Limits Of Representative Democracy Research Articles

Gerrymandering and the Limits of Representative Democracy

Gerrymandering and the Limits of Representative Democracy

"The Limits of Representative Democracy in Algeria".

There are many studies in the field of political science which have touched on the subject of the limits of representative democracy but most of these studies have not exceeded the abstract aspect of political representation as an idea. Thus, lies the importance of this study in its scientific aspect of being a new addition to the researches that relate to the Democracy in Algeria. In the practical sense, the study aims to interrogate the Algerian reality to highlight the shortcomings that limit the optimal application of representative democracy. This scientific methodology has been employed in this study "Functional Constructivism approach" to investigate the efficacy of the different structures that react with the process of political representation. The study concluded that the political, legal and cultural structures in the frame of overall social system suffer from many crises in terms of construction and function that lead to failure in the optimal application of representative democracy in Algeria.
 keywords : representative democracy – structure – function.

Justifications of Representative Democracy

The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - Nazism, fascism and Stalinism - in the same way as the dictatorships of South America and Africa, gave the human community a profound reflection on the future. This literature review problematizes the justifications and limits of representative democracy. It discusses the mechanisms of improvement of the democratic process for greater popular participation in the decisive spheres of political life. The lack of popular participation and a possible disbelief with political representation deserve to be addressed in order to continuously actualize democracy as a political regime.

The Role and Limits of Representative Democracy: An Analysis from Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Dahl, and Anthony Downs

This article comes about with the objective of analyzing in a comparative way the role and limits of representative democracy in the perspective of Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Dahl and Anthony Downs. In practice, it seeks to understand the ideas launched by these three theorists in the quest for a perception of what will become a democracy and its importance in the formation and constitution of the modern democracies. The central argument presented in this article is that in a truly democratic political system, popular participation is an essential element for the construction and execution of political actions. J. Schumpeter conceives democracy as a method that societies use to elect their representatives. R. Dahl conceives it as a polyarchy where both, the degree of incorporation of individuals and the level of institutionalization must be maximized and, A. Downs conceives democracy as a type of government where there should be fair and periodic elections, and one or more parties must compete for government control. Therefore, it is by analyzing the political thinking regarding the power and the representative democracy of these theorists that one perceives how the State left its natural character, thus assuming its civil personality, through the formation of the social contract.

Populism, Democracy and Civic Educatio

본 논문은 포퓰리즘의 등장과 확산, 포퓰리즘의 발생 구조, 그리고 포퓰리즘과 민주주 의의 관계를 살펴보고, 시민교육에서 포퓰리즘을 다루기 위한 방안을 제시하고 있다. 포퓰리 즘은 인민(국민)주권사상과 대의 정치를 특징으로 하는 근대 민주주의에 기반한다. 여기에 지 배엘리트와 민중의 공간 분리, 민중의 불만 증가, 적의 형성, 민중들의 요구의 접합, 민중적 주체 형성, 카리스마적 지도자 또는 정당 출현에 의해 포퓰리즘이 발생한다. 이러한 포퓰리 즘은 좌․우파를 넘어 나타나고 있으며, 기존 정치체제와 정치인이 잘못되었다는 신호판 기 능과 인민주권(국민주권)의 표현이라는 긍정적 의미와 더불어 반지성주의, 선동가의 선동, 절 차와 제도의 무시라는 부정적 측면을 함께 가지고 있다. 시민교육에서 포퓰리즘을 다루는 과 정은 5단계로 구성된다. 이는 시작단계, 사례제시단계, 부정과 긍정 그리고 종합단계, 다른 사례의 분석과 검토단계, 정리단계이다. 위 과정을 통하여 학생들은 지식으로 근대 민주주의 의 성격(인민주권사상, 대의정치), 대의민주주의의 의미와 한계, 언론, 정당, 의회의 역할과 중 요성, 담론민주주의의 의미, 방법 등을, 기능으로 의사소통능력, 토론능력, 비판적 사고력, 합 의창출능력, 분석과 종합능력 등을, 가치․태도로 인민주권, 공동선, 기본권, 민주적 과정과 절차의 중요성, 숙고, 소수의견존중 등을 학습할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.The aims of this paper is to examine the rise and expansion of populism in the world, the origin of populism, the relationship between populism and democracy, and suggests the way to teach populism in civic education. Populism is based on the popular sovereignty and representative democracy that are components of modern democracy. On the base of modern democracy, if the division of spaces of people and ruling elite, the increasement of people s dissatisfaction, the making of enemy, the articulation of peoples demands, the making of people-subject, the emergence of charismatic leader or party come into existence, populism appears. Populism have positive aspects, such as, the warning effectiveness against the existing political system and leader, the realization of popular sovereignty, and have negative aspects, such as, anti-intellectualism, the instigation of demagog, the negligence of democratic procedure. The way to teach populism in civic education consists of 5 stages that are introduction stage, cases presenting stage, the positive & the negative, and synthesis stage, the analysis of another cases stage, conclusion stage. I think during the this lesson, student will get to know the nature of modern democracy(popular sovereignty, representative democracy), the significance and limits of representative democracy, the role and importance of the congress, party and media, the significance and strategies of deliberative democracy, and can practice communication skill, discussion skill, critical thinking skill, making consent skill, analysis & synthesis skill, and can achieve values such as popular sovereignty, common good, basic rights, the importance of process and procedure in democracy, deliberation, respect for minority opinion.

