Notion Of Democracy Research Articles

People consistently view elections and civil liberties as key components of democracy.

How do people around the world define democracy? Answering this question is critical as countries face democratic backsliding and authoritarian governments promote alternative notions of democracy. Indeed, some scholars argue that people from different backgrounds understand democracy differently. By contrast, we discovered very consistent views about what constitutes a "democratic" country from conjoint survey experiments conducted in Egypt, India, Italy, Japan, Thailand, and the United States. Across countries (N = 6150) and diverse subgroups within countries, people similarly emphasized free and fair elections and civil liberties as being the key determinants of democracy. Countries that produce desirable social and economic outcomes are also considered more democratic, but these and other factors exert a smaller and less consistent effect than elections and civil liberties.

Views of Arundhati Roy on Political, Genre, and Canonical Writers

This research paper examines the non-fictional works of Arundhati Roy through the lens of the notion of 'justice'. Justice is a crucial concept in every culture or political system. The past demonstrates that justice transcends language and cultural divides. Democracy encompasses the concept of justice thoroughly and inclusively, providing equal opportunity for all individuals in a community. The notion of democracy is included by the idea of justice. This project argues that the nonfictional works of Arundhati Roy may be analysed as discourse of justice, given their significant contribution to broader discussions on justice.

Towards the Non-Mertonian Ethos of a Non-Mertonian Science: Situating the Research Value of Openness

It is hard to disagree with the thrust of René von Schomberg’s position paper. It is driven by the worry that current conceptions of “open science” are all too impoverished – that they need to be complemented by the social practice of “mutual responsiveness”. In terms of political theory or notions of democracy, on the one hand, in terms of socially relevant research practice, on the other hand, only an ambitious commitment to open science will be robust enough to make a difference and contribute to the solution of pressing problems. In contrast, it is paying lip service only to the ideal of openness when “open science” becomes reduced to “open access publishing” or data storage rituals. As von Schomberg shows, this might actually deepen disparities and redundancies within dysfunctional science.

The (changing) concept of democracy in (transforming) European populist radical right discourses: the case of Polish Law and Justice

ABSTRACT The populist radical right (PRR) has been actively engaged in the discursive struggle over the notion of democracy in Europe and beyond. This article examines how in practice PRR parties discursively construct and manipulate the concept of democracy. By taking a longitudinal comparative perspective on the political discourse of Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party, in five consecutive electoral campaigns between 2007 and 2023, the article identifies key discursive strategies used to construct PRR conceptions of democracy. The analysis of PiS’s discourse in government and opposition shows that the PRR strives to fully appropriate the concept of democracy: when in power, the PRR discursively constructs (preserving) democracy as inseparable from the political status quo; while in opposition, it conditions (restoring) democracy with its accession to power. Despite numerous references to majoritarian conceptions of democracy and plebiscitary mechanisms and its claims to promote a radical democratic renewal, the PRR tends not to question the underlying principles of parliamentary representation. In practice, it discursively constructs a severely restricted version of democracy in which democratic participation essentially boils down to participation in elections. Hence, references to democracy are primarily used by the PRR to (emotionally) mobilise voters.

‘Pastoral and ecclesial madness’ Facing the failure of ‘democratism’ within the current civil turmoil in South Africa

‘Pastoral and ecclesial madness’ Facing the failure of ‘democratism’ within the current civil turmoil in South Africa

Impediments to the democratic participation of foreign nationals in public-school governance

In their efforts to promote the constitutional values of equality, human dignity and freedom, public-school laws and policies emphasise non-discrimination in the admission of learners and democracy in the professional management and governance of public schools. The democratisation of post-apartheid public schools must comply with democratic participation and representativity. Whereas democratic participation can be realised through the exercise of active voting rights, democratic representativity can be achieved through the exercise of passive voting rights. Accordingly, this article explores notions of democracy, non-discrimination, and representativity so as to examine and highlight factors that may restrict or inhibit the participation of foreign nationals in school governing body elections. The active and passive voting rights of foreign nationals are discussed from constitutional and statutory perspectives.

