Democratic Sphere Research Articles

Drug use and the constitution of homo politicus in Swedish politics 1966–1979

BackgroundThe emergence of the drug user as a political problem in Sweden during the 1960s presented politicians with the problem of how to fit this new character into the existing democratic order. The aim of this article is to examine how Swedish politics sought to regulate democratic participation by establishing norms that conditioned who is recognized as a political subject as well as what counts as political speech and action. MethodsThe analysis is based on a close reading of parliamentary debates, political motions, and public reports and covers the period 1966–1979. ResultsDuring the examined period, Swedish politics constituted the ideal subject of democratic politics, homo politicus, as a subject embedded in a community of active and politically conscious citizens endowed with the capacity to cooperate and engage in the collective formulation of the common good. Drug use therefore posed a threat to the democratic order due to its passivizing effects that inhibited the cooperation needed to uphold the democratic polity. ConclusionThe perceived individualism, passivity, and inability of the drug user to engage in cooperation within a politically conscious community of citizens positioned the drug user as a threat to the democratic order. The drug user thereby became a useful figure in the political regulation of the democratic sphere and the constitution of homo politicus, the ideal subject of democratic politics.

Keep Your Dreams Alive: Lazzaro felice, Authoritarian Liberalism, and the Slow Death of Progress in the Italian Second Republic

ABSTRACT This article considers Lazzaro felice (Alice Rohrwacher, 2018) as counter-history to the neoliberal takeover of the modern Italian state. Specifically, it argues the film’s characters serve as witnesses to an authoritarian liberalist hijacking of democracy, the logical endpoint of which is a return to fascism. This reading will be contextualized against the seemingly perpetual cycle of economic and political crises that beset Italy from the establishment of the Second Republic in 1994 to the election of Giorgia Meloni in 2022, positing that the resurgence of the far right has been facilitated by a deliberate, technocratically executed separation of economic and democratic spheres, a process that Lazzaro addresses in both its content and its form. The eponymous Lazzaro, in this reading, emerges as a Benjaminian Angel of History, one who wants to warn us about the impending disaster but keeps getting blown off track by the neoliberal storm we call progress.

The Evolution of Political Party in Indonesia: PSI Towards a Digital Party

Internet penetration and technological developments have transformed society into a digital community. Political communication cannot run stagnant but continues to advance following developments. In Europe, this digitalization phenomenon gave birth to a new form in the political field, namely the birth of digital parties. The term digital party cannot be applied to political parties that use social media as a means of communication, but rather a party that upholds and applies digital philosophy in its internal and external communication. Paolo Gerbaudo sparked the idea of ​​a Digital Party with five main criteria: cloud-based parties, participationism, hyperleader, superbase and plebiscitarianism 2.0. The main goal of digital parties is to empower people in an idealistic democratic sphere. In Indonesia, Partai Solidaritas Indonesia (PSI) is well-known as a political party filled with youngsters and uses digital apps for political communication. After the 2019 General Election ended and failed to enter the central parliament (DPR RI), PSI presented a digital platform called the Solidarity Application for the public. The Solidarity Apps is expected to bring PSI's elected district legislative members (DPRD) closer to the public. PSI is the first political party to present this digital medium to the public. This qualitative case study research examines three things academically: Firstly, why does PSI use the Solidarity Application as a form of political communication? Secondly, knowing the use of the Solidarity Application. Lastly, understanding PSI's position within the framework of the Digital Party concept of Paulo Gerbaudo. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with Director of Digital Platform of PSI, Sigit Widodo and a Member of the District Legislative from PSI, Yoel Yosaphat. This paper argues that PSI cannot yet be categorized as a digital party. Nonetheless, PSI is already in the right direction to evolve as a digital party in Indonesia because evolution is a process that takes time. Several obstacles in the pursuit of a digital party are discussed.

Taking global administrative law one step ahead: Online giants and the digital democratic sphere

Abstract Societal speech activities are increasingly conducted online, and therefore free speech concerns focus on the digital sphere. Major online service platforms operate speech-moderation practices that constrain digital speech. These platforms are run by a few multinational corporations—the so-called online giants. Online giants, in fact, control the backbone of democracies on a global scale. This article stresses a potential legal path to appropriately regulating digital speech, while preserving the free and thriving global digital culture. The argument introduced here is that the online giants should, to a certain extent, emulate global organizations, and since they control an essential public utility, they should operate under basic administrative legal norms that include accountability, transparency, giving reason, and objective review. To this end, the article inspects the global administrative law movement and proposes to extend its overarching conceptualization of global public procedural principles facilitating “good governance” to the online giants’ procedures, despite their private ownership.

