Index (CLIMI). In a similar vein, a 10 points increase in social cognitive capital is associated with a nearly 16 points increase in CLIMI. The findings presented in this study aim to contribute to the ongoing debate on the impact of democracy and the cognitive capital of society on international environmentalism. The findings will also be interesting for scholars working on the impact of political institutional factors and the role of society in environmental policy choices made at the international level. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reaching beyond Democracy in Educational Policy Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Leigh

2016-01-01

Educational policy analyses have tended toward either the impact of policies on student achievement or the furthering of progressive ideals, regularly theorized through concepts of democracy. In this theoretical essay, I suggest that democracy has become a vehicle for cauterized projects of individualized and contingent state status rather than…

US Interest Groups Prefer Emission Trading: A New Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

1999-01-01

If there is to be environmental regulation, what kind of regulation would the main interest groups then prefer? This political distortion must be taken into account when designing future environmental regulation such as CO2 regulation. The three main interest groups in the US (private business......, it is suggested that a grandfathered permit market is a more effective policy than a tax in relation to organized interests such as industry, electric utilities and environmental organizations. In perspective, the grandfathered permit market may be mixed with the use of taxes. In the case of CO2 regulation......, for example, taxes may be applied to badly organized polluters, such as households and the transport sector, because their lobbying power is weak. Udgivelsesdato: OCT...

Technologies of democracy: experiments and demonstrations.

Science.gov (United States)

Laurent, Brice

2011-12-01

Technologies of democracy are instruments based on material apparatus, social practices and expert knowledge that organize the participation of various publics in the definition and treatment of public problems. Using three examples related to the engagement of publics in nanotechnology in France (a citizen conference, a series of public meetings, and an industrial design process), the paper argues that Science and Technology Studies provide useful tools and methods for the analysis of technologies of democracy. Operations of experiments and public demonstrations can be described, as well as controversies about technologies of democracy giving rise to counter-experiments and counter-demonstrations. The political value of the analysis of public engagement lies in the description of processes of stabilization of democratic orders and in the display of potential alternative political arrangements.

Mexico – A New Narco-Democracy in Latin America?

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Lidija Kos-Stanišić

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the author analyses the democratic transition and the first decade of the Mexican democracy. She points out that the democratic transition took place parallel with a huge expansion of the drug business, which caused the creation of extraconstitutional actors – drug cartels. The situation is particularly pressing in six Mexican federal states where the drug cartels cause deficiencies in the functioning of the majority of partial regimes of constitutional democracy. The conclusion raises fears that the collapse of democracy might extend to other federal states and that Mexico could turn into a narco-democracy in its entire national territory.

Participatory Democracy in Local School Districts: Fact or Fiction, Boon or Bane?

Science.gov (United States)

Hatley, Richard V.

1976-01-01

Discusses the viability of participatory democracy and representative democracy for educational decision-making and argues that pure representative democracy would be preferable to the combination of participatory and representative democracy that now predominates. (Available from the Kansas Association of School Boards, 825 Western, Topeka, KS…

Dewey versus "Dewey" on Democracy and Education

Science.gov (United States)

van der Ploeg, Piet

2016-01-01

In the literature on citizenship education, frequent references are made to Dewey. However, educationalists do not always interpret him correctly. To provide some counterbalance, I explain Dewey's views on education and democracy. I base this, not only on "Democracy and Education", but also on 17 articles that Dewey wrote after…

“Democratic Government”, Interest Groups and American Trade Politics

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Zhanyu Dong

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The study of American trade politics is of great significance when interpreting U.S.A. trade policies and understanding China-U.S.A. trade relations. In order to explain the mechanism of American trade politics, this paper constructs a new analytical framework of “democratic government-interest groups”, which argues that U.S.A. trade policies are not only the choices made by the democratic government between state interests and political private benefits, but also the outcomes of interaction between the U.S.A. government and interest groups. The case study of the U.S.A. trade policies toward China since the new century also demonstrates how the interaction between the government and interest groups ultimately shapes trade policies. Therefore, we need to understand the logic of American trade politics, generate more mutual benefits for our two countries, and work together to promote the bilateral free trade as well as the bilateral relations between China and the U.S.A.

Re-Thinking Normative Democracy and the Political Economy of Education

Science.gov (United States)

Carr, Paul R.

2010-01-01

Normative thinking around democracy often emphasizes the supremacy of electoral politics, underplaying the salience of education as a defining feature to produce a more meaningful, engaged, inclusive form of democracy. Critical pedagogy can be an extremely useful, illuminating and transformative means and process of deconstructing how democracy is…

Devouring the Other: Democracy in Music Education

Science.gov (United States)

Gould, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

In this essay, the author builds on Val Plumwood's (1993, p. 192) notion of "devouring the other" to address fundamental problems of social justice and difference in liberal democracies and music education. The problem with liberal democracies is that they assimilate (devour) difference; consensual treatment of its citizens is predicated on the…

Latin American intra-party democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aldo Adrián Martínez Hernández

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Research proposes to determine the level of internal democracy of political parties in Latin America from perception of its members, allowing the creation of an index that has parameters for the measurement and comparison of the parties according to its democratic features. At the same time, research supports designing a profile of the parties by subjecting to analysis the relationship between ideology and internal democracy, stressing that despite the differences between left and right, parties in Latin America do not have dichotomous democratic features, while maintaining low levels despite their ideological location.

Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lassen, David Dreyer; Serritslew, Søren

2011-01-01

and problems of endogeneity. We focus on internal political efficacy, a psychological condition that many see as necessary for high-quality participatory democracy. We identify a quasiexperiment, a large-scale municipal reform in Denmark, which allows us to estimate a causal effect of jurisdiction size......Optimal jurisdiction size is a cornerstone of government design. A strong tradition in political thought argues that democracy thrives in smaller jurisdictions, but existing studies of the effects of jurisdiction size, mostly cross-sectional in nature, yield ambiguous results due to sorting effects...

"Democracy Will Not Fall from the Sky." A Comparative Study of Teacher Education Students' Perceptions of Democracy in Two Neo-Liberal Societies: Argentina and Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Zyngier, David; Traverso, María Delia; Murriello, Adriana

2015-01-01

This paper compares and contrasts pre-service teachers' (PSTs) beliefs about democracy in Argentina and Australia. While there are many important studies of how school students understand democracy and democratic participation, few have studied what teachers, and especially pre-service teachers, think about democracy. This paper uses a mixed…

How do South Africans understand Democracy and Christianity ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The average South African is often seen as Christian and as supporting democracy, but research suggests many of the fundamentals of democracy and Christianity are clearly not accepted unconditionally. Africa Insight Vol.34(2/3) 2004: 16-22 ...

What Democracy Means to Citizens – and Why It Matters

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Siddhartha Baviskar

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Recent survey research indicates that democracy  means different things to different people. For  some, democracy is a method of selecting leaders,  protecting civil liberties and political rights, and  upholding the rule of law. Other citizens have  more expansive views of democracy, viewing it as  a mechanism for promoting social equality and  economic growth, for example. While such studies provide strong evidence that the concept ‘democracy’ is multidimensional, to date scholars  have not explained why citizens think of democracy in myriad ways, and whether such differences matter. We aim to address these issues  using data gathered from field research in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala in 2001.  Through open-ended questions, we asked diverse groups of respondents what democracy meant to  them. Relying upon answers to these questions,  we attempt to explain why respondents had such  varying views of democracy, and examine the  implications these conceptualizations of democracy have for regime stability.  Resumen: Qué significa la  democracia para los ciudadanos y por qué es importanteRecientes investigaciones basadas en encuestas de  opinión pública revelan que la democracia significa diferentes cosas según de quién se trate. Para  algunos, la democracia es un método para elegir  líderes, proteger las libertades civiles y los derechos políticos, y mantener el estado de derecho.  Otros ciudadanos tienen visiones más amplias de  la democracia, y la ven, por ejemplo, como un  mecanismo para promover la igualdad social y el  crecimiento económico. Aunque estos estudios  ofrecen pruebas fuertes de que el concepto ‘democracia’ es multi-dimensional, hasta ahora los investigadores no han explicado por qué los ciudadanos piensan de maneras tan variadas, y si  estas diferencias importan. En este estudio, nuestra meta es abordar este tema utilizando datos  recogidos en el trabajo de campo realizado

LAW DEMOCRACY & DEVELOPMENT

African Journals Online (AJOL)

HP27975994114

the routine of daily business”.21 In the Court's view, this is so because, in a ..... tendency to be disruptive of deliberative processes and to rely on slogans and ... of a deliberative model of democracy for understandings of fundamental rights.

Flavour democracy and the lepton-quark hierarchy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fritzsch, H.; Muenchen Univ.; Plankl, J.

1990-01-01

The mass hierarchy of the leptons and quarks is interpreted as a consequence of a coherent state phenomenon ('flavour democracy'). It is emphasized that particular forms of the mass matrices can arise from the coherent state basis. The violations of the 'flavour democracy' turn out to be relatively large. Numerical examples are presented. (orig.)

[Marketizing of the State, erosion of democracy and impoverishment of citizenship: global tendencies?].

Science.gov (United States)

Giffin, Karen Mary

2007-01-01

This article analyses the advance of the neo-liberal regime, in order to contextualise the international formulation of policies focussed on poverty reduction. In recent debates, terms such as 'citizenship' and 'democracy' have been subject to critical scrutiny, revealing changes in the relations between citizens and the State which accompany the hegemony of economic criteria that put financial considerations at the centre of national states. We argue that analyses of such global processes require an ample political economy perspective, capable of illuminating how the substance of democracy and the legitimacy of state authority have been conditioned by the advance of new global entities that represent the interests of capital, favouring the concentration of wealth and the increase of poverty, inequality and exclusion, and installing a state of vital insecurity that affects the majority of the world's population.

How is an absolute democracy possible?

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Joanna Bednarek

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In the last part of the Empire trilogy, Commonwealth, Negri and Hardt ask about the possibility of the self-governance of the multitude. When answering, they argue that absolute democracy, understood as the political articulation of the multitude that does not entail its unification (construction of the people is possible. As Negri states, this way of thinking about political articulation is rooted in the tradition of democratic materialism and constitutes the alternative to the dominant current of modern political philosophy that identifies political power with sovereignty. The multitude organizes itself politically by means of the constitutive power, identical with the ontological creativity or productivity of the multitude. To state the problem of political organization means to state the problem of class composition: political democracy is at the same time economic democracy.

Philosophical Foundations for Democracy: A Ukrainian Perspective

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Yuriy Myelkov

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The article intends to conduct a philosophical analysis of democracy as it is presented by democratization processes in societies under globalization. Turbulent political life or contemporary Ukraine with its recent ‘revolution’ provides an excellent example of such a process. The authors demonstrate that the processes in question could be denoted as rather manipulation and political technologies than democratic transition. They argue that democracy can only be understood correctly as the self-organization of society composed of free and conscious human personalities. They show that personality as the subject of democracy, opposed to crowds led by contemporary demagogues, is the only possibility to achieve real changes for a better society.

Democracy as the Rule of Nobody. Does It Make Sense Today?

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Tonči Kursar

2012-01-01

Full Text Available I would like to contribute to the ongoing debate on democracy by discussing the notion of the rule of nobody. I first address Rosanvallon's theory of counter-democracy and Keane's concept of monitory democracy. Keane writes about 'monitory democracy' not only as a new phase in the development of democracy on a global scale, but primarily as an abolishment of all domination in human relations. His idea that in a monitory democracy 'no body rules', has been criticized by John Dunn and John Gray. They consider it meaningless to claim that in democracy 'no body rules', since every form of rule needs rulers. I would like to show that both this supposedly realistic criticism and Keane's version of the rule of nobody are too literal and superficial. If we consider democracy to be a kind of sentiment rather than a set of political institutions, we get closer to the puzzling idea that 'no body rules'. This idea, namely, is not about abolishing the rule of men over men, but about being aware of the contingency of all forms of mastery. This was well known to Plato and has been convincingly revived in the works of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière.

Urban sprawl, smart growth, and deliberative democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Resnik, David B

2010-10-01

Urban sprawl is an increasingly common feature of the built environment in the United States and other industrialized nations. Although there is considerable evidence that urban sprawl has adverse affects on public health and the environment, policy frameworks designed to combat sprawl-such as smart growth-have proven to be controversial, making implementation difficult. Smart growth has generated considerable controversy because stakeholders affected by urban planning policies have conflicting interests and divergent moral and political viewpoints. In some of these situations, deliberative democracy-an approach to resolving controversial public-policy questions that emphasizes open, deliberative debate among the affected parties as an alternative to voting-would be a fair and effective way to resolve urban-planning issues.

Romanian Democracy, Two Facets of the Reform

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Vasile Pleșca

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This study tries, although we are aware of its limits, to offer two methods through which Romanian democracy could overcome its state of „non-development”. Beyond the objective and the subjective causes of the democratic backwardness of Romania, causes that have been discussed both in the academic community and in the public space, we think that it might be more relevant to identify the possibilities of an evolution. Although omnipresent in the Romanian public debate, the two ways to follow are approached from a special perspective, following a certain liberal model, stressing the importance of protecting the individual interests and rights of the citizens against the inherent abuses of the institutions of the political power..

Utility of a dermatology interest group blog: the impact of medical student interest groups and Web 2.0 tools as educational resources

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Jalalat SZ

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Sheila Z Jalalat, Richard F Wagner Jr Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA Abstract: The open access University of Texas Dermatology Interest Group blog was established in 2004 for the purposes of increasing communication and collaboration between medical students and dermatology faculty, residents, and alumni, as well as to promote educational opportunities and the missions for which the interest group was created. This blog is unique because of its longevity and continuous postings directed toward the educational and professional needs of medical students and residents. A blog user survey was performed to assess viewers' thoughts, purpose of viewing, demographic profile, subscriber status, usage of the blog and other Web 2.0 tools (forums, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, podcasts, and perceived usefulness. Sixty-one anonymous online surveys were completed during a 1-month period. Statistical analyses of the responses demonstrated that the utilization of web-based tools and the blog were valuable resources for students, especially for blog subscribers, those more involved in an interest group, and those reading the blog for a longer period of time. The usefulness and impact of this method of communication and dissemination of information in medical education may encourage other student groups, faculty advisors, and educators to implement similar educational tools at their institutions. Keywords: education, medical student, dermatology, blog

Democratic Citizenship – A Conditioned Apprenticeship. A Call for Destabilisation of Democracy in Education

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Maria Olson

2009-12-01

Full Text Available We live in times when the search for a citizenship education that can transcend national, ethnical and cultural borders is an important part of educational policy. In times of increased pressure by the European Union on its nation states to provide for nation-transcending democracy, this question becomes crucial for national policymaking in Europe. In this text, Swedish education policy will be taken as a case in point in order to shed light on how this question is being handled in this particular national policy setting. It is argued that the policy’s citizen fostering agenda tends to be counterproductive in the sense that it is still situated in national notions of the relationship between democracy and education, which tend to exclude certain individuals and groups of people on an age-related and (ethno cultural basis. It is further argued that these excluding features can be related to educational ideas about socialisation. The aim of this text is underlined by suggesting a different way of framing democracy and democratic citizenship education: to increase the potential of education as regards the renewal of democracy and democratic citizenship.

Identity and democracy: linking individual and social reasoning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Davis, J.B.; Marin, S.R.

2009-01-01

Following Amartya Sen's approach, John Davis and Solange Regina Marin look at individual and social reasoning when examining the complex relationship between identity and democracy. They characterize democracy as a process of social or public reasoning that combines the individual reasoning of all

Democracy Dies in Dualisms. A Response to "Dewey and Democracy"

Science.gov (United States)

Sarofian-Butin, Dan

2017-01-01

This essay reviews Atkinson's article "Dewey and Democracy" and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson's essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what…

AMBIGUOUS JANUS OF MODERN DEMOCRACY

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Volodymyr V. Khmil

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The purpose of the research is to analyze ambiguous concept of  democracy as a phenomenon of political and social formation based on political and instrumental approach. As a result, some deep fundamentals of  human social existence and values as social life basis are blurred. Task. The task of  this investigation is to reveal the concept of democracy in its invariative philosophical  meaning and find the consequences of global social transformations towards social entropy. Methods of investigation. To implement the task an activity approach has been used with further possibility to single out two approaches - politological and philosophical. The focus on democracy from philosophic point of view makes possible to anticipate negative entropic processes that lead  to future ambiguity. Subject matter. Chaotic social processes can result in  ruined family, spiritual, legal and moral formations. Regulatory and legal paradigms are becoming less effective and entail disintegration of spiritual and value constituents of worldview causing necessary conditions for social entropy. Originality and Findings. Possible threats for human freedom that hinder the way to targeted  prospects of mankind have been considered in the paper. Thus, taking into account all positive aspects of democracy, it is simultaneously becoming the tool of continuous differentiation of society into tiny autonomous communities similar to nomadic atomization of society. The concept based on moral substantial existence basis as in “axis time” by K. Jaspers that can prevent social entropy resulting in world anthropologic catastrophes has been grounded in the present research.

Design for the values of democracy and justice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pols, A.J.K.; Spahn, A.; Hoven, van den J.; Vermaas, P.; Poel, van de I.

2015-01-01

In this chapter, we provide an overview of literature on the relation between technology and design and the values of democracy and justice. We first explore how philosophy has traditionally conceptualized democracy and justice. We then examine general philosophical theories and arguments about this

Democracy, Citizen Sovereignty and Constitutional Economics

OpenAIRE

Vanberg, Viktor J.

2006-01-01

This paper is an exercise in conceptual clarification. Its purpose is to explore the contribution that constitutional economics can make to the theory of democracy. Constitutional economics as the economics of rules is concerned with the study of how the choice of rules in the social, economic and political realm affects the nature of the processes of human interaction that evolve within these rules. The theory of democracy is concerned with institutionalorganizational problems of self-govern...

Teamwork Satisfaction: Exploring the Multilevel Interaction of Teamwork Interest and Group Extraversion

Science.gov (United States)

French, Kimberly A.; Kottke, Janet L.

2013-01-01

Multilevel modeling is used to examine the impact of teamwork interest and group extraversion on group satisfaction. Participants included 206 undergraduates in 65 groups who were surveyed at the beginning and end of a requisite term-length group project for an upper-division university course. We hypothesized that teamwork interest and both…

Power and Democracy in Denmark. Conclusions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jørgen Goul; Christiansen, Peter Munk; Beck Jørgensen, Torben

In 1997, the Danish Parliament decided to launch a power study, officially An Analysis of Democracy and Power in Denmark. A steering committee consisting of five independent researchers was assigned responsibility for the project. The Steering Committee has gathered the overall conclusions from...... the numerous projects under the Power Study, and this book is a short presentation of these conclusions.The main focus of the book is the state of democracy in Denmark at the dawn of the 21st century. How has democracy fared, has the development made things better or worse, and to which extent does......, and the political institutions show considerable democratic robustness. However, not everything has gone or is going well. There are still pronounced social divisions in Danish society, although their nature has changed somewhat. The ideal of an informed public debate does not always enjoy the best conditions...

Is Polis the Answer? Hannah Arendt on Democracy

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Monika Bokiniec

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to reconsider Hannah Arendt’s most influential works from the point of view of her attitude towards democracy and analysis of the way it may contribute to the contemporary understanding and redefinition of the very notion of what democracy is.The paper begins with the reconstruction of Arendt’s anthropology in order to ground her political reflections. The next part discusses the basic characteristics of counsel democracy in forms of spontaneous, local organizations and associations in which every citizen could freely and equally participate, as they show through her analysis of revolutions. The last part deals with different and contradictory interpretations of Arendt’s attitude towards democracy and the question whether her proposition is a practical, revolutionary proposition or an idealist utopia. The interpretation of Arendt’s project emphasizing her democratic and reformative approach is defended. The conclusion states Hannah Arendt’s important contribution to the contemporary reflection on democracy in view of her recognition of the power of grassroots collective actions and their role in contemporary political sphere and the necessity of such formed at grass­roots and spontaneous level actions and associations as a unique safety valve for the society, as well as a counterbalance for mass society.  

Mapping Anomalous Democracies During the Cold War

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seeberg, Michael

2014-01-01

During the Cold War, a number of countries established stable democracies despite low levels of modernization and a relative lack of democratic neighbour countries—factors otherwise consistently related to the endurance of democracy. Meanwhile, the Cold War superpowers often supported autocracies...... are identified, including Bolivia, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turkey....

Inclusive or managed democracy?

African Journals Online (AJOL)

remains fragile, and faces the reality that political stability has not been accompanied ... 'managed democracy'2 cognizant of the manipulation of political, economic ...... pushing societies under extractive institutions toward political instability.

Dewey versus ‘Dewey’ on democracy and education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Ploeg, Piet

In the literature on citizenship education, frequent references are made to Dewey. However, educationalists do not always interpret him correctly. To provide some counterbalance, I explain Dewey’s views on education and democracy. I base this, not only on ‘Democracy and Education’, but also on 17

Creating an International Network of Democracy Builders | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Creating an International Network of Democracy Builders. The Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at Queen's University will conduct three case studies on democratic transition in Liberia, Costa Rica and Palestine, partnering with the Sua Foundation, the Arias Foundation and the Arab Thought Forum, respectively.

Pesantren Responses to Religious Tolerance, Pluralism and Democracy in Indonesia

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Nurrohman Nurrohman

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Pesantren (Islamic boarding school is the oldest Islamic institution in Indonesia that often affiliated to the largest mass Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama. This organization is well known for its stance to uphold moderate, tolerance Islam and accepting pluralistic state based on Pancasila. Pesantren also often referred as the barometer to understand the way of thinking of Muslims grass root in Indonesia because many Islamic figures in Indonesian village are alumni of pesantren.  There are debates among scholars on whether religious violence has a root in religious doctrine or it is caused by factors outside religion such as poverty or injustice. By assuming that both inside and outside factors have significant contribution to violence or radicalism this study will discuss the doctrine that potentially can be used to justify violence and intolerance by reviewing the opinion of pesantren leaders in West Java on jihad, violence or intolerance and power. This study is aimed to examine whether the commitment of Muslim leaders in national level on democracy and plurality is supported by grass root particularly from pesantren leaders.  Overall the study found that although they agree that democracy is compatible with Islam, this study reveals that their acceptance to pluralism still be questioned as evidenced by almost half of them supported theocratic caliphate carry out by radical group. Although many argued that pesantren promotes tolerance and pluralism, nevertheless this  study shows that some of their teaching tacitly supported violence act in the name of religion that will tarnished the effort of Indonesia to synchronize Islam, democracy and modernity. It means that many of them actually not wholeheartedly accepted democracy and pluralism.

Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitchell, Timothy; Jaquet, Christophe

2013-01-01

How oil undermines democracy, and our ability to address the environmental crisis. This book is a French translation of 'Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil' originally published by Verso Edition (New York, US, ISBN 978-1781681169). Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy. Timothy Mitchell begins with the history of coal power to tell a radical new story about the rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable for the first time to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from the Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for the first time in history to reorganize political life around the management of something now called 'the economy' and the promise of its infinite growth. The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy-the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fuelled collapse of the ecological order. In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of

Prescribing Democracy?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bourne, Angela; Casals Bertoa, Fernando

2017-01-01

When democracies ban political parties, one of the central issues to usually emerge in both public and academic debate concerns the effects of proscription. Some argue that proscription may lead to radicalisation, a growth of militancy and readiness to use violence. Some also argue that, in the l......When democracies ban political parties, one of the central issues to usually emerge in both public and academic debate concerns the effects of proscription. Some argue that proscription may lead to radicalisation, a growth of militancy and readiness to use violence. Some also argue that...... of party bans on party system development has remained mostly under-researched. Trying to address this lacuna, and employing a new dataset of banned parties in Europe between 1945 and 2015, we compare the effects of party ban regulation on party system stability in three different arenas: electoral......, parliamentary and governmental. In particular, we examine the impact of party proscription on electoral volatility, fragmentation and closure in three different countries: Turkey, Germany and Spain. Using examples both at national and regional (e.g. Basque Country, Navarre, Saxony) level, and making use...

On Democracy and Leadership: From Rhetoric to Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Karagiorgi, Yiasemina

2011-01-01

This paper resembles a personal narrative on leadership and democracy and outlines how an educational leader can conceptualize democratic leadership and take some steps towards transforming theory into practice. The concepts of democracy and democratic schools within the discourse of educational theory and research are briefly discussed. Based on…

Democracy, leadership and nation building in Nigeria | Nweke ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Dissatisfied with a long-term period of military rule, Nigerians clamored for democratic rule and the nation has since 1999 witnessed civilian transitions of power within democracy. For Nigerians, the beauty of their hard earned democracy lies in its proclivity towards integral and sustainable national development. The thrust ...

Dementia and representative democracy: Exploring challenges and implications for democratic citizenship.

Science.gov (United States)

Sonnicksen, Jared

2016-05-01

Despite growing recognition of the rights of people with dementia for full citizenship, issues related to democracy, whether from theoretical or practical perspectives, remain neglected. Especially since discourses on dementia have expanded to this rights-based approach, it is imperative to begin to examine the meanings and practices of democracy within a context of dementia. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to assess implications of dementia in the context of democracy. Rather than surveying the variety of democratic concepts, it will focus the analytical framework on representative democracy and then outline several challenges to and for representative democracy and citizens with dementia. The intention is to begin to identify paths for ensuring representation, inclusion and participation for those who have dementia. © The Author(s) 2016.

