Liberal Democratic Societies Research Articles

Концепт "доверие" как инструмент социально-философского анализа политико- идеологической ситуации современности

The purpose of the study define the validity of using the concept of "trust" for the socio-philosophical understanding of the ideological transformations that have unfolded over the past few decades in liberal democratic societies. Scientific novelty. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the works of John Schwartzmantel and Emilio Gentile that explore the ideology, as well as the works of Paul Ricoeur and Alan Seligman devoted to the phenomenon of trust, the importance of taking into account the situation of public trust in order to characterize the division of ideologies into total and molecular, inherent in modernity, is revealed. As a result, it is concluded that the predominance of relations of generalized public trust in the social life is inextricably linked with the large-scale actualization in modern liberal democratic societies of multiple identity politics and problem politics.

Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Place for Individual Merit in a Liberal Democratic Society

Although equality of opportunity is a fundamental idea of the egalitarian project, there is a continuing controversy about the effective distributive implications of the notion. This paper focuses on this controversy, and maintains that when equality of opportunity is correctly understood, it entails strong distributive implications. In this way, this paper intends to reject the notion that equality of opportunity is associated with a non-institutional idea of meritocracy: an idea which is often used as an ideological tool to make unacceptable inequalities seem acceptable. This paper defends the argument that only an ‘institution-dependent’ conception of equality of opportunity, such as Rawls’ fair equality opportunity, is the most adequate interpretation for a liberal democratic society. Nonetheless, it does not mean that individual merit has no place in liberal democratic societies. Fair equality of opportunity - if correctly understood - is deeply relevant and might contribute to a significant reduction of economic inequality, much more so than is currently perceived in the public debate.

Ren and Civic Friendship

The concept of civic friendship, perhaps originating from Aristotle, has re-emerged in recent studies. Scholars argue the relevance of this concept in liberal democratic societies today because it can potentially strengthen or re-establish the sense of community or public-spiritedness. Moreover, there is a need to describe the characteristic virtue/s that will buttress civic friendship. This article proposes the Confucian virtue of ren as a possible foundation for such a relationship. As I discuss here, ren can contribute to the resolution of problems that emerge in liberal democratic societies today because it can counteract the negative tendency—i.e., neglecting the other or the relationship with the other—of an individualist understanding of liberal democratic values.

Democracy, Constitution and Conflict: (Re)thinking articulations from the agonism

Contemporary liberal democratic societies are marked by complexity and the fact of pluralism and diverse visions of goods. How to articulate them, and how to provide solutions to conflicts? The current predominant perspective of liberal theory does so through the proposal of consensual possibilities; but from this perspective a problem arises: can there be consensus without prejudice to democratic practices and political action, which is an essential mark of a plural society, and which presupposes the non-exclusion of the other and equality as a constitutional foundation? Faced with this issue, there is a need to (re)think practices of expression of the plural, not excluding conflict, articulatory aspects and recognition of the different, as it marks a plural society, and its reflexes in the construction of a public space as a space for the expression of diversity and conflict, and, therefore, of the democratic. The hypothesis is that the conflictive condition can and should be understood as productive for the recognition of plural expressions both in politics and in law, both in democracy and constitutionalism, and from them not being extirpated, but transformed into agonism, acceptance and plural expression. The main objective is to analyze how the conception of agonism, conceived by Chantal Mouffe, can contribute to the understanding of necessary articulations and implications between law and politics, constitutionalism and democracy in order to build meaningful and productive perspectives. Thus, for the development of the research, contributions were sought in political theory and constitutional theory, whose foundation was given, especially, from Chantal Mouffe, Post and Siegel, and Vera Karam de Chueiri. The method used was deductive, testing assumptions to verify possible conclusions; the research technique was bibliographic, developed from research in works and articles. At the end of the research, the hypothesis was confirmed.

Karl Mannheim on Fascism: Sociological Lessons About Populism and Democracy Today?