Arenas for conflict or cohesion? Rethinking public libraries as potentially democratic spheres

In policies and research, public libraries are often put forth as public spheres promoting inclusion and shared values. This article investigates possible implications of replacing the idea of the library as public sphere with a plurality of public spheres, thereby acknowledging existing inequalities and conflicts between adversaries. The paper is conceptual, focusing on deepening the theoretical analysis. Fraser’s elaboration on the concept public sphere is utilized alongside Chantal Mouffe’s concept agonism to critically discuss the perception of libraries as public spheres, and to explore the library as a place enabling multiple public spheres where different groups can strengthen their social identity and make claims of power. Two main risks with a consensus-oriented starting point are identified: Firstly, marginalized groups may be silenced when inclusion and shared values are emphasized rather than plurality. Secondly, when cultural and social hierarchies are ignored, the ‘others’ are turned into enemies and antagonism replace agonism. If the notion of libraries as promoters of democracy and inclusion shall not result in upholding the status quo, we must go beyond what we know and make room for pluralistic communities and agonistic conflicts.

Going to the people: Community screening, documentary and the plebeian public sphere in Hong Kong

This article is an ethnographic and historical study that focuses on the ‘plebeian public sphere’ – a democratic sphere opened up by the community screening of independent documentary films. My article argues that this innovative public screening establishes a mode of communication that connects audiences with the neighbourhood where people gather together and form local communities by sharing experience and emotion based on history, story and memory. This process evokes a source of affective energy that is capable of catalysing social change. It challenges not only previous theoretical approaches to the public sphere, but also the stereotypical understanding of ‘the public’ in the Hong Kong context.

L.A. Nudnenko. Personality and the state: constitutional and legal bases of interaction in the sphere of democracy

The material is a review of the monograph “Personality and the state: constitutional and legal foundations of interaction in the sphere of democracy” by Doctor of Law, Professor L.A. Nudnenko. The fundamental work summarizes the results of the author’s ten-year scientific research on the problems of democracy, offers a new vision of modern political challenges in the process of interaction between the individual and the state.

Review of: Nudnenko L.A. Personality and the state: constitutional and legal foundations of interaction in the sphere of democracy: a monograph. Moscow: Yurlitinform, 2021. 411 p.

Review of: Nudnenko L.A. Personality and the state: constitutional and legal foundations of interaction in the sphere of democracy: a monograph. Moscow: Yurlitinform, 2021. 411 p.

Taking Global Administrative Law One Step Ahead: Online Giants and the Digital Democratic Sphere

Today, societal speech activities are increasingly conducted online. Therefore, free speech concerns focus on the digital sphere. Major online service platforms operate speech moderation practices constraining digital speech. These platforms are run by a few multinational corporations — the so-called online giants. Online giants, in fact, control the backbone of democracies, on a global scale. Against this backdrop, this article stresses a potential legal path for appropriately regulating digital speech, while preserving the free and thriving global digital culture. The argument introduced is that the online giants should to a certain extent emulate global organizations, and since they control an essential public utility, they should operate under basic administrative law norms that include accountability, transparency, giving reason, and objective review. For this end, the article inspects the Global Administrative Law movement and proposes to extend its overarching conceptualization of global public procedural principles facilitating “good governance” to the online giants’ procedures, despite their private ownership.

Справедливость как критерий баланса публичных и частных интересов

The article deals with the problems of combining public and private interests. It is proved that interests are conditioned by the needs of the individual, and their relationship is shown. It is stated that the satisfaction of social and economic needs and interests is possible only through the use of the constitutional rights and freedoms of the individual in the sphere of democracy, through the institutions of direct and representative democracy, and local self-government. The constitutional bases of public interests are defined. The reasons for the divergence of public and private interests are formulated. The constitutional principle of justice is defined as a criterion for balancing public and private interests.

