Basic Democratic Principles Research Articles

Making Sense of Britain's Strange ‘Brexit’ Parliament

Making Sense of Britain’s Strange ‘Brexit’ Parliament William Kingston English parliaments have been known by many names, including ‘Reformation,’ ‘Cavalier,’ Long’ and ‘Rump.’ The one which has just been dissolved will surely have the title ‘Brexit’, because it was so dominated by the issue of leaving the European Union. Its failure to settle this reflects a mismatch between direct democracy and representative democracy, which can be understood through a concept developed by Garret Hardin, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’.1 This must surely be the most influential social science article ever written by a biologist. In it, he used the analogy of a pasture open to all to describe the effect of self-interest in any situation where there is free access to a resource. Such access becomes disastrous as soon as the limits of the resource are reached, because ‘the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another ... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.’2 Contemporary and vivid confirmation of Hardin’s ‘herdsman’ observation can be found in what happened to the Newfoundland cod fishery. This was once the most prolific fishery in the world, but it was a ‘commons’, as there was free access to it. Consequently, it paid every fishing firm, in its own interest, to invest in the biggest boats and the most advanced gear until it was completely fished out. Universal suffrage makes government a ‘commons’ The relevance of Hardin’s insight to economics is immediately evident, but Studies • volume 109 • number 433 54 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 54 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 54 27/02/2020 13:59 27/02/2020 13:59 its application to politics has been overlooked. We have not noticed that the resource of government becomes a commons once universal suffrage gives everyone access to it. This puts it in danger of being ruined by voters’ selfinterest , when the law of the jungle must prevail. Such a result can in fact be seen in many ex-colonial countries that were established on the basis of one-person-one-vote. These moved quickly to some form of autocracy, as parliamentary democracy failed them. Their experience illustrates why a political commons cannot work when the number of voters is large. Some situations where access to a commons does not result in Hardin’s tragedy show why numbers are important. In the Swiss Alps, farmers move their flocks in summer to common pastures, and in the Yukon, miners worked out ways of peaceful sharing of access to veins of gold before any system of legally registering claims was established. In each case the numbers were small enough for mutual knowledge and trust to act as a counterbalance to individual self-interest. Monastic influence Some form of counterbalance is found in every case where any form of democracy has worked. In Greece’s cities, the numbers were small (there was of course no question of giving the vote to slaves) and the counterbalance to self-interest was the distribution of public offices by lot. In many forms of assembly democracy, the counterweight was the power of anointed monarchs, whose support from religion helped their wishes to be seen as the public good. In fact, assemblies or ‘parlements’ came into being in Europe through nobles asserting their power against the absolute power of a king, as in Magna Carta. This is the first time that a basic principle of democracy, that government depends upon the consent of the governed, can be seen in the secular world, but monasticism had prepared the ground for it. Everyone in medieval Europe could see all around them places where people were living under an elected Abbot. The explicit provision in their Rule for this made...