The parallels and differences between current forms of populism and early 20th-century fascism have been the focus for much discussion. This article examines the relevance today of Karl Mannheim’s analysis of fascism and of its relationship to democracy in the 1930s. He argued that the threat of fascism arose from the very nature of liberal democratic society, rather than being a product of external forces. He claimed that liberal democracy is transitional, rather than stable in character, and that the new emerging form of governance that was required to replace it shared a key component with fascism: a high level of social and economic planning. At the same time, he insisted that, as a pathological development, fascism served to illustrate the disastrous consequences that a failure to engage realistically with the process of societal development can have for upholding Western civilisational ideals. This article explores Mannheim’s arguments against the background of current thinking about populism and ‘post-democracy’.

Transition of Civil-Military Relations for National Development in Nepal

Before the formation of the professional military and the cavalry, there were citizen militias, an army composed of ordinary citizens in ancient Greece. Numerous scholars in academia have reinforced an ideal relationship between the military and the civilians. Though the traditional roles of the military to protect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity remain crucial, it is important to reassess the roles played by the military in national development in the contemporary liberal democratic societies of the twenty–first century. The objective of the article is to reflect on the changing dynamics of the civil military relationship and discourses in the development of Nepal and to explain why and how the civilian supremacy has been institutionalized over a period of time as enshrined in the Constitution of Nepal. The paper unfolds implications for identifying the means and ways to strengthen the civil-military relationship in the present socio-political context of Nepal. Various information and facts were collected through secondary sources and normative lens was used to analyze the changing dynamics of the civil military relationship and discourses in the development of Nepal. It is revealed that Nepali Army (NA) has been successfully transitioning to a new role by being effectively involved in national development programs through socioeconomic infrastructural development works, by providing humanitarian aid in relief missions and contributing to various national pride projects identified by the government of Nepal and the government must provide resources and mandate NA to carry out various development activities.

The crisis of the classical concept of liberal democracy in the context of modern challenges


 
 
 The main aim of this paper is to examine the problem of the crisis of liberal democracy in the modern world, referring to the phenomenon of a loss of balance between social and personal good in a pluralistic society. There are several concepts of democracy in political science, including the classic liberal concept, which sees its core priorities collide with recent global challenges. Thus, the relevance of this problem refers to the recent disappointment in the idea of liberal democracy, which shows disillusionment in democracy as such. In response to this trend, some hybrid regimes offer an alternative in the form of so-called democracies with illiberal approaches. From the other side, the liberal democratic platforms are used by populist political forces, which results in dividing democratic societies about the questions hard to finally solve. The Brexit problem – the process of British exit from the European Union – shows recent examples of long-lasting social effects derived from the crisis of liberal democratic concept. The author of the article has come to the conclusion that when it comes to modern democratic processes, classic liberal approach brings the populism threat back to the table. When there is no balance between the totally free civil society with its direct democratic influences and the state structure with formal procedures aimed at total good of beneficial functioning, the liberal instruments would be used by populists. Populism can create severe divisions within liberal democratic societies providing dilemmas, such as Brexit, which are difficult to solve with the same liberal democratic procedures. This means that liberal democratic approach undermines itself with the very fact of the existing tendency to lose balance between the ideal personal freedom (that includes satisfying every citizen’s choice) and public good.
 
 

COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY AS A RESPONSE TO CRISIS: THE ROLE OF THE JALI COMMISSION IN CREATING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CORRUPTION (PART 2)

When the government of a liberal constitutional democracy is confronted by some or other existential crisis that threatens a major institution of state or the very foundations of the democracy itself, it will often appoint a high-level judicial commission of inquiry as part of its response to the crisis. South Africa is no exception to this tendency, as is evidenced in recent years by the appointment of no fewer than four such commissions in response to a series of crises related to ongoing corruption within state institutions – commonly referred to by ordinary South Africans as “state capture”. This has raised questions as to the alleged benefits of such commissions when viewed in relation to their considerable costs. This article seeks to contribute to this general debate by focusing on one of the purported benefits of such commissions that may be somewhat under appreciated. This is the creation of public awareness, during the life of the commission itself, about the nature and extent of the particular grave threat that confronts the society in question. It is contended that, mediated by a free and vibrant press, the public narrative that emerges during the operation of a commission of inquiry may serve to make a liberal democratic society more resilient in the face of threats to that society’s continued existence. This article seeks to support this contention by focusing on an important precursor to the more recent commissions of inquiry on corruption in South Africa – that is, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into corruption within the South African penal system, which sat in the early years of the new millennium. By analysing the many articles and reports that appeared in a range of South African newspapers during the initial hearings of the Jali Commission, this article documents the emergence of an important public narrative on corruption within South Africa’s prisons, and reflects upon the ultimate significance. This article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the initial hearings of the Jali Commission in KwaZulu-Natal, and the second part with subsequent hearings in the Free State.

