Democratic Decision Research Articles

Structural and institutional arrangements impacting collective actions in WUAs of West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT This study provides empirical evidence of major debates in collective action theory concerning resource and member heterogeneity by conducting a survey on 63 randomly selected water-user associations promoted by the West Bengal state government of India. The functioning and governance of these institutions were evaluated by efficiency in resource mobilization (collection of membership fees), members’ perception of transparency and democratic decision-making, and dependency on third-party involvement in the future. The study finds that a larger command area, larger proportion of smaller farmers, optimum membership fee, frequent general body meetings, certain documentation, and power structure improve the functioning and governance indicators.

Ethics framework for citizen science and public and patient participation in research

BackgroundCitizen science and models for public participation in health research share normative ideals of participation, inclusion, and public and patient engagement. Academic researchers collaborate in research with members of the public involved in an issue, maximizing all involved assets, competencies, and knowledge. In citizen science new ethical issues arise, such as who decides, who participates, who is excluded, what it means to share power equally, or whose knowledge counts. This article aims to present an ethics framework that offers a lens of understanding and heuristic guidelines to deal with ethical issues in citizen science.MethodsWe conducted seven case studies between 2015 and 2021 to attune and validate the ethics framework for the context of citizen science. The cases related to studies with older adults, people with a psychiatric vulnerability, people dependent on community care, people who are unemployed or living in poverty or both, and young adults with respiratory disease.ResultsEthics in citizen science reaches beyond the ethical issues in traditional biomedical and health research. It entails more than following procedures about informed consent and privacy and submitting a proposal to a Medical Research Ethics Committee. Ethics in citizen science relates to everyday ethical issues during the study, including relational and moral complexities concerning collaboration, sharing power, and democratic decision-making. Dealing with these issues requires ethics work of researchers. This entails seeing ethically salient issues and reflecting on everyday ethical issues. Ethics work consists of seven features: framing work, role work, emotion work, identity work, reason work, relationship work, and performance work. All are relevant for researchers in citizen science.ConclusionsEthical issues in citizen science often relate to power differentials, partnership, and collaboration between academics and non-academics. The ethics framework prepares researchers for the work needed in citizen science to act responsibly and offers a heuristic guide to reflect on ethics. Reflection on ethics is a pathway towards ethical citizen science, especially if researchers collaboratively reflect in partnership with non-academics who are subject to the moral issue.

Gateway to dissent: the role of pro-Palestine activism in opposition to authoritarianism

ABSTRACT Pro-Palestine activism in the Arab world has historically been one of the few tolerated avenues for political expression. Such activism is not an innocuous display of humanitarian concern for the plight of Palestinians, but rather a major driver of opposition to authoritarianism – particularly in highly repressive environments. In this article, I argue that pro-Palestine activism in the region has three impacts: 1) introducing activists in their formative years to the idea of political agency, 2) providing a space to engage in citizenship-building practices, and 3) generating spillover effects in the personal development of activists as well as in civil society more broadly. Using the case of Qatar and relying on 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, I show how pro-Palestine activism consistently generated discussions and demands not only on the issue of Palestine, but on the idea of representative foreign policy, democratic decision-making, and the future of authoritarianism in Qatar, as well as in neighbouring Arab states. This sort of activism often goes unrecognized in the literature as a major driver of opposition, but is a crucial factor in our understanding of when and why dissent emerges in the region, even in environments when traditional civil society is nonexistent.

International functionalism and democracy

International functionalism as proposed by David Mitrany envisions non-territorial functional agencies to supplant the states system. Mitrany makes no provision for democracy in functional agencies. Instead, he assumes that the policies of international technocrats would be ‘technically self-determined’ and uncontested – a stance several critics deem antidemocratic and naive. A second, related criticism holds that even if functional agencies were formally democratic, democracy could not operate effectively since functional polities would be too ‘thin’ and fragmented to sustain democratic commitments among their members. The article qualifies the first charge and rejects the second. First, defined as an institutional decision-making principle, ‘technical self-determination’ is Mitrany’s add-on to the underlying functionalist logic, not an inseparable part of it. That logic instead holds that institutions work best if their form and scope of authority follow their function and that function-specific agencies therefore could meet some needs better than the state. Contra Mitrany, this does not privilege technocratic over democratic decision-making and it does not imply that functional agencies would be free from political conflict. Nor, second, would functional agencies necessarily be unsuitable for democracy in practice. Several strands of democratic theory suggest that even people who do not share a ‘thick’ communal identity can develop a commitment to meet shared needs democratically. If one accepts this, it loosens functionalism’s technocratic stigma, highlights its potential as a democratically viable alternative to both state-centric and supranational models of international order and broadens our conception of possible democratic futures.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN BUDGETARY PROCESSES IN NIGERIA: MYTH OR REALITY

