Deliberative Function Research Articles

The Silent Witness Project as Rhetorical Hybrid: Toward a Theory of Collective Mourning

Public, visual displays, that aid in the mourning process and summon viewers into action, constitute a rhetorical hybrid that combines epideictic and deliberative rhetoric. This essay suggests a theory of collective mourning that seeks to explain the rhetorical import and function of these multimedia, public displays. The combination of form and content allows the critic to understand how the epideictic and deliberative function in this genre of discourse. After explaining the theory, a case study of the Silent Witness Project follows.

Supporting digital discourse? The deliberative function of links on Twitter

Digital discussion spaces have changed the shape of discursive argumentation considerably. While there is not much explicit reasoning on Twitter, many users link to external resources in their tweets. This study zooms in on the justificatory capacity of those links and investigates their deliberative function on the platform. A qualitative exploration of material from four countries shows that links to external resources support Twitter discourse by regularly substantiating user statements in the context of both information and argumentation. Links with a truth-based informative function are posted to support deliberative truth claims with empirical evidence, thus adding primarily to theoretical discourses. Links with a norm-based argumentative function are shared to legitimate positions against social standards. They contribute to practical discourses about courses of action by sustaining deliberative claims for normative rightness. The country comparison suggests that societal divisions foster a norm-based argumentative rather than truth-based informative use of links on Twitter.

A Genealogy for Post-Truth Democracies: Philosophy, Affects, Technology

How to make sense of post-truth? As the erosion of truth seems to be on the rise in contemporary societies, apparently threatening the deliberative function assigned to their public spheres and the health of democratic systems, it has become a necessity to deal with this controversial phenomenon. This paper provides a genealogy for post-truth, shedding light on its roots. It focus on three different dimensions of “post-truthfulness:” the philosophical dimension, which relates to the long theoretical debate about the possibility of truth, the conclusion of which is largely skeptical about a strong position on universally recognizable truths; the affective dimension, which takes into account the insights provided by contemporary literature on emotions; and the technological dimension, that is, the digital transformation of the public sphere. The convergence of these currents explains the rise of post-truth democracies. However, as the last section tries to demonstrate, a distinction between different types of truth is required, lest post-truth theories end up producing a nostalgia for something that never existed. After all, liberal democracies are themselves skeptical, their relationship with truth being unavoidably complex and ambiguous. Thus, distinguishing between post-truth and post-factualism can be useful for organizing the democratic conversation from a normative and practical standpoint.

