Democracy Building Research Articles

A Pragmatic Analysis Of Accommodation In Selected Political Discourses In Nigeria

This paper examines accommodation in selected political discourses in the Nigerian political landscape. The study begins by looking at how the lack clear political ideology and/or the total disregard for it by some Nigerian politicians them to defect from one political party to another and how they employ the nuances of language to prove their allegiance to the new political parties/political associates on the one hand while on the other, using language to distance themselves from their former political parties/former political associates. The data utilized for this study was obtained from secondary sources comprising newspapers and social media handles such as twitter currently X. After the data analysis using Howard Giles’s (1973), Communication Accommodation Theory as its framework, the study established that politicians who defect from one political party to another converge their speeches to show absolute allegiance and gain acceptance in their new party while also using language , to distance themselves from their former political parties. The findings also revealed that in the face of rampant defections, defectors are sometimes pressured into going the extra mile to prove their allegiance to their new political parties or associate by demonizing their former political parties and/or associates whom they once praised to high heavens. The paper concludes by condemning the exploitation of language to surreptitiously pursue personal interests under the guise of contributing to nation building and deepening of democracy.

Voices from within: Tracing Chinese Public Perceptions of Democracy in the New Era

AbstractDespite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) emphasis on whole process people’s democracy and democracy with Chinese characteristics, the type of democracy desired by the Chinese people remains debatable. Using two nationwide surveys conducted in 2015 and 2019, this study examines how ordinary Chinese people view democracy during Xi Jinping’s new era. Acknowledging the constraints of conventional methodologies, this study adopts a novel approach that uses automated text analysis to dissect open-ended survey responses about democracy. The results reveal that Chinese citizens primarily associate democracy with freedom of speech, consultation, and minben rather than competitive elections. Furthermore, this study reveals that a higher level of education, more frequent internet usage, and higher household income are positively correlated with a liberal perspective on democracy. This suggests that although the Chinese communist regime may not face immediate pressure to implement open elections, growing support for consultation and freedom may necessitate a greater focus on procedural democracy building by the CCP. By supplementing traditional research methods, this study contributes to a better understanding of China’s regime resilience and its potential future trajectories.

Grandstanding Instead of Deliberative Policy-Making: Transitional Justice, Publicness and Parliamentary Questions in the Croatian Parliament

ABSTRACT Addressing the legacy of human rights violations in public can benefit victims, post-conflict societies and democracy building. But publicness of transitional justice (TJ) processes can also have opposite effects. We assess the relationship between publicness and TJ by leveraging the democratic deliberation theory concerned with the impact of publicness on the quality of policy-making. A comparative analysis of oral and written questions about TJ in the Croatian parliament (2004–20) shows that members of parliament use oral questions for nationalist grandstanding and written questions for substantive TJ policy deliberation. We demonstrate how publicness afforded by parliaments stymies TJ’s normative goals.

Rebels in their own job: How digging into a municipal mystery turned invited youth participation in an urban planning process into uninvited activism

AbstractYouth participation has become an important mechanism in many aspects of society, research and democratic institutions and in urban planning specifically. Yet, the ideal of participation often collides with the realities of planning as practice. In this article, we outline the halting process of transforming an old villa owned by the municipality into a youth house, and how youth trained as co‐researchers transitioned from being invited participants to becoming uninvited activists wanting to hold decision‐makers accountable for the delay. The empirical findings from Oslo, Norway highlight the complex processes of ‘thick’ participation practices to strengthen local democracy building.

