Interpretation Of Democracy Research Articles

The Good, the Bad and the Other: Discursive constructions of nations in Voice of America’s international news

This research analyses Voice of America’s discursive construction of nations in its international news reporting, based on Van Dijk’s sociocognitive discourse analysis approach and his concept of the ideological square. Through a combination of content analysis, corpus-assisted linguistic analysis and manual critical discourse analysis, this research examines how countries are constructed as part of an in-group and out-group. The findings show that US interpretations of democracy, freedom and human rights are used ideologically to emphasize positive aspects of in-group members and negative aspects of out-group members, while they are absent in justifications of military involvement by the in-group. The analyses also reveal the countries and regions of the world that are discursively overlooked or relegated to simply providing context for other nations’ activities.

Russia’s Discourse on Democracy in International Law

This article explores Russia’s official discourse on democracy in international law, addressing the following questions: When Russia speaks of democracy in the context of international law, what precisely does it mean and what does it advocate for? What do these discussions truly signify regarding Russia’s understanding and interpretation of democracy in international law? What are the potential consequences of Russia’s interpretation for the discourse on democracy in international law? The central hypothesis of this study suggests that Russia strategically leverages the counter-Western democratic discourse within international law to secure its position as a great power rather than offer a meaningful alternative to the Western “hegemonic” ideas of democracy. This study is novel, as Russia’s discourses on democracy have received little attention in international legal scholarship. It is relevant in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is often framed within the broader context of the struggle between autocracy and democracy. The main analysis is construed around the official discourse of Russia’s high-ranking officials. The research highlights that although Russia’s discourse is directed against the Western liberal “hegemonic” idea of democracy, it does not offer any substantive alternative to it and aligns with the paradigm of realpolitik. Instead, it inadvertently reinforces the fundamental principles of Western liberal democracy.

Implementasi Prinsip Demokrasi dalam Pengangkatan Penjabat Kepala Daerah pada Masa Pilkada Serentak

The implementation of the 2024 simultaneous general elections has serious political implications because it creates a power vacuum in the regions. The regional head vacancy occurred due to the abolition of the 2022 and 2023 regional elections, which resulted in most regions at the provincial to district / city level not having a definitive regional head. To anticipate the government vacancy, in accordance with Law No.10/2016 on Regional Head Elections, the appointment or appointment of acting regional heads is carried out. The need for affirmation regarding the process of filling vacancies in the position of regional head is also still within the scope of democratic interpretation as stipulated in Article 18 Paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution. Therefore, it needs to be taken into consideration and attention for the government to issue implementing regulations as a follow-up to Article 201 of Law No.10/2016.

Fascism as seen by the Christian Democrats in the years of the republic of parties (1945–1994)

ABSTRACT The Christian Democratic interpretation of the fascist regime drew on the analyses conducted in the 1920s which identified the statism-racism-warmongering nexus as the defining trait of fascist movements. With the outbreak of the Cold War, Italian fascism disappeared as a political phenomenon, but with Aldo Moro became a historical example of a system that was enemy of individual freedom but also responsible for policies that went against the interests of working people. In Moro’s view, the birth of the Republic had opened up a new path that still had to be perfected but certainly was in antithesis to the fascist one. The parties of the anti-fascist coalition had contributed to this new path and were called upon to complete it in a “progressive” manner. This perspective carried on until the period of “national solidarity”, but after Moro’s assassination, the cultural and political framework in the 1980s became increasingly critical of the cornerstones of post-1945 anti-fascism.

Can Democratic Equality Justify Capitalism?

Jeppe von Platz has recently argued that welfare-state capitalism can be justified by a theory of democratic equality, challenging John Rawls’s critique of capitalism. Von Platz develops his argument by introducing a social democratic interpretation of democratic equality as an alternative to Rawls’s justice as fairness. Unlike justice as fairness, in which there is only one possible principle of reciprocity (the difference principle), social democracy includes four possible principles in an eligible set that could be chosen as a principle of reciprocity. However, I argue that von Platz’s conception of reciprocity still fails to justify welfare-state capitalism. Of the four principles of reciprocity in social democracy’s eligible set, one of them, the principle of utility, does not express a notion of reciprocity and thus does not belong. The other three – the principle of equality, the difference principle, and the principle of equity – are not compatible with welfare-state capitalism. Thus, since capitalism cannot satisfy a principle of reciprocity in the (revised) eligible set, it is incompatible with the social democratic interpretation of democratic equality.