Democracy and Reflections on 25 Years of Indonesian Reformation

Democracy has grown since the time of Ancient Greek civilization with the concept of Greek city states and Athens in 450 BC and 350 BC. Even in 431 BC, Pericles, a well-known Athenian statesman, defined democracy by putting forward several criteria: (1) government by the people with full and direct participation of the people; (2) equality before the law; (3) pluralism, namely respect for all talents, interests, desires and views; and (4) respect for a separation and personal area to meet and express individual personality (Roy C Macridis, 1983:19-20). In the same era, we can also get acquainted with the political thoughts of Plato, Aristotle, Polybius and Cicero, etc., to mention some of the thinkers of that time, who also laid the foundations for the notion of democracy. During its development, the concept of democracy underwent an increasing fertile phase and moved towards moderation during the Renaissance. So far, great thoughts have arisen about the relationship between the two rulers or the state on the one hand and the people on the other. There are new and surprising thoughts about the power and thought of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). On the Social Contract and the Separation of Powers by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jhon Locke (1632-1704). Many of these big names have thoughts of contributing significantly to efforts to redefine or implement the term democracy.

Democracy as a floating signifier: The struggle for legitimation of programming in Swedish schools

The concept of democracy is a central component in education policy at all levels, yet its meaning can be interpreted in a number of ways. This paper examines how democracy is conceptualised and utilised as a legitimising force driving education policy reform. More specifically, attention is given to the use of democracy in the process of promoting programming’s inclusion in the Swedish compulsory curriculum. A number of mass-media articles published in Swedish are analysed using the concept of floating signifiers. The context of Sweden is of particular interest, since the notion of democracy has been a driving force in Swedish society for the legitimisation of education policy changes. In this paper, we chose to approach the link between democracy and education from a critical perspective and ask how the concept of democracy is being utilized as a part of political struggles to hegemonize and legitimize educational changes. It is argued that democracy, as a floating signifier, was central to the discursive production of the educational agenda of programming and its legitimisation. This article aims to function as a critique of the promotion of programming in education as a means to democracy.

Ludwig Hoffmann's Eclecticism

From 1896 to 1913, the Berlin municipality embarked on an ambitious programme of social reform, constructing over 300 public service buildings, including schools, hospitals, aged care homes, baths, and sporting facilities. Under the direction of Stadtbaurat Ludwig Hoffmann, the architecture of this new social infrastructure came to play a crucial role in conveying the city’s progressive image. While the eclectic historicist lexicon Hoffman drew on troubled many of his critics, he was also lauded for his ability to cast those historicist instincts into a more democratic mould. This article examines Hoffmann’s buildings in the context of changing debate over Berlin’s identity, focusing on those designed for healthcare and physical wellbeing. While Hoffmann’s architecture expressed a powerfully democratic notion of the urban collective, towards the end of his career, critics began to read a distinct paternalism in his designs that they saw as out of touch with social reality.

A dialogical model of human rights adjudication

Abstract This article presents the contours of a “dialogical model” of adjudication arising from the practice of the European Court of Human Rights that is profoundly transforming inherited notions of rights, legal reasoning, legal authority, and the rule of law more generally. The dialogical model is characterized by a form of reasoning that is not self-reliant or autonomous, but internally constituted by the interaction of multiple voices, normative perspectives, and institutional standpoints. What is defined as dialogical, however, is not the inclusion of this or that discrete voice, but the entire process of adjudication, including: how issues are framed; the need to consider cases as a whole; their embeddedness in large swathes of normative magma; the self-reflexive assessment of the Court’s position and trajectory; the relational understanding of the Court’s authority; and the fact that each and every decision constitutes a notion of democracy that is plural, many-voiced, and inherently in tension. Beyond a mere polyphony of voices, therefore, this is an entirely new paradigm to conceive the Court’s task, which differs markedly from the two main paradigms of understanding human rights adjudication, namely the rights-based model and proportionality analysis. After describing the shortcomings of the latter two paradigms fully to account for the Court’s practice, the article presents the features of the dialogical model. Ultimately, this is a judgment about the collective self-definition of democratic societies, which necessitates a reassessment of the countermajoritarian difficulty to account for the democracy-constituting role of the Court.

