Role Of Democracy Research Articles

Cities against democratic backsliding: democratic resilience through urban resistance in the Visegrád 4 capitals

ABSTRACT How do cities fight democratic backsliding on the national level? Set in an increasingly illiberal context, the four Visegrád capitals (V4 capitals) Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw have elected progressive mayors that challenge national democratic backsliding locally. The conceptual framework presented in this article underlies the role of city democracy and city diplomacy in understanding cities’ role in democratisation and autocratisation processes. As part of their resistance against democratic backsliding, the four cities intensified their attempts to enhance local democracy and to set best practice examples. At the same time, they have also shown a strong determination to address democratic backsliding collectively. Their proactive response includes the establishment of a regional transnational advocacy network (TAN) known as the Pact of Free Cities, and the further engagement with pro-democracy external actors, including other cities, the European Union, and international organisations.

The Multilevel Administrative State and the Future of Public Administration Research

ABSTRACT The administrative state, originally coined by Dwight Waldo, emphasizes the distinct role of public administration in democratic governance. Yet, public administration research has insufficiently theorized how administrative structures at one level of government may be consequential for public governance at another level. This study theorizes how the administrative state has transcended its mere domestic role in democracy, and suggests how future research should study multilevel administrative systems. Departing from the invitation and lessons of Waldo, the article theorizes how ways of organizing the administrative state at one level of government bias public governance across levels of authority.

Academic freedom in Europe: Limitations and judicial remedies

Abstract Europe has recently struggled with democratic backsliding and autocratization. This autocratization has accompanied a decline in academic freedom in many backsliding countries, as reported by the Academic Freedom Index. Can the standards set by the European supranational courts effectively safeguard academic freedom? This article provides answers to this question. It argues that despite differences in their approaches, the theoretical conceptions of scholarship held by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) share an essential feature: both have moved towards embracing the ‘liberal science script’ by protecting academic freedom. The main difference between the two courts’ approaches is the subject of protection. The ECtHR focuses on the individual rights of academics: It protects free speech in the academic context by establishing a high standard for holding academics liable for publicly expressing their views inside and outside of academia. The ECJ has applied the concept of institutional autonomy, thereby setting a high standard for safeguarding the freedom of academic institutions. This standard can be applied with regard to the demands placed by policy-makers on academia regarding its role in democracy, including gender equality requirements for EU research funding.

The Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s in the assessments of domestic social Democratic parties

The article is devoted to the consideration of assessments of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s by domestic social democratic parties. The subject of the study is the publications of representatives of Russian Social Democrats, which reflect their views on the foreign policy of the Russian Federation during the period of Boris Yeltsin. The Social Democratic parties in the world and in Russia at that time influenced both the domestic and foreign policies of their states. The assessments of the social democratic parties in their programs and press reflect a wide range of views on the foreign policy of our state in the 1990s. Depending on the directions of the Social Democrats - left and right, their contradictions in views are displayed, which shows the breadth of social democratic thought at that time. The study uses a historical and comparative method, a civilizational approach in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the right-wing social Democrats and a world-system analysis in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the left-wing social Democrats. The scientific novelty of the study consists in identifying the positions of the social democratic parties of the 1990s on the foreign policy course of the Russian Federation, and the different assessments of the country's foreign policy by left and right social Democrats. The study reveals differences in the assessments of social democratic parties and their priorities in the foreign policy of the Russian Federation, depending on their directions - the left social Democrats and the right social Democrats. The article evaluates the attitude of the parties to the official course of the authorities of the Russian Federation at that time, who advocated the country's close integration into the Western world. The conclusion is made about the role of social Democrats of different directions in constructing a new understanding of Russia's foreign policy, based on the ideological positions of the parties.

Exploring the Relationship between Informed Understanding of Democracy and Corruption Permissiveness in India: An Explanatory Research

While existing studies have focused on the role of democracy in controlling citizens’ permissiveness toward corruption, they often fail to answer two critical questions: (1) why do democracies with strong institutions and a long history of democratic practices still exhibit high levels of citizen permissiveness toward corruption?; and (2) why is there variability in permissiveness among individuals in democracies with similar democratic commitments, including within the same country? This article addresses these gaps by examining whether citizens’ informed understanding of democracy is significantly correlated with their permissiveness toward corruption in India—a country that experiences the paradox of established democratic institutions alongside high levels of corruption permissiveness. Using ordinal/ordered logistic regression and conducting several robustness checks, the article found a significant negative correlation between informed understanding of democracy and corruption permissiveness among Indian citizens. Based on these findings, it recommends developing and implementing long-term national plans to promote democratic citizenship education through a participant-centric approach.

