Democratic Practices Research Articles

Interactional theory as a keystone of learning in action, creativity, innovation, and democracy

ABSTRACT This reflexive practice article is about how we, the authors, have put Kenneth P. Wilkinson’s theories into use in our Community and Economic Development practice, particularly the interactional theory of community. It is our aim to discuss ways this theory has shaped how we view and work with communities in the hopes of supporting a purposive, reflexive, and democratic practice that fosters innovation, creativity, and learning, with the ultimate intention of supporting community members and communities in their journeys to improve their own collective well-being. In this article, we briefly discuss ways that interactional theory has been most useful in shaping our scholar-practitioner-educator’s mind-set, how our observations from dozens of communities have nuanced our understanding of interactional theory, and how we see the theory being applied in the future given our rapidly changing and unpredictable world.

WEB BASED E VOTING TRAINING FOR STUDENT COUNCIL CHAIRMAN ELECTION AT HIGH SCHOOL

Implementation in the process of electing the student council president involves information technology using the electoral system as learning for students who practice democracy directly. Activities, especially the election of the Student Council chairperson, still use media assisted by simple information, namely in the form of sheets of paper, and are still not effective. The problem faced requires a new motivation that is easier to guide information on the election of the Student Council chairperson in Palembang City Senior High School as well as minimizing information fraud in the election and facilitating the election of the Student Council chairperson. This study introduces the E-Voting Website to Student Council Palembang City by bringing up the idea of implementing the Student Council chairman election by utilizing development information.

The interactive wrong of political corruption: A reply to Warren, Santoro and Fabre

In this response essay, Ceva and Ferretti reply to their critics and clarify some key aspects of their book. Specifically, the discussion starts by elaborating on the notion of an ethics of office accountability, explaining that the specification of institutional norms of officeholders behaviour is the result of practices of officeholders' interaction (including democratic practices) and reflection. The second theme is the responsibility for political corruption. The authors emphasise the importance of focussing not only on retrospective responsibility, for the sake of punishing corrupt behaviour, but especially on accountability as a form of self-reflection by the officeholders on the weaknesses of their institutional work together. This exercise is preliminary to their assuming forward-looking responsibilities for anti-corruption. The third and final part discusses political corruption as a specifically interactive wrong. For the authors, the magnitude and moral salience of the wrong of corruption, as well as the different wrongs implicated both from an interactive perspective and in consideration of the harm caused to third parties, must be assessed in light of the context and the moral standing of the public institution in question. In this sense, political corruption is a pro tanto wrong.

Adult Education, Futures Literacy, and Deep Democracy: Engaging Democratic Visioning and Anticipatory Futures For More Sustainable Futures

Adult education has historically played a role in modern democracies in support of civic participation and democratic engagement. In the context of a relatively stable and unchanging society, learning “about” and participating “in” the democratic process allow for tweaking the mechanisms of democracy. In present times, taken for granted democratic practices inadequately address the spirit of democracy as social and environmental changes undergo rapid and unanticipated changes. In the context of a past, present, and futures, democracy’s future/s is a vast, complex system that offers practical and inspirational hope to communal living. Anticipatory futures perspectives explore our relationships with the future beyond that of prediction to understand and develop human capacities to enact necessary and important changes for unknown and unanticipated futures. This paper explores the role of adult education in supporting a deep democracy approach for creating more sustainable, ecological, and just futures by developing our relationship with the broad spectrum of anticipatory futures.

Democratic Practices in MERCOSUR and the OAS: What Space for Transnational Civil Society?

ABSTRACT Democratic theory asserts that the legitimacy of contemporary international and regional organisations rests on a degree of consensus expressed by various actors. The quest for diffuse support now extends beyond member states and explains the opening up of IOs/ROs to transnational civil society’s participation. Despite both notions being familiar to IR scholars, a more precise understanding is needed concerning the relationship between each concept, particularly with regard to the inclusion/exclusion nexus and in the still neglected study of organisations in the global South. Using a practice perspective, the paper offers a contribution to that understanding by proposing a micro-level analysis of the behavioural practices of both ROs and TCS using MERCOSUR and the OAS as case studies. A nalysis of the opening up of these organisations, and the concurrent engagement of civil society reveals how inclusion is still both incomplete and unequal. Political liberalisation of ROs thus remains an unfulfilled mandate.

