Real Democracy Research Articles

Leaving Politics: What Burmese Generals can Learn from South Korean and Indonesian Experiences

The Burmese generals’ five-year liberalisation project has allowed only modest steps towards real democracy. Which model of post-military rule transition is most instructive to Burma’s opposition activists? This article argues that they should look most seriously at the Indonesian experience though, given the great power of the Burmese military, they are likely to be at the beginning of a long and arduous road toward democracy.

Pedagogía Social/Trabajo Social en Alemania: Teorías y Discursos de la Pedagogía Social y el Trabajo Social: De la disciplinarización de los pobres a una perspectiva democrática de emancipación

The paper reconstructs developments of ideas and practises of social pedagogy/social work in the context of the social history of the German States from the inception of bourgeois-capitalist society up to contemporary times. Against the background of persisting structural social inequality this historical approach builds a bridge between the poor laws of the 16th century and the new labour/green laws 'Hartz IV' at the end of the 20th century. What becomes evident is a common leitmotif: the pedagogisation of the work habits of the ordinary people. Modern social pedagogy approaches fight this attempt as the reconstruction shows in the interest of the defense of real education (Bildung) and therefore the autonomy of life praxis of all. Social pedagogy can therefore be called - since the beginning of the 20th century - a discipline and profession which is mediated to ideas of real democracy and therefore deals with the question how to change capitalism

RTI as a Human Right in India

The right to data may be a basic right that underpins sensible governance, democracy, financial condition destruction and therefore the sensible realisation of human rights. Sensible governance isn't achieved just by having economical government or perhaps a democratically elective government. The norms of freedom of knowledge and therefore the assurance of widespread subject participation publicly affairs and a full of life civil society square measure essential for the total realisation of democracy - a system of state aware of the wants of its voters - and to develop a culture of human rights and irresponsibleness.

MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY

Today, discussing about multiculturalism is a topic often abused and perhaps not sufficiently analysed. Debates never resolved have been brought to the centre of attention from religious fundamentalism to the problem of security, the relations with the sphere of individual freedom, privacy and freedom of movement and opinion as well as the theme of multi-ethnic society, integration, the coexistence of different religions and cultures. Which spaces of coexistence, such as prospects in which nodes must be solved in order to discuss about a society that is both democratic and multicultural? This paper aims at analysing how in global world societies become more heterogeneous and diverse, from the social point of view as well as from the ethnic, religious, and cultural point of view. Confusing Islam with terrorism, condemn a religion, to oppose the construction of its places of worship, would be to put in tol crisis the freedom of religion and that would make us equal to our “enemies”. The clash of civilization is what terrorists are striving for. Another important aspect in which this paper is focused on, is how Europe should respond to all this. Will the EU grow to creating a real European democracy, able to guarantee development, security and solidarity, going towards a great diverse and pluralistic society? This paper aims to reflect on the essence of European civilization today under many attacks from inside and outside and understanding the challenges we are facing today. Culture and multiculturalism, must be an expression of mutual enrichment, foundation on which to build an existential path of tolerance and solidarity. Keywords: Multicultural, Nationalism, Democracy, Society, Pluralistic.

Challenges of Albania towards the European Integration

This paper examines the role of European Union has in developing a real democracy. At present, our country faces various challenges while it aligns itself in the road of democratization and in European integration. In my opinion, the most important three are: 1-The need for a well-rounded and good intending political and administrative elite. 2-The need for truly independent government branches as described in the constitution. 3-The need for an independent civic society. The main objectives of this study are to: Define the concept of the Albanian democracy; to identify the key factors affecting the lack of democracy. This paper tries to discuss the present problems and challenges towards the process of democratization and European integration too. At the last is to propose possible strategic approach for democracy to develop the whole society towards the European Integration. The paper is based on different theories related to democracy and political parties. This paper analyzes the relation between Albania and European Union is progressing during the transition period, try to give an overview between their relation these years and takes into consideration the impact of others actors in society in building a real democracy such as are: cultural factors, political parties, civil society and especially the relation between the citizens and representatives of a state (political parties). DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p571

