Democratic Solution Research Articles

Does the Rise of the Global South Weaken Democracy? The Pivotal Case of the 2024 Presidential Elections in Venezuela

It is a common critique of the Global South that its rising protagonism is a tool for authoritarian forces. The prominent role of authoritarian countries in coalitions such as BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement, which claim to represent the Global South, has strengthened this concern. To shed light on those issues, this paper provides an in-depth case study of the 2024 elections crisis in Venezuela and the role of the Global South in resolving it. The question asked is to what extent countries identifying with the Global South were able to simultaneously promote democracy and adopt a foreign policy identity aligned with the Global South. The paper shows how the position and action of different Global South countries differed significantly, from an outright rejection of the fraudulent elections, to their endorsement. There were also concerted efforts by countries strongly identifying with the Global South to facilitate a democratic solution. The main argument developed is that a Global South narrative’s interweaving of anti-imperialism and opposition against foreign interference with opposition against liberal democracy promotion has left a limited space for democracy advocacy among countries with a Global South identity. This may weaken democratic forces among Global South countries in the future.

Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies (by Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen)

Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies (by Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen)

СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ УНИВЕРСИТЕТА

The article dwells on the specifics of Surgut State University formation. Public opinion of the city residents, which contributed to its formation, is analyzed. The article discloses the content of the discourse, which took place between the city authorities and the city-formation organizations in relation to the model of the university, and presents the democratic solution of the issue. The work expands on the part of mind sports, held in Surgut in the 1980s–1990s, and the role of Georgy Shchedrovitsky, Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University, in the methodological justification of the need for the university center of the system of education and the socio-cultural environment of the city. Special attention is paid to the significant role of Georgy Nazin, the first Rector of Surgut State University, in its establishment.

Konstytucja marcowa – konstytucja paradoksów

The March constitution – a constitution of paradoxes This article presents a synthetic attempt to address the role that the March Constitution of 1921 has played in the development of the Polish constitutional thought. It discusses the achievements and the weaknesses of the March Constitution. On the one hand, its significant advantages included recognising a catalogue of fundamental rights, guaranteeing independence of the judiciary, introducing judicial control of administrative acts and state liability for breaches of law. On the other hand, its weaknesses lay in the lack of solutions to stabilise the position of the government, a broad and imprecisely defined status of decree laws, and the lack of constitutionality review of laws. The modern and democratic solutions of the March Constitution exceeded the level of advancement of the political and legal culture in the society, which led to abuse and distortion of its constitutional mechanisms, and to an inability to secure the rule of law.

From impact refugees to deterritorialized states: Foresighting extreme legal-policy cases in asteroid impact scenarios

Throughout recorded history, humans have crossed national borders to seek safety in nearby countries. The reasons for displacement have been generated by phenomena of terrestrial origin, but exposure to unexpected extra-terrestrial threats poses a different scenario. An asteroid impact warning implies a change of paradigm which would represent a historic precedent. In this regard, the analogies with natural disasters must be considered, along with multiple possible scenarios, and legal aspects related to (a) the legal framework to regulate this situation; (b) the action and responsibility of the states; and (c) the definition of impact refugee and the reconfiguration of traditional concepts such as deterritorialized states. In addition, the decision-making process and the actors involved must be led by a cooperative effort to improve international law. These new circumstances should be established with a consideration of inequalities between the states, and an aim of protecting humanity through democratic solutions using the safest, most effective techniques.

Zasada wzbudzania zaufania do państwa a autorytatywne rozwiązania w zakresie dostępu do broni palnej

The text presents the multidirectional infl uence of the ways of exercising power and relations between public authorities and citizens in the context of common values, which are public order and security, against the background of the rules governing access to firearms. The shaping of the government’s policy in the field of access to firearms is in many places marked by legal solutions characteristic of the remnants of the authoritarian regime. In terms of access to fi rearms, the authoritarian manner of exercising power was characterized by the pursuit of strict control over gun ownership. The trust of the authoritarian authorities in certain social groups, limited to the minimum, was visible in the discretionary, but also planned and imperative exclusion of firearms from public life and reserving this right for services, organizations, or specific groups favorable to the authorities. The current regulations on the possession of firearms, both in Poland and in the world, show that the liberal policy of administering access to firearms is based on democratic solutions. The policy of prohibiting and introducing restrictions in this area with the use of authoritative methods of state action gives rise to research that exposes the essence of the authorities’ fears of a complete opening of access to weapons. The administrators, referring to the principle of trust in the authorities, are approaching the features of an authoritarian approach to maintaining power, which is not to be hampered by the possession of weapons by citizens. Completely free access to firearms is not characteristic to those forms of government in which there is no trust in state’s citizens, nor confidence in government’s position, susceptible to possible changes. In this regard, the basic rules governing access to firearms were presented, both in substantive law and in the rules of administrative procedure, with particular emphasis on the principle of raising trust in public authorities. It was also important to analyze the origins of the administrative power with an indication of the characteristic elements of the police state and their impact on the visions of access to firearms in the rule of law. Such a structure of the study made it possible to try to define the relationship between the trust of the authorities in their citizens and the trust of those administered to the authorities against the background of broadly understood security in the field of access to firearms.

