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…

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.

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...

Relaciones entre saberes políticos, participación política y educación política: Aportes de la investigación psicológica Relations between political knowledge, political participation and Political education: Contributions from psychological research

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Alicia M. Lenzi

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Se examina la vinculación entre saberes políticos, participación política y educación política desde la ciencia política y la investigación psicológica de los conceptos de democracia y gobierno. El análisis indica que la democracia representativa otorga escaso espacio a la participación política ciudadana, y los aportes de investigaciones en psicología social, del desarrollo y educacional evidencian que los saberes políticos indispensables para una participación autónoma, resultan críticos. Aunque las representaciones sociales de democracia juveniles muestran la aceptación de valores democráticos, jóvenes y adultos revelan saberes políticos indiferenciados sobre democracia y gobierno, incluso entre docentes que enseñan esas nociones. Ante tal panorama y limitaciones de la democracia representativa, la educación política constituye una alternativa para formar ciudadanos conscientes, autónomos, activos participantes capaces de transformar la sociedad.The relationship among political knowledge, political participation and political education is examined from both political science and psychological research on the concepts of democracy and government. The analysis indicates that representative democracy gives little place to citizens for political participation. Also, contributions from research by social, developmental and, educational psychology, show that the essential knowledge to autonomous political participation turn to be critical. Although youth`s social representations of democracy show the acceptance of democratic values, youngs and adults reveal undifferentiated knowledge about democracy and government, even among teachers who teach these concepts. From such scenario and limitations of representative democracy, political education is an alternative to prepare aware, autonomous citizens; active participants able to change society.

Political participation, digital democracy and e-citizenship for the protagonism of adolescents and young people

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Juan Bautista Martínez Rodríguez

2011-08-01

Full Text Available This article presents the political, legal and educational for the participation of adolescents and youth in public and political, for it deals with digital citizenship: how adolescents and youth policy reconstruct inhabiting public spaces. We present the e‐Participation and the production of social gaps, cultural and political under the idea that the public is no longer common. Are some suggestions from the theory of communication and power in order to identify those who have power and where to find them. It is suggested to know the mindset of teens and their modes of interpretation that structure and give meaning to the messages circulating on the networks to increase capacity to produce their own messages. The article proposes deliberative policy for media education and the use of social networks.

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,…

Measuring the effects of social media participation on political party communities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Effing, Robin; van Hillegersberg, Jos; Huibers, T.; Reddick, C.; Aikins, S.K.

2012-01-01

Political parties can potentially benefit from Social Media to shape interactions between their members. This chapter presents the Social Media Participation Model (SMPM), which measures the effects of Social Media Participation on political party communities. As people and politicians increasingly

Politické vzdelávanie v liberálnej demokracii (Political education in a liberal democracy

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Pavol Hardoš

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Political education is a necessary precondition for the continuation of any political regime. In pluralist societies we face the question to what extent can a liberal democracy define the educational ideal of what “good citizenship” means. Building on the works of Michael Oakeshott and Bernard Crick, this essay shows that political philosophy can help define the parameters of this education when it is seen as a process of building political comprehension and civic dispositions. Political education should be defined by teaching politics as a practical process of living together in a community of equals and espousing the procedural values of discussion, respect for facts, equality and freedom.

Democracy in the age of new media galaxy = Democracia en la era de la nueva galaxia mediática

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Feenstra, Ramón A.

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Representative democratic systems seem to be following divergent trends in recent times. On the one hand, there are certain signs of decline such as the fall in voter turnout or the increased distance between politicians and citizens. On the other hand, on occasions the public seems to be acquiring a greater political role as a result of a new media landscape that offers new opportunities for political participation. These trends have led to different interpretations of the present situation of democracy: one pointing to the decline of democracy and the other to a democratic transformation; two contrasting ways of understanding the present that challenge us to ask which of the two comes closest to providing an accurate picture of the architecture of democracy today. This paper will attempt to resolve this question by paying particular attention to the role of the new media galaxy in promoting new forms of citizens’ participation

"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…

Rhetoric Tradition and Democracy: Isocrates’ Role in Ancient Greek Political Idea. Start Point of Western Political Philosophy

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Shokri Mehdi

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Political participation and the public education that have always been deployed to support the incipient progress of the civic life are revived in the modern political discourses. It has been believed that the age of pre-Socrates was the age of the Sophists whose acrid fallacy works occupied the political sphere, a malaise in government. However, speaking non-traditionally in the modern pedagogical system, there were some pre-Socratic thinkers and political philosophers/orators who’s works are the backbone of modern discourse on this matter. It will be examined whether any part of the classical rhetoric apparatus can be recovered and put to a good practice in the modern education and modern political participation. This point will be illustrated, furthermore, in this paper by alleging the importance of rhetoric, its role in Ancient Greek Democracy, and its influence on the modern concepts of power and democracy, as a continual element in a historical-political life. The further consideration is whether there was any democratic Polis existed in Ancient Athens and then, if there was, what characteristics it consisted of. Moreover, whether such concept can or should be considered in modern political discourses. In this sense, the liberal, non-dogmatic strain of the sophistry of Isocrates tradition urges us to indicate that the findings of this educational principles are, if not necessary, but adjutant complementary metes to our modern political knowledge of the states. In the end, it is inquired to see comparatively that how the tradition of rhetorical art and the concept of power in the Ancient Greek society have pertained to the modern democratic elements and whether we are able to empower this influential element in modern states.

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.

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.

Network interventions - How citizens’ social media networks influence their political participation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob; de Vreese, Claes Holger; Albæk, Erik

Social media platforms are special places of information exposure because they are structured around a user’s social network and not around content, like other news media. Studies could show that news exposure on social media can affect citizens’ political participation due to the personalized......, targeted, & inadvertent exposure. However, previous research did not strongly focus on how the characteristics of a citizens’ social media network might alter this relationship. We tests how political information exposure via three different media channels affects political participation among Danish...... citizens and examine possible moderation effects of users network size, network diversity and the newly introduced parameter of perceived network activity. To this end, a two-wave online survey (n=858) among the Danish population was conducted, applying a smartphone-based media diary study. We find strong...

Political Communication, Citizen Journalism and Cyber-Societies: A Faster Way towards Democracy?

OpenAIRE

GEÇER, Ekmel

2017-01-01

Having a quick look at the literaturereview, it is possible to state that political communication, citizenjournalism, and democracy concepts have usually been used in collaboration witheach other especially after the long and sometimes complex new media theoriestake the core place in the debates. While some scholars, within the context ofcitizen journalism and political relation, highlights the role of social mediaand other new media courses in democratisation and more active politicalpartici...

Social media, parties, and political inequalities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobs, K.T.E.; Spierings, C.H.B.M.

2016-01-01

This book examines how social media have transformed politics in established democracies. Specifically, the authors examine the influence of the unique qualities of social media on the power balance between and within parties. They present a general theory as well as an in-depth case study of the

[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.

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 ...

Finding Feminism, Finding Voice? Mobilising Community Education to Build Women's Participation in Myanmar's Political Transition

Science.gov (United States)

Maber, Elizabeth Jane Tregoning

2016-01-01

This paper explores the role played by women activists and educators in mobilising community education to support new opportunities for women's activism in the context of Myanmar's political transition. Recent political reorientations in Myanmar which have resulted in a civilian-led democracy emerging from a repressive military regime, have…

International Contexts for Political Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Harber, Clive

1991-01-01

Uses international examples of the ways in which political learning takes place--indoctrination, political socialization, and political education--to suggest that open and democratic political education is not common, even in democracies. (SK)

Education, Democracy and Digital Media

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Hatlehol, Birte

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Social scientists have often claimed that the reason for the well-known and widespread phenomenon of juvenile political apathy is their thorough exclusion from actual democratic politics. Politics does not speak their language, nor do they speak the language of politicians. Therefore, the youth’s views and interests are not represented to any significant degree within or by the existing institutions. The question arises of how to reconnect the youth to politics. New media technology has this potential. The project "Youth in the Centre", discussed in the paper, shows how new media technology can be adopted in schools for the purpose of bringing up a new generation of active democratic citizens.

eParticipation for Political Education: Challenges and Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Maier-Rabler, Ursula; Neumayer, Christina

This paper argues, that the incorporation of eParticipation into political education at schools will broaden the chances of young people for political and societal engagement and strengthen civil society of a country or state. Frustration with traditional party politics especially of the younger generation is increasing in contemporary society. Since the voting age in Austria was lowered to 16, new ways of learning for political education by utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) that have the potential to increase participation of young people are considered. However, Austrian young people are not yet educated in developing and expressing political perspectives and therefore not prepared for actively taking part in politics. Exemplified on the project Polipedia.at, a collaborative online textbook on political education, this paper aims to give recommendations from a social science perspective for integration of ICTs into political education in order to enhance political participation of youth.

Understanding Citizenship, Understanding Social Media? The effects of digital media on citizenship understanding and political participation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob; Albæk, Erik

Is there a connection between increased use of digital media and changing patterns of political participation? This study tests how use of online media for different purposes (social interaction, creative expression, online news use, social media news use) is related to three types of political...... participation. It examines whether mobilizing effects are partly indirect due to different understandings of citizenship (dutiful, optional, individual, collective) that may be fostered by digital media use. The study is based on a survey of a sample of the Danish population (n=1322), including data from two...... online survey waves and a smartphone-based media diary that documents respondents’ social media use. Results indicate support for a new pathway to participation, but the relationship depends on whether citizens are socialized in a digital media environment....

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…

The Influence of Social Media Towards Student Political Participation During the 2014 Indonesian Presidential Election

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Anwar Kholid

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This research attempts to examine the political par- ticipation of social media users particularly of Facebook and Twitter during the 2014 Indonesian presidential election. The data collection was per- formed through survey with accidental sampling methods. Samples were taken from population of undergraduate students of political and social sci- ences faculty at five universities in Yogyakarta namely UGM, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, UMY, UNY and UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta. Using statistic descriptive, this research conceptualizes the political participation of social media users while the relations of social me- dia and political participation is analyzed through OLS Regression. The findings indicated that the level of political participation of the social media users during the election was categorized as good. How- ever, the facilities offered by the two social media applications were not maximally used to supporting political participation activities. On the other hand, the result OLS regression shows that there were positive and significant correlations and influences of social media towards the political participation of its users during the election even though the per- centage was small.

Education for democracy in the Republic of Serbia

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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

Mass Media and Political Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Lewellen, James R.

1976-01-01

Research reviews and statistical analysis of a specific study suggest that the mass media play a direct role in the political socialization of adolescents insofar as overt political behavior is concerned. (Author/AV)

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.

JOURNALISTIC COVERAGE OF POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL CRISES AND THE “ISSUE” OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION

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Isabel Ferin Cunha

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the relationship between news coverage, political communication, crises and corruption, focusing on Western democracies and particularly Portugal. Firstly, political communication and news coverage are discussed, based on the assumption that the commoditisation of the goals of media and information companies has resulted in changes in the balance between the political and media fields. Within this perspective, attention is devoted to the consequences of these changes in Western democracies, taking into consideration not only certain aspects that tend to subvert underlying principles of representative democracy, but also the emergence of new social movements craving greater democratic participation in the public sphere. In addition, this study examines the concepts of crisis and political corruption, seeking to identify the historical and cultural elements that correlate the two phenomena in Western democracies, especially in Portugal. Finally, it addresses the processes of exposing corruption phenomena and their legal implications, as well as the principles of transparency of information and the consequences upon democracy.

Journalistic coverage of political and financial crises and the “issue” of political corruption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Ferin Cunha

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the relationship between news coverage, political communication, crises and corruption, focusing on Western democracies and particularly Portugal. Firstly, political communication and news coverage are discussed, based on the assumption that the commoditisation of the goals of media and information companies has resulted in changes in the balance between the political and media fields. Within this perspective, attention is devoted to the consequences of these changes in Western democracies, taking into consideration not only certain aspects that tend to subvert underlying principles of representative democracy, but also the emergence of new social movements craving greater democratic participation in the public sphere. In addition, this study examines the concepts of crisis and political corruption, seeking to identify the historical and cultural elements that correlate the two phenomena in Western democracies, especially in Portugal. Finally, it addresses the processes of exposing corruption phenomena and their legal implications, as well as the principles of transparency of information and the consequences upon democracy.

Media discourse on women and political participation in Nigeria in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Media discourse on women and political participation in Nigeria in the context of ... of social relations between men and women and how this inform power, ... As a social issue, discourse on gender within the media (print, electronic and social ...

The Era of Global Disputes and Mass Media Distortions. Dialogue on Recognition, Justice and Democracy

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bittar, E.; Hrubec, Marek

2017-01-01

Roč. 8, č. 2 (2017), s. 146-154 ISSN 1338-130X Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/15 Program:StrategieAV Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : global conflicts * international law * justice * mass media * recognition * democracy Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion OBOR OECD: Political science https://www.communicationtoday.sk/era-global-disputes-mass-media-distortions-dialogue-recognition-justice-democracy-interview-marek-hrubec/

America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform

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Victor Pickard

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This contribution is a recording of the CAMRI research seminar held at the University of Westminster on November 19, 2014, in which Victor Pickard presented his book "America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform": http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/americas-battle-media-democracy-triumph-corporate-libertarianism-and-future-media-reform Why do American media have so few public interest regulations? How did the American media system become dominated by a few corporations, and why are structural problems like market failures routinely avoided in media policy discourse? By tracing the answers to many of these questions back to media policy battles in the 1940s, Victor Pickard explains how this happened and why it matters today. Drawing from extensive archival research, the book uncovers the American media system’s historical roots and normative foundations. His book charts the rise and fall of a forgotten media reform movement to recover alternatives and paths not taken. As much about the present and future as it is about the past, the book proposes policies for remaking media based on democratic values for the digital age. Victor Pickard is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously he taught media studies at NYU and the University of Virginia, and he worked on media policy in Washington, D.C. as a Senior Research Fellow at the media reform organization Free Press, the public policy think tank the New America Foundation, and Congresswoman Diane Watson’s office. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the history and political economy of media institutions and media reform activism. His op-eds on media policy debates and the future of journalism have appeared in news outlets like The Guardian, The Seattle

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 belonging to linguistic minorities. Democracy also requires that all linguistic groups share a sense of community. The author argues the need for educational policies that address these challenges.

Citizenship, City Councils and Media in Brazil: News as an Incentive to Strengthen Democracy

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Danilo Rothberg

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The process of the strengthening of Brazilian democracy includes the now existing city councils, institutions of popular participation and citizenship which permit the expression of several community sectors and social actors in the regulation of public policies in areas such as public health care and educational systems, development and the rights of children, adolescents and the elderly. The media assume an important role in this context as they depict city councils’ activities in a positive or a negative image, encouraging or discouraging participation. This paper indicates how these bodies were represented by ten newspapers from six regions of the State of São Paulo, off ering parameters to evaluate the quality of the democratic culture composed by the media in the most densely populated state of the country. The media were found to be exerting a positive potential role in making democracy more eff ective on municipal levels.

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...

Critical Media Literacy in Action: Uniting Theory, Practice and Politics in Media Education

Science.gov (United States)

Thevenin, Benjamin Joseph

2012-01-01

As media literacy is a growing field, there exist a number of distinct approaches to media education with varied political significance. Approaches such as protectionism, media arts education, and critical media literacy draw upon diverse theoretical traditions. Often overlooked in these traditions is the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School.…

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

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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.

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

Changing Media Ecologies in Thailand: Women's Online Participation in the 2013/2014 Bangkok Protests

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Olivia Guntarik

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Traditionally marginalized groups now have more access to new and unconventional means to participate in politics, transforming the media ecologies of existing political environments. Contemporary feminist scholarship has centered on how women use new media technologies to serve political agendas. However, this literature focuses predominately on women in the West, while women in developing countries, or Asia more generally, have been largely excluded from analysis. This article aims to fill in this gap by examining Thai women’s online activities during the 2013/2014 Bangkok political protests. Specifically, we ask how the rise of social and digital media has altered what it means to participate politically in the context of Thai women’s present-day political experience. To answer this question we looked at how women resorted to various digital and social media to discuss women’s rights and political issues, including Yingluck Shinawatra’s political leadership as Thailand’s first female prime minister (2011-2014. Moving beyond traditional notions of participation, we argue that there is a need to recognize the emerging dynamics of women’s online engagement in the political landscape of Thailand. In the context of a totalitarian state, speaking out against the ruling authority online embodies an additional layer of citizen resistance, a feature of digital life that is often taken for granted in Western democracies.

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

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…

Print and Broadcast Mass Media Factors as Predictors of Nigerian Teachers' Political Awareness and Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Agbatogun, A. Olaoluwakotansibe

2009-01-01

This study examined the extent to which the use of print and broadcast mass media could predict the level of awareness and participation of secondary school teachers in political activities and its implications on the quality of Nigerian education system. Eight hundred and two secondary school teachers from South West states of Nigeria served as…

PATTERNS OF INTERNET AND TRADITIONAL MEDIA USE FOR POLITICAL INFORMATION AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN MALAYSIA

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Mohamad Zaini Abu Bakar

2011-06-01

Full Text Available There has been a growing academic interest in the role of new communication technology in the political process in Asia. The increasing influence of the Internet to diffuse political information may have facilitated high voter involvement in the political process in this region. This study examines patterns of on-line and traditional news media use among people who have access to the Internet in Malaysia. The results show an association between the use of the Internet and traditional media -- newspapers, television, and radio -- for political information among the respondents interviewed. This study suggests that the Internet is widely used to gather political information, but its use for this purpose is not replacing the newspapers and television. There is also an indication that the Internet users participate online in a limited number of political activities. However, the political knowledge gained from the Internet does not seem to influence the respondents’ choice of political candidate in elections.

Politics of the aged: orientations and behavior in major liberal democracies.

Science.gov (United States)

Edinger, L J

1985-01-01

Do the political outlook and electoral behavior of the elderly differ notably from that of younger adults in leading capitalist democracies? A cross-national examination of poll data suggests that on the whole they do not. Among the aged certain cross-national differences in rates of political participation beyond voting may be related to differences in national socio-political structures as well as differences in individual attributes.

Deliberative Democracy V. Politics of Identity

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OSCAR PÉREZ DE LA FUENTE

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The defenders of deliberative democracy insist in the idea that for searching political truths is necessary to use values as universality, rationality and fairness. The defenders of the politics of identity distrust from this deliberative approach because, the interests of the powerful groups of the society are often behind those values. The common approach of deliberative democracy misunderstands the proper role, language, expression and actual interests of the members of the minorities. Deliberative democracy isn't really compromised with pluralism –social, cultural, ethnic, racial…– because it is more compromised with formal and substantial rules of decision that finally determine the result of the deliberation. Minorities claim for a new understanding of the democracy from the difference, from the identity. Thus, democracy is the result of a dialogue, not from abstractions, but from the particularity. In this sense, it is important the notion of ethics of alterity as a moral effort to understand the Other. This exercise excludes all kind of alterophobia (misogyny, xenophobia, racism, homophobia... and it is against relativist approach. An identity is legitimate in the way it includes the alterity. The minorities claim to think, other time, topics as democracy from the dynamics between identity/alterity, inclusion/exclusion, equal dignity/differentiated identity.

Updating citizenship? The effects of digital media use on citizenship understanding and political participation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob

2018-01-01

Is there a connection between increased use of digital media and changing patterns of political participation? This study tests how the use of online media for different purposes (social interaction, creative expression, online news use, social media news use) is related to three types of political...... participation. It examines whether mobilizing effects are partly indirect due to different understandings of citizenship (dutiful, optional, individual, collective) that may be fostered by digital media use. The study is based on a survey of a sample of the Danish population (n = 1322), including data from two...... online survey waves and a smartphone-based media diary that documents respondents’ social media use. Results indicate support for a new pathway to participation, but the relationship depends on whether citizens are socialized in a digital media environment....

The concept and institutions of education for democracy

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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.

Social Media Participation and Local Politics: A Case Study of the Enschede Council in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Effing, Robin; van Hillegersberg, Jos; Huibers, Theo W.C.; Wimmer, Maria A.; Tambouris, Efthimios; Macintosh, Ann

2013-01-01

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are often seen as political game changers. Yet little is known of the effects of social media on local politics. In this paper the Social Media Participation Model (SMPM) is introduced for studying the effects of social media on local political

Social Media Participation and Local Politics : A Case Study of the Enschede Council in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Effing, Robin; van Hillegersberg, Jos; Huibers, Theo W.C.; Wimmer, Maria A.; Tambouris, Efthimios; Macintosh, Ann

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are often seen as political game changers. Yet little is known of the effects of social media on local politics. In this paper the Social Media Participation Model (SMPM) is introduced for studying the effects of social media on local political

THE CHECHEN WARS, MEDIA, AND DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA

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Ali Askerov

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Media, like religion, may create, escalate, or deescalate conflict. In the age of technology, parties to protracted conflicts often use the media for their propaganda purposes. In many cases, despite politically created discourses, individual media members struggle to reveal the truth of the violent confrontation that causes human casualties. This paper discusses Moscow’s tough media policy during the Chechen wars, especially from 1999 to 2009 during the Second Chechen War, and argues that Kremlin’s severe media policy in the course of the height of this violent conflict negatively affected the values of democracy in Russia. Nonetheless, Russia’s new media policy had affected different media means differently depending on their missions and commitment. To produce this paper, data were collected through interviewing twenty-two Chechen nationals, including media experts, and randomly analyzing the contents of the Russian media and Chechen websites available online.

¿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

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

Imagining the Political : Young Women, Participation and the ...

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

Imagining the Political : Young Women, Participation and the Crafting of the Political in Egypt. IDRC's Women's Rights and Citizenship (WRC) program initiative is supporting a body of comparative research on whether and how democracy and governance institutions are responding to women's rights and gender equality.

Why Political Parties Colonize the Media in Indonesia: An Exploration of Mediatization

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Muhammad Thaufan Arifuddin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Mediatization has become more relevant in exploring relations between media and politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. However, the media's roles as the fourth estate of democracy has been hijacked by wealthy politicians and political parties. As a result, most mainstream media have failed to enhance public dabates democratically. Based on existing mediatization literature, politico-economy analysis, and data collected through extensive in-depth interviews and relevant documents in the 2013-2015 period, this article theoretically aims to develop the mediatization concept and explore the degree of mediatization of politics in contemporary Indonesia.

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…

Education for Leisure and the Political System

Science.gov (United States)

Ibrahim, Hilmi

1976-01-01

The author considers the place of education for leisure in primitive political systems, traditional political systems, and modern political systems (including premobilized and mobilized dictatorships and democracies). (GW)

The differential role of the media as an agent of political socialization in Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moeller, J.; de Vreese, C.

