Consensus Democracy Research Articles

The game of goodwill: an exploratory study of discursive goodwill strategies of interest organizations in a consensus democracy

In consensus democracies, interest organizations are likely to pursue their goals by attempting to create goodwill to strengthen their relationships with politicians. Through an exploratory analysis based on interviews with representatives from 58 organizations, a typology of seven strategies for such goodwill is suggested: Lobbyists will convey an understanding of the politician’s professional needs, while also recognizing constraints for what is possible to achieve. Several interviewees maintained that they avoided coming across as self-centered. Instead, they would be on the lookout for the politician’s interests, express empathy, provide public recognition of the politicians when ‘deserved,’ and they would keep a friendly and respectful tone. The first two of these strategies—emphasizing professional needs and recognizing constraints—were mentioned most frequently. The NGOs in the sample pointed to constraints more often than the other organization types, while the work-life organizations stated the importance of understanding professional needs the most. The use of such strategies increased with the level of organizational resources.

The shift to consensus democracy and limits of institutional design in Asia

A ‘majoritarian turn’ identified by scholars of Asian democracy in the 1990s saw the rise of mixed-member majoritarian electoral systems and more centripetal party competition across both Northeast and Southeast Asia. In this paper, we argue that since the 2000s, the institutional pendulum has shifted, with more consensual approaches to democracy appearing to better represent key identity cleavages of gender, ethnicity, and territory—a trend evident not just in East Asia but South Asia as well. This new ‘Asian model’ typically involves increasing the proportional components of existing electoral formulas and grafting gender quotas, multiethnic party lists, and quasi-federal elements onto ostensibly majoritarian state structures. We show that these reforms have, as intended, mostly increased female and ethnic minority representation and decentralized governance structures. At the same time, however, these de jure changes are not associated with de facto political development in terms of greater democratic quality, counter to theoretical expectations. Indeed, democracy has declined across most of Asia at the same time as its democratic institutions have become more consensual.

Ants resort to majority concession to reach democratic consensus in the presence of a persistent minority

Social groups often need to overcome differences in individual interests and knowledge to reach consensus decisions. Here, we combine experiments and modeling to study conflict resolution in emigrating ant colonies during binary nest selection. We find that cohesive emigration, without fragmentation, is achieved only by intermediate-sized colonies. We then impose a conflict regarding the desired emigration target between colony subgroups. This is achieved using an automated selective gate system that manipulates the information accessible to each ant. Under this conflict, we find that individuals concede their potential benefit to promote social consensus. In particular, colonies resolve the conflict imposed by a persistent minority through "majority concession," wherein a majority of ants that hold first-hand knowledge regarding the superior quality nest choose to reside in the inferior one. This outcome is unlikely in social groups of selfish individuals and emphasizes the importance of group cohesion in eusocial societies. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Georgia's Illiberal Forces: Political Polarization against Democracy

This article explores how illiberal forces are structuring in Georgia and what this evolution reveals about the weakness of Georgia’s democratic institutions and liberal values. The analysis starts with a discussion of how political polarization creates the context for illiberal groups to undermine democracy. Drawing on theoretical and empirical inquiry, I suggest the causal mechanism of how weak democratic institutions enable the emergence of illiberal groups through a personalized party system. Then, I address the lack of genuine democratic commitment on the part of Georgia’s main political actors. Further, I probe for the movements that are gradually changing the grassroots dynamics by promoting conservative values, and their ties to Russia. The concluding section discusses the politicization of gender issues and the polarization of political space as two concomitant trends that frustrate the search for democratic consensus in Georgia.

Tunisia’s democratisation process: when ‘consensus democracy’ undermines democratic consolidation

ABSTRACT Consensus between moderate Islamists and moderate secularists is usually judged as the touchstone of democracy in Tunisia. However, after a decade, the ‘Tunisian model’ is being questioned, as institutional and economic crises have become the norm in the country. The aim of the article is to look at how consensus adopted in the transition affected long-term democratic consolidation. To answer this question the article unpacks the concept of consensus, considering, on the one hand, the institutional architecture of consensus democracy and, on the other hand, the practice of consensus politics. The case study is used to identify the patterns generated by the interaction of these two dimensions of consensus through time. Two reforms prescribed in the 2014 constitution, the creation of the Constitutional Court and decentralisation, are taken as heuristic tools to examine democratic consolidation. In both reforms the mismatch between institutions and politics of consensus produced deadlock and non-consolidation. It is in this context that, in July 2021, President Saied dismissed the government and suspended the parliament with the intention to put an end to consensus democracy.