입법과정에서의 숙의기능의 실질적 제고를 위한 안건신속처리제도 개선 논의

안건신속처리제도로 대표되는 대한민국국회의 신속입법절차는 국회의원 가중다 수가 입법을 요한다고 합의한 법률안에 대해 국회 입법절차를 진행시켜 입법의 가 능성을 제고하는 제도이다. 일차적으로 효율적 적시 입법을 가능하게 하며, 소관위 원회의 법률안 심사, 법제사법위원회의 체계･자구심사, 본회의 상정 후 심사가 법 정 심사기간 내 완료되지 않는 경우 다음 단계로의 자동부의를 통해 입법절차를 진행시킴으로써 입법절차 각 단계에서 심의와 공론을 촉진하여 궁극적으로 숙의를 통한 법률안 심사 및 이를 통한 입법의 질과 정당성 제고를 취지로 한다. 2012년 ｢국회법｣ 개정을 통해 도입된 이래 ｢사회적 참사의 진상규명 및 안전사회 건설 등 을 위한 특별법(약칭 “사회적 참사법”)｣(법률 제15213호, 2017.12.12. 제정 및 시행)의 제정 과정에서 법률안이 2016년12월에 최초로 신속처리대상안건으로 지정되 기까지 사용된 예가 없었으나, 2019년4월~2020년1월 ｢공직선거법｣(법률 제16864 호, 2020.1.14. 일부개정 및 시행) 개정, ｢고위공직자범죄수사처 설치 및 운영에 관한 법률｣(법률 제16863호, 2020.1.14. 제정, 2020.7.15. 시행예정) 제정, ｢형사소송법｣(법 률 제16924호, 2020.2.4. 일부개정, 시행일 미정) 개정, ｢검찰청법｣(법률 제16908호, 2020.2.4. 일부개정, 시행일 미정) 개정의 일련의 입법과정에서 사용되면서, 제도의 보완과 개선을 위한 논의와 연구의 새로운 계기가 마련되었다. 현행 ｢국회법｣상 안 건신속처리제도의 입법과정에서의 숙의기능의 실질적 제고 관점에서의 보완과 개선을 위해, 다음과 같은 안을 고려할 수 있다. 우선 제도의 생산적 사용을 위한 전 제로서, 국회 법안심사 일정을 쟁점의 수 및 난이도와 합의의 정도 등 기준에 따라 별도의 의안목록으로 나누어 심의하는 제도를 도입하여, 쟁점법안 내지 합의가 어 려운 법률안에 대한 원내정당간 입장 대립과 갈등으로 인해 이외의 법률안의 입법 도 교착 내지 지연되는 상황을 방지하는 것이 바람직하다. 또한 헌법재판의 결과 입법적 조치가 권고되는 경우의 해당 법률안 심사는 별도의 의안목록과 심사일정 에 따라 진행하는 것이 바람직할 것이다. 다음, 직접적인 ｢국회법｣ 제85조의2 신속 처리제도의 개선안으로서, 특정 법률안이 신속처리대상안건으로 지정된 이후의 법 률안 심의와 그 과정에서의 숙의가 실질적으로 이루어질 수 있는 제도적 동기와 근거가 필요하다는 점에서, 신속처리안건으로 지정된 법률안은 그 심의를 위한 입 법절차 각 단계에서의 회의 일정을 정례화하여 의무적으로 개회하도록 하고 이와 같은 법정 최소 횟수의 법률안 심의를 법정 기간과 함께 입법절차 다음 단계로의 이동 내지 자동부의의 조건으로 할 것을 제안한다. 법률의 내용과 성질상 개정의 신속성을 특별히 요하는 경우, 개별 법률에서 당해 법률의 개정이 신속한 절차에 따라 이루어지도록 규정하는 입법방식도 함께 고려할 수 있다. 입법과정에서의 숙 의기능 강화 논의는, 입법과정과 그 결과물로서의 법률의 효력 정당성과의 상관성 하에서 입법자의 정당한 역할을 어떻게 이해할 것인지, 그리고 입법과정 자체를 어 떻게 이해하고 설명하는지에서 출발한다. 대의민주주의를 원칙으로 하며 직접민주 주의 내지 참여민주주의적 요소를 보충 내지 강화해 가는 근래의 제도 변화의 큰 추이에서 대의민주주의의 민주주의 관점에서의 정당화 근거에 비추어 볼 때, 입법 과정에서의 숙의는 입법의 과정과 결과의 정당성의 핵심적 요소로서, 입법과정에 서의 숙의기능을 강화하고 실질화하는 노력은 입법의 질과 정당성 제고를 위해 제 도 내외에서 이루어져야 한다.

Tolerance of the Quranic Linguistic Approach in Semantic Linguistic Linguistics And the analysis of vocabulary in the context of Paradise

The research examines the keenness of the Qur'anic discourse on the production of a linguistic brotherhood through the employment of one of the non-Semitic languages of the Semitic languages. This view is based on linguistic tolerance and the system of Quranic linguistic policies, in order to show that the existence of such words in the Koranic language did not come from deficiencies in the Arabic language, but came to achieve goals of a universal human nature, namely creating an atmosphere of openness to the other Community through the other language, which achieves a deliberative function on the one hand, and achieves the function of civilizational dialogue and human integration with the societies of these languages taken from the other hand.As for the cultural aspect, it appears that the Quranic discourse places the Arab in front of civilizations and countries surrounding him. He must turn to the discovery and the necessity of competing. On the other hand, the recruitment in the context of Al-Naim creates a Quranic will to call for the urbanization, settlement and stability of the Arab Bedouin man, and his call to think about improving his retirement, clothing and the requirements of his life from food and architecture.