Citizen participation in governance processes is critical for sustaining the development of any society. Citizen participation in budgetary processes is a system of promoting efficient and responsive government by having citizens input into resource allocation decisions. The paper noted that citizen-participation in governance is at its lowest in the nation. This paper is qualitative in nature, relying on secondary data, such as textbooks, journals, official documents etc. The paper is anchored on stakeholders’ theory which argues that citizen participation is a pillar of democracy and is necessary for a sustainable democracy. As a result, it gives every individual opportunity to influence and change political, social, economic and public decisions and allows citizens to be an important part of the democratic decision-making in Nigeria. It observed that since the return of democratic rule in Nigeria in 1999, efforts at participatory governance have never received the full backing of the ruling class, because they see it as a threat to their collective interest. The paper examines the mature of budgetary process in Nigeria, and states that participatory budgeting could be an important tool that can be used to encourage active citizenship in the transformation and development of their community. It concludes that the quality of democracy depends on how far people can participate in and influence the governance process. Citizen participation is critical for democratic decision-making and ensuring transparency and accountability.

Keep it local and bird-friendly: Exploring the social acceptance of wind energy in Switzerland, Estonia, and Ukraine

The literature on social acceptance of wind energy has identified several important characteristics shaping the social acceptance of a planned project. These include distributional and procedural justice, as well as other project-related factors. Project characteristics do not exist in isolation and influence one another. Furthermore, social acceptance of wind energy is likely to vary geographically, due to cross-country differences. As a result, the need for more consistent cross-country comparisons has been highlighted in the literature as an important research gap. The current paper addresses this gap with the help of a large-scale cross-country analysis (N = 2003) that examines the social acceptance of wind energy projects in Switzerland, Estonia, and Ukraine through choice experiments. Our analysis shows some exploratory evidence for country-specific differences: A tradition of direct democratic decision-making might lead to placing more emphasis on procedural justice, and we also identify some early evidence for differences between individualist and collectivist countries in terms of preferences for distributional justice. However, we also find that ecological impact was the most important attribute in all three countries, and respondents tend to appreciate local ownership. We conclude that projects should be developed by local actors and remain friendly to wildlife – keeping them local and bird-friendly.

Study on the Case of Songdo Smart City based on the Citizen Participation Approach

The purpose of this paper is to explore the level of citizen participation in Songdo smart city project, once called U-city project, in order to provide citizens with U-service anywhere by using new IT technology in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, a landfill site. To this end, it reviews the literature on smart city, and derives project’s problems, evaluates according to the framework, and proposes implications. This paper uses the “Citizen Participation Evaluation Framework” formalized by Simonofsky and his colleagues and analyzes civic participation method by dividing it into democratic participants, co-creators, and ICT users. The level of citizen participation in the Songdo project is evaluated according to the criteria presented by this framework and the results are presented. The analysis period is from 2003 to 2016, when the government office was opened and the initial foundation was completed. As a result of analysis, Songdo had built open data and infrastructure for citizens, but citizens were participated as ICT users only. Although citizens living in smart cities should be the co-creators and participants in democratic decision-making for solving urban problems, Songdo was missing these factors. In conclusion, this paper argues that Songdo remains in the U-city paradigm as the 'smart people', a key element among the smart city components, has been neglected and ultimately reveals a fundamental limit to its growth into a sustainable smart city. In addition, suggestions for improvement are presented. This paper is meaningful in that it presented lessons and implications that the human factors should be emphasized as the subject of technology and services to develop into an authentic smart city through the case of Songdo.

