Democratic Autonomy Research Articles

The national security law for Hong Kong: a corpus-driven comparative study of media representations between China’s and Anglo-American English-language press

The study conducts a comparative phraseological analysis of media representations associated with the National Security Law for Hong Kong between China’s and Anglo-American English-language press. Based on a corpus-driven methodology, four framing functions, i.e., politics and law, protests and crime, action and future, and evaluation are identified to suggest how the legislation is addressed and understood in different press. The findings demonstrate that the Chinese press prefers to solely highlight the law’s potential benefits and its favorable results, whereas the Anglo-American press is inclined to construct the law as a weapon deployed by China to threaten Hong Kong’s legal system and undermine its democratic autonomy. The study discusses the newly politicalized Hong Kong in different socio-political practices and geopolitical tensions between China and the West.

Theorizing Power in Community Economies: A Women's Cooperative in Northern Kurdistan

ABSTRACTUnder the Democratic Autonomy project, Turkey's Kurdish Movement has pursued self‐governance since the mid‐2000s and promoted cooperatives and communal modes of production across Northern Kurdistan. Drawing upon the engagement of diverse and community economies studies with assemblage thinking, this article utilizes assemblage thinking to expand our understanding of power dynamics in community economies, and to reveal the power‐led processes involved in building and maintaining community economies. The article focuses on the case of a women's cooperative spearheaded by the Kurdish Movement, which managed to circumvent state oppression and stay in business, despite the turmoil that erupted in Northern Kurdistan after the collapse of peace negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdish Movement in 2015.

Sticking to My Guns: Managing Firearm Ownership in Older Adults Through Sociocultural Context

Psychiatrists are increasingly aware of the broad need for cultural competency, even within cultures in which they may be more familiar. Important examples of this have increasingly come to light in the context of firearm ownership, conversations surrounding gun legislation, and the role of individual autonomy balanced against social responsibility. Included within this understanding are themes of the American identity, including exceptionalism, individualism, democratic autonomy, and hard work, all serving a pivotal role in the development of political anti-establishmentarianism. Within this framework, characteristics of gun culture must be examined within the context of the individual domains which make it up, including the social, political, and individual factors which lead to an individual's personal valence toward firearms and rates of ownership and use of firearms within the United States.Older adults make up an increasing segment of the population, and geriatric psychiatrists play an ever-important role in the provision of mental health services within the United States. A question perpetually present within geriatrics is whether specific characteristics or factors of individuals within the same age group represent a generational cohort effect as consequence of social, economic, or cultural factors or an age-related developmental effect as consequence of universal age-related factors. Such questions include, but are not limited to, whether gun ownership may be best be contributed to by survival during eras of conflict or socioeconomic decline vs. loss of physical abilities of protection or external social support. Within this context, rates of gun ownership among older adults will be examined across time and across specific age groups, with specific examination of potential contributors.Evidence-based research guides development of a framework for lethal means counseling in older adults, which considers all of the aforementioned influences within a cultural context. Specific clinical guidance will be offered which seeks to establish a foundation for safety assessment and treatment planning. Specific discussion of lethal means counseling as it applies to patients with neurocognitive disorders will also be conducted.

He Peasants' Cognition and The Level of Informal Constraints and The Rural Land Institutional Change in China —Analysis and simulation based on dynamic evolutionary game model

The peasants' cognition and informal constraints are important factors that affect the rural land institutional change in China. By constructing a dynamic evolutionary game model and conducting simulation analysis, this paper finds that the individual cognition of peasants affects the strategic choice of them, and then affects the direction of the rural land institutional change in China, which is the endogenous power of institutional change; Informal constraints are hierarchical and affect the speed of institutional change. The higher the level of informal constraints, the faster the speed of institutional change. Based on the above conclusions, this paper proposes to adhere to the road of gradual reform, carry out multi-party research activities, and improve peasants' cognition; Clarify the main status of f peasants in the reform and create an organizational form with them as the main core; Give rights to the rural grass-roots democratic autonomy, and form broad binding informal constraints.