Sentimento de democracia Sentiment of democracy

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Rubem Barboza Filho

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Este artigo explora o papel que os valores, e um certo modo de vivê-los, pode ter para a consolidação da democracia no Brasil. Na primeira parte, mostra, com o auxílio de Charles Taylor, como a proposta de democracia deliberativa e procedimental de Habermas contempla as idéias de razão e interesse bem compreendidos, mas soterra a importância do ''sentimento bem compreendido'' - dos valores que a originaram historicamente. Na segunda parte, o artigo examina as grandes configurações expressivistas e não racionalistas de valores que conformaram a identidade brasileira - o barroco, o romantismo e o modernismo - e como esta tradição, e os valores que nela habitam, podem ser mobilizados para a nossa plena democratização e para a permanência dos próprios procedimentos democráticos.This article explores the role that values, and a way of experiencing them, may have to consolidate democracy in Brazil. The first part shows, with the assistance of Charles Taylor, how Habermas's procedural and deliberative democracy accounts for the ideas of reason and self-interest rightly understood, but not for the ''sentiment rightly understood'' - the values which have made it historically possible. The second part examines the great expressivist and non-rationalist configurations which have made up the Brazilian identity - Baroque, Romanticism and Modernism - and how this tradition, and the values which inhabit it, may be worked out for our full democratization and the keeping of the democratic proceduralism itself.

Open Government: A Tool for Democracy?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emiliana De Blasio

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The growing disconnection between citizens and decision-makers is pushing politics towards a re-shaping of institutional design. New spaces of political participation are sustained and even reinforced by communication, especially by digital communication. Governments and public administrations can find and use different models to facilitate citizens’ participation; e-government, open government and a specific design of digital democracy. In this respect, open government can constitute a way to re-connect citizens and political institutions, but at the same time, it can also be an “appealing” tool to institutionalize bottom-up participation and so anesthetizing it. The aim of this article is to present the first findings of an international research project about open government and participatory platforms in four European countries (France, Italy, Spain, the UK. The study tries to understand if participatory platforms can improve the quality of democracy, and if open government can contribute to democratizing democracy.

Democracy, political representation, leadership and the institutional question. Debates on the theory and practice of politics in contemporary democracies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hernán Fair

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes the problem of political representation in contemporary democracies, its links with the role of political leadership and the institutional issue. In the first part, it examines the debates on political representation from the predominant perspectives of Latin American political science and critiques from alternative views of the discipline. The second part focuses on representative democracies today, examining the links and tensions between Laclau´s post-foundational theory of populism and neo-institutionalist political science. The last part critiques laclausian theory of populism, distinguishing conceptually between the institutional, administrative and pluralistic elements and the liberal tradition, which appears juxtaposed in the laclausian approach, and between the populist (post-foundational and ideological (foundational forms, on the basis of the analytical differences between authoritarianism, dictatorship and totalitarism. After that, some resources of the classical tradition of democracy and republicanism are incorporated, which are sub-theorized in Laclau’s approach. Finally, these tools are used to conceptualize and analyze two dimensions, defined as participatory-horizontal-popular and representative-pluralist, which tend to construct a post-foundational theory of radical democracy for the twenty-first century.

Bombing beyond Democracy. Remembering the Ruins of Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoffmann, Birthe

2013-01-01

World War II is often seen as a victory for democracy, but at the same time represents the final bankruptcy of those humanistic ideas that seemed so deeply rooted in European tradition. This affected not only the self-perception of the Germans, as obvious, but also that of the winning democracies...

Banzhuren and Classrooming: Democracy in the Chinese Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jiacheng; Chen, Jing

2013-01-01

The issue of education and democracy has become more and more important in China. This paper firstly explains the theory of democracy in Chinese classrooms, and then focuses on the Chinese banzhuren who is responsible for classrooming, an important educational area equal to instruction. We illustrate how Chinese students achieve development…

"Democracy and Education": Reconstruction of and through Education

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, James

2016-01-01

While focusing on "Democracy and Education," James Campbell attempts in this essay to offer a synthesis of the full range of John Dewey's educational thought. Campbell explores in particular Dewey's understanding of the relationship between democracy and education by considering both his ideas on the reconstruction of education and on…

Democracy and Human Rights: Concepts, Measures, and Relationships

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Todd Landman

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The empirical literature on democracy and human rights has made great strides over the last 30 years in explaining (1 the variation in the transition to, consolidation of, and quality of democracy; (2 the proliferation and effectiveness of human rights law; and (3 the causes and consequences of human rights across many of their categories and dimensions. This work has in many ways overcome the ‘essentially contested’ nature of the concepts of democracy and human rights conceptually, established different measures of both empirically, and developed increasingly sophisticated statistical and other analytical techniques to provide stronger inferences for the academic and policy community. This article argues that despite these many achievements, there remain tensions between conceptualisations of democracy and human rights over the degree to which one includes the other, the temporal and spatial empirical relationships between them, and the measures that have been developed to operationalize them. These tensions, in turn, affect the kinds of analyses that are carried out, including model specification, methods of estimation, and findings. Drawing on extant theories and measures of both, the article argues that there must be greater specificity in the conceptualisation and operationalization of democracy and human rights, greater care in the development and use of measures, and greater attention to the kinds of inferences that are made possible by them.

The Significance of Dewey's "Democracy and Education" for 21st-Century Education

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Lance E.

2017-01-01

This paper explores the significance of Dewey's "Democracy and Education" for "21st-century education," a term used by proponents of curricular standardization and digital ubiquity in classrooms. Though these domains have distinct advocacy groups, they often share similar assumptions about the primary purposes of schooling as…

Our 9/11 of hope: Short essays on European democracy since 1989

OpenAIRE

Tassinari, Fabrizio

2010-01-01

This collection of short essays proceeds from an international conference organized by DIIS on 9th November 2009, the day of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The volume centers on the political, social, and economic implications of the revolutions of 1989 on European democracy. The authors of these essays come from very different backgrounds and interests: ranging from academics and public intellectuals that have written extensively on post-Cold War Europe, to practit...

Not "Democratic Education" but "Democracy and Education": Reconsidering Dewey's Oft Misunderstood Introduction to the Philosophy of Education

Science.gov (United States)

Quay, John

2016-01-01

Of enduring interest to philosophers of education is the intimate connection Dewey draws between "Democracy and Education" in this now century-old seminal work. At first glance the connection may appear quite simple, with the two terms commonly combined today as "democratic education". But there is significantly more to Dewey's…

Democracy as a meaning. Regional participatory forums of public consultation in Argentina

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Víctor Humberto Guzmán

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the study of part of the dispute process around the Audiovisual Communication Services law in the argentine public space during the year 2009. Specifically, it shows how the signification of democracy was configured in the Regional Participatory Forums of Public Consultation (FPCP organized by the Federal Broadcasting Committee (COMFER which were held during 2009 as a previous stage to the presentation of the Audiovisual Communication Services Bill. Thus, from the analysis of the interventions in the FPCP, the paper presents the emergence of democracy as democratic gradualness configured in three analytical dimensions: what democracy is not, democracy as plurality, and democracy as participation.

SWELA, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Cameroon’s Patrimonial State

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Orock, Rogers Tabe Egbe

2014-01-01

empowerment and accountability. This article draws from a recent anthropological theoretical position on democracy as a work of cultural construction as well as on ethnographic material on an ethno-regional elite organization in Southwestern Cameroon called SWELA to provide an alternative reading...... of the ethnicity-elite-democracy nexus in postcolonial Africa. I suggest that while ethnicity is a major idiom through which the politics of democracy is practiced in Africa where most states are very patrimonially organized, this need not be seen as unproductive to the democratic ideals or expectations...

Constitutionalism and Democracy in Contemporary International Community

OpenAIRE

Padjen, Ivan

1992-01-01

Starting from the insight that jurisprudence of legal theory should be concerned primarily with,on the one hand, international law, and, on the other, constitutional developments, the paper; analyzes some prominent conceptions of constitutionalism and democracy in international community and municipal legal orders; formulates a new set of criteria for the analysis of constitutionalism and democracy in international law; and argues that Laswell and McDougal's policy oriented jurisprudence offe...

Democracy, property rights, income equality, and corruption

OpenAIRE

Dong, Bin; Torgler, Benno

2011-01-01

This paper presents theoretical and empirical evidence on the nexus between corruption and democracy. We establish a political economy model where the effect of democracy on corruption is conditional on income distribution and property rights protection. Our empirical analysis with cross-national panel data provides evidence that is consistent with the theoretical prediction. Moreover, the effect of democratization on corruption depends on the protection of property rights and income equality...

Islam and Democracy: Conflicts and Congruence

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Md Nazrul Islam

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Is authoritarianism intrinsic to Islam? Is Islam incompatible with democracy? These questions are frequently debated in the context of the study of the relationship between the Western and Islamic civilization. The debate has gained momentum since the last decade of the twentieth century, especially after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent transition of socialist states in Eastern Europe and other authoritarian states in Asia and Latin America to democracy. The publication of The Clash of Civilizations by American scholar Samuel Huntington, in which he presented a controversial argument about a cultural divide and clash between the Islamic world and the West, pushed the debate even further. Apart from Muslim intellectuals, Western academics have spent a significant amount of time on these questions, with a multitude of articles and volumes examining the compatibility of Islam and democracy. In this paper, we will examine Islam’s relationship with democracy from normative and philosophical viewpoints, examining how the established values and principles of Islam as reflected in the Qur’anic and prophetic traditions correspond to Western democratic norms and practices. In order to obtain a profound understanding of this subject, we have delved into, through content analysis, the thoughts of several early modernist Islamic scholars who have had tremendous impact on contemporary Islamic revivalist movements throughout the world, and interviewed a number of contemporary Islamic thinkers in Bangladesh.

Democracy and environment as references for quadruple and quintuple helix innovation systems

Science.gov (United States)

Carayannis, Elias G.; Campbell, David F. J.; Orr, Barron J.

2015-04-01

The perspective of democracy and the ecological context define key references for knowledge production and innovation in innovation systems. Particularly under conditions of environmental change where enhancing the potential for adaptation is critical, this requires a closer look at ecological responsibility and sensitivity in the different innovation models and governance regimes. The "Quintuple Helix" innovation model is an approach that stresses the necessary socio-ecological transition of society and economy by adding an environment helix to an innovation system already made up of three (university-industry-government) or four (civil society relations) helices in a way that supports adaptation by incorporating global warming as both a challenge to and a driver of innovation. There is the proposition that knowledge production and innovation co-evolve with democracy (Carayannis and Campbell, 2014). In the Triple Helix model (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2000) the existence of a democracy does not appear to be necessary for knowledge production and innovation. However, the Quadruple Helix (Carayannis and Campbell, 2009, 2010 and 2014) is defined and represented by additional key attributes and components: "media-based and culture-based public", "civil society" and "arts, artistic research and arts-based innovation" (Bast, Carayannis and Campbell, 2015). Implications of this are that the fourth helix in the Quadruple Helix innovation systems brings in and represents the perspective of "dimension of democracy" or the "context of democracy" for knowledge in general and knowledge production and innovation in more particular. Within theories of democracy there is a competition between narrow and broader concepts of democracy (Campbell, 2013). This is particularly true when democracy is to be understood to transcend more substantially the narrow understanding of being primarily based on or being primarily rooted in government institutions (within a Triple Helix

Identity as constraint and resource in interest group evolution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halpin, Darren; Daugbjerg, Carsten

2015-01-01

, and the capability of challengers to demonstrate to key audiences that the ‘radical’ change is in some way consistent with the founding identity of the group. We demonstrate the application of this approach by examining a case of radical change—a shift in overall form—in a well-known UK interest group, the Soil...

Regional Autonomy and Local Democracy: Independent Candidates Cases

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Suryanto

2016-11-01

Full Text Available One of the efforts to achieve local democracy is through the participation of independent candidates in the Direct General Election in the region. The presence of independent candidates in the Direct General Election gives a great hope to change the political structure of the shackles of the old forces. This paper aims to discuss the implication of regional heads coming from independent candidates on the effectiveness of local governance and the implementation of substantive democracy in the region. The method used is a qualitative approach using descriptive research method. The data collection is done through literature approach. Processing data uses Milles and Huberman interactive models, which includes data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. The study concluded three things: First, the presence of independent candidates in the Direct General Election gives the opportunities to achieve local democracy that is getting bigger, Second, Regional Heads elected from independent candidates face the challenges of the ineffectiveness of regional government, and Third, within certain limits, the power of elected regional heads from independent lane leads to the realization of democracy that is not substantial.

Rethinking immigration policy theory beyond 'Western liberal democracies'.

Science.gov (United States)

Natter, Katharina

2018-01-01

How do political systems shape immigration policy-making? Explicitly or implicitly, comparative politics and migration policy theories suggest a 'regime effect' that links specific dynamics of immigration policy to liberal democracy. The literature's dominant focus on so-called 'Western liberal democracies', however, has left the 'regime effect' largely untested and research on variations and similarities in immigration policymaking across political systems strikingly undertheorized. This paper challenges the theoretical usefulness of essentialist, dichotomous categories such as Western/non-Western or democratic/autocratic and calls for a more nuanced theorizing of immigration policy-making. It proposes a two-dimensional classification of immigration policy theories, distinguishing between 'issue-specific' theories that capture immigration policy processes regardless of the political system in place and 'regime-specific' theories whose insights are tied to the characteristics of a political system. The paper also advances the 'illiberal paradox' hypothesis to explain why illiberal, autocratic states may enact liberal immigration policies. This theoretical expansion beyond the 'Western' and 'liberal' bubble is illustrated by an analysis of immigration policy-making in 21st century Morocco and Tunisia. Showing how domestic and international institutions, interests, and ideas shape immigration policy-making in Morocco's monarchy and Tunisia's democratic transition, the paper investigates the broader role of political systems in immigration politics and herewith seeks to contribute to a more general and global theorization of immigration policies.

High-stakes educational testing and democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ydesen, Christian

2014-01-01

This article investigates the relation between high-stakes educational testing and democracy drawn from the experiences of 20th-century high-stakes educational testing practices in the Danish history of education. The article presents various concepts of democracy using leading propositions within...... the field of education. Then a sample of relevant historic case studies are examined in light of these definitions. Among other things, the article concludes that a combination of different evaluation technologies – some formative and some summative – might be the safest way to go from a democratic...

The young Marx on constituent power and “true democracy.”

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Flohr, Mikkel

Marx and Marxism is commonly charged with having neglected politics and the development of a theory of politics. However, this presumption ignores Marx’s unfinished and unpublished 1843 Critique of Hegel’s Doctrine of State, where he engaged political theory at length – an engagement, which...... propelled him towards his subsequent critique of political economy. It is the aim of the proposed paper to reconstruct and reinterpret his argument focusing in particular on his conceptualization of constituent power and “true democracy.” In the 1843 Critique Marx argues that democracy is the foundation...... the conflicts of civil society. Marx therefore concludes that all these political forms are democracies in contradiction with themselves. Marx proceeds to suggest that it is possible to overcome these contradictions and develop an adequate political form of democracy, which he describes as “true democracy...

Democracia dos antigos x democracia dos modernos: uma revisão de literatura Old democracy x modern democracy – a literature review

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Alexandre José Pierini

2008-07-01

Full Text Available This work is a literature review on democracy. Firstly, a short historical retrospect of democracy is carried out. This retrospect is important because democracy had links with the citizen’s direct participation in the decision-making. The modern democracy, on its turn, is related to the political representation, where the citizen participates through mechanisms developed by the State to elect its representatives. The main aspect is the crisis inherent in the current democratic system which needs an urgent review process. It is on the crisis established on democracy that the old as well as the modern democracy establish convergence points, for mechanisms of direct participation are being thought and blended together with the modern democracy, with the purpose of recreating the current political system.O presente trabalho se caracteriza como uma revisão de literatura sobre o tema democracia. Para a consecução da revisão, buscou-se expor no primeiro momento a realização de um breve retrospecto histórico da democracia. Esse retrospecto é importante porque a democracia possuía vínculos com a participação direta do cidadão nas tomadas de decisão. A democracia dos modernos por sua vez, se relacionada com a representação política, onde o cidadão participa por meio de mecanismos criados pelo Estado para eleger os seus representantes. O ponto nevrálgico e que marca sobretudo os aspectos relacionados a esta revisão de literatura é a crise inerente do sistema democrático em voga e que necessita sobremaneira de um processo de revisão. A crise da democracia conduz ao estabelecimento de pontos de convergência entre a democracia dos antigos e a democracia dos modernos mecanismos de participação direta estão sendo pensados e mesclados junto à democracia dos modernos com o intuito de recriar o sistema político vigente.

Examining Citizen Participation: Local Participatory Policy Making and Democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michels, A.M.B.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/11124501X; de Graaf, L.J.

2010-01-01

Citizen participation is usually seen as a vital aspect of democracy. Many theorists claim that citizen participation has positive effects on the quality of democracy. This article examines the probability of these claims for local participatory policymaking projects in two municipalities in the

Philosophy for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Bartels, Rob; Onstenk, Jeroen; Veugelers, Wiel

2016-01-01

Philosophy for Democracy is a research project that aims to examine whether and how Philosophy with Children contributes to the development of democratic skills and attitudes. In the Netherlands, as in almost all Western countries, Philosophy with Children is linked with the movement for citizenship education. This article reports the research on…

21st-century liberal democracy and its contradictions

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Paolo Bellini

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This brief paper intends to highlight the contradictions in which liberal democracy struggles within the process of globalisation, influenced as it is by the new connecting technologies. In particular, the difficult relationship between liberalism and democracy is analysed in light of the latest communitarist theories and new trends that interpret them socially. 

RESEARCH: Theory in Practice: Applying Participatory Democracy Theory to Public Land Planning

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Moote; Mcclaran; Chickering

1997-11-01

/ Application of participatory democracy theory to public participation in public land planning, while widely advocated, has not been closely examined. A case study is used here to explicate the application of participatory democracy concepts to public participation in public land planning and decision making. In this case, a Bureau of Land Management resource area manager decided to make a significant shift from the traditional public involvement process to a more participatory method-coordinated resource management (CRM). This case was assessed using document analysis, direct observation of CRM meetings, questionnaires, and interviews of key participants. These sources were used to examine the CRM case using participatory democracy concepts of efficacy, access and representation, continuous participation throughout planning, information exchange and learning, and decision-making authority. The case study suggests that social deliberation in itself does not ensure successful collaboration and that establishing rules of operation and decision making within the group is critical. Furthermore, conflicts between the concept of shared decision-making authority and the public land management agencies' accountability to Congress, the President, and the courts need further consideration.KEY WORDS: Case study; Coordinated resource management; Public participation; Administrative discretion; Representation; Consensus; Collaboration

The Secret Driving Force Behind Mongolia’s Successful Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

the nation’s democracy movement its earliest stages. Courtesy of the Democratic Union of Mongolia PRISM 6, no. 1 FROM THE FIELD | 141 The Secret Driving...assistance and trade. Our state budget PRISM 6, no. 1 FROM THE FIELD | 143 THE SECRET DRIVING FORCE BEHIND MONGOLIA’S SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRACY collapsed; we...O yungerel Tsedevdam ba (2006) PRISM 6, no. 1 FROM THE FIELD | 145 THE SECRET DRIVING FORCE BEHIND MONGOLIA’S SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRACY significantly as

Local Democracy in Myanmar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kyed, Helene Maria; Harrisson, Annika Pohl; McCarthy, Gerard

Myanmar is undergoing a comprehensive political transition. In April this year the first democratically elected government in six decades came into power under the leadership of NLD, the pro-democracy party headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. The largest peace conference in the country’s history was held...... in early September, and Myanmar again made the international headlines a week later when Kofi Annan visited the country to head a commission for addressing communal violence. These national events are crucial to the democratization process in Myanmar and for ending the almost seven decades of civil war....... However, often overlooked in this larger picture of transition is the state of local democracy, including village level governance and everyday state-citizen engagements. Political changes at this level are equally crucial for the wider democratization process. This roundtable summary discusses the 2016...

Liberalism and democracy Liberalismo e democracia

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(Autor Claude Lefort

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In this essay, the historical connections between liberalism and democracy are analyzed, based mostly on three important authors of the French liberal thought of the first half of the 19th century: Benjamin Constant (1767-1830, François Guizot (1787-1874 e Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859. Although, the Author doesn’t forget to highlight the contemporary issues which demand confronting and elucidating the chances of democracy. Keywords: French Liberalism. Democracy. Political Philosophy. Tolerance. São aqui examinadas as relações históricas entre liberalismo e democracia, com base principalmente em três importantes autores do pensamento liberal francês da primeira metade do século XIX: Benjamin Constant (1767-1830, François Guizot (1787-1874 e Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859. Contudo, o Autor não deixa de lançar luz sobre as questões contemporâneas que exigem enfrentar e elucidar as chances da democracia. Palavras-chave: Liberalismo francês. Democracia. Filosofia política. Tolerância.

Schooling for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Noddings, Nel

2008-01-01

The author of this article contends that current efforts at school reform--ostensibly designed to increase equality of outcomes--may actually be undermining democracy by undervaluing the wide range of talents required in 21st-century America. Many policy makers today argue that all students should have a standard curriculum that will prepare them…

Democracy predicts sport and recreation membership: Insights from 52 countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Balish, Shea M

2017-03-01

Although evidence suggests sport and recreation are powerful contributors to worldwide public health, sizable gender differences persist. It is unknown whether country characteristics moderate gender differences across countries. The primary purpose of this study was to examine if countries' levels of democracy and/or gender inequality moderate gender differences in sport and recreation membership across countries. The secondary purpose was to examine if democracy and/or gender inequality predicts overall rates of sport and recreation membership for both males and females. This study involved a nested cross-sectional design and employed the sixth wave (2013) of the world value survey (n Ss =71,901, n countries =52). Multiple hierarchal nonlinear Bernoulli models tested: (1) if countries' levels of democracy moderate gender differences in sport and recreation membership; and (2) if democracy is associated with increased sport and recreation membership for both males and females. Countries' level of democracy fully moderated gender differences in sport and recreation membership across countries. Moreover, democracy was positively associated with both male and female membership, even when controlling for individual and country-level covariates. Democratic political regimes may confer health benefits via increased levels of sport and recreation membership, especially for females. Future research should test mediating mechanisms. Copyright © 2016 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Social Responsability of the Magistrate and the Proteccion of Democracy

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José Renato Gaziero Cella

2016-12-01

Full Text Available One of the most effective ways to limit it is the social control of the acts of judges, which have a great social responsibility to decide. There is no doubt that society is most interested in structuring an effective judiciary and independent ideals. Thus, the magistrate should be seen as a promotional agent of democracy. For these reasons, this article, through the hypothetical-deductive method, it brings the hypothesis the possibility of the magistrate's civil liability whose decision has exceeded reasonable limits the application of the law.

The European Citizens’ Initiative: Transnational Democracy in the EU at last?

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Maximilian Conrad

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, in force since December 2009, introduced the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI as a means of strengthening citizen involvement in EU decision making. A minimum of one million citizens from at least seven of the EU’s current 27 member states can request that the European Commission submit a legislative proposal on the issue of the initiative. But the ECI is not only a means of strengthening participatory democracy in the EU. It also bears the potential for a more fundamental transformation of democracy, namely in the direction of transnational participatory democracy. Starting with a short introduction to how the ECI will work in practice as well as a brief history of participatory democracy in the EU, this article therefore examines the ECI from the perspective of democratic theory. How profound an impact will the ECI have on democracy in the European Union?

Patron-Client Politics, Democracy and Governance in Nigeria, 1999 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Its evidence abounds in older democracies, emerging democracies and even authoritarian regimes. In Nigeria, its evidence abounds in the pre-colonial political system through the colonial era to the previous civil administrations in the country since independence. The paper revealed that pecuniary motivation and the ...

Education and support for representative, direct and stealth democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coffé, Hilde; Michels, Ank

2014-01-01

Using data collected within the scope of a Dutch internet panel survey (LISS) in 2011, this study tracks public support for direct, stealth and representative democracy according to educational level. Our findings indicate that, in terms of overall support for each specific type of democracy, lower

Corruption: Threat to democracy and market economy in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In the research on 'Corruption: Threat to Democracy and Market Economy', the researchers critically explore the issue of corruption and how it threatens the democracy and market economy in Nigeria. Relevant literature was revised, which formed the secondary data. The theoretical framework of the study is political ...

Post-militarism: provenance of praetorian democracy in nigerian, 1999

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The development of 'command democracy' took root during this period. On the basis of the empirical evidence adduced, the paper argued that the phenomenon of 'praetorian democracy' which became visible from 1999 to 2007 undermined the constitution and due democratic process. Executive contempt for the rule of law ...

Democracy and development in the age of globalisation | Mubangizi ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Globalisation is one of the leading characteristics of the world today – a world that is striving for development, democracy and the protection of human rights. There is no doubt that the relationship between globalisation and democracy is quite complex. So too is the relationship between globalisation and development.

Classifying and explaining democracy in the Muslim world

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Rohaizan Baharuddin

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to classify and explain democracies in the 47 Muslim countries between the years 1998 and 2008 by using liberties and elections as independent variables. Specifically focusing on the context of the Muslim world, this study examines the performance of civil liberties and elections, variation of democracy practised the most, the elections, civil liberties and democratic transitions and patterns that followed. Based on the quantitative data primarily collected from Freedom House, this study demonstrates the following aggregate findings: first, the “not free not fair” elections, the “limited” civil liberties and the “Illiberal Partial Democracy” were the dominant feature of elections, civil liberties and democracy practised in the Muslim world; second, a total of 413 Muslim regimes out of 470 (47 regimes x 10 years remained the same as their democratic origin points, without any transitions to a better or worse level of democracy, throughout these 10 years; and third, a slow, yet steady positive transition of both elections and civil liberties occurred in the Muslim world with changes in the nature of elections becoming much more progressive compared to the civil liberties’ transitions.

Constructing (IlLegitimate Democracy: Populism and Power Concentration in Newspaper Discourse on Venezuela

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Ernesto Abalo

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Despite scholarly consensus about the importance of the media for democracy, scant attention has been paid to what democracy means to journalistic discourse and how discourses on democracy are interrelated with legitimacy. The aim of this paper is to explore how (illegitimate democracy is constructed in newspaper discourse. By using critical discourse analysis, this paper examines foreign news items about Venezuela, a country that under the presidency of Hugo Chávez has challenged the hegemonic global political and economic orders. The analysis section focuses on two main findings about the Venezuelan government: the constructions of populism and power concentration, which serve to mark deviance from what is perceived as legitimate democracy. This paper argues that a liberal perception of democracy constitutes a central framework for the construction of (illegitimate democracy, which is revealed not least by news discourse’s focus on what is morally unacceptable political conduct according to liberal democratic norms. In this sense, such constructions serve to denounce potential governmental power abuses but also to legitimize the hegemonic economic and political orders.