Unmasking the Weakness of Liberalism: Why the Future of the Liberal Order Is in Danger and What We Can Do to Safeguard It

Liberal democracy is in decline across the globe. Why? The literature provides many answers, i.e., a decline in the power and gatekeeping role of political parties (Lavinsky and Ziblatt), the role of intellectuals (Applebaum), changes in political campaign financing (Balkin), the anti-liberal influence of Donald Trump (Kendzior), the flaws of “democracy” itself (Mounk), to name just a few. Most scholars, however, neglect the underlying causes of these proximate phenomena. In this essay I take a sociological and social-psychological approach to explore the underlying causes. I focus on liberal democracy’s decline in the Industrial West, particularly the United States. I argue that this decline can be partly attributed to the inherent weaknesses/limitations of liberalism, exacerbated in the 21st century by neo-liberal economic forces and digital technology. I contend that liberal values of equality, tolerance, the rule of law, and rational debate chafe against the sacrosanct entrenchment of the neo-liberal free market and its laissez-faire ideology, as well as the inherent liberal neglect of the human need for status, community, heroes, and the impulse to unleash passionate grievances. This chafing has now opened lesions in liberal institutions, exacerbated by widespread disinformation and obscene inequality, I offer three suggestions to strengthen 21st century liberalism: government regulation of social media to censure hate speech and disinformation, new taxes on wealth to reduce economic inequality, and an expansion of the public realm—parks, libraries, beaches, public schools, etc., where “money doesn’t matter.” This last suggestion is crucial. Because economic inequality and precarity will persist in a liberal democratic society even when taxation is more equitable, expansion of the public realm is needed to reduce the impact of inequality in liberal democratic society.

‘Informed’, ‘active’ and ‘engaged’? Understanding and enacting information literacy from a UK citizenship perspective

Information literacy (IL) has been considered by Library and Information Studies (LIS) research and praxis to be vital in helping citizens be ‘informed’, ‘active’ and ‘engaged’ within society. LIS discourse has explored different conceptions of citizenship and its relationship with IL within the paradigm of liberal democratic societies. Critical IL approaches have in turn promoted a citizenship of personal agency, empowerment, challenging the status quo and the pursuit of social justice, as well as focusing on what has been termed ‘political literacy’. However, critical information literacy has also problematised some of the approaches to citizenship found in LIS discourse. Despite the complexity of the subject, empirical study into these issues is still severely lacking. This research moves to start addressing this need by investigating how IL is understood and enacted from the perspective of UK citizenship. Using a qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews with five UK citizens based in Oxford, UK, in the summer of 2019, it set out to establish the relationship between IL and citizenship in a personal context. It was found to be understood and enacted through the development of socially-constructed personal citizenship information landscapes, oriented to a personal sense of citizenship, agency, motivation and empowerment. These personal landscapes challenge some of the established IL paradigms of ‘informed’, ‘active’ and ‘engaged’ citizens, as well as related concepts of information ‘wealth’ and ‘poverty’. They also raise questions of the role of personal ethics in decision making as citizens and potential tensions with ‘acceptable’ norms. These findings help to further problematise the dynamic between IL and citizenship, and challenge LIS research and praxis not just to promote specific values and goals, but also to work towards a greater understanding of the personal contexts shaping that dynamic.