Maintaining the Free Flow of Information. A Manifesto-like Intervention for Practice-Based Research in Academic Training Programs for Multimedia Journalism

With a changing media landscape in mind, this article takes a closer look at academic training standards for journalists. Focusing on multimedia production and innovative science, it analyses the impact on business models, resources and working conditions. As an interventionist appeal, it argues in favour of practice-based research and new training methods. Key demands include a greater awareness of the democratic role of journalism, ethical sensitivity and sustainable funding. By interweaving theory, practice and politics, this Manifesto-like paper aims to strengthen the profession of journalism and build a bridge between academia and practical training.

Present Scenario of Post-poll Alliance in India

India is one of the greatest democracies in the World, however, the 2021 Economic Intelligence Unit ranked India at 46th position on Democracy Index with a score of 6.91. Such low ranking of in Democracy Index shows the mirror to changing opportunistic political culture prevailing in India. Free and fair election is the basis of any democracy where the government is formed as per the mandate of the voters. However, recent years in Indian polity has seen the increase in the trend of post poll alliance which provides the opportunity to form government by bypassing the public mandate. This left voters in a state of confusion where they are left uncertain of their role in democracy. The increasing trend of post poll alliances is a severe challenge to democracy which cannot be dealt with existing election laws. The present scenario of Indian politics demands the formulation of new laws to put a stop to this unethical practice of opportunistic politics

The Role of Middle Class Democratization as a Political Discussion

The Role of Middle Class Democratization as a Political Discussion

Democracy through association councils? Associations’ involvement in local councils in culture and recreation

It is widely assumed that associations can play a democratic role as a link between citizens and the political system, but associations do not always fulfill this role on their own. There are several local association councils, especially in culture and recreation, i.e., umbrella organizations for associations in the respective areas, and they can play a mediating role between associations and municipalities. However, to realize this potential, associations must engage in the councils, but this is not always the case. Based on a survey among cultural and leisure associations in four Danish municipalities, this article examines variation in the associations’ engagement in local association councils. Results show that more human resources in the associations and a higher degree of local orientation positively affect engagement, and that sports associations are more likely to engage than other types of associations.

U.S. Development Assistance, Democratization and State-Building in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article investigates the U.S. development assistance role in democratization, state-building and sustainable growth in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The OECD and USAID reports and selected projects (2015-2022) were used to examine and analyze the U.S. development assistance in the democratization process and state-building. The statistical data on the U.S. aid allocation and projects comes largely from the OECD's annual publications and USAID reports. Because of different periods, approaches and priorities, this paper placed the U.S. development assistance in the historical context. The analysis of different democratization and state-building projects indicated the extent to which the programs implemented have generated desired progress and development.

Psychiatric Experiments with "Community" Under Dictatorship and Authoritarianism: The Case of the Protected Commune Experience, 1980-1989.

In Chile, a long and oppressive military regime (1973-1990) dismantled emergent initiatives for the deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric care, imposing a neoliberal constitution that opened public services to market forces and limited the state's role in health and social care. After being associated with communism and socialism, community-based mental health work was banned, and socialist psychiatrists were silenced through torture or exile. However, some therapeutic initiatives persisted, such as the "Protected Commune" (PC) initiative within the El Peral psychiatric asylum. The PC attempted to mimic a real town inside the asylum's gated perimeter. It featured an ecumenical chapel, a school, and various "council" departments like recreation, education, waste, economy, and health. Paths received names, wards became districts, and patients and workers were assigned new, democratic roles, all while the authoritarian regime entirely controlled the "outside" world. The initiative ceased with the return of democracy in 1990. Deemed an eccentric and negligible episode, the PC is often seen as an interruption to the radical community-based experiences of the pre-dictatorial era. Drawing on archival research and oral history interviews with participants, this paper examines how the PC harnessed the notion of community to navigate the complex socio-political landscape of the dictatorship. Differing from established accounts of the political uses of psychiatry under authoritarianism, the study positions the PC as a prism for understanding the contradictory ways in which the idea of 'community' has been able to transcend radically opposed social and political regimes, becoming a core feature in the vocabulary of mental health reform, despite its ambiguities.