Conservationism is not Conservatism: Do Interest Group Endorsements Help Voters Hold Representatives Accountable?

OpenAIRE

Kaufman, Aaron

2013-01-01

Much research assumes that voters know or can learn the positions their representatives take on key issue. Arthur Lupia found that voters could learn such information through advertisements and interest group endorsements. We examine whether these cues improve voters’ ability to infer their representative’s voting behavior and find that most interest groups fail to do so. In a follow-up study, we find that voters are ignorant of which positions the interest groups take on issues. Finally, we ...

A Brief Survey of Democracy Promotion in U.S. Foreign Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

highlight that economic and security concerns both pre-dated active democracy promotion efforts. 2 For its first centennial , the United States was...the troubles of the world. The 1930s brought the Great Depression and the perception that democracy and capitalism might not be such good ideas after...peacetime foreign policy on democracy was somewhat constrained by the Great Depression and World War II. As World War II raged, FDR eloquently

The Rise of Direct Democracy in Croatia: Balancing or Challenging Parliamentary Representation?

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Butković Hrvoje

2017-03-01

Full Text Available In 2010 the Croatian Constitution was changed to lower the requirements for the implementation of direct democracy at the national level, in order to save the referendum on Croatia’s EU membership from possible failure. Since then, Croatia has witnessed a sharp increase in people’s initiatives that have managed to block a number of the government’s reform proposals. Therefore, the newly discovered appeal of direct democracy in Croatia has created a new environment for the operation of its representative democracy. Starting from theoretical notions, this paper analyses the practice of direct democracy in selected transitional countries, which could be instructive for Croatia. In its central part, the paper explores the obstacles that stand in the way of the efficient implementation of direct democracy in Croatia.

Interest group influence and the delegation of police authority.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sloof, R.

1997-01-01

An interest group's choice between lobbying politicians and lobbying bureaucrats, and the decision ofpoliticians whether to delegate policy authority, are investigated simultaneously. Lobbying is modeledas strategic information transmission. By assumption only bureaucrats have the expertise to

The health policy pathfinder: an innovative strategy to explore interest group politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Nannini, Angela

2009-10-01

Moving a specific nursing health policy agenda forward depends on skill in building coalitions with other interest or stakeholder groups, including consumers. Often, nursing students study health policy in a discipline-specific environment without experiential opportunities to argue their views with other stakeholders in policy arenas. The health policy pathfinder, an innovative learning strategy for understanding interest group politics, will assist nursing students in meeting the following objectives: 1) analyze and articulate diverse policy arguments from various stakeholder groups; 2) identify opportunities for collaborations between stakeholder groups; 3) identify the influence of interest groups on the policy making process; and 4) critically evaluate evidence from a variety of sources ranging from peer-reviewed publications to grey literature to Internet blogs. This article describes the health policy pathfinder, including design, execution, and evaluation steps, and provides a brief excerpt from a student pathfinder. Copyright 2009, SLACK Incorporated.

Landscape democracy, three sets of values, and the connoisseur method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arler, Finn; Mellqvist, Helena

2015-01-01

for argument. It examines various methods that have been used to try to make landscape decisions more democratic. In the last part of the paper the connoisseur method is introduced. This method emphasises stakeholder participation in deliberative processes with a particular focus on place-based knowledge......The European Landscape Convention has brought up the question of democracy in relation to landscape transformation, but without a clear definition of democracy. This paper conceptualises democracy in relation to three main sets of values related to self-determination, co-determination and respect...

Dewey's Ethical Justification for Public Deliberation Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Shook, John

2013-01-01

Interpretations of John Dewey's political theory grasp his respect for public deliberation, but typically overlook his ethical justification for democracy. Dewey gave two primary reasons why democracy is superior to other forms of government. First, a public educated in the tools of social intelligence can be more effective at managing their…

"A Liberation of Powers": Agency and Education for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Boyte, Harry C.; Finders, Margaret J.

2016-01-01

In this essay Harry Boyte and Margaret Finders argue that addressing the "shrinkage" of education and democracy requires acting politically to reclaim and augment Deweyan agency-focused concepts of democracy and education. Looking at agency from the vantage of civic studies, which advances a politics of agency--a citizen politics that is…

Evolution of democracy in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Oberoi, Mukesh K.

The emphasis of this thesis is to build an intuitive and robust GIS (Geographic Information systems) Tool which will give a survey on the evolution of democracy in European countries. The user can know about the evolution of the democratic histories of these countries by just clicking on them on the map. The information is provided in separate HTML pages which will give information about start of revolution, transition to democracy, current legislature, women's status in the country etc. There are two separate web pages for each country- one shows the detailed explanation on how democracy evolved in diff. countries and another page contains a timeline which holds key events of the evolution. The tool has been developed in JAVA. For the European map MOJO (Map Objects Java Objects) is used. MOJO is developed by ESRI. The major features shown on the European map were designed using MOJO. MOJO made it easy to incorporate the statistical data with these features. The user interface, as well as the language was intentionally kept simple and easy to use, to broaden the potential audience. To keep the user engaged, key aspects are explained using HTML pages. The idea is that users can view the timeline to get a quick overview and can go through the other html page to learn about things in more detail.

Enhancing policy innovation by redesigning representative democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Eva

2016-01-01

Policy innovation is a key aspect of public innovation, which has been largely overlooked. Political leadership, competition and collaboration are key drivers of policy innovation. It is a barrier in traditional models of representative democracy that they provide weak conditions for collaboration....... Two Danish case studies indicate that collaboration between politicians and relevant and affected stakeholders can promote policy innovation, but also that a redesign of representative democracy is needed in order to establish a productive combination of political leadership, competition...... and collaboration in political life....

Democracy at the end of the History

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Vicente Sanfélix Vidarte

2013-12-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2013v12n2p289 This article analyzes the loss of legitimacy that the economic crisis brought upon representative democracy and the consequences that can be drawn for the thesis of the end of History. The thesis we defend here is that the deterioration of the welfare state, as a result, under very specific conditions, of the capitalism in certain parts of the world, runs parallel with the delegative degradation of democracy.

The Early Political Web (1995-2005) :A ten-year observational research seeking evidence of eDemocracy in the information architecture of political parties web sites worldwide

OpenAIRE

Ricci, Andrea

2013-01-01

Scholarly interest for the impact of technologies on democracy has raised in parallel to the decline of political participation. Technology has often been seen as either one of the causes of the crisis of representative democracy or as a powerful remedy to heal the negative externalities generated by party oligopolies. The study of the impact of new media in party politics or presidential elections dates back the forties (with the outgrowth of radio) and has evolved in cyclical waves until to...

The Populist Conception of Democracy Beyond Popular Sovereignty

OpenAIRE

Corduwener, Pepijn

2014-01-01

With populist parties making electoral progress across the European continent, the question of what their electoral success means for contemporary democratic systems has gained increasing significance. This article investigates how two populist radical right parties, the Austrian FPÖ and the Dutch PVV, conceptualise democracy, based on a wide range of party documents released over recent decades. It builds upon recent academic consensus that the relationship between populism and democracy is ...

E-democracy and public administrators: the Malaysian case

OpenAIRE

Abu Bakar, Abdul Gapar

2017-01-01

The thesis investigates public administrators’ use of interactive Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the Malaysian Federal Public Service (MFPS). It describes qualitative research which identifies the nature of e-democracy practices in policy development in the MFPS. In-depth interviews and scholarly as well as government documents provide empirical evidence. Through a survey of literature, contextual features such as absence of policy in the MFPS for e-democracy, constitut...

an a Fledgling Democracy take

African Journals Online (AJOL)

process and the country's prospects for consolidating a democracy in the future. ... Mark Anstey is a Professor in Labour Relations, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan ... potentials for hydro-electric power it is shockingly underdeveloped, boasting.

Past, Present and Future of Social Democracy: The Debate (? in Italy and the Nordic Experience

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Monica Quirico

2010-03-01

Full Text Available In Italy the debate on Social Democracy shows traces of the long hegemony within the Italian left of a Communist Party then converted to new party forms, which from the beginning rejected the Social Democratic option, due to the belief that not only Communism, but also traditional reformism was dead and buried, and to the survival of a Stalinist mentality, inclined to a pragmatic management of power. That is why Italian contributions to the redefinition of Social Democracy and of Left as a whole are poor by number and by content and recycle largely ideas from abroad. The reference countries however are not the Nordic ones, which yet could offer interesting lessons, but mainly British New Labour and its recent new course and the German SPD. What lacks is the determination to develop theories and policies suitable to the peculiarities of Italian society and economy.

Interest groups and health reform: lessons from California.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, T R; Dowell, E B

We review the 1992 policy choices in California for expanding health insurance coverage, focusing on the rejection of an employer mandate by legislators and voters. We analyze how interest-group politics, gubernatorial politics, and national politics shaped those choices. Although public opinion and the shift of organized medicine showed considerable support for extending health insurance coverage, the opposition of liberal and conservative groups and a foundering economy prevented a significant change in public policy. The president's health reform plan appears to address many of the unresolved concerns in California, but overcoming resistance to any kind of mandate will require skilled leadership and negotiation.

Science, expertise, and democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Weinberg, Justin; Elliott, Kevin C

2012-06-01

The combination of government's significant involvement in science, science's significant effects on the public, and public ignorance (of both politics and science) raise important challenges for reconciling scientific expertise with democratic governance. Nevertheless, there have recently been a variety of encouraging efforts to make scientific activity more responsive to social values and to develop citizens' capacity to engage in more effective democratic governance of science. This essay introduces a special issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, "Science, Expertise, and Democracy," consisting of five papers that developed from the inaugural Three Rivers Philosophy conference held at the University of South Carolina in April 2011. The pieces range from a general analysis of the in-principle compatibility of scientific expertise and democracy to much more concrete studies of the intersection between scientific practices and democratic values in areas such as weight-of-evidence analysis, climate science, and studies of locally undesirable land uses.

Democracy and Women's Health

Science.gov (United States)

Safaei, Jalil

2009-01-01

New research on broader determinants of health has culminated into the new paradigm of social determinants of health. The fundamental view that underlies this new paradigm is that socioeconomic and political contexts in which people live have significant bearing upon their health and well-being. Unlike a wealth of research on socioeconomic determinants, few studies have focused on the role of political factors. Some of these studies examine the role of political determinants on health through their mediation with the labour environments and systems of welfare state. A few others study the relationship between polity regimes and population health more directly. However, none of them has a focus on women's health. This study explores the interactions, both direct and indirect, between democracy and women's health. In doing so, it identifies some of the main health vulnerabilities for women and explains, through a conceptual model, how democracy and respect for human rights interacts with women's health. PMID:21836777

Public Participation Guide: Electronic Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Electronic democracy describes a wide range of interactive tools that embrace existing and emergent media sources as a forum for allowing members of the public to express opinions and seek to influence decision-making.

How Do Business Interest Groups Respond to Political Challenges?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Paster, Thomas

2018-01-01

adaptation. The paper illustrates these two response strategies with four episodes of political conflict in the political-economic history of Germany: (i) the adoption of social insurance under Bismarck, (ii) the adoption of unemployment insurance in the 1920s, (iii) the adoption of board...... their interests, using four episodes of political conflict in Germany. The paper elaborates a model of response strategies and their likely impact on political outcomes. The model suggests that business interest groups can respond to political challenges in two ways: by seeking confrontation or by pursuing...

The new left and democracy in Latin America

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Francisco Panizza

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Without embarking on a theoretical debate over the meaning of the term, it is obvious that the left is on the rise in Latin America. However, we should not ignore the fact that the coming to power of left-wing and centre-left parties and movements presents a certain amount of paradoxes and questions. One of the most important of the many paradoxes is the fact that, in spite of the leftwards electoral shift in the region, there is no evidence that the electorate of Latin America has moved to the left in a significant manner. As for the questions, these concern the connection between left-wing governments and democracy, and especially the future challenges that these governments must face to preserve and develop democracy. In an attempt to unravel the paradox and answer these questions, this article examines the roots, contexts and political challenges of left-wing governments in Latin America. To this end, the author analyses a number of issues, such as the tensions between different logics of political representation and their implications for democracy, in addition to discussing the conditions under which the tensions between the different logics of political representation can contribute (or not to the developing of democracy in the region.

The Cure for Civiliter Mortuus: Complementary Values of Phenomenology and Democracy

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Mindaugas Briedis

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The core of this article is the ancient question concerning the individual person in relation to his/her society. This fundamental question of ethics and political philosophy is approached from the perspective of phenomenological philosophy. Hence, this article is an attempt to conjoin two prima facie inconsistent (because of category mistake types of attitude towards reality and action, e.g. democracy and phenomenology. The thesis states that there is a common ground between the basic features of phenomenological method and the fundamental values of democracy. This paper explores the arguments that establish this parallelism between the values of democracy and phenomenology. One of the outcomes of this analysis will be the sketch of a new kind of virtue ethics and a new type of citizen, concerning new approaches to identity problem. In this respect method of phenomenology can be used as a technique (phronesis for a future citizenship. On the other hand, this perspective helps to re­evaluate the treasures of antique democracy and compare them with contemporary transformations of democracy in political, social and everyday spheres.  

Technical democracy as a challenge to urban studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Farías, Ignacio; Blok, Anders

2016-01-01

What is technical democracy? And why does it matter for urban studies? As an introduction to this special feature, we address these questions by reflecting on To Our Friends, the 2014 manifesto of the Invisible Committee. We engage in particular its provocative diagnosis of the current situation......: power no longer resides in the modern institutions of representative democracy and the market economy; instead, power has become a matter of logistics, infrastructures and expertise. This diagnosis, we suggest, brings into view the challenge of technical democracy, that is, the democratization of techno......-scientific expertise and the instauration of forms of lasting collaboration among experts and laypeople. Urban politics, we claim, increasingly turns around socio-technical controversies and it is in terms of the politics of expertise that we should analyse and engage it. Building on Science and Technology Studies...

The mechanism of influence of interest groups in the European Union: political and sociological analysis

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P. S. Kanevsky

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Interaction between interest groups and political institutions is one of the cornerstones of the European Union policy making process. Although majority of Russian and foreign works dedicated to lobbying and decision making in the EU, concentrate on a governmental stadial system and normative procedures that regulate interest groups access to policy making centers. Such institutional approach doesn’t clarify why the EU has concrete policies, why not all interest groups are able to win, who sets the agenda and in whose interests decisions are made. Current article, using contemporary theories and research, analyzes process of interaction between interest groups and governmental structures in the EU. It also proposes explanations of wins and losses in the policy making process, trying to answer how interest groups interacts with each other and what patterns can be identified in the process of interest aggregation by governmental structures.

National Insecurity and Human Rights: Democracies Debate Counterterrorism

OpenAIRE

Brysk, Alison; Shafir, Gershon

2007-01-01

Human rights is all too often the first casualty of national insecurity. How can democracies cope with the threat of terror while protecting human rights? This timely volume compares the lessons of the United States and Israel with the "best-case scenarios" of the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Germany. It demonstrates that threatened democracies have important options, and democratic governance, the rule of law, and international cooperation are crucial foundations for counterterror policy.

The State of the Art in the EU Democracy Promotion Literature

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Peter Simmons

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The literature on EU democracy promotion is fragmented into a number of sub-literatures, and this makes it difficult to gain a comprehensive understanding of this area of EU activity. Synthesising these literatures and the different theoretical approaches that have been taken is a necessary first step to a fuller understanding of what makes EU democracy promotion work most effectively, a task that is all the more vital given the increasingly challenging global environment that democracy promotion now faces.

Reconstruction of the democratic experience: democracy as a pedagogical belief in Dewey’s philosophy

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Carina Tonieto

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The present article aims at reconstructing and analyzing the reasons that led the American educator John Dewey to elect democracy as the pedagogical belief of his educational philosophy. In order to do so, fi rstly our work will briefl y retrace the origins of democracy at the Greek paideia, in order to analyze the reasons that led Deweyto choose democracy as the main reference of his pedagogical belief. Finally, we will discuss the democratic concept of education on Dewey’s work Democracy and Education and the reasons why the author uses science, philosophy, and education as instruments of reconstruction of the democracy.

Working through a psychotherapy group's political cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Ettin, Mark F; Cohen, Bertram D

2003-10-01

Macropolitical evolution, starting with authoritarian monarchism, has moved through anarchistic transitions either to the totalitarianism of fascism and communism or to liberal and social democracy. We posit analogous micropolitical development in process-oriented therapy groups: "dependence" and "counterdependence" corresponding to monarchism and anarchism; and "independence" and "interdependence" to liberal and social democracy, respectively. Transition from counterdependence to independence and interdependence may be: (1) facilitated through group members' cooperative experience of rebellion, or (2) blocked by collective identification, the internalization of dystopian or utopian fantasies that coalesce as "group-self" perceptions. We explore how group therapists work clinically with and through these several "political cultures" in the service of group and self transformation.

Identification of voters with interest groups improves the electoral chances of the challenger

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sadiraj, V.; Tuinstra, J.; van Winden, F.

2010-01-01

This short paper investigates the consequences of voters identifying with special interest groups in a spatial model of electoral competition. We show that by effectively coordinating voting behavior, identification with interest groups leads to an increase in the size of the winning set, that is,

Is It Culture or Democracy? The Impact of Democracy and Culture on Happiness

Science.gov (United States)

Dorn, David; Fischer, Justina A. V.; Kirchgassner, Gebhard; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso

2007-01-01

We analyze the relation between democracy and perceived subjective well-being while controlling for other relevant determinants such as culture measured by languages. We conduct a cross-national analysis covering 28 countries using data from the 1998 International Social Survey Programme. Contrasting existing empirical evidence, we observe a…

Talking about European Democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Besselink, L.; Reestman, J.H.

This editorial comment asserts that, instead of merely conceiving of the challenges to the foundational values common to the Union and member states in terms of the Rule of Law, it is necessary to address democracy as the political founding quality of Union and member states. In doing so, we must

E-democracy in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoff, Jens Villiam

Already in the 1970's and -80's high hopes for democracy were connected with the rise of technologies like cableTV and digital telephones. This outburst of 'utopian energy' was greatly accelerated with the breakthrough of the Internet in the beginning/middle of the 1990's, and both politicians...

Democracy and Environmental Integration in Decision-Making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Figueroa, Maria

This dissertation presents an evaluation of the democratic qualities of decision-making processes for large transport infrastructure projects in two Scandinavian countries: Denmark and Sweden. The study uncovers criteria from aggregative and deliberative theories of democracy to create a qualitat......This dissertation presents an evaluation of the democratic qualities of decision-making processes for large transport infrastructure projects in two Scandinavian countries: Denmark and Sweden. The study uncovers criteria from aggregative and deliberative theories of democracy to create...... exemplify points of democratic strength and fragility in the decision processes. A robust system of participatory procedures exists, in both countries, as part of the planning tradition or as part of the legally mandatory environmental assessment procedures. This robust system shows fragility for government...... discourses to the state. While the role of civil society in deliberation is crucial, the study accepts that not all that goes on in civil society is conducive either to more democracy or greater environmental integration. The relevant discussion is then how to deal with differences that may have...

Intelligence, democracy, and international environmental commitment.

Science.gov (United States)

Obydenkova, Anastassia; Salahodjaev, Raufhon

2016-05-01

This paper investigates the determinants of nations' commitment to environmental protection at the international level by focusing on the role of national intelligence and the level of democracy. The national intelligence is measured by nation's IQ scores. The findings based on a sample of 152 nations provide strong evidence that intelligence has statistically significant impact on ratification of international environmental agreements, and the countries with IQ 10-points above global average are 23% more likely to sign multilateral environmental agreements than others. The findings also demonstrate that it is the combination of high-level of intelligence of nations and democracy, that likely result in international environmental commitments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive aspect of education for democracy

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Đurišić-Bojanović Mirosava

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Education for democracy is of particular importance for a society undergoing democratization. The paper investigates a cognitive aspect of education for democracy, and identifies psychological predispositions for the acceptance of plurality of ideas as a central indicator of democratic thinking. The acceptance of plurality is defined as the ability of an individual to consider different arguments in controversial topics, to accept the existence of different ideas in a discussion as well as different explanations. This psychological phenomenon integrates certain cognitive affective and conative characteristics. The acceptance of plurality of ideas is a fundamental prerequisite for democratic communication, therefore a prerequisite for the creation of democratic climate in a society. The concept of cognitive style has been examined from the perspective of different research traditions in an attempt to identify a psychological profile of cognitive style, provisionally named pluralist profile, which would help an individual behave democratically. The paper also studies the connection between the manner of thinking, personality characteristics and cognitive style. It is the author’s conclusion that it is reasonable to assume that there are ways to encourage the development of pluralistic cognitive style by practicing the acceptance of different ideas through teaching process which would significantly improve the effectiveness of education for democracy.

Jesús de Polanco and the Prisa Group

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Mercedes Cabrera

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this article is to present Jesús de Polanco’s (1929–2007 successive business initiatives that culminated in the expansion of the PRISA Group (Promotora de Informaciones S.A., which was the leading Spanish multi-media group of its time.  As well as the interest that his career triggers, Polanco’s biography allows us to address the relationship between the company and politics during the closing decades of the Franco dictatorship and the transition to democracy from a concrete perspective. Those were years marked by profound transformations, not only in the political life of the country but also in its economy, society and business structures that affected the entire communications media sector.

Participatory Democracy in Theory and Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in South Africa

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Ntsikelelo Breakfast

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The idea of democracy is a curious oneand puzzling. There is reason for this;everyone talks about democracy no matter whether their views are on the left, centreor right of the political spectrum. Various politicians, regimes, whether in Africa, Europe or America claim to be democratic;yet what each says and does is usuallydifferent. Democracy as a practice is supposed to bestow rules, laws and decisions that are justifiable on democraticgrounds. Democracy also has evolved through social struggles. This article examines the practice of democracy withinthe context of local government in South Africa, and is an attempt to explore the concept of democracy without escaping other historical aspects of the idea and practice. From a methodological standpoint, this article is based on a literature assessment. Lastly and most importantly, this paper has made a scholarly contribution to the scholarship of Political Science and Public Administration with regard to the nexus between democracy and public participation at local government level in South Africa.

Measure and collapse of participatory democracy in a two-party system

Science.gov (United States)

Sznajd, Jozef

2015-10-01

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so (Galileo Galilei). According to the above sentence we do not ask why we need to measure democracy but if it is possible to measure something which is not unequivocally defined. Although, it is unlikely a final agreement on the definition of democracy, the idea that it is a form of governance based on collective decision making seems to be uncontested. On the premise that in the high-quality democracy citizens (agents) not only must have equal participation rights but must want to participate in shaping decision, as an effective measure of democracy in a two party political system we propose the percentage of the total population that actually voted in a given elections only for two major parties. Thus, we disregard not only nonvoters but also smaller parties voters whom votes will not have a substantial impact on the election and consequently they will not be in the loop, even theoretically. To describe such a system a sociophysics model based on the $S=1$ Ising model (Blume-Capel) is proposed. The measure of democracy, V_D index, as a function of inter-party conflict is analyzed.

Interest groups, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 1

African Journals Online (AJOL)

interest groups can bring about changes in the water policy arena. ... Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 1 as a case study. ... attempts to influence public policy and their representation ... ties concern the relations between state actors and non-state ..... 'bears responsibility here [LHWP], since it is the sponsor of.

Reconstruction of the democratic experience: democracy as a pedagogical belief in Dewey’s philosophy

OpenAIRE

Carina Tonieto; Altair Alberto Fávero

2012-01-01

The present article aims at reconstructing and analyzing the reasons that led the American educator John Dewey to elect democracy as the pedagogical belief of his educational philosophy. In order to do so, fi rstly our work will briefl y retrace the origins of democracy at the Greek paideia, in order to analyze the reasons that led Deweyto choose democracy as the main reference of his pedagogical belief. Finally, we will discuss the democratic concept of education on Dewey’s work Democracy an...

Problem of Democracy Promotion in the of Postcolonial Feminism

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Vladislav A. Muzalevskiy

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problems of democratization as a neocolonial practice. The author argues that the spread of democracy is similar in many respects to colonialism and civilizing mission as universal and even messianic phenomena. He notes that both of these phenomena, despite the similarity of their origin, have different "gender basis" (colonialism has characteristics of masculinity and civilizing mission - of femininity. The author reviewed the history of transforming the concepts of "colonialism" and "civilizing mission". Results parallels between the two phenomena are analyzed as a specific intellectual and public discourse in a particular era influenced the formation of both phenomena. Examples of national civilizing projects, their intellectual potential and influence on contemporary world politics are also considered. The echoes of colonialism and civilizing mission are visible in US and the EU doctrines of democracy promotion. Examining the evolution of approaches to democratization, the author finds the differences in strategic culture of the United States and the European Union: if the American establishment have a propensity to masculine practice of democracy promotion ("democratic enlargement", the project "Greater Middle East", etc., and European leadership prefers feminine practices. In terms of the post-colonial feminism, this approach does not give these actors any special benefits, as it offers the ineffective governing strategy of the local population, not taking into account, and often denying the specific cultural environment of democracy promotion, paying more attention to institutional characteristics (lack of certain civil rights and freedoms, lack of transparency in the work of public authorities, etc.. The author notes that the current strategy of democracy promotion, though being more complex, creates the effect of "double discrimination", when both the local people and local women (imposing image of "a free and

The visible hand of the state : on the organizational development of interest groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fraussen, B.

2014-01-01

To understand dynamics within communities of organized interests, researchers have primarily studied organizational births and deaths. The organizational development of established interest organizations has received far less attention. This article claims that the evolution of interest groups'

Democracy, justice and state of exception: past present

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Tásso Araújo Brito

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Violence against portions of society, disbelief in democratic institutions and agents of the state who inflict torture against those who are in their custody are elements that corrode the Brazilian democracy. Between the past of the military-civilian dictatorship and the current moment we realize how practices that have been considered exceptions have become rules that affect the life of many Brazilian citizens. The present paper investigates these political experiences to ask which democracy have we been living in.