A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE KEY CHALLENGES OF TRADE UNIONISM IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

Trade unions are basically an integral part of liberal democratic society. They are an im-portant part of the fabric of the Nigerian society, providing social, economic, political and psychological benefits for their members as well as the platform for participation in mana-gerial functions in government and work industry. It is worrisome that in recent times, trade unions in Nigeria are witnessing serious challenges that tend to militate against their performance. This paper therefore examines the challenges in Nigeria’ fourth republic, using the Marxist theory of class conflicts as theoretical framework of analysis. A qualita-tive research method was adopted and was content analyzed in relation to the scope of the paper. The paper observes that lack of committed leadership, lack of internal democracy, government intervention, tribalism and nepotism, internal factionalism, apathetic attitude, poor economic climate and non-affiliation with foreign union are the major challenges that trade unions in Nigeria currently face. The paper recommends among others that trade unions should imbibe the tenets of democracy in their internal administration.

A Theory of Contract Law: What Meaning and for What Purpose?

Abstract Each of the two parts of Peter Benson’s stimulating book raises an important epistemological question. In the first part, the aim is to search for the “true” theory of contract, the one that best explains the rules and doctrines of general contract law. In the second part, the author seeks to convince that his theory is the best one, in the sense that it is the one that provides the most appropriate moral basis in a liberal democratic society; in other words, the one that allows the greatest “justice” in transactions. A third formidable epistemological question then arises: whether “truth” and “justice” are identical.

AI for Social Good, AI for Datong

The Chinese government and technology companies assume a proactive stance towards digital technologies and AI and their roles in users’—and more generally, people’s—lives. This vision of ‘Tech for Good’, i.e., the development of good digital technologies and AI or the application of them for good, is also shared by major technology companies in the globe, e.g., Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Interestingly, these initiatives have invited a number of critiques for their feasibility and desirability, particularly in relation to the social and political conditions of liberal democratic societies. In this article, I discuss whether these critiques also apply to the Chinese context and contend that Confucian philosophy provides the normative resources to answer these critiques. This cross-cultural analysis, therefore, allows us to formulate a different account of AI4SG, which I shall call ‘AI for Datong’, and helps us in our reimagining of the normative vision for AI.

Russian Cyber Information Warfare: International Distribution and Domestic Control

Cyber information warfare (IW) is a double-edged sword. States use IW to shape the hearts and minds of foreign societies and policy makers. However, states are also prone to foreign influence through IW. This assumption applies mainly to liberal democratic societies. The question examined in this article is how Russia uses IW on other countries but protects itself from the same activities. The authors’ main argument is that while Russia executes influence operations and IW in cyberspace, it strives for uncompromising control over its domestic cyberspace, thus restricting undesirable informational influence over its population.

Public Reason, Partisanship and the Containment of the Populist Radical Right

This article discusses the growth of the populist radical right as a concrete example of the scenario where liberal democratic ideas are losing support in broadly liberal democratic societies. Our goal is to enrich John Rawls’ influential theory of political liberalism. We argue that even in that underexplored scenario, Rawlsian political liberalism can offer an appealing account of how to promote the legitimacy and stability of liberal democratic institutions provided it places partisanship centre stage. Specifically, we propose a brand-new moral duty binding ‘reasonable’ partisans committed to pluralism. This duty establishes conditions where partisans must strategically transform society’s public reason (i.e. transform the visions for society their parties campaign on) in ways that promise to attract back support from illiberal and antidemocratic competitors. While this strategic behaviour might seem impermissible, we show that Rawls’ distinctive account of sincerity in democratic deliberation is uniquely placed to justify it as perfectly ethical.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's mobility: A longitudinal study of the U.S. from March to September of 2020

This paper examines changes in people's mobility over a 7-month period (from March 1st to September 30th, 2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. using longitudinal models and county-level mobility data obtained from people's anonymized mobile phone signals. It differentiates two distinct waves of the study period: Wave 1 (March–June) and Wave 2 (June–September). It also analyzes the relationships of these mobility changes with various social, spatial, policy, and political factors. The results indicate that mobility changes in Wave 1 have a V-shaped trend: people's mobility first declined at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–April) but quickly recovered to the pre-pandemic mobility levels from April to June. The rates of mobility changes during this period are significantly associated with most of our key variables, including political partisanship, poverty level, and the strictness of mobility restriction policies. For Wave 2, there was very little mobility decline despite the existence of mobility restriction policies and the COVID-19 pandemic becoming more severe. Our findings suggest that restricting people's mobility to control the pandemic may be effective only for a short period, especially in liberal democratic societies. Further, since poor people (who are mostly essential workers) kept traveling during the pandemic, health authorities should pay special attention to these people by implementing policies to mitigate their high COVID-19 exposure risk.

