Democratic Capacities Research Articles

Društvene nauke i nacionalna bezbednost

The contribution of social sciences and humanities to the security of people, society and the state is a little studied topic. It goes without saying that every member of society, especially scientists, should contribute to security, primarily through the adoption of an adequate security culture, knowledge and will (to defend the state) that they possess, which presupposes their knowledge of the legal frameworks that regulate this field. The problem of the contribution of social sciences and humanities to national security arose due to uncritical reforms of these fields initiated by Western power centres. The evaluation of scientific works and the actions of scientists is extremely important for the state and requires an organized system, otherwise it can be a significant source of endangering national security. In this paper, the authors analyse the importance attached to social sciences and humanities as well as their evaluation in society. Special importance is given to their study from the aspect of national security. The basic assumption that guides the authors is that insufficient control of science by the state contributes to endangering national security. This does not mean censorship and absolute control at the same time, but the creation of an orderly system within which the authors will be able to strengthen the national and democratic capacities of the state through their work, and not be abused for the sake of its destabilization, which is especially important in crisis areas. At the same time, the problem of insufficient evaluation of the importance of social sciences and humanities in relation to other sciences is highlighted. There is also a crisis of reviewing scientific papers which is resulted by the introduction of ideological criteria for the publication of articles. Thus, when the reviewer determines that the author is from Russia or Serbia, the next question is whether the author considers Crimea to be Russian or Ukrainian, or, whether Kosmet is an independent state or part of Serbia. The attitude of the reviewer depends on the answer. In order to advance in their professions, they need to be published in journals of high categories, most of which are in the West. This again leads to the resolution and declaration of sensitive issues, where papers are immediately disqualified if they do not agree with an accepted ideological matrix. The authors use the method of content analysis and the comparative method in their paper.

Geopolitičke (ne)prilike vs. "zakasnelo" reagovanje spoljnopolitičke službe Severne Makedonije u procesu evropskih integracija

In the case study of the foreign policy of North Macedonia, we can clearly see how global events, viewed from the perspective of geopolitical circumstances, do not always and as a rule have a direct impact on national internal and regional events in the Western Balkans, nor on the foreign policy actions of the Western Balkan six. In the paper, four determinants were singled out, on the basis of which explanations were provided, in a scientific and research context, why the foreign policy mechanism of North Macedonia "failed" in the process of achieving defined foreign policy goals, above all the basic goal - the country's accession to the European Union. At the same time, the lack of effectiveness of foreign policy action was not in a cause-and-effect relationship with wider European and international geopolitical circumstances. The internal armed conflict in North Macedonia, which threatened to develop into a civil war between the dominant ethnic communities of Macedonians and Albanians, is the first indicator, i.e. the determinant of the explanation why the foreign policy mechanism of North Macedonia "failed" in the process of this country joining the European Union. Another significant moment that was missed in the European integration process of Skopje, covers the period from 2006 to 2017 with two stages: the period leading up to the NATO Summit in Bucharest in 2008 and the period after this summit, up to the change of power of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, which has led to a multiple crisis within that country. The postponement of North Macedonia's accession to NATO in 2008, due to Greece's express refusal, with a focus on connecting the Macedonian nation with the heritage of the ancient Macedonians, with the simultaneous suspension of democratic capacities and principles that represent significant determinants in the process of joining the European Union, leads to missing out and moving away from the path accelerated European integration of North Macedonia. As a third determinant, pervasive corruption was singled out, which affected all levels of government, so that the internal circumstances in North Macedonia actually "worked to the advantage" of the European Union, which at that time as a whole, and also individual member states of the Union, were also moving further away from the policy of enlargement as a mechanism in the process of European integration of both North Macedonia and the remaining countries of the Western Balkans. The aforementioned challenges, which North Macedonia has been facing for almost thirty years, are not in a cause-and-effect relationship with external, whether regional, European or international, geopolitical circumstances and trends. We are talking about challenges that, regardless of the geopolitical dimension of the enlargement of the European Union from the point of view of Brussels and the member states of the European Union, significantly affect the dynamics of North Macedonia's accession to the European Union, that is, the effectiveness of the process of realizing this strategic foreign policy goal. However, it is important to mention the foreign policy action of North Macedonia from the point of view of international law and the provisions of the UN Charter, which represents a strong fourth determinant in the context of the realization of North Macedonia's foreign policy goals. Here, it was possible to see how the international positioning of North Macedonia is conditioned to the detriment of the provisions and norms of international law. In this way, the principles of equality, sovereignty and political independence were placed in a subordinate position in relation to the factual political powers in interstate relations, directly harming the principle of self-determination, in the context of the identity attributes of North Macedonia and the Macedonian people.In the period when geopolitical circumstances were favourable to North Macedonia, the opportunity for this country to become a member of the European Union was missed, thus achieving a strategic foreign policy goal, which in the context of the EU did not cause any consequences when it comes to the EU itself. However, the consequences for North Macedonia itself remained and only in the following period did the circumstances worsen and lead this country to a longer and more difficult path to accession. The future policy should be based on strong tactical tools, which are sufficiently flexible in relation to regional and international trends. First of all, North Macedonia needs a strong internal institutional infrastructure, which simultaneously ensures political, social and economic stability and predictability. In this way, it would be possible to realize the established goals of the foreign policy of North Macedonia.

