Concept Of Democracy Research Articles

Keep using “democracy” in political theory

This paper is a contribution to a symposium on Herman Cappelen’s 2023 book The Concept of Democracy: An Essay on Conceptual Amelioration and Abandonment. In that book, Cappelen develops a theory of abandonment—a theory of why and how to completely stop using particular linguistic expressions—and then uses that theory to argue for the general abandonment of the words “democracy” and “democratic”. In this paper, I critically discuss Cappelen’s arguments for the abandonment of “democracy” and “democratic” in political theory specifically.

Synonym of Democracy in the Quran and the Debate of its Interpretation

This study formulates and aims to examine how the concept of democracy in Islam?; how is the synonym of the word democracy in the Qur'an and the debate of its interpretation? The research in this article is a qualitative descriptive literature study using the Hans-Georg Gadamer analysis approach, where text or discourse is influenced by bildung, census communis, universal considerations, and the subjective tastes of readers or interpreters. The results of this study are (1) democracy in Islam is related to the principle of deliberation for consensus which contains the values of justice, equal rights, trust, freedom, responsibility, tolerance and moderation. Then (2) the word shura becomes synonymous with the word democracy in the Qur'an because it is considered to have values that are in harmony, and not contradictory. The word shura in one perspective is considered not synonymous with democracy, but only means deliberation. This view is influenced by the desire to implement an Islamic caliphate system or an Islamic state, so that for them they consider democracy to be a kufr system. In another perspective, the word shura is synonymous with democracy, because it considers democratic values to be contained in the principle of deliberation. This interpretation is influenced by socio-historical interpreters who are moderate, tolerant, and wise in determining a meaning.

Planning, democracy and collective freedom

If we defend planned economies not only on the basis of efficiency but also on the basis of freedom, we have to be able to address authoritarian tendencies of planned economies on the one hand and argue against liberals for the value of collective freedom in planned economies on the other. First, I trace the problematic theorization of the relationship between collective and individual freedom in the historical debates of liberalism and real socialism. Then I examine whether the republican concept of freedom as non-domination can avoid the pitfalls of negative and positive freedom. Subsequently I explore collective freedom through collective action theory, arguing for its inherent value and its potential existence independent of individual freedom. Genuine collective freedom relies on voluntary individual contributions and collective decisions that reflect individual will. Finally I argue that while democracy can help balance collective and individual freedoms, it cannot fully resolve the inherent tension. Alternative conflict resolution strategies may prove more effective. Ultimately, planned economies offer a unique form of collective freedom, though potentially at the expense of individual freedom. Minimizing this tension remains a key challenge. In this paper, I will first defend the idea of collective freedom through planning against liberal, republican and anarchist criticism. Subsequently, I will not develop concrete solutions for the mediation of collective freedom and individual freedom in a planned economy, but I will present approaches and concepts that can be used to deal with the problem of mediation. Democracy plays a central role here, but is not the only solution.

Meaninglessness and the ethics of lexical abandonment

This paper critically engages with the arguments for the meaninglessness of ‘democracy’ and for abandoning use of that word, in Herman Cappelen’s book The Concept of Democracy. It explaining the distinctive nature of Cappelen’s style of argument for abandoning a word. It argues against Cappelen’s case for the meaninglessness of ‘democracy’ and its cognates. It explores an important unclarity in the sort of ethical thesis Cappelen wants to defend in this book. Finally, it suggests that Cappelen’s argument for abandoning ‘democracy’ retains some force despite the criticisms raised.

Affective polarization and democratic identity: a comparison of Italy and Norway

Abstract On the one hand, political polarization is necessary for a plural democracy, which must never be satisfied with a permanent lack of alternatives regarding its central principles and values. On the other hand, polarization can become dysfunctional for democracy when the absoluteness of the rejection of political opponents leads to the endorsement of anti-democratic attitudes and measures, when politics is seen as a zero-sum game and the diversity of legitimate opinions, attitudes, and identities is neglected. The identity of democracy is to prevent this in the long run and to balance competing elements instead. Based on this premise, the article aims to explain why the extent of affective polarization in established democracies varies greatly, using Norway and Italy as two case studies according to the most similar case design. Accordingly, it argues for a holistic view of a country’s political culture that takes into account historical path dependencies and upheavals and thereby reveals whether a democratic society is more or less willing to accept and balance competing conceptions of democracy.