Commissions of Inquiry as a Response to Crisis: The Role of the Jali Commission in Creating Public Awareness of Corruption (Part 1)

When the government of a liberal constitutional democracy is confronted by some or other existential crisis that threatens a major institution of state or the very foundations of the democracy itself, it will often appoint a high-level judicial commission of inquiry as part of its response to the crisis. South Africa is no exception to this tendency, as is evidenced in recent years by the appointment of no fewer than four such commissions in response to a series of crises related to ongoing corruption within state institutions – commonly referred to by ordinary South Africans as “state capture”. This has raised questions as to the alleged benefits of such commissions when viewed in relation to their considerable costs. This article seeks to contribute to this general debate by focusing on one of the purported benefits of such commissions that may be somewhat under-appreciated. This is the creation of public awareness, during the life of the commission itself, about the nature and extent of the particular grave threat that confronts the society in question. It is contended that, mediated by a free and vibrant press, the public narrative that emerges during the operation of a commission of inquiry may serve to make a liberal democratic society more resilient in the face of threats to that society’s continued existence. This article seeks to support this contention by focusing on an important precursor to the more recent commissions of inquiry on corruption in South Africa – that is, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into corruption within the South African penal system, which sat in the early years of the new millennium. By analysing the many articles and reports that appeared in a range of South African newspapers during the initial hearings of the Jali Commission, this article documents the emergence of an important public narrative on corruption within South Africa’s prisons, and reflects upon the ultimate significance of this narrative. This article is divided into two parts: the first part deals with the initial hearings of the Jali Commission in KwaZulu-Natal, and the second part with subsequent hearings in the Free State.

‘Staying in the Nationalist Bubble’

‘Staying in the Nationalist Bubble’

Pluralisms? Social philosophy, social science and public policy in employment relations and human resource management

Alan Fox's frames of reference has sparked over half a century of debate between employment relations/human resource management pluralists, radicals and unitarists. But the notion of industrial relations pluralism itself continues to be highly disputed. This commentary tracks the journey from classical pluralism to neo-pluralism, then addresses three articles that offer a variety of radical pluralist alternatives. A fourth paper discussed, suggests a quantitative approach to testing Fox's frames, but this article makes a case for retaining the qualitative, case study method. A fifth explores the revival of paternalism on the border between unitarism and pluralism. Overall, the article argues that classical pluralism, based on trade unions and collective bargaining, is now outdated, but that neo-pluralism is capable of carrying forward its pragmatic, institutional spirit to explore the empirical complexity of contemporary employment relationships around the world. Finally, the discussion of employment relations pluralisms needs to re-engage with the wider political pluralism debate about liberal democratic societies and market economies.

Public Administration and Democracy: The Virtue and Limit of Participatory Democracy as a Democratic Innovation

The expansion of public bureaucracy has been one of the most significant developments that has marked societies, particularly Western liberal democratic societies. Growing political apathy, citizen disgruntlement and the ensuing decline in electoral participation reflects the political nature of governance failures. Public bureaucracy, which has historically been saddled with derogatory and pejorative connotations, has encountered fierce assaults from multiple fronts. Out of these sharp criticisms of public bureaucracy that have emanated from both sides of the ideological spectrum, attempts have been made to popularize and advance citizen participation in both policy formulation and policy implementation processes as innovations to democratize public administration. Despite their virtue, empowering connotations and spirit-uplifting messages to the public, these proposed practices of democratic innovations not only have their own shortcomings and are conducive to exacerbating the conditions that they are directed to ameliorate but they also have the potential to undermine the traditional administrative and political accountability mechanisms.