Ideal and Non-ideal Deliberation: The Problem of Equivocation

I distinguish between ideal and non-ideal deliberation. I outline the relevance of both ideal and non-ideal theorising to show their respective roles and importance. This helps me to demonstrate that neither of them should be downplayed, confused with the other, or substituted. Although it appears more attractive to be an idealist than a non-idealist in a theoretical debate on social systems, I show that such a perception is practically inadequate. I then argue that when we deliberate, we presuppose either ideal or non-ideal deliberation. I demonstrate that it is consistent to stick to one deliberative presupposition in the same context, and I show that shifting from one deliberative presupposition to another in the same argument or context, is equivocation. I demonstrate how this kind of equivocation confuses and derails the debate. As a case study, I focus on the debate about consensual democracy in Africa. I seek in this essay to contribute lessons regarding the relationship between ideal and non-ideal theorising to the global project of deliberative democracy.

Network ties, institutional roles and advocacy tactics:Exploring explanations for perceptions of influence in climate change policy networks

The extent to which a policy actor is perceived as being influential by others can shape their role in a policy process. The interest group literature has examined how the use of advocacy tactics, such as lobbying or media campaigns, contributes to an actor’s perceived influence. The policy networks literature, in turn, has found that network ties and occupying certain institutional roles can explain why actors are perceived as influential. When investigating what explains perceptions of influence, interest groups scholars have not accounted for network interdependencies and network scholars have so far not examined the advocacy tactics used by interest groups. This paper addresses the gap at the intersection of these two literatures by investigating the relationship between network ties, institutional roles, advocacy tactics and the presence of influence attribution ties in climate change policy networks. Exponential random graph models are applied to network data collected from the organisations participating in the national climate change policymaking processes in six EU countries that vary by the extent to which they are majoritarian or consensual democracies: Czechia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and Sweden. The results show that network ties and institutional roles are better predictors of influence attribution ties than advocacy tactics and that there is no pattern in the relationship between advocacy tactics and influence attribution ties across different institutional contexts. These findings suggest that because influence is primarily associated with structural factors (network ties and institutional roles) that more established policy actors are likely to have more influence, which may inhibit the need for a significant step change in climate policies.

Dejtonske kontroverze – Javno odlučivanje između parlamentarne demokratije i partitokratije

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the pluralization of society and the state began during 1990. This is the time when political parties are formed and the first multi-party parliamentary elections are held. Due to the strong influence and domination of the ethnic principle, political parties were formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990 in two basic forms: as ethnic or people's (national) parties, and as civic (multiethnic) parties. In almost all election cycles from the beginning of the pluralization of Bosnian society until today, ethnic political parties have won the elections. Ethnic political parties have appropriated a monopoly in the promotion of national interests since the 1990 election campaign, guided by the idea of protecting the national interests of “their“ peoples. The continued rule of ethnic parties without a coalition political agenda and agreement has strengthened ethnic pluralism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, instead of democratic decision-making and competition between the majority and the opposition, the representative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina have become an arena and a place of mutual competition and confrontation between the parties that make up the parliamentary majority. The lack of the necessary democratic consensus between the ruling ethnic political parties at the state level was compensated and compensated by the High Representative of the International Community (OHR), who, on the basis of the Bonn powers, promulgated certain laws. Hundreds of laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been promulgated by high representatives. This prevented blockages in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the absence of the necessary consensus of the ruling ethnic parties, it is not possible to develop or strengthen the power of parliaments as the highest representative body of the people and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of parliamentary democracy, classical partitocracy is at work. The situation is similar at the entity level, and at the cantonal level in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. All this, along with heterogeneous and complicated decision-making procedures and processes, ultimately reflects on the adoption of laws and decisions of importance to society and the state. Complicated forms of decision-making and the existence of a famous mechanism for the protection of vital national interests are some of the obstacles to the development of the state and society. All of these are some of the essential problems, but also the controversies that follow the decision-making processes in the representative bodies in the country. This is especially true of the adoption of important and significant public policies aimed at solving socio-political problems. Only decision-making at the level of local self-government units (municipalities and cities) can serve as a positive example. In general, the local level of government has so far proved to be the most efficient level of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The basis for strengthening the democratic decision-making capacities of the representative bodies of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is contained in the application of the democratic principle on which parliamentary democracy is established and functions. Applying almost all basic and general scientific research methods, as well as the method of analysis (content) of relevant documentation as a method of data acquisition, will identify key problems and controversies of public decision-making and policy making in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period after the Dayton Peace Agreement. today. A conclusion will be drawn on the need to establish a parliamentary majority based on the coalition agreement and the political program of that coalition, which significantly affects the public decision-making processes and the adoption of the necessary state public policy. Bosnia and Herzegovina is required to reconstruct public decisions in the direction of strengthening state public decisions and policies and building European standards, in order to more efficiently compose them with the requirements and directives of the European Union.