Gentrification and everyday democracy

This article diagnoses a novel problem with gentrification: that it can hinder valuable forms of everyday democratic communication. In order to make this argument, I develop a democratic interpretation of Iris Marion Young's ‘ideal of city life’, according to which social differentiation is valuable because of the epistemic role that it plays in the production and circulation of diverse social perspectives. I then leverage that ideal to examine two kinds of spatial and demographic changes associated with gentrification: community disintegration in enclaves and homogenisation in public spaces. I argue that community disintegration in enclaves can make the production of social perspectives within disadvantaged communities more difficult. I then argue that homogenisation in public spaces can undermine the role of such spaces as sites of democratic performance for the wider circulation of social perspectives in the public sphere. Finally, I reflect on the reach of my argument for broader judgements about the permissibility of policies that foster or permit gentrification.

Democracy against the grain: indigenous politics in Colombia’s southwest Andes

ABSTRACT This article examines the southwest Colombian Andes indigenous peoples’ active participation as ‘demos’ in Colombia´s modern polity and democratic politics. Despite a long-term pattern of nonrecognition, their ‘against-the-grain democracy’ emerges from sedimented experiences of collectivism and intercultural experimentalism. The resulting indigenous politics expands the horizon of commonality and calls for new interpretations of the political. This work is based on long-term research on twentieth-century ideas and political texts by Nasa, Misak, and Pijao pueblos, on an examination of their leaders´ biographies, and on my extensive research on Manuel Quintín Lame´s twentieth-century social movement leadership. I examine the inter-dependency of popular republicanism and struggles for citizenship that began in the nineteenth century, with the dynamics of collectivism and commonality that converge in the strong grassroots, indigenous-oriented politics of the twentieth century. My analysis is enlightened by Sheldon Wolin´s interpretations of democracy, commonality, elemental politics, the liberal dilemmas of recognition, and Cristina Roja´s reflections on nonrecognition.

Disputed interpretations and active strategies of resistance during an audit regulatory debate

PurposeThe paper aims to examine disputed interpretations of “key meanings” between the audit regulator and Big 4 firms during a highly contentious regulatory debate, showcasing their use of “strategies of resistance” to achieve their intended outcomes.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative analysis is performed of the discourse in a South African audit regulatory debate, set within the country's unique political and historical context. The analysis is informed by the theoretical construct of a “regulatory space” and an established typology of strategic responses to institutional pressures.FindingsThe study’s findings show how resistance to regulatory intentions from influential actors, notably the Big 4 firms, was dispelled. This was achieved by the regulator securing oversight independence, co-opting political support, shortening the debate timeline and unilaterally revising the interpretation of its statutory mandate. The regulator successfully incorporated race equality into its interpretation of how the public interest is advanced (in addition to audit quality). The social legitimacy of the Big 4 was then further undermined. The debate was highly contentious and unproductive and likely contributed to overall societal concerns regarding the legitimacy of, and the value ascribed to, the audit function.Practical implicationsA deeper appreciation of vested interests and differing interpretations of key concepts and regulatory logic could help to promote a less combative regulatory environment, in the interest of enhanced audit quality and the sustainability and legitimacy of the audit profession.Originality/valueThe context provides an example, contrary to that observed in many jurisdictions, where the Big 4 fail to actively resist or even dilute significant regulatory reform. Furthermore, the findings indicate that traditional conceptions of what it means to serve “the public interest” may be evolving in favour of a more liberal social democratic interpretation.