Liberal Internationalism in the United States: Current Crises and Prospect Forecast

Liberal internationalism is an international order that the United States has long advocated. The aims of liberal internationalism are expanding democratic practices and free trade, defending democracy from its rivals while protecting and promoting human rights. This essay will expound the definition and development history of liberal internationalism, analyze the current crisis it is facing, and point out it in combination with the current American foreign policy that although there are domestic and international challenges, the United States still has the strengths to promote liberal internationalism and maintain the existing liberal international order considering the historical background, comparison of national power, maturity of existing international order and the will of rising power. The Biden administration’s current foreign policy also shows that the United States is continuing to pursue liberal internationalism.

Democracy’s Discontent and the Resurgence of Military Coups in Africa

Post-colonial Africa is fraught with myriads of endogenous and exogenous challenges. This paper argues that decades of deplorable democratic experience in Africa have rather reincarnated some sorts of discontents and rebellious confrontation in some states in Africa. This is exemplified in the recent military coups in Sudan, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso and the failed coups in Guinea Bissau and Gambia. The study utilizes documentary methods of data collection and adopts frustration-aggression theory in explaining the contradictions that appeared to have stultified democracy in Africa which apparently have denied the people the corresponding gains embedded in democratic practice. It concludes that ending the resurgence of military coups in Africa demands urgent steps to enthrone good governance in Africa’s democratic states. The paper recommends the institutionalization of governance in lieu of the prevailing personalization of state institutions in Africa.

Participatory Action Research as Pedagogy: Stay Messy

In this paper, we reflect on the use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a pedagogy. To do so, we first introduce PAR and review the burgeoning literature discussing PAR as a pedagogical approach at the university level. We then provide vignettes of our independent experiences as college educators facilitating PAR within undergraduate classrooms. Through our stories, we engage with the messy space between our efforts to change unjust systems and the neoliberal constraints of the academy with a chokehold on those efforts. In this narrative reflection, we examine key themes across our experiences, including: 1) relationship development as a political act; 2) the importance of emergent and responsive pedagogy; and 3) the challenges associated with prefiguring democratic practices in the classroom. Altogether, this paper grapples with the value and risk of bringing PAR into university classrooms and urges PAR educators to refrain from tidying up their pedagogy.

BRIDGING TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN THAI ISLAM: THE POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS ROLES OF SURIN PITSUWAN (ABDUL HALIM)

Dr Surin Pitsuwan (Abdul Halim bin Ismail Pitsuwan) (28 October 1949 – 30 November 2017) was a prominent Thai Muslim politician of national and international stature with a colorful career as a journalist, an academic, a member of the Parliament and served first as Deputy Foreign Minister and ​next as the​ Foreign Minister of Thailand from 1992 to 2001, culminating in his career as the Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) between 2008 and 2013. Born and bred in a traditional Malay family in Nakhon Si Thammarat, he acquired the pondok and modern education in Thai and American universities. He played an important role in bridging tradition and modernity in Thai Islam by promoting the Thai Muslim community's educational, intellectual, and political upliftment, thereby constructing its integrative face of Islam in Thailand - a Buddhist-majority country. Dr Pitsuwan was an ardent promoter of democratic practice, human resources development and upholding human rights through peaceful means. This article employs qualitative and subjective approaches by drawing data from the speeches, writings, and personal interactions with Dr Pitsuwan. It highlights that peaceful coexistence between the ​Thai ​Muslims and ​the Thai Buddhists​ ​is a reality ​and not an exception.

Social Innovation in Taiwan

Abstract Taiwan began to systematically introduce social innovation as a tool for social reform after the 2008 financial crisis. Although most research on social innovation in Taiwan focuses on problem-solving methods based on the utilitarian perspectives of the public and private sectors, an analytical framework from the societal perspective is proposed in this article. We classify social innovation conducted by the public, private, and civil society sectors as either incremental or radical. This article seeks to provide an overview of the development of social innovation in Taiwan and to answer two main questions. First, how do Taiwan’s government and the private sector mainstream incremental social innovation, and what is its influence? Second, how does a radical approach emerge under this influence? This article illustrates how political and social contexts shape the development of social innovation and uses deliberative democracy in practice as a case study to show how radical social innovation emerges and develops.