Tolerance of the Quranic Linguistic Approach in Semantic Linguistic Linguistics And the analysis of vocabulary in the context of Paradise

The research examines the keenness of the Qur'anic discourse on the production of a linguistic brotherhood through the employment of one of the non-Semitic languages of the Semitic languages. This view is based on linguistic tolerance and the system of Quranic linguistic policies, in order to show that the existence of such words in the Koranic language did not come from deficiencies in the Arabic language, but came to achieve goals of a universal human nature, namely creating an atmosphere of openness to the other Community through the other language, which achieves a deliberative function on the one hand, and achieves the function of civilizational dialogue and human integration with the societies of these languages taken from the other hand.As for the cultural aspect, it appears that the Quranic discourse places the Arab in front of civilizations and countries surrounding him. He must turn to the discovery and the necessity of competing. On the other hand, the recruitment in the context of Al-Naim creates a Quranic will to call for the urbanization, settlement and stability of the Arab Bedouin man, and his call to think about improving his retirement, clothing and the requirements of his life from food and architecture.

Paul Virilio and the temporal conditions of philosophical thinking

Unlike the memes of popular digital culture, philosophical understanding accumulates through the patience of reflection on the long-term implications of human action. The paper will draw upon the recent work of Paul Virilio to explain the threat that the speeds of digital culture pose to philosophy, both as an institutionalised discipline of human inquiry with a just claim to public support, and as an intellectual practice with a just claim to public relevance. If Virilio is correct, the trajectory of technological development is towards the displacement of human decision making from all spheres of social life (political, economic, military, cultural, and technical-scientific) because human thought is too slow. Hence, there are moves towards eliminating the deliberative function of human thought in favour of pre-programmed algorithms that can trade a stock or fire a missile in immediate response to a pre-determined set of objective circumstances. Philosophy cannot keep pace. Since it is committed to an open-ended dialectic of interpretation, reason giving, critique, and rejoinder, its time frames are incompatible with immediate response, and would, if allowed to operate in politics or economics, impede the ‘efficient’ execution of routines. However, the ‘efficient’ execution of the dominant political and economic routines is undermining the conditions of life on the planet. Hence, the defence of slow philosophical thinking is at the same time the affirmation of a different temporality of life, politics, economics, and cultural interaction. Philosophy is not a luxury that humanity can no longer afford, but the vital necessity of historically informed intelligence the solution of our most pressing environmental and social problems requires more than ever.

Time and Politics: Parliament and the Culture of Modernity in Britain and the British World, by Ryan A. Vieira

This ambitious and provocative book aims to show how the emergence of ‘modern’ understandings of time influenced the reform of parliamentary procedure in Britain and the ‘British World’ during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, resulting in a transition from deliberative to ‘executive-centred’ legislatures that continues to shape contemporary political cultures. From the early nineteenth century, Ryan Vieira claims, the use and effectiveness of ‘parliamentary time’ became a subject of intense debate at Westminster (p. 46); meanwhile in the wider culture there emerged a new conception of linear time, whose distancing of the present from the past was reinforced by a sense of profound discontinuity evoked by revolution in Europe, famine in Ireland and the growth of railway travel. As a result, Parliament came to be viewed as ‘excessively slow and de-synchronized from the nation’ (p. 72); but the self-consciously modern critique of legislative procedure that this helped to frame was constrained by an ideal of ‘respectable masculinity’ wherein the inefficient use of time was a failure of character of individual MPs, rather than of Parliament itself (p. 74). All this changed after the Second Reform Act, and particularly through the tactics of obstruction deployed by Parnell’s Irish Nationalists, in response to which Gladstone introduced a series of procedural reforms in 1882 that included, for the first time, the investment in the Speaker of the power of ‘closure’ over debates. The passage of these reforms was also abetted by the emergence of an imperial ideal of ‘martial masculinity’ wherein defeat of obstruction was a test of national, rather than merely private, character (pp. 112–13). The result, Vieira argues, was that Britain entered parliamentary modernity: appeals to tradition lost their normative force, and the deliberative function of the legislature was overtaken by its ‘instrumentally rational’ subordination to the executive (p. 120)—a historical tide that present-day reformers seeking to restore the autonomy of representative institutions will attempt to reverse in vain (pp. 178–9).