The Implementation of Democracy in The Middle of The Application of Ite Law

Democracy in Indonesia has been running for quite a long time since Indonesia was founded until now, which is approximately 76 years. each order has its own characteristics in carrying out democracy in Indonesia according to the conditions and political interests at that time.So that each ruler has his own interpretation of democracy in the Sukarno era, in the guided democracy during the Suharto era, there was Pancasila democracy and in the reformation period, Pancasila democracy was implemented in accordance with the constitution. there is little difference in implementing Pancasila democracy during the New Order era and during the reformation period.This difference can be seen where during the new code of democracy Pancasila was implemented but not wholeheartedly because the authorities at that time implemented a subversion law, while during this reformation period, especially in the last 10 years, the government implemented a democratic system but also implemented a law on information and electronic transactions. considered by some legal and political observers to be a substitute for subversive laws.

How does Spinoza’s “Democracy” differ from that of Hobbes?

Abstract Field focuses on the role in political theory of the concept of potentia of the people—power understood as the informal, natural power of the people—as distinct from potestas understood as the formal arrangement of power under the constitution of a given state. In a close analysis of the arguments of Hobbes and Spinoza on popular power and sovereignty, the book critiques democratic interpretations of both theories. While correct about that, the book neglects fundamental dissimilarities in their views of popular power. Of profound importance is the meaning of the concept “multitude”: unlike Hobbes, Spinoza distinguishes between the great mass of individuals and “the wise,” seeing the “multitude” as encompassing most kings. Also, there is a great gulf between their understandings of the “common good.” For Spinoza, obedience to the sovereign, Hobbes’s desideratum, is only compatible with freedom in the context of a state directed to the common good.

Riders on the storm: the role of populism in the global crisis of democracy and in the functioning of electoral autocracies

Abstract It is my contention that populism could be an appropriate framework to describe, explain and connect the phenomena of global crisis of democracy and functioning of electoral autocracies. In order to substantiate this claim, with the method of literature review, I examine first the characteristics of these phenomena. Then I focus on the nature of the relationship between them, in particular on the complex system of new types of autocracies’ stability, in which populism could play a crucial role. Populism, understood as an autocratic (re-)interpretation of democracy and representation, could be a particularly dangerous Trojan Horse for democracy. First and foremost, because its idea of a single, homogeneous and authentic people that can be legitimately represented only by the populist leader is a moralised form of antipluralism which is contrary to the pluralist approach of democracy (i.e. polyarchy). For precisely this reason, populism could play a key role in autocracies, especial in electoral autocracies which may use its core elements. Namely, the Manichean worldview, the image of a homogeneous people, people-centrism and the autocratic notion of representation are very compatible with electoral autocracies, since these regimes hold general elections and their power is built largely upon the alleged will of the people. By using populism, it is possible for these regimes to camouflage and even legitimise their autocratic trends and exercise of power behind the formally multi-party but not fair elections and democratic façade. As a radical turn towards closed autocracies (without de facto multiparty elections) would be too expensive, electoral autocrats need manipulated multi-party elections and other plebiscite techniques that could serve as quasi-democratic legitimation. Because of this, they tend to use the political logic of populism which could transform political contestation to a life- and- death struggle and provides quasi-democratic legitimation and other important cognitive functions. Therefore, populist electoral autocracies, as a paradigmatic type of electoral autocracies, could remain with us for a long time, giving more and more tasks to researchers, especially in the Central and Eastern European region.

The Money War: An Interpretation of Democracy, Depreciation, and Taxes in the U.S. Civil War

Both sides in the U.S. Civil War financed military spending by issuing new fiat currencies. The Union “greenback” underwent moderate inflation (by wartime standards), but the Confederate “grayback” suffered hyperinflation. Existing explanations for these price movements typically treat only one of the two cases and adopt either a quantity-theory or rational-expectations approach. We compare Union and Confederate policies directly and highlight the importance of taxation for assuring the value of inconvertible money. Combining monetary and fiscal history literatures, we find that tax policies were determined by long-term development of democratic governing institutions. Higher levels of democracy in the North, as compared to the slaveholding South, meant greater tax policy legitimacy and administrative competence. The Union drew on this legacy to back its money effectively, while the Confederacy failed to do so. We contrib-ute to the theory of chartalist money by drawing attention to the political determinants of effective fiscal policy.