The Equality Paradox of Deliberative Democracy: Evidence from a National Deliberative Poll

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kasper Møller

2010-01-01

and openly without any procedural restrictions. At the same time, however it is argued that arguments referring to the common good and public interest should and will be emphasized in a deliberative process, which favors participants accustomed to this kind of reasoning, thus, compromising political equality...... the citizens' capabilities to form reasoned and reflective opinions based on the common good rather than self-interest. The focus on the normative potential of deliberation has to a large extent neglected deliberations' many pitfalls and contradictions. One of the most troubling paradoxes in deliberative...... democracy is the equality paradox. The equality paradox of deliberation relates to the idea that deliberative democrats advocate the importance of securing that the deliberative process fulfills political equality as the participants in the deliberative process are able to express their views freely...

Globalization, Democracy, and Social Movements: The Educational Potential of Activism

Science.gov (United States)

Hytten, Kathy

2016-01-01

In this essay, I explore the contemporary value of John Dewey's conception of democracy to addressing the challenges of neoliberal globalization. I begin by describing his vision of democracy as a way of life that requires habits of experimentalism, pluralism, and hope. I then suggest that contemporary forms of mobilization, resistance, and…

An Appraisal of Mass Media Role in Consolidating Democracy in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study therefore critically assessed the performance of Nigerian mass media in consolidating democracy. The study is of the view that the mass contributed immensely to the return of democracy in Nigeria. This the media did through their critical criticism of the military juntas, mobilization of the citizens to participate in ...

Delegated Democracy. The Siting of Swedish Nuclear Waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia (Stockholm Univ., SCORE, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden))

2009-12-15

This paper aims to characterise Swedish democracy in connection with the disposal of Swedish nuclear waste. To this end, an analysis is performed to discern which democratic ideals that can be found within the nuclear waste issue. The study analyses various actors' views on democracy and expertise as well as their definitions of the nuclear waste issue, and discusses this from the perspective of democracy theory. Which definitions that become influential has democratic implications. In addition, various actors' possible attempts to help or hinder other actors from gaining influence over the nuclear waste issue in the four municipalities are studied. In connection with the case studies the aim of the paper can be narrowed to comprise the following questions: Which democratic ideals can be found within SKB's siting process during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process during the site investigations? Which democratic ideals were influential during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process?

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis, reproductive freedom, and deliberative democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Farrelly, Colin

2009-04-01

In this paper I argue that the account of deliberative democracy advanced by Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (1996, 2004) is a useful normative theory that can help enhance our deliberations about public policy in morally pluralistic societies. More specifically, I illustrate how the prescriptions of deliberative democracy can be applied to the issue of regulating non-medical uses of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), such as gender selection. Deliberative democracy does not aim to win a philosophical debate among rival first-order theories, such as libertarianism, egalitarianism or feminism. Rather, it advances a second-order analysis that strives to help us determine what would constitute a reasonable balance between the conflicting fundamental values that arise in the context of regulating PGD. I outline a theoretical model (called the Reasonable Genetic Intervention Model) that brings these issues to the fore. Such a model incorporates the concern for both procedural and substantive principles; and it does so in way that takes provisionality seriously.

Delegated Democracy. The Siting of Swedish Nuclear Waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia

2009-12-01

This paper aims to characterise Swedish democracy in connection with the disposal of Swedish nuclear waste. To this end, an analysis is performed to discern which democratic ideals that can be found within the nuclear waste issue. The study analyses various actors' views on democracy and expertise as well as their definitions of the nuclear waste issue, and discusses this from the perspective of democracy theory. Which definitions that become influential has democratic implications. In addition, various actors' possible attempts to help or hinder other actors from gaining influence over the nuclear waste issue in the four municipalities are studied. In connection with the case studies the aim of the paper can be narrowed to comprise the following questions: Which democratic ideals can be found within SKB's siting process during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process during the site investigations? Which democratic ideals were influential during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process?

The role of the Courts sustaining democracy: An approach from transitional regimes

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Vicente F. Benítez R.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article explores the political factors that enable or prevent the consolidation of an effective judicial review in transitional democracies such as the Colombian and the Venezuelan ones. These democracies, in turn, are likely to be victims of abusive constitutionalism attempts by powerful executives, which is a phenomenon typical of young democracies. This paper analyzes key cases of successful and unsuccessful experiences in Central Europe, Asia and Latin America in order to identify what kind of factors allow or hinder a Tribunal’s effective judicial review in new democracies. I argue that factors as judicial independence, separation of powers, Courts’ reputation, and judicial deference to other branches, are key elements to determine whether a Tribunal will be a successful institution.

Anmeldelse af Adam Przeworski: Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government og Guillermo O'Donnell: Democracy, Agency and the State

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seeberg, Michael

2012-01-01

One of the most prominent debates within the democratization literature has revolved around the question of how to conceptualize democracy. Recent contributions from two leading scholars in the field, Przeworski and O’Donnell, show that this is still a contentious topic. Przeworski and O’Donnell ......One of the most prominent debates within the democratization literature has revolved around the question of how to conceptualize democracy. Recent contributions from two leading scholars in the field, Przeworski and O’Donnell, show that this is still a contentious topic. Przeworski and O...

Discussing the Prospects of European Democracy with Alexis de Tocqueville

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Dalia Eidukienė

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the concept of democracy proposed by Alexis de Tocqueville, a famous French historian and sociologist. Special attention is paid to the definition of democracy, the dialectics of freedom and equality as well as the issues of relationship between democracy and centralization of power, democracy and individualism, and democracy and the tyranny of the majority. Tocqueville‘s liberal theory is an excellent example of the political project of the early modern period; it was in step with or, in many cases, ahead of France‘s political evolution, thereby contributing to the formation of the intellectual climate of the later 20th century. More than that, Tocqueville‘s political thought remains relevant even today. He is valued as an innovator, who, as Zbigniew Brzezinski put it, „understood earlier and interpreted better than anyone the uniqueness of the American experiment... His judgements are to this day remarkably prescient and incisive“ (Brzezinski 2011. Consequently, Tocqueville‘s book Democracy in America is a text that is worth being reread. In each political period the readers of this text rediscover anew the meaning of the messages communicated by the author. This depends on the political consciousness, political culture and the „quality“ of the recipients, i.e. on their ability to process and adapt the received information to their times, their state, their specific situation or a specific subject. Tocqueville invites his readers to engage in communicative reading (i.e. dialogue and discussions, which is an important part of modern political communication and political practice. It is also one of the most important attributes of politics and a reliable instrument that makes it easier to form modern political theories and solve political problems. 

Global value perceptions: The legitimising functions of Western representations of democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Staerklé, C.; Falomir-Pichastor, J.M.; Pereira, A.L.; Berent, J.; Butera, F.

2015-01-01

This paper argues that a fundamental antagonism between democracy and nondemocracy organises lay thinking on global issues. We review key findings of a long-standing experimental research programme that examined the "Democracy-as-value" hypothesis across a variety of political and social contexts.

Atomic-powered democracy: Policy against politics in the quest for American nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, R.W.

1993-01-01

This dissertation focuses on the relationship of American nuclear energy to democracy. It examines whether the nuclear policy processes have furthered the legitimacy-government accountability and citizen participation-which the democratic institutes are based. Nuclear policy and its institutions have placed severe limitations on democratic practices. Contravened democracy is seen most clearly in the decoupling of policy from politics. Decoupling refers to the weakening of institutional linkages between citizens and government, and to the erosion of the norms that ground liberal democracy. Decoupling is manifested in policy centralization, procedural biases, technical rationality, and the spatial displacement of conflict. Decoupling has normative implications: While federal accountability was limited and citizen participation was shackled, other major groups enjoyed privileged access to policy making. The decoupling of nuclear policy from politics arose within the context of US liberal-democratic capitalism. The federal government pursued its own goals of defense and world leadership. Yet, it was not structurally autonomous from the hegemony of the political-economic context. Economically, the Atomic Energy Act did not permit federal agencies to directly invest in power plant construction, and did not authorize them to commercially generate electricity. Private industry was structurally placed to domesticate the atom. Politically, the liberal-democratic system hampered an unquestioning pursuit of atomic energy. Federal institutions have been forced to heed some of the anti-nuclear concerns. The pervasive influence of the US political economy on nuclear policy has come to transgress democracy. Nuclear power's growth faltered during the 1970s. The political and economic constraints on federal actions have limited the means available to revive a becalmed nuclear industry; this has exerted strong pressure on federal institutions to decouple policy from participation

Cidadania e democracia Citizenship and democracy

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Maria Victoria de Mesquita Benevides

1994-08-01

Full Text Available Discute-se a importância da implementação dos mecanismos de democracia direta previstos na Constituição de 1988. O referendo, o plebiscito e a iniciativa popular, como formas de participação política que complementem os mecanismos de democracia representativa, podem contribuir significativamente para a educação política dos cidadãos.The significance of putting into effect the procedures of direct democracy recognized by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 is discussed. An important contribution to the political education of the citizens can be given by devices like the referendum, the plebiscite and the legislative initiative, provided they are seen as complements for representative democracy.

Democracy, globalization and ethnic violence

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bezemer, D.J.; Jong-A-Pin, R.

Bezemer, Dirk, and Jong-A-Pin, Richard Democracy, globalization and ethnic violence Do democratization and globalization processes combine to increase the incidence of violence in developing and emerging economies? The present paper examines this hypothesis by a study of internal violence in

Understanding Democracy and Development Traps Using a Data-Driven Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Ranganathan, Shyam; Nicolis, Stamatios C.; Spaiser, Viktoria; Sumpter, David J.T.

2015-01-01

Abstract Methods from machine learning and data science are becoming increasingly important in the social sciences, providing powerful new ways of identifying statistical relationships in large data sets. However, these relationships do not necessarily offer an understanding of the processes underlying the data. To address this problem, we have developed a method for fitting nonlinear dynamical systems models to data related to social change. Here, we use this method to investigate how countries become trapped at low levels of socioeconomic development. We identify two types of traps. The first is a democracy trap, where countries with low levels of economic growth and/or citizen education fail to develop democracy. The second trap is in terms of cultural values, where countries with low levels of democracy and/or life expectancy fail to develop emancipative values. We show that many key developing countries, including India and Egypt, lie near the border of these development traps, and we investigate the time taken for these nations to transition toward higher democracy and socioeconomic well-being. PMID:26487983

Understanding Democracy and Development Traps Using a Data-Driven Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranganathan, Shyam; Nicolis, Stamatios C; Spaiser, Viktoria; Sumpter, David J T

2015-03-01

Methods from machine learning and data science are becoming increasingly important in the social sciences, providing powerful new ways of identifying statistical relationships in large data sets. However, these relationships do not necessarily offer an understanding of the processes underlying the data. To address this problem, we have developed a method for fitting nonlinear dynamical systems models to data related to social change. Here, we use this method to investigate how countries become trapped at low levels of socioeconomic development. We identify two types of traps. The first is a democracy trap, where countries with low levels of economic growth and/or citizen education fail to develop democracy. The second trap is in terms of cultural values, where countries with low levels of democracy and/or life expectancy fail to develop emancipative values. We show that many key developing countries, including India and Egypt, lie near the border of these development traps, and we investigate the time taken for these nations to transition toward higher democracy and socioeconomic well-being.

Critical thinking, politics on a large scale and media democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio IBÁÑEZ-MARTÍN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The first approximation to the social current reality offers us numerous motives for the worry. The spectacle of violence and of immorality can scare us easily. But more worrying still it is to verify that the horizon of conviviality, peace and wellbeing that Europe had been developing from the Treaty of Rome of 1957 has compromised itself seriously for the economic crisis. Today we are before an assault to the democratic politics, which is qualified, on the part of the media democracy, as an exhausted system, which is required to be changed into a new and great politics, a politics on a large scale. The article analyses the concept of a politics on a large scale, primarily attending to Nietzsche, and noting its union with the great philosophy and the great education. The study of the texts of Nietzsche leads us to the conclusion of how in them we often find an interesting analysis of the problems and a misguided proposal for solutions. We cannot think to suggest solutions to all the problems, but we outline various proposals about changes of political activity, that reasonably are defended from the media democracy. In conclusion, we point out that a politics on a large scale requires statesmen, able to suggest modes of life in common that can structure a long-term coexistence.

More democracy through plebiscite?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evers, T.

1986-01-01

The author has the opinion, a plebiscite means only a limited enlargement of democracy. The plebiscite should be formed out as a right of veto, which prohibits concrete political measures of the government or legal projects (Kalkar, Wackersdorf). The winning of time to continue the discussion is an advantage. Finally a general change of consciousness is possible. (CW) [de

Politics and population health: Testing the impact of electoral democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Andrew C; Veenstra, Gerry

2016-07-01

This study addresses questions of whether and why electoral democracies have better health than other nations. After devising a replicable approach to missing data, we compare political, economic, and health-related data for 168 nations collected annually from 1960 through 2010. Regression models estimate that electoral democracies have 11 years of longer life expectancy on average and 62.5% lower rates of infant mortality. The association with life expectancy reduces markedly after controlling for GDP, while a combination of factors may explain the democratic advantage in infant health. Results suggest that income inequality associates independently with both health outcomes but does not mediate their associations with democracy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evangelical Religion and Evangelical Democracy: Lincoln’s Legacy

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David Goldfield

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Evangelical religion and evangelical democracy reinforced each other in nineteenth-century America. The spread of evangelical Christianity and democracy across a continent justified the wars against Native Americans and Mexico, and provided the moral framework for the fight against slavery which many Americans came to see as incompatible with Protestant Christianity and democratic government. The problem with mixing religion and politics in this manner was that political issues became moral issues and, therefore, more difficult to deal with in the political process.

Designing For Democracy: Using Design Activism to Re-negotiate the Roles and Rights for Patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knutz, Eva; Markussen, Thomas; Mårbjerg Thomsen, Signe

2014-01-01

there are already a number of approaches available which in one way or the other address the relationship between design, democracy and power. We provide an account of participatory design, adversarial design and design activism thereby pointing towards design’s potential for re-distributing power and authority......In this paper we focus on ‘patient-democracy’ and ‘shared decision-making’ seen from the perspective of design practice and design research. In the research on democracy in healthcare it is rarely questioned what forms of democracy underlies these concepts. We have examined three different theories...... of democracy and the democratic practices that belong to each of these. For designers working to increase patient democracy it is of vital importance to be able to distinguish different structures underlying democratic practices and to work out methods for prototyping democracy. In design research...

The Crisis of Democracy in Europe: Between National State and European Governance

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Damir Grubiša

2006-01-01

Full Text Available In this article the symptoms of the crises of democracy are analyzed. The author concentrates on three sets of symptoms: fi rst, on the symptoms emerged in transition, post-communist countries that joined the EU within the Fifth enlargement. One of the main indicators of such crises is the low turnout in the European Parliament elections in 2004, only one month after their joining the EU. The reasons for such a bad turnout are the disappointment in democracy and in transition, as well as the formal fulfi llment of the Copenhagen criteria for accession. The second symptom of the crises is the negative result of the European Constitutional referenda in France and in the Netherlands, which triggered the chain reaction of rejection in other European countries and a stalemate in the ratifi cation process. The third element of the crises is the democratic defi cit in the EU and the diff erent views on how to overcome it, either by strengthening federalist elements or by the domination of intergovernmentalist procedures. In conclusion, the author agrees with Larry Siedentop that three appeals of democracy exist in today’s Europe: democracy simpliciter, democratic government appeal and the appeal of a democratic society. However, most European countries are still on the fi rst or second step, and therefore the crisis of democracy is still potentially dangerous for the future development of European societies. The victory over communism did not bring about the expected triumph of democracy, and today democracy is exposed to diff erent forms of political pathology that corroborate the delusions and failed expectations of democratization.

Transitional Democracy, Legitimacy and the European Union

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Patricia Kaplánová

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Nowadays the ongoing global crisis has triggered an issue how to set up a theoretical framework of global governance. The integration to a supranational level of governance has been a contemporary process of democratization in recent decades. To analyze the institutionalization of global governance means to recognize a normative idea of democracy. The theory of international relations demonstrates that there are four normative models of democracy at the supranational level of governance. In my opinion, a crucial difference of the institutionalization is a concept of legitimacy of global democratic regime. Because of a divided understanding of legitimacy at the transnational level of governance is difficult to find a consensus in which way should be a transnational democracy framed. A dual legitimacy in a supranational organization like the European Union also triggers a specific democratic deficit. My point of view corresponds with the division of transnational orders in normative way and its correspondence to legitimacy. Cla rifying the duality of legitimacy can help us not only to solve all globalizing problems but of course to decide in which way we want to make the supranational organizations work.

Designing the Future of Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pichlmair, Martin

2015-01-01

Creating a simulation of Democracy and its future challenges is a fruitful exercise in design. This short paper describes a different use of a simulation that the traditional training via playing. Instead of playing, the creation of the simulation is at the center of attention....

Is the Communist Ghost Still Alive? - Participative Democracy in Eastern Europe after the Fall of Berlin Wall. The Case of Post-Conflict Yugoslavia and East-Central Europe

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Repak, Dragana

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to analyze application of the participatory model of democracy in the former communist countries, emphasizing influences of communist legacies. First part of paper covers basic characteristics of the participatory model of democracy and discusses communist heritage that is hypothesized to hamper development of participative democracy. In the third part of the paper goals of the investigation are defined and countries of the former communist block grouped. The last part of research presents analysis of the data obtained by the EVS research conducted on 2008.

Security and Democracy in Southern Africa

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Liberal democracy has the following principal institutional features: .... The expectation, held by many donors, international financial institutions (IFIs), and ...... The Public Accounts Committee is led by an opposition member, and has become ...

The Pitfalls of a "Democracy Promotion" Project for Women of Iraq

Science.gov (United States)

El-Kassem, Nadeen

2008-01-01

"Democracy promotion" as part of a larger project of 'reconstruction' is hailed in mainstream academia and in policy circles as an essential component of rebuilding the state and civil society in post-conflict situations. Here "democracy promotion" refers exclusively to the promotion of political representation and…

[Sociology of health, social ecology and media democracy].

Science.gov (United States)

Julesz, Máté

2012-05-27

The correlation of the sociology of health, social ecology and media democracy is demonstrated in the study. In societies of today, the role of the media is unquestionable in disseminating information relating to health and the environment. According to Paragraph (1) of Article XXI of the Hungarian Constitution of 2011, everyone has the right to a healthy environment. An environmentalist media democracy may forward environmental justice, environmental education, and environmentalist economy, etc. All these are required in order to establish a society where the healthy environment is an objective value.

The Global Crisis and the Assault on Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juego, Bonn; Schmidt, Johannes Dragsbæk

The paper argues that the current global capitalist crisis entails an assault on democracy. Since crisis connotes danger and opportunity, the recent crisis appears to be a danger to democracy but an opportunity to its antithetical ideals. At the international level, multilateral institutions have...... seized the moment to reaffirm the perpetuation of the discursive and structural hegemony of neoliberalism. In East and Southeast Asia, states and regional organisations have revived arguments for the institutional justification of authoritarian liberalism in the region. And in the US and Europe, attempts...

Aggregate Democracyand Deliberative Democracy: An Inevitable Practical Circle

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Macarena Marey

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The paper sets forth programmatically a series of conditions necessary for a deliberative theory of democracy to be able to account for the normative value of the two fundamental principles of democracy: human rights and popular sovereignty. The starting point is the question of whether aggregate conceptions are capable ofdesigning collective decision-making procedures in which those two principles are mutually entailed. The article emphasizes the importance for democratic procedures to include a reciprocal justification requirement that cannot be fully satisfied by aggregate or agonistic conceptions.

Democracy in a Post-Castro Cuba?

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Henry, Drew

2004-01-01

.... The theories of leading democracy and economic theorists are applied to the post-Castro conflict scenario as relevant issues to be addressed by a new Cuban government and the United States in a Cuban...

Maldives. Package on population education for special interest groups developed.

Science.gov (United States)

1995-01-01

The Population Education Program of the Non-Formal Education Center has developed a package of Population Education for Special Interest Groups comprising a learning package and fieldworker's guide. The learning package is especially developed for teaching population education for out-of-school populations. Special interest groups in Maldives include newly married couples, adolescents, and working youth. Produced under the guidance of UNESCO, Bangkok, the package contains 36 different materials such as posters, charts, leaflets, booklets, stories, and illustrated booklets which may be taught in 36 to 45 periods. The materials deal with eight themes, namely, family size and family welfare, population and resources, delayed marriage and parenthood, responsible parenthood, population-related values and beliefs, women in development, AIDS/STD, and respect for old people. Accompanying the learning package is the fieldworker's guide used to teach the package. It contains individual guides for each of the 36 learning materials. The guide gives the titles of the materials, format, objectives of the materials, messages, target groups, and an overview of the content of each learning materials. The methodologies used for teaching the learning materials include role playing, group discussion, questioning, brainstorming, survey, creative writing, problem-solving and evaluation. The package will be used by fieldworkers to conduct island-based population education courses. full text

Political economy. On the endogeneity of political preferences: evidence from individual experience with democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola; Schündeln, Matthias

2015-03-06

Democracies depend on the support of the general population, but little is known about the determinants of this support. We investigated whether support for democracy increases with the length of time spent under the system and whether preferences are thus affected by the political system. Relying on 380,000 individual-level observations from 104 countries over the years 1994 to 2013, and exploiting individual-level variation within a country and a given year in the length of time spent under democracy, we find evidence that political preferences are endogenous. For new democracies, our findings imply that popular support needs time to develop. For example, the effect of around 8.5 more years of democratic experience corresponds to the difference in support for democracy between primary and secondary education. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Culture´Contribution to Democracy: Culture, nationalisme and Populism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Duelund, Peter

2018-01-01

Developments on culture, populism and democracy in Europe. Reasons to populism?   Is populism a new phenomenon? Populism as catch-all label? Common indicators of populism How to deal with populists? Proposal to a comparative COE study on populism......Developments on culture, populism and democracy in Europe. Reasons to populism?   Is populism a new phenomenon? Populism as catch-all label? Common indicators of populism How to deal with populists? Proposal to a comparative COE study on populism...

Artistic Constitutions of the Civil Domain: On Art, Education and Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Gielen, Pascal

2017-01-01

How can we understand the relationship between art, education and democracy in the contemporary Western political condition? The recent presidential elections in the USA showed that the classical model of liberal representative democracy is shaking on its foundations. The question is how can artists and education respond to this political…

The influence of ICT on modern democracy. Selected dilemmas of electronic democracy

OpenAIRE

Musiał-Karg, Magdalena

2016-01-01

Due to rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies in all areas of public life, the influence of ICT on democracy has been becoming over the last years an increasingly popular research subject. Application of modern technologies influences work, education, trade, services and social relations on the professional, public and private space. ICTs are also applied to facilitate (and adapt technologically) processes that occur between political institutions, politic...

The Western Way? Democracy and the Media Assistance Model

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Daire Higgins

2015-01-01

Full Text Available International media assistance took off during a time where the ideological extremes of USA vs. USSR were set to disappear. Following the Cold War, international relations focused on democracy building, and nurturing independent media was embraced as a key part of this strategy. Fukayama called it the ‘End of History’, the fact that all other ideologies had fallen and Western style democracy was set to become the one common ideology. The US and UK led the way in media assistance, with their liberal ideas of a free press, bolstered by free market capitalism. America was the superpower, and forged the way around the globe with its beacon of democracy. Under that guiding light they would bring truth, accuracy, freedom of expression and independent reporting to the countries which had so long lived under the shadow of communism, or authoritarian media systems. This is what propelled and justified American foreign policy, and their media assistance, for many years. Much work was thus carried out in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet satellites, but many now question the impact and legacy of these projects. When the US and UK spoke of media assistance they seemed to mean ‘free market’. These days, the ‘democracy promoters’ focus has turned more to Africa and the Middle East. The ideology is apparently the same: to help establish and support democracy with a stronger and more independent media. But with Western economies, and their media systems, in crisis, the relevance of this media assistance model is questioned. This essay looks at the history of media assistance and the ongoing debate on the impact of media assistance over the long term, its motives and the new balance of power appearing in international media development.

Critical Viewing and Participatory Democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Jodi R.

1994-01-01

Illustrates ways that the work of some communication scholars with resistant, oppositional, and critical audiences does not, however, endorse active public life. Attempts to realign the language of critical viewing with the goals of participatory democracy by suggesting qualities of critical viewing that are conducive to achieving and maintaining…

COMMUNITY POWER AND GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

8, Political Decentralization and Popular Alternatives: A View from the South ... Power and Grassroots Democracy, the result of a multi-country research project and .... Its roots also lie in the progressive decomposition of the two prevalent .... inequalities — inequalities based on sex, age, color, sexual orientation, and so forth.

"Self-promotion": How regulatory focus affects the pursuit of self-interest at the expense of the group

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaal, Maarten; Van Laar, C.; Stahl, Tomas; Ellemers, Naomi; Derks, Belle

Self-interested behavior may have positive consequences for individual group-members, but also negatively affects the outcomes of the group when group-level and individual-level interests are misaligned. In two studies, we examined such self-interested, group-undermining behavior from the

Educating for What Kind of Democracy? Examining the Potential of Educating for Participatory Democracy with a Case Study of Drexel University's First-Year Civic Engagement Program

Science.gov (United States)

Bartch, Catherine E. M.

2016-01-01

Youth today are participating in political and civic life in new and emerging ways--some positive and some negative--but there is scant evidence that these new forms of engagement spawn enduring forms of participation to enhance democratization at all levels in society. How, then, do we educate for democracy and for what type of democracy,…

Latin America; Recent History; Democracy; Historical Memory

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Guillermo MIRA DELLI-ZOTTI

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This article identifies the restoration of the democracy and its persistence as one of the most remarkable facts of the recent history of Latin America. Nevertheless, in the experience of the subcontinent, democracy does not appear like synonymous of democratization. Starting off with the transitions, this article is led toward a periodic analysis of the so-called democratic crossing of Latin America. At the same time, it studies the unequal incidence that the impact of the «historical memory» has had in the public sphere of countries like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador and Guatemala, contrasting with the case of Brazil.