The surreal real Brazil

12 | International Union Rights | 27/3 FOCUS | IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON WORK AND THE CHALLENGE FOR UNION RIGHTS The surreal real Brazil There is a popular Brazilian saying that sums up the last years of our policy: ‘Brazil is not for amateurs’. Even though this construction is generic enough to apply to any nation-state, and perhaps it is not even an exclusive peculiarity of Brazil, for our conversation there would be no better way of introducing the problems we will address. In a very short period of time, 4 years, Brazil has gone from a possible model of inclusive and democratic socio-economic development to an international pariah, insensitive to minorities, a persistent violator of human rights, constantly flirting with neo-fascist movements and opinions. The social and economic roots that allowed this phenomenon escapes the analytical and synthesis skills of this author. Some emphasise the persecution process of the Workers’ Party, the culmination of which was the coup suffered by President Dilma in 2016, disguised as impeachment, and the incessant and illegal search for the arrest of the former president Lula. Others will highlight the lack of real commitment by our economic elite to democracy and human rights, for whom the important thing is capital gains regardless of who is in governing, even if this is a belligerent defender of military dictatorships, torture, and executions of political rivals. Surely there will be no shortage of material for historians, political scientists, and sociologists. From the perspective of law, this period was also one of profound changes. In 2016, an amendment to the Constitution was approved that froze public spending for 20 years, which will make it impossible for the Brazilian State to play an active role in the economy or make investments in health and education. The Labour Reform of 2017, denounced by CUT in the international arena, has dismantled the organisational and political power of the unions, made labour relations even more flexible and opened the way for an intense process of withdrawing workers’ rights. Following this intense and extremely complex political-social process from 2016 to 2017, in 2018 President Jair Messias Bolsonaro was elected, an unimpressive extreme right politician from Rio de Janeiro, whose great banner was the defence of the police and of the army. His campaign was based on the construction of an image of a non-traditional politician, defender of traditions and the ‘typical Brazilian family’, anti-corruption, and the only one capable of defeating the true evil of the nation, the Workers Party. His campaign motto was ‘Brazil above everything, God above everyone’. Even though then Federal Deputy Jair Bolsonaro was the opposite of the image built in the electoral campaign, even though he had publicly defended the Civil Military Dictatorship that prevailed from 1964 to 1985 in our country, claiming that it killed few citizens, which should have killed much more, besides having paid homage, during the 2016 impeachment process, to the military man who tortured ex-president Dilma, he was elected president of the republic with a 1/3 of the total voters. Our president’s contempt for human rights and the most basic principles of democracy is a public and notorious fact and his election was received by a large part of society as a great announced tragedy. However, no one could have expected that the tragedy would be so great that it would characterise a crime against humanity, and genocide. The way President Jair Bolsonaro treated, and has been treating, the Corona Virus pandemic is irresponsible, unscientific, denialist and has directly contributed to the death and infection of thousands of Brazilians. As a result of this conduct, on 27 July, UNI Global and several other unions and social movements filed a case in the International Criminal Court against the Brazilian president for crimes against humanity, with the Brazilian people being victims. In summary, Bolsonaro’s actions, and omissions, since the beginning of the Pandemic, are: • Minimise the severity of the disease by referring to it constantly as ‘petty flu’. • Promote intentionally agglomerations by visiting commercial establishments and public places. • Participate and call for public acts that openly defended a Military Coup in Brazil. • Defend indiscriminately and without...

Assessment of public participation in local planning & decision-making. A case study from Albania

The public participation (PP) is widely legitimised as a vital prerequisite to achieve sustainable development and as a basic principle of democracy. Under the conditions of the new territorial administrative-territorial division of local government units in the Republic of Albania, the Malesia e Madhe (MM) Municipality is a new one. The purpose of this study was the assessment of attitudes of the local community of areas under the administration of MM Municipality on PP in local planning and decision-making in order to influence future behaviours of the local community to take active part in local decision-making processes. The questionnaire was used as a research instrument for the local community of this Municipality. The research results showed that the local community of this area was generally aware of the need for their involvement in local decision-making, but they considered the municipality as the main responsibility for their involvement in this process.
 Keywords: Albania, local planning & decision-making, Malesia e Madhe Municipality, public participation.

Negotiating digital surveillance legislation in post-Snowden times

Abstract In the digital era, when security agencies world-wide have been challenging basic democratic principles with massive data gathering, Finland has had a different approach: it has conducted no large-scale surveillance of citizens’ online activities. Now, however, the country is planning such a vast expansion of state surveillance that the constitution itself must be altered. The present article examines one key point in this legislative process to see how the new surveillance measures are argued for and criticized, and how the differing points of view are negotiated to ultimately enable political action. Drawing particularly on Fairclough and Fairclough’s (2012) approach to argumentation in political discourse, the article finds that surveillance is promoted as essential for national security, and criticized especially for its economic risks, consequences for civil rights and questionable effectiveness. Despite this range of critical perspectives, only economic considerations become a topic of extended deliberation.