Critical Reflection in Music Teacher Education: Contradictions and Dilemmas in Theory, Policy, and Practice

In this article, three researchers and music teacher educators reflect upon the possibilities for and challenges of fostering preservice teachers’ critical and democratic capacities and agency in music teacher education in line with recent 21st-century skills-oriented policy reforms. Based on experiences from participatory action research with preservice music teachers in general teacher education at two Norwegian institutions, the authors problematise how critical reflection is defined in educational literature, in policy documents, and by students participating in the referred participatory action research. The authors further discuss the different understandings of critical reflection, considering concepts such as student-centredness, students as customers, student resistance, and student voice. Inspired by critical pedagogy, the authors suggest that the preservice teachers’ articulated reflections represent important steps in their progress toward becoming professional music teachers and that enduring the discomfort of loosening up the student-teacher dyad benefits the development of students’ agency and critical reflection.

GATED COMMUNITIES AS A SYMBOL OF INEQUALITY

This article takes the concept of gated communities to represent a special form of securitised housing, developed in the United States in the 20th century and popularised around the world in later years, and examines it as such. The neo-liberal society is an especially fertile ground for the development of this concept due to the unequal distribution of wealth, growing social stratification, poverty and segregation. Often, the surrounding roads are privatised and access to public areas is restricted for the purposes of these settlements, which leaves entire complexes within cities inaccessible to the majority of citizens. All these processes are in conflict with the democratic concept of the open city and the model of mixed housing, nurtured in the welfare state. The segregation of citizens, and their marginalisation and displacement (gentrification), along with the endangerment and privatisation of public spaces significantly reduce the democratic capacity of urban communities. The main concern of this research is the examination of the reasons which contribute to the expansion of gated communities, and the effects they have on the spirit of the urban community (alienation) and the democratic capacities of cities. The aim of the paper is to examine the notion of gated communities on a sample of cities in the Anglosphere (USA, Canada, New Zealand), and to analyse their specific effects. The analysis of the existing research and case studies concerning gated communities in the world often consists of the use of statistical methods, regulatory change analyses, and the interviews and surveys of tenants, managers, politicians and officials. The comparative method, used in this paper, focuses on the similarities and differences of gated communities in different countries, which enabled us to draw conclusions on better housing and urban development policies (synthesis).

A safety net against populism? An investigation of the interaction effect of political efficacy and democratic capacities on populist attitudes

ABSTRACT The paper interprets populism as a symptom of a mismatch between how the democratic polity operates and how citizens conceive their own aspirations, needs and identities vis-à-vis the polity. However, democracy requests certain attitudes and skills from citizens: political engagement, a reflective attitude, scrutiny of the power holders and balancing trust-based cooperation with critical reactions towards political authorities. In line with this, we investigate how external and internal political efficacy are associated with populist attitudes in the case of people who have and who do not have certain democratic capacities. Our findings drawing upon an original survey covering 15 European countries show that higher internal political efficacy is associated with more populist attitudes in the case of people with incomplete democratic capacities, but complete democratic capacities yield a ‘safety net’ against this effect. However, the negative relationship between external political efficacy and populist attitudes does not depend on these capacities: stronger dissatisfaction with the responsiveness of political elites leads to more populist attitudes irrespective of people’s democratic background. Nonetheless, our findings imply that a stronger emphasis on certain democratic practices and values in political socialization or civic education could prevent stronger political confidence would turn into populist views about politics.