SOCIAL MEDIA, PUBLIC SPHERE AND THE POLITICAL TRAGEDIES OF CONTEMPORARY ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia since 1991 G.C has been adopting democracy and federalism as constitutional frameworks of the state. The core objective to maintain the two political cultures is the presence of multiple cultural identities within the state and the actual need for an intersubjective discussion on the public sphere. And one of the major areas of public sphere is the social media. As per the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia citizens of Ethiopia have the democratic rights of Thoughts, Opinion and Expression (Art. 29), so in social media it is natural to expect that individuals talk on the different affairs of the state ‘freely’. Basically the social media is serving as an instrument in maintaining discursive talk among individuals. However, it has been also producing considerable social turmoil across the world. The same is what is encountering in Ethiopia today; on the one hand, social media as a communication platform allows people to communicate effectively with sharing alternative views, attitudes and forming democratic consensus on the social anomalies and responses, and on the other hand, the media is the sphere of communicative maladjustment where misunderstanding, extremism and miscommunication is producing. In the present Ethiopian context the basic source of communication and miscommunication in the social media is the ‘pluriversal identities’ of the cultural horizon. Taking this as a crucial object, this article will discuss the connection between democracy, federalism and social media in the current Ethiopia. On the top of this, the study aims at exploring the following issues: the social media sphere in Ethiopia, the modern and postmodern challenges of social media in Ethiopia and alternatives for the social media reconstruction.

The African state today and the democracy ideal: A case for a critical return

Undoubtedly, many modern nation-states seek to achieve a better form of democratic governance. The African nation-state is not an exception. However, the attempt by African nation-states to achieve the ideal form of democratic governance has been especially problematic. The real problem, as we see it, is that because of the forces of colonization and neo-colonization, Africa especially has scarcely had the opportunity to articulate and practice an uninterrupted democracy that accords with her indigenous political values and contemporary political experience. The upshot of this failure is the myriad of governance problems that plague contemporary African nation-states. Adopting both a descriptive and normative approach in this paper, we aim to uncover valuable aspects of traditional African politics which have been jettisoned in the politics of today. We further discuss why such worthwhile elements need to be refined and incorporated into contemporary African democracies. We analyze the traditional Fante governance system as a model of consensual democracy rooted in the African traditional concept of statehood that must be re-enacted to suit the practice of nation building in Africa today. Thus, we re-echo the largely held view that consensual democracy shows positive prospects for the issue of substantive representation in African politics today. Key words: African democracy, consensual, multiparty, nation-state, colonial mentality, ethnic, tradition and modernity, Fante.

Democratic Aesthetics: Scenes of Political Violence and Anxiety in Nari Ward and Ocean Vuong

Abstract By attending to art and writing that interrogates US citizenship and state violence, this essay foregrounds the structural antagonism between democracy as an instituted form of rule, which depends on inegalitarian hierarchies, and democracy’s egalitarian drive. It argues that the realization of democracy as a form of governance (consensus democracy) occurs by substituting the rule of a part for the whole, which violently forces democracy’s constitutive figures to conform to and negotiate its organizing logics. Nari Ward’s We the People (2011) allegorizes this inherent tension in democracy as one between synecdoche and metonymy. The article then theorizes a new form of democratic politics through an engagement with Jacques Rancière before turning to Ocean Vuong’s “Notebook Fragments” (2016) and “Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds” (2016) as articulations of a democratic aesthetics constituted by figures—including metonymy, irony, and catachresis—that interrupt the substitutions of synecdoche. Vuong’s poetry foregrounds the violence enacted by state fantasies and insists on the democratic equality disavowed by consensus democracy. Together, Ward and Vuong locate the political force of aesthetics not in reassuring visions of inclusion but in operations that disturb and resist any form of hierarchy.