The Possibility of Democratic Autonomy

The Possibility of Democratic Autonomy

AMPLIANDO O IMAGINÁRIO POLÍTICO: TIPOS IDEAIS DE SISTEMA SOCIAL E UMA ABORDAGEM DISTRIBUTIVA PLURALISTA

Abstract The background position of this paper is that an excessive economic inequality between the most and the least advantaged citizens in a liberal democracy has a relevant effect on exposing the latter to the risk of material domination. In this respect, this paper argues that even the most sophisticated and ambitious version of the so-called “insulation strategy” recently proposed by Julia Cagé is an insufficient remedy for the influence of money on politics. Moreover, it sustains that we have strong reasons to maintain a noncommittal view about the choice of ideal types of social systems. Being committed in principle to only one specific ideal social system restricts our political imagination and democratic autonomy of political societies. By contrast, this paper suggests coupling the noncommittal view with a “pluralistic distributive approach”, the main purpose of which is to focus on a set of distributive proposals concerning the most crucial areas of socioeconomic structures in liberal democracies.

BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY AND ITS RELEVANCE IN DIGITAL AGE

How fast the digitalization is affecting all corners of our life and where does it leave our philosophical, ethical aspirations and cherish the ideals of democratic world, equality, privacy protection, trust and societal autonomy is a matter of social concern. Epistemologically we do understand and grasp the phenomenon,the new mediations, and the very fabric of the new processes. Buddha Dharma encompasses to balance between human life and ecology. Though the Buddhism is an ancient wisdom, the core principles and practice can solve the contemporary social, ethical, human problems and crises caused by the intensity of the digital delusion. Mahayana Buddhism believes that this world is constituted by emptiness,everything is in its becoming, which is dependent on everything else following the law of cause and effect. Buddhism advocates practicing meditation and attain wisdom to get rid of hatred, craving and delusion which are origins of Dukha. Knowing the four noble truths in depth and following the Ariya AstangaMarga, and practice of panchasila to get rid of craving, hatred and delusion which finally leads to Nirvana is the core philosophy of Buddhism.

Local autonomy and the partnership principle: Collaborative governance in the European Social Fund in Sweden

IMPACT This article analyses the democratic autonomy of local public actors in collaborative organizational arrangements within the context of the European Social Investment Fund (ESIF). The authors outline three different ways that collaborations materialize in organizational arrangements and analyse how these organizational arrangements influence a municipality’s capacity to set policy priorities and decide upon organizational matters. The study shows that autonomy varies within these partnerships depending on the degree of formalization of collaboration; the inclusion of local government actors; and the extent to which the collaborative actors are predetermined by regulation. ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of strong local self-government, this article analyses how local autonomy in Sweden has been affected by the implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) and the ‘partnership principle’. Guided by theories on collaborative governance, the authors analyse three empirically-derived forms of organizational collaborative arrangements: top-down decision-making, bottom-up regional initiatives, and horizontal local collaboration. The article illustrates how the implementation of ESF in Swedish municipalities enables local autonomy but also limits the influence of local public actors in formal and informal decision-making processes.

Demystifying Democratic Autonomy in Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland

본 논문의 목적은 찰스 브락든 브라운의 『위랜드』에 나타난 미국 건국기 민주주의의 환상적 모순에 대한 통찰을 조명하는 것이다. 『위랜드』에 대한 기존의 정치적 읽기에서는 브라운이 연방주의자들이나 민주공화주의자들 중 한쪽의 이데올로기를 선호하여 다른 쪽을 비판하는 방식에 초점을 맞추어 왔다. 하지만 이러한 이분법적인 해석은 민주공화주의자들이 강조하는 자치와 연방주의자들의 강조하는 국가적 통합의 핵심개념인 자율성의 현실적 불가능성에 대한 브라운의 예리한 인식을 간과한다. 이를 통해 브라운은 서로 치열하게 경쟁했던 연방주의와 민주공화주의가 자신의 가치를 개념화하는 과정에 내재된 역치된 인과성을 밝힘으로써 미국 민주주의의 개념적 토대인 민주적 자율성이라는 개념의 허위성을 비판한다. 그는 민주공화주의와 연방주의의 정치적 이데올로기가 현실에서 부재하는 실체를 믿음을 통해 실재화하는 환상적 논리에 기반하고 있음을 재현함으로써 미국 건국기의 사상적 기반을 구성하는 근본적인 환상성을 폭로한다.