Corrupt, Abusive, and Legal: Italian Breaches of the Democratic Contract

What corruption? In this article, I focus on corruption that does not break the law. I develop an ethnographically based analysis of the impact, on associated life, of governance that is both legal and received at the grassroots level as illegitimate and morally corrupt. Empirical evidence from Naples sheds light on the corrupting impact of ideologically biased governance that today, as in the past, responds to the selective interests and demands of small groups at the expense of the urban population. Critically, these processes take place in a national context marred by the progressive corruption of the basic democratic principle of unequivocal separation between the powers of the state and by repeated breaches in the democratic contract that engender erosion both of trust between citizenship and governance and of representative responsibility. Combined, these processes mark power without authority. They occur in a Group of Seven country that, for several years, has been ruled by a succession of unelected governments. In this scenario, I suggest, an anthropological analysis of local dynamics helps in grasping the sociological impact of processes that have broader significance and in addressing the question of what can be done to control and possibly prevent corruption that does not break the law.

The Influence of Politics on the Judiciary in Serbia: The Failed Reform of the Judiciary As an Example

The discussion on the impact of politics and politicians on the judiciary was evident in 1990 and the beginning of party pluralism in Serbia. Despite the existence of political consensus about necessity of judiciary reform, it is obvious that efforts of previous governments did not bring about much progress in this area. The modernization of the Serbian judiciary and enhancement of its efficiency have been the starting points of the judiciary reform since 2010. Although the main goal of the reform was an improvement of the situation in the Serbian judiciary, the the entire procedural framework of the judicial reform was and still is seriously criticized. The decision of the Constitutional Court of Serbia in July 2012 confirms that reform of Serbian judiciary was not conducted in a democratic manner. Judicial independence as one of the basic democratic principles is an important indicator of the political maturity of a society. It is clear that Serbian political elite did not have the courage to realize the political promises that they gave to their voters. Serbian society needs to work a lot on implementation of the fundamental reforms in order to fulfil the conditions for the full membership in the European Union.

On a World Climate Assembly and the Social Cost of Carbon

This paper argues that a uniform global tax‐like price on carbon emissions, whose revenues each country retains, can provide a focal point for a reciprocal common climate commitment, whereas quantity targets, which do not nearly so readily present such a single focal point, tend to rely ultimately on individual quantity commitments. The paper postulates the conceptually useful allegory of a futuristic ‘World Climate Assembly’ (WCA) that votes for a single worldwide price on carbon emissions via the basic democratic principle of one person, one vote majority rule. A WCA‐like uniform price‐tax counters self‐interest by incentivizing countries or agents to internalize the externality because each WCA agent's higher abatement cost from a higher emissions price is counterbalanced by that agent's extra benefit from inducing all other WCA agents to simultaneously lower their emissions in response to the higher price. The paper derives fresh insights and new simple formulae that relate each emitter's most‐preferred world price of carbon to the world ‘social cost of carbon’ (SCC), and further relates the WCA‐voted world price of carbon to the world SCC. Some implications are discussed. The overall methodology of the paper is a mixture of mostly classical with some behavioural economics.

Private television accessibility for people with disabilities in Spain. The cases of Antena 3 and Telecinco

The fundamental right to freedom of expression is inextricably linked to the right of all people to equal access to information. This right is enshrined in documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution itself, which are basic pillars of a democratic society. With regard to television, accessibility is a particularly important issue due to its public service nature and its relevance as a factor of social inclusion. At present, however, the public service remit is the exclusive reserve of state television, while at the private channels economic interests prevail. It is precisely because of this factor that the focus here is placed on private television, with the aim of plotting a path that explains, in a contextualized manner, the origin, evolution, and current situation of accessibility of Spanish private television for people with disabilities. To this end, an analysis has been performed on the introduction of subtitles, audio descriptions, and sign language by the two private channels with the highest audience ratings and the longest track record in Spain, namely, Antena 3 and Telecinco. Thus, this study shows that the Audiovisual Communication Act (7/2010) has marked a turning point in the evolution of accessibility. Following the enactment of this legislation, there has been a genuine increase in accessible content, but the current state of affairs is still far from the universal access demanded by people with disabilities and the basic principles of democracy.