The June Offensive

This essay explores the relations between soldiers, officers, command staff, and the Provisional Government, to explain why and how the June Offensive of 1917 failed, and to investigate its effects on the Russian Revolution. The liberals and moderate socialists of the Provisional Government failed to compose a coherent policy on the war and on soldiers' rights, resulting in extreme social and political polarization. Proclaiming the policy of revolutionary defensism, prosecuting a strictly defensive war, and seeking peace without annexations or indemnities, the Provisional Government contradictorily launched the June Offensive. The June Offensive was a central point in the Russian Revolution, marking the breakdown of democratic consensus and contributing to the disintegration of the armed forces, the collapse of social order, and the rise of the Bolsheviks.

The future of polarisation in Europe: relative cosmopolitanism and democracy

One of the central features of our societies is an increasing polarisation between communitarian and cosmopolitan positions. The theoretically sound and differentiated concepts are increasingly being escalated and misused in political practice by authoritarian populists and polarising pushers who try to pull the undecided to their side and tear society apart. Two essential agreements of the post-war period are increasingly being called into question: The European consensus, which considers European unification as an essential achievement and goal of political actors, and the democratic consensus, which states that representative democracy is the undisputed best form of government. In this article, after an introductory definition of polarisation, two future scenarios are developed. In the scenario “Polarised Europe”, polarisation is extrapolated into the future and discussed with its serious consequences for the democratic and European consensus. The second scenario “Democratised Europe” shows how the concept of a relative cosmopolitanism can mitigate polarisation and what steps could possibly be taken to constructively turn it into a more democratic direction.

People and power in an African consensual democracy

Some African thinkers have argued that the governance systems in traditional precolonial African societies were democratic, and the kind of democracy they practised was consensual democracy. It was democratic because it ensured the maximal participation of all members in the governance of the society, and it was consensual because it involved the rational deliberation of issues where decisions were primarily reached by consensus. The aim of this article is to examine, on the one side, the nature of the demos and kratos in traditional African systems of governance that warrants characterising them as democratic, and, on the other side, the decision- making process that marks it as a distinctive form of democracy – consensual democracy. Reflecting on Akan proverbs and archival records of deliberations, I argue that the question of democracy in relation to the traditional African systems of governance should be pursued not from how they cherish consensual decision- making, but by how they uniquely conceptualise the demos and kratos in the political experiences of African societies. This unique conception of people-power and the institution of decisional dissensus is what distinguishes traditional African consensual democracy from both populism and deliberative democracy.

Democratic consensus reaching process for multi-person multi-criteria large scale decision making considering participants’ individual attributes and concerns

Consensus reaching is a key issue in group decision-making, because conflicts of interest among groups are common. Democratic consensus refers to achieve a soft consensus among collective as well as ensure the effective participation and satisfaction of individuals. Multi-person multi-criteria large scale decision making (MpMcLSDM) usually involves a huge number of decision makers (DMs/participants), and different DMs usually have different interests. Thus, how to effectively manage individuals to promote democratic consensus is a current research challenge. To do that, this research develops a democratic consensus reaching process (DCRP) for MpMcLSDM problems. In the proposed approach, a clustering method that considers both the opinion similarity and individual concern similarity of DM is firstly given to decrease the complexity of MpMcLSDM issues. Subsequently, we propose to assign equal initial weight to each cluster to protect the interests of minorities. Meanwhile, a consensus contribution-based dynamic interactive weight updating method is implemented in the DCRPs to promote a high level of democratic consensus. Besides, a compromise degree-based consensus feedback strategy is developed to improve the efficiency of the DCRPs. The proposed feedback mechanism effectively considers the individual concern and adjustment willingness of DMs in the DCRPs. Finally, a case study and some comparisons are given to show the effectiveness and innovation of this research.