COMMUNITY-BASED COOPERATION AS AN EFFECTIVE MECHANISM OF THE RECOVERY OF THE HIGLANDS IN GEORGIA

There could be no progress Georgia without strengthening the vitality of rural areas and agriculture. Strength of rural community depends on developing and pursuing sound public policies. In the thirty-year history of Georgia's independence, there have been made numerous attempts to pursue regional policies aimed at improving the well-being of rural people. Time has shown that each strategy or program designed for this purpose has always been unsystematic and fragmented. As a result, we obtained an almost irreversible process of rural exodus in Georgia, especially in the highland border sector. These areas of Georgia require highly specific approaches. Local Georgians closest to the origins of Georgian civilization still keep in their daily lives the customs that have existed continuously for many centuries (community-based use and enjoyment of land, partnership, community). The goal of the public support programs designed for them is to create conditions that will naturally encourage people to be there on a permanent-type basis. We consider it expedient to create special economic entities in the higher altitude regions of the country, to which the revenues generated from pasture lands and forest funds will accumulate. Within the mentioned economic entities, agricultural production should be developed on a cooperative basis, by organizing a single production cycle within cooperatives (production, processing and marketing of primary products). The owners of these types of economic entities can only be people permanently residing in a certain territory. The revenues from leasing or other agricultural activities can only be spent based on democratic decisions for general purposes to improve the living conditions. Such purposes may include education, healthcare, infrastructure, transport, etc., which will be pre-determined by the Government of Georgia. When specifying the optimal form of local territorial extent of agricultural cooperatives, priority is given to community-based cooperatives. They will be formed within the administrative units, taking into account the factors of production specialization and concentration of the productive forces. Community-based cooperatives contribute to creating conditions for mass community engagement in the cooperative process, where economies of scale can be used and population’s ability and material resources can be capitalized on the ground, which is of particular importance for inclusive (comprehensive) entrepreneurship development. There are unique opportunities for organic production in the mountains of Georgia. The basis for the rational use of natural pasture lands in all vertical zones is the introduction of a system of plot-rotational or similar cattle grazing. Increasing the production of all types of food (green, juicy, coarse) on natural pasture lands, improving their quality and reducing the cost is the main basis for livestock development, because 65-75% of the cost of livestock products is related to feed costs. The organization of a single production cycle within the cooperative (stock feed for livestock, dairy and dairy products (including products produced on the place of origin: “dambalkhacho (a kind of blue cheese), stuffed cheese, sheep cheese), meat and meat products, wool and leather production) will ensure the rational use of grasslands, reduce feed costs and will significantly increase shareholder returns. In view of the diversity of non-timber forest products in the highlands of Georgia and the rapidly growing demands in international markets, wild-growing fruit picking (dog-rose, crab apple, cornel, sea buckthorn, etc.) within community cooperatives and developing their drying, storage and bio-production and sales at high prices have great potential. Creating a value chain for the production of non-timber forest products in Georgia would be ensured through supporting the strengthening of the organizational and technical-technological capabilities of the community-based cooperatives. The above model of the Highland Caucasus can be extended to all communities and villages after defining the status of village and rural entrepreneur (village as a territorial unit/vital area), which implies the transfer of the permanent ownership and use of state-owned land, forest, pasture, water and mineral resources to the communities. If this model is properly organized, the most complex military-political, economic and demographic problems related to the highland border sectors will be addressed without an additional financial cost to the State and changes in the internal territorial arrangement of the country. The people who live here will simultaneously act as guardians, border guards and farmers of the country. One of the primary objectives of State policy should be to encourage care and support of people living in rural areas, as well as to give them incentives to work (strengthening the authority of farming) in order to feed society.

Research on New Public Management from a Multi-dimensional Perspectiv

At present, community pension has become a new type of pension. However, with economic development and social transformation, our country has entered a special period of diversified interests and complex contradictions. Environmental mass incidents show a high incidence trend. "Dilemma." This article uses a new perspective of behavioral public management to analyze the interaction between the government and the public in the decision-making process of environmental projects, and draws the conclusion of "two transformations": the cognitive framework of "public management". Scientific understanding is needed. Transform into the cognitive framework of "public epistemology"; accordingly, the interactive mode of the one-way role of the government and the people and the intermediary influence of experts needs to be transformed into the two-way role of "public epistemology". Based on the interactive mode in which the government, the people and experts play a regulatory role, it is recommended to transform the path dependence of government decision-making led by bureaucratic experts and technical experts into completely democratic decision-making.