Does Democracy Flourish in the Dark? Regional Development and Democracy Building

Does Democracy Flourish in the Dark? Regional Development and Democracy Building

The Mobility-Democracy Nexus Betrayed: When the European Commission’s Talks Fall Apart in the Mediterranean

In the aftermath of the Arab uprisings, the European Union’s (EU) relations with the Southern neighbour countries (SNCs) have been reframed in the light of a new élan of democracy promotion. The underlying logic of this approach was to leverage the building and consolidation of democracy and rule of law through enhanced cooperation in terms of more ‘markets, money and mobility’. A sort of mobility-democracy nexus has been assumed by the European Commission as a crucial dimension of the EU’s external relations with SNCs. Within this strategy, Mobility Partnerships (MPs) with SNCs have been identified as a key policy tool for EU democracy promotion. Via original qualitative analysis of European Commission’s documents, MPs, and other migration and mobility agreements that the EU has negotiated with SNCs since 2011, this paper explores how the mobility-democracy nexus has been defined in the Commission’s talks. We critically discuss the effectiveness of this nexus and demonstrate the inefficacy of MPs as a tool to promote democracy by fostering more mobility and regular migration flows. Looking at the content of MPs with three SNCs (Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan) allows to trace the transformation of EU external relations with SNCs from a principled approach into selective issue-oriented cooperation based on more specific and sectorial policy choices. European Union, Southern neighbourhood, EU external policies, post-Arab uprisings, mobility partnerships, democracy promotion, migration, content analysis

Stories and/as Civic Pedagogies: Toward Participatory Knowledge-Making in Cultural Rhetorics

This essay argues for attention in cultural rhetorics scholarship to stories as effective civic pedagogical tools informed by participatory knowledge-making practices. Drawing on a multiyear “mobile cinema democracy project” based on the physical circulation across Africa, Europe, and North America of a successful African democratic story told in the multi-award-winning documentary An African Election, I attend to both the documentary and its larger contextual project, “A Political Safari: An African Adventure in Democracy Building.” I demonstrate the ways that the African storytelling traditions of collaboration upon which this project rests offer us cultural rhetoricians key opportunities to reimagine inclusive knowledgemaking practices in using stories as civic pedagogies. My analysis reveals how such knowledge-making practices might orient our work against the grain of hierarchical, exclusionary, colonial practices and toward decolonial approaches that are truly participatory and inclusive.

The Role of Business in Democracy Building: Drivers and Management Practices

The Role of Business in Democracy Building: Drivers and Management Practices

The Role of Media Digital in Building Democracy in Indonesia

The rise of digitalization has transformed the media landscape, providing individuals with convenient, rapid, practical, and cost-effective access to diverse information and news. However, concerns have been raised about the tendency of digital media to prioritize sensationalism over factual reporting, driven by the pursuit of high ratings and clicks, often neglecting core journalistic principles. This scientific article aims to explore the concept of digital media, trace its evolution, and evaluate its role in promoting democracy. The research methodology primarily relies on an extensive literature review, incorporating a range of sources such as books, journals, articles, and relevant websites to gather comprehensive insights. The findings underscore the significant impact of digital media in shaping and reinforcing democratic systems. In the digital age, digital media empowers the public by facilitating active participation in political discussions and decision-making processes, thereby enhancing transparency and accountability within political systems.

Building Democracy for All OER Ebook: A Design Case

In this paper, we discuss the design and development of an eBook titled Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life, which serves as an open educational resource for the eighth-grade Massachusetts social studies curriculum standards. This design case offers an example of an interactive, student-centered, multimodal, multicultural open-access eBook.

Democracy building and the link between public trust and corruption perception: Comparative analysis before and after the Armenian Velvet Revolution in 2018

ABSTRACT Eastern European post-communist countries inherited pervasive corruption after the breakup of the USSR. Public trust was the crucial factor in tackling corruption and democracy building in these countries. This article takes Armenia as a case to study the antecedents and evolution of trust in Eastern European post-communist countries that went through a government coup in the 21st century. By comparing the corruption situation in Armenia before and after the Velvet Revolution 2018, we scrutinise how trust was and is critical to combating corruption and democracy building. We argue that in transition governments, one can distinguish two sources of creating public trust. The first wave generates when the government is newly established, and people trust the leader and his persona. Arguably, in this stage, the level of trust generated is based on expectations. The second wave of trust comes with the government’s actual performance, measured partly based on corruption perception.