2013-01-01

Declining political involvement of adolescents in western society has caused widespread concerns about the health of democracy in the future. This study investigates the role of the media in the formation of political attitudes and political mobilization of adolescents. Based on a secondary data

Gender Gaps in Political Participation across Sub-Saharan African Nations

Science.gov (United States)

Coffe, Hilde; Bolzendahl, Catherine

2011-01-01

A substantial literature has studied gender differences in political participation in Western industrialized democracies, but little is known about such gaps in sub-Saharan African nations. Using 2005 Afrobarometer data, this paper presents a systematic investigation of the gender gap in political participation across 18 sub-Saharan African…

Motivations for Social Media Use and Impact on Political Participation in China: A Cognitive and Communication Mediation Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zhuo; Chan, Michael

2017-02-01

Integrating uses and gratifications theory and the cognitive/communication mediation model: this study examines Chinese students' use of social media and subsequent impact on political participation. An integrative framework is proposed where media use, political expression, and political cognitions (efficacy and knowledge) play important mediating roles between audience motivations and participation. Structural equation analyses showed support for the integrated model. Guidance and social utility motivations exhibited different indirect effects on online and offline participation through social media news, discussion, and political efficacy. Entertainment motivations exhibited no direct or indirect effects. Contrary to expectations and previous literature, surveillance motivations exhibited negative direct and indirect effects on offline participation, which may be attributed to the particular Chinese social and political context. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Social media effects on opinion polarization and political participation during the 2015 European immigration movements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob

The selective exposure to likeminded political viewpoints on algorithmic social media platforms is seen as a potential source for opinion polarization. But so far, little is known about how realistic this proposed mechanism is. It is furthermore an open question, what effects a potential opinion...... polarization invoked by social media use has on citizens’ democratic behavior, especially in a non-electoral context. Focusing on the issue of immigration during the refugee influx to Europe in autumn 2015, this study investigates the effects of social media usage on attitude polarization and connects...... it to political participation in refugee-related activities. A panel study conducted among Danish citizens (n=847) reveals that frequent social media usage contributes to a reinforcement of existing attitudes and at the same time mobilizes political participation. However, citizens who become more extreme...

Same game, different rules? Gender differences in political participation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coffé, H.R.; Bolzendahl, C.

2010-01-01

We investigate gender gaps in political participation with 2004 ISSP data for 18 advanced Western democracies (N: 20,359) using linear and logistic regression models. Controlling for socio-economic characteristics and political attitudes reveals that women are more likely than men to have voted and

Democracy to Come: Active Forums as Indicator Suites for e-Participation and e-Governance

Science.gov (United States)

Rodan, Debbie; Balnaves, Mark

There is in modern industrial societies a ‘civic deficit’ Civic engagement in the traditional sense of community values and civic participation is declining (Putman 2000). What has not been examined is the ways in which various media including new media may provide real options for participatory cultures and participatory democracy now and in the future. Undoubtedly there are differences between participatory cultures that are considered a ‘genuine’ contribution to representational democracy and those that are not. This paper, based on initial research into Internet activism, will examine GetUp! as a specific example of an active forum that the authors argue enable participatory citizenship through media participation. While there are very few examples of active forums that might be considered a ‘genuine’ contribution to representational democracy there are clear signals that activism through active forums is maturing into a potent democratic force.

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,…

Estimating the Impact of Education on Political Participation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dinesen, Peter Thisted; Dawes, Christopher; Johanneson, Magnus

2016-01-01

In this study we provide new evidence on the much-discussed effect of education on political participation by utilizing the quasi-experiment of twinning. By looking at the relationship between education and participation within monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs we are able to circumvent traditional...

The Prediction of Political Competencies by Political Action and Political Media Consumption

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2014-01-01

Political competencies are often considered a precondition for political action; however, they are not independent of previous political participation, which may also include the frequency and the kind of political media consumption. My research aims at finding out the importance of participation in political activities in the past, as well as…

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...

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.

Information and media literacy focused on citizenship: the use of government information to participate on democracy

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Rafaela Carolina da Silva

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The Information and Communication Technologies enable the development of democratic societies when they allow access to information in different media and contexts. Hence, the access to government information is only the first step towards making people citizens, since it corroborates to the development of the democracy by allowing the population to know how to interpret and appropriate information to build knowledge. It is argued, therefore, that the process of the use of information is equivalent to the execution of citizenship, since it qualifies the individual to deal with different information transmitted by the media in the various spheres: social, political and professional. From this perspective, the present research aims to reflect on the relevance of Information and Media Competence for the construction of citizenship in democratic societies through online access to Brazilian governmental portals. The methodological procedures involve a bibliographical research about public policies, Brazil's access to information law and information competence. To be considered competent in information, the citizen must have the skills and abilities to use the information made available by the government. One thing that can not be ignored is the fact that online portals in Brazil still have obstacles that contribute to the inefficiency of political transparency in the country. Therefore, being competent in information is fundamental to appropriate the government information disclosed, making the individual critical in the selection, retention and dissemination, as well as capable of interpreting the data provided in society and the ideologies that govern the sources of information.

Cursus Honorum: Personal Background, Careers and Experience of Political Leaders in Democracy and Dictatorship—New Data and Analyses

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Alexander Baturo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Politics in democracy and dictatorship is markedly different; democracy and dictatorship are also associated with distinct policy outcomes. Do political regimes also select different leaders, i.e., do democratic leaders have distinct personal backgrounds to those of their peers in dictatorships, do they tend to hold different prior careers and posts while climbing the “greasy pole” of politics? The aim of this paper is to introduce the new data on leaders’ careers in democracy and dictatorship and compare their personal background, experience in politics, careers and significant posts prior to their tenure, and details about their time in office, inter alia. In general, democratic leaders differ from nondemocratic ones in terms of their educational, social and career background. The paper also finds significant differences among leaders in different nondemocratic regimes, and suggests possible venues for further research.

Democracy in the Digital Communication Environment: A Typology Proposal of Political Monitoring Processes

OpenAIRE

Feenstra, Ramón A.; Casero Ripollés, Andreu

2014-01-01

The digital environment creates new opportunities for citizen political participation. Among these, the monitoring of political and economic power centers stands out. This includes public scrutiny of the management of public funds and the activities of the public and economic systems, thus denouncing dysfunctional features. This article aims to describe, differentiate, and classify the various forms that monitoring can take in current democracies. The results indicate that three major monitor...

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 ...

Power, Democracy--and Democracy in Education

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Ken

2012-01-01

This article addresses questions of workplace democracy, particularly in relation to school education. Following Luciano Canfora in treating democracy as "the rule of the many", it traces the post-1945 rise of workplace democracy, and its post-1979 decline. Analysing the constitution of contemporary schooling in England, the article…

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.

MIRA: internet, democracy and participation. New technologies and re-connection of the citizen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leydi Johanna Posada Amaya

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The deficit in the construction and consolidation of the Democratic Participation of citizens and, therefore, its continuos and constant distancing of the politics and politic affairs has led public institutions and political parties to own the tools that the Technologies of Communication offer with the main purpose of re-connecting the electorate with their representatives. The case study of the Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta (MIRA deals with identifying the type of participation and democracy that has constituted thanks to the tools offered by the Information and Comunication Tecnologies (TIC available in its web page.

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.

Same Game, Different Rules? Gender Differences in Political Participation.

Science.gov (United States)

Coffé, Hilde; Bolzendahl, Catherine

2010-03-01

We investigate gender gaps in political participation with 2004 ISSP data for 18 advanced Western democracies (N: 20,359) using linear and logistic regression models. Controlling for socio-economic characteristics and political attitudes reveals that women are more likely than men to have voted and engaged in 'private' activism, while men are more likely to have engaged in direct contact, collective types of actions and be (more active) members of political parties. Our analysis indicates that demographic and attitudinal characteristics influence participation differently among men and among women, as well as across types of participation. These results highlight the need to move toward a view of women engaging in differing types of participation and based on different characteristics.

The American Dream, Democracy, and Participatory Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

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 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

Political institutions as substitute for democracy: a political economy analysis of economic growth

OpenAIRE

Pereira, Carlos; Teles, Vladimir Kühl

2009-01-01

This manuscript empirically assesses the effects of political institutions on economic growth. It analyzes how political institutions affect economic growth in different stages of democratization and economic development by means of dynamic panel estimation with interaction terms. The new empirical results obtained show that political institutions work as a substitute for democracy promoting economic growth. In other words, political institutions are important for increasing economic growth, ...

Political communication in a high-choice media environment: a challenge for democracy?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Aelst, P.; Strömbäck, J.; Aalberg, T.; Esser, F.; de Vreese, C.; Matthes, J.; Hopmann, D.; Salgado, S.; Hubé, N.; Stępińska, A.; Papathanassopoulos, S.; Berganza, R.; Legnante, G.; Reinemann, C.; Sheafer, T.; Stanyer, J.

2017-01-01

During the last decennia media environments and political communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of

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.

Media Use, Political Participation and the Level of Digitization. A Comparative Analysis of EU Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio Splendore

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses six rounds of the European Social Surveys (from 2000 to 2012 to explore how 1 media uses, 2 unconventional and 3 conventional (i.e. voting forms of political participation have changed in sixteen European countries. Additionally, the research considers one of the latest surveys to investigate the relation between media use and participation in the contemporary period characterized by open data and e-government. The level of digitization in each country is assessed according to its infrastructure, the legal framework (namely the Freedom of Information Act, the quality of the data available from the public administration, and e-government development in terms of online services. The research question is whether use of the Internet and the level of national digitization affect unconventional forms of political participation. The results demonstrate that both the country’s level of digitization at the macro level and the use of the Web at the individual level are co-determinants of the forms of political participation considered. However, the level of digitization does not affect voting.

Democracy and participation in Brazil: decentralization and citizenship in contemporary capitalism

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Francisco César Pinto da Fonseca

2007-05-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes two opposite traditions in relation to the concepts of “decentralization” and “local power” (Brazilian social thinking and the Tocqueville based matrix due to the role given to these concepts by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. These concepts were considered capable of making viable democratic participation after the end of the military dictatorship. It also analyzes how the Brazilian pro-democracy arrangement and participation has been reconfigured by the third industrial revolution, which the economic and social relations that sustain capital more flexible and precarious. Specifically, it examines the political response (in a broad sense of the Brazilian state – via public health policies, notably the Single Healthcare System (SUS – to this clash of conflicting forces. It also observes how federative factors related to SUS allow understanding the dynamics of democracy, participation and citizenship (in various dimensions in Brazil.

Cultural Appropriation of Political Participation and Concepts of Democracy in Greece

Science.gov (United States)

Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, Georgia; Andritsopoulou, C.

2003-01-01

The present work explores aspects of political thinking of Greek adolescents in relation to civic education. The chapter aims to investigate the relationship of social and political education, as taught in high-school, to students' concepts and attitudes centering on the way students (a) formulate attitudes towards anticipated political…

Neoliberalism and the Unfolding Patterns of Young People’s Political Engagement and Political Participation in Contemporary Britain

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James Hart

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Recent trends suggest that young people in Britain are increasingly rejecting electoral politics. However, evidence suggests that British youth are not apolitical, but are becoming ever more sceptical of the ability of electoral politics to make a meaningful contribution to their lives. Why young people are adopting new political behaviour and values, however, is still a point of contention. Some authors have suggested that neoliberalism has influenced these new patterns of political engagement. This article will advance this critique of neoliberalism, giving attention to three different facets of neoliberalism and demonstrate how they combine to reduce young people’s expectations of political participation and their perceptions of the legitimacy of political actors. We combine ideational and material critiques to demonstrate how young people’s political engagement has been restricted by neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has influenced youth political participation through its critiques of collective democracy, by the subsequent transformations in political practice that it has contributed to, and through the economic marginalisation that has resulted from its shaping of governments’ monetary policy. This approach will be conceptually predicated on a definition of neoliberalism which acknowledges both its focus on reducing interventions in the economy, and also its productive capacity to modify society to construct market relations and galvanise competition amongst agents. From this definition, we develop the argument that neoliberal critiques of democracy, the subsequent changes in political practices which respond to these criticisms and the transformation in socioeconomic conditions caused by neoliberalism have coalesced to negatively influence young people’s electoral participation.

Social Media Is the New Player in the Politics of Education

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Supovitz, Jonathan

2017-01-01

Political debate about the Common Core State Standards (the first major education policy initiative in the social media age) ramped up quickly on social media, particularly on Twitter. However, while the increased and intense conversation influenced many states to disavow Common Core in name, those states ended up adopting standards that were…

Social Background, Civic Education and Political Participation of Young People – the German Case

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Holger Onken

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Due to social and political change the process of young citizens’ political socialization was put on a new basis in West European democracies over the last decades. In this article we discuss some aspects of this development and show their consequences. We analyse empirical findings from Germany, focussing on the relevant social factors which influence the individual propensity to participate in politics. The impact of the financial and economic crisis in Europe on political attitudes will also be considered, taking in account sociological aspects. Based on the empirical findings we discuss implications for civic education. In contrast to many discussions in literature about this issue, in which the focus is on the need to put the various influences of political socialization into a broader context, we argue that the parental social background is the crucial upstream factor, prior to e.g. civic education. The conclusion indicates that a group‐specific educational approach, taking into account the social background, is the most promising one for reaching the normative goal of civic education: Politically self‐determined citizens. Aufgrund der sozialen und politischen Veränderungen ist die politische Sozialisation Jugendlicher in den Westeuropäischen Demokratien auf eine neue Grundlage gestellt worden. In diesem Beitrag diskutieren wir Aspekte dieser Entwicklung und zeigen, welche Folgen sich aus diesen ergeben. Wir analysieren empirische Befunde aus Deutschland mit dem Schwerpunkt auf die Frage, welche sozialen Faktoren relevant sind für die individuelle politische Partizipationsbereitschaft. Der Einfluss der Finanz‐ und Wirtschaftskrise in Europa auf politische Einstellungen wird dabei ebenfalls betrachtet. Dies geschieht unter Berücksichtigung der soziologischen Aspekte. Auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse Fragen wir nach den Folgen für die politische Bildung. Im Gegensatz zu dem in der Literatur häufig vertretenen Ansatz, die politische

Liquid Subjects: News Media and Public Political Pedagogy

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Piotrowski, Marcelina; Ruitenberg, Claudia

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between news media and political education within consumer society. We argue that political education today needs to be understood as part of consumerism and media culture, in which individuals selectively expose themselves to and scrutinize various media representations not only of…

Philosophy of democracy and Principles of Democracy

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Jarmila Chovancová

2016-07-01

Full Text Available As the title of suggests the article deals with the problems of democracy, its philosophy and also dominant principles. The author reflects interpretation of democracy on the society with their different understand.             Democracy represents a form of government, a way of political life where these principles are put into practice.             Democracy and its separate principles are expressed in the ultimate legal rules in the democratic countries. Principle of participation as a democratic principle rests with the fact that citizens have right to participate in state administration either directly or via their elected representatives. This principle also ensures that citizens participating in state administration enjoy equal basic rights and liberties and also guarantees that no person can be excluded from participation in state administration or from access to elected or other posts.             Methodology: In the article I using method of analyze - I analyzing dominant problems of democracy-its principles in democratic countries. Another method is comparation- understanding democracy from historical aspect. And the end I also using method of synthesis-explanation democracy understand today.

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

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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.

Media Literacy for the 21st Century. A Response to "The Need for Media Education in Democratic Education"

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Levine, Peter

2015-01-01

We cannot pretend to educate young people for citizenship and political participation without teaching them to understand and use the new media, which are essential means of expressing ideas, forming public opinions, and building institutions and movements. But the challenge of media literacy education is serious. Students need advanced and…

Mass Media as Actor in Political Process: Evolution of the Western Approaches since the 1950s. (Part 1)

OpenAIRE

Гуторов, Владимир Александрович

2013-01-01

The author analyses evolution of western political science’s approaches to mass media and mass media’s role in political process in liberal democracies. The author focuses on theories of “Minimal Effect,” “Mediocracy,” “Effects Research,” “Tеxt Analysis,” “Use and Gratification Approach.” The author discusses A. Giddens’s structuration theory as the most elaborate approach to interpreting the role of mass media in the western political and social science.Key words: mass and political communic...

BOOK REVIEW: Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria | Wilson ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this review of Victor Dike's book - \\"Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria\\", Inam Wilson underscores the author's attempts to draw a connection between Nigeria's chequered political history and her present economic trajectory to explain why Nigeria is today facing numerous sociopolitical and economic challenges, ...

The necessity of a media literacy module within journalism or media studies curricula

OpenAIRE

Fidelia Van der Linde

2011-01-01

Media today is more omnipresent covering all aspects of society, ranging from historical to topical to social and political, thereby forming an integral part of people’s lives. In the South African context, the introduction of democracy, coupled with numerous global technological developments, has dramatically altered the media landscape rendering it more liberal with an increased exponential content. In most democratic countries media literacy education is considered the preferred alternativ...

Political Socialization and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

With a thorough understanding of the political system and possession of relevant political knowledge and attitude the various factors that hinder appropriate pratice of democracy and development of enlightened citizenship are gradually nipped in the bud. SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8 (2) 2006: pp. 133- ...

Participation at any price? The ambivalence of the renaissance of direct democracy, in German municipalities

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Frank Eckardt

2012-06-01

Full Text Available One of the main assumptions on how democracy can be achieved puts faith on the positive effects of the direct engagement of the citizens themselves. Urban planning has adapted to this idea in many countries. With the acceptance of the principal of subsidiarity, political participation of the cit-izens in decision processes has become a key idea for the further development for the European Uni¬on. The support for participatory forms of politics and planning were underpinned by a large desire in the European societies. The example of Germany shows that forms of direct democracy had major im¬pacts on urban planning. The analysis of the overall trend of the last two decades and of some selected examples however rises important questions. Framed by a sociological look on the new social and political conditions of German cities, it shows that the basic argument that more participation leads to more democratic grounding of planning can be questioned. In result, the review of the Ger¬man cases shows that in a ‘post-democracy’ (Crouch 2004, urban planning is confronted with a different meaning of participation.

Online Social Media and Political Awareness in Autoritarian Regimes

OpenAIRE

John Reuter; David Szakonyi

2012-01-01

Does online social media undermine authoritarianism? We examine the conditions under which online social networks can increase public awareness of electoral fraud in non-democracies. We argue that a given online social network will only increase political awareness if it is first politicized by elites. Using survey data from the 2011 Russian parliamentary elections, we show that usage of Twitter and Facebook, which were politicized by opposition elites, significantly increased respondents' pe...

Radical Documentaries, Neoliberal Crisis and Post-Democracy

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Eugenia Siapera

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article examines radical documentaries in Greece as a response to neoliberal crisis and post democracy. In a context where mainstream media have made themselves irrelevant, facing historical lows in trust and credibility, we found that radical documentaries have emerged outside the commodification of information and form part of the growing social or solidarity economy in Greece. Our analysis shows that these documentaries operate through a different political economy, that involves collaborative practices and that they are firmly oriented towards society rather than the political sphere. Overall, we found that radical documentaries are seeking to recuperate the media through engaging professional media workers, journalists, film directors, academics and actors; they operate through reclaiming media know-how; through radicalizing the financing, production and distribution by refusing to participate in commodification processes; and through recreating commonalities by thematizing the common, the public, and responsibility towards others.Their specific political role is found to be one of helping to restore the social body and to contribute to processes of commoning, whereby solidarity and social trust is recovered.

Media Competition and Electoral Politics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Piolatto, A.; Schuett, F.

2013-01-01

Abstract: We build a framework linking competition in the media market to political participation, media slant, and selection of politicians. Media outlets report on the ability of candidates running for office and compete for audience through their choice of slant. Citizens derive utility from

The Dimensions of Brazilian Democracy: Inclusion, Participation and Political Representation

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Daiane Sandra Tramontini

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Questioning and boosting traditional ways of behavioral and institutional discourse is part of theories that aim towards critical changes in the politic and juridical area through emancipatory and non-repressive means. Thus, this research paper approaches some ways of questioning the systematics to which the State and the Law deal with politics, society, the democratic strengthening as well as its dimensions and relations with the popular participation and the politic representation. Thereby the deductive method will be used and the procedure form will be based on the bibliographic research.

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

Digital Media Shapes Youth Participation in Politics

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Kahne, Joseph; Middaugh, Ellen

2012-01-01

Will those who Tweet vote? Social media clearly create new opportunities for voice, for agency, and potentially for influence. But they create risks as well, because there is no reason to assume that engagement with participatory politics will inevitably or organically develop in positive ways. That's where schools come into the picture, playing…

Political participation of registered nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandenhouten, Christine L; Malakar, Crystalmichelle L; Kubsch, Sylvia; Block, Derryl E; Gallagher-Lepak, Susan

2011-08-01

Level of political participation and factors contributing to participation were measured among Midwest RNs (n = 468) via an online survey (Cronbach's α = .95). Respondents reported engaging in primarily "low cost" activities (e.g., voting, discussing politics, and contacting elected officials), with fewer reporting speaking at public gatherings, participating in demonstrations, and membership in nursing organizations. Psychological engagement was most predictive (p political participation with the dimensions of political interest, political efficacy, and political information/knowledge highly significant (p political participation (p political content and did not prepare them for political participation. Findings showed that nurse educators and leaders of professional nursing organizations need to model and cultivate greater psychological engagement among students and nurses.

Rousseau and modern citizenship education. Political and educational concepts seen from Latin America.

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Hugo Rangel Torrijo

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This article shows that Rousseau political philosophy is inseparable from his social and educational ideas. I evince the relevance of freedom and equality both for the pedagogic sphere than for democracy. Rousseau defended social equality and the rule of law, which are essential dimensions of democratic societies. I argue that he is a pioneer of the notions of early childhood education. He is also precursor of the direct democracy from the political association; which is a base for social cohesion. I argue that Rousseau ideas are useful reference for building an open republic. Then, I argue that these concepts are fundamental for a modern civic education, which is relevant considering the current conservative tendencies in the global crisis.

The role of political efficacy on the relationship between facebook use and participatory behaviors: a comparative study of young American and Chinese adults.

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Chan, Michael; Guo, Jing

2013-06-01

This comparative study of young adults in an established democracy (America) and transitional democracy (Hong Kong) analyzed the impact of political efficacy on the relationship between Internet/Facebook use on political and civic participation. Regression analyses in both samples showed that Facebook use consistently predicted both types of participation. Moreover, there were significant negative interaction effects of political efficacy and Facebook use on participation, such that the relationship between Facebook use and participation was stronger for those with lower levels of political efficacy. The findings provide cross-cultural support for the argument that social media use among youth can facilitate greater political and civic engagement, particularly for those who perceive that they have limited ability to participate and understand political affairs.