THE DEMOCRATIC BOUNDARY PROBLEM RECONSIDERED

Who should have a right to take part in which decisions in democratic decision making? This “boundary problem” is a central issue for democracy and is of both practical and theoretical import. If nothing else, all different notions of democracy have one thing in common: a reference to a community of individuals, “a people”, who takes decision in a democratic fashion. However, that a decision is made with a democratic decision method by a certain group of people doesn’t suffice for making the decision democratic or satisfactory from a democratic perspective. The group also has to be the right one. But what makes a group the right one? The criteria by which to identify the members of the people entitled to participate in collective decisions have been surprisingly difficult to pin down. In this paper, I shall revisit some of the problems discussed in my 2005 paper in light of some recent criticism and discussion of my position in the literature, and address a number of new issues.

A Revolution in Property: Tocqueville and Beaumont on Democratic Inheritance Reform

Abstract Among the most controversial reforms investigated by Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont was the idea of using inheritance as an instrument to diffuse property ownership. This article offers the first comparative account of the development of this concept across each of their major works. By situating their interventions within wider inheritance law debates, it is demonstrated how their evolving visions of democracy forced them to innovatively combine two normative arguments: (i) diffusing property ownership via inheritance was a precondition for placing democracy upon stable political foundations, and (ii) this could counter the rise of pauperism and the extreme wealth inequality of nineteenth-century industrial society. Far from being an anachronistic republican notion, such reforms were long considered too radical to be implemented in England and Ireland.

Human Rights beyond the Liberal Script: A Morphological Approach

Abstract While recent scholarship has turned to the increasing fragmentation of global human rights discourses, the often competing ideological projects in which different understandings of human rights are embedded have received comparatively scant attention. Instead, human rights are treated as isolated norms. Although treated as isolated, human rights norms are frequently simultaneously understood against the implicit backdrop of liberal assumptions about political order and human agency, thereby obscuring alternative human rights conceptions. This research note seeks to move our understanding of human rights beyond the liberal script. Drawing on advances in the fields of intellectual history and political theory, it develops a morphological approach that treats norms not only as individual standards of appropriate behavior but as complex units of meanings. These meanings only emerge in larger ideational formations in which varying notions of human rights are temporarily fixed through their positioning toward other concepts. This morphological understanding of human rights as part of larger conceptual arrangements allows for their analysis beyond the liberal script as the research note shows by way of two illustrative case studies, which focus on human rights beyond liberal notions of democracy and the rule of law as well as beyond the human as ontologically singular.

From separation between state and religion to religion-freeing state: the changing faces of secularism in Turkey

From the very beginning, the establishment of modern Turkey adhered to thesecularisation process, namely to separate the state from religious influence.Although religion has been marginalised, Islam remained a major societal force inTurkey. This scenario raises some questions: What is the idea of Turkish secularism?How can religion possess influence in the context of Turkey as a secular state?What is the form and orientation of secularism in Turkey? Therefore, this studyaims to answer these questions by scrutinising the idea, history, and orientation ofsecularism in Turkey. To fulfil this objective, we scrutinised documents and previousstudies related to Turkish secularism. Then, the idea of Turkish secularism was critically and chronologically analysed from the early time it was implemented upto the present time to assume its orientation. In the early time, Turkish secularismdid not solely separate the state from religion, but perceived that the state shouldcontrol religion as well. Its assertive nature has forced the emergence of a moreliberal version of secularism, which treats the idea of separation between the state and religion according to the notion of democracy, and hence, freed religion from the strict, tutelary state. Secularism in Turkey under the present regime is differentfrom before, as religious (Islamic) manifestation is increasingly visible in publicspaces even though the state remains secular. We argue that the present Turkishsecularism can become a “model” for other Muslim countries that are still dealingwith the conflict regarding the religion-state relationship.

Critical global citizenship: Foucault as a complexity thinker, social justice and the challenges of higher education in the era of neo-liberal globalization – A conversation with Mark Olssen

This article presents a remarkable conversation on critical global citizenship education (GCE) between Mark Olssen, emeritus professor of political theory and higher education policy in the Department of Politics at the University of Surrey, and Emiliano Bosio, guest-editor of Citizenship Teaching & Learning. In developing the concept for this dialogue, we thought it necessary to frame GCE within a critical perspective that examines the political, economic, ideological and cultural conditions of super-complex societies, particularly in relation to notions of neo-liberal globalization and global justice. Olssen’s copious work has complemented postmodern philosophy by drawing on the work of Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, and it has brought him high regard in Europe, the United Kingdom and worldwide; his insights, perspectives, concerns and outlooks bring to the centre of international educational debates on critical GCE relevant thoughts through which we can better understand the complex roots and history of global citizenship and cosmopolitanism particularly in relation to notions of democracy, equity, ethics and social responsibility.