The Exploration of the Path in Decision-making and Democracy Management within the Management Systems of Modern Hospitals

Modern hospitals base their management systems on the division of policies and affairs, administration and practice. The state-owned hospitals become the juristic persons which possess the independent property ownership, franchise, personnel autonomy, right of salary assigning and KPI assessing and etc. By means of which, the government grants adequate autonomy to the hospital management team that features the director of the hospital as the core member. With the above context as the main topic, this paper tends to examine the way to achieve the scientific, efficient and democratic decision-making, further exploring the path to a better optimized management and decision-making system of modern hospitals.

„Mehr Demokratie wagen?!“ Zur Absenkung der Altersgrenze für das aktive Wahlrecht zum Deutschen Bundestag

Lowering the voting age for federal elections in Germany from 18 to 16 years has been discussed for several years . Numerous political forces endeavor to give minors the opportu- nity to participate in democratic decision-making by lowering the voting age . The coalition agreement between SPD, Greens, and FDP also contains plans for lowering the voting age to 16 . In addition to sociological aspects, there are, however, notable questions from the point of view of the constitutional law that must be considered . Various comparison bases for age limits within the whole legal system must be carefully examined, especially regard- ing the suitability for justifying a lowering of the voting age . It should be noted that this ought to be justified independently of any basis for comparison; it should be exclusively based on the democratic ability of citizens to participate in the communication process between citizens and parliament . This assessment is the sole responsibility of the constitu- tion-amending legislature .

Let the people speak! Resisting the erosion of the right to public participation in the wake of The Federation of Fly Fishers v The Minister of Environmental Affairs

The need for public participation in environmental decisions is accepted in both international and South African law. In the run up to, and just after, the transition to democracy, South Africa was exemplary in many instances in ensuring that participation occurred in a meaningful and broad-based way. In recent years, however, some may question whether the underlying rationale for public participation is still as valued by government, or whether it is being diluted to a mechanistic procedural requirement reminiscent of the past. Disputes about the way in which requirements to give effect to public participation are being implemented have recently surfaced in the courts in respect of several environmental issues. There has been strong public opposition to municipal service delivery regarding waste and water, seismic testing off the South African coast, and law-making activities regarding trout. This article considers the court’s oversight of public participation processes in respect of one of those issues — recent decisions on the introduction of executive regulations. It does so by tracing the particular dynamics regarding the need for public participation in South Africa and assessing the way in which the court has adjudicated public participation disputes in the law-making context. It finds that the court appears to be willing to play its oversight role in a way which is true to the underlying ethos of democratic decision-making in the environmental context, albeit that further opportunities for the court to consider the full range of matters involving participation should be welcomed.

Combating Disinformation in the European Union: Legal Aspects

Today, both Ukraine and European countries are subject to disinformation and foreign intervention in their domestic policies. Each democracy no matter its geography experiences its distinct vulnerabilities and respectively, reactions to foreign interference. It should be stated, the immediate responses to such challenges in most Western countries have been rare and sluggish, hampered by legal constraints and bureaucracy, and furthermore, they lacked a real political awareness of the problem or proof of its further impact. Foreign actors are increasingly using disinformation strategies to influence public debate, stir controversy and interfere in democratic decision-making. Responding to these new challenges, the European Commission has introduced a set of actions and tools to better regulate the digital ecosystem of the media and its participants, in particular, the formation and improvement of the legal framework to combat disinformation in the European information space. The researcher’s focus revolves around the European Union’s comprehensive approach to vigorous combating misinformation. The research data prove that since 2015, the EU has adopted a number of regulations to counter this information threat and the potential effects of foreign interference. In particular, in 2016 the EU adopted a document “Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats, a European Union response”, and “Action Plan against Disinformation”, respectively in 2018. These documents provide a baseline for understanding the diverse types of challenges other countries face and how they are addressing them. Consequently, a number of initiatives and projects of the European institutions, and the first worldwide self-regulatory “EU Code of Practice on Disinformation” issued in 2018 on a voluntary basis, have become main pillars of the EU. The Code identifies issues related to ensuring the transparency of political advertising, strengthening efforts to close active counterfeits. accounts, enabling users to report misinformation and access various news sources, while improving the visibility and reliability of authoritative content; enabling the research community to monitor disinformation on the Internet through access to these platforms, compatible with the confidentiality signed by the largest Internet platforms and social media (Google, Facebook, Twitter and Mozilla) in the framework of WMC self-regulation activities. It should be noted that the implementation of the “European Union Code of Practice on Countering Disinformation” has yielded ambiguous fruits. Self-regulation was the first logical and necessary step, but few stakeholders were fully satisfied with the process or its outcome, significant challenges remain for building trust through industry, governments, academia and civil society engagement.