Menalar Demokrasi dalam Masyarakat Sipil: Teori dan Gagasan Baru dalam Pemikiran Gideon Baker

Civil society plays an important role in the development and consolidation of democracy, especially in creating space for political participation, policy advocacy, and oversight of the government. In this context, Gideon Baker's Theorising the Democracy of Civil Society offers a new perspective on the role of civil society in shaping democracy independent of state domination. Baker proposes that democratisation is not only dependent on the state, but can also develop through self-organisation in civil society. This view criticises traditional theories of democracy that focus too much on the state as the main actor in the democratisation process. The theoretical study in this research refers to Baker's thoughts on democracy that is rooted in civil society and not tied to state structures. Other literature also suggests that although civil society plays an important role in democracy, it often faces external and internal challenges, including autocratisation and restrictions on civil liberties. The purpose of this research is to analyse more deeply Baker's ideas and examine their relevance in the context of contemporary democracy, especially in developing or authoritarian countries. The research method used is qualitative research with a book review approach, in which the researcher reads and analyses the book critically to explore the ideas and arguments put forward by the author, and compares them with existing literature. The results show that although Baker's concept of democracy in civil society still needs further development, it provides room for new thinking about a more inclusive and independent form of democracy. Suggestions for future research include exploring the application of this concept in social movements in developing or authoritarian countries and exploring how digital technology can strengthen civil society-based democracy.

Awareness as an alternative to abandonment? Critical notice of Herman Cappelen’s The Concept of Democracy

Herman Cappelen’s book The Concept of Democracy makes a case for ‘abolitionism’, that is, abandonment of the word ‘democracy’ and related terminology (‘D-words’). Cappelen’s strategy includes a direct argument for abandonment, aiming to show that D-words are meaningless; and an indirect argument, based on a comparison of abandonment with other options (for instance, replacement or amelioration). In this critical notice, I focus on his comparative case, arguing that the competing options and their respective challenges are not so well demarcated—where this negatively affects the abandonment proposal. Furthermore, I present and defend a yet unexplored alternative: awareness. Awareness is a worthy candidate for its little costs and significant benefits in comparison to abandonment, thus deserving consideration alongside the options assessed by Cappelen.

Postcards of "Cape girls": Telling an Edwardian story of Cape Town

Picture postcards originated in the nineteenth century as an efficient, cheap, and democratic form of mass communication that encompassed many functions, including entertainment. As bimodal texts, comprising a visual image, anchoring textual caption, and (sometimes) the written message by the sender, postcards assumed the power to communicate complex ideas and ideologies in a compact format. Under the influence of cultural studies in the 1960s, which stated that culture itself is the site of struggle for social meanings expressed in class, race, and gender relations, postcard studies (deltiology) has become an important interdisciplinary field since the 1980s. The postcard exposed millions of people to visual culture and predated the functions of mobile phones, the Internet, and social media platforms such as Instagram. In this article, I focus on a series of artist-drawn, lithographic postcards by Dennis Santry (1879-1960) in Cape Town in 1904. They depict six so-called "Cape Girls" engaged in leisure activities against the backdrop of iconic Capetonian sites. My interpretation of the postcards suggests that a selective story privileges the tastes of a white, middle-class, English-speaking, imperial audience.

Democracy on the Sidelines: The Erosion and Potential of Youth Sports as Democratic Education

In this philosophical paper, we argue that youth sports, both in and out of schools, are a largely unrealized space for democratic/civic education. Where youth sports leagues used to be low cost, local, and inclusive, much has changed over the last several decades. We are now in the neoliberal era of exclusive, privatized, and professionalized youth sports. Drawing on Dewey’s robust conception of democracy and Talisse’s concerns about partisan polarization, we argue that youth sports should be spaces to develop democratic habits, dispositions, and values. We explore the benefits of youth sports as well as current challenges, including excessive costs and pressure, disrupted families, and hyperindividualism. We end by offering suggestions for reforming youth sports to recenter their educational and democratic potential and value, including supporting loosely structured play, modeling democratic behavior, teaching democratic habits directly, and learning from more progressive national sports models.

COVID-19 conspiracy belief and conceptions of democracy

ABSTRACT Although conspiracy theories moved to the centre of the public debate during the Covid-19 pandemic and have severe consequences on politics and society, the link between Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs and democracy has hardly been scrutinized. By combining the literature on understandings and conceptions of democracy and the literature on upward conspiracy theories, we ask whether citizens who share Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs have a specific conception of democracy. Using data from a representative survey conducted in the East German Land of Thuringia in summer 2021 and by employing a fine-grained measure of attributes of democracy, we show that Covid-19 conspiracy belief is neither significantly associated with support for the idea of democracy nor with support for non-democratic forms of government. Instead, Covid-19 conspiracy believers have a particular understanding of democracy in which power is to be taken away from the political elites of representative democracy and more control is given to citizens.

