Political Deliberation Research Articles

When religious beliefs become an ideology to motivate a war

ABSTRACT Historical records confirm the peaceful coexistence of individuals from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. This paper seeks to analyse the enduring conflict between Israel and Palestine as a case in point to illustrate how prolonged conflicts can transform religions into ideologies fuelling the quest for survival and justice, rendering political resolutions futile. Through a narrative review, it contends that decades of occupation, forced displacements, and expulsions from the sacred territories of various faiths have led to significant loss of life, economic stagnation, and global health crises, despite numerous United Nations efforts to broker peace. Emphasising the centrality of religion in this conflict, this narrative suggests avenues for future research and political deliberation.

Review: A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics, by Jürgen Habermas

Review: <i>A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics</i>, by Jürgen Habermas

Political Deliberation vs. Social Media Branding in Crisis-Prone Capitalist Democracies

Political Deliberation vs. Social Media Branding in Crisis-Prone Capitalist Democracies

Borgen y House of Cards: representaciones de la política en dos mujeres

Este trabajo se propone estudiar las representaciones de la política en dos personajes femeninos, Birgitte y Claire, en las series de Borgen y House of Cards, respectivamente. La perspectiva adoptada toma concepciones elaboradas en la teoría política: la política adversativa y la política deliberativa, y utiliza el análisis textual para identificar el tipo de representación, estudiando los personajes y las líneas narrativas de la vida pública y la privada. Birgitte y Claire encarnan concepciones de la política contrastantes, a la vez que proponen modelos de mujer política en tensión con los estereotipos.

HABERMAS, J. (2023). A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics. Cambridge: Polity Press

HABERMAS, J. (2023). A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics. Cambridge: Polity Press

The propensity for negative media reporting of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Australia

The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) Plan, or simply ‘Basin Plan’, represents one of the world's largest returns from consumptive (irrigation) water extraction to environmental use. The Plan has been mired in controversy from when its first draft was burned by irrigators in 2010, and as such has been a source of extensive media reporting. Given the ability of journalism in both informing and influencing public debates, as well as the political deliberation process, we sought to understand the themes and representation of the Plan in media newspapers. This study analysed 6694 media articles referring to the Basin Plan, across 135 outlets, from 2008 to 2022. All articles were sentiment coded using four different natural language processing (NLP) models, with additional manual coding of randomly selected 552 articles. Three-quarters of the total articles were coded as negative using the best-fitting DistilBERT NLP sentiment analysis, while the manual coding suggested almost half were negative in tone. Both methods found that negative stories far outweighed positive stories, suggesting very little ‘balance’ in media Basin Plan reporting. A regression analysis found that rural media outlets were more likely to report negative MDB stories, and that the states of South Australia and Queensland were more likely to report positive stories. Themes of irrigator victimisation and community economic decline dominated news articles (especially negative stories); followed by Basin Plan process, outcomes and governance issues; fights between states; and environmental issues. Environmental themes were relatively less discussed, and Indigenous issues were only referred to in a tiny fraction of all media stories. The study's results provide evidence that the media plays critical roles in water policy debates, giving prominent coverage - with little critical discernment of actual economic impacts - to certain actors with clear ideological and vested interests in the outcomes. Far less media coverage was given to more complex issues such as climate change, long-term structural change for irrigation communities, ecological crises, and sharing water with those who have little.

The shift to authenticity: a framework for analysis of political truth claims

Abstract It is often claimed that political disinformation is more abundant than ever, that populists are particularly prone to lying, and that we live in an era of post-truth or epistemic relativism. Contrary to these views, we interpret this historical trend as a shift from objective to authentic forms of political truth claims. We develop a diagnostic framework that captures different types of political truth claims and their distinct elements. This framework enables interrogation and understanding of the current state of epistemic contestation and change. The rise of both populist and deliberative approaches to democracy, which we use as key examples, are indicators of a gradual shift towards a greater importance of authenticity in the public sphere. We nuance this proposition by distinguishing between different forms of authenticity employed by populist and deliberative politics: communicative authenticity in deliberative politics and original and personal authenticity in populist politics.