Redefining the Crisis/Redefining Democracy: Mobilising for the Right to Housing in Spain's PAH Movement

European anti-austerity movements are challenging fundamental assumptions about the role of the market and the state. In Spain, the twin claims of the movements are a demand for ‘real democracy’ and an end to austerity measures resulting from the global financial crisis. I argue that these demands are intertwined. Using critical discourse analysis, I explore the Platform of Those Affected by Mortgages' controversial escrache campaign to show how social movements actively resisting austerity measures transcend the specific issues around which they mobilise to contest hegemonic definitions of crisis and of democracy, laying the groundwork for the reconfiguration of Spain's political landscape.

¿Qué democracia tenemos?. Democracia real y democracia liberal representativa

In recent years it has been making space in the socio-political concept of real democracy, driven by social movements but widespread in language and common practice. However, the common use of the term seems to be meaningless, or at least, lacking a clear and concise manner. Indeed, we all share the desire for a real democracy but we all would be precisely defined. This work intends to be a realistic study of what kind of democracy we have, based on the evolution of the various streams (including republican ideology) that led us to share the democracy that we live in today. This will lead us to rethink what we have but not only from the perspective of power, but, above all, from the position of the citizen who tends to neglect public affairs.

Demokrasi di Pakistan Menurut Benazir Bhutto

Abstract: This article discusses about democracy in Pakistan by Benazir Bhutto. The realization of democracy in Pakistan, according to Benazir Bhutto, is to reach all the democratic elements of the Pakistani nations, the business communities, to release all of the political prisoners, to make the print and electronic media free, to open and uncensored, to remove the ban on sororities and labor, to separate the judicial functions of the executive, and to provide the basis for a fair electoral process. The other leaderships of women in Pakistan’s democracy by Benazir Bhutto, are appointing some women to sit in the cabinet and set up the Ministry of Women Development, creating the program of study in the universities for women, founding the Women Development Bank to provide credit only for the women entrepreneurs, creating institutions to train women in family planning, nutrition counseling, child care, and birth control. Democracy in Pakistan is a liberal democracy which is characterized by a moderate Islam, by recruiting people who are competent to sit in the government, eliminating and restricting military power, reactivating the role of civil society in accordance with the government’s program.Keywords: Democracy, Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.

Nominal democracy? Prospects for democratic global governance

Democracy requires a substantial measure of common values, institutions that reflect its principles, and a well-established set of practices, or habits, that reinforce it. These practices are reinforced, in well-established democracies, by traditions and symbols with emotional value. Without the legal, institutional, and civil society infrastructure that makes democracy work, nominal adherence to democratic principles at a global level will be illusory. Furthermore, it may well appear that urgent challenges to security, global economic welfare, or the global climate are most expeditiously met through non-democratic means. As a result, realizing a vision of global democracy would involve serious tradeoffs and dilemmas. It is therefore unlikely to occur quickly. Creating and sustaining global democracy will require constructing a democratic global political infrastructure. It will require not just rational institution-building but also attentiveness to symbolism that engages people’s emotions. And it will require global leadership that is both visionary and accountable. None of this will happen quickly, even under the most favorable conditions. Members of this Society should, first of all, avoid deluding themselves into believing that global democracy is about to appear, or into mistaking nominal for real democracy. They can do three more things as well: (i) work to develop legal structures that reduce arbitrariness and increase fairness; (ii) encourage, monitor, and criticize our current leaders; and (iii) continue to build transnational networks, which are not democratic but can provide some social infrastructure on which democracy could eventually rely.

THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLYING THE GENDER EQUALITY PRINCIPLE AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL

Gender equality, as a fundamental principle of the European Union, is included in a series of legislative and non-legislative documents recommending a balanced participation of both genders in the drafting and adoption of major decisions in the political and social fields, as a vital component in the development of a real democracy and a decisive factor of economic growth.In terms of the degree of labour employment, gender equality is reflected in the need to promote equally women and men in the labour market, particularly in leading positions.According to the European Commission’s report, women in European countries are still underrepresented in leadership positions, although there has been some general progress. Compared to the situation recorded ten years ago, at EU level, there was an increase by 16% of women involved in politics and appointed to ministerial posts.The drafting of the first National Strategy on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men adopted by Government Decision no. 319/2006 approving the National Strategy on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for the period 2006-2009 and of the General Action Plan for Implementing the National Strategy on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for the period 2006-2009.This shows that women in Romania still experience gender discrimination, and this is true for areas of economy where women are the majority, as well as for those where men are the majority. The result is the emergence of occupational gender segregation, feminized occupational fields are generally lower paid. Although progress has been made both in the field of education and that of labour employment, women still have many obstacles to pass before achieving real equality.The efforts to be made in order to strengthen gender equality must address not only the improvement of legislation in the field of opportunity and gender equality, but also a change in attitudes and behaviours, in social structures, so as to allow women to develop their personality according to their own will and be actively involved in all areas of life.

민주주의 실현으로서 핀란드 교육과정개편이 주는 교훈: 누리과정 개편을 위한 논의

본 연구는 향후 있을 누리과정 개편에 앞서 자칫 재현될 수 있는 문제점을 사전에 방지하기 위한 선례분석으로서 1960년 대 이후 핀란드 교육과정개편의 역사와 절차를 살펴보고 거기에서 교훈을 얻고자 하였다. 이를 위해 핀란드 국가교육위원회(Finnish National Board of Education)가 제공한 자료를 중심으로 문헌연구를 실시하였다. 먼저 핀란드 교육과정 개편의 역사를 고찰하기에 앞서 심층적 이해를 돕기 위해 핀란드 교육체제 개혁의 역사를 10년 주기로 살펴보았다. 이어서 1968년 이후 진행된 핀란드 교육과정 개편의 흐름에 대해 알아보았다. 마지막으로 2012년부터 시작된 "2012-2016/7 핀란드 교육과정 개편"을 기간, 참여대상, 절차를 중심으로 살펴보았다. 연구결과에 따르면 핀란드 교육과정 개편은 오랜 숙고기간, 아래에서 위로의, 모든 과정이 공개된 것을 특징으로 하였다. 핀란드 교육과정 개편은 다름 아닌 민주주의 실현의 장으로서 전 국민이 참여하는 국가적 이벤트로서 오랫동안 자리매김을 해오고 있었다. 이 글은 정책적 특성만이 아니라 교육적 특성이 균형감 있게 공존할 수 있는 누리과정의 개편에서 기초자료로 활용될 수 있을 것으로 기대한다. This study aimed to investigate the process of the national curriculum reforms in Finland since 1968. The history of Finnish educational system reform was firstly discussed in order to provide the background and context of the curriculum reforms from 1968 to the present for a deeper understanding of the Finnish curriculum reform processes. Secondly, I provided a contour of the history of Finnish curriculum reform, focusing on the development and revision of early childhood curriculum since the 2000s. Finally, the current Finnish national curriculum reform named the "2012-2016/7 National Core Curriculum Reform" was depicted in details: processes, participants, principles etc. In conclusion, the Finnish national curriculum reform processes provide lessons: long-term reform design, open reform process, and a variety of reform participants including beneficiaries of education and students, which were the ones who have been neglected so far in Korea. In short, the Finnish curriculum reform process can be considered a realization of democracy.