The Political Economy of Neoliberalism and Illiberal Democracy

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Garry Jacobs

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The unprecedented opportunities missed at the end of the Cold War have come back to haunt and taunt us in the form of misshapen ideologies and misconceived policies. Discredited notions discarded by history once again raise their heads to be finally buried or bury us. Despite the rhetoric of the Washington Consensus, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism and dissolution of Soviet authoritarianism did not mark a final vindication and victory for Western democratic neoliberalism. They only removed the antagonist who had compelled Western ideologues to moderate their actions to counterbalance the obvious humanistic appeal of socialism. Blinded by their own propaganda, theorists, politicians and the general public have embraced a course that threatens the stability and sustainability of Western society. Globalization, financialization, global mergers and acquisitions, shadow banking, international tax havens, the policy bias favoring energy-intensive automation, maximizing share-holder value, state capture, oligarchy and plutocracy have fueled soaring levels of economic inequality and insecurity. More importantly, they have shaken the roots of the social consensus that is the foundation of modern liberal democracies: polarizing and destabilizing society and throwing political processes into chaos. The notion that economics can be divorced and insulated from politics is an illusion. There is no economy without politics and law. A return to unbridled capitalism is threatening the culture of liberal values and the functioning of democratic institutions. Even mature democracies show signs of degenerating into their illiberal namesakes. The historical record confirms that peaceful, prosperous, free and harmonious societies can best be nurtured by the widest possible distribution of all forms of power—political, economic, educational, scientific, technological and social—to the greatest extent to the greatest number. The aspiration

Women, Demography, and Politics: How Lower Fertility Rates Lead to Democracy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sommer, Udi

2018-04-01

Where connections between demography and politics are examined in the literature, it is largely in the context of the effects of male aspects of demography on phenomena such as political violence. This project aims to place the study of demographic variables' influence on politics, particularly on democracy, squarely within the scope of political and social sciences, and to focus on the effects of woman-related demographics-namely, fertility rate. I test the hypothesis that demographic variables-female-related predictors, in particular-have an independent effect on political structure. Comparing countries over time, this study finds a growth in democracy when fertility rates decline. In the theoretical framework developed, it is family structure as well as the economic and political status of women that account for this change at the macro and micro levels. Findings based on data for more than 140 countries over three decades are robust when controlling not only for alternative effects but also for reverse causality and data limitations.

From Grand Narratives of Democracy to Small Expectations of Participation:Audiences, citizenship, and interactive tools in digital journalism

OpenAIRE

Peters, Chris; Witschge, Tamara

2016-01-01

This chapter critically examines the invocation of democracy in the discourse of audience participation in digital journalism. Rather than simply restate the familiar grand narratives that traditionally described journalism’s function for democracy (information source, watchdog, public representative, mediation for political actors), we compare and contrast conceptualisations of the audience found within these and discuss how digital technologies impact these relationships. We consider how “p...

Gender inequality in education : political institutions or culture and religion?

OpenAIRE

Cooray, Arusha; Potrafke, Niklas

2010-01-01

We investigate empirically whether political institutions or culture and religion underlie gender inequality in education. The dataset contains up to 157 countries over the 1991-2006 period. The results indicate that political institutions do not significantly influence education of girls: autocratic regimes do not discriminate against girls in denying educational opportunities and democracies do not discriminate by gender when providing educational opportunities. The primary influences on ge...

Social Background, Civic Education and Political Participation of Young People--The German Case

Science.gov (United States)

Onken, Holger; Lange, Dirk

2014-01-01

Due to social and political change the process of young citizens' political socialization was put on a new basis in West European democracies over the last decades. In this article we discuss some aspects of this development and show their consequences. We analyse empirical findings from Germany, focussing on the relevant social factors which…

Louise Edwards, Gender, Politics, and Democracy: Women’s Suffrage in China

OpenAIRE

Dirlik, Arif

2009-01-01

Gender, Politics, and Democracy retrace les luttes des femmes chinoises pour obtenir le droit de vote, depuis le tournant du XXe siècle jusqu’à la veille de la victoire des communistes en 1949. Edwards soutient que le terme « canzheng », suggérant la participation politique en général, était compris par les femmes activistes politiques de la première moitié du XXe siècle dans le sens plus concret de « participation au vote», « centré sur le double droit de voter et de se présenter aux électio...

Unconventional Participation in Time of Crisis: How Ideology Shapes Citizens’ Political Actions

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Vincenzo Memoli

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Since democracy requires the involvement of citizens, the topic of political participation has attracted great attention from both practitioners and scholars. During the current financial and economic crisis, there have been various protest movements in many European countries. In this paper, which employs data from the European Social Survey and analyzes some European countries using a longitudinal study (2002-2012, I measure unconventional political participation considering three types of action - signed a petition, participated in a lawful demonstration and joined a boycott. By linking citizens to government ideology and vote for party government to political action through a multilevel model, this paper argues that both ideology and citizens’ electoral choices have a bearing on unconventional political participation. In times of crisis, government choices do not feed the level of unconventional political participation. However, differences emerge in terms of political behavior when I consider citizens’ ideology, loser status and government ideology.

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.

Politics: Interest, Participation and Education. Comparing the Republic of Ireland with Germany

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Bruen, Jennifer

2014-01-01

In order to generate higher levels of interest in politics and participation in political processes, political or citizenship, education in schools must be at the heart of the curriculum and be characterised by active, learner-centred approaches. This paper hypothesises that, when compared with Germany, a more limited form of political education…

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

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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…

Media and Democracy. A Response to "The Need for Media Education in Democratic Education"

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Lance E.

2015-01-01

This response supports Stoddard's (2014) assertion that media education should be considered a crucial factor of democratic education and offers both extensions and cautions related to that end. Extensions include practical suggestions for studying the non-neutrality of technology. The author also cautions educators that if media education and…

Political Corruption, Democratic Theory, and Democracy

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Doron Navot

2014-09-01

Full Text Available According to recent conceptual proposals, institutional corruption should be understood within the boundaries of the institution and its purpose. Political corruption in democracies, prominent scholars suggest, is characterized by the violation of institutional ideals or behaviors that tend to harm democratic processes and institutions. This paper rejects the idea that compromises, preferences, political agreements, or consent can be the baseline of conceptualization of political corruption. In order to improve the identification of abuse of power, the concept of political corruption should not be related directly to democratic institutions and processes; rather, it should be related to ideals whose content is independent of citizens’ preferences, institutions and processes. More specifically, I articulate the relations between political corruption and the notion of subjection, and include powerful citizens in the category of political corruption. Yet, I also suggest redefining under what conditions agents are culpable for their motivations in promoting private gain. By doing this, we better realize how democratic institutions can be the source of corruption and not just its victims. Such a redefinition, I propose finally, is the basis for the distinction between individual and institutional corruption.

Open Government: A Tool for Democracy?

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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.

Competence for Democracy: Participation and Decision-Making in Classroom Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Manzel, Sabine

2016-01-01

In this keynote address given at the International Association for Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (IACSEE) Conference in July 2015, Sabine Manzel focused on participation and decision-making as key competences for democracy. She analysed with standardized videography how both of these competences are realized in classroom interaction.

Media competition and electoral politics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Piolatto, A.; Schütt, F.

2015-01-01

We build a framework linking competition in the media market to political participation. Media outlets report on the ability of candidates running for office and compete for audience through their choice of slant. Citizens consume news only if the expected utility of being informed about candidates'

Does sociability predict civic involvement and political participation?

Science.gov (United States)

Foschi, Renato; Lauriola, Marco

2014-02-01

In contemporary history as well as in political science, a strong associational life known as sociability is thought to explain the roots of modern democracy by establishing a link between the increasing availability of free time to the middle classes, increasing willingness to gather with others in circles or associations, and increasing social capital. In personality psychology, sociability is related to prosocial behavior (i.e., the need for affiliation, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion), whose importance in different political behaviors is increasingly recognized. In the present article, we carried out 5 studies (N = 1,429) that showed that political and associative sociability (a) can be reliably assessed, can have cross-cultural validity, and are properly associated with general social interest measures and personality domains and facets in the five-factor model; (b) do not overlap with similar concepts used in political psychology to account for political participation (political expertise, political interest, political self-efficacy); and (c) predicted political and nonpolitical group membership as well as observable choices in decision-making tasks with political and nonpolitical outcomes. The results are discussed, taking into consideration the extent to which specific facets of sociability can mediate between general personality traits and measures of civic involvement and political participation in a holistic model of political behavior. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Civic education and political participation among youth at Universidad del Bio- Bio, Chile

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Cristian Orellana Fonseca

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The results of this paper are the product of a broader research on political participation. The expressions of young university students are there analyzed about civic education received at school related to political participation. Three focus groups were held with freshmen at Universidad del Bio-Bio, Chile. The results show that the vision of young people about the formation received is rather critical. On the one hand, the need for civic education is identified as that which allows to address the complexity of political activity. Secondly, it is found that school education does not respond to this need, since it is qualified as poor and biased. For students, education must play a politicizing role, providing inputs to influence social change.

Beyond the 'Networked Public Sphere': Politics, Participation and Technics in Web 2.0

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Ben Roberts

2009-01-01

Full Text Available In some ways discussion of the political implications of Web 2.0 reinvigorates a debate about the democratising nature of the Internet that began in the 1990s. The concept of participation is at the heart of many current debates about politics and technology. There are two main reasons for saying this. On the one hand is an ongoing and increasing concern about public participation, or lack of it, in modern (predominantly Western democracies. This participatory deficit is to be seen in falling voter turnout at elections, public apathy on key political issues and scorn or indifference for elected political representatives. On the other hand, there is a wave of optimism concerning the potential of new technologies, particularly the web, to enable new forms of participation in economic and public life, to transform political debate and citizenship and to renew the ailing (or perceived to be ailing institutions of democracy. This optimism around participation and politics, while it has played a role in utopian visions of the internet more or less since its inception, has been reinvigorated recently by the discussion around the so-called Web 2.0. This article argues for a much more critical or sceptical approach to the political promise of Web 2.0. Focusing particularly on Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks, it argues that current accounts of the participatory aspects of web culture tend to take a rather narrow view of what such participation might mean. However, aspects of the work of Bernard Stiegler, and that of others in the Ars Industrialis group co-founded by Stiegler, can help inform a more nuanced account of the relationship between politics and participation. It looks specifically at the arguments in Marc Crépon and Bernard Stiegler's book De la démocratie participative, written during the recent French presidential campaign, and will examine how the idea of participation articulates with key themes in Stiegler's philosophy of technics

Political exile and democracy Exilio político y democracia

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Luis RONIGER

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Political exile is a mechanism of institutional exclusion geared at revoking citizenship rights and removing individuals from full participation in the political and public arenas of a country. Due to its exclusionary character, the literature tends to assume a correlation between authoritarianism and exile, on the one hand, and democracy and asylum, on the other. This work challenges this view and discusses the more complex interactions between exile and democracy. Relying on qualitative case analysis of individual and massive exile and on a quantitative database of presidential exile in the nineteenth and twentieth century, it shows that also democracies generate exile and that also authoritarian countries have provided sites of exile and asylum for those fleeing from their home countries.El exilio es un mecanismo de exclusión institucional destinado a revocar el pleno uso de los derechos de ciudadanía y, más aún, prevenir la participación del exiliado/a en la arena política nacional. Por su carácter excluyente, la literatura tiende a atribuirlo a gobiernos autoritarios, así como se asume que los Estados receptores son países bajo gobiernos democráticos. Este trabajo destaca la existencia de una relación más compleja entre exilio y democracia. Con base en un análisis cualitativo de casos notorios de exilio masivo e individual y un análisis cuantitativo de exilio presidencial a lo largo de dos siglos, el artículo destaca que las democracias también generan exilio y que también los países autoritarios han constituido lugares de residencia y asilo para las personas que han tomado la ruta del exilio de sus países de origen.

Digital Democracy in Mexico: Participation of Young Users during the Federal Legislative Elections of 2015

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Daniel Javier de la Garza Montemayor

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Several studies agree that the use of Web 2.0 applications tends to facilitate the political participation of young people. In the case of Mexico, a country strongly identified by aspects such as the technological gap and the concentration of the media system, in the last years has experienced the emergence of diverse mobilizations that, starting from the digital participation, end up by fracturing the discourse organized from the traditional media and institutions. In this article we explore the role of the consumption of political information in social networks and their influence on political participation. For this, the trends in the consumption of information on politics in social networks by Mexican university students in the mexican states of Nuevo León, Sonora, Durango and Coahuila in the year 2015 were examined. Among the main findings, we identified a greater use of social media over conventional media; in addition to this, a close relationship was observed between the political participation on and off the line of the young people interviewed.

Participation or New Media Use First? Reconsidering the Role of New Media in Civic Practices in the Czech Republic

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Jakub Macek

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article discusses qualitative research on the mundane civic practices of some Czechs, with a specific focus on the role of new media. It works with a context-oriented approach in order to avoid media-centrism. Our research is focussed on the ways in which civic practices are structured by immediate and wider social and political contexts and how they are experienced by post-socialist citizens from villages and large cities. The role of new media and the place of civic practices in everyday life is analysed with respect to these contexts. The research based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 politically and publicly active citizens indicates that Czechs experience a similar crisis in relation to institutional politics as their counterparts in long established democracies and it reveals tell-tale differences between the social spaces of villages and cities both in participatory practices and in civic uses of new media. However, the study does not indicate a radical, new media-driven transformation of citizenship, rather it suggests subtle shifts in practices and a pragmatic mixing of face-to-face communication and traditional media (print, public address systems, noticeboards with new communication technologies.

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.

Oligarchization, de-Westernization and vulnerability: Media between democracy and authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balčytienė, Auksė; Bajomi-Lázár, Péter; Štětka, Václav

2015-01-01

What are the major trends of media change in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? How do these media transformations relate to economic, political, social and cultural currents in the region? After a decade of democratic optimism from the early 1990s to the 2000s, why did democratic media...... influence of Russia, and the war in Ukraine? What could comparative post-communist media studies add to our analysis and understanding of the new CEE realities? These were some of the questions tackled by a recent public roundtable discussion entitled "Media, Democracy and Authoritarianism in Central......), Péter Bajomi-Lázár (Professor of Media Communications, and Head of the Institute of Social Science at the Budapest Business School, Hungary), and Václav Štětka (Senior Researcher, Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic...

Immanent Politics, Participatory Democracy, and the Pursuit of Eudaimonia

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Geoffrey Allan Plauché

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This paper builds on the burgeoning tradition of Aristotelian liberalism. It identifies and critiques a fundamental inequality inherent in the nature of the state and, in particular, the liberal representative-democratic state: namely, an institutionalized inequality in authority. The analysis draws on and synthesizes disparate philosophical and political traditions: Aristotle’s virtue ethics and politics, Locke’s natural rights and idea of equality in authority in the state of nature (sans state of nature, the New Left’s conception of participatory democracy (particularly as described in a number of under-utilized essays by Murray Rothbard and Don Lavoie, and philosophical anarchism. The deleterious consequences of this fundamental institutionalized inequality are explored, including on social justice and economic progress, on individual autonomy, on direct and meaningful civic and political participation, and the creation and maintenance of other artificial inequalities as well as the exacerbation of natural inequalities (economic and others. In the process, the paper briefly sketches a neo-Aristotelian theory of virtue ethics and natural individual rights, for which the principle of equal and total liberty for all is of fundamental political importance. And, finally, a non-statist conception of politics is developed, with politics defined as discourse and deliberation between equals (in authority in joint pursuit of eudaimonia (flourishing, well-being.[Note: The following font file may be useful for viewing the Greek characters in the Word file above: SPIONIC_.TTF.

"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…

Student Representation and Multiparty Politics in African Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Luescher-Mamashela, Thierry M.; Mugume, Taabo

2014-01-01

The transition from one-party rule and other forms of authoritarianism to multiparty democracy in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the organisation and role of student politics in Africa. Against the background of student involvement in African politics in the twentieth century, leading up to student participation in Africa's "second…

How Context Matters? Mobilization, Political Opportunity Structures and Non-Electoral Political Participation in Old and New Democracies

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vráblíková, Kateřina

2014-01-01

Roč. 47, č. 2 (2014), s. 203-229 ISSN 0010-4140 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP408/12/1474 Institutional support: RVO:68378025 Keywords : Political participation * political opportunity structure * national institutions Subject RIV: AD - Politology ; Political Sciences Impact factor: 2.028, year: 2014

Contentious Politics and Participatory Democracy in Brazil

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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.

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.

Political Participation and Power Relations in Egypt

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shehata, Mostafa

2017-01-01

The political use of media in Egypt post-2011 revolution brought about drastic transformations in political activism and power structures. In the context of communication power theory, this article investigates the effects of newspapers and social network sites on political participation...... and political power relations. The research employed a mixed methodology, comprised of a survey of 527 Egyptian youth and semi-structured interviews of 12 political activists and journalists. The results showed a significant relationship between reading newspapers and youth’s political participation......, but not between using social network sites and political participation. In addition, newspapers and social network sites were platforms for a series of conflicts and coalitions that emerged between pro- and anti-revolution actors. Despite the importance of social network sites as key tools for informing...

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

The power of likes: Social media logic and political communication

OpenAIRE

Kalsnes, Bente

2016-01-01

Political communication on social media is the topic of this dissertation. The Internet and social media platforms have provided participants in the public sphere with new ways to connect, communicate and distribute information. This study examines how and why the three main actor groups within political communication – political actors, media actors and citizens – connect and interact on social media during the electoral process in Norway in 2013. This hybrid media landscape is characterized...

Education based thinking and behaving? Towards an identity perspective for studying education differentials in public opinion and political participation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Spruyt, Bram; Kuppens, Toon

2015-01-01

Education based thinking and behaving? Towards and identity perspective for studying education differentials in public opinion and political participation Abstract Ever since scholars started studying public opinion and political behaviour, they have reported substantial educational differences.

Democracy as a political imperative for successful implementation of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Against the background of the political context of reforms, it illustratively notes that democratic reforms are usually more successful than authoritarian ones. The paper provides a contextual explication of democracy, on which basis it recommends some strategies for successful and effective implementation of reforms in the ...

Politics without "Brainwashing": A Philosophical Defence of Social Justice Education

Science.gov (United States)

Bialystok, Lauren

2014-01-01

Social justice education (SJE) is a ubiquitous, if inconsistently defined, component of contemporary education theory and practice. Recently, SJE has come under fire for being politically biased and even "brainwashing" children in the public education system. In a liberal democracy such as our own, it is important that state-sponsored…

How News Type Matters : Indirect Effects of Media Use on Political Participation Through Knowledge and Efficacy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Andersen, K.; Bjarnøe, C.; Albæk, E.; de Vreese, C.H.

2016-01-01

Today, citizens have the possibility to use many different types of news media and participate politically in various ways. This study examines how use of different news types (hard and soft TV news as well as printed and online versions of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers) indirectly affects

Cascading corruption news: explaining the bias of media attention to Brazil’s political scandals

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Mads Damgaard

Full Text Available Abstract Through a content analysis of 8,800 news items and six months of front pages of three Brazilian newspapers, all dealing with corruption and political transgression, the present article documents the remarkable bias of media coverage toward corruption scandals. Said bias is examined as an informational phenomenon, arising from key systemic and commercial factors of Brazil’s news media: an information cascade of news on corruption formed, destabilizing the governing coalition and legitimizing the impeachment process of Dilma Rousseff. As this process gained momentum, questions of accountability were disregarded by the media, with harmful effects for democracy.

Democracy, education, and economics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

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

Fred Clarke's Ideals of Liberal Democracy: State and Community in Education

Science.gov (United States)

Ku, Hsiao-Yuh

2013-01-01

This paper examines the continuity and changes in Clarke's ideas about the State and community in education, especially in relation to a rapidly changing political situation in England in the 1930s and 1940s. His ideas evolved in the intellectual context of British idealism. Moreover, in response to the threat to democracy arising from Fascism or…

Political Participation Online: The Replacement and the Mobilisation Hypotheses Revisited

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jakob Linaa

2013-01-01

This article discusses the state of political participation online more than ten years after the Internet’s great popular breakthrough as an everyday medium. Denmark is used as a case study to critically re-examine the frequently discussed replacement and mobilisation hypotheses on behalf of the ...... participation, efficacy and social capital seem to have less impact on online political participation. In the end, these findings are related to more overall discussions on the democratising potential of the Internet.......This article discusses the state of political participation online more than ten years after the Internet’s great popular breakthrough as an everyday medium. Denmark is used as a case study to critically re-examine the frequently discussed replacement and mobilisation hypotheses on behalf...... of the Internet. The pure replacement hypothesis is rejected. Instead, it is found that the Internet still supplements rather than replaces other media, even among heavy Internet users. The Internet is one among several media used by ‘media omnivores’, and political participation online supplements rather than...

American Dreaming: Critical Perspectives on a Media Training Program for Emerging Democracies

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Miglena Mantcheva Sternadori

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Since the end of the Cold War, the International Media Training Center has brought dozens of Eastern European journalists to study in non-degree programs at U.S. universities. This study is a cultural critique of one such program. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and articles from university newsletters. The trainees reveal that support from mentors is often insufficient, and some participants face significant hostility after returning to their native countries. The fast-paced media environments in those countries have not forgiven their yearlong absence: organizational power has been redistributed, connections have been weakened, and new colleagues have aggressively taken over one's old turf. The findings suggest that training a few journalists from disparate media outlets is unlikely to have much effect on media professionalism in emerging democracies, unless the trainees are guaranteed an opportunity to become trainers. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100376

Can Democracy Represent Children? Toward a Politics of Difference

Science.gov (United States)

Wall, John

2012-01-01

Children and youth under 18 have made significant strides in recent years toward fuller inclusion in democratic processes. These strides, however, rarely rise to the level of direct political representation, whether in changing policies, making laws, or voting. This article argues that democracies will be able to represent children only by…

Theoretical perspectives on participation and democracy - The possibility of bridging the gap between the science of the problems and the politics of the solutions. Deliverable D13

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meskens, Gaston; Laes, Erik (SCK-CEN, Mol (Bulgaria))

2009-10-15

Work Package 2 examines how democratic societies handle risk governance - i.e. the ensemble of rules, procedures and practices affecting how powers are exercised with respect to the control of potential adverse consequences to human health or the environment - with an emphasis on the possibilities and limits of public participation and the use of knowledge in deliberation. WP2 seeks to offer the intellectual tools to describe, explain, compare and possibly improve the way risks are handled by democratic states. It also sets out to show how some 'overarching' theories of risk governance need to be modified or supplemented. Broadly speaking, this study combines two approaches to inquiring what 'good governance' means. The first approach looks at the methods of governance while the second focuses on the ways actors use knowledge and mandates in governance. In a first approach, we will mainly draw upon one important tradition in governance studies, namely the one rooted in normative political philosophy (i.e. theories which seek to set out the conditions for 'good governance' mainly based on the ideal of 'deliberative democracy') to analyse and discuss the form, functioning and overall character of social interactions). To a large extent, WP2 builds on knowledge gained in the RISCOM - II project, and the conditions for the implementation of the RISCOM model are further investigated. However, following this, the framework is broadened to include reflections about how the so-called 'transparency approach' and the 'deliberative approach' can be combined and how they can be linked to the functioning of the political system in which decisions (for example on the final disposal of nuclear waste) are ultimately taken. Participative and deliberative processes are often advocated on instrumental (i.e. a better 'control' of public reactions), moral (i.e. furthering the cause of 'democracy') and

Citizenship Education and the Politics of Public Participation: The Case of Same-Sex Marriage

Science.gov (United States)

Diorio, Joseph A.