La Universidad-Pueblo: Periodismo, política y democracia en el sur de México durante la década de 1970

The article analyzes the relationship between the State and universities in Mexico during the 1970s. From a socio-historical perspective, the academic and social project, Universidad-Pueblo, of the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero (UAG) is addressed. The emphasis on written press makes it possible to observe how some higher education institutions and its students proposed critical models that were strongly articulated with social demands and left-wing movements amid an authoritarian political regime in which democratic institutional ways of citizen participation were virtually closed. The Universidad-Pueblo project is one of the most radical and complex experiences of this process and its study allows to analyze the relevance of universities within the state’s public life, as well as to consider the UAG as a democratic sphere in the political context of the state of Guerrero.

Corporations, Politics, and Democracy: Corporate political activities as political corruption

Corporate involvement in democratic processes typically takes the form of corporate political activity (CPA). In this paper, I develop a framework of political corruption to explain the corroding influence of CPA on democratic processes. CPA corrupts democratic processes by excluding (a) citizen representation from political decision making, (b) citizens’ voices from public deliberation, and (c) citizens’ interests from private deliberations about political preferences. By attending to the power relations within the three key democratic spheres in society—political, public, and private—I explain how corporations influence democratic processes and how these processes in turn become dependent on corporate involvement. My theorization explicates the corporate capture of democratic processes and provides a nuanced understanding of corruption in Western liberal democracies. Finally, I suggest ways to halt this process and thereby defend democracy as a system of governance from undue corporate interests.

Digital Rights, Digital Citizenship and Digital Literacy: What’s the Difference?

Using digital media is complicated. Invasions of privacy, increasing dataveillance, digital-by-default commercial and civic transactions and the erosion of the democratic sphere are just some of the complex issues in modern societies. Existential questions associated with digital life challenge the individual to come to terms with who they are, as well as their social interactions and realities. In this article, we identify three contemporary normative responses to these complex issues –digital citizenship, digital rights and digital literacy. These three terms capture epistemological and ontological frames that theorise and enact (both in policy and everyday social interactions) how individuals learn to live in digitally mediated societies. The article explores the effectiveness of each in addressing the philosophical, ethical and practical issues raised by datafication, and the limitations of human agency as an overarching goal within these responses. We examine how each response addresses challenges in policy, everyday social life and political rhetoric, tracing the fluctuating uses of these terms and their address to different stakeholders. The article concludes with a series of conceptual and practical ‘action points’ that might optimise these responses to the benefit of the individual and society.

English

This study attempts to enlarge knowledge on public value co-creation within a complex environment such as artification. The transfiguration of object that is not regarded as art in the traditional sense into something art-like underpins the development of processes suitable for analyses within the co-creation framework. The case of “EXIT”, the photographic exhibition on Ghost hotel in the province of Pavia (Lombardy, Northern Italy) has been carried out in order to achieve the research aim. The results, came out from the content analysis, demonstrated how artification triggers public value co-creation under specific conditions like the implementation of managerial logics, tools, and model. The conceptual model of artification co-creation attempts to fulfil the literature gaps which call for more investigations on the degree of citizen engagement in relation to the outcome of value creation within the democratic sphere.   Key words: Artification, value, co-creation, multi-actors engagement, strategic triangle, outcome, content analysis.

Can Technology Support Democracy?

The utopian optimism about democracy and the internet has given way to disillusionment. At the same time, given the complexity of today's wicked problems, the need for democracy is critical. Unfortunately democracy is under attack around the world, and there are ominous signs of its retreat. How does democracy fare when digital technology is added to the picture? Weaving technology and democracy together is risky, and technologists who begin any digital project with the conviction that technology can and will solve “problems” of democracy are likely to be disappointed. Technology can be a boon to democracy if it is informed technology. The goal in writing this essay was to encourage people to help develop and cultivate a rich democratic sphere. Democracy has great potential that it rarely achieves. It is radical, critical, complex, and fragile. It takes different forms in different contexts. These forms are complex and the solutionism promoted by the computer industry and others is not appropriate in the case of democracies. The primary aim of technology in the service of democracy is not merely to make it easier or more convenient but to improve society's civic intelligence , its ability to address the problems it faces effectively and equitably.