Repackaging human rights: on the justification and the function of the right to development

This paper focuses on examining the right to development. More specifically, the paper examines two questions relating to the right to development. The first focuses on the issue of justification: can the right to development that appears in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development be provided an adequate philosophical justification? The second question focuses on the function of the right to development: If the right to development simply ‘repackages’ duties correlative to other existing human rights – as it may be argued to be the case with the right enshrined in the Declaration on the Right to Development – does it serve any meaningful function? In answering the first question, the paper argues that the right to development enshrined in the Declaration on the Right to Development is essentially a derivative right, and ultimately its philosophical justification is dependent on whether or not the legal human rights the realisation of which it seeks to enable can be provided an adequate philosophical justification. In answering the second question, the paper suggests that a (moral or legal) right to development that repackages other human rights into a new form can potentially serve at least four practical functions: specifying function, advocacy function, empowerment function, and deliberative function.

L'eurosceptisme au sein du Parlement européen. Stratégies d'une opposition anti‐système au coeur des institutionsBrack, NathalieWindhof, Promoculture‐Larcier (2014), 341p., ISBN 978‐2‐87974‐604‐3

L'eurosceptisme au sein du Parlement européen. Stratégies d'une opposition anti‐système au coeur des institutionsBrack, NathalieWindhof, Promoculture‐Larcier (2014), 341p., ISBN 978‐2‐87974‐604‐3

Prayer is Prologue: The Impact of Town of Greece on the Constitutionality of Deliberative Public Body Prayer at the Start of School Board Meetings

In Town of Greece v. Galloway, the Supreme Court upheld a town board’s practice of opening each session with a prayer – often sectarian – delivered by visiting clergy. The Court drew upon the principles set forth twenty years earlier in Marsh v. Chambers, upholding the legislative prayer practice of the Nebraska state legislature. As the Article title suggests, prayer is prologue in these cases and is therefore permissible. The Court found in both Marsh and Town of Greece that religious invocations at the start of sessions of “legislative and other deliberative public bodies” do not violate the Establishment Clause. Rather, voluntary prayer givers direct these opening prayers toward the policymakers to encourage a spirit of cooperation prior to deliberation.The Town of Greece decision has prompted a number of school boards to revisit their own prayer practices. Since Marsh, circuit courts have positioned school boards at the intersection between the “legislative prayer” exception and the “prayer in schools” prohibition. Enter Town of Greece, which clarified that the concept of legislative prayer applies to even the most intimate of deliberative public bodies. Because school boards equate with town boards in deliberative function and design, the principles established in Town of Greece logically extend to school boards. This Article argues that the Court’s decision in Town of Greece lends a natural extension of its principles to school boards as deliberative public bodies. Part I examines the development of the deliberative public body doctrine leading up to Town of Greece, the avenues taken by school board circuit court precedent, and how some local school boards have reacted since the decision. Part II argues that a school board is nearly identical in nature to a town board, and therefore should have the discretion to open its meetings with an invocation in the same manner that town boards offer opening invocations. Part III explains that any structural distinctions between school boards and town boards are not constitutionally relevant for the limited purpose of solemnizing the meetings of adult school board members with a brief opening invocation. Part IV outlines the extent to which Town of Greece has eroded school board circuit court precedent. Part V examines the special case of student representatives to school boards. Finally, Part VI examines ways in which school districts may minimize potential Establishment Clause issues during opening invocations at school board meetings.