AMALAN PENDEMOKRASIAN PENDIDIKAN DALAM PENGELOLAAN SEKOLAH AGAMA ISLAM DAN SEKOLAH CINA DI MALAYSIA

The existence of Islamic Religious Schools (IRS) and Chinese Schools (CS) preceeded the history of the formation of the country and developed along with the various educational policies implemented by the government until it successfully dignified its position in the current of national education. However, the managers in both types of schools were found to be in conflict with the government in fighting for their educational rights. The conflict between school managers and the government is about maintaining the main goal of school establishment or the school’s traditional curriculum, namely the Diniah curriculum (IRS) and the Chinese language and culture curriculum (CS). In addition, school managers also experience conflicts of overlapping management powers between the School Management Board (SMB) and the government, the ambiguity of education rights based on national legislation and a lack of justice from the aspect of government financial aid distribution. This study aims to examine the practice of democratization of education that exists in the management of both types of schools. In this qualitative study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with two managers from IRS and two CS managers in Malaysia. The findings of the study show that the government is seen to be practicing imperfect democracy in fulfilling the four aspects of both types of schools’ educational rights, namely the main goal of establishing schools, management authority, legislation and the distribution of financial aid. This government’s practice shows the spirit of democratization of education that prioritizes the direction of the national education policy to meet the country’s aspirations in facing the needs of the 21th century.

Unveiling the spillover effects of democracy and renewable energy consumption on the environmental quality of BRICS countries: A new insight from different quantile regression approaches

This research explores the nexus of economic expansion, population, use of renewable energy, democracy, and the combined effect of democracy and GDP on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the BRICS countries. We apply an extended STIRPAT model, including the variables of democracy and democracy with GDP, to examine the case of the BRICS countries between 1990 and 2019. Quantile regression methods (Simultaneous, Powell, and MM-QR) are applied together with the Dynamic OLS (DOLS), Fully modified OLS (FMOLS), and CCR. The results indicate that economic size (GDP) and population are linked to increasing levels of CO2. Whereas increased use of renewable sources of energy can help reduce environmental degradation. Similarly, an interaction between good democracy and economic growth is helpful for a sustainable environment. The Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test highlights a bidirectional causal link between GDP, Democracy, and Population with CO2, but only a unidirectional causal relationship between renewable energy and CO2. Policymakers in the BRICS countries need to consider:1) pro-growth economic policies along with better democratic practices, 2) higher promotion of renewable energy resources, and 3) improving living standards for the population to achieve higher environmental quality.

Structural Change Through ‘Collective Action as Democratic Practice’: Linking Grassroots Democracy With Social Justice

Iris Marion Young argued that tackling structural injustices that arise from complex interactions requires collective, political action. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what kind of collective action leads to social justice and how. This article aims to fill this gap by developing the idea of ‘collective action as democratic practice’ that emphasises crafting democratic institutions from the bottom-up to re-orient structural processes in ways that resist oppression and domination. This departs from Young’s own account of collective action as engaging in communicative action to pressure powerful agents. It also departs from previous attempts to conceptualise structural change through the cumulative, rather than collective, actions of individuals changing their behaviours independently of one another. I argue that my approach is a more promising way to theorise collective action from a structural perspective. This approach has wider implications for understanding the outward-looking political potential of self-organised projects by citizens.

The planning contribution in a disoriented continent*

ABSTRACT This piece provides a reflection on the changing political context for planning ideas and practices over the past thirty years. This period has seen the rise and now serious questioning of a neo-liberal pre-occupation with economic growth which gave little space for shaping futures through a focus on place qualities and co-ordinating the spatial dimensions of action, the core of the spatial planning project. Current concerns with promoting inclusive social well-being, reducing adverse impacts on global climate and the environment, and reviving democratic practices create new opportunities for planning understood as strategic guidance for shaping collective futures. Such a project involves not just expertise as developed in the planning field, but needs to draw on many other knowledge fields. And since many futures may evolve from present instabilities and uncertainties, it needs to adopt an active voice in promoting collective attention to spatial co-ordination and place qualities in ways which advance the values of environmental sustainability, inclusive social well-being and richly democratic modes of policy-making.

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.

Can democracy accelerate sustainability transformations? Policy coherence for participatory co-existence

The 2030 Agenda envisages a world “in which democracy, good governance and the rule of law […] are essential for sustainable development” (Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, 2015, paragraph 9). However, the extent to which democratic practices can help or hinder sustainable development remains contested. I show how the relationship between democracy and environmental sustainability can be illuminated by recent advances in research on policy coherence for sustainable development. I apply a framework developed by Shawoo et al., (2022), to illustrate how (in)coherence between these two objectives is driven by a mix of ideas, institutions and interests. This framework can, in turn, help to identify policy options for strengthening coherence between democratic and environmental aims, spanning pluralisation of integrative frames and discourses, inclusive institutional design and reforms that broaden the range of public interests included in decision-making while restraining undue influence of vested interests.