La accesibilidad de las personas con discapacidad a la televisión privada en España. Los casos de Antena 3 y Telecinco

The fundamental right to freedom of expression is inextricably linked to the right of all people to equal access to information. This right is enshrined in documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution itself, which are basic pillars of a democratic society. With regard to television, accessibility is a particularly important issue due to its public service nature and its relevance as a factor of social inclusion. At present, however, the public service remit is the exclusive reserve of state television, while at the private channels economic interests prevail. It is precisely because of this factor that the focus here is placed on private television, with the aim of plotting a path that explains, in a contextualized manner, the origin, evolution, and current situation of accessibility of Spanish private television for people with disabilities. To this end, an analysis has been performed on the introduction of subtitles, audio descriptions, and sign language by the two private channels with the highest audience ratings and the longest track record in Spain, namely, Antena 3 and Telecinco. Thus, this study shows that the Audiovisual Communication Act (7/2010) has marked a turning point in the evolution of accessibility. Following the enactment of this legislation, there has been a genuine increase in accessible content, but the current state of affairs is still far from the universal access demanded by people with disabilities and the basic principles of democracy.

On a World Climate Assembly and the Social Cost of Carbon

This paper postulates the conceptually useful allegory of a futuristic “World Climate Assembly” (WCA) that votes for a single worldwide price on carbon emissions via the basic democratic principle of one-person one-vote majority rule. If this WCA framework can be accepted in the first place, then voting on a single internationally- binding minimum carbon price (the proceeds from which are domestically retained) tends to counter self-interest by incentivizing countries or agents to internalize the externality. I attempt to sketch out the sense in which each WCA-agent's extra cost from a higher emissions price is counter-balanced by that agent's extra benefit from inducing all other WCA-agents to simultaneously lower their emissions in response to the higher price. The first proposition of this paper derives a relatively simple formula relating each emitter's single-peaked most-preferred world price of carbon emissions to the world “Social Cost of Carbon” (SCC). The second and third propositions relate the WCA-voted world price of carbon to the world SCC. I argue that the WCA-voted price and the SCC are unlikely to differ sharply. Some implications are discussed. The overall methodology of the paper is a mixture of mostly classical with some behavioral economics.

Shaping tolerant attitudes towards immigrants: The role of welfare state expenditures

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion on how tolerance may be fostered in Western European countries and to the question of how contextual factors such as welfare state expenditures may contribute to this formation. Tolerance is understood as a basic democratic principle that helps civil societies cope with rising levels of diversity stemming from increased immigration and individualism. Within the tolerance literature, it is commonly agreed upon that a comprehensive welfare state is capable of bridging class divides and overcoming social categorization. However, over the past decades, European welfare states experienced an ongoing influx of immigrants, challenging their general purpose and increasing notions of ‘welfare chauvinism’. Drawing on insights from both tolerance and welfare state solidarity literature, we implement hierarchical analyses based on Eurobarometer data to assess the potential influence of welfare state universalism on political and social tolerance in 15 Western European countries. Moreover, we demonstrate that this relationship is highly conditional on the degree of ethnic heterogeneity within a country.

On a World Climate Assembly and the Social Cost of Carbon

This paper postulates the conceptually useful allegory of a futuristic “World Climate Assembly” (WCA) that votes for a single worldwide price on carbon emissions via the basic democratic principle of one-person one-vote majority rule. If this WCA framework can be accepted in the first place, then voting on a single internationally-binding minimum carbon price (the proceeds from which are domestically retained) tends to counter self-interest by incentivizing countries or agents to internalize the externality. I attempt to sketch out the sense in which each WCA-agent's extra cost from a higher emissions price is counter-balanced by that agent's extra benefit from inducing all other WCA-agents to simultaneously lower their emissions in response to the higher price. The first proposition of this paper derives a relatively simple formula relating each emitter's single-peaked most-preferred world price of carbon emissions to the world “Social Cost of Carbon” (SCC). The second and third propositions relate the WCA-voted world price of carbon to the world SCC. I argue that the WCA-voted price and the SCC are unlikely to differ sharply. Some implications are discussed. The overall methodology of the paper is a mixture of mostly classical with some behavioral economics.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Managing the implementation of europеаn civic education practices in Ukraine