Deliberative public sphere: The rereading of Habermas’s theory in Brazil and its significance for a public theology

With the democratization process in Brazil, legal guarantees were obtained for political mobilizations and organizations. At the societal level, the emergence of new social actors helped expand the boundaries of the political and consolidate a politically influential public sphere. Although communication between the public sphere and the political system occurs under many limitations, new experiences at the local level such as the Participatory Budget enable a clearer link between society and state. In theoretical terms, this means a complement to a discursive conception of the public sphere as developed by Jurgen Habermas, as a deliberative function is assigned to it. In this paper, after considering the social and theoretical context of reception and rereading of the concept of public sphere in sociological studies in Brazil, we engage the question about a public theology that can be developed in a dialogue with Habermas’s theory. Resorting to the criticism of South African theologians James Cochrane and Tinyiko Maluleke against public theologies that based on Habermas reject the democratic potential of liberation theologies, we affirm that criticism and resistance are constitutive elements of democratic dialogue. This affirmation is not inconsistent with the political theory of Habermas; rather, his theory allows to identify the relevance of a public theology precisely in its connection with spheres of life in which the suffering caused by the social problems to be denounced and discussed in the public sphere are more directly perceived. Besides the link between lifeworld and public sphere, as well as between public sphere and political system, other themes of Habermas’s political theory regarded in this article as relevant to be considered in discussions of public theology are the creative potential of language and the presence of religion in the public sphere.

Multilayered International Parliamentarism: The Case of EU-Brazil Relations

Challenging the predominant scholarly focus on international parliamentary institutions as the sole and sufficient object of inquiry into the global role of parliaments, this article argues that international interparliamentary relations do not occur merely within isolated forums, but may and do de facto evolve in layers of overlapping forums whenever circumstances allow it. This article conceptualises multilayered international parliamentarism as developing in webs of formal and informal linkages between the same parliamentary institutions in a variety of bilateral and multilateral frameworks regarding the same region. To this end, I conduct an in-depth case study of bilateral and multilateral relations between the parliaments of the EU and Brazil through the lens of institutional arrangements as well as by examining the reaction of the Brazilian and certain other Latin American parliaments to the EU’s Returns Directive. The analysis shows that intensified international contacts among parliamentarians accentuate the deliberative function of parliaments and foster their ‘diplomatic’ actorship in foreign affairs in a concerted attempt to counterbalance globalisation-propelled ‘negotiated democracy’ nurtured by intergovernmental and transgovernmental ways of doing politics and making law.

Effect of first language on the use of English discourse markers by L1 Chinese speakers of English

This study investigates the effect of native language (Mandarin Chinese) on the use of English discourse markers by L1 Chinese speakers of English. Few previous studies have been conducted on this area. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. Results show that three Chinese discourse markers were found to have some influence on their corresponding English expressions. The L1 Chinese speakers using the deliberative function of I think in medial or final position (while the native English speakers did not) may have transferred their use of I think from their L1 wo juede because wo juede can mark the deliberative meaning in medial or final position. Second, the L1 Chinese speakers used yeah/yes as a backchannel after the interlocutor's reaction “uh huh” or “ok” while the native English speakers did not. This use may be transferred from the corresponding Chinese expression dui because dui was found to have the same use in the data. Finally, ah was found to perform a clause-medial function (followed by self-correction) by the L1 Chinese speakers; however, the native English speakers did not use ah for that function. The corresponding Chinese expression a was found to have the same correction function.

Public Space in Recent Japanese Political Thought and Activism: From the Rivers and Lakes to Miyashita Park

In this article I consider recent homeless activism in Tokyo's Miyashita Park, including the celebration of ‘vacant lots’ (akichi), and what this can tell us about notions of publicness in Japan. We can provide further depth to the discussion of publicness by situating recent activism in the context of the work of historians such as Amino Yoshihiko and Higashijima Makoto and their recovery of indigenous Japanese conceptions of ‘publicness’ and ‘the public sphere’. The implications of formulations of ‘the public’ based around terms such as ōyake/kō and alternatives including muen are examined, as well as meanings historically ascribed to the Zen concept of ‘lakes and rivers’ (gōko/kōko). I also trace Japanese responses to classical Western notions of the public sphere, as well as some challenges to them in Western scholarship, including the notion of ‘counterpublics’. Whereas in Western modernity the bracketing of social inequalities was considered a prerequisite for the deliberative function of the public sphere, in premodern and early modern Japan there were spaces which allowed for the bracketing of differences even where the function of deliberation was not emphasised.