Activism versus Criticism? The Case for a Distinctive Role for Social Critics

This essay makes a distinction between the roles that activists and social critics can play in democratic societies and defends the separate tasks of a non-activist social critic. Drawing on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, I argue that non-activist social critics are better situated than activists to reach certain audiences, cultivate certain democratic capacities, and preserve their audience’s agency while doing so. In Emerson’s case, his concerns about his activist contemporaries led him to craft new ways of critically engaging his peers. At the same time, as Emerson’s life also illustrates, non-activist critics are limited by their roles and must forgo some of their distinctive advantages in order to do activist work. Clarifying the scope of the social critic’s role in this way helps critics to draw on the benefits of their position and avoid overstepping its constraints, thereby allowing them to more effectively promote political reform.

The Partisan Contours of Attitudes About Rights and Liberties.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-023-09860-3.

The ethics of wicked problems: an exegesis.

For nearly all the most urgent issues confronting humanity today, there is neither consensus about how to address them nor clarity on how tackling them might further compound existing inequality, erode democratic capacities and accelerate environmental decline. Urgent issues of climate change, rapid urbanization and public health are teeming with wicked problems. Even so, their prospective solutions may nevertheless exacerbate these problems and bring about new ones. Taming any one of these wicked problems with planning and public policy tools presumes making decisions on ethical questions such as what to tame and what to ignore, who or what to prioritize in the solution, or conversely, who or what should bear the costs and risks, and how to strike a balance between uncertain benefits and probable harms. Despite the saliency of ethics in the formulation of wicked problems and how they are tamed, the ethics of wicked problems has remained woefully under-developed ever since (Rittel and Webber, Policy Sci 4:155-169, 1973) publication nearly five decades ago. In this article, each of the ten properties of the wicked problem, following their original sequence, will be examined in relation to ethics. What is the moral significance of each of these properties? How does explicating their moral content advance present understanding of wicked problems? And how might this study of ten properties in relation to ethics enable planners to avoid moral blindspots and pitfalls that often accompany wicked problems? Finally, how can the ethics of wicked problems aspire new planning ideals?

Primena IT u javnom sektoru od strane lokalnih vlasti - koristi i izazovi

State and local governments in e-tools have important instruments of quality management and the creation and implementation of sectoral policies. Smart city projects provide excellent services to citizens, increase the transparency and accountability of authorities, as well as citizens' satisfaction with services. Participative edecision-making is useful because citizens are indispensable for expressing their needs, assessing the quality of services, and setting requests and initiatives (co-production). On the other hand, it is also important to include public servants who ensure that decisions are optimally shaped and that services are tailored according to the needs of specific people (personalization of services) and the community. Serbia has a systemic problem of centralization, a top-down approach to management, weak participation of citizens and weak involvement of experts in the work of e-government. Good practice indicates that e-government cannot function without the active involvement of citizens, so our system needs to be changed and improved. These changes would also modernize management, decision making and policy making (evidence based decision and policy making). The consequence would be the creation of services according to the needs of citizens, which increases citizens' satisfaction with the quality of services. In addition, these processes strengthen the socialization of citizens, strengthen democratic capacities of communities, and raise the motivation of employees to contribute to the quality of work (strengthening of professionalization, motivation and dignity of public servants).

Rethinking Democratic Theories of Justice in the Economy after COVID-19

This article argues that the COVID-19 crisis has brought to light the importance of state democratic capacities linked with humanist governance. This requires securing individuals’ silent freedoms as embedded in the way “developmental” institutions that constitute social relations and well-being are governed. I argue health and well-being inequalities brought out by the crisis are but a manifestation of the way, in the context of the competition paradigm in global governance, states have become relatedly more punitive and dis-embedded from society. The answer lies in providing a more explicit defence of the features of a human development democratic state. An implication is to move democratic theory beyond the concern with redistributive and participatory features of democracy to consider foundational institutional properties of democratic deepening and freedom in society.

Demanding Epistemic Democracy and Indirect Civics Pedagogy: The Performance-Oriented Music Ensemble

The participation of young adults in performance-oriented music ensembles can be seen to enhance democratic capacities and virtues. Much, however, turns on the particular conception of democracy at work. Although contemporary currents in music education tend towards models of liberal and participatory democracy to govern music ensembles, this essay contends that demanding epistemic democracy allows performance-oriented music ensembles the achievement of democratic virtues without sacrificing excellence as a central regulatory ideal. The inclusion of both men and women is shown to be particularly significant in this light. Central to its democratic epistemic ambition, the role of the conductor is considered in the last section of this article.