A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics

A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics

THE POLITICAL INTERVENTION ON GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS’ PROMOTION IN INDONESIA

The promotion government officials comes into new era, the new policy reversed from a very closed selection process and heavily seniority-based to open, clear criteria, transparent procedures on the competency-based series test. In fact, policy implementation is not fully in favour of an administration driven. The study has two main research problems “How open promotion for local government officers conducted?” and “How does political intervention work in the open promotion mechanism?”. This paper provides comprehensive mechanism-the hybrid administration-politics model on open promotion of local bureaucrats in Indonesia. The study used a qualitative approach and assited by Nvivo 12 to reveal the most frequent concept on open promotion practices based on interviews. The data obtained through interviews with informants which selected purposively, selection committee members, candidates, and local government officers. This paper affirms interesting features. The competency series tested by independent assessors reflects an administration mechanism through merit concept. However, the absolute political final decision-making process at the governor or Mayor’s hands reflects the individual-political interest. This system shows that the administration’s process at the local level links tightly to political deliberation. The key message is that open promotion in government agencies is neither a pure merit issue nor a spoils system for competence-heavy based, on the one hand, yet is always amenable to some political intervention. The merit principles are universal; however, the practices are contextual-specific. This study has an important value in describing how The politics play significant role on local administration system.

On a Potential Paradox of a Public Service Internet

Digital capitalism undermines deliberative democracy. This is the diagnosis arrived at by The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto (2021), edited by Christian Fuchs and Klaus Unterberger, and Jürgen Habermas’ A New Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Deliberative Politics (2023). They condemn the commercial Internet as a deformation of the public sphere and conclude that it needs to be fundamentally restructured. Interestingly, both texts propose to restructure it after the template of broadcasting media. We seek to challenge this approach from a media-political perspective, arguing that it revives an elapsed version of democracy by rekindling the mass media paradigm to which it was bound. Both texts are implicitly based on the assumption that a technology that emerged in capitalism can be used for different, even contradictory, purposes. But what if the media structure of digital communication, irrespective of who owns or controls it, denies its democratic instrumentalisation?

Projecting a food insecure world: Equity implications of land-based mitigation in IPCC mitigation pathways

All modelled global mitigation pathways assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6) project rapid deployment of land-based mitigation measures for staying within the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C or 2 °C. However, there is sparse literature on the burden-sharing and equity implications of the IPCC-assessed global mitigation pathways. This is a severe lacuna given the influential role of the IPCC assessments in shaping political deliberations about possible futures and in informing the sectoral guidance and strategy documents of multilateral climate funds and organisations. This paper addresses this gap by evaluating the distributional implications of IPCC AR6 global mitigation pathways for land-based mitigation, specifically focusing on the Global North and South and socio-economic and political implications for food security. Our findings reveal that the modelled pathways disproportionately distribute the burden of land-based mitigation onto the Global South with an adverse impact on food security, raising questions about the normative choices embedded in cost-optimizing Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs). Furthermore, we examine existing scenarios and policy recommendations for addressing food security concerns in stringent climate change mitigation pathways and find them both to be inequitable with attendant feasibility concerns. Our analysis underscores the need for equity-based scenarios in IPCC assessments and calls for transparency in communicating regional distributional assumptions and results of the global mitigation pathways.

Reflections on Habermas’s discourse ethics

In this article Habermas’s discourse ethics is critically interpreted. The article starts with a brief intellectual biography of Habermas (section 1), showing that his life and work has always had a strong ethical and political dimension – leading to the concept of discourse ethics. Next, it is indicated how Habermas’s work in the 1970s culminated via four steps in his major philosophical work – the Theory of Communicative Action (section 2) published in 1981. In the next two sections Habermas Theory of Communicative Action is applied to ethics and morality in the form of his discourse ethics – the heart of this contribution (section 3). In this process the following four aspects of Habermas’s discourse ethics are discussed: Its qualified Kantian deontological dimension, as well as its universalist, cognitivist, and formalist dimensions. In the following section (4) the discussion of discourse ethics is shifted to Habermas’s theory of law, deliberative politics, and democracy which is a further application of ideas developed in his Theory of Communicative Action. The contribution then ends with some critical remarks on Habermas discourse ethics and sketch of law and politics (section 5) Three arguments are presented in this regard. First, Habermas argument is judged to be too closely related to abstract rationality. Secondly the distinction that Habermas makes between morality and ethics is critically investigated. Finally, the Habermasian use of justification in his argument is critically compared with the concept of application. These points of criticism, though, indicate that the debate on Habermas’s discourse ethics is ongoing.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article deals with the concept of discourse ethics (in the Kantian tradition of ethics) as developed firstly by Karel Otto Apel and later refined by Jurgen Habermas for his own purposes. The line of argumentation developed here has significant relevance for philosophy, moral theory, law, and theology. Discourse ethics can be considered as a contemporary version of Kantian deontological ethics after the linguistic turn.