Civil Society Organizations and Sustenance of Democratization in Nigeria

Various socioeconomic and political developments in Nigeria have necessitated avalanche of interventions of several civil society organizations (CSOs) with which they would sustain democratic practices by ensuring moral values, fundamental human rights protection, transparency and rule of law. In the daily administration of government, CSOs are seen as instruments of solution to numerous societal problems that have deprived citizens of the dividends of democracy such as neglect, insecurity, oppression and exploitation. This study focuses on the exploration of how CSOs have contributed towards sustaining democracy in Nigeria. The study is geared towards revealing the challenges that militate against the efforts of CSOs towards the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria. Qualitative method is adopted for this study, while secondary materials from books, journals, newspapers, and internet sources are utilized in accessing information. Descriptive method is used in the analysis of the sourced information. Liberal theory is deployed in the analysis of the study, as it displays the interconnectedness existing among different sectors of the society. Our findings revealed that CSOs are yet to be acknowledged as a genuine force in democratic Nigerian society. There is, also, lack of a well-structured institutional framework to support more collaboration between governmental and CSOs. The study concludes that CSOs have vital areas of contributions in the society, and are needed for Nigeria’s democratic sustenance. It is recommended that the autonomy of CSOs should be promoted to enable them perform successfully towards democratic sustenance through their policy formulation and implementation, monitoring and supervision in the society.

Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging. By Keri Day

In Keri Day’s Azusa Reimagined, the 1906 Azusa Street Revival is a fruitful source for articulating a critique of racial capitalism and democratic practices of community and care. Day is less interested in historical reconstruction (though historical research plays a significant role) than in uncovering how Azusa embodied this critique, challenging accounts of racial capitalism that ignore affect and desire and accounts of eschatological religion that paint such hopes as irredeemably quietist. Day contrasts Azusa with “white capitalist visions of Pentecost”: the Philadelphia World Fair of 1876 and the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, both of which told captivating stories about uniting disparate peoples, bringing prosperity to primitive cultures, and providing moral order amid chaos. Day describes these visions as economic and theological: they effectively cohered white Christian moral and economic values with theological language justifying racial capitalism. In contrast, Azusa countered both the supposed theological purity of white churches by its integration of slave religious practices (oral traditions, handclapping and foot stomping, praying over material objects) and the economic purity of the racial capitalist order. Azusa Reimagined centers the founding contributions of black women domestic workers—their religious leadership, theological influence, and guardianship of religious practices.

Singapore: a property-owning procedural democracy in practice

Political philosopher, John Rawls, conceptualizes property-owning democracy (POD) as a constitutional liberal democracy that practices wide social distribution of productive assets, namely property and human capital, that enables citizens to exercise their political freedoms, with security, equality, justice and fairness. However, with their ossified ideological, economic and social structures, contemporary liberal democratic capitalist nations do not possess the material conditions or the political will to realize such a system. In contrast, a postcolonial nation can potentially realize the POD as its nation-building processes unfold, as demonstrated in this case study of Singapore. With its near universal provision of public housing ownership to its citizens, state provision of all levels of education and subsidized programs of new skill acquisitions, retraining and upgrading for its labor force, Singapore may be said to have fulfill the material condition of wide social distribution of productive assets. But politically, the single-party dominant People’s Action Party government disavows liberalism ideologically. However, the elected parliament system as a procedural democracy empowers the electorate to punish the government when it is unresponsive to ground demands. Singaporeans’ dependency on the state for housing has made public housing demand a highly politicized arena in which the citizen/electorate has successfully used their votes to extract positive outcomes to their demands, in so doing refreshes and revitalizes the democratic process.

The Impact of the Right to Information Act – 2005 (RTI) On Transparency and Accountability in Indian Governance: An Empirical Study

The implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in India in 2005 had a twofold aimof augmenting transparency and accountability in the sphere of governance. The RTI Act hasnot only precipitated a surge in the attentiveness of government officials to the desires andentreaties of the citizenry but also facilitated the access of citizens to information about thefunctioning and decision-making of the government. This Act has emerged as a decisiveinstrument in instilling openness in governmental activities and imposing responsibility onofficial’s vis-a-vis the public. The RTI Act has notably fostered democratic practices andbolstered the faith of citizens in the institutions of the government. However, there aremultifarious obstacles that need to be surmounted, such as delays in responding to RTIrequests and the dearth of greater consciousness among citizens. All things considered, theRTI Act has indisputably had a positive influence on the transparency and accountability ofIndian governance