Promoting sustainable consumption in Higher Education Institutions through integrative co-creative processes involving relevant stakeholders

The United Nations proposes to ensure a sustainable future for all through the Sustainable Development Goals, assigning a new role to each individual in all sectors of society. Higher Education Institutions are outstanding agents of change, introducing and implementing sustainability in a holistic way, connecting people, and including social and institutional considerations, with students being a key component of change. This study presents a co-creation model to incorporate sustainability in Higher Education Institutions, integrating all members of the university community with a multidisciplinary approach, seeking to address global needs with development tools for new products and services to facilitate the transition of consumers towards responsible consumption. The model aims to analyze the daily consumption pattern of the community at the university, to identify the degree of commitment to sustainability of its members, and to co-create in search of solutions related to responsible consumption and production. This is achieved through five phases of a model, each with specific tasks and objectives based on co-creation processes and tools. As a result, the model enables stakeholders to understand the needs of their community by actively participating within the five phases for developing more democratic solutions and social involvement regarding sustainability issues that can be solved through a co-creative process. The model combines the benefits through ethnographic techniques to discover habits, tools to involve participation, and co-creation to manage complex problems. Future research will focus on the application of the proposed model to more generalist contexts of society, addressing potential challenges due to vertical collaboration and barriers pre-established by society for the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle.

Political Communications in Network Electoral Clusters: cyber technologies in the formation of a network party brand

The article represents the results of the analysis of network electoral clusters as a phenomenon of cyber parties and political technologies in the electronic media environment in the context of the problem of consolidating political power. Pointing to the modern specifics of the electoral processes and institutions of modern Russia, the author justifies the movement of protest activity and manipulation by the electorate into the electronic space. Based on the review of the relevant publications, the author concludes that the analysis of network electoral clusters, as well as technologies for political mobilization on the Internet, represents an important source and a problematic field for political scientists working on the problem of consolidating political power. For a democratic solution to the problem, it is necessary to timely identify and take into account protest activity in the electronic media environment, monitor and prevent the spread of potentially dangerous content using the technical and communicative resources of social networks. At the same time, the solution of the problem is not limited to countermeasures in the Internet space, the introduction of censorship, etc. It lies in the plane of improving the interaction of society and power, the electoral legislation, the party system and the personal political competence of citizens, their ability to assess the reliability of information, determine their political preferences, focusing not only on the political image of parties (party brand), but also the real content of their activities and programs.

Expert habits of mind: Implications for knowledge co-production in energy transitions

Knowledge co-production is widely seen as a promising approach for more innovative, durable, and democratic solutions to complex energy and climate problems. Successful knowledge co-production requires the authentic participation of all actors, experts included. By authentic participation, we mean receptivity to and valuing interactions and relationships with diverse actors; sharing power; and collaboratively identifying problems, solutions, and shaping research. In this Perspective, we highlight the importance of habits of mind involving routine styles of thinking and interacting common among some expert groups that inhibit listening, taking seriously, and seeing value in diverse perspectives. We argue that such habits of mind may impair the authentic participation of technoscientific experts, whose expertise is vital but insufficient for co-producing knowledge. We support this argument through a review of empirical work conducted with U.S. bioenergy experts to identify habits of mind including assumptions experts make about human behavior and how they imagine energy transitions unfolding as posing potential barriers to their authentic participation in collaborative research. Building on these empirical insights, we suggest that future research should ask whether and how habits of mind shape experts’ willingness to engage and the quality of their interaction with others in collaborative research processes. We outline several research directions including investigating how habits of mind are learned, whether and how they transform, and how they differ across expert groups, that could advance our understanding of the potential for knowledge co-production in addressing energy and climate challenges.

The role of cities in good governance for food security: lessons from Madrid’s urban food strategy

ABSTRACT Cities have become increasingly involved in food security concerns that go far beyond their boundaries by rescaling food governance to a more local level. While the role of cities as new food policy actors has attracted increased interest, few studies have critically analysed urban food governance. Critical accounts of these new governance configurations are particularly necessary, and more relevant in times of crises, as good governance is crucial in tackling the root causes of food insecurity. This study contributes to the debate around urban food governance, focusing on Madrid’s urban food strategy. It applies an adaptation of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) analytical framework for good governance for food security. The study shows that new urban food governance arrangements can create more inclusive, democratic solutions to food security. However, these arrangements do not guarantee good governance, and many challenges remain, such as the operationalization of urban food policies and contextual barriers. More broadly, this study demonstrates that critical assessments of governance for food security can identify the deficiencies in the current system and help address current barriers to good governance.