Human rights in politics: observations on minimalism, conflict and deliberation

With the essay "Human Rights: Ethics, Rhetoric, and Politics", Lilian Bermejo-Luque explores the controversial aspects of the human rights debate, proposing some conditions through which they could represent a positive element of political life. In particular, Bermejo-Luque proposes the thesis of political minimalism, associated, on the one hand, with the idea that the essence of politics does not reside in conflict, and on the other hand, with a conception of political deliberation based on empirical considerations connected to what communities consider of particular importance. This paper intends to offer some food for thought along the line of reasoning proposed by Bermejo-Luque: firstly by presenting some observations on political minimalism, related to the weight of representation in politics and the complexity of certain political phenomena; this is followed by a reflection on conflict and the importance of justifying political choices to citizens, for which it seems difficult to establish boundaries on what is purely concrete and practical and what instead involves ethical considerations.

Arctic indigenous representation in national parliaments

ABSTRACT National parliaments in democracies are key arenas for political deliberation, national agenda setting, and public negotiation of interests. In addition – of course – they legislate and control the government. Accordingly, the ways that the interests of Indigenous people in the Arctic are represented in national parliaments are important for their current and future autonomy from the nation-state. Setting from the concept of representation as defined by Pitkin (1967), this article reviews the scholarly literature on the national parliamentary representation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic. Doing so, it takes a first, comparative look at this topic, discusses the formal, descriptive, and substantive representation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, and asks if there is a certain Arctic model of Indigenous national representation. The review shows that none of the Arctic Indigenous peoples are formally represented in their national parliament as a demos, and descriptive Indigenous representation is rather low (except in the case of the Danish parliament). Additionally, although similar formal and informal institutions seem to influence the substantive representation of Indigenous interests it is not fitting to talk of a particular Arctic model of Indigenous national representation.

Meaning, Metalepsis, Time-Travel

This article explores how people can come to experience constitutional conversations as meaningful. To this end, I reinterpret Habermas’s account of deliberative constitutionalism. For Habermas, constitutional discourses are not only rational procedures of opinion- and will-formation, but also sites at which a “world” gets generated. Deliberative politics, therefore, involves unruly and uncontrollable efforts to solicit others into the roles, orientations, and principles of constitutional practices. The result is a novel account of the relationship between constitutional procedures and the “anarchistic” politics that radical democrats celebrate. Ungovernable inventions of and affective identifications with roles, images, and peoples occur within articulate forms, including constitutional procedures. These aspects of Habermas’s thought push past binary oppositions between legitimate constitutional procedure and radical democratic uprisings. Habermas provides a framework for examining the forms of attentiveness by which actors can come to experience constitutional rules, roles, principles, and procedures as part of their world.

THE CULTURE OF DELIBERATION IN MUSLIM SOCIETY AND THE CHALLENGE OF MUTUAL RESPECT AMONG CULTURES: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES

The paper makes a brief account of what H.A.R. Gibb said was the historic and decisive event in achieving consensus —the classical practice used in deciding the succession of the Prophet (×aÌrat Muhammad RasËlullah KhÉtam un NabiyyÊn Øallallahu ‘alaihi wa ‘alÉ Ólihi wa AÎÍÉbihi wa Øallam) employing the procedure of al-ShËra or deliberation or consultation in the seventh century CE, the success of democratically electing the leader of the new emerging Muslim society. The paper explores several further cases of the more institutionalized culture of deliberation among the (Sunni) Muslim society across the socio-cultural changes from the medieval centuries up to the present day world, in multi-cultural societies. Deliberation is roughly of two types—democratic and undemocratic as in the Chinese political system. The concepts used include Al-Mawardi’s Ahl ×all Wal ‘Aqd (AHWA) —first suggested in the 10th century CE and fully developed some three hundred years later. The concept emerged in connection with the mechanism of electing the chief executive officer (CEO) in state governments which needed deliberation of AHWA’s members (those who are qualified to act on behalf of the Muslim community in electing a caliph). The study is based on secondary data gathered from books and articles. The paper aims to contribute to “re-inventing democratic deliberation” in the past for better understanding the contemporary trend to move towards deliberation in democratic politics—which also gives positive impact to develop mutual respect among multi-cultural societies. The main finding of the study is that there is a significant spread of deliberation in politics and governments among Muslims societies in the countries under study. Deliberation is roughly of two types—democratic and un-democratic as in the context of Chinese political system. The concepts used include Al-Mawardi’s Ahl Hall Wal Aqd (AHWA) —developed in the 10th century or three hundred years after that. The concept is a mechanism to elect chief executive officer (CEO) in state governments which conveys the need for having capacity to deliberate of AHWA’s members. The study employs qualitative method, with secondary data gathered from books and articles, especially those that are made available electronically. The study is expected to contribute to the re-invention of the democratic deliberation in the past for better understanding of contemporary move towards deliberative turn in democratic politics—which eventually give positive impact on development of mutual respect among multi-cultural societies. The finding of the study is significant spread of the deliberation in politics and governments among Muslims societies in the cases of the countries and has impacted on customs of deliberation in a given society, including in multi-cultural societies.