Public Sphere as Democratic Sphere

Political public space is more conflicted and stressed. Process of black-balling other actors is dominant here. Other civilian public spaces mean mutual learning and opinion improvement. These two spaces try to affect each other. Civilian public spaces try to affect political public space with political discourses. The only way to determine the willpower of the society is participation. Planning is conducted through this participation which brings democracy concept with. Planning is the participation of the folk in the decision phase. It puts communicative rationality instead of instrumental rationality in decisions to be taken for the community. This newly existing planning concept is based on the principle of consensus creating. All these let the planning turn into a democracy project. Handling the planning in such a concept and bringing together new spatial representation form in transmitting information by regarding spatial changings must be concept of planning of today. This study conducted a brief review on constructing democratic public space.

Towards a participatory representative democracy? UK Parish councils and community engagement

This paper considers local democracy in the UK regarding citizen participation and engagement with Town and Parish councils. As the first tier of government and primary access point of democracy in England, Parish councils have the opportunity to be deeply connected and responsive to their communities. However conversely, they are the least democratic of all tiers of government, primarily due to low election turnouts and regular co-option. The paper contributes to a broader literature around improving citizen participation, considering specifically the question of how to encourage stronger engagement in local formal democracy in order to initiate vibrant participatory democracy within local representative structures. We use an innovative qualitative research methodology and a case study of the UK to find that many of the popular perceptions around Town and Parish councils can be traced to issues of communication. Consequently, we argue that engaging a more broader demographic, particularly through the use of new technologies such as social media or mobile phone Applications, may present a way forward to develop a vibrant local democratic sphere.

A perspective on radical transformations to sustainability: resistances, movements and alternatives

A transformation to sustainability calls for radical and systemic societal shifts. Yet what this entails in practice and who the agents of this radical transformation are require further elaboration. This article recenters the role of environmental justice movements in transformations, arguing that the systemic, multi-dimensional and intersectional approach inherent in EJ activism is uniquely placed to contribute to the realization of equitable sustainable futures. Based on a perspective of conflict as productive, and a “conflict transformation” approach that can address the root issues of ecological conflicts and promote the emergence of alternatives, we lay out a conceptual framework for understanding transformations through a power analysis that aims to confront and subvert hegemonic power relations; that is, multi-dimensional and intersectional; balancing ecological concerns with social, economic, cultural and democratic spheres; and is multi-scalar, and mindful of impacts across place and space. Such a framework can help analyze and recognize the contribution of grassroots EJ movements to societal transformations to sustainability and support and aid radical transformation processes. While transitions literature tends to focus on artifacts and technologies, we suggest that a resistance-centred perspective focuses on the creation of new subjectivities, power relations, values and institutions. This recenters the agency of those who are engaged in the creation and recuperation of ecological and new ways of being in the world in the needed transformation.

Institutional dynamics and party think tank development: Britain and Germany compared

ABSTRACTOfficial party think tanks have been a fixture in a number of Western European democracies for many decades but not so in the Anglo-American democratic sphere even though think tanks aligned to parties have flourished. This article explores the reasons that party and think tank ties have evolved differently in these two settings through an examination of the party think tank scene in Germany and Britain. It is suggested that the predominant form of democracy operating in each of these settings helps to explain this critical difference. While the adversarial tendencies of the British political system militate against parties taking much of an interest in establishing official party think tanks, the consensual institutional dynamics associated with Germany’s political system has encouraged parties to sponsor their formation, and reinforced the perceived importance of the party think tank vehicle as agents of democratic linkage.

Does socialism need fraternity? On Axel Honneth’s The Idea of Socialism

In this article, after retracing the main lines of Honneth’s The Idea of Socialism, I address two objections to it. Firstly, I question the marked substantiality of Honneth’s proposed socialist ‘community of fraternal life’, resulting from the conjunction of the idea of social freedom with the principle of fraternity he derives from the proto-socialists. On the basis of my objections, I then delineate an original theoretical model, denominated ‘socialism through convergence’ (STC). While based on Honneth’s concept of social freedom, STC can abstract from the element of fraternity. It is, by consequence, immune to the excess of substantiality of Honneth’s perspective and potentially more attractive for the members of modern, pluralistic societies. Finally, I criticize Honneth’s perspective for under-determining the element of normative social conflicts in the sphere of democracy and normalizing their expression into the forms of an orderly democratic deliberation; consequently, I show how the STC perspective can more effectively account for social struggles and political conflicts.