WORKER´S REPRESENTATIVES IN COMPANIES AND THE BRAZILIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1988

Objective: The objective of the research is to analyze whether the representation of workers in companies can validate collective bargaining in the same way as unions? What is the role of this commission in Brazil?Methodology: the methodology used is deductive, as for the means, the research was bibliographic, using doctrine, legislation, ILO Convention. As for the purposes, the research was qualitative.Results: The article analyzes the need for a constructive and democratic interpretation to enable the representation of workers effectively in our country.Contributions: The workers' representation institute received ILO treatment through Convention No. 135 and Recommendation No. 143, both from 1971. The 1988 Constitution dealt with the subject in art.11, but the practical implementation of this body did not occur. Only with the 2017 labor reform was the issue regulated, allowing its implementation in Brazilian companies. Thus, the contribution is towards presenting a solution to the phenomenon of worker representation, via constructive and democratic interpretation.

Times of Democracy

Democracy became a popular and highly contested concept in the Danish-speaking parts of the Danish monarchy in 1848. For a brief time, it went from being an occasional guest in political language to a popular concept in the constitutional struggle of 1848–1849. This article argues democracy became attached to an equally popular concept of the time, movement, when introduced into everyday political communication in Denmark. In this context, democracy became a name for the movement observed in Europe and in the Danish monarchy. The article identifies three main interpretations of democracy that occurred in the Danish constitutional struggle of 1848–1849 and argues the battle over the constitution was essentially a battle over how one interpreted the past, the present, and the future. Democracy became a key term in this battle in 1848 Denmark.

Interpretation of democracy, pluralism and tolerance among the young activists of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama

Anarchism and other forms of violence committed by religious groups and mass organizations are still very common in Indonesia. There have been violations of human rights, religious freedom and civil liberties, which are essential pillars of democracy. Indonesia, as a country that adheres to religious freedom regards all forms of intolerance as violations of democracy. This study described and explored the views of young cadres of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Malang, East Java, about democracy, pluralism and tolerance. This research intended to unravel some of the issues of how young generations of Muhammadiyah and NU understand democracy, pluralism and tolerance and if their views are associated with their social construction. This study employed qualitative methods using interviews and direct observations to collect the data. The results of this study showed there were differences in the patterns between the younger generation and the older generation of Muhammadiyah. The members of Muhammadiyah recognized that the young cadres of Muhammadiyah tended to act more violently towards intolerant mass organizations compared to their senior (old cadre) generation. The senior cadres, such as the Muhammadiyah Youth, were more likely to be calm when responding to the presence of radical organizations. The senior cadres of Muhammadiyah tended to be open-minded with the community organizations that are perceived by the public to be a radical mass organization, which is fundamental in addressing the presence of radical organizations. This view indicated by the absence sense of precariousness or a situation that is considered to be very threatening to religious and national life while still in the corridor of diversity. On the other hand, the younger generation of Nahdlatul Ulama showed a different pattern, revealing that their seniors tended to be harsher in responding to radical organizations and supporting mass organizations.

Advancing Shūrā: A Social Agent for Democratization

ABSTRACTThis study is an analytical comparison between Islamic articulations of shūrā (consultation) and notions of representative democracy. It emphasizes various epistemic understandings of shūrā in light of qur’anic exegesis and historical precedents of consultative rule in Islam. In particular, it identifies shūrā as an agent for democratization in contrast to its more familiar manifestation as a top-down consultative system. This is examined together with the works of influential Muslim scholars from modernist, Islamist and pro-democratic backgrounds to elucidate what aspects of democracy they accept and/or reject. The article does not exhaustively analyze each scholar’s interpretation of democracy. Rather, it selects scholars from different historical epochs with distinctive theoretical positions on shūrā. Overall, the study finds shūrā remains largely under-utilized as a result of post-colonial discourses on Islam and authoritarian political systems in Muslim-majority countries. The article finally examines how shūrā can be better facilitated as a social agent to renew civil society and combat authoritarian rule.