2011-01-01

Citizenship education programs promote political participation by young people. These programs risk misrepresenting politics to students by encouraging them to believe that there are universally accepted principles which govern the definition of citizenship and who is entitled to participate in its various dimensions. The article argues that…

Globalization and democracy

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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.

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.

Good news for the future? Young people, Internet use and political participation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bakker, T.P.; de Vreese, C.H.

2011-01-01

The role of traditional media and the Internet in relation to young people’s political participation has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. Starting from a notion of differential media use and an encompassing notion of political participation, this article tests the relationships between

Comparing Political Journalism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Comparing Political Journalism is a systematic, in-depth study of the factors that shape and influence political news coverage today. Using techniques drawn from the growing field of comparative political communication, an international group of contributors analyse political news content drawn...... Comparing Political Journalism offers an unparalleled scope in assessing the implications for the ongoing transformation of Western media systems, and addresses core concepts of central importance to students and scholars of political communication world-wide....... from newspapers, television news, and news websites from 16 countries, to assess what kinds of media systems are most conducive to producing quality journalism. Underpinned by key conceptual themes, such as the role that the media are expected to play in democracies and quality of coverage...

Political Regime and Learning Outcomes of Stakeholder Participation: Cross-National Study of 81 Biosphere Reserves

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Alba Mohedano Roldán

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Stakeholder participation in natural resource management has spread widely, even to nondemocracies, driven by expectations of beneficial outcomes such as multidirectional learning. However, can we expect participation to be equally effective in achieving multidirectional learning in democracies and nondemocracies? Unsurprisingly, previous studies indicate the relevance of power distribution for learning. Higher levels of repression and accumulation of political capital in nondemocracies should limit the distribution of power across stakeholders. Yet, the relationship between political regime, participation, and learning has rarely been studied empirically. I address this gap by analysing multidirectional learning in stakeholder participation in 81 Man and the Biosphere reserves across 35 countries using ordinary least squares regression, Firth logistic regression, and heat maps. The results suggest that the amount of stakeholders sharing knowledge and learning is similar in both regimes. However, a closer analysis reveals differences in the impact different stakeholders have on the learning process. More concretely, local actors share knowledge more often and have a greater impact on stakeholders’ learning in democracies, while state actors display similar behavior across regimes in terms of learning and sharing knowledge. Thus, although there are notable similarities across regimes, multidirectional learning through stakeholder participation is influenced by the political context.

An Appraisal of the Utilisation of Social Media for Political ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Prof

The influence of new media technology in political communication across the globe .... what people do with the media instead of what the media do to people. ... their information need, and thus make them active participants in the political ... is a medium that allows individuals to share important information with friends.

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.

Innovations In Greek Political Communication And Consequences: Significant changes from 1981-2009

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Anastasia Deligiaouri

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The introduction of new communicative ethics in politics has imposed new procedures and values in politics. The close inter-relation of media and politics has many facets and effects on the way politics is exercised and on how it is perceived by the citizens. This article investigates how new methods of political communication have been internalized into Greek media democracy, dividing the period from 1981 to the present into five periods of media democracy based on significant events that signaled the transition towards new communicative and political ethics. A study of articles from two newspapers provides useful insights into the role of the media, especially during electoral campaigns and in politics in general. Our research also reflects how the specific socio-political context of the country interferes and affects the adoption of "imported" methods in political communication and how these methods affect citizens’ political behavior.

Dimensionality of civic participation in a convergent media environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob; Albæk, Erik; de Vreese, Claes Holger

of online and offline, active and passive as well as traditional and unconventional forms of participation. Subsequently, the influence of exposure to political information on social media on these different types of participation was tested. Considering a change in citizenship (Bennett, 2008), especially......With the digitalization of information, subsequently leading to a fragmentation of audiences (Benett & Iyengar, 2008) and a change in the prevailing media logic (Schulz, 2014), a convergent media environment has developed. Nowadays, social media offer a platform for converging streams...... of information, altering the media diet for a growing share of the population. In addition, social networks like Facebook or Twitter offer emerging ways of participation, mostly with less effort than traditional forms. Yet, the role social media play in the political media diet was not fully assed by prior...

Democracy and Representation in Paraguay

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Liliana Rocío Duarte-Recalde

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This article reviews the electoral accountability dimension as a constitutive mechanism of Paraguayan democracy since 1989, analyzing the factors that limit the representation contained in the administration of the Paraguayan government as a result of the electoral process. We provide an analytic contrast between the democratic principles that guide the Paraguayan electoral institutions and the way their designs are enforced, identifying the gap between formal and informal rules as determinants of political representation. We also describe the barriers that prevent effective access of the population to political participation and competition, the advantages possessed by traditional political parties and interest groups, as well as their implications for democracy. We also review the degree to which elected officials are representative of historically excluded social groups as a result, emphasizing the way women, indigenous and peasant communities have potentially limited power to exercise political influence due to limitations to participation by structural and institutional factors.

Dewey's Participatory Educational Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

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…

Political Communication in Malaysia: A study on the Use of New Media in Politics

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Pauline Pooi Yin Leong

2015-10-01

Full Text Available To gain and retain political power, politicians use the media to persuade the masses to vote and support them, especially during elections. Barisan Nasional (BN has successfully used the media to maintain its power for the past 57 years, making it the longest-serving elected government in the world still currently in office. However, the emergence of the Internet has challenged the status quo. The purpose of the research was to investigate how new media has influenced the political process and communication strategies in Malaysia and its impact on the political landscape. The researcher interviewed 19 respondents: politicians, bloggers and media consultants from both sides of the political divide. The findings showed that new media, especially Web 2.0, has expanded the public sphere and enabled more Malaysians to participate in the democratic process, through information dissemination, mobilisation or crowd-sourcing. However, the cyber-war between BN and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR has caused confusion and disinformation, affecting the quality of democratic decision-making. Nevertheless, new media has enabled more voices to emerge and challenge the political hegemony.

New Ways of Interaction in Social Media: Political Participation of Young People in Mexico and Ecuador

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Daniel Barredo-Ibáñez

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The media crisis is linked to the crisis of public institutions. This shows the emergence of social practices focused on user activation and consequently, we can observe a decline of vertical mediation. However, these phenomena do not extend horizontally at a global level. With this study, we compare the results of a survey of more than two thousand university students from Mexico and Ecuador, in which we question the perceptions of these strategic groups about phenomena such as political participation on and offline, and political information consumption.

Mathematics education, democracy and development: Exploring connections

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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.

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

Opposition Politics and Electoral Democracy in Cameroon, 1992-2007

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2015-05-29

May 29, 2015 ... This article seeks to assess the impact of electoral democracy in. Cameroon especially ... Democratic Party (KNDP), the Cameroon People National Congress (CPNC) and the Cameroon .... The Supreme Court cancelled the election results in seven constituencies ..... Church and the media (Ake 2000:135).

The Re-Politicization of Media Literacy Education

Science.gov (United States)

Thevenin, Benjamin

2012-01-01

Despite the efforts made by the media literacy movement in the U.S. to institute media education as a means of addressing social issues, there still exists the potential for a more politically empowering media literacy education. While media literacy scholars and practitioners' avoidance of adopting particular political or social agendas is…

Education and participation of women in politics. An empirical investigation

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Edi Puka

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article is the result of a research work on the relationship between education and politics, developed in view of literature, studies and research in sociology and political sciences. The first phase of the research will be devoted to the collection of documentation and information necessary to the historical reconstruction of the salient stages and the most important dates around which developed the "political action” of the Albanian woman. It was intended to comprehend the complex phenomenon of relationship between women and politics through a series of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in the cities of Tirana and Durres, addressed to a total sample of 46 women, aged between 18 and 60 years, randomly selected to represent the different types of political participation.The process of the exposed research is focused on the active, effective and conscious presence of women in society

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…

Democracy and Teacher Education: Setting Priorities

Science.gov (United States)

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…

A New Index of Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

Theoretical perspectives on participation and democracy - The possibility of bridging the gap between the science of the problems and the politics of the solutions. Deliverable D13

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meskens, Gaston; Laes, Erik

2009-10-01

Work Package 2 examines how democratic societies handle risk governance - i.e. the ensemble of rules, procedures and practices affecting how powers are exercised with respect to the control of potential adverse consequences to human health or the environment - with an emphasis on the possibilities and limits of public participation and the use of knowledge in deliberation. WP2 seeks to offer the intellectual tools to describe, explain, compare and possibly improve the way risks are handled by democratic states. It also sets out to show how some 'overarching' theories of risk governance need to be modified or supplemented. Broadly speaking, this study combines two approaches to inquiring what 'good governance' means. The first approach looks at the methods of governance while the second focuses on the ways actors use knowledge and mandates in governance. In a first approach, we will mainly draw upon one important tradition in governance studies, namely the one rooted in normative political philosophy (i.e. theories which seek to set out the conditions for 'good governance' mainly based on the ideal of 'deliberative democracy') to analyse and discuss the form, functioning and overall character of social interactions). To a large extent, WP2 builds on knowledge gained in the RISCOM - II project, and the conditions for the implementation of the RISCOM model are further investigated. However, following this, the framework is broadened to include reflections about how the so-called 'transparency approach' and the 'deliberative approach' can be combined and how they can be linked to the functioning of the political system in which decisions (for example on the final disposal of nuclear waste) are ultimately taken. Participative and deliberative processes are often advocated on instrumental (i.e. a better 'control' of public reactions), moral (i.e. furthering the cause of 'democracy') and/or knowledge (i.e. a better understanding of public 'perception') grounds. Although

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...

L’espace de la représentation (politique et l’espace de la participation The space of (political representation and the space of participation

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Jean-Pierre Gaudin

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Pour juger pleinement de la participation, il faut la replacer dans les débats d’ensemble portant sur la démocratie. Et tenir compte en particulier de la confrontation entre partisans et critiques de la démocratie parlementaire, confrontation qui est presque toujours sous-jacente aux débats actuels sur la participation. Est-ce que la démocratie parlementaire ne reproduit pas en définitive les défauts des régimes politiques les plus élitistes ? Dès lors que la déception politique devient grande, beaucoup de citoyens rêvent de prendre directement la parole, de faire entendre leurs choix sans passer par des représentants élus. Les parlements et les assemblées seraient-ils donc devenus inutiles ? Sans doute, les deux formes de l’expression politique, la représentative et la participative, ne s’excluent pas par principe. Certains penseurs politiques considèrent même qu’elles se complètent et s’enrichissent mutuellement, dans un mouvement d’approfondissement de la démocratie globale. Mais est-ce à dire qu’elles peuvent simplement s’additionner ? Et qu’elles ne se concurrencent jamais, même lorsque leurs légitimités restent différentes ? Si les agencements concrets des démarches de participation nous apportent certaines garanties de bonne fin, ils ne sauraient faire oublier ni les débats d’idées concernant la représentation politique ni la force de nos imaginaires démocratiques.A thorough assessment of participation requires that it be recast within the larger debates on democracy. Most notably, it must take into account the disagreement between advocates and critics of parliamentary democracy, a divide almost always underlying current debates on participation. Ultimately, doesn’t parliamentary democracy reproduce the flaws of the most elitist political regimes? As political disillusion gains ground, an increasing number of citizens dream of having their voices heard and choices made clear without

Citizenship education, national identity and political trust: The Case of Sweden

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Hans Lödén

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The challenging effects of globalization upon the nation-state have been a recurrent theme in the social science discourse since the 1990’s. Nationally organized education is also seen as challenged by new demands originating from globalization. In this article it is argued that ‘nation-state’ and ‘national identity’ are highly relevant concepts when discussing a citizenship education that seeks to develop a civic ethos with, potentially, a global reach. It is further argued that the understanding of such an ethos would benefit significantly from incorporating the role of political trust since trust has been identified as a main feature of the social capital that makes democracy work. Three themes are brought together: national identity and identification, the importance for democracy of political trust and the challenges citizenship education face when carried out in a national context but intended to manage issues that go far beyond the reach of the nation-state. The importance of citizenship education is discussed using recent research on the Swedish citizenship education classroom

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…

River-Basin Politics and the Rise of Ecological and Transnational Democracy in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa

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Chris Sneddon

2008-06-01

Full Text Available In recent years, debates over 'deliberative', 'transnational' and 'ecological' democracy have proliferated, largely among scholars engaged in discussions of modernisation, globalisation and political identity. Within this broad context, scholars and practitioners of environmental governance have advanced the argument that a democratic society will produce a more environmentally conscious society. We want to make a volte-face of this argument and ask: to what extent does engagement with environmental politics and, specifically, water politics, contribute to processes of democratisation? After reviewing some of the contributions to debates over 'ecological' and 'transnational' democracy, we explore this question within the context of conflicts over river-basin development in Southeast Asia and southern Africa. We argue that there are multiple pathways to democratisation and that, in some cases, the environment as a political issue does constitute a significant element of democratisation. But notions of 'ecological' and 'transnational' democracy must embody how both 'environment' and 'the transnational', as mobilised by specific social movements in specific historical and geographical circumstances, are politically constructed.

Fandom meets activism: Rethinking civic and political participation

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Melissa M. Brough

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Fan activism lies at the intersection of cultural and political participation. The study of fan activism can inform our understanding of contemporary collective action more broadly. We suggest four key areas for analysis: the relationships between cultural and political participation; the tension between participation and resistance in the context of fan activism; affect and the role of content worlds in civic and political mobilization; and evaluation of the impacts of fan activism. By drawing on work across several disciplines including media studies and social movement literature, the analysis of fan activism through these lenses offers insights for theorizing contemporary cultures and modes of collective action.

Education and Political Participation of Women: The Case of Portugal

OpenAIRE

David, Fátima; Morais, Joana; Abreu, Rute; Marques, Lúcia; Segura, Liliane

2016-01-01

This research aims to analyses the women’s participation in Portugal politics in consequence of its educational attainment. On the one hand, the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic of April 2, 1976, gives women (and men) a right to equal opportunities for school success, to access to the higher education and to better working conditions. On the other hand, the same Constitution defends, in article 9, that fundamental task of the State is to promote equality between men and women and, in a...

Establishing Political Deliberation Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rose, Jeremy; Sæbø, Øystein

2008-01-01

The extension and transformation of political participation is dependent on widespread deliberation supported by information and communication technologies.  The most commonly found examples of these eParticipation systems are political discussion forums.  Though much of the discussion...... of these technologies is conducted in the eGovernment and (particularly) the eDemocracy literature, political discussion forums present a distinct set of design and management challenges which relate directly to IS concerns. In this article we analyze problems in establishing political deliberation systems under five...... headings: stakeholder engagement, web platform design, web platform management, political process re-shaping and evaluation and improvement. We review the existing literature and present a longitudinal case study of a political discussion forum: the Norwegian DemokratiTorget (Democracy Square).  We define...

Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political Knowledge

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Abdulrauf Aishat Adebisi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The role of political knowledge in engendering political participation among youths in a society cannot be overstated. Yet, there is scarcity of research in this area. Thus, this study assessed the moderating role of political knowledge in the relationship between Access to Political Information on Facebook and Twitter (APIFT, Political Interest (PI and Policy Satisfaction (PS with Online Political Participation on Facebook and Twitter (OPPFT. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 238 undergraduate students of Universiti Utara Malaysia. Questionnaire was used to collect data which was analysed using Partial Least Squares-MultiGroup Analysis (PLS-MGA. Results revealed that political knowledge moderated the relationship between access to political information on Facebook and Twitter and political interest with youth online political participation on Facebook and Twitter. However, it did not moderate the relationship between policy satisfaction with youth online political participation on Facebook and Twitter. Generally, these findings suggests that political knowledge plays a significant role in youth online political participation in Malaysia. Consequently, this study has added empirical evidence to predictors of political participation while at the same time contributing to the body of knowledge on online political participation.

Political party elites and the breakdown of democracy: the Turkish case,1973-1980

OpenAIRE

Demirel, Tanel

1998-01-01

Ankara : Department of Political Science and Public Administration and Institute of Economics and Social Sciences, Bilkent Univ., 1998. Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Bilkent University, 1998. Includes bibliographical references leaves 395-441 This study aims to analyze the behavior of Turkish political party elites during the 1973-1980 period. It is particularly concerned with the extent to which political party elites seemed to have contributed to the breakdown of Turkish democracy in ...

«The political» sphere in Miguel Abensour as a possibility for a «salvage democracy»

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Borja Castro-Serrano

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Under the Critical political philosophy by Abensour and his continuous reading of the modern political classics —specifically of the young Marx—, it is intended to build a position of the «political» conceptual space which extends the current political and philosophical space. Readings of «political» as the first element highlights the idea that politics are a condition of irreducibility. It aims at speculating a political philosophy of things themselves, which imposes a need for humanity in the political dimension, which makes it impossible to reduce politics to other matters. And if politics is irreducible and it's tied to a condition of humanity, Is the State the best figure to create this new configuration? As a second element, Abensour suggests rethinking the State matrix and enhancing the place of politics as excessive (irreducible which rediscovers the specificity of democracy under the rubric of a «wild democracy».

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...

News Media Literacy and Political Engagement: What's the Connection?

Science.gov (United States)

Ashley, Seth; Maksl, Adam; Craft, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Scholars and educators have long hoped that media education is positively related to pro-social goals such as political and civic engagement. With a focus on measuring news media literacy with emphasis on media knowledge, need for cognition and media locus of control, this study surveyed 537 college students and found positive relationships…

Political News and Political Consciousness

Science.gov (United States)

Schertges, Claudia

2007-01-01

This article deals with mass media in modern democratic societies, using the example of Israeli news reports in German television (TV) news. Central to this interest are processes of mediating politics: political socialisation and education; that is to say, empowering citizens via TV news to participate in democratic processes. The article…

The political debate as public patrimony

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Dr. José Cisneros Espinosa

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The following article establishes a critique to the prevalent conception of political communication by focusing on the concept of collective democracy, which is drawn from English political theory. This approach, proposed by David Mena PhD., a researcher from Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, in Mexico, is applied here to contrast the concept of political marketing with the notion of communication as a model for political participation through collective decision-making. Finally, in the conclusive section, the author emphasizes two ideas pointed out by Mena: first, the design of political campaigns as education promotion, and second, the notion of the political debate as a public good.

Citizen’s participation in the media: the show “Banda Ampla” in Catalonia’s TV3

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Fábio Ribeiro

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In the grasp of the media literacy studies, the concept of ‘participation’ has been able to gather a more significant attention and focus. In this regard, we could underline the 2009 European Union’s recommendations where it is possible to observe how participation is defined by this political organism in a framework of an active democracy alongside the intention to contribute into a healthier intercultural dialogue. In the same year, the EAVI (European Association for Viewers’ Interests has published also the Study for Assessment for Media Criteria Levels, as part of a research which understood participation as a social competence, a communicative skill in the top of the Media Literacy Criteria Levels’ pyramid. Acknowledging the importance of participation in a active citizenship, as it was put forward by Sherry Arnstein (1969 and profoundly related to the digital media literacy requirements (Peréz-Tornero, 2004, this research paper aims to draw the attention under the social representations of one group of participants in the audience discussion programme Banda Ampla, from the Catalan public television TV3, in Spain. Having in mind the motivations that have been able to conduct this group of citizens to participate live in the set, we have also been interested in evaluating the levels of adhesion in the participants to the technology possibilities to interact with media. In a fifty people sample, we will describe the production settings, through an ethnographic approach, based on a non-participation observation technique. In this inquiry we have also some data which allows us to think and question how media productions are actually opening the gates to let people partici- pate in their productions, such as in this programme broadcasted on 13th January 2011.

Improving models of democracy: the example of lagged effects of economic development, education, and gender equality.

Science.gov (United States)

Balaev, Mikhail

2014-07-01

The author examines how time delayed effects of economic development, education, and gender equality influence political democracy. Literature review shows inadequate understanding of lagged effects, which raises methodological and theoretical issues with the current quantitative studies of democracy. Using country-years as a unit of analysis, the author estimates a series of OLS PCSE models for each predictor with a systematic analysis of the distributions of the lagged effects. The second set of multiple OLS PCSE regressions are estimated including all three independent variables. The results show that economic development, education, and gender have three unique trajectories of the time-delayed effects: Economic development has long-term effects, education produces continuous effects regardless of the timing, and gender equality has the most prominent immediate and short term effects. The results call for the reassessment of model specifications and theoretical setups in the quantitative studies of democracy. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Political Efficacy and Participation of Nurse Practitioners.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Rourke, Nancy C; Crawford, Sybil L; Morris, Nancy S; Pulcini, Joyce

2017-08-01

Twenty-eight states have laws and regulations limiting the ability of nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice to the full extent of their education and training, thereby preventing patients from fully accessing NP services. Revisions to state laws and regulations require NPs to engage in the political process. Understanding the political engagement of NPs may facilitate the efforts of nurse leaders and nursing organizations to promote change in state rules and regulations. The purpose of this study was to describe the political efficacy and political participation of U.S. NPs and gain insight into factors associated with political interest and engagement. In the fall of 2015, we mailed a survey to 2,020 NPs randomly chosen from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners' database and 632 responded (31% response rate). Participants completed the Trust in Government (external political efficacy) and the Political Efficacy (internal political efficacy) scales, and a demographic form. Overall, NPs have low political efficacy. Older age ( p≤.001), health policy mentoring ( p≤.001), and specific education on health policy ( p≤.001) were all positively associated with internal political efficacy and political participation. External political efficacy was not significantly associated with any of the study variables. Political activities of NPs are largely limited to voting and contacting legislators. Identifying factors that engage NPs in grassroots political activities and the broader political arena is warranted, particularly with current initiatives to make changes to state laws and regulations that limit their practice.

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...