¿Más participación igual a mejor democracia? Acerca de la crítica a la democracia participativa // More participation equal than better democracy? On critic to participatory democracy.

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Alfredo Ramírez Nárdiz

2015-12-01

Nowadays, and in countries as Spain, the critic to the representative democracy as it is conceived in the present seems to go beyond the usual thought about the representation crisis to reach amendment to the whole levels where it is not any more asked to reform specific aspects of the representative model, but to rethink the whole model. It is not proposed a different political model than democratic one, but it is proposed a different democracy that, specially and together with the reform of the more characteristic representative institutions and elements (being the political parties the axis of these reforms, looks for a bigger participation of the citizens in public life in general and in the political decision making in particular finding in participatory democracy one of the pillars of the new proposed democratic model. The question arises when posing if this bigger citizens´ participation is compatible with the representative model and can contribute to change it improving it or if, conversely, a bigger citizens´ political participation can lead to pernicious effects, both involuntary and caused by material limitations of participatory tools, both voluntary wished by rulers and political operators than, in the name of a political improvement materialized through a bigger participation, don´t look for another thing but to reach, to keep and to increase their power even at the cost of a democratic weakening materialized in a worsening of the quality of the representative institutions of the State. It is, therefore, relevant to pose if a bigger participatory democracy necessarily leads to a better democracy, or if contrary happens. On this paper, starting from the role of participatory democracy as possible complement that helps to the improving of representative democracy, the critics to the participatory democracy are exposed and it is tried to give a proposal of answer to the question if a bigger participation is compatible with a better democracy

Democracy: Between the essentially contested concept and the agonistic practice: Connolly, Mouffe, Tully

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Sladeček Michal

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The text considers points of view of theoreticians of the radical pluralism (democracy: Connolly (William Connolly, Mouffe (Chantal Mouffe and Tully (James Tully with regard to the status and the nature of concepts in the political discourse, as well as the consequences of these conceptual presumptions to understanding democracy. The three authors emphasize the essential contestability of political concepts, the paradox of liberal democracy and the need to revise standard rational consensus theories of democracy. Also, the three authors take over the specific interpretation of Vittgenstein to the direction of political theory the centre of which consists of everyday contingent practices of politics as well as dissent about their assessment. The text analyzes the extent to which this reading is compatible to Wittgenstein's position. The author defends the opinion that the essential contestability does not imply agonism and denial of the significance of rules and tries to indicate to the points of illegitimate transition from antiessentialism to unconsensus rules. Also, the text underlines the flaws of dissent conception of democracy and social integration.

Teaching about American Federal Democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schechter, Stephen L., Ed.

Ten essays discuss federal democracy, the form of government of the United States. The first essay discusses the origins of American federalism. The second examines why we have a federal system, the functions federalism serves, and the consequences of federalism for the American political system. Federalism in the Constitution and constitutional…

Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seeberg, Merete Bech; Wahman, Michael; Skaaning, Svend-Erik

2018-01-01

This article introduces a special issue on candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Although a burgeoning literature on African democratization has focused on the topic of electoral violence, little attention has been given to violence during party nominations...... of the involvement of electoral management bodies and external monitors, and violence often results. Rather than developing an elaborate theoretical framework on the causes of nomination violence, our ambition in this introduction is to introduce the concept of nomination violence and situate it in the literatures...... on intra-party democracy and election violence. We also offer new descriptive data on nomination rules and nomination violence across parties on the African continent. The data show that nomination violence is a prevalent problem across both democracies and electoral autocracies. However, the level...

The Crypto-democracy and the Trustworthy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gambs, Sébastien; Ranellucci, Samuel; Tapp, Alain

, our main objective is to show that cryptographic primitives, including in particular secure multiparty computation, offer a practical solution to protect privacy while minimizing the trust assumptions. In the crypto-democracy envisioned, individuals do not have to trust a single physical entity......, individuals have no choice but to blindly trust that these entities will respect their privacy and protect their personal data. In this position paper, we address this issue by proposing an utopian crypto-democracy model based on existing scientific achievements from the field of cryptography. More precisely...... with their personal data but rather their data is distributed among several institutions. Together these institutions form a virtual entity called the Trustworthy that is responsible for the storage of this data but which can also compute on it (provided first that all the institutions agree on this). Finally, we...

Youth of Today and the Democracy of Tomorrow. Polish Students' Attitudes toward Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Marzecki, Radoslaw; Stach, Lukasz

2016-01-01

From the perspective of over 20 years into the transformation process in post-communist countries, it seems important to be able to pose questions about the future of democracy, and, in particular, its social foundations. These questions become all the more significant, when we come to realize that it is the attitudes of 'the young of today' that…

Demography, Education, and Democracy: global trends and the case of Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Lutz, Wolfgang; Cuaresma, Jesús Crespo; Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad Jalal

2010-01-01

Reconstructions and projections of populations by age, sex, and educational attainment for 120 countries since 1970 are used to assess the global relationship between improvements in human capital and democracy. Democracy is measured by the Freedom House indicator of political rights. Similar to an earlier study on the effects of improving educational attainment on economic growth, the greater age detail of this new dataset resolves earlier ambiguities about the effect of improving education as assessed using a global set of national time series. The results show consistently strong effects of improving overall levels of educational attainment, of a narrowing gender gap in education, and of fertility declines and the subsequent changes in age structure on improvements in the democracy indicator. This global relationship is then applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the past two decades Iran has experienced the world's most rapid fertility decline associated with massive increases in female education. The results show that based on the experience of 120 countries since 1970, Iran has a high chance of significant movement toward more democracy over the following two decades.

The Genesis of Participatory Democracy in Brazil: a Scientific (ReConstruction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Hélène Sa Vilas Boas

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The rise of participatory democracy has often been explained by the renewal of collective action in Europe and Latin America. This review essay questions the 'movement-based' genesis of Brazilian participatory democracy by analyzing the idea of the state upon which it rests. It argues that the focus on social movements falls short of explaining the spread of participatory experiments, and that it rests on a simplified understanding of the dynamics of the Brazilian State prior to the 1980s. The argument is developed along three axes. First, the essay analyses how the 'classics' of Brazilian political sociology framed the early studies on participatory democracy. Second, it shows that even if the unifying notion of the state has been challenged, progress has focussed on the study of the democratic period. Third, it presents evidence that participation, as a practical category, was an integral part of the military regime's discourse and practice. Finally, the essay defines lines of investigation to reconsider the origins of participatory democracy in Brazil.

La participación como respuesta a la crisis de la representación: el rol de la democracia participativa // The participation as answer to the represantation crisis: the role of the participatory democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfredo Ramírez Nárdiz

2014-08-01

The recurring debate on representation crisis, possibly as old as representation itself, has in the present special relevance around the critic of the political parties and its role on democracy. Although the debate and the critic are not new, it is indeed the virulence with which the parties are blamed of a big part of the problems of the democratic system if not of all of them, particularly of being an obstacle to the democratic development, or even a tool for its degeneration. With the finality of an hypothetical regeneration of the democratic system, one of the most typical demands is a bigger political participation of the citizens on public affairs as well as a better and more developed auditing and control of their governors action. In this sense, to know participatory democracy, understood as the set of participatory tools that allow that bigger participation of citizens on public affairs, its most characteristic elements, its possibilities, but also its lacks, as well as its potential utilities for, where appropriate, to contribute not only to the democratic regeneration but also to the improvement of the democracy, has an special interest in the present scenario of intense critic to the representative democracy. Can participatory democracy be a really useful tool for democracy´s deepening? And, if that is true, must be understood as a complement to representative democracy or could be seen even as a real transformation of the democratic model? Can, in the end, participatory democracy, as is understood in the present, be an answer to the representation crisis or it is nothing but an actualization of the direct democracy or semi-direct democracy formulas typical of old times and so normally accused of being susceptible of populist uses? To contribute to answer these questions giving possible answers to them is the object of this paper.

The notion of participatory democracy in relation to local ward committees: The distribution of power

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leepo J. Modise

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This article comprises four important parts: first, the two important components of democracy, namely participatory and non-participatory or representative democracy will be discussed with special reference to the distribution of powers. Second, it will address the roles and responsibilities of ward committees within the democratic society. Third, the ethical question of the basis of the committee members’ capacity to serve on the ward committees in relation to coercive leadership (tyranny of the majority will be investigated. Fourth, the theological standpoint on the distribution of powers or participatory democracy and the role of the church to improve participatory democracy will be discussed. The research question is the following: What can be done by the country to improve participatory democracy in South Africa, through engagement with ward committees?

Democracy predicts sport and recreation membership: Insights from 52 countries

OpenAIRE

Balish, Shea M.

2017-01-01

Although evidence suggests sport and recreation are powerful contributors to worldwide public health, sizable gender differences persist. It is unknown whether country characteristics moderate gender differences across countries. The primary purpose of this study was to examine if countries’ levels of democracy and/or gender inequality moderate gender differences in sport and recreation membership across countries. The secondary purpose was to examine if democracy and/or gender inequality pre...

Democracy, justice and the quest for socio-political order in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

With the attainment of democracy, some analysts have come to the conclusion that the much advocated justice and equality of all men will be a phenomenon that has come to stay. Hence, it is the aim of this paper to attempt an examination of the nexus between democracy and justice and the benefits accruable to the ...

The End of Democracy and the Modes of Resistance in Education

Science.gov (United States)

Reis, Carlos Sousa; Formosinho, Dores; Del Dujo, Ágel García

2017-01-01

Our scope is to show how democracy has been trivialized as a concept and, more worryingly, as a mystified practice of consented servitude, which supposedly would bring to its very end. In fact, for the emblematic occidental societies, democracy has, at the best, been reduced to a consumerist way of life, under the capitalist liberal order, and the…

Libraries and Democracy: Information for All.

Science.gov (United States)

Marston, Betsy

1991-01-01

Discusses libraries and democracy, one of three major themes for the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services. The roles of newspapers and journalists are considered and the censorship of textbooks, library materials, art, and movies is discussed. (LRW)

The Relationship Between Organizational Democracy and Organizational Dissent: A Research on White Collar Workers

OpenAIRE

Oral Ataç, Lale; Köse, Sevinç

2017-01-01

Researchers of organisational democracy emphasize the importance of freedom of speech, while researchers of organizational dissent underline the necessity of dissent for democracy in the workplace. However, due to the difficulty of measuring organizational democracy, the number of empirical studies which contextualise these two concepts and reveal the relationship between them has been observed to be insufficient. Insufficiency of such empirical studies in the field results from difficulty of...

Science in democracy: expertise, institutions, and representation

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Brown, Mark B

2009-01-01

...? In Science in Democracy, Mark Brown draws on science and technology studies, democratic theory, and the history of political thought to show why an adequate response to politicized science depends...

Democracy-based consensus in medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Greco, Massimiliano; Zangrillo, Alberto; Mucchetti, Marta; Nobile, Leda; Landoni, Paolo; Bellomo, Rinaldo; Landoni, Giovanni

2015-04-01

High-quality evidence and derived guidelines, as typically published in major academic journals, are a major process that shapes physician decision-making worldwide. However, for many aspects of medical practice, there is a lack of High-quality evidence or an overload of somewhat contradictory low-quality information, which makes decision-making a difficult, uncertain, and unpredictable process. When the issues in question are important and evidence limited or controversial, the medical community seeks to establish common ground for "best practice" through consensus conferences and consensus statements or guidelines. Such consensus statements are seen as a useful tool to establish expert agreement, define the boundaries of acceptable practice, provide priorities for the research agenda, and obtain opinions from different countries and healthcare systems. This standard approach, however, can be criticized for being elitist, noninclusive, and poorly representative of the community of clinicians who will have to make decisions about the implementation of such recommendations. Accordingly, the authors propose a new model based on a combination of a local core meeting (detailed review and expert input) followed by a worldwide web-based network assessment (democracy-based consensus). The authors already have applied this approach to develop consensus on all nonsurgical interventions that increase or reduce perioperative mortality in critically ill patients and in those with acute kidney injury. The methodology was based on 5 sequential local and web-based steps. Both a panel of experts and a large number of professionals from all over the world were involved, giving birth to a new type of "democracy-based consensus." This new type of "democracy-based consensus" has the potential to increase grass-root clinician involvement, expand the reach to less-developed countries, provide a more global perspective on proposed interventions, and perhaps more importantly, increase

Interest Groups' Influence over Drug Pricing Policy Reform in South Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Woojin

2005-01-01

In 1999, the Korean government made a drug pricing policy reform to improve the efficiency and transparency of the drug distribution system. Yet, its policy formation process was far from being rational. Facing harsh resistance from various interest groups, the government changed its details into something different from what was initially investigated and planned. So far, little evidence supports any improvement in Korea's drug distribution system. Instead, the new drug pricing policy has deteriorated Korea's national health insurance budget, indicating a heavier economic burden for the general public. From Korea's experience, we may draw some lessons for the future development of a better health care system. As a society becomes more pluralistic, the government should come out of authoritarianism and thoroughly prepare in advance for resistance to reform, by making greater efforts to persuade strong interest groups while informing the general public of potential benefits of the reform. Additionally, facing developing civic groups, the government should listen but not rely too much on them at the final stage of the policy formation. Many of the civic groups lack expertise to evaluate the details of policy and tend to act in a somewhat emotional way. PMID:15988802

Interest groups' influence over drug pricing policy reform in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Woo Jin; Kim, Han Joong

2005-06-30

In 1999, the Korean government made a drug pricing policy reform to improve the efficiency and transparency of the drug distribution system. Yet, its policy formation process was far from being rational. Facing harsh resistance from various interest groups, the government changed its details into something different from what was initially investigated and planned. So far, little evidence supports any improvement in Korea's drug distribution system. Instead, the new drug pricing policy has deteriorated Korea's national health insurance budget, indicating a heavier economic burden for the general public. From Korea's experience, we may draw some lessons for the future development of a better health care system. As a society becomes more pluralistic, the government should come out of authoritarianism and thoroughly prepare in advance for resistance to reform, by making greater efforts to persuade strong interest groups while informing the general public of potential benefits of the reform. Additionally, facing developing civic groups, the government should listen but not rely too much on them at the final stage of the policy formation. Many of the civic groups lack expertise to evaluate the details of policy and tend to act in a somewhat emotional way.

Fighting Islamic Terrorists With Democracy: A Critique

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Stebbins, Jr, William E

2007-01-01

.... One key pillar of U.S. strategic response has been the active promotion of Western representative democracy in those regions of the Islamic world identified as jihadist centers of incubation (namely...

The dynamics of democracy, development and cultural values.

Science.gov (United States)

Spaiser, Viktoria; Ranganathan, Shyam; Mann, Richard P; Sumpter, David J T

2014-01-01

Over the past decades many countries have experienced rapid changes in their economies, their democratic institutions and the values of their citizens. Comprehensive data measuring these changes across very different countries has recently become openly available. Between country similarities suggest common underlying dynamics in how countries develop in terms of economy, democracy and cultural values. We apply a novel Bayesian dynamical systems approach to identify the model which best captures the complex, mainly non-linear dynamics that underlie these changes. We show that the level of Human Development Index (HDI) in a country drives first democracy and then higher emancipation of citizens. This change occurs once the countries pass a certain threshold in HDI. The data also suggests that there is a limit to the growth of wealth, set by higher emancipation. Having reached a high level of democracy and emancipation, societies tend towards equilibrium that does not support further economic growth. Our findings give strong empirical evidence against a popular political science theory, known as the Human Development Sequence. Contrary to this theory, we find that implementation of human-rights and democratisation precede increases in emancipative values.

Demanding Epistemic Democracy and Indirect Civics Pedagogy: The Performance-Oriented Music Ensemble

Science.gov (United States)

Pyrcz, Greg; MacLean, Tessa; Hopkins, Mark

2017-01-01

The participation of young adults in performance-oriented music ensembles can be seen to enhance democratic capacities and virtues. Much, however, turns on the particular conception of democracy at work. Although contemporary currents in music education tend towards models of liberal and participatory democracy to govern music ensembles, this…

The Paramount Importance of Experience and Situations in Dewey's "Democracy and Education"

Science.gov (United States)

Hildebrand, David L.

2016-01-01

In this essay, David Hildebrand connects "Democracy and Education" to Dewey's wider corpus. Hildebrand argues that "Democracy and Education's" central objective is to offer a practical and philosophical answer to the question, What is needed to live a meaningful life, and how can education contribute? He argues, further, that…

DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE ARMED FORCES IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY CASE STUDIES OF NEW DEMOCRACIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florina Cristiana (Cris MATEI

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to contribute to a better understanding of thecontemporary value for democracy of the relationship between elected leadersand the armed forces. Hence, it focuses on the military effectiveness dimension ofthe CMR. It discusses why it is important and what newer democracies can do tosuccessfully develop effective armed forces. The article provides “lessons learned/best practices” of achieving effectiveness from three developing democracies - Chile,Hungary, and, Mongolia.

Spirituality for democracy: Spiritual resources for democratic participation in the 21st century

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Roderick R. Hewitt

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The topic invites us to explore spirituality for democracy and to identify and critique the spiritual resources that are needed for democratic participation in the 21st century. The statement specifically focused on for and not of democracy. Modern expressions of democracy are in crisis. Every context is teething with challenges and conflicts between government sand their citizens concerning how much influence through participation should be allowed in the decision-making process of governance. This topic is of extreme importance for academic discourse because the malaise that has crept into contemporary forms of democratic governance calls for urgent attention. Democratic forms of governance are not set in stone. Rather, they are formed as a result of human deliberation and praxis and cultural developments and must therefore remain open for further reformation. It is this intrinsic capacity for renewal that opens democracy to converse with spirituality. This article begins with identifying the key terms that constitute the academic building blocks of this study. The inherent contradictions in the use of these terms are noted in order to arrive at a theoretical construct to converse with the key concepts of spirituality, democracy, spiritual resources and democratic participation.Through the use of the post colonial lenses of Rastafari hermeneutics, a theoretical framework will be employed to map a life-giving path for contemporary expressions of spirituality for democracy and to identify the resources needed for democratic participation.

Cultural democracy: the way forward for primary care of hard to reach New Zealanders.

Science.gov (United States)

Finau, Sitaleki A; Finau, Eseta

2007-09-01

The use of cultural democracy, the freedom to practice one's culture without fear, as a framework for primary care service provision is essential for improved health service in a multi cultural society like New Zealand. It is an effective approach to attaining health equity for all. Many successful health ventures are ethnic specific and have gone past cultural competency to the practice of cultural democracy. That is, the services are freely taking on the realities of clients without and malice from those of other ethnicities. In New Zealand the scientific health service to improve the health of a multi cultural society are available but there is a need to improve access and utilization by hard to reach New Zealanders. This paper discusses cultural democracy and provide example of how successful health ventures that had embraced cultural democracy were implemented. It suggests that cultural democracy will provide the intellectual impetus and robust philosophy for moving from equality to equity in health service access and utilization. This paper would provide a way forward to improved primary care utilization, efficiency, effectiveness and equitable access especially for the hard to reach populations. use the realities of Pacificans in New Zealand illustrate the use of cultural democracy, and thus equity to address the "inverse care law" of New Zealand. The desire is for primary care providers to take cognizance and use cultural democracy and equity as the basis for the design and practice of primary health care for the hard to reach New Zealanders.

A radical proposal for direct democracy in large societies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JOHN ASIMAKOPOULOS

2016-06-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT It is argued direct democracy is attainable but only in ways that connect to the experiences of daily life. By modifying existing institutions of governance it is pragmatically possible to achieve a society resembling distant utopias. One proposal is based on the argument that all electoral systems are inherently fraudulent under any regime. Rather, direct democracy alone can provide substantive equality. Therefore it is suggested legislative and judicial branches be filled by lottery while leaving the demos as the executive through internet voting modeled on the principle of state propositions.

Do the Media Undermine Democracy?

Science.gov (United States)

Dorman, William A.

This paper considers political reasoning within a democracy and how mass media may affect that process, as well as how the perspective and method of critical thinking may be brought to bear on the subject of media and politics. Specifically, the paper (1) discusses some ways in which the mass media may affect political reasoning; (2) offers a…

Envisioning Democracy: Participatory Filmmaking with Homeless Youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennelly, Jacqueline

2018-05-01

This paper explores the democratic potential for participatory filmmaking with homeless youth, as well as the constraints and dilemmas associated with this visual method. Theorizing democracy through the work of Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu, the paper approaches democracy not as an end, but rather as a process that seeks to lessen social injustice. Bourdieu's work helps us appreciate, however, that this process is constrained by structures of inequality that shape access to the political dispositions that enable such engagement. Consistent with other research on low-income and marginalized young people, this study found that homeless youth engage with democracy through forms of community participation and mutual support, and are disinclined to orient toward liberal democratic structures such as voting and political parties, which they see as harmful or problematic. With a focus on one particular dilemma faced by the research team-namely, the question of how to make sense of and represent the issue of legalizing marijuana, which had been signaled by the youth participants as of primary political importance to them-the paper uses Arendt and Bourdieu to discuss how participatory filmmaking can help to expand the space of appearances available to homeless youth in Canadian society, and create a space at a shared table of understanding with middle class power brokers. © 2018 Canadian Sociological Association/La Société canadienne de sociologie.

Democracy Project: Building Citizenship through Schools | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Citizenship education in schools is a powerful tool to build people's ability to demand recognition of their ... and foster debate on strengthening democracy and citizenship through school education. ... Inclusive growth: Buzzword or innovation?

Democracy, Development and Insurgency: The Nigerian Experience ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

democratisation would propel rapid socio-economic development in a country, ... in increasing spate of the phenomenon of unemployment and poverty in the ..... relationship between the failure of democracy to empower the people and.

Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dahlerup, D.; Leyenaar, M.H.

2013-01-01

Has male dominance in political life been broken? Will gender balance in elected assemblies soon be reached? This book analyses the longitudinal development of women’s political representation in eight old democracies, in which women were enfranchised before and around World War I: Denmark, Iceland,

Why Deliberative Democracy is (Still) Untenable

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahlström, Kristoffer

2012-01-01

A common objection to deliberative democracy is that available evidence on public ignorance makes it unlikely that social deliberation among the public is a process likely to yield accurate outputs. The present paper considers—and ultimately rejects—two responses to this objection. The first...

A model for promoting democracy by using the corporate culture of secondary school student councils in North-eastern Thailand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nongkran Anukul

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This research aims to investigate the history of secondary school student councils in North-eastern Thailand (Isan, to study the present conditions and problems of secondary school student councils in Isan and to study a model for promoting democracy by using the corporate culture of secondary school student councils in Isan. The study area encompassed Kalasin Province, including Somdetpittayakom School in Somdet District and Yangtaladwittayakarn School in Yangtalat District, Mahasarakham Province, including Sarakhampittayakhom School in Muang District and Kantarawichai School in Kantarawichai District, and Khon Kaen Province, including Kallayanawat School in Muang District and Nampong Suksa School in Nampong District. This research employed interview, observation and focus groups as data collection tools with a purposive sample of student councils in secondary schools in Isan. Data was verified and validated using a triangulation method and analyzed by descriptive analysis. Research results show that the student councils in the secondary schools of Isan were established to promote democracy among youth. Students gained knowledge, understanding of the democratic system, experience in student administration and governance by students for students. It was also found that student council activities in secondary schools give students opportunities to know about their roles, acceptance, respect rights and duties, use intellect to solve problems, have faith in the democratic system, develop morality and ethics and preserve and disseminate traditions and culture according to the principles of Dharma. Current problems with student councils include no student interest in duties and no relationship between the elected leaders and their constituency. Selfishness, dishonesty and ignorance are the causes of non-transparent school councils with no responsibility, no response to student needs, lack of rights, justice and effectiveness, lacking of creative

Democracia: velhas e novas controvérsias Democracy: old and new controversies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antônio Cabral Neto

1997-12-01

Full Text Available A discussão realizada neste artigo busca sistematizar elementos essenciais em torno do tema democracia. Sistematiza fragmentos da democracia dos antigos; analisa a origem e evolução da democracia dos modernos, explicitando a sua relação com o liberalismo e discute a relação democracia e bem-estar social em países de capitalismo avançado e no Brasil. A conclusão sinaliza para a necessidade de ampliação da democracia, articulando as suas dimensões política, econômica e cultural. Isso implicaria a incorporação organizada dos atores sociais aos processos políticos e administrativos e o acesso da população aos bens materiais, culturais e educacionais.In this article the author searches for clarification of essential elements around the theme democracy. He analyses fragments of old democracy, the origin and evolution of modern democracy, making clear its relationship with liberalism. He also discusses the relationship between democracy and social well being in countries of advanced capitalism and Brazil. The conclusion identifies the need for the expansion of democracy, articulating its political, economic and cultural dimensions. This would imply in an organised linking of the social actors to political and administrative processes, as well as the access of the population to goods, both cultural and educational.

Crossing Linguistic Borders : Translating Democracy in the 2012 Egyptian Constitution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbara Quaranta

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The transfer of political concepts into different places and cultures happens first and foremost through translation. Far from being a simple transposition of meaning into a different language to facilitate border crossing, it also entails a process of adjustment to a different cultural context and a change in what is perceived to be the original meaning of the concept. Translation should also include the analysis of the social contexts that cause a political concept to be modified. Through Baker's social narrative theory, all these aspects can be integrated to analyse how the concept of democracy moves from place to place and from language to language leading to more complex understandings of it. I will examine the meaning of the concept of democracy in the 2012 Egyptian Constitution to outline the main features of an intercultural translational process of the concept of democracy.

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1997-01-01

Jan 1, 1997 ... Book cover Community Power and Grassroots Democracy ... But there are obstacles: the power of central bureaucracies, the lack of local skills and organizational experience, social divisions, and the impact of ... Knowledge.