Annexation of Crimea to Russia: Contrast between Right to Self-Determination and Territorial Integrity Preservation in International Law

After several months of protests against Ukraine's political restructuring and the subsequent developments, finally, on March 16, 2014, Crimea announced its accession to Russia after holding a referendum. The results of the announced vote indicated that the overwhelming majority of participants in the referendum voted for the annexation of Crimea to Russia. The developments in Ukraine have created a new perspective in the international arena. Relatively intense conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine's issues shows that in the coming years and until the formation of a specific legal system in this area, the international arena will undergo intense tensions, and these developments have triggered a lot of speculation at the international level. In terms of international law, especially after the events in Kosovo, one cannot answer in one word that whether what has happened in the Crimea peninsula is legal or illegal .For example, the advisory opinion of the Court of Justice at The Hague regarding the concept of "right to self-determination" is ambiguous and has not been clarified in the international law. The new approach to the crisis which is now happening in Crimea may become a great challenge to the future global security, because using referendum and involvement of a foreign power in the act of self-determination of a country and nation may become a legal procedure causing instability in other regions of the world; therefore, the study of the right to self-determination as one of the important principles that is applied in certain circumstances and that can lead to the destabilization of territorial integrity is very important. On the other hand, observing this principle in international law ensures respect for human rights and realization of democracy and the rights of minorities in the countries.

Political liberalism for post-Islamist, Muslim-majority societies

This article tries to develop a moderate reading of political liberalism applicable to post-Islamist, Muslim-majority societies. Contrary to the strong reading, which considers political liberalism as limited in its scope to those societies that already have a strong liberal tradition, I argue that Rawls’ project does have something to offer to reasonable post-Islamist, Muslim individuals. In part I of the article the idea of a post-Islamist, Muslim-majority society is conceptualized and explained. Part II focuses on the Rawlsian ideas of justification, demonstrating that the conceptions of justification available in political liberalism, i.e. political constructivism, wide reflective equilibrium and a wide view of public reasoning with its ideas of declaration and conjecture, can justify the political conception of justice for reasonable individuals living in any society, including post-Islamist ones. Focusing on Rawls’ notions of stability in part III, I argue that the idea of overlapping consensus should not be considered as the only account of stability offered by political liberalism. Put another way, notwithstanding the strong reading of political liberalism in real western and post-Islamist democracies, liberal stability is always a mixture of overlapping consensus and modus vivendi.

“A Nervous Area of Government”: A Serious Impediment to Our Realization of Democracy

“A Nervous Area of Government”: A Serious Impediment to Our Realization of Democracy

아프리카 사하라 이남의 민주정치와 경제발전의 관계 연구

이 연구는 아프리카 사하라 이남의 민주정치와 현재 경제발전의 관계를 규명하는 것으로 목적으로 하였다. 특히 사하라 이남 지역에서 민주화 속도가 늦은 이유와 현재까지 민주정치에 따른 문제의 원인을 종합적으로 분석하였다. 그리고 민주정치 운동에도 불구하고 경제성장율이 평균 이하인 이유와 일부 국가들이 빠른 경제성장 궤도에 오른 이유도 초점을 두었다. 더 나아가서 다른 선진국들의 민주화과정에 적합한 요인들을 가지지 못하였기 때문에 이 지역의 민주정치가 독자적인 노선을 추구해야 하는 이유에도 초점을 두었다. 이러한 분석을 위하여 기존의 논문 및 보고서를 중심으로 내용분석하였다. 끝으로 경제성장에서 민주주의 역할을 제언하였다. This study aimed to clarify the relationship which exists between democracy and economic development within Sub-Saharan Africa. It strived to bring out a comprehensive analysis of the reasons why the pace of democratization is slow within this region and why until present date, there are just patches of real democracies there. The work also focuses on the reasons why despite democratic movements, economic growth rates have remained lagging behind average until of recent that, and some few countries have emerged to join the list of fastest growing economies in the world. The study further highlights the unique path of Sub-Saharan Africa democratization process should follow since it does not possess the various factors that favored the democratization processes of most developed countries. In order to obtain the objectives, previous studies and statistical data published by official institutes were analysed by using contents analysis methods. Lastly, it proceeds to explain the important role that democracy plays in inclusive economic growth.