Peasantry and politics in the Athenian society. On the Aristotelian model of agrarian democracy

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Julián GALLEGO

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes the peasantry's situation in the Athenian polis under the condition of full citizenship. Athens has recently been recognized as a society whose democratic political organization was based on the presence of citizen agriculturists who controlled most of the land, constituted the majority of the civic body and had a decisive role in the working of the government. Under certain limits, Aristotle's ideas in the Politics with respect to the agrarian democracy are taken as elements valid to the Athenian political context in some periods. According to this model, it is analyzed the ways of incorporation of the rural villages to the State structure, the relation of hoplite farmers both with landed aristocrats and other candidates to leadership and with the social classes located below the farmers, and the actual political participation that the latter could develop in different stages of the Athenian history. The conclusion aims to maintain, beyond certain schematizations, the possibility of a long term vision of the Athenian history starting from Aristotle's characterizations.

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

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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.

Rethinking democracy and representation: a proposal to extend the democratic canon

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Alejandro Monsiváis Carrillo

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Rethinking political representation is necessary to understand many contemporary democratic challenges. However, a widely accepted view states that democracy and representation are two irreconcilable principles, thus hindering the theoretical assessment of political representation's democratic relevance. According to this view, what democracy needs is more popular participation; instead, representation involves elitism and political detachment. In this paper I will argue that such a view is inaccurate. Through the reconstruction of the democratic ideal, and the discussion of the concept of political representation, I intend to show that processes of political authorization, accountability and public justification are both elements of political representation and expression of democratic politics.

Democracy: Its Meaning and Dissenting Opinions of the Political Class in Nigeria: A Philosophical Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Nwogu, G. A. I.

2015-01-01

The nascent democracy in Nigeria is plagued with myriad of intrigues, discordant opinions of the political class. The reason is not farfetched. Every political party sees its manifesto and plans of action as the best for the citizenry. They elbow each other in the process of garnering political recognition and vibrancy. Their unhealthy rivalry…

Social Politics: Social Media as a public sphere for Jamaican University Students

OpenAIRE

Clarke, Kevin

2016-01-01

The growth of social media use in Jamaica has changed how people communicate with each other and how they participate in the democratic process. To date, minimal research has been done to ascertain the relationship between social media use and the political process, specifically with younger members of the population. Through a survey and focus group interviews, this dissertation seeks to identify whether Jamaican university students are using social media to participate in the political proc...

Civic Education and Visions of War and Peace in the Spanish Transition to Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Mahamud Angulo, Kira; Groves, Tamar; Milito Barone, Cecilia Cristina; Hernández Laina, Yovana

2016-01-01

This article explores visions of war and peace in the education system during the Spanish transition to democracy. During those years, the Spanish state was faced with the challenge of leaving its authoritarian political past behind and forging a democratic civic culture. As the concepts of war and peace are inextricably linked to those of state…

La representación social de la democracia de adolescentes argentinos (The social representation of democracy of Argentinean adolescents

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Daniela Bruno

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Since the late twentieth century, several studies have shown the distancing and dissatisfaction of citizens of different ages in relation to political parties, which has led to the phenomenon known as a crisis of political representation. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the social representations of democracy of Argentinean adolescents. A study was conducted using intentional sampling that included 376 participants between the ages of 16 and 18 years (M=16.87, SD=0.734. The participants were administered the word association technique with the word “democracy” as the inductor term. The results show that the central core of the participants’ social representation of democracy consisted of the following terms: “vote, freedom, equality, rights, people, freedom of expression, participation, and opinion”. In conclusion, the participants thought of democracy in terms of values and operating mechanisms inherent to the representative democracy political system, although they did not associate it with politics or a government institution.

Political conversations on Facebook

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Mads P.

2016-01-01

Political conversations are according to theories on deliberative democracy essential to well-functioning democracies. Traditionally these conversations have taken place in face-to-face settings, in e.g. party meetings and town meetings. However, social media such as Facebook and Twitter offers new...... possibilities for online political conversations between citizens and politicians. This paper examines the presence on Facebook and Twitter of Members of the Danish national Parliament, the Folketing, and focusses on a quantitative mapping of the political conversation activities taking place in the threads...... following Facebook posts from Danish Members of Parliament (MPs). The paper shows that, in comparison with previous findings from other countries, Danish MPs have a relatively high degree of engagement in political conversations with citizens on Facebook – and that a large number of citizens follow MPs...

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.

Politics Backstage - Television Documentaries, Politics and Politicians

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Ib Bondebjerg

2006-09-01

Full Text Available This article deals with "the transformation of visibility" in political discourse on and representation of politics and politicians in resent Dansih television documentaries. Drawing on the theories of Habermas, Meyrowitz and John B. Thompson, it is argued that the political persona on television is moved closer to the individual citizen, creating a sort "mediated quasi-inter- action" giving mediated communication a stronger element of face-to-face interaction. Together with the more pervasive "live" coverage of politics and politicians, this expands media coverage to both the backstage of political processes and the private and personal backstage of politicians, changing the form of democracy and public debate.

Deliberative Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kasper Møller

Deliberative democracy is the current Buzz-word in contemporary democratic thinking. However deliberative democracy is deeply rooted in the republican tradition of democracy.  Nevertheless these democratic roots are often forgotten when researchers "jump on the bandwagon". This paper will shows how...... deliberation appear within the writing of five important political thinkers within the republican tradition of democracy. Secondly it will investigate the rise of deliberative democracy and explain why the deliberative turn suddenly occurred. However, first a brief general account of deliberative democracy...... is presented in order to outline the focus of deliberative democracy....

A Politically Liberal Conception of Formal Education in a Developing Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Çelik, Rasit

2016-01-01

As discussed by John Rawls, in a well-ordered society, a public political culture's wide educational role bears the primary responsibility for developing reasonable individuals for the stability of a politically liberal society. Rawlsian scholars have also focused on the stability and enhancement of developed liberal democratic societies by means…

Technology Retreats and the Politics of Social Media

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Adam Fish

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This essay examines weeklong technology retreats in Silicon Valley. These retreats embody digital healthism, which I define as the discourse that promotes the self-regulation of digital consumption for personal health. I argue that the self-regulation advanced by digital healthism insufficiently addresses the politics of media refusal. Technology retreats channel frustrations about social media use into opportunities for personal and corporate growth instead of political activism. I consider how technology retreats might participate in a dialogue about the regulation of social media platforms and companies by states. Evidence for these claims come from ethnographic research with the founders of a technology retreat in Silicon Valley.

Democracy as a Contested Concept in Postwar Western Europe: A Comparative Study of Political Debates in France, West Germany and Italy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Corduwener, P.

2016-01-01

This article explores how political parties in France, West Germany, and Italy conceptualized democracy and challenged the conceptions of democracy of their political adversaries between the end of the 1940s and the early 1960s. It studies from a comparative perspective the different conceptions of

Etika: Keamanan Berpolitik dan Ber-New Media

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Nunung Prajarto

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The improvement of security in politics and new media calls for fast action. Recent cases indicate that political position and rights to communication using new media cannot be guaranteed due to the problem of security. The reasons rest on the way the people get into politics and the aims they use new media. The following article explores how ethics may solve the problem of security, starting from ethics in democracy, politics, and new media, the causes of ethics violations, and attitudes for coping with security problems.

Information and Communication Technologies in Creating Political Media Reality in Russia

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Marianna Yu. Pavlyutenkova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article explores intended use of infocomms in creation of political media reality, acting as a virtual environment, effectively replacing reality. A noteworthy detail is that mainstreaming of information and communication technologies into political sphere substantially increases the authoritative potential for the media discourse. Those forces that assert their own media versions of events and media images for their participants have been winning in the competitive struggle amidst media discourses today. Furthermore, all available communication channels (television, media, Internet resources, mobile telecommunications are used to set up a political pseudo-environment for their information consumers, replacing political reality. The article shows what way new media resources, initially aimed at manipulating the mass consciousness in the pre-election race are being incorporated today. In particular, impressive manipulative media effects are demonstrated when a fake discourse is included in the media space. In addition, computer attacks, hacking, and the prime of independent cyber organizations fighting against the “world evil” are in effect as an instrument in the political struggle, in obtaining compromising material and interstate opposition. The work records the inclusion of graphic elements, emoji, clips in the media discourse. In general, symbols, encroaching into the politics space, become a part of the political mainstream, change the style of political demonstrations, discussions, chats that unite adherents to influence the actions of the authorities. It follows that the political media reality design, supported by the latest information and communication technologies tools, directly affects the perception of what is happening on a global scale, quickly formatting the mass consciousness.

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION ISLAM

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Ulfa Masamah

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Education is one of the media that is Able to help develop the potential of all human beings. Over time the implementation of many educational experience problems when the role of education has a significant influence on improving the quality of human life. Islamic education as an agent of social change should be Able to hit the problem that move dynamically and proactively to the advancement and improvement of Muslims. Das sollen, the purpose of education in Islam as the process of formation of human beings to conform with the nature of existence. Therefore, we need an alternative thinking in an effort to minimize the various educational failure. Democratization of education Considered as a solution capable of Islamic education in creating a humanist. Education that does not justify the existence of intimidation, repression and restrictions on the creativity of teachers and students can be Realized with the Efforts to create a democracy marked by education teaching-learning process that is open and full of healthy and responsible dialogue between teacher and pupil. Humanist atmosphere in education will deliver the achievement of educational goals of Islam. Islamic education is basically the Democratization of space, the which is where the education is directed at a dialogical space. Moreover, the ultimate goal of Islamic education directs its final destination on the behavior and attitude changes, the quality and variety of aspects that promote humanism space. Islamic education should be oriented to instill democratic values in the learning process, such as openness, mutual respect, sympathy, empathy, solidarity, and their understanding of pluralism in a pluralistic life.

Free Software Beyond Radical Politics: Negotiations of Creative and Craft Autonomy in Digital Visual Media Production

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Julia Velkova

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Free software development and the technological practices of hackers have been broadly recognised as fundamental for the formation of political cultures that foster democracy in the digital mediascape. This article explores the role of free software in the practices of digital artists, animators and technicians who work in various roles for the contemporary digital visual media industries. Rather than discussing it as a model of organising work, the study conceives free software as a production tool and shows how it becomes a locus of politics about finding material security in flexible capitalism. This politics is ultimately contradictory in that it extends creative and craft autonomy of digital artists but does not mobilise a critical project. Instead, it nurtures further precarious labour. Empirically, the article draws on ethnographically collected material from the media practices of digital artists and programmers who engage with two popular free software production tools, Blender and Synfig.

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…

USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS. EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

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Andra-Ioana ANDRONICIUC

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we aim at gaining insight into the Romanian president’s online campaign during the 2014 elections. Although there is a growing body of literature on online political campaigns in Western democracies, little research exists on using Social Media in an emergent economy like Romania. In order to take a closer look at the president’s online communication strategy, we conducted a content analysis on the posts published on the president’s official Facebook page over the two weeks leading up to Election Day. This study is the first of this kind and it indicates that president Iohannis used close-ended messages to control the speech, while reaching out to emotion to gain users’ support.

How Internal Political Efficacy Translates Political Knowledge Into Political Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Reichert, Frank

2016-01-01

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach—by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour—and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research. PMID:27298633

Reflecting on democratic and responsible citizenship. Where do the media step in?

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Oana BĂLUŢĂ

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Citizenship is one notion that generated debates and, on occasion, contradictory positions within academic community, opening the doors not only for political scientists, but for practitioners, activists, politicians as well to step in. The paper aims to explore and highlight how sociologists, political scientists and mass media practitioners envisage responsible and democratic citizenship in Romania. Reviews of literature developments on citizenship in connection with democracy and participation, and perspectives of local journalists, sociologists and political scientists on the intersection of media and responsible citizenship allowed me to highlight key inner marks of responsible and democratic citizenship. The final part of the paper proposes a process of (rethinking citizenship, emphasizing few propositions with a decisive role when drafting responsible and democratic citizenship: citizenship cannot be separated from participation, active participation; citizenship is correlated with political interests; 3. Active citizenship is democratic and responsible citizenship; citizenship has both a private and a public dimension.

Effects of first time voters’ political social media use on electoral behaviour - A smartphone-based measurement of media exposure to political information in an election campaign

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob; de Vreese, Claes; Jensen, Camilla

in citizens’ political media diet. Especially social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube offer an up-to-date stream of information, easy to tune in and with personalized content citizens (or at least their network) are interested in. A recent study by PEW (Mitchell, Gottfried & Matsa, 2015...... for young citizens in an election campaign. Second, it will concentrate on their social media use to gain not only gain information about the platform first time voters use, but digging deeper to distinguish between types of content their social media exposure to political information consists of. Third......, it will determine what effect the exposure to political information on different media channels can have on electoral participation and their first vote in a national election....

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.

Media Lokal dalam Konstelasi Komunikasi Politik di Daerah

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Iwan Awaluddin Yusuf

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The existence of the local media as a subsystem of local politics requires strong professionalism and idealism bases. Without professionalism, it was not easy for mass media to maintain their trust from society. As a business institution, the local media should elevate the quality of its management to support whole company and increase the welfare of its workers. This article will elaborates on three related topics: theoretical observation of media relations, democracy, and the process towards local democratization; responding to the regional autonomy, the role of local media in the regional authonomy on mediating political leaders and constituents; and the importance of local media role in the democratization process in Indonesia, as well as to give alternative on how a local media should be in the future, either as the democracy subsystem or as the pillar of the industry.

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

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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.

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

Methodological Lessons Learned from Conducting Civic Education Research in High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Matto, Elizabeth C.; Vercellotti, Timothy

2012-01-01

With the growing size of the "Millennial Generation" and its potential impact on American democracy, the civic education of this cohort deserves study. Using news media and discussion of politics at home and in the classroom at four public high schools in New Jersey, we conducted an experiment to measure changes in media use, political…

The Relationship between Islam and Democracy in Turkey: Employing Political Culture as an Indicator

Science.gov (United States)

Toros, Emre

2010-01-01

During the last decade the agenda of local and global politics is heavily marked by the encounter of two powerful currents, namely democracy and political Islam. On the one hand Islam as a religion itself is facing a cultural dialectic between a modern and an authentic form, producing a synthesis which is only to be criticized again by a new…

Social Media Use and Online Political Participation Among College Students During the US Election 2012

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Hongwei “Chris” Yang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A total of 4,556 US college students were surveyed immediately after Election 2012 to investigate what social media–related psychological and behavioral factors predicted their online political participation. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression results showed that online social capital, political self-efficacy, and Facebook group participation were positive predictors of online political participation, while social trust did not directly influence online political participation. General political use of Facebook and Twitter was a positive predictor of online political participation; however, extensive Facebook and Twitter use was a negative predictor. Implications for research and political practice are discussed.

Exploring democracy in the Russian Federation: political regime, public opinion and international assistance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerrits, A.W.M.

2010-01-01

This article discusses three questions: what is the purpose of ‘democratic’ institutions and practices in Russia's authoritarian political system; how do these institutions and practices resonate with Russian public opinion; and how do they relate to the international democracy-promotion effort in

Economist intelligence unit democracy index in relation to health services accessibility: a regression analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Walker, Mary Ellen; Anonson, June; Szafron, Michael

2015-01-01

The relationship between political environment and health services accessibility (HSA) has not been the focus of any specific studies. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining the relationship between political environment and HSA. This relationship that HSA indicators (physicians, nurses and hospital beds per 10 000 people) has with political environment was analyzed with multiple least-squares regression using the components of democracy (electoral processes and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties). The components of democracy were represented by the 2011 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index (EIUDI) sub-scores. The EIUDI sub-scores and the HSA indicators were evaluated for significant relationships with multiple least-squares regression. While controlling for a country's geographic location and level of democracy, we found that two components of a nation's political environment: functioning of government and political participation, and their interaction had significant relationships with the three HSA indicators. These study findings are of significance to health professionals because they examine the political contexts in which citizens access health services, they come from research that is the first of its kind, and they help explain the effect political environment has on health. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

What Does Political Participation Mean to Spanish Students?

Science.gov (United States)

Sant, Edda

2014-01-01

This article explores how a group of Spanish students (aged 11-19) understand the meaning of "political participation" in society and discusses the implications of their views for debates and practices in citizenship education. The ways in which these students (n = 112) describe and interpret political participation are analysed using an…

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

Democracy Squared

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rose, Jeremy; Sæbø, Øystein

2005-01-01

On-line political communities, such as the Norwegian site Demokratitorget (Democracy Square), are often designed according to a set of un-reflected assumptions about the political interests of their potential members. In political science, democracy is not taken as given in this way, but can...... be represented by different models which characterize different relationships between politicians and the citizens they represent. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis to analyze the communication mediated by the Democracy Square discussion forum in the first ten months of its life......-Republican model. In the qualitative analysis the discourse is analysed as repeating genres – patterns in the communication form which also reflect the conflict of interest between citizens and politicians. Though the analysis gives insight into the nature of the discourse the site supports, little is known about...

The Influence of the Democratic Pattern on the Media System in Romania

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Daniela Aurelia Popa

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Starting from the assumption that media is tightly related to the political system of the respective country, we will focus on the aspects that define democracy and determine the profile of the journalist’s role in a democratic system. A good political system has the duty to accomplish two things: to create governments that ensure the well being of the citizens, through a civil society based on legislation and free changes in the market and to protect the citizens against corruption. We will provide a comparative analysis of the roles that journalists play in a democratic society. Our paper deals with the way in which the relation between the media and the political class is perceived in a democracy. This role is often defined by syntagms that focus on the journalists’ rights and not on their responsibilities. Without a clear establishment of the obligations assumed by press professionals, these syntagms allow abuses. This paper will deal with the following aspects: the relation between the media and the political class, the transition of the Romanian media from totalitarianism to democracy, the free market of ideas, and the influence of journalists’ professional culture.

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

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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.

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

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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

Democracy and the Internet: Access, Engagement and Deliberation

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Roman Gerodimos

2005-12-01

Full Text Available The internet has the capacity to facilitate the creation of new forms of civic engagement, but the realisation of these opportunities requires institutional and cultural reinforcement. The democratic character of e-citizenship and the equal distribution of online resources to the public require the fulfilment of four conditions: access, engagement (incorporating education, motivation and trust, meaningful deliberation and a link between civic input and public policy output. Furthermore, the gap between the main features of cyberspace and the inherent prerequisites of democracy, such as a finite space and a set of rules, create tensions that need to be negotiated politically. Although the empirical evidence available includes some encouraging signs regarding the future use of the internet for civic engagement, the existing limitations and obstacles mean that the new media will complement, rather than replace, the old media as a democratic public sphere.

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.

The Digital Political Communication of South Korean Politicians

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Heike Hermanns

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The internet and social media have been credited with the potential to reinvigorate democracy by offering new avenues of political participation and communication between citi-zens and politicians. The results of empirical studies, however, call for caution, as many politi-cians refrain from fully exploring the interactive potential of new media. This case study focus-es on the web presence of Korean parliamentarians, using basic statistical analyses to explore the use of ICT as a means of political communication. It finds that Korean parliamentarians are less active online, treating ICT mainly as another channel for information distribution. It is thus concluded that ICT is not revolutionizing politics but reinforcing existing patterns of communi-cation that leave a gap between citizens and representatives. This paper was previously submit-ted to CeDem Asia 2016. The literature review and the methodology section have been expand-ed, and additional statistical data as well as further findings on Twitter were added.

Examining citizen participation: local participatory policymaking and democracy revisited

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michels, A.M.B.; de Graaf, Laurens

2017-01-01

This article discusses developments in citizen participation and its contribution to democracy since the publication of the original article. It evaluates the continued relevance of the use of a normative framework to assess different forms of citizen participation, nuances some of the conclusions

Examining Citizen Participation : Local participatory Policymaking and Democracy revisted

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ank Michels; Laurens de Graaf

2017-01-01

This article discusses developments in citizen participation and its contribution to democracy since the publication of the original article. It evaluates the continued relevance of the use of a normative framework to assess different forms of citizen participation, nuances some of the conclusions

Online lurking and offline action: young people, social media, and (non-)participation

OpenAIRE

Gustafsson, Nils

2017-01-01

Research has described political participation as becoming ever more individualised (eg Bennett & Segerberg, 2013). This has been argued to be connected to the general individualisation of society, but also to affordances made possible by new media. One line of research explains political participation combining selective benefits (Olson, 1965), psychological factors (Klandermans & van Stekelburg, 2013) and social incentives (Cialdini, 2009). However, it is not clear how social media and its ...

Political Activities of Social Workers: Addressing Perceived Barriers to Political Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Rocha, Cynthia; Poe, Bethanie; Thomas, Veliska

2010-01-01

This article reviews the literature on political participation of social workers and the variables that promote or impede political advocacy. Early research in the 1980s and 1990s most often reported education, feelings of efficacy, having a macro-type job, and being a member of a national association as factors that determine greater political…

Dissent, Criticism, and Transformative Political Action in Deliberative Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rostbøll, Christian F.

2009-01-01

Many discussions of deliberative democracy ignore or misunderstand the purposes of the ideal speech situation in Habermas' theory. These purposes are to show the possibility of dissent in actual communication and of supplying a normative standard of social criticism. I elaborate the significance...... of these purposes and show some of the shortcomings of deliberative theory that ignores them. However, the ideal speech situation fails to supply anything like a strategy for political action under conditions hostile to deliberation. I seek to fill this void by arguing for a limited consequentialism, according...

Parliamentary democracy and pluralist society; Parlamentarische Demokratie und pluralistische Gesellschaft

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schneider, Horst

2010-10-15

The Federal Republic of Germany is a democracy: The people expresses its political will in general, direct, free, equal and secret elections, in this way appointing its representatives at federal, state and local levels. The persons elected assemble in parliaments, deciding mainly on laws (legislative). Majorities are opposed to minorities in this process, the former constituting and supporting a government while the latter, as the opposition, exercise parliamentary control over the former. The political structure of a parliamentary democracy is matched by society, which continuously forms its political opinions and is able also to express them. In addition, the media exercise both political control and the function of forming public opinion. These personal and societal freedoms of action and expression are effective in a pluralist society not bound by one standard opinion and able to re-form itself continuously. The rights set out in the Basic Law and the structures in place constitute a balanced framework for political and societal reality. In what way this framework is filled depends decisively on political culture in general and on the political style of personal contact in individual cases. The past few months, and their debate about operating life extensions for the nuclear power plants in Germany, can be judged in the light of both the constitutional structure of a parliamentary democracy and the political style and political culture in our pluralist society. Intellectual objectivity has never harmed a society, while a loss of political culture can quickly lead to instabilities and political decisions with negative consequences for the future. (Constitutional) law alone is not always able to direct this development in a positive sense. (orig.)

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…

From democracy fatigue to populist backlash

OpenAIRE

Rupnik, Jacques

2007-01-01

The populist backlash in Central and Eastern Europe reveals the absence in the new democracies of checks and balances and of truly independent media to serve as a counterweight to creeping authoritarianism. It also shows the return of dormant strands in the region's political culture and thus its potential vulnerability to the authoritarian temptation. These developments are contributing to widespread estrangement from the postenlargement EU in the older member states. If current trends conti...