Lithuanian Philosophy of Culture and the Concept of Integral Democracy

Lithuanian Philosophy of Culture and the Concept of Integral Democracy

Mid-20th century vision of the concept of militant democracy

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a new round of “militant democracy” is taking place. The current situation is very similar to the one that led to the invention of the very concept of “democracy capable of defending itself.” This raises the question of understanding “militant democracy” in its original and primary vision, which was formed in the middle of the twentieth century. The purpose of the article is to comprehensively disclose the concept of militant democracy in the middle of the twentieth century. It is based not only on the articles of Karl Löwenstahl, but also on the works of scholars in the fields of philosophy, political science and sociology. The achievement of this goal was made possible by the use of a set of methods of scientific knowledge, in particular, content analysis (for a comprehensive knowledge of the scientific works of scholars of the mid-twentieth century), formal logical method (to identify certain patterns, stable structures, interrelationships, and inconsistencies in scientific works), comparative legal method (by studying the experience of the last century and comparing it with the current understanding of the concept, to provide an up-to-date interpretation that would allow the use of the works cited in the article). In contrast to most studies of the sources of militant democracy, the article refers not only to the articles of the founder of “democracy capable of defending itself,” Karl Löwenstahl, but also to other scholars: Karl Schmitt, Karl Mannheim, and Karl Popper. The author shows the interrelation between the works and the mutual influence of the cited scholars. It is argued that the formation of the concept of militant democracy took place not only in the field of law, but also in other related sciences. Based on the results of the research, the author gives an intermediate definition of “democracy capable of defending itself”, which derives only from the articles of Karl Löwenstahl, and a finalized vision of militant democracy, which is a synthesis of all the analyzed works. On the eve of rethinking militant democracy in today's realities, it is necessary to re-comprehend the foundations of this concept, which will allow better implementation of necessary changes in our time.

Germany’s Strategic Contraction Following American Hegemony in the Context of Offensive Realism Theory

This study examines the position of the European continent within the international system, focusing specifically on Germany, from the years when the future of the global international system began to be debated following the Cold War up to the present day. Since the 1990s, there has been ongoing debate regarding whether the international system will remain dominated solely by the United States (U.S.) as a hegemon or evolve towards a multipolar world. Following the reunification of Germany after the Cold War, Europe and particularly Germany entered a new and notably economically prosperous period. This period has been characterized by the prominence of international organizations and the concept of “soft power”. The article’s research question is whether Germany’s prominence and the concepts of democracy and international cooperation in Europe are related to U.S. hegemony, and if so, which factors can explain this. Considering the current emphasis on the multipolar world and the prevalence of potential conflict areas rather than the functionality of international cooperation and institutions, the article aims to elucidate the systemic reasons for Germany’s constrictions vis-à-vis global powers and the options for alleviating this constriction by utilizing Mearsheimer’s theory of offensive realism.

Sabarimala Shrine Verdict: Dissensions & Repercussions

The concept of westernization, democratization and modernization has been arrogated by India superficially but when it comes to its real application, our rigid customs, suppositions, superstitious beliefs always supersede. India is a divine-vibrant land of mixed cantons, religions, cultures and traditions and hence it come becomes imperative to be prejudice-free in order to become a fairer society. The nation where both god and goddesses are equally venerated, it becomes unjust to deny the entry of an individual in the temple based on gender. This case note will provide an analysis of the Sabarimala verdict in legal and social context. It will also outline the subsequent ramification of the said decree. The present case examines the justification for disallowing pilgrimage to the women of menstruating age to the Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple and encapsulates in brief the rationale behind the judgment of the Supreme Court for allowing women to enter the shrine.

András Sajó, Ruling by cheating. Governance in Illiberal Democracy

The main focus of András Sajó’s book is the relation between constitutional and illiberal democracy and the origins of the latter’s popularity. The author describes the populist technique of “ruling by cheating” by showing – on the example of Poland and Hungary among others – how populists use liberal democratic concepts in order to underpin their legitimacy as well as to strengthen their power, build their own elites, take over autonomous institutions and discriminate against minorities. Another source of populism’s success is the crisis of Western democracy, reflected both in adopting populists’ policies or rhetoric, and in the decline of the idea of individual freedom in favor of increasing dependence on the state.

Consensus, Colonization, and Counterpower? Deliberative Democracy, Uncharted Evolution, and Its Potential to be Decolonized

The article explores the trajectory of deliberative democracy as a response to contemporary political challenges within liberal, representative systems, with the debate on the possible decolonization of this concept being among its latest theoretical developments. Anchored in mini-public-based experiments, deliberative democracy seems to be – for most scholars – the chief remedy for the prevailing political crises of late capitalism, although its embedding in a colonial imaginary poses a fundamental obstacle. This article maps the evolution of the concept of deliberative democracy and its implementation in the present day, contending that the Western adoption of deliberative ideals into feasible practices has selectively incorporated the notion of public reasoning while sidelining the anarchist and autonomous implications inherent in consensus-based frameworks, which are recognizable in Indigenous political practices. While decolonizing public deliberative processes toward subversive practices has recently been subjected to theoretical debate, we also examine instances such as bottom-up deliberations in forest occupations. These not only exemplify queer, inclusive, and democratic decision-making, but also harness deliberation as a tool to counter private, political, and police authority in a way that is unavailable for public deliberations. But the question remains, how feasible is it as a democratizing practice beyond such niches?