Dreaming Differently

Dreaming Differently

The Two Row Wampum: Decolonizing and Indigenizing Democratic Autonomy

The Two Row Wampum: Decolonizing and Indigenizing Democratic Autonomy

Demokratyczny konfederalizm jako alternatywny ustrój dla Autonomicznej Administracji Północnej i Wschodniej Syrii

This article is an attempt to present the regime of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria as an alternative to the entire state. It explores the ideology of Abdullah Öcalan, which is the foundation of this regime. It also analyses the systemic assumptions characteristic of the democratic autonomy in Rojava, and then in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. The thesis of the article is that the proposal for a new regime is a huge challenge for the people of these parts of Syria, President Bashar al-Assad and the international environment, in particular Turkey. The success of this project is difficult to assess as it depends on too many variables of an internal and international nature.

Post-capitalist marketization in Northern Kurdistan

Dominated by conflict, Turkey’s Kurdish question has transformed over time, opening up new areas of inquiry. Under the Democratic Autonomy project, ongoing since the mid-2000s, Turkey’s Kurdish Movement has promoted cooperatives and communes – a post-capitalist marketization project – in Northern Kurdistan. Drawing upon economization studies and diverse and community economies studies’ engagement with assemblage thinking, this paper scrutinizes the retailers’ cooperative model the Movement experimented with and explains the practices linked to post-capitalist marketization: creating inclusive platforms for debate, incorporating ordinary actors as experts, and upscaling post-capitalist marketization through building relations with other cooperatives.

Local Autonomy in Temporary Organizations: The Case of Smart City Pilots

Local actors are to an increasing extent engaging in national and European Union (EU)–based development and sustainability agendas. These ventures often materialize in the form of temporary organizations such as pilots and projects. This article contributes to debates on project-based, experimental and temporary organizations by unpacking the organizational architecture of pilots and analyzing how the democratic autonomy of local public actors is formed. Through the example of smart city pilots, the study shows how a range of intersecting relations and hierarchies enable and circumscribe public-sector autonomy—from local actors’ attempts to align pilots with political goals to the limitations of standardized and scalable knowledge and strict funding requirements.

All the Sovereign's Agents: The Constitutional Credentials of Administration

At a time when citizens must rely on administration to tackle the urgent threats of global warming, a pandemic, and destabilizing inequality, critics both left and right would tear it down. Libertarian opponents denounce agency discretion as obnoxious to the rule of law and its norms of generality and neutrality. They argue that regulatory agencies violate the separation of powers and defy the principle of limited government. But their favored solution, a strict application of the non-delegation doctrine, would create a new, undemocratic separation of powers problem: ascribing to unelected judges responsibility for economic and social regulation. On the other hand, conservatives with a more authoritarian inflection would rescue agencies from their constitutional exile by placing them under more direct executive control. Bootstrapping agencies to the president’s electoral credentials, their solution carries Schmittian implications. Administration fares little better in the hands of the left. They blame it for a variety of ailments: the reification of social differences and the juridification of human nature; regulatory capture; depoliticization of the economy and the subsidization of financial capitalism; and, ultimately, populist politics. This paper will put administration on firm constitutional footing. It argues that critiques of the administrative state rely upon mistaken notions of popular sovereignty and the rule of law. First, they posit the law as the “will” of an organ-body democratic sovereign that is transcribed (however ham-handedly) by elected officials. Yet, as recent theory shows, there is no exogenous democratic will to transcribe. Second, they posit that this law can be uncontroversially applied by neutral judges and administrators. For them, the rule of law protects political equality through the unwavering application of abstract, general legislation. Critical theorists show, however, that the application of abstract law to concrete cases may only exacerbate inequality. Legal realists demonstrate that law is underdeterminate; unelected judges and administrators will inevitably find themselves smuggling outside values into their decision-making. By treating administration as part of representative government, however, agencies can gain constitutional credentials. If democracy aspires not to universal consent and a formalist understanding of law, but instead to democratic autonomy (Urbinati & Warren, 2008), then administration can be legitimate. Indeed, agencies already serve as fora for representative politics as citizens organize around rulemaking. They also act as representatives themselves. By providing points of entry into policymaking, independent agencies help constitutional democracies ensure that power can respond effectively to popular demands while always remaining an empty place.