Political Rationality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Solhaug, Trond; Kristensen, Niels Nørgaard

The very idea about democracies is public participation in elections, decision-making and/or public engagement. The democratic participation distributes power among ordinary people and serve to legitimize decisions in public affairs and is a vital characteristic of a political culture.”The term...

Creativity and Democracy in Education: Practices and Politics of Learning through the Arts. Routledge Research in Education Policy and Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Jeff; Owens, Allan

2015-01-01

The struggle to establish more democratic education pedagogies has a long history in the politics of mainstream education. This book argues for the significance of the creative arts in the establishment of social justice in education, using examples drawn from a selection of contemporary case studies including Japanese applied drama, Palestinian…

The Net Generation, the Internet, and Political Communication and Participation

Science.gov (United States)

Velicki, Damir; Dumancic, Mario; Topolovcan, Tomislav

2017-01-01

The Net Generation, a generation which grew up with digital media, differs from older generations which entered the world of digital media and the Internet afterwards. The Internet itself opened new possibilities of communication and participation in the sphere of politics as well. Research was conducted among students at the Faculty of Teacher…

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.

Political Participation and Power Relations in Egypt: The Scope of Newspapers and Social Network Sites

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Mostafa Shehata

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The political use of media in Egypt post-2011 revolution brought about drastic transformations in political activism and power structures. In the context of communication power theory, this article investigates the effects of newspapers and social network sites on political participation and political power relations. The research employed a mixed methodology, comprised of a survey of 527 Egyptian youth and semi-structured interviews of 12 political activists and journalists. The results showed a significant relationship between reading newspapers and youth’s political participation, but not between using social network sites and political participation. In addition, newspapers and social network sites were platforms for a series of conflicts and coalitions that emerged between pro- and anti-revolution actors. Despite the importance of social network sites as key tools for informing and mobilizing the public, they eventually failed to empower new political actors, and this was because old actors, supported by newspapers and other mainstream media, managed to obstruct the new actors’ progress.

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.

The impact of political culture on the functioning of democracy: analysis of ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville

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I. I. Prokopchuk

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Based on the works of the French scientist A. de Tocqueville analyzed systematically constructive and destructive influence on political culture and the institutionalization of democracy in the society. In Tocqueville’s works may be divided into 2 patterns of political culture: a American liberal-democratic; b French authoritarian. Generalized thinker idea of values, based on which the American political culture of his time as follows: 1. Man put on an equal footing with the public. 2. Spread «spirit of the law» for all American society in general. 3. Understanding people, which is the main subject of politics and power source, as a combination of highly developed, independent, self-sufficient individuals. 4. Policy - one of the areas of self-realization and even for the average individual. In the system of value orientations policy covers the Americans first place or not. 5. Antypaternalizm in settings in which people, to the government and its agencies include disbelief, with potential worries, turning to government assistance only when absolutely can not do without it. 6. Social life is characterized by pluralism. In civil Sus-ety, there are many «power points» impact on the state by the parties, associations, media, opposition. 7. The political behavior of Americans is characterized by an open, constructive. A common policy is not the only type of collective participation (through parties and associations, but also individual. 8. The tendency of American political culture to the center, which was manifested in the unpopularity of political extremism as a type of political behavior on the part of leaders, parties, mass. 9. Legitimate functioning of the political opposition. This opposition political organizations in the United States in peace and enjoy his political activities only through legal means. 10. Formation of «money» elite and its deliberate removal of professions-term politics. Generalized Tocqueville features that define

The Impact of Education on Rural Women's Participation in Political and Economic Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Bishaw, Alemayehu

2014-01-01

This study endeavored to investigate the impact of education on rural women's participation in political and economic activities. Six hundred rural women and 12 gender Activists were selected for this study from three Zones of Amhara Region, Ethiopia using multi-stage random sampling technique and purposeful sampling techniques respectively.…

Experience of the application of direct democracy and mediate participation’s possibilities in territorial communities of Ukraine

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N. M. Nahorna

2016-10-01

Taking into consideration such situation, the application of direct democracy and mediate participation’s possibilities in territorial communities of Ukraine appears to be more and more relevant for scientifically theoretical apprehension and practical introduction of the modern Ukraine’s political life. Thus, we consider that the improvement of the mechanisms of direct democracy and mediate citizens’ participation should become an important task of state’s policy in the process of raise of the Ukrainian political system efficiency. At the present stage of political transformations they are an actual instrument of influencing the population, aimed at the increase of control of the governmental institutions between the elections periods. Indisputably, such experience of the application of direct democracy and mediate participation’s possibilities in territorial communities of Ukraine together with the necessary improvement of legal sphere and the raise of the efficiency of the direct democracy’s mechanisms practical implementation will positively influence the development of social and political life and will allow to use the main means of the realization of direct democracy at the local level and at the national level effectively and will stimulate the participation of population in the political process.

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…

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.

Debugging Democracy

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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.

Comparison of Women's Political Participation in Korea and China

OpenAIRE

Minjeoung Kim

2016-01-01

This paper deals with the comparison of women's political participation in Korea and China. Korean women are participated more in higher education. As the economic development and the women's social participation can enhance the possibility of women's political participation in advanced democratic countries, in Asian countries such as Korea and China in which Confucianism prohibited women to participate in public life and the process of nation building is different from western countries, the...

Cosmopolitan democracy: conceptual deficits and political errors

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Sérgio Costa

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Both the appeal to some universal ethics and the evocation of a global civil society constitute the core of the "cosmopolitan democracies" theories, presented as either reality data or political desideratum. The paper aims at showing that in the terms formulated by the cosmopolitan democrats both ideas rely on evolutionist presuppositions. Institutions, values, and cultural ways of life effective on societies situated in the northern hemisphere end up being regarded as both per se superior and models for general application. Against such reorganization of the world, the paper indicatively cites necessary precautions in order to have both the international cooperation of social actors and the globalisation of human rights contribute towards overcoming particularisms in the several regions, taking into consideration, at the same time, the cultural particularities of the different regional contexts.

Political and news media factors shaping public awareness of the HPV vaccine.

Science.gov (United States)

Gollust, Sarah E; Attanasio, Laura; Dempsey, Amanda; Benson, Allison M; Fowler, Erika Franklin

2013-01-01

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV) that prevents the strains of HPV that cause 70% of cervical cancers. Within months, many states introduced legislation requiring the vaccine for girls, prompting controversy and heightened political and media attention to the issue. Previous research has shown differences in HPV vaccine awareness by individual-level characteristics such as race/ethnicity, income, and education levels. We examined how individual political orientation and exposure to media coverage can also shape awareness of the vaccine. Using data from a 2009 Internet survey of 1,216 nationally representative adult respondents linked to data on state-specific news coverage, we assessed how political orientation, media exposure, and state political context predicted HPV vaccine awareness. Younger people, women, and those with more education were significantly more likely to be aware of the vaccine. Even after controlling for these characteristics, we found that exposure to news media was associated with higher HPV vaccine awareness. Whereas liberals and conservatives were both more aware of the vaccine compared with moderates, the data are suggestive that liberals were more sensitive to news coverage. These findings suggest that individual-level political identities and their interaction with the informational environment may be important factors to consider in evaluating the determinants of individuals' attitudes and behaviors related to politically charged women's health issues. Copyright © 2013 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Peasantry and politics in the Athenian society. On the Aristotelian model of agrarian democracy

OpenAIRE

Julián GALLEGO

2013-01-01

The article analyzes the peasantry's situation in the Athenian polis under the condition of full citizenship. Athens has recently been recognized as a society whose democratic political organization was based on the presence of citizen agriculturists who controlled most of the land, constituted the majority of the civic body and had a decisive role in the working of the government. Under certain limits, Aristotle's ideas in the Politics with respect to the agrarian democracy are taken as elem...

[Social participation and health in Brazil: a systematic review on the topic].

Science.gov (United States)

Paiva, Fernando Santana de; Stralen, Cornelis Johannes Van; Costa, Pedro Henrique Antunes da

2014-02-01

The process of democratization of Brazil contributed to the emergence of management councils and thematic conferences in the context of public health policies. The scope of this article was to conduct a systematic review of the literature in order to establish the factors associated with the process of institutionalization of these democratic areas. The following databases were researched: LILACS, IBECS, MEDLINE, SciELO, PAHO, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Social Science and EBSCO. For the composition of the sample of 25 articles, the following key words were used: Social Control, Social Participation, Consumer Participation, Community Participation, Public Participation, Citizen Participation, Political Participation, Participative Management, Participative Democracy, Deliberative Democracy with Health Councils and Health Conferences. The results found synthesize a set of categories that has impacted the participatory public spaces: political representation and qualification, relationships among the social actors, institutional design, political culture, discourses about health/disease and the debate about democracy. The findings help to move forward in the understanding of such institutions, fostering the construction of alternatives committed to the strengthening of democracy in Brazil.

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.

Discovering a Democratic Tradition and Educating for Public Politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Leppard, Lynden J.

1993-01-01

Asserts that preparing students to be rational decision makers in a democracy and productive participants in the economy are major goals of education. Argues social studies education must provide opportunities for analysis and decision making related to current major issues. Identifies the National Issues Forum in the Classroom program as an…

E-democracy a group decision and negotiation perspective

CERN Document Server

French, Simon

2010-01-01

Web-based interactions to support participation and deliberative democracy, called e-participation and e-democracy, are coming and coming fast. In some instances, the Internet is already permeating politics. However, it is far from clear if the processes involved in these interactions are meaningful and valid, and most of the research in the field has focused largely on the technologies to facilitate or automate the standard democratic instruments involved, such as e-voting or e-debating. This book, though, uses the point of view of the Group Decision and Negotiation approach to thoroughly discuss how web-based decision support tools can be used for public policy decision making. e-Democracy is structured into five main parts. The first part places democracy in context and reviews participatory instruments already in use in the physical world. The second part reviews methodologies that may be used to support groups in public policy decision making with a view on discussing how they may be used in the virtual ...

Delegated democracy. Siting selection for the Swedish nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Hanna Sofia

2008-11-01

The present study concerns the siting of the Swedish nuclear waste repository. Four cases are examined: the feasibility studies in Nykoeping and Tierp (cases 1 and 2), as well as three public consultation meetings with conservationist and environmental organisations, and two study visits to nuclear facilities in Oskarshamn and Oesthammar, which were held during what is called the site-investigation phase (cases 3 and 4). The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co (SKB) began the search for a nuclear waste site in the 1970s. Since 1992 SKB has conducted feasibility studies in eight municipalities, including in the four municipalities mentioned above. At the present time more comprehensive site investigations are underway in Oskarshamn and Oesthammar, two municipalities that already host nuclear power plants as well as storages for nuclear waste. In addition to SKB and the municipalities involved in the site-selection process, politicians, opinion groups, concerned members of the public, and oversight bodies are important actors. The analysis of the cases employs the concepts of 'sub-politics', 'boundary work', and 'expertise', together with the four models of democracy 'representative democracy', participatory democracy', 'deliberative democracy', and 'technocracy'. The aim of the study is to describe the characteristics of Swedish democracy in relation to the disposal of Swedish nuclear waste. The main questions of the study are: Which democratic ideals can be found within SKB's siting process during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process during the site investigations? and Which democratic ideals were influential during the feasibility studies and in the consultation process? The study is based on qualitative methods, and the source materials consist of documents, interviews, and participant observations. In summary, the form of democracy that emerges in the four case studies can be described as delegated democracy. This means that a large

The divided Electorate: Media Use and Political Involvement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aarts, Kees; Semetko, Holli A.; Semetko, H.

2003-01-01

Research examining media effects on political attitudes has put forth broadly conflicting explanations: media use diminishes knowledge and involvement and contributes to political cynicism and declining turnout; media use contributes to learning, political involvement, trust, efficacy, and

Comparative Perspectives on the Changing Business of Journalism and Its Implications for Democracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis; Frank, Esser; David, Levy

2013-01-01

The last decade has seen tremendous change in the commercial news media that play a central role in political processes in democracies around the world, as well as considerable progress in cross-national comparative media research. But despite the impact of Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini’s book......-conceptions, and of news content). In this piece, we call for further institutionally and system-oriented mixed-methods comparative research to advance our understanding of how current changes are impacting journalism, the news media, and ultimately politics in different settings. We suggest that existing conceptions...... Comparing Media Systems, empirical research into the institutional and systemic preconditions of journalism and news production has not kept pace with the rapid changes in the media, nor with the advances made in other areas of comparative media research (such as studies of news media use, journalists’ role...

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.

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.

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.  

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

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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.

Social Media and Political Participation : Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Effing, R. (Robin); Hillegersberg, van J. ( ); Huibers, T. (Theo)

2011-01-01

This paper presents the results of a literature review in regard to Social Media and participation. Besides that, to understand the meaning and impact of Social Media on elections, we show field results from the 2010 and 2011 elections in the Netherlands. There are several challenges when it comes

Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Effing, Robin; van Hillegersberg, Jos; Huibers, Theo W.C.

This paper presents the results of a literature review in regard to Social Media and participation. Besides that, to understand the meaning and impact of Social Media on elections, we show field results from the 2010 and 2011 elections in the Netherlands. There are several challenges when it comes

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.

Do Facebook and video games promote political participation among youth? Evidence from Singapore

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Marko M Skoric

2011-03-01

Full Text Available The importance of cultivating political engagement among youth has been widely discussed and its value for a well-functioning democratic society reaffirmed by numerous scholars. This study seeks to understand the relationship between the use of emerging platforms for online sociability and entertainment and political participation among young Singaporeans. Specifically, we focus on the intensity of Facebook use and frequency of video gaming, as well as more specific civic activities taking place on these platforms. The findings indicate that the intensity of Facebook use is related to both online and traditional political participation, while civic gaming is associated with online participation only. There is also evidence linking membership in civic/political Facebook groups with increased online participation. Lastly, although the results suggest that online participation may be an important driver of traditional political participation, the role of traditional media, particularly newspapers, should not be easily dismissed.

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.

Exploring Affordances of Facebook as a Social Media Platform in Political Campaigning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Tina Blegind; Dyrby, Signe

2013-01-01

In recent years we have witnessed political parties adopting social media as part of their election campaign strategy to encourage citizen participation and involvement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what Facebook as a social media platform is perceived to afford political parties...... in their campaign strategy and how these intentions are reflected in the actual actions during the campaign. Based on a case study of political parties’ use of Facebook in the Danish general election in 2011, our findings reveal that the medium is perceived to afford: 1) facilitation of direct communication...... to promote political interests and enable dialogue, 2) projection of an image of authenticity through informal media and 3) creating interaction and involvement through dynamic relationships with supporters. A closer look at the parties’ actual use of Facebook shows that the majority of the intended...

Homegrown Democracy, Homegrown Democrats

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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.

Living under a democracy: participation and its impact on the living conditions of the poor.

Science.gov (United States)

Avritzer, Leonardo

2010-01-01

The Brazilian democratization took place between 1985 and 1988. In 1985, the authoritarian power holders transferred political power to civilians, and in 1988, a new democratic constitution was enacted, thus finalizing the transition. The end of the transition triggered processes of participation in different Brazilian cities, such as São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro. However, only in Porto Alegre could the political context in the postdemocratization period generate a process of reverting priorities, that is to say, of inverting the pattern of democratic participation and the pattern of public investment at the urban level. In this article, I show the social conditions of the poor in the city of Porto Alegre in 1985, explain the emergence of participatory budgeting in the city, and show how democracy made a difference in the living conditions of the urban poor in the city of Porto Alegre. In the second part of the article, I analyze the recent expansion of participatory budgeting in Brazil and its recent expansion to midsize cities. In the final part of the article, I show how new participatory institutions are being introduced at the federal level of government. Participation at the local and national levels is making a difference in the living conditions of the Brazilian poor.

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…

The impact of media coverage and motivation on performance-relevant information

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elenbaas, M.; Boomgaarden, H.G.; Schuck, A.R.T.; de Vreese, C.H.

2013-01-01

Representative democracy requires that citizens know the facts about political performance, and if more such facts are available in the media, citizens have more opportunity to acquire them. In view of increasing media choice, such an opportunity may vary from one individual media environment to

The Politics of Aesthetics and the Hatred of Democracy according to Jacques Rancière

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Pedro Hussak van Velthen Ramos

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Among readers of Jacques Rancière there is a discussion about the possibility of aesthetics substituting for real political action. This is because while the French author elaborates on the conception of the emancipated spectator, he states that the political task of art cannot be the removal of the spectator from her “passive” condition into the dimension of political action, but only the suspension of the relationship between “active” and “passive”. However, in Aisthesis, published in 2011, Rancière warns the reader that it is not a case of abandoning the aesthetic utopia, even if any teleological view is withdrawn. In this article, I intend to discuss these paradoxes by confronting the considerations of Le Spectateur émancipé and La Haine de la démocratie, trying to show that if politics itself presupposes action, the politics of aesthetics must be understood as a non-identification process that takes subjects out of the places that were “addressed” to them beforehand. In La Haine de la démocratie one of the symptoms of the crisis of representative democracy is presented by the fact that it produces oligarchies and, on the other hand, new social dynamics appear as the conquest of a new citizenship that confronts these political oligarchies. Noting that demonstrations today, whether in Turkey, Spain, or New York, are similar to artistic happenings, Rancière can say that where there is aesthetics there is democracy. Understanding this last statement is the aim of the present article.

Corporate media versus democracy

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Robert W. McChesney

2011-01-01

Full Text Available

Nota introdutória de Dênis de Moraes:

Em 13 de janeiro de 1999, Robert W. McChesney gentilmente me autorizou a publicar, na nossa revista eletrônica Ciberlegenda, o importante artigo a seguir, baseado em questões abordadas em seu livro Corporate media and the threat to democracy (Seven Stories Press, 1997. PhD e professor da School of Journalism and Mass Communication da University of Wisconsin-Madison, nos Estados Unidos, é um dos mais categorizados pesquisadores sobre as mídias globais. Insere-se na tradição intelectual de Noam Chomsky e de Herbert I. Schiller — pensadores que, vivendo no centro hegemônico do world system, se distinguem como críticos das formas de dominação ideológica norte-americanas, particularmente as disseminadas por seus colossais impérios de informação e entretenimento.

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.

"An Advanced Type of Democracy"? Governance and Politics in Adult Education c.1918-1930

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Mark

2013-01-01

Like other adult education providers such as the Workers' Educational Association, the educational settlement movement was beset with political controversy during the 1920s. This article considers the relationship between the Educational Settlements Association (ESA) and its affiliated institutions, relating these to the competing political…

Negotiating the Political Self on Social Media Platforms An In-Depth Study of Image-Management in an Election-Campaign in a Multi-Party Democracy

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Jakob Svensson

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The elections 2010 were the first in Sweden where social media platforms were used to a large extent by politicians and parties in their campaigns. In this paper we follow the liberal parliamentarian Nina Larsson, who in tandem with traditional election campaigning used social media platforms with the guidance of a local communication agency, Hello Clarice. The paper is theoretically grounded in an understanding of our time as late modern, of social media use as expressive and web campaigning as to large extent revolving around image-management. The research question that will be attended to in this paper is how Nina Larsson used social media platforms in her campaign negotiate the image of herself. The methods used for empirical data-gathering are inspired by (nethnography, with both participant observation online and offline, interviews as well as content analyses of Nina's social media postings. Results indicate that she used social media platforms to control her political image, to amplify selected text - texts that often originated in offline/broadcast media – and to negotiate a position within the Liberal Party rather than to deliberate with potential voters.

The Rocky Road of Growing into Contemporary Citizenship: Dewey, Gramsci, and the Method of Democracy

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Katariina Holma

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Characterized by globalization, increasing pluralism, and new complexities of citizenship, the contemporary world sets challenges to the ways in which we conceptualize the processes of searching for shared solutions to ever-complicated societal problems. Whilst the political rhetoric emphasizes citizen participation, engagement, and “voice”, there are increasing feelings of frustration, incompetence, and disinterest regarding political engagement. In order to conceptually grasp the problematic of searching for shared solutions and the related challenges to education, we draw on John Dewey’s idea of the method of democracy and complement this with some critical perspectives inspired by Antonio Gramsci. Further, we reflect on the implications for contemporary adult education by discussing the notion of competence in the theoretical framework developed.

Possibly Preventing Catastrophes: Hannah Arendt on Democracy, Education and Judging

Science.gov (United States)

Monig, Julia Maria

2012-01-01

In this paper, I try to argue why it is worth turning to Hannah Arendt when reflecting on education. I am exploring her political theory in "The Human Condition" which, with the anthropologic category of natality, seems to offer an interesting approach for democratic education. Apparently everyone can participate in politics or even…

Macroeconomic policies and economic democracy in neoliberal Brazil

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Daniel Bin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate some of the forms of conduct of macroeconomic policies related to a substantive concept of democracy, characterized by popular participation - direct or through representatives - in decisions that unevenly affect the material well-being of the entire Brazilian population. Special attention is given to decisions about the country's public indebtedness in the years following the launching of the RealPlan. Empirical evidences show a limited democracy, revealed by the material inequality, which in turn reproduces political inequality and restricts real freedom. This is combined with the selective bureaucratic insulation of economic policy decisions, and the parliament's failure to deal with the macroeconomic agenda. The latter is thus left to the control of the executive branch's economic apparatus, which on one hand submits itself to substantial political influence from finance and, on the other hand, restricts popular participation in decisions on both fiscal and monetary policies.

Essay on legitimacy and democracy

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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.

Liberty Challenge or Dangers of Liberal Democracy

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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.  

Educational Democracy in Graduate Education: Public Policies and Affirmative Action

Science.gov (United States)

Vasconcelos Medeiros, Hugo Augusto; Mello Neto, Ruy de Deus e; Mendes Catani, Afrânio

2017-01-01

This paper is a discussion on the possibilities of educational democracy in Brazilian Graduate Education, with a focus on the current Graduate Education Field regulations and the recent affirmative actions and public policies of access. We analyzed laws, decrees, government plans and selections edicts, through categories derived from historical…

The contradictions of democracy globalization

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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.

New media in political communication: general approaches

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Chekunova Marina A.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, in transformation of the realm of political communication, a more important part is given to the so-called «new social media». Previously, political communication was seen as a process of production, dissemination and perception of political information for the purpose of achieving a consent regarding one or another political action. Additionally, communication appeared as a mechanism of one-way information exchange. Under new conditions, political communication becomes a tool of ensuring the process of preparation, making and implementing political decisions. In a modern understanding, an informational message is built by means of specific cooperation between communicants. In this regard, information sources appear as a specific base for state actions. This paper deals with old (traditional and new social media and lists several characteristics that help distinguish these media. It also shows how authorities and representatives of political opposition can use social media to achieve their political purposes. This article analyses not only benefits but also drawbacks in the application of new information technologies in politics, considering a problem of manipulation as a main disadvantage. It also compares the use of social networks by authorities in Russia and abroad. Because of differences in political culture, social networks are not popular with Russian authorities. However, the number of social networking users among Russian politicians is increasing year by year. Moreover, the most popular network with them is Twitter. A conclusion can be drawn that new media play an important role in creating a system of rules of conduct on the Internet and in establishing a specific culture of electronic communication between representatives of authority and society.