Popular conceptions of democracy in a mathematics teacher-education programme

While the meaning of democracy remains multi-faceted centuries after the concept was first conceived of and subsequently formulated, democratic principles have spread to the extent of bringing about democratisation in all fields of education. Thus, with this study we sought to examine the popular conception of democracy in mathematics-education programmes at South African universities. A qualitative research approach and a case study research design were used in this study. Six mathematics teacher educators and 75 second- to fourth-year mathematics education student teachers from 3 different universities constitute the sample for the study. The findings from the study revealed that participants had a contested notion of democracy, since the majority understood it as involving deliberative participation, a shared decision-making process, as well as freedom of expression. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that participants were aware of what democracy should look like and were willing to live according to democratic tenets. This understanding was, however, greatly influenced by their experiences and way of life in a democratic South Africa.

Groundwork for Democracy? Community Abeyance and Lived Citizenship in Hong Kong

Studies on Hong Kong’s contentious politics have focused primarily on the high tides of mobilization. Scant attention is paid to what became of the intense mobilizations following their decline. This article spotlights the “abeyance” politics of community activism, in which activists sought to make territorial communities an arena of social and political participation in quieter times after mass mobilizations. Drawing on the concept of abeyance from political sociology, we argue that community activism served as “abeyance structures” after the mass mobilizations in the early 2010s, a major protest cycle preceding the 2019 anti-extradition movement. Based on mixed methods and original data, we argue that these abeyance structures not only allowed activists to maintain their political engagement but also gave rise to various practices of “lived citizenship” in territorial communities. These practices produced a changing sense of political subjectivity among citizens, establishing a more grounded notion of democracy that emphasizes their participation in local affairs and social entitlements. Our findings aim to enrich the literature on movement abeyance and provide a nuanced understanding of political activism in Hong Kong beyond street politics.

Authority or anarchy: Strauss’ critique of Kelsen

ABSTRACT Hans Kelsen has been praised for his defense of democracy but that defense has also been criticized, most notably by Carl Schmitt. Leo Strauss was just as critical but his critique has gone unnoticed. Much of this neglect is because the relevant works remained unpublished. In one work Strauss contends that his conception of authority guarantees order and security whereas Kelsen’s notion of democracy leads to anarchy and chaos. This essay is intended to fill this gap by providing an examination of Strauss’ criticism of Kelsen’s democratic liberalism.

Democratic Stakeholder Representativeness

Abstract Stakeholder theory has been advocating the inclusion of affected parties in organizational processes to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of organizational governance. However, organizations can fail to achieve these objectives if there is no systematic link between stakeholders and their constituency. Based on democratic notions of representation, we argue that democratic stakeholder representativeness is an essential virtue of stakeholder governance processes. We conceptually derive authorization and accountability as normative elements of stakeholder representativeness and operationalize the construct by proposing empirical indicators of stakeholder representativeness as well as procedural guidance on their adoption in a practical governance context. By doing so, we contribute to the advancement of practical stakeholder governance as well as to the public management and organizational theory literature by specifying and operationalizing a construct that had previously been only vaguely defined.

Anthropoligarchy: Politics and the Nonhuman in the Anthropocene

This paper uses resources from ancient democratic theory to assert a deep connection between democracy and environmentalism. I leverage arguments from two critics of Athenian democracy, Aristophanes and Plato, who thundered that democracy was so ontologically destabilizing that it would lead to animals ruling over humans. Using this ancient notion of democracy, the current human/nonhuman relationship can be recast as an eco-political regime called anthropoligarchy, an oligarch/demos conflict in which the human few dominate over a vast nonhuman demos viewed as incapable of ruling. The concept of anthropoligarchy provides a normative framework for understanding environmental politics in the Anthropocene.