Accounting for Democracy: Excessive Subjects in a State of Consensus

In the face of the public debates and protests fueled by Spain's persistent economic, social, and institutional crisis (2008–present), the country's politicians and media have consistently identified these debates and protests—in a word, social unrest—with three phenomena: nationalism, populism, and feminism. In my essay, I begin by showing how Spanish public discourse tends to situate all three on a single continuum, identifying their intersections in negative terms as a potentially disruptive excess that must be controlled, if not eliminated, to avoid a crisis of democracy. The second part of my essay moves to a theoretically informed reflection on the nature and function of political elements categorized as “excessive” in consensus democracies. Drawing on C. Lefort, J. Rancière, C. Mouffe, W. Brown. B. Honig, and L. Grattan, among others, I delve into how these perceived forms of excess function as dissonant remainders that account for the paradoxes of popular sovereignty, signaling its limits as well as its conditions of possibility.

Antimicrobial resistance policies in European countries – a comparative analysis of policy integration in the water-food-health nexus

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial resistances (AMR) present an emerging concern in human and animal health policy, as well as in water policy as a consequence of the pollution of water resources by antibiotic substances stemming from manure and sewage treatment plants. In 2017, the European Commission passed an AMR Action Plan and urged member states to develop national action plans to coordinate action across human, animal and environmental health. Building on the literature on policy integration we conduct comparative case studies in order to explore how European countries address the AMR challenge and if policies respond to the cross-sectoral character of AMR. We find that policy integration varies across countries provide explanations for why this is the case and come to three main conclusions: Firstly, and confirming previous research, a pronounced executive capacity, the presence of green parties in parliament, and a consensus democracy are each necessary but not sufficient conditions in configurations leading to policy integration. Secondly, executive capacity only results in policy integration if there is no important agricultural sector articulating its interests. Thirdly, even if there is an important agricultural and/or livestock sector, green parties in parliament or consensus democracies can balance these interests towards a successful policy integration.

A Popular Mandate for Strongmen: What Public Opinion Data Reveals About Support for Executive Aggrandizement in Turkey, 1996-2018

ABSTRACT Most analysis of democratic backsliding focuses on the elite or party level. This article takes a bottom-up approach. In Turkey, popular support for a strong, undemocratic leader developed independently of Erdoğan and the AKP, but later consolidated behind the party. Analysis of longitudinal public opinion data reveals that the 2000– 2001 economic crisis undermined the democratic consensus, but that economic prosperity – far from restoring faith in democracy – reinforced support for a strongman leader as an alternative to liberal democracy among populations that benefited the most economically: the middle class and economic elites. Additionally, individuals who identify strongly with politically predominant social groups tend to support undemocratic leaders. This analysis improves our understanding of mass-level support for authoritarian leaders in democracies.

African Studies Keyword: Democracy

AbstractDemocracy is one of the most contested words in the English language. In Africa, these complexities are compounded by the question of whether democracy is a colonial imposition. Cheeseman and Sishuwa provide a historiography of debates around democracy, track how these narratives have developed over time, and argue that there is widespread public support for a form of what they call “consensual democracy.” This is not to say that democracy is universally loved, but despite the controversy it remains one of the most compelling ideals in political life, even in countries in which it is has yet to be realized.

Patterns of democracy? Social network analysis of parliamentary Twitter networks in 12 countries

Social media networks have revolutionized social science research. Yet, a lack of comparative empirical analysis of these networks leave social scientists with little knowledge on the role that contextual factors play in the formation of social relations. In this paper we perform a large-scale comparison of parliamentary Twitter networks in 12 countries to improve our understanding of the influence of the country’s democratic system on network behavior and elite polarization. One year of Twitter data was collected from all members of the parliament and government in these countries, which resulted in around two million tweets by almost 6000 politicians. Social network analysis of the Twitter interactions indicates that consensual democracies are characterized by more dense parliamentary relations but also higher hierarchy and fragmentation compared to majoritarian systems. Secondly, parliaments with a high effective number of parties are more cooperative, which results in higher inter-party relations. Next to that, we show differences in the followers, mentions, and retweets networks that hold across all countries and political systems. Our empirical results correspond to established theoretical insights and highlight the relevance of institutional context as well as the platform characteristics when conducting social media research. With this research we demonstrate the importance and the opportunities of social network analysis for comparative research.