In Praise of Rebellion: Constituent Power and Dissent in the American Revolution

In the context of the American Revolution, alongside the influential notion of constituent power advocated, for instance, by the Federalists, emerged an alternative and potent perspective about this concept. This perspective, which was particularly strong in revolutionary Pennsylvania, had at least two distinctive features. First, rather than limiting constituent power to a sort of ante-room of constitutional authority, this view conferred primacy to the constituent process over the institutional machinery. Second, instead of exclusively assigning the exercise of constituent power to a few specialists, this perspective invented ways for the multitude to exercise its power directly. This article examines this particular vision of constituent power. This investigation, as I argue, can both assist in demystifying some common assumptions entrenched in the concept of constituent power and provide insights for contemporary reflection on the limits of representative democracy.

The Limits of Representative Democracy in Algeria

The Limits of Representative Democracy in Algeria

In search of workplace democracy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of workplace democracy in contemporary organisations. While organisational democracy is a popular theme in contemporary management literature, it is often asserted that participatory democracy is impractical and thus representative forms of governance constitute a more appealing and “realistic” option. Such views not only fail to picture workplace democracy beyond procedural principles (e.g. periodical elections), but they also block one of its promising features: its openness to change. In this context, direct democracy that is guided by horizontality and prefiguration may offer more promising grounds in the search for workplace democracy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper exposes the contradictions and limits of representative democracy and traces the debates around hierarchism and horizontality, size and democracy with the aim to focus on its core theme – workplace democracy.FindingsThis paper argues that although representative democracy is considered a “realistic” alternative to hierarchical forms of governance it, in fact, reproduces and legitimizes hierarchism. Therefore, organisations can effectively coordinate collective action, without representatives and strict hierarchical structures, by giving emphasis to decentralized networks guided by horizontality and prefiguration.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the current demands for workplace democracy through representation constrains one's imagination of organisational democracy and therefore, one's perception of workplace democracy has to be broadened and radicalized by giving emphasis not only to who rules but also to the process of governance, that is, how to rule.

Power, expertise and the limits of representative democracy: genetics as scientific progress or political legitimation in carcinogenic risk assessment of pharmaceuticals?