Rethinking the digital democratic affordance and its impact on political representation: Toward a new framework

This article advances a new theory of the digital democratic affordance, a concept first introduced by Lincoln Dahlberg to devise a taxonomy of the democratic capacities of digital media applications. Whereas Dahlberg classifies digital media affordances on the basis of preexisting democratic positions, the article argues that the primary affordance of digital media is to abate the costs of political participation. This cost-reducing logic of digital media has diverging effects on political participation. On an institutional level, digital democracy applications allow elected representatives to monitor and consult their constituents, closing some gaps in the circuits of representation. On a societal level, digital media allow constituents to organize and represent their own interests directly. In the former case, digital affordances work instrumentally in the service of representative democracy; in the latter, digital democratic affordances provide a mobilized public with emerging tools that put pressure on the autonomy of representatives.

Capacidades democráticas para la gobernanza de las áreas naturales protegidas. El caso de la Reserva Natural de Salinas y Aguada Blanca (2015 – 2017)

Protected natural areas are spaces that have a valuable ecosystemic, genetic and biological heritage and in which cultural and ethnic diversity provides valuable traditional knowledge regarding their uses and properties. Managing these areas implies recognizing that they are multicultural spaces where actors with multiple interests converge; it also requires that not only be guaranteed that all those involved are represented in the management instances, but also that everyone has the necessary capacities to participate actively in the decision-making process. What are those capacities that allow the participation of all under equal conditions? The study identifies ten capacities, which are called “democratic capacities”; and it is analyzed if these are present in the actors involved in the management of the National Reserve of Salinas and Aguada Blanca in the period 2015-2017. The study concludes that the capacities for dialogue and intercultural management are well developed. While the abilities: reading ability; management of the language of the communities; attitude and willingness to provide information permanently; surrounding analysis; decision making; conflict resolution; and incidence have a medium development, and there are still weaknesses in the capacity to comply with the agreements.

Local Government Capacities for the Integration of Migrants

This paper explains the role of local governments (cities, regions) in the implementation of immigration policy in Europe. It covers the period since the 1960s and explains various waves and types of immigration, state policies, and the capacities of local government to help with immigrant integration. Several case studies are presented: Antwerp (Belgium), Malmö (Sweden), and Bologna and the Veneto region (Italy). The policy of migrant integration is exceedingly complex, requiring persistent dedication on part of all countries to mitigate the biggest problems of the contemporary globalised world (wealth distribution; poverty reduction; prevention of economic and political conflicts, especially wars; development of human rights; ecology), and to upgrade democratic capacities in each society. The contribution of this paper is to show that liberal policy in this field is the best option for the effective integration of migrants. Host state and local governments should be more sensitive to the nature and needs of the migrant population, and to foster a better understanding of the values, customs, and culture of both migrants and the domestic population. Useful measures which can help migrants in the process of integration are: tailored education, training for skills and jobs, participation in decision-making processes in the host country, and cooperation between the migrants’ home and host countries. It is important that political leaders continuously convey the message to the public that migrants represent great social capital and potential for the economic development of their society. The public should understand that in the contemporary globalised world society should be open to capital and labour migration, and that in this process our communities are given the chance to be multicultural, open, tolerant, and richer in every aspect. At the same time, all citizens, including the migrant population, have an obligation to protect democratic values and to contribute to the social development of both their home and host societies.

Programmatic Configurations for the Twenty-First-Century Developmental State in Urban Brazil

Supplementing a traditional focus on economic dimensions of development, sociologists now frequently examine the origins of macro-level growth in human capabilities. One emergent theoretical framework for doing so emphasizes the promise of “twenty-first-century developmental states” for broadening delivery of capability-enhancing public services like health and education. Nevertheless, the configurations of state-society actors that are consistently willing and able to construct such institutions are far from obvious, highlighting a missing-agent problem at the core of the framework. The article addresses this gap by tracing Brazil's historic improvements in social development to what I call “programmatic configurations,” or broad-based alliances of civil and political society actors that ameliorate vexing public problems by building democratic institutions and state capacities needed to enact rights-based social policies. It argues that frequent local office-holding by “sanitarista” activists from the country's most important health movement, the Sanitarist Movement, has been essential for constituting the programmatic configurations that maximized social development across urban Brazil in recent decades. More specifically, a brief historical account of the movement and fuzzy-set analysis show that programmatic configurations assembled by sanitaristas in Brazil's largest capitals have generally been a sufficient condition for maximizing improvement over time in three outcomes: infant-mortality reduction, municipal spending on health and sanitation, and municipal delivery of primary public health care. I correspondingly argue for broadening the twenty-first-century developmental state framework to accommodate how programmatic configurations—and the pragmatically inclined civil society activists at their core—can contribute to democratic state-building for social development.