Factors that Influence Repeated Participation in Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections: The Impact of the 1990 and 1994 Campaigns

AbstractThis paper is the analysis of the repeated participation of the 1990 and 1994 elections candidates in the following 1998–2014 elections. The interest in the long-standing candidates is dictated by the need to better understand which type of political background and political strategy gravitate more to the commencement of a political career at the very beginning of democracy building in Ukraine. The paper hypothesizes that in 1990 having a Communist Nomenklatura background was the determining factor, whereas in 1994, unaffiliated candidates who originated from the „party of power” were the main contenders. The hypotheses are tested using the data on the background and electoral results of the candidates, who started in the 1990 and 1994 electoral campaigns (8,898 candidates in the EAST PaC database). In this study both successful and failed candidates are studied because they all acquire experience of political professional activity. It was found out that the Communist party officials and managers of the state enterprises, who had won in 1990, competed in the following electoral campaigns less often, while unaffiliated directors more often. The affiliation with the left-wing parties in 1994 predicts higher odds that a candidate will repeat his/her attempts to get a seat.1

The Western Democratic Model Facing African Political Cultures

Is there a contradiction between the socio-cultural requirements of the western democratic system and African social structures? To answer this question, this study aims to demonstrate that there are no fundamental contradictions between Africans and Westerners in terms of the democratic values to be promoted. Each people must be able to build its own model. In the first part, the study demonstrates the unsuccessful transposition of the Western democratic model to Africa. The cause is to be found in African practice, which reveals an institutional and legal duality that favors the cohabitation of legitimacies that come from the ballot box and those that do not, whose status differs and whose relationship with each other is confused and likely to provoke conflicts. This means that African democracy functions according to the Western colonial model, even if African social structures still function at the local level. The second part emphasizes the building of a true democracy through culture, whose value is recognized in the norms, institutions, rites and customs of a people. This promotion of positive African values and traditions suggests borrowing from the West only what is compatible with the deep nature of African civilization. This wise and realistic mix needs the unconditional support of the international community. We live in a time of struggle for values. All peoples, even those who were dominated, are trying to propose their values that they consider better.

ПОСИЛЕННЯ СПРОМОЖНОСТІ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ГРОМАДЯНСЬКОГО СУСПІЛЬСТВА ПІД ЧАС ВІЙНИ: ПЕРЕДУМОВИ, ПІДХОДИ, ЦИФРОВІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ

The article describes the prerequisites for the activation of civil society in Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion, and reveals the approaches and digital technologies used by the activists. The authors highlight the process of empowerment of civil society, starting from the Euromaidan up until 2023 and identify the impact of the Kremlin's propagandist campaign on the civic sector of Ukraine as well as on the public opinion during 2014 – 2021 (the undeclared Russian hybrid aggression against Ukraine, which preceded the armed invasion). The paper also describes socio-political conditions for the response of civil society to Russian aggression and outlines a continuous slowdown in the processes of democracy building associated with it. Against this background, the activists also elaborated approaches to enhance the efficacy of such a response based on the widespread involvement of civil society using technology. Additionally, the authors reveal the role of technologies in the processes of democratic transformation of Ukraine, with special focus being put on a range of instruments helping public administration bodies in solving key issues that are on the agenda and require the involvement of a broad community: national defence, development of community potential, mutual aid during the war.

Agenda Democracy

The study of agenda setting has become curiously disconnected from democratic theory and democratization. Following Schattschneider, Dahl, and recent developments in political theory, I call for its reintegration in theoretical and empirical realms. The concept of agenda democracy allows for better understanding of contests over institutions, significant historical-institutional transformations, the study of inequality and its mechanisms of generation and maintenance, and the building and undermining of democracy. Agenda democracy requires a broad understanding of agendas (beyond a mere menu of final policy choices), recognizes that many democratic regimes have institutions that systematically render agendas nondemocratic, and compels us to look at the interstices of institutions and society (party transformation, petition and grievance mechanisms, advocacy campaigns, initiatives to expand what I call the shortlist of the possible) for moments of significant change. Agenda democracy compels the examination of democratizing agenda restrictions, the study of conservative organizations in politics, and the consideration of decomposing the term “movement.”