The owner-market fit and responses to competing logics

ABSTRACT This study investigates how the owner identity of media organisations affects their response to competing professional and market logics. To this end, a qualitative comparative multiple case study was conducted in the European news media sector. Our findings suggest that not only owner identity, but also the field position of the organisation is associated with particular market choices and the priority that is given to one market over another. This in turn has consequences for the degree of tension between coalitions with competing logics. Additionally, we find that the best owner-market fit for prioritising the democratic role of the press is a journalist employee cooperative that mainly serves a subscription market. Previous research on logics has addressed the role of ownership but did not include customer and employee cooperatives. Therefore, our findings provide important new insights.

Inequality and social harm: Revisiting the Spirit Level debate by reproducing and updating it, as well as reanalysing the data with qualitative comparative analysis

This article explores the relationship between inequality and social harm, revisiting the original “Spirit Level” data from Wilkinson and Pickett, updating it for a later time period, and considering what difference it makes to their results by addressing criticisms made of their original research by using an alternative measure of inequality and expanding the range of possible causal factors. To achieve this, it makes use of both the original method used by Wilkinson and Pickett and that of a different approach, Qualitative Comparative Analysis. It finds that a measure of the kind of democracy (lower “integrative democracy”), along with higher inequality, are the key factors at the root of solutions for explaining higher social harm in both periods, which both follow up the suggestions by Wilkinson and Pickett about the role of democracy in explaining social problems, as well as making the extent and means of that relationship clearer.

Вплив соціал-демократів на формування та розвиток української політико-правової думки в Галичині у період проголошення та занепаду ЗУНР (1918-1923 рр.)

This article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP) on the formation and development of political and legal opinion in Galicia during the period of the proclamation and decline of the ZUNR (1918-1923). The role and place of iconic Ukrainian social democrats in the socio-political life of the region and the peculiarities of the evolution of the USDP to the political course of the ZUNR, the Polish state through the prism of the short period of Ukrainian power and the specifics of the occupation regime are highlighted. It was found that during the period under study, the development of Ukrainian political and legal thought was influenced by tectonic social and political events: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy; Ukrainian revolutions in Galicia and Trans-Dnieper Ukraine; the proclamation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic; Zluka ZUNR and UNR; occupation of Galicia by Poland; assimilation policy of the Polish government; the struggle of civil society and legal political forces for the restoration of Ukrainian national statehood. It is emphasized that the USDP was directly related to these historical processes, because from the moment of its creation, it was one of the first legal parties of Austria-Hungary to proclaim the idea of the right of the Ukrainian people to state and political independence and made efforts to implement the programmatic position of the party in practice by forming the legal consciousness of Ukrainians Galicia Combining the national idea with Marxism, the social democrats sought to achieve the national and social liberation of the Ukrainian people and build an independent Ukrainian socialist state. It is emphasized that the idea of a unified and cathedral Ukraine became the core during the national liberation struggle of 1917-1923.

Liberation, Re-Education, Democratisation: The Politics of Gratitude in German-American Relations after 1945

The US-American presence in postwar Germany and its role in West Germany's re-education and democratisation have fuelled a discourse of gratitude that has lastingly shaped the transatlantic alliance. German politicians and other policy actors continue to rely on proclamations of ‘thankfulness’ as a means of what Todd Hall has termed ‘emotional diplomacy’. In the process, they affirm a collective memory of the postwar years that emphasises friendship and contains social conflicts, political tensions, and ambivalent affects. They draw on iconic tropes and powerful narratives – ranging from the GI handing out chewing gum to CARE packages and the ‘gift’ of democracy – which have cast German-American relations in terms of generosity, gift-giving, and gratitude. This article traces the roots of this discourse to (the popular memory of) the postwar moment and situates it vis-à-vis the multifaceted affective landscape of early postwar Germany with a specific focus on its gender logics and with an eye to its benefits and the risks it entails.