Investment Citizenship and Democracy in a Global Age. Towards a Democratic Interpretation of International Nationality Law

The process of commodification of democratic citizenship through the current proliferation of “investment citizenship” (IC) programs, i.e. the various state-led programs that offer the acquisition of domestic citizenship through financial contribution only, needs to be addressed urgently, and, so the chapter argues, through stronger democracy-oriented interpretations of international nationality law (INL). Unlike other arguments against IC advanced in political theory, the present chapter argues from within the legal practice itself: it proposes its normative critique as the best interpretation of nationality law. In contrast to other existing legal critiques of IC, however, it does not focus on domestic or European Union law, but on international law: it develops a new interpretation of INL that excludes granting nationality on monetary grounds only. In short, the chapter argues that contemporary INL is best interpreted in the light of the international principle of democracy (the IPD), and the customary international law principle of individual equality, as a form of international pre-commitment of democratic citizenship. What this means is that the factual conditions for the justification of democracy need to be protected not only under the IPD, but also under INL. In turn, this implies that the conditions of naturalization encompass the sharing of equal and interdependent stakes, both positively so as to include those who share such stakes and negatively so as not to include those who do not. The matching of those conditions under the IPD and INL explains in turn how the genuine-connection test in Nottebohm is best interpreted, under contemporary circumstances, as a test for the sharing of equal and interdependent stakes. The consequence, the chapter argues, is not only the lack of opposability, but also of validity of IC under INL.

Digital Realty, Legislative History, and Textualism after Scalia

There is a shift afoot in textualism. The New Textualism of Justice Scalia is evolving in response to a new wave of criticism. That criticism presses on the tension between Justice Scalia’s commitment to faithful agency (effecting the legislature’s will) and his rejection of legislative history in the name of ordinary meaning (which ignores legislative will). And it has caused some textualists to shift away from faithful agency, even to the point of abandoning it as textualism’s grounding principle. But this shift has gone unnoticed. It has yet to be identified or described, let alone defended, even as academic and judicial textualists continue to drift away from New Textualism to a newer textualism. Digital Realty v. Somers brought this newer textualism to the fore in a pair of concurrences that dueled over legislative history. The duel reopened the debate long silenced during Justice Scalia’s tenure. And it suggested two shifts. First, Justice Alito joined the textualist rejection of legislative history, a shift in his jurisprudence. Second, and presumably the cause of the first, Justice Thomas returned to the argument that intent, and thus the legislative history in which it is found, is illegitimate in principle — not just impractical. That line of argument signals a rejection of faithful agency and a shift from New Textualism’s embrace of faithful agency to a textualism that instead grounds itself in democratic interpretation. This Essay teases out what Digital Realty portends. It identifies the shift toward a New New Textualism. And it describes that textualism’s latest development, which rejects faithful agency (and with it all intent and almost all legislative history), replacing it with democratic interpretation. Last, this Essay then sketches a defense of the position that this New New Textualism, in developed form, stakes out.

Tocqueville and the Legal Culture of Jacksonian America

This article reconstructs the influence of American lawyers on Tocqueville's thought. By placing Tocqueville's well-known reflections on the role of lawyers in American democracy in the context of the 1820s-30s debates about the trial by jury and the issue of codification, and shedding light over the underexplored thought of one of Tocqueville's mains sources, Edward Livingston of Louisiana, the article advances a new interpretation of Democracy in America's considerations about the legal spirit and the dialectics between judicial institutions and democratic society.

The Contours of Social Criticism in Late-Socialist Slovenia

Self-management socialism displayed ambiguities and vagueness in handling social controversy and public life in general, giving rise to numerous peculiarities particular to this social phenomenon in Yugoslavia. While a Leninist interpretation of democracy in socialism constituted the background of Edvard Kardelj’s recipe for “socially responsible criticism,” Yugoslavia and Slovenia were at the same time under the influence of western liberal concepts. Considering the political and ideological contexts of late socialism, the article discusses the systemic way of dealing with social criticism between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, while trying to determine the impact of these circumstances on the subsequent evolvement of democratisation. Prior to the major social shifts of the second half of the 1980s, the “pluralism of self-management interests” could be articulated in practice primarily in a way that did not force it into competition with the Party. In those cases when this nevertheless occurred, the leading political establishment preferred to leave it to its “proxies” to deal with the transgressors, while itself taking on arbitrary positions that displayed some of the key features of the late-socialist regime in Slovenia.