Reasoning as deliberative in function but dialogic in structure and origin

AbstractMercier and Sperber (M&S) claim that the main function of reasoning is to generate support for conclusions derived unconsciously. An alternative account holds that reasoning has a deliberative function even though it is an internalized analogue of public discourse. We sketch this alternative and compare it with M&S's in the light of the empirical phenomena they discuss.

Failed Fantasies of Cohesion: Retrieving Positives from the Stalled Dream of Whole-of-Government Cultural Policy

Failed Fantasies of Cohesion: Retrieving Positives from the Stalled Dream of Whole-of-Government Cultural Policy

OS CONCEITOS ARISTOTÉLICOS DE CIDADE E DE CIDADáƒO

É na Polá­tica que Aristóteles desenvolve seus conceitos de cidade e de cidadão. Para ele, a cidade (pólis) é a comunidade última, a que tem por finalidade o bem soberano, assim é somente nela que o homem pode alcançar a vida perfeita e a felicidade. Já o cidadão para Aristóteles é aquele que possui o direito de administrar a justiça e exercer as funções públicas, participar da função judicial ou da deliberativa, ou seja, de exercer a polá­tica. Ele exclui desta categoria mulheres, escravos e crianças. Com relação aos ”estrangeiros”, ainda que eles não sejam excluá­dos formalmente da cidadania, o são por uma via antitética. Com efeito, determinando precisamente as funções que os cidadãos devem exercer, todos aqueles que não as exercem na prática são, logicamente, deixados fora do conceito aristotélico. Restringe, portanto, a idéia de cidadão a todos os adultos autóctones do sexo masculino.

Politics and the American Press: The Rise of Objectivity, 1865–1920. By Richard L. Kaplan. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. viii, 224 pp. Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 0-521-62151-8. Paper, $20.00, ISBN 0-521-00602-3.)

In the middle of the nineteenth century, newspapers enthusiastically waged political warfare and espoused party positions, with editors and journalists leading the charge. By the 1920s, however, according to Richard L. Kaplan, the press, cherishing ideals of objectivity and nonpartisanship, stood apart from partisan conflict. Based upon a careful examination of Detroit's major newspapers, his study attempts to explain how that transformation came about and what significance it held for American politics. Moreover, Kaplan challenges the claims of objectivity and nonpartisanship offered by the press's defenders, arguing that newspapers are enmeshed in politics, privileging certain voices, defining issues, and responding to critics. Rejecting other explanations of the changing role of the press as a response to commercial pressures, the emergence of mass politics, or the decline of partisanship and parties, Kaplan offers a model grounded in specific events. He argues that the realignment of the 1890s, followed by the emergence of the Progressive movement, transformed politics by substituting the state for the party as the major means of policy making and governance. Instead of articulating, broadcasting, and developing partisan positions, the press now reported, analyzed, and commented upon the operations of government. Embracing the notion of dispassionate expertise favored by many Progressives, editors and reporters celebrated the notion of the nonaligned press interpreting events for its readership. Drained of partisan fervor, reporting became a dry recitation of facts, usually provided by the very authorities journalists were supposed to scrutinize. Lost was the desire to criticize or to offer commentary looking toward alternative points of view: the deliberative function of press conflict vanished.

Is there a Demand for Descriptive Representation? Evidence from the UK's Devolution Programme

Descriptive representation occurs when elected politicians are typical of the larger class of persons that they represent, such that blacks represent blacks, disabled people represent disabled people and so on. Research undertaken in the context of the UK government's devolution programme helps us to judge the strength of the demand for descriptive representation amongst political activists and elites. In the case of women, one grouping where proportional descriptive representation has (almost) been achieved, substantial benefits are perceived, for example in relation to improvements in the deliberative function of democracy. In the case of other ‘minority’ groupings the absence of descriptive representation is thought to have entailed significant costs. This failure has necessitated the development of complex bureaucratic structures that are seen as a poor substitute for descriptive representation. In this and other respects the innovations in governance introduced with devolution have helped to stimulate demand for descriptive representation. This demand exceeds the supply of representation on offer and descriptive representation will be the focus of an increasing amount of debate and controversy in future.