PRODUCTION model of alternative media as democratic solutions to disinformation

Alternative digital media can be examples of ethical journalistic production, insofar as they subsist through the collective funding model and, therefore, must maintain their image before the public. This article analyzes the strategies of alternative media that make them possible ways out of disinformation and fake news. The methodological design includes an analysis of the speeches of interviews carried out with alternative media about strategies for verifying information and models of production and distribution; and observation of social media sites and networks. The study focuses on alternative media from different contexts: Brazil and Portugal, and with different profiles (investigative journalism and factual media), therefore, it is a comparative research. The article concludes that alternative media can be counterpoints to disinformation about fake news, if they manage to articulate the digital distribution model with ethical and self-sustainable journalism.

Mémoire graphique et conflit: La violence de l’ETA dans le neuvième art

After 40 years of violence and a thousand deaths, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) accepted a political and democratic solution to the Basque conflict in 2011. Nine years on, the main questions that remain to be solved are first, the status of ETA prisoners and second, the question of the memory of the conflict. This last question has not only invaded the political and media space, but also that of literary, cinematographic and artistic creation, such as comics. Thanks to the theories developed by McCloud (1994) and Groensteen (2011) about comics’ language and Catalá Carrasco, Drinot & Scorer (2019) or Delorme (2019) about comics and memory, this article analyses the representation of the violence in the Basque Country in four comics and shows that the armed conflict has morphed into a memory conflict.

A Catholic Boost for Democracy: Politicizing Performed Solidarities

This article examines the contribution of Catholic political theology to contemporary discussions about a lack of solidarity in liberal constitutional democracies particularly in Europe. John Milbank’s interpretation of this lack as indicating that secular liberalism has seen its day and should be replaced by a Catholic political order is presented as a viable alternative to attempts at strengthening the secular constitutional state at the pre-political level, as well as to Habermas’s deliberative democratic solution. Yet, reading Milbank against himself, the author argues that a Catholic political theology, precisely because it should follow Milbank’s suggestions, cannot seek to replace the present sociopolitical order. Instead, Catholic political theologians should discern where the truth breaks through in this order, where people can act in surprising solidarity with each other even if this conflicts with their political views.

The Policies of the First Green-Red Government in the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, 2011–2016

In recent years, green parties have gained, at least in some Western democracies, access to government at different levels. In 2011, a coalition between the Green Party under Winfried Kretschmann and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) came to power in Baden-Wurttemberg (BW) following 58 years of predominantly Christian Democratic (CDU) government in the state. The present paper analyzes whether this change of government has led to a corresponding “green–red” policy change. Applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to 12 different policy sectors, we find evidence of remarkable changes in policy in some key areas related to Green politics, and evidence also of both Social Democratic reforms and path dependence in many other sectors. The results of our fsQCA show that the responsibility of Social Democratic politicians for the ministries in the respective policy sectors in financially relevant policy sectors was enough reason for the implementation of far-reaching reforms. Social Democratic ministries in financially relevant policy sectors with a rather low degree of political leeway brought in Social Democratic policy solutions. Moreover, a sufficient reason for some Green policy manifestations was the combination of Green Party ministries in more regulatory policy sectors with a rather high degree of political leeway.

Government Debts and Fiscal Deficits in the United Kingdom: A Critical Review

This article intends to examine the issues of public debt and austerity policy in the United Kingdom. It attempts to provide an evaluation of fiscal policy under neoliberalism and to consider the relationship between this policy and the macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom economy. There also seem to be ambiguities among the policy makers about austerity. Therefore, it seems important to examine the issue of government-imposed austerity policies and fiscal deficits. There is a need to borrow to cover the deficits as there is no inflationary pressure in the United Kingdom. Most democratic solutions against any inflationary pressures are to reduce the money in circulation through higher taxes. This study concludes that increased state intervention, as a means to enhance long-term growth, is crucial for achieving economic stability and greater equality.

Reconsidering the Crisis Agreements of the 1930s: The Defence of Democracy in a Comparative Scandinavian Perspective

This article examines the Scandinavian countries’ response to extreme political movements in the interwar period. Historians have considered the crisis agreements of the 1930s as pivotal to Scandinavian resistance to fascism. The present article revises this explanation by conducting a comparative empirical study of political practice and rhetoric. The comparison makes it clear that the socio-economic measures were primarily aimed at combating the economic crisis. However, the social democratic labour parties conceptualised their social and economic policy as a defence of democracy after Hitler seized power in Germany. The findings indicate that the social democratic solution to the depression in Scandinavia left no political space for either communism or fascism.