[Participatory potential and deliberative function: a debate on broadening the scope of democracy through the health councils].

Science.gov (United States)

Bispo Júnior, José Patrício; Gerschman, Sílvia

2013-01-01

This article reflects upon the relation between democracy and health councils. It seeks to analyze the councils as a space for broadening the scope of democracy. First, some characteristics and principles of the liberal democratic regime are presented, with an emphasis on the minimalist and procedural approach of decision-making. The fragilities of the representative model and the establishment of new relations between the Government and society are then discussed in light of the new social grammar and the complexity of the division between governmental and societal responsibilities. The principles of deliberative democracy and the idea of substantive democracy are subsequently presented. Broadening the scope of democracy is understood not only as the guarantee of civil and political rights, but also especially, of social rights. Lastly, based on discussion of the participation and deliberation categories, the health councils are analyzed as potential mechanisms for broadening the scope of democracy.

Deliberative democracy and co-management of natural resources: The case of Funäsdalen snowmobile regulation area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Karin Elise Zachrisson

2009-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to deepen the understanding of how co-management and deliberative democracy relate to one another. Deliberation is an understudied aspect of common-pool resource theory that could be developed by a closer connection to deliberative democratic theory. Co-management studies may also provide needed empirical insights to deliberative democratic theory. A framework is developed to analyze to what degree co-management arrangements incorporate deliberative elements. To test its usefulness, a case study of a co-management process in Sweden is analyzed. In Funäsdalsfjällen, a conflict-ridden situation caused by snowmobiles ended in agreement and the establishment of a municipal regulation area. Central and regional authorities initially failed to resolve the conflict, but when the municipality started working directly with the relevant interest groups, agreement was reached. Deliberative elements are shown central to the success, and it is concluded that co-management and deliberative democratic approaches indeed do cross-fertilize one another.

The Siting of Swedish Nuclear Waste: An Example of Deliberative Democracy?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia [Goeteborg Univ. (Sweden). Section for Science and Technology Studies

2006-09-15

gaining access to the agenda, and a request for participatory deliberative democracy. The permission to hold a presentation can be connected to criticism of the previous consultations in Oskarshamn and Stockholm. At these consultations, environmental organisations requested opportunities to set the agenda without success. These consultations can therefore mainly be seen as information arenas for SKB rather than arenas for deliberation. At all the consultations, different actors tried to place the deep holes method on an equal footing with the KBS 3-method without any success. There are also examples of how SKB tried to play down the alternative expert conclusions that organisations wanted to raise by saying that the organisations did not have enough knowledge to participate in the discussion on equal terms with SKB. This is an example of one actor showing a preference for a participatory deliberative democracy and another for a rational deliberative democracy. To conclude, the consultations are firstly important to study in order to get a picture of how actors try to draw boundaries about the decision of where to site the Swedish HLNW. The results of the paper are secondly of importance for further studies of the siting process of HLNW, as well as the EIA-process, because of the final conclusions as to which actor(s) that got support for their attempts to impact the decision, which actor(s) that had access to the discussions, and the character of the deliberations. Thirdly, the design of the EIA is an interesting example of a process that opens up for more participative deliberations in advance of important decisions than is usual in a representative democracy.

The Siting of Swedish Nuclear Waste: An Example of Deliberative Democracy?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia

2006-01-01

access to the agenda, and a request for participatory deliberative democracy. The permission to hold a presentation can be connected to criticism of the previous consultations in Oskarshamn and Stockholm. At these consultations, environmental organisations requested opportunities to set the agenda without success. These consultations can therefore mainly be seen as information arenas for SKB rather than arenas for deliberation. At all the consultations, different actors tried to place the deep holes method on an equal footing with the KBS 3-method without any success. There are also examples of how SKB tried to play down the alternative expert conclusions that organisations wanted to raise by saying that the organisations did not have enough knowledge to participate in the discussion on equal terms with SKB. This is an example of one actor showing a preference for a participatory deliberative democracy and another for a rational deliberative democracy. To conclude, the consultations are firstly important to study in order to get a picture of how actors try to draw boundaries about the decision of where to site the Swedish HLNW. The results of the paper are secondly of importance for further studies of the siting process of HLNW, as well as the EIA-process, because of the final conclusions as to which actor(s) that got support for their attempts to impact the decision, which actor(s) that had access to the discussions, and the character of the deliberations. Thirdly, the design of the EIA is an interesting example of a process that opens up for more participative deliberations in advance of important decisions than is usual in a representative democracy

A Legitimacy Crisis of Representative Democracy?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Thomassen, Jacques J.A.; van Ham, Carolien; van Ham, Carolien; Thomassen, Jacques; Aarts, Kees; Andeweg, Rudy

2017-01-01

This chapter presents the research questions and outline of the book, providing a brief review of the state of the art of legitimacy research in established democracies, and discusses the recurring theme of crisis throughout this literature since the 1960s. It includes a discussion of the

Forms and terminology of Direct Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svensson, Palle

It is apparent that some confusion exits both among researchers and political actors about the various forms of direct democracy. Various institutions such as IRI and IDEA, various countries such as Switzerland and California, and various authors such as Pier Vincenzo Uleri and David Altman present...

The Influence of Some Romanian Interest Groups Upon the Activity of Government and Parliament

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bianca COBÂRZAN

2005-10-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on two specific interest groups, NGOs and trade unions, and on their influence upon the government and parliament. Our paper is based on an analyze of the activity of several interest groups during the period 2002-2004 and on the results of several researches and reports published on the last years. The analyze identifies petitioning for rule making, public meetings and debates, monitoring the activity of the public institutions and participating in advisory or regulatory committees as being the most common used mechanisms to influence the government and the parliament in Romania. Also, the analyze shows that administrative procedures affect the degree of bureaucratic autonomy. Overall, the results of this brief research show some pluralist forms of the interaction between the interest groups and the public institutions.

The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindenfors, Patrik; Jansson, Fredrik; Sandberg, Mikael

2011-01-01

Transitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or 'requisites' of democratic reform. However, transition times and the number of reform steps have not been studied comprehensively. Here we show that historically, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental transition steps, with a median time from autocracy to democracy of 2.4 years, and overnight in the reverse direction. Our results show that autocracy and democracy have acted as peaks in an evolutionary landscape of possible modes of institutional arrangements. Only scarcely have there been slow incremental transitions. We discuss our results in relation to the application of phylogenetic comparative methods in cultural evolution and point out that the evolving unit in this system is the institutional arrangement, not the individual country which is instead better regarded as the 'host' for the political system.

Thucydides’ Description of Democracy (2.37.1 and the EU-Convention of 2003

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mogens Herman Hansen

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The view that the term demokratia was pejorative, and that Pericles praises liberty at the expense of democracy and so was misunderstood by the EU-convention, misreads the Funeral Oration and is contradicted by instances of Athenian praise of democracy.

Direct and Representative Democracy - Supplementing, not Excluding Each Other

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svensson, Palle

2007-01-01

: and (4) more transparency and enlightened understanding versus less confidentiality. The arguments are discussed in relation to general political goals of good government such as legitimacy, efficiency and stability. The basic thesis of the paper is that direct and representative forms of democracy...... are not exclusive. Much of the disagreement among those in favour of and in opposition to the introduction of more elements of direct democracy is caused by arguments that could be tested empirically and on more or less implicit assumptions about an either-or rather than a more-or-less of these forms of government...

Industrial democracy in South Africa's transition

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In comparison with traditional work practices, thus, increased flexibility in production .... the quality of working life but also the product, and productivity, of labour. The ways in which ... of change. There are other advantages also; for example, drawing on em- ...... INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY: A BALANCE SHEET. The most ...

Democracy and Education in Postsecular Society

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Shlomo; Hotam, Yotam; Wexler, Philip

2012-01-01

In this article, the authors attempt to show what it means to think about democracy and education "within" society, culture, and religion. They use the term religion to discuss both "religion" as a social phenomena and "religiosity" as a spiritual, aesthetic individual commitment to the transcendent, eternal, and…

U.S. Democracy Promotion and Al Jazeera: A View into Arab Reactions and Opposing Movements

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Smith, Marie E

2005-01-01

.... Will overt American promotion of democracy cause these states to democratize? Using aspects of social movement theory, this thesis examines Arab reactions to public American promotion of democracy...

Climate science, truth, and democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Evelyn Fox

2017-08-01

This essay was written almost ten years ago when the urgency of America's failure as a nation to respond to the threats of climate change first came to preoccupy me. Although the essay was never published in full, I circulated it informally in an attempt to provoke a more public engagement among my colleagues in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. In particular, it was written in almost direct response to Philip Kitcher's own book, Science, Truth and Democracy (2001), in an attempt to clarify what was special about Climate Science in its relation to truth and democracy. Kitcher's response was immensely encouraging, and it led to an extended dialogue that resulted, first, in a course we co-taught at Columbia University, and later, to the book The Seasons Alter: How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts (W. W. Norton) published this spring. The book was finished just after the Paris Climate Accord, and it reflects the relative optimism of that moment. Unfortunately events since have begun to evoke, once again, the darker mood of this essay. I am grateful to Greg Radick for suggesting its publication. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

76 FR 34639 - Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-14

... Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace, Announcement of Request for..., Policy and Technical Division, Office of Food for Peace, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian...

Beating Social Democracy on Its Own Turf

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arndt, Christoph

2014-01-01

-right parties to flourish in contexts where welfare issues have a natural salience as in the case of universal welfare states. In contrast, Scandinavian universal welfare states ought to benefit social democracy when it comes to issue voting on welfare issues. It is argued in this article that centre......-right parties can beat social democrats by credibly converging to its social democratic opponent on issues of universal welfare. Issue ownership voting to the benefit of centre-right parties will then be strongest among voters perceiving the centre-right to have converged to social democracy and perceiving...... the centre-right as issue-owner. Using Danish National Election Studies, 1998–2007, the article shows that the Danish Liberal Party outperformed the Social Democrats on traditional welfare issues among those voters perceiving the Liberals to be ideologically close to the social democrats. The findings help...

Energy Democracy and the City: Evaluating the Practice and Potential of Municipal Sustainability Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lemir Teron

2018-02-01

Full Text Available While calls for, and work toward, energy democracy have been entrenched in social movements, and the concept has a burgeoning posture in academic discourse, perhaps the most significant implication for its development is the potential for its implementation at the local governance scale. In order for municipal efforts to be wholly democratic, energy policy must be accessible and responsive to the needs of all communities. This necessitates the convergence of an energy democracy paradigm with principles and practices of both energy justice and just sustainabilities that encourage communities and households’ entrée to the energy planning arena, as participants in policy making and with access to renewable innovations. By using a case study as its means of analysis, this paper will evaluate municipal-scale energy programming by considering the prospects of energy democracy on a sub-state scale. In our analysis of Washington, DC’s sustainable energy utility, we highlight challenges that limit the potential for energy democracy in the nation’s capital, along with practices that lead DC toward energy justice and democracy. We conclude by offering indicators for democratized urban energy planning.

THWARTING THE "MERCHANTS OF DEATH" ACCUSATION: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF MILITARY PROCUREMENT IN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACIES DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jari Eloranta

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This article charts the interwar military procurement practices of several democratic states, concentrating on the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland. In addition to comparing some of the foundations of the Allies' successful industrial mobilization in World War II, this article concludes that interwar procurement practices in some of the most liberal democracies were surprisingly resistant to capture by business interests. This finding suggests that in describing this era, we should be cautious about ascribing causal power to trans-historical economic behaviors such as rent-seeking and collusion, without taking into account the institutional setting in which such activities took place. The record of the interwar period suggests that democracies can use bureaucratic administration and public enterprise to establish robust barriers to rent-seeking and corruption in the military economy. During the interwar period, these administrative barriers were erected in conjunction with intense public concern about military profiteering. Whether they would be less effective in different ideological environments deserves further investigation.

DEMOCRACY, LEADERSHIP AND NATION BUILDING IN NIGERIA ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

mycl

modern philosophy, theories of democracy were manifest in the ... Lockean social contract thesis with its stipulations of the prevalent ... Your title makes you a manager; your people will decide if ... a learning opportunity, and strive to be a better.

Making Trade-Offs Visible: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations about the Relationship between Dimensions and Institutions of Democracy and Empirical Findings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hans-Joachim Lauth

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Whereas the measurement of the quality of democracy focused on the rough differentiation of democracies and autocracies in the beginning (e.g. Vanhanen, Polity, Freedom House, the focal point of newer instruments is the assessment of the quality of established democracies. In this context, tensions resp. trade-offs between dimensions of democracy are discussed as well (e.g. Democracy Barometer, Varieties of Democracy. However, these approaches lack a systematic discussion of trade-offs and they are not able to show trade-offs empirically. We address this research desideratum in a three-step process: Firstly, we propose a new conceptual approach, which distinguishes between two different modes of relationships between dimensions: mutual reinforcing effects and a give-and-take relationship (trade-offs between dimensions. By introducing our measurement tool, Democracy Matrix, we finally locate mutually reinforcing effects as well as trade-offs. Secondly, we provide a new methodological approach to measure trade-offs. While one measuring strategy captures the mutual reinforcing effects, the other strategy employs indicators, which serve to gauge trade-offs. Thirdly, we demonstrate empirical findings of our measurement drawing on the Varieties of Democracy dataset. Incorporating trade-offs into the measurement enables us to identify various profiles of democracy (libertarian, egalitarian and control-focused democracy via the quality of its dimensions.

The Republican Tragedy of the Commons: The Inefficiency of Democracy in the Light of Climate Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivo Wallimann-Helmer

2013-04-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that an analysis of the dissatisfactory outcomes of international negotiations concerning climate change must take into account procedures of political decision‐making in democracies. Although the normative ideal of republican democracy has means of dealing with such dissatisfactory results, political processes in republican democracies take too much time and risk becoming stuck in tragic or dilemmatic decision structures when facing challenges such as climate change. Consequently, this paper discusses possibilities for redesigning republican democratic institutions to counter‐act these negative forces. However, all possibilities discussed either call into question the normative ideal of republican democracy itself or would take too much time to be realized.

Promoção e proteção da democracia na política externa brasileira Promotion and protection of democracy in brazilian foreign policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Santiso

2002-12-01

continuity and change with the restoration of democracy in 1985. While Brazil has significantly strengthened its normative commitment to promoting democracy, based on a principled defence of the national interest, its engagement for the defence of democracy abroad has been hemmed in by its traditional attachment to the principle of national sovereignty. Brazilian foreign policy has nevertheless significantly evolved since the return to civilian rule. Fernando Henrique Cardoso's presidential diplomacy has provided a decisive impetus for strengthening Brazil's normative commitment to democracy, both through the introduction of democracy clauses in regional institutions and its own bilateral relations. However, there exist an inherent tension between the dual objectives of Brazilian foreign policy, which generates ambiguity in the conduct of foreign policy. There exist multifaceted trade-offs between the principles of democratic interference and national sovereignty, as well as between the twin goals of stability and democracy. This study explores this tension by assessing Brazil's efforts at promoting democracy abroad and its response to threats to democracy and flawed elections during the last decade. It examines ten cases where democracy was at risk. It argues the principled defence of the national interest, on which Brazilian democracy promotion rests, is unlikely to survive Cardoso's presidency. Brazil needs to successfully resolve the inherent tension between the principle of national sovereignty and its commitment to promoting and protecting democracy abroad, both to clarify its foreign policy objectives and strengthen regional collective action mechanisms.

Democracy, ethics and social justice: Implications for secondary ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... were interviewed to explore their perspectives on democratic school leadership and establish the ... Inclusion of democratic school leadership principles in teacher training ... Keywords: democracy; ethics; leadership practices; social justice ...

Risk perception in an interest group context: an examination of the TMI restart issue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soderstrom, E.J.; Sorensen, J.H.; Copenhaver, E.D.; Carnes, S.A.

1984-01-01

Human response to environmental hazards and risks has been the subject of considerable research by social scientists. Work has traditionally focused on either individual response to the risks of an ongoing or future threat (hazards research), or group and organizational response to a specific disaster event (disaster research). As part of a larger investigation of the restart of the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island (TMI), the response of interest groups active in the restart issue to the continued threat of TMI and to future risks due to restart was examined. After reviewing the restart issue in general, the local dimensions of the restart issue from interest group perspectives are discussed. A method for defining appropriate issues at the community level is reviewed. Differences in the perceived local impacts of alternative decisions, and systems of beliefs associated with differing perceptions are discussed. Finally, the implications of interest group versus individual perceptions of local issues for decision making about TMI, in particular, and about technological hazards management, in general, are discussed. Associated implications for determining socially acceptable risk levels are identified

Improving school governance through participative democracy and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

educational and political theory) perspective, with particular reference to undemocratic trends apparent in ... research democracy at the meso level of public school education. .... in decision-making processes within institutions, organisations, societal and government struc- tures. ..... of employment equity into consideration.

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy : The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1997-01-01

. Couverture du livre Community Power and Grassroots Democracy. Editor(s):. M. Kaufman et H. Dilla Alfonso. Publisher(s):. Zed, CRDI. January 1, 1997. ISBN: Épuisé. 300 pages. e-ISBN: 155250137X. Download PDF · Read the e-book.

Democracy and the Symbolic Constitution of Society

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lindahl, H.K.

1998-01-01

Abstract. Building on Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms, this paper argues that the continuities and discontinuities characterizing the passage from medieval politics to modern democracy can best be understood by reference to political power's symbolic structure. For the one, political power,

Self-interested agents create, maintain, and modify group-functional culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Manvir; Glowacki, Luke; Wrangham, Richard W

2016-01-01

We agree that institutions and rules are crucial for explaining human sociality, but we question the claim of there not being "alternatives to CGS [that] can easily account for the institutionalized cooperation that characterizes human societies" (target article, sect. 7). Hypothesizing that self-interested individuals coercively and collaboratively create rules, we propose that agent-based hypotheses offer viable alternatives to cultural group selection (CGS).

Participatory Democracy: Mechanism of Better Regulation in Europe

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Neliana RODEAN

2011-08-01

Full Text Available This paper aims at analyzing the concept of participatory democracy in the European context. In the era of globalization, tools such as Internet filled the gap between civil society and political institutions. The new information and communication technologies contribute to the involvement of citizens in decision-making process. The democratic deficit is bridged through increasingly active participation of civil society at various levels of policy. Through e-democracy tools is realized a direct action of citizens, or even certain categories, which for various reasons do not have the possibility to be informed or have voice on political decisions. In addition, the European institutions, through mechanisms of “better regulation”, promote processes of simplification rules to find a remedy for an excessive law-making.

Non-controlling interests, financial performance and the equity of groups. An empirical study of groups listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Radosław Ignatowski

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to (a analyze IFRS requirements for the recognition and presentation of non-controlling (minority interests in consolidated financial statements in relation to theoretical concepts of consolidation of financial statements, and (b assess the share and importance of non-controlling inter-ests in financial performance and the equity of the groups of companies in practice.For the purpose of the article, selected scientific methods have been used, including: descriptive and analytical ones (for analyzing the theoretical concepts and IFRS requirements, critical analysis, especial-ly used for the literature review, and for the assessment of practice: primary empirical research methods, and quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests and correlation analysis. The empirical material collected was used to verify several hypotheses related to non-controlling interests of the groups whose parents are registered in Poland and whose securities are traded on a regulated, Polish capital market (Warsaw Stock Exchange. The empirical evidence is that non-controlling interests represent a very small part of group’s equity (taking the mean of about 3.5%, but the median below 1% and obviously, they are significantly lower than the share of majority interests. Their deviation among the different classes of companies (big, small and banks is negligible. Slightly higher is the share of minority interests in the group’s net profit and total comprehensive income. However, no significant difference is to be found between the shares of non-controlling interests in the group’s equity, net profit and total comprehensive income. Overall, shares of majority (minority interests in a group’s income are in line with their shares in the group’s equity. The hypothesis on comparable returns on non-controlling and majority interests (in terms of ROE cannot be rejected if both net profit and losses are considered

Calidad de la democracia en Venezuela Quality of democracy in Venezuela

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Daniel H. LEVINE

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Los debates sobre la democracia en la Venezuela de hoy carecen de una definición común sobre el tema, sobre cómo estudiarlo, e incluso respecto a qué es democracia. El régimen ha sido descrito de muchas formas: democracia participativa, híbrido, mixto, personalista, populista, iliberal, autoritarismo competitivo. El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar el nivel de calidad de la democracia en Venezuela, en el marco de una concepción procedimental de la democracia. La evaluación empírica de cinco dimensiones de calidad de la democracia (decisión electoral, participación, respuesta a la voluntad popular, rendición de cuentas y soberanía revela un nivel bajo en conjunto, con escasa variación entre 2005 y 2010. Los escenarios posibles luego de las elecciones de 2012 incluyen: reforzamiento de las tendencias autoritarias, militarización abierta, liberalización política con fortalecimiento institucional, o volatilidad duradera con conflicto polarizado y debilidad institucional. La salud del presidente Chávez afectará estos escenarios, dado su carácter de factor central unificador de su movimiento y del régimen.Discussions of democracy in contemporary Venezuela lack a settled definition of the subject, how to study it, or indeed of what counts as «democracy» in the first place. The regime has been described as everything from participatory democracy, hybrid, mixed, and personalist to populist, illiberal, or no longer democratic but rather competitive authoritarian. The goal of this article is to measure the quality of democracy in Venezuela, within the terms of a procedural concept of democracy as detailed in our earlier work. Empirical measurement of the quality of democracy on five dimensions (electoral choice, participation, responsiveness, accountability, sovereignty reveals a low level overall and deep institutional weakness under a personalist leadership, with little change from 2005 to 2010. Future scenarios, after the

Evaluation of Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy Course by Teacher's Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Sahan, Gülsün; Tural, Aysegül

2018-01-01

Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy Course draws attention to with topics such as human rights, effective citizenship. In terms of content, it has an important place in contemporary education concept. It is thought that the Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy course will benefit the social structure because of its content and the outputs…

Data Democracy and Decision Making: Enhancing the Use and Value of Geospatial Data and Scientific Information

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, C. D.

2014-12-01

Data democracy is a concept that has great relevance to the use and value of geospatial data and scientific information. Data democracy describes a world in which data and information are widely and broadly accessible, understandable, and useable. The concept operationalizes the public good nature of scientific information and provides a framework for increasing benefits from its use. Data democracy encompasses efforts to increase accessibility to geospatial data and to expand participation in its collection, analysis, and application. These two pillars are analogous to demand and supply relationships. Improved accessibility, or demand, includes increased knowledge about geospatial data and low barriers to retrieval and use. Expanded participation, or supply, encompasses a broader community involved in developing geospatial data and scientific information. This pillar of data democracy is characterized by methods such as citizen science or crowd sourcing.A framework is developed for advancing the use of data democracy. This includes efforts to assess the societal benefits (economic and social) of scientific information. This knowledge is critical to continued monitoring of the effectiveness of data democracy implementation and of potential impact on the use and value of scientific information. The framework also includes an assessment of opportunities for advancing data democracy both on the supply and demand sides. These opportunities include relatively inexpensive efforts to reduce barriers to use as well as the identification of situations in which participation can be expanded in scientific efforts to enhance the breadth of involvement as well as expanding participation to non-traditional communities. This framework provides an initial perspective on ways to expand the "scientific community" of data users and providers. It also describes a way forward for enhancing the societal benefits from geospatial data and scientific information. As a result, data

Designing for democracy : Bulk data and authoritarianism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Robbins, S.A.; Henschke, A.H.

2017-01-01

Transparency is important for liberal democracies; however, the value of transparency is difficult to articulate. In this article we articulate transparency as an instrumental value for providing what we call ensurance and assurance to liberal democratic citizens. Ensurance refers to the property of

Latin American Security, Drugs and Democracy (LASDD) Fellowship ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Latin American Security, Drugs and Democracy (LASDD) Fellowship Program ... with drug trafficking and the growth of transnational organized crime in LAC. ... Call for proposals: Innovations for the economic inclusion of marginalized youth.

Democracy, Citizenship and Youth: Towards Social and Political ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2009-10-12

Oct 12, 2009 ... Democracy, Citizenship and Youth: Towards Social and Political ... the successful media-relations strategy, and the rewarding partnerships ... Birth registration is the basis for advancing gender equality and children's rights.

Religious Groups as Interest Groups: The United States Catholic Bishops in the Welfare Reform Debate of 1995–1996 and the Health Care Reform Debate of 2009–20101

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Anne Marie Cammisa

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The United States has a long history of religious influence on public policy: the anti-slavery movement, progressivism, prohibition, civil rights, abortion, school vouchers, school prayer and nuclear disarmament are all issues that have involved religion and religious groups in policymaking. In recent decades, the number of religious interest groups (as well as interest groups in general has greatly expanded, but the role that the religious organizations play as interest groups in the policy arena has received relatively little attention. How are they similar to and different from other interest groups? What tactics do they use? How successful are they? Under what conditions is success or failure more likely? This article examines Roman Catholic religious groups as interest groups in the congressional policymaking process. First, it places Catholic interest groups in the context of the interest group literature, and second, it examines Catholic interest groups’ activity in the passage of welfare reform in 1996 and in the passage of health care reform in 2010. In both cases, they played a greater role in context-setting than in actually changing provisions.

The Public Library, Democracy and Rancière's Poetics of Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Huzar, Timothy Jozef

2013-01-01

Introduction: This paper applies the thought of Jacques Rancière to the concept of democracy as it is traditionally understood in library studies literature. Methods: The paper reviews a cross-section of instances of the link between democracy and the public library in library studies literature. It offers a close textual analysis of Michael…

On Collapse and the Next U.S. Democracy: Elements of Applied Systemic Research

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Greg

2015-01-01

While concern has been growing in recent years about the structural precursors to economic collapse in the United States, and a parallel decline in democracy, few have asked: (1) what moral and cultural foundations might be necessary as building blocks to launch a democratic renewal and (2) whether a different and "deep" democracy might…

Protecting Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Galster, Kjeld

2007-01-01

of a democratic state as defence per se is to its government. Democratic governance rests on the mutual dependence and influence of leadership and led, and the practical function subsumes professional bureaucracies. Thus, defence debate is the exchange of views on matters important to national security amongst...... the democratically elected leadership, the public, and the defence bureaucracy’s professional experts. Defence debate is a decisive contributor to defence policy and it normally includes quantitative issues like the size of military forces and the proportion of the state’s resources devoted to the armed forces......ABSTRACT Galster, Kjeld Hald. Doctoral Student (History). Saxo Institute. May 2007. Protecting Democracy: Danish Defence Debate in Times of Change. Supervisor: Professor, Dr. Gunner Lind. Democratic debate on defence and democratic organisation of the forces are as central to the life...