Dynamic changes in Ukrainian society urge to find effective ways to raise a new citizen of the state. Learning and implementing the best European experience of civic competences presented in the article by Swiss – Ukrainian project “Development of civic competencies in Ukraine” is timely. Successfull execution of tasks depends on the effective use of scientific approaches to managing the implementation of such practice.Project implementation management model based on the conceptual basis of management as a science, determines organizational - pedagogical conditions for its implementation, stages of implementation and predictable results and monitor the quality of the work. The article justified the basic tasks of managing the implementation of the Project in Ukraine. An important factor in achieving the goals of the Project is scientifically - grounded approach to implementation management, based on the basic principles of democracy. Achieving predictable results involves creating appropriate organizational - pedagogical conditions of implementation of the Project: normative - legal, educational - methodical support, staffing, cooperation between educational institutions in the community at different levels, logistical and financial support. Stages of implementation provide training and preparatory phase, the phase of mass adoption & study the results.The results of implementation of the proposed model in regional education systems of Ukraine confirmed its efficiency and the possibility to use it for managing the implementation of other innovative projects in education

Do Catalans have ‘the right to decide’? Secession, legitimacy and democracy in twenty-first century Europe

Secession is normally viewed as legitimate only as a last resort for oppressed peoples, but contemporary independence movements in Europe are working hard to shift perceptions of the legitimacy of secession as a democratic phenomenon. In this context, the recent growth of the independence movement in Catalonia has given rise to a direct confrontation between two opposing conceptions of the legitimacy of secession in democratic nation-states. On one hand, pro-referendum Catalans claim that a vote on the matter would be entirely consistent with the basic principles of democracy. On the other, the Spanish government rests its denial of a referendum on the legal authority of the Spanish Constitution, which states that Spain must remain united. This article traces the two competing discourses of democratic and legal legitimacy (what we might call the ‘right to decide’ vs. the ‘duty to abide’) through an examination of the rhetoric of key political actors. It concludes that the Catalan government's attempt to prove that Catalonia could constitute a politically legitimate independent state, and should therefore be allowed to ask its residents whether they wish it to do so, is particularly significant as a challenge to generally accepted ‘remedial right’ theories of secession.

'Illegal' Migration is Speech

Non-citizens must comply with immigration laws just because citizens say so. The citizenry takes for granted its monopoly on immigration control, but the legitimacy of this arrangement has been called into question by cutting-edge political theorists. One prominent theorist argues, for example, that basic democratic principles require that non-citizens living outside the U.S. have a say in the formation of immigration law, since they must obey it. For the first time, this Article provides a legal response to these political theory developments, assimilating them, along with the facts on the ground, into an account of “illegal” migration as First Amendment speech.If non-citizens’ voices are unjustly excluded from the immigration law conversation, then “illegal” migration is speech of necessity — there is no other way for non-citizens to be heard. Protest speech occurs every time a migrant crosses a border without permission, and every time a non-citizen chooses to overstay a visa: these defiant actions declare the illegitimacy of immigration law. In turn, the individual speech acts of millions of “illegal” migrants help to foment an immigrants’ rights consciousness, and enable groups of migrants to engage in core, protected forms of dissent, like marching in the streets shouting “NOT ONE MORE DEPORTATION” — and tweeting #Not1More.By speaking in these disruptive and unorthodox ways, the undocumented force the citizenry to grapple with the serious constriction of non-citizens’ lives that immigration laws cause. If these millions of protesters had respected our immigration laws by staying at home, pining for — but failing to seize — a better life in the United States, citizens could not know concretely how immigration laws limit non-citizens’ lives, nor learn whether our legal and political system is resilient enough to accommodate millions of people the citizenry did not ask for. Thus, “illegal” migration makes the immigration law conversation more consistent with American free-speech values than it would otherwise be.