Reforming Allied Authoritarian States: The Failure of United States Democracy Promotion in Egypt before the ‘Arab Spring’

ABSTRACT This article analyses the failure of American democracy promotion in Egypt before and during the 2011 Arab Spring, through a comparison with successful American support for democratic transitions in allied authoritarian regimes during the 1980s, executed through a combination of top-down diplomatic pressure and bottom-up democracy building by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In Egypt, American policymakers misjudged the stability of the Mubarak regime and relaxed top-down pressure for liberalisation before the Arab Spring, while greater implementation of bottom-up democracy programs by United States government agencies resulted in the obstruction of these programs by the Mubarak regime and American policymakers. The case of Egypt illustrates the importance of American policymakers’ perceptions of regime stability for the priority which Washington accords to democracy promotion in policy towards allied authoritarian regimes, and the impact of American government control of bottom-up democracy programs on democracy building in allied authoritarian states.

A Survey on Loanwords and Borrowings and Their Role in the Reflection of Cultural Values and Democracy Development: the Armenian Paradigm

Abstract With the new wave of social sector becoming a fundamental element in generating and shaping democratic practices in such counties as Armenia, the role and the strategic prominence of language and loanwords has been highly reemphasized in the frames of thorough investigation of word borrowing practice and of its contribution to the egalitarian developments. The current paper aims at disclosing the essential dynamics in regard to the development of loanwords uncovered during a former field work in Armenia, which primarily concerns the process, the causes, the social dynamics through which loanwords emerge, as well as the issues of "purity" of vocabulary and the interconnection between loanwords and local development processes in Armenia. The article is based on qualitative research methods; semi-structured, focus group and informal interviews have been carried out in order to collect the needed data. The results of the article suggest that being the basis of communication among different countries and societies, the process of word borrowing however is not always easy and autonomous, especially in the scope of democracy building; the creation and the development of new words and concepts is a complicated task, which requires cultural exchange, real manifestation of the concepts induced, as well as apt and professional assistance and sustenance. The paper concludes that notwithstanding all the efforts by humans, geopolitical, economic and cultural forces play a significantly stronger role, and thus changes and modifications in a language are inevitable, moreover the process appeals for facilitation and support in such developing countries as Armenia.

Central Asian States: Thirty Years of Independence

It has been three decades when five states of Central Asian region acquired their independence from former Soviet Union. Since 1991 Central Asian states are engaged in state and nation building process. These states in-order to be the part of world community are working on their national identities, democratic system and relations with other states. This article tries to examine the progress of central Asian states in the domain of building of national identity, democracy and foreign policy. It has been argued that all Central Asian states are making progress in national identity and foreign policy domain; however, democracy has yet to be developed in the region.

The contemporary authoritarianism in the post-Soviet space (case study of Belarus and Georgia under Saakashvili rule)

The paper describes the very essential dilemma of democracy building in the post-Soviet area: the role of elites and popular support in the absenceof institutional constraints on executive power; these tools can be used both in favor of democracy building and against it, and ultimately for the sakeof regime to maintain its power. Many post-Soviet incumbents, among them Saakashvili and Lukashenko, managed to become authoritarian rulersbecause, and not on the contrary of mass support. Divide and rule strategy helped them to overcome the resistance of plural elites and to suppressthem in the name of modernization, good governance and stability. In particular, it shows how the constraints on power can be used by the newlyelected rulers against each other and how their removal leads to power consolidation and concentration in one hand. From this perspective comparingSaakashvili and Lukashenko makes sense and reveals the shallowness of democratization approaches and rhetoric, in which these two leaders arealways considered to be at the different poles of democracy building. In the meantime, it focuses on the role of society and the phenomenon of a“good” autocrat who at the early stage can be useful for the country modernisation and then drive to the authoritarian rule, thus retaining power by allavailable means. The research also discusses the role of external powers in the observed processes and particularly Russia as sponsor and promoterof autocratic regimes in the neighbourhood

Jessica Paga, Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2020

Jessica Paga, Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2020