Spirituality for democracy and social cohesion versus the spirituality of money

We live in a life-killing global system, and thus, we are called by our own biblical basis � re-read in the spirit of other than Western traditions � to search for life-giving alternatives and to develop democracy accordingly. However, this is not a geographical exercise. We cannot count on South Africa as a place where Ubuntu is practiced or on South Korea living in communities according to Sangsaeng. The reason is that Western civilisation, with its own spirituality, has permeated all corners of the earth. My thesis is that this is the spirituality of money; biblically speaking, of Mammon. Before we can talk about a spirituality for democracy and social cohesion, we need to address the spirituality of the status quo in order to understand what the alternative could be. The issue gets complicated by the new insight that Western civilisation has deep roots in history; in fact a history of almost 3000 years. Only by looking at this history can we really understand how money did not only change socio-economic and political structures but also hearts, minds and the spirituality of people.Intradisciplinary and/or�interdisciplinary�implications: This article challenges the normal Western assumption that democracy is but a political issue of voting every 4 or 5 years. Instead it shows that real democracy is linked to economic and social justice, as well as to deep cultural and spiritual roots. Authors should carefully identify the contextual perspective they challenge, identifying the potential results of the proposed research and whether it calls for a change in traditional discourse as well as whether such a change is possible. Key insights into the research results and its future function should be revealed.Today we are faced with life-killing civilization, manifested in economic injustice, ecological destruction, the threat of Empire, and the escalation of religious conflicts. This compels us to urgently explore the possibility of life-giving civilization which affirms relationships, co-existence, harmony with creation, and solidarity with those who struggle for justice. This quest finds meaning in Ubuntu and Sangsaeng. (Transforming Theology 2007)

Political Assassination and Nigeria's 4th Republic : 1999 - 2007

Not long after the return to democratic rule in 1999 following 15 years of uninterrupted military rule, Nigeria witnessed a troubling wave of political assassination. Political assassination became an instrument of settling political scores in Nigeria. Although some of the killings were discountenanced as ordinary murders, the timing of killings leaves no doubt that they were politically motivated. Actions by the government and police to stem the ugly tide and find the killers were insufficient and ineffective. This paper examines this subject from the standpoint that there is no real democracy where people are afraid to engage in political competition for fear of being assassinated. Hence, political assassination constitutes serious danger to Nigeria’s democracy . The paper reviews incidents of political assassination in Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, and proffers reasons for the unhealthy development, using narrative-analytical approach to accomplish its tasks. It concludes by suggesting ways of stopping or at least discouraging political assassination in Nigeria. For the purposes of this article, political assassination is defined as the deliberate, premeditated murder of a prominent figure for political reasons.

Commentary: Public Value Governance or Real Democracy

Commentary: Public Value Governance or Real Democracy

Производственные советы в России: баланс экономических и социальных прав

The Labour Code of the Russian Federation was amended in 2013 in a way that a new body of workers’ representation — works councils — can be established. These amendments don’t add any new rights or obligations neither to employers nor to employees. They are made with purely political purposes and only imitate the creation of the analog of the well-known German system of works councils.
 The author comes to conclusion that currently existing rights in informing and “taking into account” the workers’ representative body opinion, contained in the Russian Labour Code, are not sufficient for existence of the real industrial democracy. The article is aimed at answering the question, whether an implementation of functioning works councils may be beneficial to the adequate balancing of social rights of workers and economic rights of the employers. Although the full transposition of the German works councils system seems to be impossible, some of its positive features may be effectively adopted in the Russian law. For example, the employer’s obligation to consult workers shouldn’t be dependent on the existence of the workers’ representative bodies. Besides, a range of issues that are subject to the mandatory informing of workers by the employer must be significantly broadened. The procedure of consultations must include the real negotiations between the employer and employees on the basis of good faith principle.

China Must Not Copy the Western-Style Two-Party or Multi-Party System

The reason why China must not copy the Western party system is that the party system is just a tool to achieve a democratic mechanism and the Western party system and the realization of democracy are not necessarily linked; Western party system does not meet the needs of developing countries; The implementation of two-party or multi-party system could provide breakthroughs for powers to interfere in the internal affairs of socialist countries. Multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is a basic political system suitable for China’s national conditions and has great advantages.