Citizen participation in local policy making: design and democracy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michels, A.M.B.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/11124501X

2012-01-01

Embedding democratic innovations that increase and deepen citizen participation in decision making has become a common policy of local governments in many countries. This article focuses on the role of the design of these innovations and seeks to establish the effects of their design on democracy.

Etika Komunikasi Politik Dalam Ruang Media Massa

OpenAIRE

Tabroni, Roni

2012-01-01

The development of democracy in this country raises the possibility of political practitionersto campaign openly. Mass media as part of a political communication channel has alwaysbeen an important target for political socialization. However, in practice, the mass mediaalways ignore the ethical aspects of political communication process, so it tends to go far andwithout control. This research aims to uncover the facts on the reality associated with patternsof behavior of politicians and succe...

Education and support for representative, direct and stealth democracy

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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

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...

How Different Forms of Health Matter to Political Participation

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Burden, Barry C.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Herd, Pamela; Jones, Bradley M.; Moynihan, Donald P.

2018-01-01

Physical and mental health is known to have wide influence over most aspects of social life—be it schooling and employment or marriage and broader social engagement—but has received limited attention in explaining different forms of political participation. We analyze a unique dataset with a rich array of objective measures of cognitive and physical well-being and two objective measures of political participation, voting and contributing money to campaigns and parties. For voting, each aspect of health has a powerful effect on par with traditional predictors of participation such as education. In contrast, health has little to no effect on making campaign contributions. We recommend additional attention to the multifaceted affects of health on different forms of political participation. PMID:29503463

Continuity and Change in Political Socialization in Poland.

Science.gov (United States)

Slomczynski, Kazimierz M.; Shabad, Goldie

1997-01-01

Surveys of Polish teachers who volunteered to introduce civic education about democracy, along with parents, and students aged 13-14 examined individual-level support for democracy and a market economy in relation to three psychological dimensions widely thought to affect political and economic attitudes: valuing of self-direction, authoritarian…

LA DEMOCRACIA ORGÁNICA: PARTICIPACIÓN Y REPRESENTACIÓN POLÍTICA EN LA ESPAÑA DE FRANCO = ORGANIC DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND REPRESENTATION IN FRANCO’S SPAIN

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Miguel Ángel Giménez Martínez

2015-12-01

Full Text Available El término “democracia orgánica” alude al sistema de representación política que fue implantado en España durante la dictadura de Franco. Un régimen que no aceptaba el sufragio universal de las democracias liberales y rechazaba tanto el parlamentarismo como la existencia de partidos políticos. En su lugar, se establecieron nuevos cauces de participación para los ciudadanos en la toma de decisiones públicas, que se correspondían con las denominadas “unidades naturales” de la sociedad: la familia, el municipio y el sindicato. El artículo consta de cuatro partes: la primera se dedica a estudiar los antecedentes ideológicos que influyeron en la puesta en marcha de la democracia orgánica; la segunda, a la delimitación conceptual del modelo; la tercera, a su articulación normativo-institucional; y la cuarta y última, a las “asociaciones políticas”, entidades con las que trató de completarse la representación orgánica dentro del proceso general de apertura que caracterizó la fase final del franquismo.The term “organic democracy” refers to the system of political representation set up in Spain during Franco’s dictatorship. A regime that did not accept the universal suffrage of liberal democracies and rejected parliamentarism as much as the existence of political parties. In its place, new means of participation for citizens in the public decisions making were established, which corresponded to the so-called “natural unities” of society: the family, the municipality and the trade union. The paper consists of four parts: the first one is dedicated to the ideological precedents that influenced the start-up of the organic democracy; the second one, to the conceptual delimitation of the model; the third one, to its juridical-institutional articulation; and the fourth and last one, to the “political associations”, entities with which the organic representation was attempted to be completed

Gateway Political Behaviors: The Frequency and Consequences of Low-Cost Political Engagement on Social Media

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Leticia Bode

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to determine to what extent engagement in easy political behaviors on social media occurs across the range of political interest, what predicts such engagement, and what effect such engagement may have on other political behaviors. It pits the idea that social media may activate the politically uninterested against the idea that social media is just another outlet for the politically interested to demonstrate their engagement. Analyzing survey data collected by the Pew Research Center, it concludes that many people, including the politically uninterested, do engage in easy political behaviors like liking and commenting on political content on social media. When they do, it can lead to greater political activity offline. However, those most likely to engage in easy political behaviors are also those who engage in harder political behaviors, offering support for both the interest and activation hypotheses.

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

Greening Democracy : The Anti-Nuclear Movement and Political Environmentalism in West Germany and Beyond, 1968-1983

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Milder, Stephen

2017-01-01

Greening Democracy explains how nuclear energy became a seminal political issue and motivated new democratic engagement in West Germany during the 1970s. Using interviews, as well as the archives of environmental organizations and the Green party, the book traces the development of anti-nuclear

Electoral democracy, revolutionary politics and political violence: the emergence of Fascism in Italy, 1920-21.

Science.gov (United States)

Elazar, D S

2000-09-01

This study examines the determination of the Italian Fascists' extra-parliamentary, para-military, violent strategy. What were the effects of the socialists' political strategy, relying on electoral democracy, on the creation and strategy of the Fascist Action Squads? A comparison among Italy's 69 provinces, based on quantitative and qualitative historical evidence reveals a distinct pattern in the Fascists' violence. They attacked mainly provinces where the Socialists enjoyed the greatest electoral support. This pattern was a product of two historical processes: (a) the threat of the Socialist party to the landlords' economic and political hegemony, and (b) the landlords' tradition of militant anti-worker organization which culminated in their alliance with the Fascists. The Fascists' struggle for, and takeover of, political power was not an immanent historical necessity. It was first and foremost an anti-socialist reaction. It was shaped both 'from below', by the political power and radicalism of the PSI and the para-military capacity of the Fascist Squads; and 'from above', by the active support the Fascists received from the landlords and the state. Supported by organized landlords and blessed with the authorities' benevolence, the Squads were able to destroy - physically and politically - the legitimately constituted provincial governments of the Socialists. The alliance with the landlords determined the Squads' almost exclusive attacks on Socialist provincial strongholds that constituted the greatest threat to the landlords' interests, while provinces dominated by the ruling Liberal party were excluded from the Squads' path of 'punitive expeditions'.

Governance networks as a frame for inter-demoi participation and deliberation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Eva

2012-01-01

By focusing exclusively on the contributions of political participation and deliberation to the enhancement of democratic regulation within a unitary democratic unit-that is, a demos-traditional liberal theories of democracy overlook the democratic value of political participation and deliberation...... between demoi. The need to find ways to increase the democratic quality of inter-demoi interaction is growing rapidly due to the emergence of a pluricentric political system in which cross-demoi decision-making is more the rule than the exception. There is an urgent call for new theories of democracy able...

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

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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…

Bioethics and deliberative democracy: five warnings from Hobbes.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Civilization and its discontented: Links between youth victimization, beliefs about government, and political participation across seven American presidencies.

Science.gov (United States)

Oosterhoff, Benjamin; Kaplow, Julie B; Layne, Christopher M; Pynoos, Robert S

2018-04-01

Promoting trust in public officials and active political engagement is vital to sustaining a well-functioning democracy. Developmental psychologists propose that youths' beliefs about government and participation in politics are rooted in personal experiences within their communities. Previous studies have focused on how positive experiences within youths' families, schools, and communities facilitate greater social trust and political participation. However, less is known about how negative interpersonal experiences-such as criminal victimization-intersect with youths' beliefs about the trustworthiness, competence, and knowledge of government officials, and their participation in political activity. Using data from 39 waves of the Monitoring the Future study, the current study examined associations among youth victimization, beliefs about government, and participation in various political activities. Adolescents (N = 109,574; 50.9% female) enrolled in 12th grade across the United States reported on whether they had experienced various types of victimization during the previous year, their beliefs about government, and their participation in multiple forms of political activity. Adolescents who reported more frequent victimization experiences endorsed significantly greater discontent with government and were significantly more engaged in various forms of political activity. The magnitude and direction of these effects were generally consistent across different types of victimization, different demographic subgroups of youth, and different sociohistorical periods. Findings are interpreted from a social contract theory perspective, followed by a discussion of implications for building psychological theory and informing public policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

On the multidimensionality of political competition: Measuring political competition in a Bartolinian Way

OpenAIRE

Bühlmann, M; Zumbach, D

2011-01-01

Political competition plays a crucial role in the democratic cycle, be it as a possible mainspring of political participation or as the essential element of democratic accountability and responsiveness. Thus, it is not surprising that many scholars focus on the impact and meaning of political competition. Unfortunately, such is very often misspecified as a unidimensional concept. At least since Stefano Bartolini's seminal paper Collusion, Competition and Democracy (1999, 2000), however, th...

Presence of Political Parties and Deputies in Internet in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay

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Yanina Welp

2016-01-01

Full Text Available According to Latinobarómetro, political parties are the institutions which less confidence receive from Latin Americans. This is not a particularity of Latin America, but a documented problem of Western consolidated democracies.In this context, in Europe and United States, among others, the use of digital media become a tool to overcome the crisis of representation, given their capacities to renovate politics, and because they allow the offering of more publicity of public matters as well as the opening up of new channels of participation and communication between citizens and representatives. But to what extent and with which features is this adoption happening in Latin America? Based on the study of the online presence of political parties and deputies of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (webs, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, this article explores the levels of digital media adoption and the influence of variables such as the internet diffusion in the country, the crisis of representation and the characteristics of political parties (institutionalization, ideology, size, role of leaders explaining the extension and characteristics of this adoption. 

Aesthetics and Political Culture in Modern Society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Henrik Kaare

Do aesthetic appeals to senses and emotions in political debate necessarily marginalise political reason and reduce citizens to consumers – thus dangerously undermining democracy? Or is sensuous-emotional engagement, on the contrary, a basic fact of the political process and a crucial precondition...... in the political process do not by definition undermine politics’ content of reason. Instead, a differentiation must be made between a multiplicity of aesthetic forms of intervention – some of which tend to weaken the political judgement of citizens while other forms tend to stimulate competent judgement....... This book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of political science, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies....

The Politics of Educators' Work and Lives.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Mark B., Ed.

This book was written to raise educators' consciousness and to encourage their active participation in the politics of everyday life in schools, educational systems, homes, and communities. Authors in nine chapters document and interpret the political action and inaction of educators in various settings. Contents include the following: (1)…

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.…

Eastern European Political Socialization Modeling Research: A Literature Review

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Camelia Florela Voinea

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents empirical modeling research on political socialization of the citizens in the new Eastern European democracies. The political socialization issue offers a comparative perspective over the modeling methodologies in analytical paradigms. Eastern European political culture research has revealed features of the electoral behavior and political participation which can be identified in different degrees in all the new democracies in the area: passivity with respect to political activity of parties, elites and institutions, political apathy or lack of reaction to anti-democratic actions, skepticism or distrust in institutions, scarce participation to social movements. Several authors explain the actual political behavior of the Eastern European citizens’ and their low social and political involvement by the (political culture heritage of the communist regimes in which they lived for a long time, and which keeps shaping their political attitudes towards the state, civil society, government and institutions. Research issues in the analysis of political participation are traditionally based on statistics analyses of empirical evidence coming from public surveys. However, scarcity ofempirical data from the communist periode with regard to (political socialization, values and beliefs represent a major obstacle towards a better understanding of the historical roots of current behaviors and attitudes. Scarcity of observational data might be overcome by computational and simulation modeling.

The Media's Role in Political Campaigns. ERIC Digest.

Science.gov (United States)

Gottlieb, Stephen S.

This digest examines the relationship between the political process and the media. The digest discusses the ramifications of advertising in politics; the role of the televised debate in elections; individual voter characteristics and the media; and media coverage and campaign awareness. Fifteen references are attached. (RS)

Political communication in referendums

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Vreese, C.H.; Schuck, A.R.T.; Reinemann, C.

2014-01-01

This chapter reviews research on political communication in referendums that have become increasingly popular in democracies worldwide. The authors define key characteristics of referendums, touch upon participation in and popular support for referendums, and highlight the differences between them

Sketches in Democracy: Notes from an Urban Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

DeLorenzo, Lisa

2012-01-01

"Sketches of Democracy" is a captivating book that chronicles the first year in the life of a new urban high school. Based on journal entries and educational literature, this book traces the author's challenging journey toward creating a democratic community of learners within a tangle of socio-economic and political issues. An experienced public…

MEMBANGUN KARAKTER BUDAYA POLITIK DALAM BERDEMOKRASI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khoirul Saleh dan Achmat Munif

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Kejadian pergantian kepemimpinan nasional di Indonesia merupakan amanah dari rakyat melalui mekanisme pemilihan umum. Meski sejarah bangsa Indonesia mencatat bahwa pegantian Presiden RI pertama dari Ir. Soekarno hingga presiden yang ketujuh, yaitu Jokowi, selalu terdapat kejadian tidak semestinya oleh elite pemimpin negara dan hal ini akan menjadi cermin bagi rakyat Indonesia bagaimana membangun karakter budaya politik. Budaya politik adalah aspek politik dari sistem nilai-nilai yang berkembang dalam masyarakat yang dipengaruhi oleh suasana zaman saat itu dan tingkat pendidikan dari masyarakat itu sendiri. Partisipasi politik masyarakat sangat membantu berkembangnya budaya politik dalam suatu negara. Partisipasi politik adalah keterlibatan warga dalam segala tahapan kebijakan, mulai dari sejak pembuatan keputusan sampai dengan penilaian keputusan. Demokrasi merupakan media untuk mewujudkan masyarakat adil dan makmur. Kalau demokrasi ditegakkan, dengan tingginya partisipasi rakyat dalam politik, ekonomi, sosial, dan budaya, maka masyarakat adil dan makmur bisa terwujud. Yang tidak kalah penting adalah membagun karakter budaya politik, sehingga kegiatan politik bukanlah panggung bermain bagi para elite penguasa, tetapi sebagai sarana pemenuhan kebutuhan dasar warga negara dalam menciptakan kemaslahatan bersama. Kata Kunci: Budaya Politik, Karakter, Demokrasi. BUILDING CHARACTER IN POLITICAL CULTURE IN DEMOCRACY. Building Character in Political Culture in Democracy. Change of national leadership in Indonesia is a mandate of the people through the mechanism of elections in accordance with the principles of direct, general, free, secret and fair and healthy competition between pairs of candidates for president and vice president. Political culture is the political aspect of the system of values that thrive in communities that are affected by the atmosphere of the current era and the education level of the community itself. Other factors that

Religious Identification and Modes of Civic and Political Participation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rezaei, Shahamak; Goli, Marco; Møballe, Svend

are represented in public debate. It appears that the most politically active immigrants at the local and national levels and in the media are individuals who focus on issues related to Islam, or are considered to have Islamic affiliations. Danish policy of contradiction (that is formal openness and substantial....... For instance, not only was there a remarkable cut down in the number of immigrants entering the country, but there was also a decline in supporting immigrant population’s participation in civic areas. It seems that the scope, the content and the intensity of the debate, as well as the overall discursive...... and public debate, provide the religious and ethnic identification and participation with an attractive mode of civic and political participation among immigrants; whether these are newcomers or ‘old’ immigrants. There exists a rather substantial variation in the extent to which immigrant groups...

The uncertain first-time voter: Effects of political media exposure on young citizens’ formation of vote choice in a digital media environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob; de Vreese, Claes Holger; Albæk, Erik

2018-01-01

The digital media environment changes the way citizens receive political information, also during an election campaign. Particularly first-time voters increasingly use social media platforms as news sources. Yet, it is less clear how accessing political information in such a unique social setting...... exposure and certainty can be mediated by active campaign participation. An 11-wave national panel study was conducted, using a smartphone-based assessment of citizens’ (n = 1108) media exposure and vote choice certainty across the campaign period. Results suggest that first-time voters’ social media...... affects these cohorts’ decision-making processes during an election campaign, compared to experienced voters. We compare effects of these two groups’ political information exposure on their vote choice certainty during the 2015 Danish national election. We furthermore test how the relation between...

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, ...

John Dewey's Democracy and Education: A British Tribute

Science.gov (United States)

Higgins, Steve, Ed.; Coffield, Frank, Ed.

2016-01-01

In 1916 John Dewey published "Democracy and Education: An introduction to the philosophy of education". In this book some of today's foremost historians, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists of education mark the anniversary of Dewey's work by reviewing and reflecting, from a British perspective, on Dewey's contribution to our…

Managing Political Information: A Malaysian Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jamilah Ahmad

2010-07-01

Full Text Available In the development of democratization and the expression of civil and political rights of Malaysian citizens, the pattern of control developed by the regime that is currently in power (Barisan Nasional for the last 50 years in the mass media began to reap the resistance and tend to be ineffective. Malaysian citizens began to demand the Malaysian government to change the pattern of political information management. In addition, the mass media alone is expected to play a more significant role as an intermediary agent in supporting the process of transparency and accountability of government policy. This article shows that the openness of public information is a prerequisite for political democracy in Malaysia to help the government minimize the mis-management of governance policies, especially in finance and resource management.

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...

Pathway to political participation: the influence of online and offline news media on internal efficacy and turnout of first-time voters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moeller, J.; de Vreese, C.; Esser, F; Kunz, R.

2014-01-01

News media play a key role in informing young citizens about politics and cultivating a sense of political efficacy. Online news media, in particular, are expected to have a positive impact due to their interactivity and new opportunities to share and discuss information. This study analyzes the

Datafication and empowerment: How the open data movement re-articulates notions of democracy, participation, and journalism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Baack

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This article shows how activists in the open data movement re-articulate notions of democracy, participation, and journalism by applying practices and values from open source culture to the creation and use of data. Focusing on the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany and drawing from a combination of interviews and content analysis, it argues that this process leads activists to develop new rationalities around datafication that can support the agency of datafied publics. Three modulations of open source are identified: First, by regarding data as a prerequisite for generating knowledge, activists transform the sharing of source code to include the sharing of raw data. Sharing raw data should break the interpretative monopoly of governments and would allow people to make their own interpretation of data about public issues. Second, activists connect this idea to an open and flexible form of representative democracy by applying the open source model of participation to political participation. Third, activists acknowledge that intermediaries are necessary to make raw data accessible to the public. This leads them to an interest in transforming journalism to become an intermediary in this sense. At the same time, they try to act as intermediaries themselves and develop civic technologies to put their ideas into practice. The article concludes with suggesting that the practices and ideas of open data activists are relevant because they illustrate the connection between datafication and open source culture and help to understand how datafication might support the agency of publics and actors outside big government and big business.

Public sphere of politics: between classical grounds and new political actuality

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O. A. Tretyak

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The public sphere of politics as a theoretical concept of modern political science has been discussed in the article. The reasons of the increasing interest to the public sphere is a dominating subject. Studied The phenomenon of the public sphere being a tool of theoretical and methodological definition of the political world’s boundaries has been studied. The value aspects of media activity in the contemporary politics has been investigated. An attempt has been made to establish the potential of political publicity for the qualitative understanding of participatory democracy. The potential of the public sphere in the development of civil society and social capital has been described. The distinction between the public sphere of politics and political communication in the specific conditions of modern transformational societies has been reasonably grounded. The importance of the presence of state power in all spheres of life of the transformational society has been stressed. Such transformation has not been stoped after the liberal market reforms, which had to ensure the existence of a formal representative democracy. The influence of the elite and expert groups being the reason of the absence of really functioning future civil society has been considered. The features of the formation of civil and social activities as a precondition for the democratic political class’ functioning have been studied. The specifics of public political activity being the prerogative of the competent entities’ political broadcasting have been analyzed. The gradual formation of cyber public sphere and its political branch segment has been revealed. Thorough attention has been given to the processes of the public sphere’s politicization which are usual for primarily authoritarian and closed societies.

The ideological and political education under the background of the new media era%新媒体时代背景下高校思想政治教育研究

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

郑世堃

2015-01-01

教育事业朝着信息化和数字化的方向发展，指出新媒体时代的高校思想政治教育工作，应不断总结和归纳当前新媒体对于高校思想政治教育工作的影响，并且积极尝试从实现教育思维、思想政治教育话语权，思想政治教育内容结构和思想政治教育载体等角度去实现调整和改善，以保证高校思想政治教育工作符合当前新媒体时代的要求。%Since the new media have sprung up in the world,people’s life and work style,great changes have taken place in the spread of new media,with its strong performance affecting all aspects of the society.Under such a back-ground,the education career is also a direction of informatization and digitization.The paper summarizes the current new media for the influence of the ideological and political education work,and actively tries to achieve education thought,the ideological and political education discourse,the ideological and political education content structure and the aspects of ideological and political education carrier to realize adjustment and improvement,in order to en-sure the ideological and political education work in line with the requirements of the new media era.

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. 

Political Public Relations − Media and Information Management

OpenAIRE

Tomić, Zoran; Grbavac, Ivana

2016-01-01

Political public relations, as one of the PR programmes, has slowly created strategies and tactics for communication with the public and the media. Media management and information management are the most important activities of the political public relations. These activities are frequently connected with non-ethical communication, whose aim is media manipulation and manipulation of the public. Media manipulation is well known as communication spin. These activities are created by governm...

Social Media Participation in an Activist Movement for Racial Equality.

Science.gov (United States)

De Choudhury, Munmun; Jhaver, Shagun; Sugar, Benjamin; Weber, Ingmar

2016-05-01

From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement, social media has been instrumental in driving and supporting socio-political movements throughout the world. In this paper, we present one of the first social media investigations of an activist movement around racial discrimination and police violence, known as "Black Lives Matter". Considering Twitter as a sensor for the broader community's perception of the events related to the movement, we study participation over time, the geographical differences in this participation, and its relationship to protests that unfolded on the ground. We find evidence for continued participation across four temporally separated events related to the movement, with notable changes in engagement and language over time. We also find that participants from regions of historically high rates of black victimization due to police violence tend to express greater negativity and make more references to loss of life. Finally, we observe that social media attributes of affect, behavior and language can predict future protest participation on the ground. We discuss the role of social media in enabling collective action around this unique movement and how social media platforms may help understand perceptions on a socially contested and sensitive issue like race.