You Can’t Eat Freedom: Southerners and Social Justice after the Civil Rights Movement by Greta de Jong

You Can’t Eat Freedom: Southerners and Social Justice after the Civil Rights Movement by Greta de Jong

The presidency place and functions in the democratic political system

It’s been established that the results of scientific research on the place and functions of the presidential institution in the political system of democratic societies point to the existence of certain gaps and insufficient disclosure of the issues raised. The existence of an internal socio-political crisis and the need for the development of a democratic state based on the rule of law and the appropriateness of studying the issue of the balance of powers of state institutions within the framework of constitutional engineering have been confirmed. It is noted that at the present stage of state construction interest in the problem is dictated by the need to study the process of Ukraine’s consolidation as a state entity in the context of integration into the European community.The question of the place and basic functions of the presidential institution in the political systems of modern democratic societies is being investigated. It was established that achieving an effective checks and balances system for the institution of the president, the legislative branch and executive branch of power is one of the relevant factors for the successful development of the political and economic state system, the achievement of public harmony and the formation of a positive international image of the state.It is established that the constitutional basis determines the political legitimacy of the President’s actions, and also affects the degree of readiness of political and power subjects to agree to them or to support or deny them. However, the probability that an issued document will have the expected impact is determined, in most cases, by its constitutionality. The President provides the succession of the state, represents it in international relations, carries out management of foreign policy activities, negotiates and concludes international treaties of Ukraine. The president as a state institution appears to be active and influential in the system of power relations and state organization. The institute of presidency is intended to become a consolidating center and an arbiter between the branches of power.Based on the results of a comparative analysis of the presidency functional, a pragmatic approach to the formation of new principles of the national presidency mechanism in the context of the further development of the political system of society was proposed. The essence of this approach is in the need to ensure the dominance of constructive cooperation with other institutions of political power, primarily parliament and government. The expediency of introducing civilized methods of compromise search and a democratic solution to the political problems of social development in the system and practice the powers of the governing bodies is grounded, since the further development of the state will to a great extent be determined by the effectiveness and quality of the functioning of the presidential institution.

Hydrogen vehicles in China: Replacing the Western Model

China is increasing its combustion vehicle numbers rapidly along a Western Model, with high emissions, high energy usage and low utilisation. These characteristics cause severe health, energy and congestion problems that could get five times worse over the next 50 years as the Chinese population buys many more western-type vehicles.This paper describes the steps being taken now in China to avoid the blight caused by combustion vehicles in western cities. In particular, the world's largest hydrogen-fuel-cell-battery (HFCB) bus project is now being implemented in Foshan city by a coalition of government and commercial companies. This project takes advantage of the subsidies offered by both central and local administrations, which have proved successful for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) but have not yet been so popular for hydrogen based machines, mainly because hydrogen infrastructure is not yet installed. Other Foshan PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) hydrogen projects such as UAVs are also described.Since 2008 when the first hydrogen filling station was created at University of Birmingham, to refuel a fleet of 5 HFCB taxis, there has been little progress in the UK because car corporations have not prioritised zero emission vehicles. China has the unique opportunity to leap-frog the Western Model and provides a more democratic solution based on the success of the less polluting electric scooter, where China leads the world by a huge margin. China can do this because it has a strong government, the desire for infrastructure investment, plus rapidly growing vehicle companies in an expanding market. This paper describes the results of experiments on new hydrogen vehicles in Foshan City, including the biggest hydrogen fuel cells bus project in China at the present time. It does not comprehensively cover other Chinese cities and vehicle companies working on hydrogen.

Rethinking postwar liberalism: the Americans for democratic action, social democracy, and the struggle for racial equality

Historians have frequently characterized postwar liberalism by the limitations placed upon it by a rigid anticommunist framework and an abandonment of the social democratic currents found in the New Deal that left it with little more to stand on than a commitment to the piecemeal reforms of the Fair Deal and the enshrinement of civil and voting rights into law. Such characterizations describe more than a few postwar liberals, but they stand at odds with the leading figures of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and their insistence during the 1960s on social democratic solutions to the deeply interconnected problems of economic and racial inequality. This article argues that if the prevailing depictions of the postwar liberal tradition fail to fully account for the ADA—an organization frequently taken to be the quintessential representative of postwar liberalism—then surely historians need to rethink both the limitations and potential of that tradition. Examining the social democratic turn of the ADA during the 1960s allows this article to demonstrate that in contrast to the limitations of postwar liberalism stressed in existing scholarship, the postwar liberal tradition embodied by the ADA could provide an intellectual and political foundation for American social democracy.