Organizational structure of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement in Uruguay (1965-1972)

The article represents the first in Russian historiography attempt to consider in detail the structure of the revolutionary organization Tupamaros National Liberation Movement that acted in Uruguay in the 1960s and early 1970s. Due to the fact, that the Movement was clandestine, the data on the structure, strength, members could be reconstructed from both official documents and memoirs of members and leaders of the Movement. There are a lot of eminent persons of the contemporary history of Uruguay among them - ex President Jos Mujica, Vice President Luca Topolansky, former Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernndez Huidobro and other important public figures. The study reveals the structural framework of the Tupamaros Movement and shows how were applied in practice two conflicting principles of the democratic centralism and internal autonomy of structural units of the organization.

A Violation of “One Country, Two Systems:” Chinese Encroachment on Hong Kong’s Democratic Autonomy

Since 1997 Hong Kong has operated as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China under a policy known as “One Country, Two Systems.” An analysis of the critical period of 1997-2020 (which came to a close with the 2020 National Security Law) demonstrates the ways in which the People’s Republic of China has used its influence to limit the democratic autonomy and ideological independence of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. By breaking down China’s actions into three distinct sections of politics, media, and education this review addresses the many layers and facets of Chinese encroachment on the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. In the political sector, China has worked to limit democratic representation in Hong Kong via interference in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of Hong Kong’s government. In the field of media, China has used direct and indirect editorial action as well as economic influence to limit negative perceptions of Beijing. In the education system, China has taken a top-down approach to instill Chinese patriotism in Hong Kong’s curriculum to expand the support for China in Hong Kong’s youth. Tracking these violations of Hong Kong’s autonomy and also the people’s response demonstrates that although China continues to push the “One Country” aspect of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy, the people of Hong Kong will continue to fight for their freedoms as long as they have a voice.

Democratic Autonomy and the Shortcomings of Citizens

Abstract A widely held picture in political science emphasizes the cognitive shortcomings of us citizens. We’re ignorant. We don’t know much about politics. We’re irrational. We bend the evidence to show our side in the best possible light. And we’re malleable. We let political elites determine our political opinions. This paper is about why these shortcomings matter to democratic values. Some think that democracy’s value consists entirely in its connection to equality. But the import of these shortcomings, I argue, cannot be explained in purely egalitarian terms. To explain it, we must instead think of democracy’s value partly in terms of collective autonomy. Our ignorance and irrationality undermine the epistemic conditions for realizing this kind of autonomy. They stop us knowing the outcomes of our political choices. Our irrationality and malleability undermine the independence conditions for realizing such autonomy. They mean our political choices are subject to problematic kinds of interpersonal influence. Thus, at root, the import of the widely held picture is that, if accurate, it closes off this critical aspect of democracy’s value.

From Workers’ Councils to Democratic Autonomy: Rediscovering Cornelius Castoriadis' Theory of Council Democracy

ABSTRACT Cornelius Castoriadis is one of the most important democratic thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century, and his theory of autonomy and the self-instituted character of society are fundamental to many post-Marxist theories of democracy. The role of the council system in Castoriadis' work, though, has rarely been investigated, and his analysis of the twentieth century workers' councils of has seldom been connected to his important concepts of autonomy and the instituting power. The article remedies this lack of engagement with Castoriadis' analysis of the council system and argues that the emergence of workers' councils in Castoriadis' own lifetime, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, provided a crucial impetus for his formulation of a theory of autonomy. Moreover, the article argues that the role of the council system in Castoriadis' work provides a privileged vantage point in order to nuance the critique – voiced by for example Jürgen Habermas and Claude Lefort – that Castoriadis exclusively valorise constituent politics without properly appreciating the importance of ordinary politics. Contrary to this interpretation, the article demonstrates how Castoriadis look to the councils to understand how democratic politics entails both freedom to act anew and the need for institutional structure.

The PKK’s Ideological Odyssey

ABSTRACT The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been the dominant actor in Kurdish politics in Turkey since the early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s, the PKK organized a guerrilla insurgency against the Turkish state and managed to mobilize many Kurds. However, in 1999, after its leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured by Turkey, the PKK began to undergo a radical ideological transformation that has significantly altered the movement’s long-term objectives and the demands for the Kurds. This article will focus on the ideological evolution of the PKK and discuss the reasons behind the transformation in its political objectives from national liberation through armed struggle to radical democracy and the resolution of the Kurdish question through ‘democratic confederalism’ and ‘democratic autonomy’.