In modern 'representative' democratic states, the legitimacy of governments' actions rests on their publicly declared commitment to protect the interests of their citizens. Regarding the pharmaceutical sector in most democracies, new drug products are developed and marketed by a capitalist industry, whose member firms, via shareholders, have commercial interests in expanding product sales. In those democracies, states have established government agencies to regulate the pharmaceutical industry on behalf of citizens. State legislatures, such as the US Congress and European Parliaments, have charged government drug regulatory agencies with the legal responsibility to protect public health. Yet, this paper argues that government drug regulatory agencies in the EU, Japan, and USA have permitted the pharmaceutical industry to reshape the regulatory guidance for carcinogenic risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in ways that are not techno-scientifically defensible as bases for improved, or even equivalent, protection of public health, compared with the previous techno-regulatory standards. By adopting the industry's agenda of streamlining carcinogenicity testing in order to accelerate drug development and regulatory review, it is contended that these regulatory agencies have allowed the techno-regulatory standards for carcinogenic risk assessment to be loosened in ways that are presented as scientific progress resulting from new genetics, but for which there is little evidence of progress in public health protection.

The Limits of Representative Democracy

We are conversant today with a variety of democratic deficits. There is the gap between the promise and performance of democracy; then there is also the gap between the success of procedural democr...

La démocratie britannique face au modèle parlementaire écossais

British democracy faced with the Scottish parliamentary model Like other great democracies, the UK has been under attack since at least the 1980s from constitutional reformers who have pointed out the limits of representative democracy and of the British model of majoritarian democracy (or “Westminster model”). It is in this context that the new Scottish parliamentary model was imagined. The creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999 was seen as a unique opportunity to put into practice the “new politics” which groups such as Charter88 were advocating. It was hoped that the Scottish Parliament could then serve as a “model for democracy”, and at the very least as a model for the Westminster Parliament. Ten years after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, this article aims at establishing whether British MPs have taken an interest in the procedural novelties tried out in Edinburgh and to what extent the Scottish Parliament has had an institutional influence over Westminster. It concludes that the creation of the Scottish Parliament has only had a marginal effect on Westminster and explores several possible reasons for Westminster’s unwillingness to reform.

Democracia, movimentos sociais e nivelamento intelectual: considerações sobre a ampliação da participação política

Este artigo tem por tema a questão da legitimidade democrática sublinhando, para tanto, os limites da democracia representativa e as potencialidades represadas dentro do espectro político atual brasileiro da ação individual e coletiva, suplantando o viés quantitativo que predomina nas análises sobre o processo democrático no Brasil. Para além das variáveis tradicionalmente assentadas na tríade voto, partidos políticos e eleições, o artigo procura demonstrar que a democracia eleitoral brasileira ainda não consolidou uma cultura política democrática, na medida em que vem solidificando um plano de diferenciação entre representantes e representados, decorrente de mandatos cada vez mais imperativos e menos afeitos ao controle e à participação dos representados. Pesquisas quantitativas, fontes primárias, secundárias e a análise de movimentos sociais recentes no cenário nacional permitiram construir a hipótese aqui trabalhada de que o processo eleitoral, por si mesmo, não responde pela construção e consolidação de uma democracia plural e participativa.

Parliamentary Opposition and its Alternatives in a Transnational Regime: The European Union in Perspective

The contention that there is no such thing as parliamentary opposition at the European level belongs to the more established hypotheses concerning European governance, which have rarely and only more recently been challenged. This paper tries to demonstrate that it is possible to discern manifestations of parliamentary opposition, both at the national and the European level. That said, the overall status of parliamentary opposition within the European Union has remained rather modest. While there is a host of checks and balances and potential veto players, these institutions and actors represent ‘alternatives’ with different functional profiles rather than genuine ‘functional equivalents’ to parliamentary opposition. Institutional engineering continues to be the most promising road towards strengthening parliamentary opposition within the European multi-level system, though institutions alone will not be able to overcome the specific limits of representative democracy in the European Union.

Inclusive, just, plural, dynamic: Building a 'civil' society in the Third World

The author offers a comprehensive definition of what a civil society should be, drawing on the vast outpouring of democratic activities within the Third World, as well as of those forces that inhibit or thwart the full realisation of civil society. The author argues that the diversity of such activities are indicative not just of the potential of civil society but also, and more importantly, of the lessons that they teach us on the limits of representative democracy, on the adverse implications of the current patterns of development, and on the responsibility of citizens in contemporary society - lessons that are fundamental to the building of a democratic and just polity and a humane society.