Dialogic pedagogy in the supervision of social studies student teachers

PurposeResearch reveals very little about how the supervision of social studies student teachers ought to be enacted. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachBased on the broader arguments for the democratic purposes of social studies, the author argues for the development of the democratic capacities of teacher citizens by creating deliberative and dialogic spaces in social studies field-based teacher education.FindingsFour conceptual dimensions of dialogic pedagogy in the supervision of social studies student teachers are explored: questioning, listening, negotiation, and self-critique.Originality/valueBecause supervision of student teachers is a pedagogical interaction, a pedagogy of social studies field-based teacher education must be grounded in dialogue and deliberation.

Urban Renewal Projects and Democratic Capacities of Citizens

Many of the urban renewal projects (URPs) in consolidating democracies are not market-led projects but rather projects initiated by the state and implemented by the private sector. Promising to improve urban poor regions with URPs poses unique challenges and opportunities to residents, yet their microfoundations and the impact on citizens remain largely unexplored. Tracing the ways in which state, economic, and individual factors interact in two drastically different URPs in Istanbul, this resident-centered approach highlights two contradictory patterns: (1) citizens' increasing dependency on the central government and reluctance to protest and (2) the exigency to raise land-based demands beyond the confines of elections. Together these introduce URP residents as a new critical urban force in their respective democracies.

Public hearings: A specific form of citizen participation in exercising control over parliamentary functions

This paper focuses on the citizen participation in the exercise of public authority, in particular, their impact on the exercise of control over the work of public authorities. The exercise of citizens' authority to control the activities of the public authorities is guaranteed by the rights envisaged in the domestic and international law (such as: the right to petition, the right to public criticism of the authorities, the right to address public authorities and seek answer to certain questions, etc.). One of these rights is exercised in a special form of public hearing which enables citizens to take part in exercising control over parliamentary activities. This special form of public hearing is a parliamentary inquiry. Unlike the public hearing (scrutiny) related to scutinizing the normative function of Parliament, parliamentary inquiry is a form of public debate aimed at enabling citizens to exercise control over the workings of Parliament. This kind of debate is organized to examine the investigative work of the state administration, ministries, public services, organizations and institutions entrusted with public authority, ministers and other senior government officials. Besides demonstrating the citizens' influence on exercising control over parliamentary functions, parliamentary hearings reinforce the citizens' relations with their directly elected representatives in parliament. In addition, they further legitimize the parliament as a controller of the executive power, and strengthen its democratic capacities and authority.

The essential and inherent democratic capacities of communities

Despite the rise of many new forms of public participation, citizens often find themselves on the sidelines of civic initiatives. Observing that nascent democratic capacities are an under-used resource for community development, this article explores how widely applied understandings of capacity building fail to recognize the democratic capacities of communities. By exploring notions of capacity that span the fields of community development and civic engagement, this discussion argues that both fields can improve their ability to address complex public problems by paying close attention to the inherent democratic capacities of a community’s citizens, organizations, and networks. It suggests a framework for recognizing and analyzing these democratic capacities. An overlapping “democratic practices” framework is presented as a way to analyze how communities apply their democratic capacities. The article concludes with case studies from Cooperative Extension that illustrate how citizen-centered community development and civic engagement grounded in public deliberation and dialog can build on and strengthen the democratic capacities of communities.

‘Co-Emergence’ In Ecological Continuum: Educating Democratic Capacities Through Posthumanism as Praxis

In this piece I argue for posthumanism-based deliberation and education toward just global ecologies. I propose posthumanism’s nonanthropocentric ethical approach and conceptual framework enables a processual multiperspectival account of rich, variegated bionetworks and their organic and inorganic materials’ interrelationships and interdependencies. Among reciprocal studies and methodologies, I consider Mitchell’s (2004) integrative pluralism in tandem with a developmental systems paradigm of co-emergence to acknowldge the dynamic epistemological continuum of complex ecologies. In terms of specific embedded learning experiences, I briefly discuss Lind’s Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD)® as one specific approach in which to cultivate democratic capacities whilst embracing the destabilizing-stabilizing tendencies of posthumanistic praxis for inclusive flourishing.