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…

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

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P. S. Kanevskiy

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes a book “Breaking democracy’s spell”, the last work by John Dunn, world famous political scientist from Cambridge. Current discourse on democracy and tendencies of its development is seen through the lens of this book and John Dunn’s political thought. It is hard to question the fact that democracy is still one of the mightiest political symbols, although its core meaning still poses a lot of questions. Democracy is an unstable variable, which changes through time being influenced by multiple factors. This is why, before trying to understand where democracy’s mimicries are leading us, Dunn proposes to look closer at how it became a category which is so essential for legitimizing contemporary regimes. Is our understanding of democracy the same as it was 100, 50 or even 20 years ago? What determines the dynamics of democracy as a symbol of public power? Does democracy help nations in their quest for well being and effective government? Dunn’s work is not just an original analyses of democracy in political, sociological and historical perspectives, it is also a challenge to provoke a discussion on democracies failures both in developed and developing world. Dunn’s work divided scientific community on those who saw warning signs to democracy and those who considered author to be unjustified pessimist. In reality, Dunn’s work doesn’t give simple explanations because in relatively small text he managed to put complex set of questions, which can’t answered unequivocally. Author himself recognizes that he had to use absolutely new style to convey his thoughts. This article is an attempt to interpret Dunn’s ideas and react to his call to start a discussion on contents and perceptions of democracy which he sent to a political science community. This discourse is particularly important today for Russia where democracy not only encounters institutional difficulties and misunderstood by majority of the citizens

The Political Parties and Political Participation in Rivers State, Nigeria

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Political Parties and Political Participation in Rivers State, Nigeria: A Case Study of 2015 General Elections. Goddey Wilson. Abstract. The study reviewed the activities of the political parties and its impact on voters' participation in the political activities in Rivers State. In pursuit of this objective, the study generated ...

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.

Affective Media, Cyberlibertarianism and the New Zealand Internet Party

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Olivier Jutel

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The New Zealand Internet Party tested key notions of affective media politics. Embracing techno-solutionism and the hacker politics of disruption, Kim Dotcom’s party attempted to mobilize the digital natives through an irreverent politics of lulz. While an electoral failure the party’s political discourse offers insights into affective media ontology. The social character of affective media creates the political conditions for an antagonistic political discourse. In this case affective identification in the master signifier “The Internet” creates a community of enjoyment threatened by the enemy of state surveillance as an agent of rapacious jouissance. The Internet Party’s politics of lulz was cast as a left-wing techno-fix to democracy, but this rhetoric belied a politics of cyberlibertarianism. Dotcom’s political intervention attempted to conflate his private interests as a battle that elevates him to the status of cyberlibertarian super-hero in the mold of Edward Snowden or Julian Assange.

INTERNET & POLITIK MEDIA SOSIAL DAN PARTISIPASI POLITIK MASYARAKAT STUDI KASUS GERAKAN MENENTANG UU PILKADA TIDAK LANGSUNG

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Dinia Saridewi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimanakah internet khususnya media sosial menjadi  sarana bagi partisipasi politik masyarakat untuk mepengaruhi kebijakan politik, dalam hal ini menentang Undang-Undang Pilkada Tidak Langsung. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa: (1. Kasus gerakan penolakan UU Pilkada tidak  langsung melalui media sosial terutama Twitter merupakan suatu bentuk cyber demokrasi yaitu sebuah konsep yang melihat internet sebagai teknologi yang memiliki pengaruh sosial transformatif dan memperluas partisipasi demokrasi, dalam hal ini adalah kontrol konstituen terhadap wakilnya di parlemen. (2. Gerakan penolakan UU Pilkada tidak  langsung ini merupakan bentuk  polical knowledge dalam partisipasi politik dan berdampak dalam mempengaruhi pengambilan kebijakan publik, yaitu dengan dikeluarkannya perppu mengganti UU Pilkada Tidak Langsung, yang kemudian  perpu ini juga disahkan menjadi Undang-Undang oleh DPR; (3. Media Sosial Twitter merupakan media yang mampu mendekatkan hubungan masyarakat dengan lembaga resmi dan elit politik, sehingga dapat berkomunikasi dua arah dan langsung. Gelombang penolakan UU Pilkada Tidak Langsung yang begitu besar dari netizen  ini secara nyata “menyentuh” langsung para pengambil kebijakan, dalam hal ini Presiden dan DPR.Kata Kunci : Media Sosial, Politik dan Partisipasi Politik Masyarakat, Undang-Undang Pilkada Tidak LangsungAbstractThis study aims to determine how the internet, especially social media as political participations of society to influence political policy, in this case to againts indirect local election law. The result shows that the case of refusal movement of indirect local election law by social media, especially Twitter is a form of cyber democracy as a control of constituents to parliament. The refusal movement of indirect local election law is a form political knowledge in politic participations and impact to influence the public policy-making to change the law

A Concepção Comunitarista da Democracia e a Educação. The comunitarianist conception of democracy and the education

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Silva, Sidney Reinaldo da

2009-05-01

communitarianism difine the limits and scope of political education and school as a place of coletive deliberation. What is specificaly focused is how question about identity and difference must be democratically treated. The communitarianist conception of politics is showed as a view of the public deliberation that conceives democracy as form of life, as cultural inheritance, what is its main point of desagreement with contractarian conception of the democratic participation that views participation above all as mean to ensure the liberal autonomy of the individual. It is showed that this kind of desagreement is linked with te differents conception of the people and its formation. The main issue for the communitarian democracy is about recognition and differences not autonomy and universality. The critic of a communitarian democracy is made in a other way of taking the collective dimension of democracy whose aim is the radicalization of the popular participation in polical life. This critic help us to think what kind of democracy we have and want and how this is linked with the human formation.

[Brazilian nursing and the democratization of health: notes on the National Policy of Popular Education in Health].

Science.gov (United States)

David, Helena Maria Scherlowski Leal; Bonetti, Osvaldo Peralta; da Silva, Maria Rocineide Ferreira

2012-01-01

This essay discusses the role of Brazilian nursing as a socially committed practice, in the political and pedagogic plan. The concepts of popular participation, representative and participatory democracy, and education in health are recovered, enlightened by the recent history of the constitution of social network of practices and reflections called Popular Education and Health. The construction process and the ethical-political principles of a National Policy of Popular Education in Health are presented, discussing the participation of nursing in the changes of educational practices, in spaces of political representation and formulation of public policies, with a perspective of achieving a fair and equal social order.

Who is the Troll?: The Construction of Political Identities on Social Media in the Peruvian Context

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Diego Cerna Aragón

2017-12-01

Full Text Available One can easily find discrediting accusations between users with different political affiliations or ideological orientations on social media. The objective of this article is to affirm that these practices are neither superfluous nor secondary, but rather fundamental in the formation and consolidation of political identities of those who participate in these discussions. This article reviews up-to-date academic literature about three recent trends in the dynamics of political discussion on social media (the polarization of the political debate, the focus on personalities and figures, and the trolls’ practices and, using tools taken from Netnography, it explores and applies these concepts to the Peruvian context. Consequently, the article offers an outline about the daily political dynamics on social media, how users take sides and disputes happen, and how this serves to the (reproduction of political identities. The results of this investigation show a scenario where two characteristics prevail: the polarization between different political stances and the uncertainty about the information and identities in circulation.

Reorienting Deliberation: Identity Politics in Multicultural Societies

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Rebecca Mason

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Many political theorists argue that cross-cultural communication within multicultural democracies is not best served by a commitment to identity politics. In response, I argue that identity politics only interfere with democratic participation according to an erroneous interpretation of the relationship between identity and reasoning. I argue that recognizing the importance of identity to the intelligibility of reasons offered in the context of civic deliberation is the first step towards the kind of dialogue that democratic participation requires.

A modern political education. Nonviolent perspectives

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Claudia SECCI

2016-09-01

Full Text Available he article deals with a nonviolent perspective of political education and with some theories that may conjugate these two domains: Nonviolent Culture and Political Education. Methodologically an approach rooted in the theoretical and bibliographical research has been privileged. The discourse investigates the causes of the actual political disaffection, and follows the purpose to highlight the irrevocable role of a structured nonviolent perspective (like Gandhi’s one, in the rehabilitation of politics. Nonviolence does not remove Marxist elements of legitimation in their entirety – as Gramsci’s theory will highlight – provided that they correspond the “conquest of violence” that needs to succeed first and foremost in the “intimate” individual’s awareness. Moreover, the importance of contemporary ecological theories, which embed the nonviolent perspective in a general epistemological view, will be also discussed to reaffirm the crucial significance of the latter. Through this path, different authors, hailing from diverse backgrounds, such as philosophical, pedagogical and anthropological studies, show meaningful affinities and matching points, presenting, in some case, political education in terms of education and training of the “political emotions”. The reflection highlights the relevance of an expanded political participation and experimentation through praxis, as ways of an actual political education, in the belief that emphasizing the pedagogic dimension of political activity, means nothing less than searching for its deepest fundament.

Education, Democracy and National Development: The Way Forward

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper examines the present state of Education, Democracy and National Development in the present Democratic dispensation in Nigeria. It proposes a number of steps for improving and reinforcing the foundations of our educational systems for a sustainable national development. A major tool of development is ...

Iris Marion Young and Political Education

Science.gov (United States)

Frazer, Elizabeth

2006-01-01

This paper will focus on Young's theories of heterogeneity, as they have developed from the essays in "Throwing Like a Girl" (1990) to those in "Inclusion and Democracy" (2000). Reading her theories of heterogeneity together with recent developments in political theory which seek to reclaim the agonistic and frictional aspects of polity and…

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.

From Islamist to Muslim Democrat: The Present Phenomenon of Muslim Politics in Malaysia

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MOHD IZANI MOHD ZAIN

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The Muslim political rivalry in democracy has triggered the birth of two groups; Islamist and Muslim Democrat. The two groups are competing by using a different approach in getting the support of the people. The Islamist group is championing its Islamic State agenda and the implementation of Shari`a as a political ambition within the framework of democracy while the Muslim Democrat recognises democracy and freedom as the basis of their struggle. Due to a greater development in democracy and a more open political rivalry, the Islamist group that was initially strongly backed by their rigid ideology and approach, has decided to change for a more moderate approach. This can be seen through their political strategy that emphasises on universal issues such as democracy, justice and good governance without rhetorical expressions of Islam and Shari`a. This change from Islamist to that of Muslim Democrat is an exciting development for it shows the transition path and direction of Muslim politics in Malaysia. This paper examines the latest development of the Islamist group, i.e. PAS in political rivalry in Malaysia, particularly in the recent General Election in 2013. This article reveals that due to the changing political landscape and democratization, the Islamist has pragmatically moderated their stance to gain more supports and it has embarked on a new landscape for Muslim political rivalry in Malaysia. Although PAS’s new approach to transform its approach to be more open and democratic is still questionable, this study believes that the participation of the party in democracy is no longer just for the sake of election, on the other hand it should recognise democracy as a political culture that emphasizes justice, freedom and good governance.

Theorizing Women's Political Leadership: Cross-National Comparison

OpenAIRE

Minjeoung Kim

2014-01-01

Since women obtained the right to vote in 1893 for the first time in New Zealand, they have tried to participate actively into politics but still the world has a few women in political leadership. The article asks which factors might influence the appearance of women leadership in politics. The article investigates two factors such as political context, personal factors. Countries where economic development is stable and political democracy is consolidated have a tendency of appearance of wom...

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.

Global Media, Biopolitics and Affect

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Britta Timm; Stage, Carsten

Global Media, Biopolitics and Affect shows how mediations of bodily vulnerability have become a strong political force in contemporary societies. In discussions and struggles concerning war involvement, healthcare issues, charity, democracy movements, contested national pasts, and climate change...... culture. Likewise, it presents a range of close empirical case studies in the areas of illness blogging, global protests after the killing of Neda Agda Soltan in Iran, charity communication, green media activism, online war commemoration and digital witnessing related to conflicts in Sarajevo and Ukraine......., performances of bodily vulnerability is increasingly used by citizens to raise awareness, create sympathy, encourage political action, and to circulate information in global media networks. The book thus argues that bodily vulnerability can serve as a catalyst for affectively charging and disseminating...

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....

BLOGS ARE THE ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL FIELD

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Юлия Игоревна Нестеренок

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes the influence of blogosphere on the political process. The author studies political mechanisms of public policy-making through the activity of political blogs. The article also grounds the choice of the research tools and shows that the Internet is becoming, in contrast to the other media platforms, the territory of free self-expression.The article analyses and summarizes different communication theories and defines blogs’ role in a modern political and communication space.The application of modern Internet technologies and the development of other mass media encourage the formation of different representational images of political events.During the study different types of communicative interaction in different types of democracy are represented in the article, and as well the increase of Internet community role’s influence on the modern political process.Democratic reforms are inevitably linked with the increase of public political activity, where one of the forms of expression of one’s opinion is political blogging.In a modern political space one can note a new generation of consumers of media goods with skills, talents, interest and enthusiasm to use the opened opportunities of creating and transforming the continent. In the summary we point out that modern political process differs the appearance of new determinants of mass media development as well as the development of other communication facilities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-10-44

Elite Cohesion in Political Communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mayerhöffer, Eva

communication studies that allows us to view high-ranking journalists and editors as elites in their own right, entering into enduring relations with political elites. Based on the combination of these two otherwise separated disciplines, the dissertation develops an integrated and comprehensive model of elite......The dissertation presents the first comprehensive analysis of the political communication elite– high-ranking journalists, editors, politicians and their communication advisors – that shapes the content and form of political messages, news, debate and decisions in modern democracies. Although...... there is no shortage of research on the changing nature of politics due to the increasing influence of the media, the relations between the key elites in the age of ‘mediated politics’ have yet to be analyzed thoroughly. Theoretically, the dissertation provides a new bridge between elite theory and political...

SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL UNREST

OpenAIRE

SORIN SUCIU; DALIA PETCU

2012-01-01

Our paper analyzes the relation between social media and political movements in contemporary world. Many authors consider that social media, especially social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are responsible for triggering the revolutions in the Arab world. Is the “Arab Spring” the result of modern technologies or its origins are more profound and mundane, deeply rooted in the society? Our response is that social media played an important, but only instrumental role.

Redefining the political moment

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James Arvanitakis

2011-07-01

Full Text Available On 16 February 2003, more than half a million people gathered in Sydney, Australia, as part of a global anti-war protest aimed at stopping the impending invasion of Iraq by the then US Administration. It is difficult to estimate how many millions marched on the coordinated protest, but it was by far the largest mobilization of a generation. Walking and chanting on the streets of Sydney that day, it seemed that a political moment was upon us. In a culture that rarely embraces large scale activism, millions around Australian demanded to be heard. The message was clear: if you do not hear us, we would be willing to bring down a government. The invasion went ahead, however, with the then Australian government, under the leadership of John Howard, being one of the loudest and staunchest supporters of the Bush Administrations drive to war. Within 18 months, anti-war activists struggled to have a few hundred participants take part in anti-Iraq war rallies, and the Howard Government was comfortably re-elected for another term. The political moment had come and gone, with both social commentators and many members of the public looking for a reason. While the conservative media was often the focus of analysis, this paper argues that in a time of late capitalism, the political moment is hollowed out by ‘Politics’ itself. That is to say, that formal political processes (or ‘Politics’ undermine the political practices that people participate in everyday (or ‘politics’. Drawing on an ongoing research project focusing on democracy and young people, I discuss how the concept of ’politics‘ has been destabilised and subsequently, the political moment has been displaced. This displacement has led to a re-definition of ‘political action’ and, I argue, the emergence of a different type of everyday politics.

From Pericles to Plato – from democratic political praxis to totalitarian political philosophy

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Øjvind Larsen

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Plato is normally taken as one of the founders of Western political philosophy, not at least with his Republic. Here, he constructs a hierarchy of forms of governments, beginning with aristocracy at the top as a critical standard for the other forms of governments, and proceeding through timocracy and oligarchy to democracy and tyranny at the bottom. Following Karl Popper, the paper argues that Plato’s is a totalitarian philosophy that emphasizes the similarities between democracy and tyranny, which it considers to be the two worst forms of government. Plato’s denigration of democracy has dominated the tradition of political philosophy until recent times. This paper, however, shows that political philosophy in fact originates in democracy, especially as developed by the sophists and that philosophy is only a form of sophism with a similar origin in ancient Greek democracy. A discussion of Pericles’ funeral oration is used to show that Pericles presented a democratic political philosophy that can serve as a counterpoint to Plato’s political philosophy in the Republic.

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...

Critical Insights in Media Literacy Research in Spain: Educational and Political Challenges

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Carmen Marta-Lazo

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article proposes a critical perspective on the tradition of media literacy research in Spain in order to examine how Spanish scholars are facing challenges on public policy, and more specifically school curricula, regarding media education. Research in media literacy in Spain (known as educomunicación in Spanish has moved forward through the interest of scholars and other groups, such as journalists and school teachers, who have raised awareness on the need to develop a critical and creative media learning system. This article will review a the European and Hispanic heritages on media literacy in Spain, b main current research groups and projects focusing on media education and c academic policy on digital competence in formal learning. Lastly, this article will suggest some recommendations on education and policy that will help gain more support among academia, media and citizens within the European and Latin American context.

Preparing the Next Generation of Educators for Democracy

Science.gov (United States)

Embry-Jenlink, Karen

2018-01-01

In the keynote address of the 42nd annual meeting of the Southeastern Regional Educators Association (SRATE), ATE President Karen Embry-Jenlink examines the critical role of teacher educators in preparing the next generation of citizens and leaders to sustain democracy. Drawing from historic and current events and personal experience,…

The Effect of Direct Democratic Participation on Citizens’ Political Attitudes in Switzerland: The Difference between Availability and Use

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Anna Kern

2017-03-01

Full Text Available According to advocates of direct democracy, it is important to involve citizens more directly in political decision-making processes in order to create a democratic linkage between citizens and the political system. Indeed, some studies have demonstrated that citizens who live in direct democracies have higher levels of trust in political institutions and a higher sense of political efficacy. However, not all empirical evidence confirms this relationship. In a recent article on Switzerland, it was shown that, while the availability of direct democratic rights enhances trust in political institutions, using those rights actually initiates distrust. In this paper I expand the analysis of Bauer and Fatke (2014 and test whether the different effects of availability of direct democratic rights and the frequency of their use also hold for broader measures of trust in political institutions and political efficacy. I find that, even though an increased use of direct democratic measures is associated with lower levels of confidence in authorities on the cantonal level, this relationship is no longer apparent when applying a more comprehensive measurement of trust in political institutions.

Social media - a political journalist’s friend or foe? - Political journalists’ opinions on how social media influence their job and possibilities to communicate with politicians

OpenAIRE

Rosenback, Michaela

2017-01-01

Developing technologies and social media platforms offer new ways of producing and receiving political content. The political elites need to follow, and update social media on a regular basis, and political messages are being blended into the world of entertainment and show business. At the same time, journalists have incorporated social media in their daily job and use social media platforms as working tools. This affects the interconnections between journalists and politicians, making their...

Democracy : Development and Improvement - The Role of Participation and Deliberation

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Rubens Becak

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Despite being a relatively recent phenomenon, democracy seems to have been raised to the level of a ubiquitous system so its existence and enshrinement are truly understood as a postulate. In this sense it’s very important to understand it’s evolution from the advent of the Modernity specially to understand how the model evolved adopting the representation by the political parties. Despite its qualities, the criticism about the model especially focused on the pretense lack of legitimacy, always persisted. This, in most cases, is done in order to improve its aim approaching the collective ideal. In this evolutionary bias is that we observe the construction of alternative models - we prefer to see as complementary to traditional representative by the parties - especially with the adoption of practices of direct democracy conducting to a system called semi- direct one. This is adopted by the current Brazilian Constitution with the prediction of the use of the figures of the plebiscite, referendum and popular initiative, does not seem to have exhausted the questioning and criticism. Rather these have been increased in recent decades flaring up in the nurture and coming to advocate the adoption of different experiences. These practices with mechanisms called participatory and deliberative, has the abili- ty to seek eventual democratic optimization.

Political participation in European welfare states: Does social investment matter?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marx, Paul; Nguyen, Christoph

2018-01-01

The role of the welfare state has expanded beyond passive assistance and decommodificaton. In many countries, social investment policies now actively encourage (re)integration into the labour market. While the effectiveness of these policies is debated, we know even less about their broader social...... and political effects. In this contribution, we explore the impact of social investment policies on one key aspect of social life: political participation. Combining insights from social psychology with institutional analysis, we investigate the impact of three social investment policies (early childhood...... education, secondary education, active labour market policies) on two disadvantaged groups: young individuals from low-skill backgrounds; and single parents. Combining the European Social Survey with data on social investment, we find that these risk groups have reduced political efficacy and political...

Foreign Policy and Political Culture: the Case of the Argentinian Democracy (1983-1985

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Ezequiel Reficco

1996-02-01

Full Text Available Throughout the twelve years that have passed since the restoration of democracy in Argentina, the external political dynamics of the country experienced dramatic changes. We can distinguish between three periods structured according to clearly differentiated parametres: the search for independence (1983-1985, the change to realism (1985-1989 and the search to reconnect (1989-1995.At the same time, this evolution was accompanied by far-reaching transformations in the international system. These changes were reflected through the means of an emulative connection to Argentinian political life, modifying the terms of the consensus which sustained the external dynamics of the State. Argentinian political culture had to adapt itself to reality, to its own experience and to those signals coming from enviroment which indicated where -and where notitshould direct its energies in order to optimize results.From this re-reading of reality carried out by both political leaders and Argentinian public opinion, the president elected, regardless of the result of the 1989 elections, had instrumented a reorientation similar to the present one. In the same way, Menem’s successor will maintain, in broad termes, the current external dynamics in his country.

Pruning the news feed: Unfriending and unfollowing political content on social media

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Leticia Bode

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Social media allow users some degree of control over the content to which they are exposed, through blocking, unfriending, or hiding feeds from other users. This article considers the extent to which they do so for political reasons. Survey data from Pew Research suggests that political unfriending is relatively rare, with fewer than 10% of respondents engaging in the practice. Analysis finds support for the idea that political unfriending is most common among those who talk about politics, those strongest in ideology, those that see the most politics in social media, and those that perceive the greatest political disagreement in their social networks. This suggests that social media are not exacerbating the political information gap as political information on social media is likely still reaching the least politically engaged, whereas the most politically engaged may opt out of political information within social media but still receive it elsewhere.

Political Communication via the Media. ERIC Digest.

Science.gov (United States)

Aiex, Nola Kortner; Gottlieb, Stephen S.

Noting that critics charge that news reporting focuses on the superficial, personal characteristics of candidates and ignores the issues underlying elections, this Digest examines the relationship between the political process and political communication through the media. It addresses the power of advertising, cyberspace political communication,…

“It’s Only a Pastime, Really”: Young People’s Experiences of Social Media as a Source of News about Public Affairs

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