Direct democracy in the digital age: opportunities, challenges, and new approaches

This article delves into the evolving landscape of direct democracy, particularly in the context of the digital era, where ICT and digital platforms play a pivotal role in shaping democratic engagement. Through a comprehensive analysis of empirical data and theoretical frameworks, it evaluates the advantages and inherent challenges of direct democracy, such as majority tyranny, short-term focus, polarization, and the spread of misinformation. It proposes the concept of Liquid democracy as a promising hybrid model that combines direct and representative elements, allowing for voting rights delegation to trusted entities, thereby potentially mitigating some of the traditional drawbacks of direct democracy. Furthermore, the article underscores the necessity for legal regulations and constitutional safeguards to protect fundamental rights and ensure long-term sustainability within a direct democracy framework. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on democratic innovation and highlights the need for a balanced approach to integrating digital tools with democratic processes.

Implementasi UU Demokrasi dan Nilai-Nilai Urgensinya dalam Politik Islam di Indonesia

This study examines the implementation and urgency of the Democracy Law in Indonesia. Although democracy is reflected in the 1945 Constitution, Muslim intellectuals often view this concept as foreign. Democratic principles such as majority rule, freedom, and justice face challenges in their application because not all democratic concepts can be reconciled with Islamic law. This research analyzes the interaction between Islamic values, such as benefit and justice, with the democratic principles of the 1945 Constitution and the potential alignment between the two to enhance political stability. The novelty of this study lies in its in-depth comparative analysis between the democratic principles of the 1945 Constitution and the concept of Islamic governance in classical and contemporary fiqh. The method used is a descriptive qualitative approach, analyzing Indonesian legal texts and relevant classical and contemporary fiqh works. The findings indicate the potential for synergy between democratic principles and Islamic values despite challenges in implementation. The application of the Democracy Law in Indonesia requires an approach that is sensitive to religious values, particularly in terms of justice, freedom, and governance based on benefit. Its implications could shift the paradigm of democratic implementation in Indonesia, emphasizing the importance of synergy between state law and religious teachings in creating a just and prosperous government for people.

Hamdan Zoelva's Political Thoughts in the Book Constitutional Struggle

Political thought has a crucial role in determining policies and shaping the ideal social order. In Indonesia, various ideologies are present, including Pancasila as the foundation of the state as well as the concepts of pluralism, nationalism, and democracy. Hamdan Zoelva's thought emphasizes the importance of the constitution as the basic norm of the state of law and the protector of human rights. Hamdan criticized liberalism and capitalism which he considered could erode the values of Pancasila in Indonesia's political and economic system. In his book Constitutional Struggle, he warns that the dominance of capitalism must be controlled according to the principles of Pancasila. This research aims to 1) understand Hamdan Zoelva's political journey, and 2) find out the causes of his political thinking about the constitution. The research data includes primary and secondary sources, processed through interviews and documentation. The validity of the data was checked by examining Hamdan's background, such as his curriculum vitae, education, influence, and political and cultural conditions at the time. The results of the study show that Hamdan Zoelva sees the constitution as the will of the people that must be respected. He emphasized the role of the Constitutional Court (MK) in maintaining the balance of power and protecting human rights. However, Hamdan criticized the amendment to the 2024 Constitutional Court Law which he considered threatening the independence of judges.

Teachers' conceptions of democracy in education in schools in challenging and favorable contexts

It is increasingly necessary to advance towards a deeper understanding of teaching practices aimed at teaching for, in and from, democratic principles. For this reason, this research seeks to understand teachers' conceptions of democracy in education in Spain. To this end, a phenomenographic study was carried out with 58 Spanish teachers selected according to the level of education they teach (Primary and Secondary Education) and the ownership of the school (public and private-subsidized). The data collection technique was the phenomenographic interview. The results indicate the existence of three categories of conceptions of democracy in education: i) that which refers to the participation of the agents in the school and its functioning, ii) that which considers it as the sense of belonging and emancipation of the protagonists of the educational process and, iii) that which understands it as a social responsibility of the school and its protagonists. Understanding teachers' conceptions of democracy in education helps to move towards an education in democracy in which democratic values are taught and everyone has the opportunity to live together and participate in decision-making processes.