Translating democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Doerr, Nicole

2012-01-01

Linguistic barriers may pose problems for politicians trying to communicate delicate decisions to a European-wide public, as well as for citizens wishing to protest at the European level. In this article I present a counter-intuitive position on the language question, one that explores how...... Forum (ESF). I compare deliberative practices in the multilingual ESF preparatory meetings with those in monolingual national Social Forum meetings in three Western European countries. My comparison shows that multilingualism does not reduce the inclusivity of democratic deliberation as compared...... in institutionalized habits and norms of deliberation. Addressing democratic theorists, my findings suggest that translation could be a way to think about difference not as a hindrance but as a resource for democracy in linguistically heterogeneous societies and public spaces, without presupposing a shared language...

Democracies restricting democratic rights: some classical sources and implications for ethics of biometrics.

Science.gov (United States)

Leavitt, Frank J

2011-03-01

Ancient Greek and 17th century English philosophy are not usually discussed along with the ethics of biometrics and data sharing. Academic ethics today, however, suffers from a lack of background in classical texts. We may discuss whether biometrics and data sharing are consistent with democracy, but if we do not know what democracy is, then we cannot know what actions are consistent with it. I shall discuss how and why democracies have restricted the rights of their citizens. I will give the most attention to two paradigms that have most influenced modern democratic thinking: 17th century English democracy and ancient Athens. I do not accept the dogma that the Athenians were obviously wrong to try and then to condemn Socrates. His death-loving doctrine could not but have weakened the will of the youth to work and fight for the good of Athens. I will try to understand the Athenians' point of view and their need to defend their security. At the end, I will apply these lessons to biometrics and data sharing for security reasons.

Democracies Restricting Democratic Rights: Some Classical Sources and Implications for Ethics of Biometrics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank J. Leavitt

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Ancient Greek and 17th century English philosophy are not usually discussed along with the ethics of biometrics and data sharing. Academic ethics today, however, suffers from a lack of background in classical texts. We may discuss whether biometrics and data sharing are consistent with democracy, but if we do not know what democracy is, then we cannot know what actions are consistent with it. I shall discuss how and why democracies have restricted the rights of their citizens. I will give the most attention to two paradigms that have most influenced modern democratic thinking: 17th century English democracy and ancient Athens. I do not accept the dogma that the Athenians were obviously wrong to try and then to condemn Socrates. His death-loving doctrine could not but have weakened the will of the youth to work and fight for the good of Athens. I will try to understand the Athenians' point of view and their need to defend their security. At the end, I will apply these lessons to biometrics and data sharing for security reasons.

The paradox of the modern mass media: probably the major source of social cohesion in liberal democracies, even though its content is often socially divisive.

Science.gov (United States)

Charlton, Bruce G

2006-01-01

The modern mass media (MM) is often regarded a mixture between a trivial waste of time and resources, and a dangerously subversive system tending to promote social division and community breakdown. But these negative evaluations are difficult to square with the fact that those countries with the largest mass media include the most modernized and powerful nations. It seems more plausible that the MM is serving some useful - perhaps vital - function. I suggest that modern mass media function as the main source of social cohesion in liberal democracies. The paradox is that this cohesive function is sustained in a context of frequently divisive media content. This media function evolved because modern MM produce an excess of media communications in a context of consumer choice which generates competition for public attention both within- and between-media. Competition has led the media to become increasingly specialized at gaining and retaining public attention. Social cohesion is the consequence of the mass media continually drawing public attention to itself, and to the extremely large, internally complex and interconnected nature of the MM system. The means by which attention is attracted are almost arbitrary, encompassing both novelty and familiarity and evoking a wide range of emotions both positive and negative. Driven to seek competitive advantage, modern mass media produce a wide range of material to cater to a vast range of interests; thereby engaging a great variety of individuals and social groupings. The consequence is that media content is typically self-contradictory and includes content which is offensive and potentially divisive; since what grabs the interest of some may offend or repel others. For instance, young men must be socially engaged, since they are potentially the most violent social group, yet the interests of young men include material that the majority of the population would find excessively aggressive, disrespectful, subversive or sexual

Security and Democracy in Southern Africa | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2007-11-15

operation initiatives, seeking to roll out the principles of the United Nations at regional levels. This book examines the triangular relationship between democratisation, the character of democracy and its deficits, and national ...

Mathematics education, democracy and development: Exploring connections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renuka Vithal

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Mathematics education and its links to democracy and development are explored in this article, with specific reference to the case of South Africa. This is done by engaging four key questions. Firstly, the question of whether mathematics education can be a preparation for democracy and include a concern for development, is discussed by drawing on conceptual tools of critical mathematics education and allied areas in a development context. Secondly, the question of how mathematics education is distributed in society and participates in shaping educational possibilities in addressing its development needs and goals is used to examine the issues emerging from mathematics performance in international studies and the national Grade 12 examination; the latter is explored specifically in respect of the South African mathematics curriculum reforms and teacher education challenges. Thirdly, the question of whether a mathematics classroom can be a space for democratic living and learning that equally recognises the importance of issues of development in contexts like South Africa, as a post-conflict society still healing from its apartheid wounds, continuing inequality and poverty, is explored through pedagogies of conflict, dialogue and forgiveness. Finally the question of whether democracy and development can have anything to do with mathematics content matters, is discussed by appropriating, as a metaphor, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s framework of multiple ‘truths’, to seek links within and across the various forms and movements in mathematics and mathematics education that have emerged in the past few decades.

DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PROBLEMS OF DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY

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M. S. Zakharchenko

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose. The article presents deep analyzes of legitimacy and the basics of the process of legitimization in democratic societies. The subject of article is to provide an understanding of deliberative democracy as the answer to the discussion about the essence of democratic legitimacy. The core element of deliberative democracy is a theory of discursive legitimating. Methodology. Taking into account Bourdieu’s theory about symbolic power author explains the processes of legitimization as well as the processes of institute’s delegitimization. Author points out that the form of bureaucratic institutes in the late capitalism may cause the delegitimazation of their power. Another problem of democratic legitimacy is the confusion of the voting as procedure of decision making and voting as legitimate principle. Addressing the theory of Pierre Rosanvallon author explains how the way of decision making mistakenly is taken as the core point of democratic legitimacy. Scientific novelty of received results consists of the approach of deliberative democracy in the light of the problems of democratic legitimacy. Conclusions. The author demonstrates that discursive legitimacy as the main idea of deliberative democracy may clarify the misconception of democratic legitimacy. It is not enough to explain the legitimating power of the state as based on the assumption of legal norms and moral principles. It is discursive principle that activates the legitimacy power of state decisions.

Students’ Understanding of the Concept of Democracy and Implications for Teacher Education in Social Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nora Elise Hesby Mathé

2016-04-01

be actively encouraged and maintained also in successful democracies. Little is known, however, about how students understand and explain democracy as a subject-specific concept. Such knowledge may be valuable for social studies teachers and teacher educators to fulfil the purpose of the social studies curriculum. The present article investigates 16-year-old students’ understanding of the concept of democracy. In social studies, the concept of democracy is essential not only for disciplinary understanding and discourse, but also for students’ out-of-school democratic participation. To investigate students’ understanding of this concept, semi-structured group interviews were conducted with a total of 23 students at three different Norwegian upper secondary schools. A central finding is that students primarily expressed a liberal understanding of democracy focusing on voting in elections as the main political activity. Students also demonstrated more or less limited or elaborate understanding. In addition to presenting and discussing students’ understandings of the concept of democracy, this article considers implications for teacher education in social studies. One implication is that teacher educators need to engage actively in discussing and defining core concepts with their students. This is related to supporting student teachers’ professional development and in turn developing adolescents’ opportunities for democratic participation. Such a dual focus can provide a knowledge base to help student teachers in their professional development in their first years as practicing teachers.Keywords: democracy, concepts, understanding, teacher education, social studies, democratic theory

Psychiatry residents in a milieu participatory democracy: a resident's view.

Science.gov (United States)

Gersten, D

1978-11-01

Psychiatry residents respond with a variety of coping mechanisms to the lack of traditional structure in a milieu participatory democracy. To incorporate themselves into the system they must accept such democratic ideals as equality among staff and patients, group decision making, and free self-expression and give up some of their traditional ideas about staff and patient roles, treatment modalities, and the therapeutic environment. The author was a first-year resident in psychiatry on a university hospital inpatient therapeutic community; he discusses the conflicts between residents, who often adopt a "we-they" attitude, and the permanent staff, whose protectiveness of the ward community reflects their personal commitment to its ideals.

In the maw of the Ouroboros: an analysis of scientific literacy and democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Bang, Lars

2017-10-01

This paper explores the concept of scientific literacy through its relation to democracy and citizenship. Scientific literacy has received international attention in the twenty-first century as demonstrated by the Programme for International Student Assessment survey of 2006. It is no longer just a concept but has become a stated and testable outcome in the science education research community. This paper problematizes the `marriage' between scientific literacy and democracy, particularly the idea that scientific literacy is a presupposed necessity to proper citizenship and awareness of the role of science in modern society. A perusal of the science education literature can provide a history of scientific literacy, as it exists as a research category. Through Gilles Deleuze's notion of the Dogmatic Image of Thought and its relation to a Spinozist understanding of individuation/Becoming, it is argued that scientific literacy is not a recent invention and is problematic in its relation to democracy. This article is thus intended to act more as vehicle to move, stimulate and dramatize thought and potentially reconceptualise scientific literacy, than a comprehensive historical analysis. The concept of scientific literacy has undergone specific transformations in the last two centuries and has been enacted in different manifestations throughout modernity. Here the analysis draws upon Deleuze's reading of Michel Foucault and the notion of the Diagram related to Foucault's oeuvre, and is specifically using Foucault's notion of rationalities as actualized threads or clusters of discourse. The obvious link between science and democracy is an effect of specific rationalities within the epistemological field of science, rather than intrinsic, essential characteristics of science or scientific literacy. There is nothing intrinsic in its function for democracy. Through a case study of the work of Charles W. Eliot and Herbert Spencer and the modern enactment of scientific

Interest organizations across economic sectors : explaining interest group density in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, Joost; Carroll, Brendan J.; Braun, Caelesta; Chalmers, Adam W.; Destrooper, Tine; Lowery, David; Otjes, Simon; Rasmussen, Anne

2015-01-01

The number of interest organizations (density) varies across policy domains, political issues and economic sectors. This shapes the nature and outcomes of interest representation. In this contribution, we explain the density of interest organizations per economic sector in the European Union on the

Interest organizations across economic sectors: explaining interest group density in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, Joost; Carroll, Brendan; Braun, Caelesta; Chalmers, Adam; De Strooper, Tine; Lowery, David; Otjes, Simon; Rasmussen, Anne

2015-01-01

The number of interest organizations (density) varies across policy domains, political issues and economic sectors. This shapes the nature and outcomes of interest representation. In this contribution, we explain the density of interest organizations per economic sector in the European Union on the

Democracy and Development – A Disputed Pair1

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... rising incomes. (based on economic growth), but also longer lives, higher levels of literacy .... the integrated human development measure (HDI) as a valid or meaningful ... Just like the minimalist, the substantialist definition holds democracy.

Free Press in a Constitutional Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Lucianek, Christine

2014-01-01

This article describes a lesson in which students will examine several views expressed by the founders to understand the context for including freedom of the press in the First Amendment. Students will be asked to think about the role that the news media and the need to be an informed citizen continue to play in our democracy. Students will…

Quark-lepton flavor democracy and the nonexistence of the fourth generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cvetic, G.; Kim, C.S.

1995-01-01

In the standard model with two Higgs doublets (type II), which has a consistent trend to a flavor gauge theory and its related flavor democracy in the quark and the leptonic sectors (unlike the minimal standard model) when the energy of the probes increases, we impose the mixed quark-lepton flavor democracy at high ''transition'' energy and assume the usual seesaw mechanism, and consequently find out that the existence of the fourth generation of fermions in this framework is practically ruled out

75 FR 74678 - Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace Announcement...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

... Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace Announcement of Request for... Majernik, Grants Manager, Policy and Technical Division, Office of Food for Peace, Bureau for Democracy...

The Asian Values in Singapore`s Context of Use. The Curbsides of the Singapore`s Model of Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bianca Berna

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Out of a sense of nationhood or out of mere circumstantial and specific relatings to a national context, it is altogether visible that anti-universalist debate is making headway in international relations, in cultural studies and in the political science, if we are to classify a broader consultation of events.This article is aimed at presenting how the Western ideas can be seen, in examination, as artificial structures, in the national context of Asia. The Asian Values are a very interesting evaluative specimen of the anti-universalist orations. In the case of many Asian states, they created settled forms of government, having an especial adaptation with the originating incidents that were their birthplace. With the inward of these units of contextualization, we will turn to the conferral of the Singapore democracy model and to its germane bloc and bond with the Asian Values. We will interrelate a personal conspectus regarding the correctness of the seal of fastening between the Asian Values and Singapore`s democracy model.

Energy Democracies and Publics in the Making: A Relational Agenda for Research and Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason Chilvers

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Mainstream approaches to energy democracy and public engagement with energy transitions tend to adopt specific, pre-given meanings of both “democracy” and “publics.” Different approaches impose prescriptive assumptions about the model of participation, the identity of public participants, and what it means to participate well. The rigidity of many existing approaches to energy participation is increasingly being challenged by the ever-multiplying diversity of ways in which citizens participate in energy systems, as consumers in energy markets, protesters against new infrastructures and technologies, as initiators of community energy projects, and as subjects of behavior change interventions, amongst others. This paper is concerned with growing areas of scholarship which seek to understand and explore these emerging energy publics and forms of energy democracy from a relational perspective. Such work, grounded in constructivist and relational ontologies, views forms of participatory democracy and publics as being co-produced, constructed, and emergent through the performance of collective practices. It pays closer attention to power relations, politics, materiality, exclusions, and effects in both understanding and intervening in the making of energy democracy. This in turn shifts the focus from studying discrete unitary forms of “energy democracy” to one of understanding interrelations between multiple diverse energy democracies in wider systems. In this paper, we chart these developments and explore the significant challenges and potential contributions of relational approaches to furthering the theories, methods, and practices of energy democracy and energy public engagement. The paper draws on an expert workshop, and an accompanying review, which brought together leading proponents of contending relational approaches to energy participation in direct conversation for the first time. We use this as a basis to explore tensions

Entertaining Democracy in the Era of Neo-Liberalism

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James Curran

2016-08-01

Full Text Available James Curran’s article “Entertaining democracy in the Era of Neo-liberalism” is an essay written from the 13th SBPJor Conference Meeting in Campo Grande in 2015; a conference in which he was the opening speaker. The article was approved for publication in the BJR at the end of 2015, but we have decided to publish it in a special edition of Journalism and Democracy as it deals precisely with this issue. Curran begins the article by questioning the current state of democracy as it pertains to the decline of the nation state and the emergence of transnational institutions of deliberation which he calls “multilevel governance” but “is not matched by the development of a multilevel sense of citizenship”. As almost a prelude to the Brexit, Curran draws attention to the fact that the English do not consider themselves European despite being a part of the European Union. He tied this nationalist ideal not only to the British, but to other country populations in general. In a world dominated by transnational corporations and the presence and constancy of national media “supporting a national identity” he predicted that “Attempts at new institutional building are out of step with media development”. His analysis highlights several problems that are weakening modern democracy like “the increasing centralization of power by political leaders” and the “increasingly unrepresentative nature of the political class  rendering them in some countries almost a ‘separate caste’”. Reading Curran’s text allows us to reflect on the situation in Brazil. At first, it is pessimistic and places meanings that we have lobbied for outside of our borders: “Governments are less able to govern; political power is becoming more centralized; and the unelected influence of big business is becoming greater”. The media also has a hand in contributing towards a “growing sense of disconnection from politics”, making reference to politics as

El papel de la "Demopedia" en la democracia participativa || The Role of “Demopedia” in Participatory Democracy

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Jose María Seco Martínez

2015-06-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN. La democracia participativa es una concepción contra-hegemónica, porque no acepta la prevalencia del capitalismo sobre la democracia, como en el caso de la democracia representativa. No busca tanto la gobernabilidad como la justicia social y la distribución del poder entre la gente. En el tránsito hacia la misma juega un papel decisivo la formación crítica de los ciudadanos. Por eso, la regeneración de la democracia, con sus contenidos reales de participación política, pasa necesariamente por la demopedia participativa.   ABSTRACT. Participatory democracy is an idea opposed to hegemony because it does not accept Capitalism superiority over democracy, as it happens in representative democracy. Its aim is mainly to achieve social justice and power distribution among people, more than governability. However, in its transition, a critical community training would play an important part. Education and democracy are closely related, that is why, the regeneration of democracy, with its real contents of political participation, depends on education. Teaching democracy means serving the community.

Defending Democracy: Citizen Participation in Election Monitoring in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia

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Dini Suryani

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The collapse of the authoritarian regime in 1998 has made Indonesia as one of the most democratic country in Southeast Asia. To ensure the quality of democracy, in particular electoral democracy, supervision and monitoring of elections has a veryimportant role. Although the Badan Pengawas Pemilu (Bawaslu or Election Supervisory Body of Indonesiahas experienced institutional strengthening, this institution has not yet become effective in supervisingand monitoring the elections. Therefore, electionmonitoring conducted by non-state agencies, particularly the citizens become important to complement the performance of Bawaslu. This article aimsto explore how the election monitoring conducted by citizens in the aftermath of post authoritarian era,affect the quality of Indonesian democracy. This article argues that although the citizen participation in monitoring the elections is likely to decline, but thecrowd sourced method that appeared in the 2014election has succeeded in improving the quality of the electoral process as well as defending the democratic regime in Indonesia.

Success nonetheless : Making public utilities work in small-scale democracies despite difficult capital conditions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Douglas, Scott

2011-01-01

A large part of the study of politics is dedicated to identifying the circumstances under which democracy will flourish. Putnam made a major contribution to this field through his concept of social capital as developed in Making Democracy Work. Putnam found that communities with a high number of

Gender difference in support for democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Konte, M.

2014-01-01

Little investigation has been made to explain why women are less likely than are men to support democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. This gender difference in politics has been found in numerous studies and may hinder the much needed legitimation of democracy in this region. This paper addresses the

A Democracy of All Learners: Ethical Rationality and the Affective Roots of Democratic Leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Woods, Philip A.

2006-01-01

This article contends that it is important for educational leaders to understand and reown the historical roots of modern democracy. In particular, it highlights a foundational human capacity for shared ethical insight which characterizes the rich conception of democracy that can be traced in this historical development. Implications for…

The atom and democracy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Remond, Rene.

1977-01-01

Analyzing the relations established between public opinion and nuclear energy, it is considered that it will be impossible to develop the use of this type of energy without the approval of the citizens. This approval, which assumes that the definition of the energetic choices is not seized by 'technicians' whatever their authority, is a basic condition for democracy. It involves a huge informational and public education effort so that everyone is able to have an objective opinion on a type of energy which now rises more passioned than reasoned reactions [fr

Issues of Political Development: Fragile Democracies in Latin America

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Armando Albuquerque

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The political development, as research field, had its origins in the second half of the last century. From the 60s, when he began to flourish, now constitutes a conceptual border with comparative politics. In subsequent decades there were many advances in the analysis of problems related to the political institutions, state structures, the rule of law, civil society, stability and crises of democratic regimes, among others. From this issue, will be made to this article, supported by the Democracy Index, analyzing the causes of one of the main shortcomings of the political development in Latin America, namely, the low quality of their democracies and the consequent non-consolidation of the same.

South American Youth : Regional Democracy-Building Dialogue ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

This project will undertake a comparative analysis of South American youth in the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and their perception of rights, democracy and regional integration. Researchers will examine the meaning that young people, adults and mediators of youth demands attribute to ...

Nietzsche, Democracy and Transcendence | von Tongeren | South ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Socialism, utilitarianism and democracy are, according to Nietzsche, secularised versions of Christianity. They have continued the monomaniac onesidedness of the Christian idea of what a human being is and should be, and they have even strengthened this monomania through its 'immanentisation'. The article shows that ...

Knowledge for democracy in Myanmar | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar is an IDRC and Global Affairs Canada partnership that seeks to support democratic transition in Myanmar through policy ... As Myanmar transitions to a democratic government, it is crucial to nurture meaningful dialogue about the process and to promote economic growth that benefits ...

U.S.-India Relations: Partners in Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

2014-02-01

2011. (JQ 629 .A58 N53 2011) Oldenburg , Philip. India, Pakistan, and Democracy: Solving the Puzzle of Divergent Paths. New York: Routledge, 2010. (JQ...Power, Ambition, and the Ultimate Weapon. Washington: Georgetown UP, 2012. (U 263 .S773 2012) Journals Acheson, Ray . "Modernization of

Laboratory for a New Form of Democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Heelan, Cynthia; Redwine, Judith A.; Black, Antonia

2000-01-01

Demonstrates how community colleges create a laboratory for the metamorphosis of democracy into synocracy, which is associated with participative leadership and a capacity to form and sustain synergistic partnership. The community college, through its leadership, student and service learning, and by involving its communities in dialogues of…

Inventing Democracy: Future Alternatives for Social Action.

Science.gov (United States)

Deethardt, John F.

1983-01-01

Considers the rational basis for participatory democracy and six ideas designed to embody that conceptual basis. Contends that the mission of speech communication scholars to the civic culture should be an activation of civic competencies and an invention of new places to practice free speech skills. (PD)

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

But there are obstacles: the power of central bureaucracies, the lack of local skills and organizational experience, social divisions, and the impact of national and transnational structures. Community Power and Grassroots Democracy is a groundbreaking and insighful book that examines a collection of community initiatives ...

Middle Class and Democracy in Latin America

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Jaime Fierro

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The consolidation of the middle class has been interpreted by modernization and postmodernization theories as a key factor for the functioning and stability of the democratic system. However, in Latin America the middle class has tended to be associated with two contradictory positions. On the one hand, it is emphasized that it plays a stabilizing and democratic role while, on the other hand, it is linked to supporting military coups. With the purpose of elucidate such a dilemma, the relationship that can be established between the socioeconomic status and the degree of support for democracy will be examined. In order to do this, an empirical analysis from Latinbarometer surveys databases will be conducted, covering seventeen countries in the region for the period from 1996 to 2011. It will be concluded that the middle class in Latin America does not have particularly more favorable attitudes toward democracy than other social segments.

Lobbying friends and foes in climate policy: The case of business and environmental interest groups in the European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gullberg, Anne Therese

2008-01-01

Drawing on two conflicting hypotheses from the theoretical literature on lobbying, I consider the strategies applied by interest groups lobbying to influence climate policy in the European Union (EU). The first hypothesis claims that interest groups lobby their 'friends', decision-makers with positions similar to their own. The second claims that interest groups lobby their 'foes', decision-makers with positions opposed to their own. Using interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, I demonstrate that in the field of climate policy, interest groups in the EU lobby both friends and foes, but under different conditions. Moreover, I find that the interest groups' motives are not always in line with the theoretical hypotheses. Interest groups lobby their friends on single policy decisions to exchange information, to further a common cause and to exert pressure, and their foes because a foe on one issue might prove to be a friend on another issue. Interest groups direct general lobbying towards both friends and foes. This paper provides a new empirical contribution to a literature that has so far been heavily dominated by studies focusing on lobbying in the US

Kegagalan pemaknaan “Lembaga Musawarah Perencanaan dan Pembangunan Desa”dalam mewujudkan deepening democracy

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Novita Tresiana

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Government’s failure in the provision of public goods and ideas deepening democracy were considered as a panacea for the success of rural development. The objective of this research is to describe the village development planning in achieving policy production and to find essential elements in attempt to realize a superior deliberative policy. This research uses qualitative method. Research conducted in Southern Lampung, the Province of Lampung. Initial description obtained by understanding the meaning of emic and cross-subject inverstigation by comparing concept (theory, interpretation, and deliberative substantive policy theory formulation. Informant for this research consist of head of village and village officers, subdistrict head and its staff, SKPD in Southern Lampung Regency and chief and officers of provincial assembly; (2 elit and political party figures, Non-governmental organization and choosen villagers; (3 businessmen and local group interest and (4 academician. Data gathered through: 1 Observation; (2 In-depth interview; (3 Document; and 4 Focus Group Discussion (FGD. Data analyzedd by Miles and Huberman interactive analysis. This paper reveals that the village development planning was seen as a goal, when it was just a selected tool or process. Essential elements required to achieve public policy excellence: by strengthening the institutional capacity of the government through new dialogue space and community engagement through deliberative forum. It requires commitment, active community involvement, citizens’ trust, and social networks.