The formation of institutional trust among immigrants: what is the role of democracy?

ABSTRACT This article studies how trust in institutions is shaped among immigrants, considering the level of democracy in the countries of both origin and destination. Democracy is relevant to institutional trust as this system provides citizens with better performance, procedures and accountability. Immigrants use a ‘dual frame of reference’ when asked the extent to which they trust public institutions. They use their experiences in their countries of both origin and destination. Therefore, the difference between the levels of democracy in these two contexts may affect their trust in the institutions of the destination country. This article also considers the role of the length of time immigrants have lived in the host country and the age at which they migrated. Longer stays may make immigrants more similar to native citizens in their scepticism about institutions, while early-age migration may limit experience in the country of origin. To test these arguments the study applies a ‘double comparative design’ to data from the European Social Survey and the V-Dem project, and finds that trust in public institutions increases as immigrants move from less to more democratic countries, depending on their length of stay and age at migration.

Imagining the model citizen: A comparison between public understanding of science, public engagement in science, and citizen science.

This article examines the visions of citizens' ideal practices regarding technoscientific affairs in a democratic society, namely "imaginaries of model citizens," that underlie three science and public initiatives: public understanding of science, public engagement in science, and citizen science. While imaginaries of citizens are performative and necessary to these initiatives, they are often relegated to the background. I argue that such imaginaries are the result of a complex of perceptions on the nature of science, the role of democracy in scientific activities, and the form of "democratizing" science. The imaginary of model citizens in public understanding of science is of literate citizens who should know science sufficiently, use it in daily life, and support science; in public engagement in science, the model citizen is a responsible one who should engage in the governance of technoscientific issues; and in citizen science, a contributive one who should partake in and enjoy creating scientific knowledge.

E-Commerce as a Source of Revenue in Spanish Digital News Media

This study analyzes e-commerce strategies in Spanish active digital news outlets comprehensively based on a 2021 census. Out of the 2,862 outlets, 11.8% (or 337) incorporated some form of e-commerce, with a higher prevalence observed among legacy media than among digital-native outlets. The study also revealed that e-commerce was more prevalent among outlets with national coverage and specialized subject matters. A detailed examination of 34 high-reach outlets, including 25 legacy and nine digital-native news outlets, found that both types employed on-site sales and affiliate marketing. However, legacy media exclusively engaged in promotional editorial collections, merchandise, tickets, and travel sales. The study highlights that while some outlets are diversifying revenue streams, most still rely primarily on traditional income sources such as advertising and subscriptions. This reliance poses a risk as these conventional streams are becoming less dependable. Furthermore, the increasing move towards market-oriented journalism raises concerns about a shift from the democratic role of news media to a more consumerist model.

Racial (In)justice in Brazil: Reconstructing the Subaltern Memories of Poor and Black Women in the Brazilian Dictatorship

ABSTRACT The Brazilian military-corporate dictatorship faced the resistance and mobilization of several marginalized groups. In this article, we reconstruct the subaltern memories of Black and poor women from the outskirts of São Paulo who participated in Christian Base Communities and the Cost-of-Living Movement, and we show how their mobilization was supported by social movements across the country. Despite their dimension and impact, a report by the Brazilian National Truth Commission fails to recognize their role in the country’s democratic transition and the violence suffered by marginalized groups. These memories support a reflection on the myth of ‘racial democracy’ in Brazil as a general denial of racial violence throughout the country’s history, which leaves intact its structures of injustice. We argue that the reconstruction of subaltern memories can have a significant impact on transitional justice and recover their critical role in democracy.

Attacken von rechts außen. Öffentlich-rechtliche Medien als Ziel populistischer Medienfeindlichkeit

Public service broadcasting in Europe is under pressure. Right-wing populist parties have a considerable share in this development. The article aims to show why public service broadcasting in particular is the target of populist criticism. The strategies used by populist actors to put public broadcasters under pressure can be derived from the antagonism cultivated between the populace and the elite. At the same time, they serve to avoid critical reporting and thus public scrutiny. The conclusion is that the attacks on the public service system should also be understood as an attack on the freedom of the media and their role in democracy.