Experts, influencers, and amplifiers — Exploring climate movements' hyperlinking practices

While research shows different links between activism and science, little is known about activists engaging in science communication online. Demanding that decision-makers should “listen to the scientists”, the climate movements Fridays for Future (FFF) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) emphasize the role of scientific knowledge in democratic decision-making. Exploring the two movements' hyperlinking practices reveals a difference in the extent and selection of hyperlinks on their websites, pointing to influencer-based communication and focus on popularization of science by FFF and expert-based communication leaning on academic publications by XR, with both movements acting as amplifiers of existing science communication efforts.

Confucian Democracy in East Asia: A Discussion of Sungmoon Kim’s Democracy After Virtue: Toward Pragmatic Confucian Democracy

Confucian Democracy in East Asia: A Discussion of Sungmoon Kim’s <i>Democracy After Virtue: Toward Pragmatic Confucian Democracy</i>

Practicing Democracy from Childhood

Democracy manifests itself in a range of ways and is an imperfect, dynamic struggle for collective decision-making. This article discusses the multifaceted processes of deliberative democratic praxis found in traditional Māori society. Central to decision-making inte aoMāori,huiprovide formal and informal structures for deliberative democracy, precedent setting, learning, and transformation through consensus making, inclusive debate, and discussion across all levels of society. Rather than coercion and voting,rangatirarelied on a complex mix of customary values and accomplished oratory skills to explore issues in family and community meetings and in public assemblies. Decisions made through inclusive deliberative processes practiced inhuiestablished evident reasoning and responsibility for all community members to uphold the reached consensus. This article claims that practicing deliberative democracy as a fundamental way of life, learned through ongoing active and meaningful participation throughout childhood, improves the integrity of democratic decision-making.

Rise and Fall of Cultural Policy Participation in Novi Sad, Serbia

ABSTRACT This exploratory study examines cultural policy participation in the city of Novi Sad, Serbia. Policy participation was observed throughout the creation process of the first cultural development strategy of the city. Official strategic documents, in-depth interviews with members of cultural associations and observant participation have been employed to document this study. Six key themes reflect the consecutive phases of the cultural participation development process, namely initial restraint from participation, building trust and agency in decision making, inducing the creation of different spaces for participation, and disappointment and alienation of cultural actors. Although cultural policy participation has proven challenging, this attempt at fostering democratic decision-making has provided an invaluable experience to the cultural associations that participated in the process.

Dejtonske kontroverze – Javno odlučivanje između parlamentarne demokratije i partitokratije