Bolivia: A Gasified Democracy

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Willem Assies

2004-04-01

Full Text Available In October 2003 a wave of popular protest  brought down the Sánchez de Lozada government  in Bolivia. The intention to export natural gas to  the United States and Mexico triggered the protests, but actually stood for widespread discontent  with the Sánchez de Lozada government, the  preceding governments and the economic policies  pursued since 1985. The events belie the opinion  of various students of the Latin American democratic transitions who held that Bolivian democracy  was on its way towards consolidation and suggest that the recent inquiries into the quality of Latin  American democracies may point a way ahead in  rethinking democracy in the region. Taking such  assessments as a reference, this article reviews the  ‘gas war’ and looks at the Bolivian political regime as it has functioned over the past decades. It  will be argued that the ‘pacted democracy’, that  until now sustained institutionality, and the economic model adopted in 1985 have excluded an  important part of the population, both in political terms and where poverty alleviation and equity is  concerned. Increasing popular protest has been  met with increasing repression, which gradually  turned Bolivia into a ‘democradura’, or a ‘gasified  democracy’ that relies on teargas and bullets to  uphold itself. At present the country finds itself at  a crossroads. It either may reinvent democracy or  become an institutionalized ‘democradura’. Resumen: Bolivia: una democracia gasificadaEn octubre de 2003 una ola de protesta popular  llevó a la caída del gobierno de Sánchez de Lozada en Bolivia. La intención de exportar gas natural a los Estados Unidos y México gatilló dichas  protestas, aunque en realidad reflejaron un descontento general con el gobierno Sánchez de  Lozada, los gobiernos anteriores y las políticas  económicas implementadas desde 1985. Los  sucesos desmienten la opinión de varios analistas  de las

Do Elites Benefit from Democracy and Foreign Aid in Developing Countries?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjørnskov, Christian

indicating how foreign aid and democracy can be associated with a more, not less, skewed income distribution. By using data on income quintiles derived from the World Income Inequality Database for 88 developing countries, the results indicate that foreign aid and democracy in conjunction are associated...... with a higher share of income held by the upper quintile. It thus appears that foreign aid, contrary to popular beliefs, leads to a more skewed income distribution in democratic developing countries while the effects are negligible in autocratic countries....

The value of political parties to representative democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kölln, Ann-Kristin

2015-01-01

Political parties play a major role in democratic processes around the world. Recent empirical research suggests that parties are increasingly less important to citizens. Simultaneously, classic and contemporary theories of representative democracy specifically still minimally incorporate accounts

U.S. Geological Survey Karst Interest Group Proceedings, Bowling Green, Kentucky, May 27-29, 2008

Science.gov (United States)

Kuniansky, Eve L.

2008-01-01

States are developed in carbonate rocks and karst areas. These aquifers and the springs that discharge from them, serve as major water-supply sources and as unique biological habitats. Commonly, there is competition for the water resources of karst aquifers, and urban development in karst areas can impact the ecosystem and water quality of these aquifers. The concept for developing a Karst Interest Group evolved from the November 1999 National Ground-Water Meeting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Water Resources Division. As a result, the Karst Interest Group was formed in 2000. The Karst Interest Group is a loose-knit grass-roots organization of USGS employees devoted to fostering better communication among scientists working on, or interested in, karst hydrology studies. The mission of the Karst Interest Group is to encourage and support interdisciplinary collaboration and technology transfer among USGS scientists working in karst areas. Additionally, the Karst Interest Group encourages cooperative studies between the different disciplines of the USGS and other Department of Interior agencies and university researchers or research institutes. The first Karst Interest Group workshop was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, February 13-16, 2001, in the vicinity of karst features of the Floridan aquifer system. The proceedings of that first meeting, Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4011 are available online at: http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/karst/ The second Karst Interest Group workshop was held August 20-22, 2002, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in close proximity to the carbonate aquifers of the northern Shenandoah Valley. The proceedings of the second workshop were published in Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4174, which is available online at the previously mentioned website. The third workshop of the Karst Interest Group was held September, 12-15, 2005, in Rapid City, South Dakota, which is in close proximity to karst features

Non-controlling interests, financial performance and the equity of groups. An empirical study of groups listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange 

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Radosław Ignatowski

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to (a analyze IFRS requirements for the recognition and presentation of non-controlling (minority interests in consolidated financial statements in relation to theoretical concepts of consolidation of financial statements, and (b assess the share and importance of non-controlling inter-ests in financial performance and the equity of the groups of companies in practice. For the purpose of the article, selected scientific methods have been used, including: descriptive and analytical ones (for analyzing the theoretical concepts and IFRS requirements, critical analysis, especial-ly used for the literature review, and for the assessment of practice: primary empirical research methods, and quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests and correlation analysis. The empirical material collected was used to verify several hypotheses related to non-controlling interests of the groups whose parents are registered in Poland and whose securities are traded on a regulated, Polish capital market (Warsaw Stock Exchange. The empirical evidence is that non-controlling interests represent a very small part of group’s equity (taking the mean of about 3.5%, but the median below 1% and obviously, they are significantly lower than the share of majority interests. Their deviation among the different classes of companies (big, small and banks is negligible. Slightly higher is the share of minority interests in the group’s net profit and total comprehensive income. However, no significant difference is to be found between the shares of non-controlling interests in the group’s equity, net profit and total comprehensive income. Overall, shares of majority (minority interests in a group’s income are in line with their shares in the group’s equity. The hypothesis on comparable returns on non-controlling and majority interests (in terms of ROE cannot be rejected if both net profit and losses are considered

"It Is Like Putting Fire in the Children's Hands": A Comparative Case Study of Pre-Service Teachers' Knowledge of and Beliefs about Education for Democracy in an Established and Emerging Post-Conflict Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Lanahan, Brian K.; Phillips, Michele S.

2014-01-01

This report documents and compares two cases of pre-service elementary teachers' beliefs about democracy and education for democracy in the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina along with contextual factors influencing the similarities and differences among these beliefs. Findings suggest that US pre-service elementary teachers have a self-proclaimed…

DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA: THE ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

FBL

The study revealed that many people within the voting age did not vote and were ... known American political scientist, as quoted in Cayne (1993:777) as “an implicit bargain ..... Functional democracy requires strong/effective political institutions and basic rights ... Experience” African Journal of Social Science and Humanity.

Does citizenship always further Immigrants' feeling of belonging to the host nation? A study of policies and public attitudes in 14 Western democracies.

Science.gov (United States)

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær

2017-01-01

Immigrants' access to citizenship in their country of residence is increasingly debated in Western democracies. It is an underlying premise of these debates that citizenship and national belonging are closely linked, but at the same time there is considerable cross-country variation in how citizenship is approached in Western democracies. In the literature, these differences are typically understood to reflect varying degrees of openness to seeing immigrants as part of the host national community. Motivated by this observation, the article examines whether the degree to which immigrants experience greater attachment to the host nation (i.e. belonging) from having host country citizenship is affected by the host country's approach to citizenship. This question is analysed with multilevel regressions on survey and country-level data from 14 Western democracies. The findings show that citizenship is associated with increased host national belonging in countries where the host population attaches great importance to citizenship as a mark of national membership, while there is no positive association between citizenship and belonging in countries where the host population considers citizenship less important. Interestingly, citizenship policy does not have a moderating effect on the association between citizenship and national belonging. Implications for future studies of the subjective experience of citizenship are discussed.

DEMOCRACY AND AUTONOMY TRANSFORMATION IN THE GOVERNANCE OF MENGWI VILLAGE IN THE TRANSITION ERA: A CULTURAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVE

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I Wayan Gede Suacana

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This study discusses “Democra cy and Autonomy Transformation in theGovernance of Mengwi Village in the Transition Era: A Cultural StudiesPerspective”. The problem investigated was the shift in the nation’s approach to thepolicy of villages after the reign of New Order. In this era, the policy ofdemocratization and decentralization appeared till the village level. However, thepolicy was not totally implemented in the villages. The aims of this study are: todescribe democracy transformation in the village governance in the transition era, toclarify autonomy transformation in the village governance in the transition era, and toanalyze the implication and the sense of democracy and autonomy transfor mation tothe development of village governance.This study was conducted employing qualitative method. Various forms ofdemocracy and autonomy transformation in the village governance took place duringthe transition era. In the first stage, the primary and secondary data were collected. Inthe second stage, the theory applied for examining the data was chosen, and in thethird stage, the collected and classified data were analyzed and interpreted. In thefourth stage the results of the study were reported and constructed. The theoriesapplied in this study include; democracy, political democracy, substantial democracy,decentrali zation and political culture. The approaches applied were Tranpolitic andpost-structuralism.The results of the study showed that; first, the village democracy in the firsttransition era (1998-1999 was mostly still uniform, and there were not many choicesin the implementation of the village democracy. The village autonomy was stillblocked in centralistic pattern, homogeneous with hierarchical structure. Second, inthe second transition era (2000-2004 the role of the village representatives became sodemocratic accompanied by the extended village autonomy. Third, in the thirdtransition era (2005-2008 democracy became retransformed to

Demystifying democracy in the digital age: Determining the democratic potential of participatory journalism in Zimbabwe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mutsvairo, Bruce

2013-01-01

It has been repeatedly claimed that freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy (See Fog, 2004; Wahl-Jorgensen & Hanitzsch, 2009; Bhattacharyya & Hodler, 2012). We are made to believe that media and democracy are inseparable, which perhaps explains why the two words are often used

75 FR 4526 - Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-28

... AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance; Office of Food for Peace; Announcement of FFP Response to Zimbabwe Country Specific Guidance Comments..., Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. [FR Doc. 2010-1777 Filed 1-27-10; 8:45 am...

Technocracy and Democracy: The Challenges to Development in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reginald M. J. Oduor

from the vantage point of appropriate knowledge and experience. They seek ... Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held by the .... This analysis to some, rightly or otherwise, implies that technocrats are anti- ...

Socialization and Political Regimes: the Impact of Generation on Support for Democracy in Latin America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Fuks

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Studies on democratic attitudes in Latin America indicate that older citizens are more likely to express a preference for democracy. This contradicts part of the literature, which suggests that the greatest support should come from younger generations, who were socialized under democratic regimes. One possible explanation for the greater support for democracy among the older generation is that they experienced the repression of political and civil rights under authoritarian rule, thus creating an aversion to such regimes. In this article, we replicate tests conducted by other studies in evaluating the effect of generation on support for democracy, using data from the 2012 Americas Barometer. In addition, we add a new factor to the analysis: the country's authoritarian legacy, measured as to the duration and intensity with which individual and political rights were curtailed in the past. The results show a complex picture. First, they confirm that the generations that have lived under authoritarian regimes are more likely to support democracy. However, we find no evidence of an increase in the difference in support between generations in countries where the authoritarian legacy is stronger. Finally, the data indicate that countries with stronger authoritarian legacies exhibit less support for democracy, while stronger democratic legacies have the opposite effect.

Democracy in Kazakhstan: Historical Fiction or Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Adilzhanov, Nurlykhan B.; Kozhirova, Svetlana B.; Azizian, Rouben

2016-01-01

An important issue in the development of transitional societies at the present stage of historical development is the impact of "global democracy" system of government. Trends of such influence in the post-Soviet space, in particular, are becoming more tangible in the context of globalization and especially after the so-called…

Democracy, Education and the Need for Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Straume, Ingerid S.

2016-01-01

Even though the interrelationship between education and democratic politics is as old as democracy itself, it is seldom explicitly formulated in the literature. Most of the time, the political system is taken as a given, and education conceptualized as an instrument for stability and social integration. Many contemporary discussions about…

Teaching for Toleration in Pluralist Liberal Democracies

Science.gov (United States)

van Waarden, Betto

2017-01-01

This article determines which education enables the perpetuation of diverse ways of life and the liberal democracy that accommodates this diversity. Liberals like John Rawls, Stephen Macedo, and William Galston have disagreed about the scope of civic education. Based on an analysis of toleration--the primary means for maintaining a pluralist…

The breaking of flavor democracy in the quark sector

Science.gov (United States)

Fritzsch, Harald; Xing, Zhi-Zhong; Zhang, Di

2017-09-01

The democracy of quark flavors is a well-motivated flavor symmetry, but it must be properly broken in order to explain the observed quark mass spectrum and flavor mixing pattern. We reconstruct the texture of flavor democracy breaking and evaluate its strength in a novel way, by assuming a parallelism between the Q=+2/3 and Q=-1/3 quark sectors and using a nontrivial parametrization of the flavor mixing matrix. Some phenomenological implications of such democratic quark mass matrices, including their variations in the hierarchy basis and their evolution from the electroweak scale to a super-high energy scale, are also discussed. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11375207) and National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB834300)

Facebook’s openness to censorship in China proves it puts profits before democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hendricks, Vincent Fella

2016-01-01

In the wake of the US election, Facebook has been getting a lot of flack for serving up misinformation and bogus news stories. This problem should not surprise us: Facebook is a social media outlet designed to make money on user traffic and attention. Stimulating democracy has never been part of ...... of the business model. But given new reports of Facebook’s moves in China to censor freedom of speech, undermining democracy may very well be acceptable under Mark Zuckerberg’s vision.......In the wake of the US election, Facebook has been getting a lot of flack for serving up misinformation and bogus news stories. This problem should not surprise us: Facebook is a social media outlet designed to make money on user traffic and attention. Stimulating democracy has never been part...

Democracy and Vigilantism: The Case of Michoacán, Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jerjes Aguirre Ochoa

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The so-called self-defense forces in Mexico must be seen as a form of vigilantism generated by an incipient process of democratization that has not produced the institutional quality necessary to contain the activity of organized crime groups driven, essentially, by the high demand for drugs in the United States. Our qualitative analysis of Mexico’s Tierra Caliente (‘Hotlands’ revealed profound processes of institutional deterioration in politics and the economy that have created conditions ripe for vigilantism. In the absence of substantial improvements in the quality of Mexico’s democracy, especially at the levels of state and municipal government, the emergence of other forms of vigilantism and ongoing violence are foreseeable.

The necessity of public interest concept for the management of hydric resources; A necessidade da conceituacao do interesse publico para a gestao dos recursos hidricos

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Santos, Afonso Henriques Moreira; Masseli, Sandro [Universidade Federal de Itajuba (UNIFEI), MG (Brazil). Centro de Excelencia em Recursos Naturais e Energia]. E-mails: afonso@unifei.edu.br; sandro@masseli.com.br

2007-03-15

This paper analyses the concept of public interest as a tool for the hydric resources management. The paper constructs a plural vision of the 'public interest' in the case of hydric resources by incorporating democracy concepts and considering the minority interests directly influenced by this natural resources in hydroelectric power plants. In this document it will be discussed the relationship of the Public Power with with public interest, the evolution of this concept, the conflict between local global interest, the image of 'environmental interest' and the so discussed public interest supremacy.

Researching Holistic Democracy in Schools. A Response to "Examination of the New Tech Model as a holistic Democracy"

Science.gov (United States)

Woods, Philip A.

2017-01-01

Bradley-Levine reported in her article how she created an opportunity to explore research data with the aim of examining the degree to which New Tech schools were democratic in the sense conceptualized by the notion of holistic democracy. My response is in three parts. The first sets out my understanding of the significance of the model of…

A Topic Space Oriented User Group Discovering Scheme in Social Network: A Trust Chain Based Interest Measuring Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Dong

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, user group has become an effective platform for information sharing and communicating among users in social network sites. In present work, we propose a single topic user group discovering scheme, which includes three phases: topic impact evaluation, interest degree measurement, and trust chain based discovering, to enable selecting influential topic and discovering users into a topic oriented group. Our main works include (1 an overview of proposed scheme and its related definitions; (2 topic space construction method based on topic relatedness clustering and its impact (influence degree and popularity degree evaluation; (3 a trust chain model to take user relation network topological information into account with a strength classification perspective; (4 an interest degree (user explicit and implicit interest degree evaluation method based on trust chain among users; and (5 a topic space oriented user group discovering method to group core users according to their explicit interest degrees and to predict ordinary users under implicit interest and user trust chain. Finally, experimental results are given to explain effectiveness and feasibility of our scheme.

The Right to Freedom of Expression: The Mother of our Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willem Johannes van Vollenhoven

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper explores student-teachers' understanding of the right to freedom of expression in education. Analyses of case law and legal principles affirm that the right to freedom of expression is an essential prerequisite to protect and promote democracy. Based on qualitative research, the empirical evidence indicates that although student-teachers are aware of the fact that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute and may be limited, they have a superficial knowledge of the application of this right. Student-teachers have a sense of the importance of the right to freedom of expression in a democracy, but they have not yet internalised the mechanism or process of balancing the right in praxis. This does not bode well as the school system will fail to be a market place of ideas. In order to enable learners to reach their full potential as critical thinkers and autonomous citizens in a developing democracy, it is imperative that teachers should understand and master the application of the right to freedom of expression in schools.

77 FR 33945 - Delegation of Reporting Functions Specified in Section 8 of the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004, as...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-08

... of Reporting Functions Specified in Section 8 of the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004, as Amended... Democracy Act of 2004 (Public Law 109-480; 22 U.S.C. 5811 note), as amended by section 5 of the Belarus Democracy and Human Rights Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-82). You are authorized and directed to publish this...

Globalisation, democracy and the New Partnership for Africa\\'s ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

, through the Structural Adjustment Programme, and referred to as globalization, is given supremacy or value only through liberal democracy. This is explicitly acknowledged in the NEPAD document without taking cognizance of the ...

The role of the process/case in building democracy: for a new meaning of participatory democracys O papel do processo na construção da democracia: para uma nova definição da democracia participativa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felipe Scalabrin

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Democracy is in crisis. We no longer feel represented, no longer is the people summoned in an authentic way; it is now a mere icon; it is now only a facet of what should be a whole. Now a new assumption is needed, based on enabling maximum development of individual guarantees and ensuring that the State fulfills its constitutionally established functions. It is the unrestricted participation that will characterize participatory democracy, together with broad access to the Judiciary Power – which comes in the scenario as a real democratic leader. In this way, as a means of inclusion for all citizens, the process/case takes a political role (beyond the law as a device that allows the judge to assess the multiple interests that are hierarchically set by the society and, finally, to bring law to life, thus making democracy real.A democracia está em crise, não mais nos sentimos representados, não mais o povo é invocado de maneira autêntica, ora é mero ícone, ora é apenas faceta do que deveria ser um todo. Necessário um novo pressuposto, calcado em possibilitar o máximo desenvolvimento das garantias individuais e de assegurar que o Estado cumpra suas funções constitucionalmente estabelecidas. É a participação irrestrita que caracterizará a democracia participativa, mesclando-se com o amplo acesso ao Poder Judiciário – que surge no cenário democrático como autêntico protagonista. Nessa senda, como meio de inclusão de qualquer cidadão, o processo adquire relevo em seu aspecto político (para além do jurídico, como instrumento que possibilita ao juiz avaliar os múltiplos interesses hierarquizados pela sociedade e, por fim, dar vida ao direito, concretizando, assim, o pressuposto democrático.

Re-Thinking Dewey's Democracy: Shifting from a Process of Participation to an Institution of Association

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Lynda

2016-01-01

Dewey's definition of democracy from "Democracy and Education" (1916) is analysed and rethought through a path exploring a shift from a conception of participation as a process to one of association as an institution. Contributions to this pathway among others come from political philosophy and educational philosophy. The rationale for…

Decoding youth DNA: The relationship between social engagement and news interest, news media use and news preferences of Dutch millennials

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drok, N.; Hermans, E.A.H.M.; Kats, K.

2018-01-01

There is a growing concern in Western democracies about the decline in young people's use of news media. Some scholars see it as a result of a diminishing interest in social issues and even of a more general deterioration in civic culture. Others claim that young people still feel socially engaged

From Liberal Democracy to the Cosmopolitan Canopy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jon Van Til

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Liberalism is that ideology, that worldview, which values, in an ever-evolving set of intelligently intermingled thoughts:  democracy, freedom (liberty, equality (justice, fraternity (solidarity, the pursuit of happiness, pluralism (diversity, and human rights--and explores the ever-open ever-possible futures of their rediscovery and advance. The study of ways in which social movements relate to Third sector/nonprofit or voluntary organizations can be structured, if we choose, as a liberal endeavor.  That is the message I receive from Antonin Wagner’s (2012 telling of the emergence of a field that focuses its study and developmental energies on place of intermediate associational life in modern society, from Adalbert Evers’ efforts to sustain the welfare state in an era of untrammeled capitalism (2013, and from Roger Lohmann’s (1992 comprehensive vision of a social commons capable of assuring the values of liberal society. This paper sets the theory of liberal democracy in a contemporary cosmopolitan context, drawing on case material from Hungary, Northern Ireland,  and the United States.

Preference for Democracy in the Arab World

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Al-Ississ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We take a new look at the question of the Arab democratic exception by looking at the preference for democracy among individuals in the Arab world in a comparative context. We use the new sixth wave of the World Value Survey, which was collected between 2012 and 2013, and which included for the first time 12 Arab countries (up from only four in wave 5 and 68 non-Arab countries. We innovate empirically by measuring the preference for democracy over strong rule in a way that, we argue, is more adapted to an understanding of the Arab world than other measures used in past studies. Our statistical analysis reveals a democratic gap in the Arab region compared to global experience, which is especially marked among the more educated individuals, and to a lesser extent among the youth and the middle class. We conclude by discussing the reasons that may explain the Arab exceptionalism, and argue that it is unlikely to be related to culture alone.

On the Educational Thoughts in Dewey's Democracy and Education

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HU Zong-xia

2016-01-01

Dewey is a famous American educator,and his Democracy and Education is a complete and systematic theoretical sys-tem of education,so it is know as the classics education, progressive education theory of the general program.There are many de-fects and deficiencies in the education of junior middle school in our country,the pragmatism education thought in the book has a great influence on the education of junior middle school in our country,so analysis of the educational thoughts of Dewey's De-mocracy and Education,such as"child centered theory","school is society", education is"life","learn from doing"and so on,this is to improve the history education of junior high school in our country and further promote the education reform of our country has a great positive significance.

Collaborative Learning: Preparation for the Workplace and Democracy?

Science.gov (United States)

Beckman, Mary

1990-01-01

Although collaborative learning has many advantages for today's students, it is not a panacea. The profession needs to examine its collaborative classrooms, teaching methods, and evaluation for unspoken rules and hidden control. Collaboration prepares students in the latest techniques of capitalism, not democracy. (MSE)

The Idea of Democracy and the Eighteenth Century

NARCIS (Netherlands)

K.H. Stapelbroek (Koen)

2005-01-01

textabstractIf the central concern of present-day political debate across the board involves the term democracy (or the democratic quality of society), the connecting themes in eighteenth-century political discourse were commerce and morality. From attitudes towards the reform of nations into viable

Democracies in Action: A Foucaultian Perspective on British and French Tax Enforcement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marika TOUMI

2009-07-01

taxation is merely a technical task that can be successfully governed by sets of axiomatic principles with unquestionable objectivity and neutrality without much regard for its context. Our approach highlights a different reality.Securing revenue for the sovereign or the state has been at the heart of the historical transformation of political regimes. The relationship between the sovereign or the state and the taxpayer is a key issue in explaining the contemporary organization of the state for it is at the intersection between the three spheres of power identified by Foucault: Juridical Sovereignty, Discipline and Government. The analytics of government chosen here provide interesting results in terms of the mundane operation of Democracy and tax enforcement examined within their particular historical, societal and cultural context. It highlights their inter-dependence and the dynamic nature of their emergence, transformation and present operation.

Women, media and democracy Mulheres, mídia e democracia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eurídice Furtado Monteiro

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Women, media and democracy — The media's portrayal of female political candidates is a central concern in the book Politics: Women's Words by Raquel Paiva. Her work will undoubtedly contribute to dismantle the discourses and discriminatory practices that hamper women's political participation in contemporary democracies. A presente resenha enfatiza que é a forma pela qual os meios de comunicação social retratam as candidaturas políticas femininas que preocupa Raquel Paiva, autora de Política: palavra feminina, um livro que certamente contribuirá para desmontar os discursos e as práticas discriminatórias acerca da participação política das mulheres nas democracias contemporâneas.

Globalization and democracy: international immigration and limits of national citizenship.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helcio Ribeiro

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Although democracy has become an endlessly widespread idea around the world in recent decades, is also verified in specialized literature and opinion research that the democratic regime is in crisis. This apparently paradoxical process stems from the fact that the new democracies that emerged at the end of the twentieth century are challenged by two important factors: economic globalization and increasing social complexity. With the decline of the nation- state brought by the restructuring of capitalism at a global scale, political and legal mechanisms of economic intervention, income distribution, national development and protection of the citizens’ rights, undergo a radical weakening. On the other hand, globalization intensifies and facilitates population displacement and international migration.

The Media and Democracy in Russia

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Deppe, Kendra M

2005-01-01

... freedoms. These include laws that restrict coverage of elections, terror events and the Chechen region. The lack of freedom has resulted in the inability for the media to serve their purpose in civil society. This has contributed to civil society's lack of ability to ensure that Russia's government remains democratic. If present trends continue the future does not look good for Russian democracy or the freedom of Russia's media.

78 FR 18455 - Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy, 2013

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-27

... celebrates Greek Independence Day to strengthen the bonds between the birthplace of democracy and the world's... National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy. I call upon the people of the United States to...

Leaders, Leadership and Democracy--Are They Compatible?

Science.gov (United States)

Schostak, John

2016-01-01

This article is taken from a talk given by John Schostak at the Co-Operative Head Office, Manchester on 25 September 2015. Question addressed in this paper include: (1) To what extent is leadership needed for a democratic life?; (2) What form of democratic organisation, if any, is compatible with leadership?; and (3) Is democracy undermined by…

The Peculiar Status of "Democracy and Education"

Science.gov (United States)

Boostrom, Robert

2016-01-01

The centennial of "Democracy and Education" invites those who study education and curriculum to reconsider this major work and its place in today's world. One of the most cited works in educational scholarship (and the most cited of Dewey's many works), the perspective it provides is not evident in US policy-making or in school practice.…

Peace and Democracy Go Hand in Hand

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

elaferriere

No Blueprint for Democracy. The need for strong and legitimate institutions is most keenly felt in post-conflict settings, where institutions are often absent or at least severely damaged. In fact, peace proc- esses are a time of hope and opportunity, not just to end the violence, but also to create a more democratic and just soci-.

Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe about Our Schools--And Why It Isn't So

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Jay P.

2005-01-01

How can we fix America's floundering public schools? The conventional wisdom says that schools need a lot more money, that poor and immigrant children cannot do as well as most American kids, that high-stakes tests just produce teaching to the test, and that vouchers do little to help students while undermining our democracy. But what if the…