Інститут партійного лідерства у системі партієтворення сучасної України

У даній статті на основі опрацювання теорії й практики партійного будівництва в Україні досліджується роль партійного лідера у здійсненні політичного процесу й партієтворення, реалізації політичної влади, розвитку політичної свідомості та формуванні сучасної політичної еліти нашої держави. Ствер­­­д­жується, що партійний лідер – це авторитетна, визнана в своєму політичному середовищі особа, обрана керувати партією, і здатна консолідувати громадян навколо спільної мети, найефективніше репрезентувати інтереси конкретної соціальної групи. Вказується, що визначальною рисою явища партійного лідерства є те, що за умов сталого політичного розвитку та незворотності демократичних перетворень в Україні склад лідерів політичних партій фактично виступає потужним кадровим резервом для вищих державних органів, структур місцевого самоврядування та інших управлінських інститутів. Процес партієтворення як невід’ємна складова політичного процесу характеризує певну сторону, механізм дії системи свідомості, культури у сфері суспільного життя, яка стосується діяльності політичних партій. Закономірною складовою сучасної політичної еліти є партійна еліта – керівне коло осіб у політичній партії на чолі з її лідером, які безпосередньо причетні до прийняття стратегічних рішень, визначення політичного курсу цієї сили, а також її участі в політичному процесі. Досліджуються класифікаційні моделі вітчизняних партій та інститутів партійного лідерства. Пропонується оцінка рівня співвіднесення розвитку партійних лідерів та загальної динаміки громадянського суспільства в Україні. Вказується, що на даний час кардинальної зміни української партійної еліти ще не відбулося. Водночас має місце тривала еволюція інституту партійного лідерства – досить важкий процес внутрішніх і зовнішніх, об’єктивних та суб’єктивних, економічних, політичних ы соціально­психологічних чинників розвитку. Для цієї еволюції загалом присутні всі сприятливі умови, адже наразі жодна політична сила країни не заперечує базових демократичних засад її розвитку.

Snarl: in defense of stalled traffic and faulty networks

Ruth A. Miller excavates a centuries-old history of nonhuman and nonbiological constitutional engagement and outlines a robust mechanical democracy that challenges existing theories of liberal and human political participation. Drawing on an eclectic set of legal, political, and automotive texts from France, Turkey, and the United States, she proposes a radical mechanical rearticulation of three of the most basic principles of democracy: vitality, mobility, and liberty. Rather than defending a grand theory of materialist or posthumanist politics, or addressing abstract concepts or things writ large, Miller invites readers into a self-contained history of constitutionalism situated in a focused discussion of automobile traffic congestion in Paris, Istanbul, and Boston. Within the mechanical public sphere created by automotive space, Snarl finds a model of democratic politics that transforms our most fundamental assumptions about the nature, and constitutional potential, of life, movement, and freedom.

Teaching Tolerance? Associational Diversity and Tolerance Formation

Tolerance is a basic democratic principle that helps civil societies cope with rising levels of diversity stemming from increased immigration and individualism. During the last decade the question ...

Certification — Right to Certification for a Sectarian Organization Restricted to Members of the Christian Faith — Right Denied

Section 10 of the Ontario labour Relations Act, concerning certification of unions, as well as Section 4 of The Fair Employment Practices Act require that a trade union must extend the opportunity of membership and the right incidental to membership, equally and impartially and on the same terms and conditions to persons of all creeds. Any arbitrary or discriminatory denial of these right and opportunities is not only inimical to basic democratic principles but is incompatible wtih the union's obligation as an exclusive bargaining agent to represent all employees in the bargaining unit. Trenton Construction Workers Association, local No 52, affiliated with the Christian Labour Association of Canada, Applicant, and Tange Company Limited, Respondent; Ontario Labour Relations Board, File No. 20576-60, November 13, 1961. L.A. MacLean, Deputy Vice-Chairman, and Board Members G. Russel Harvey and R.W. Teagle.

Dire consequences or empty threats? Western pressure for peace, justice and democracy in Kenya

This paper examines Western countries' pressure – or lack thereof – for peace, justice and democracy in Kenya. It analyzes the period since the 2008 National Accord, which defused the 2007–08 post-election crisis, focusing on the lead-up to and immediate aftermath of the 2013 elections. The paper draws extensively on interviews conducted in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013 with Western officials based in Nairobi, as well as informed Kenyans. It argues, first, that recent Western pressure is the latest iteration of a consistent pattern of donors not enforcing stated conditions for future support, causing diminishing returns. Second, donors not only have been reluctant to use potential leverage over the Kenyan government, but also have consistently underestimated it and erred by publicly threatening to use it only at the least strategic moment and not when it could have been most effective. Third, Western officials have continued to make short-term decisions favoring stability or peace that actually undermine basic principles of democracy and justice.