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the pluralization of society and the state began during 1990. This is the time when political parties are formed and the first multi-party parliamentary elections are held. Due to the strong influence and domination of the ethnic principle, political parties were formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990 in two basic forms: as ethnic or people's (national) parties, and as civic (multiethnic) parties. In almost all election cycles from the beginning of the pluralization of Bosnian society until today, ethnic political parties have won the elections. Ethnic political parties have appropriated a monopoly in the promotion of national interests since the 1990 election campaign, guided by the idea of protecting the national interests of “their“ peoples. The continued rule of ethnic parties without a coalition political agenda and agreement has strengthened ethnic pluralism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, instead of democratic decision-making and competition between the majority and the opposition, the representative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina have become an arena and a place of mutual competition and confrontation between the parties that make up the parliamentary majority. The lack of the necessary democratic consensus between the ruling ethnic political parties at the state level was compensated and compensated by the High Representative of the International Community (OHR), who, on the basis of the Bonn powers, promulgated certain laws. Hundreds of laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been promulgated by high representatives. This prevented blockages in the work of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the absence of the necessary consensus of the ruling ethnic parties, it is not possible to develop or strengthen the power of parliaments as the highest representative body of the people and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Instead of parliamentary democracy, classical partitocracy is at work. The situation is similar at the entity level, and at the cantonal level in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. All this, along with heterogeneous and complicated decision-making procedures and processes, ultimately reflects on the adoption of laws and decisions of importance to society and the state. Complicated forms of decision-making and the existence of a famous mechanism for the protection of vital national interests are some of the obstacles to the development of the state and society. All of these are some of the essential problems, but also the controversies that follow the decision-making processes in the representative bodies in the country. This is especially true of the adoption of important and significant public policies aimed at solving socio-political problems. Only decision-making at the level of local self-government units (municipalities and cities) can serve as a positive example. In general, the local level of government has so far proved to be the most efficient level of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The basis for strengthening the democratic decision-making capacities of the representative bodies of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is contained in the application of the democratic principle on which parliamentary democracy is established and functions. Applying almost all basic and general scientific research methods, as well as the method of analysis (content) of relevant documentation as a method of data acquisition, will identify key problems and controversies of public decision-making and policy making in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period after the Dayton Peace Agreement. today. A conclusion will be drawn on the need to establish a parliamentary majority based on the coalition agreement and the political program of that coalition, which significantly affects the public decision-making processes and the adoption of the necessary state public policy. Bosnia and Herzegovina is required to reconstruct public decisions in the direction of strengthening state public decisions and policies and building European standards, in order to more efficiently compose them with the requirements and directives of the European Union.

The role of dissent, conflict, and open dialogue in learning to live together harmoniously

“Learning To Live Together” (LTLT) has been proposed as one of the four UN pillars of education. Several Indian educationists including Aurobindo, Gandhi, Krishnamurti, and Tagore have emphasized equivalents like ‘education of the heart’ and founded schools that have pursued these goals, some for more than a century. This paper explores teachers’ perspectives on conflict, satyagraha/dissent, and dialogue and their role in education for LTLT. The paper draws upon a three year-long, multiple-embedded case-study that studied 14 teachers at five Indian schools founded or inspired by the educationists through ethnographic observations and interviews. The paper finds that LTLT should be perceived as a form of active harmony, which includes disagreements, dissent, and conflicts. The findings suggest that teachers differentiated conflicts from violence, perceived disagreements and conflicts as forms of pluralism, and created space for voicing dissent and resolving conflicts. They drew on dialogue, empathetic understanding, democratic decision-making, and social action to leverage dissent as a tool for building an equitable and engaged community.

Democracy underwater: public participation, technical expertise, and climate infrastructure planning in New York City.

This article provides an explanation for how increased public participation can paradoxically translate into limited democratic decision-making in urban settings. Recent sociological research shows how governments can control participatory forums to restrict the distribution of resources to poor neighborhoods or to advance private land development interests. Yet such explanations cannot account for the decoupling of participation from democratic decision-making in the case of planning for climate change, which expands the substantive topics and public funding decisions that involve urban residents. Through an in-depth case study of one of the largest coastal protection projects in the world and drawing on global scholarship on participation, this article narrates the social production of resistance to climate change infrastructure by showing how the state sidestepped public input and exercised authority through appeals to the rationality of technical expertise. After a lengthy participation process wherein participants reported satisfaction with how their input was included in designs, city officials switched decision-making styles and used expertise from engineers to render the publicly-supported plan unfeasible, while continuing to involve residents in the process. As a result, conflict arose between activists and public housing representatives, bitterly dividing the neighborhood over who could legitimately claim to represent the interests of the “frontline community.” By documenting the experience of participants in the process before and after the switch in decision-making styles, this article advances a sociological description of public influence in policy: The ability for participants in a planning process to recognize their own input reflected in finished plans.