Reciprocal Communication and Political Deliberation on Twitter

Social media platforms such as Twitter/X are increasingly important for political communication but the empirical question as to whether such communication enhances democratic consensus building (the ideal of deliberative democracy) or instead contributes to societal polarisation via fostering of hate speech and “information disorders” such as echo chambers is worth exploring. Political deliberation involves reciprocal communication between users, but much of the recent research into politics on social media has focused on one-to-many communication, in particular the sharing and diffusion of information on Twitter via retweets. This paper presents a new approach to studying reciprocal political communication on Twitter, with a focus on extending network-analytic indicators of deliberation. We use the Twitter v2 API to collect a new dataset (#debatenight2020) of reciprocal communication on Twitter during the first debate of the 2020 US presidential election and show that a hashtag-based collection alone would have collected only 1% of the debate-related communication. Previous work into using social network analysis to measure deliberation has involved using discussion tree networks to quantify the extent of argumentation (maximum depth) and representation (maximum width); we extend these measures by explicitly incorporating reciprocal communication (via triad census) and the political partisanship of users (inferred via usage of partisan hashtags). Using these methods, we find evidence for reciprocal communication among partisan actors, but also point to a need for further research to understand what forms this communication takes.

Political Deliberation vs. Social Media Branding in Crisis-Prone Capitalist Democracies

This review essay discusses Jürgen Habermas’s recent reflections on the threats to deliberative politics by a new structural transformation of the public sphere. Renewing his 1962 concept, he analyzes “crisis-prone capitalist democracies” as the necessary condition for transforming the public discourse of self-determined citizens into political branding that seeks to manipulate the citizen as a consumer.Habermas then identifies social media’s blurring of the private and the public realms lready in the perception of democratic deliberation as the sufficient condition for today’s commodified discourse in a new political public sphere that has been colonized by the digital marketplace.

Legal Basis of Sanctions against Russia and Asset Confiscation

"This study provides an in-depth examination of the legal bases for current asset freezes in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), and how these differ from confiscations of Russian state assets. It explores the evolving political deliberations that have led to new goals of making reparations to Ukraine, which has suffered extensive damage estimated at more than 600 billion euros as a result of Russia’s invasion. The primary focus of this study is on the potential confiscation of frozen state assets of Russia as a means to achieve reparations. Western governments have initiated comprehensive assessments of avenues to perform permanent asset seizures, with the overarching goal of strengthening the tracing, identification, freezing and management of assets as preliminary steps for potential confiscation. The study discusses the legislative pitfalls associated with sovereign asset confiscation, its challenges and limitations. It highlights how the principle of sovereign equality of states can hinder such actions, protecting the assets of Russia’s central bank from court proceedings and execution in another state. Despite Russia’s actions contravening the fundamental norms of international law, interpretations of customary international law maintain Russia’s immunity from legal proceedings in foreign courts. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are no legal bases for the expropriation of Russian sovereign assets. Keywords: confiscation of assets, Russian assets, reparations, legal considerations, International law, sanctions, sovereign equality."

Ideals and Interests in Intellectuals’ Political Deliberations

The academic literature equates the Arab Spring politics of Egypt’s two highest official religious figures – the Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib and Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa—as “anti-revolutionary.” This article argues that al-Tayyib and Gomaa’s politics are fundamentally different. While Gomaa’s politics are submissive to the state, al-Tayyib’s politics are a negotation without confrontation. I explain the former by Gomaa’s struggle for religious authority either by seeking official positions or obstructing the revealing of information harmful to his religious legitimacy. The statist legitimacy threat against Gomaa is central to understanding his politics. Defending al-Azhar, on the other hand, is what explains al-Tayyib’s fluctuating politics. Theoretically, I advocate that explaining intellectuals’ politics requires focusing on their political deliberation. Only with a methodologically rigorous reconstruction of the intellectuals’ political deliberation and its context, can we decide the relative relevance of factors like ideals, interests, and structures (e.g., the state). I establish this with more than a thousand chronologically ordered primary sources and twenty interviews with people in Gomaa and al-Tayyib’s circles.