Social Democratic Principles Research Articles

Education.Co-op: A Nudge to the Future

The role of education is one which transforms. In a capitalist neo-liberal environment, the consuming and competitive individual is cast as the protagonist at the expense of communities that struggle for a common good. Especially in the global north, this is exacerbated by lifestyles and leisure patterns which have been heavily influenced by the onslaught of digital technologies, fragmenting to a considerable degree the physical community and the spaces for social interaction strongly associated with wellbeing. This is evident in a number of trends in society at large, including the organization of labour, which pits workers against each other, eroding solidarity, and dissipating class consciousness. In this context, many educators try their best to provide hope, a sense of belonging, and a struggle for justice. This they do despite being considered pegs to plug holes in a system struggling to cope, and where knowledge is considered technical and practical, rather than emancipatory. A cooperative model which provides a greater sense of belonging, an ethos underpinned by social justice and democratic principles, and ultimately a sense of trust and wellbeing, will be proposed. This model can provide a sound but permeable matrix which empowers educators collectively and provides a better community experience for a diversity of learners.

On the Immoral Campaign Trail: Conceptualization, Underlying Affective Processes, and Democratic Outcomes of Perceived Dirty Campaigning

Dirty campaigning, which is understood as actions between elite politicians that violate social norms and democratic principles, is becoming an increasingly relevant phenomenon across the globe. Despite this development, we know little about which forms constitute dirty campaigning, how citizens perceive dirty campaigning, and how perceived dirty campaigning is associated with affective responses and political trust. We argue that the techniques and actions that constitute dirty campaigning go beyond uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques, as dirty campaigning also involves disinformation campaigning. Using data from a two-wave panel study ( N = 524) during the 2020 Viennese state election campaign, we examined the perceived structure of the dirty campaigning construct using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. We show that perceived dirty campaigning forms a hierarchical construct with three latent variables. Furthermore, we tested the associations of perceived dirty campaigning with negative emotions toward campaigns as well as outcomes related to political trust. Using structural equation modeling with longitudinal measurement invariance and controlling for autoregressive associations, we found that perceived dirty campaigning increases anger, frustration, and disgust toward campaigns, as well as increases distrust in politicians over time. We also observed that frustration toward campaigns decreases trust in democracy and that disgust toward campaigns increases distrust in politicians over time. We contribute to previous research by developing a framework for investigating perceived dirty campaigning as a hierarchical construct and demonstrating how perceived dirty campaigning can impair democratic outcomes.

Sosialisme Demokratis Dalam Kebhinekaan Indonesia

The purpose of writing this journal is to find out how social democracy is implemented in the Indonesian framework. The main principles of social democracy, such as protection of human rights, social welfare, and economic justice, can become the basis for a social democratic view of life in Indonesia. This journal uses a qualitative descriptive approach using content analysis methods and literature studies. The content analysis method is a research method used to identify conclusions from a text. In contrast, literature studies in this research use types and secondary sources of information obtained from research results, posts and reference books that cover topics related to the theme of the journal. Solutions to social democratic problems that are still not fully implemented in Indonesia's diversity Even though Indonesia has adopted social democratic principles in its constitution, there are still many challenges in its implementation. One of the biggest challenges is the limitations in running a fair and equitable system for all levels of society.
 Keywords: social, Indonesia, democracy

Organizing a transnational solidarity for social change through participatory practices: The case of People Powered-Global Hub for ParticipatoryDemocracy.

In the context of global democratic crises and pervasive neoliberal policies, civil society organizations (CSOs) play a critical role in promoting democratic processes and advancing social change on local, national, and transnational scales. However, such organizations also (need to) grapple with how they themselves put social justice and democratic principles into practice, and resist coloniality within. This article examines these questions in the case of People Powered-Global Hub for Participatory Democracy, a recently found transnational CSO that advocates globally for participatory democracy as a mechanism for social change and employs these principles in its own governance and operations. The analysis focusses on the creation of People Powered and its first year of practice. Drawing upon decolonial frameworks-and based on our own experiences as founding members of People Powered and our reading of interviews and documents-we identify concrete practices through which the organization seeks to enact epistemic justice, shift power, and emphasize relationality. We argue that People Powered's decolonial roots, collectively articulated values and commitments, radical transparency, and its consistent employment of meaningful participation and reflexivity have built and are likely to sustain this transnational solidarity for social change. At the same time and perhaps critical for fostering solidarity and social change in the long term, People Powered embraces, rather than evades, tensions and contradictions that emerge in these efforts.

Experiences in Archaeology, Social Justice, and Democratic Principles

ABSTRACTFrom 2016 to 2019, the University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu conducted archaeological field schools at Honouliuli National Historic Site to teach our students basic archaeological skills. Because the site was the largest Japanese and Japanese American concentration camp on O‘ahu, the field school initiated a program related to social justice and democratic principles for the imprisonment of US citizens and legal residents based on racial and national profiling. The demography of O‘ahu created a special bond to the incarcerees’ stories and the students of Asian and Hawaiian descent. Through field trips, student discussion, and curriculum development, we focused on the pedagogical benefit of experiential learning. Field trips to the National Park Service's World War II Valor in the Pacific Park System on O‘ahu, King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i allowed the students to see and understand the historical context of the Japanese internment from the mid-nineteenth century, with the development of plantations and early colonialism, to the beginning of World War II and the internment of the more than 300 Japanese and Japanese American—as well as European and Okinawan—civilians and the imprisonment of over 4,000 prisoners of war.

Technological Determinism and Democracy in the Governance of the Logical Layer of the Internet | Determinismo tecnológico e democracia na governança da camada lógica da Internet

The article focuses on the relationship between the Internet Governance and democracy on the governance of the logical layer of the Internet.Due to the impactful role and the normative effects of standards, protocols and technical decisions for the Internet and Internet users, and the centrality of the Internet in almost every aspect of thesocial, financial and political life, it argues thatwe ought to examine the ideologies, narratives and assumptions that have informed and shaped key governance arrangements.It explores the influence of technological determinism as a technocratic governing mentality, applying the argument of Taylor Dotson in the context of Internet Governance, and more specifically on the governance of the logical layer, focusing on standard-setting and technical decision-making by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).It argues that technological determinism has been pervasive in Internet Governance discoursesince the early days of the Internet, while standard-setting and technical decision-making are technocratically organized and non-democratic procedures, considering also how the technical community takes decisions, as well as how itself frames its tasks and perceives standard-setting and technical decision-making.It concludes arguing that we need to review the way governance on the logical layer is organized, dispelling technological determinism, while introducing social considerations and democratic principles.

Reinhardt’s Final Work

Reinhardt’s Final Work

Religious Socialism in Post-Secular Europe

ABSTRACTRecent scholarship on Religion and International Relations critically questions the secularist assumptions on which the discipline was founded. Yet many combinations of the religious and the political remain unexplored, particularly those that exist on the left of the ideological spectrum, such as religious socialism. Focusing on the International League of Religious Socialists (ILRS), the main religious socialist organization in Europe since the 1920s, I argue that European networks of religious socialists act as interlocutors between social democratic parties, minority religious communities, and the state, while defending political secularism from both secular and religious forms of extremism. This is a marked change from the Cold War era, during which religious socialists took up concerns of the global south, such as dependency theory and disarmament. In the conclusion, I discuss how religious faith, political secularism, and social democratic principles fit together in the contemporary religious socialist worldview, and consider the wider significance of religious socialism in a post-secular age.

Whose Rights? Freedom-of-Expression Critiques of Ecuadorian Media Democratization

Despite its media reforms designed to democratize the country’s media landscape, the Ecuadorian government has been subject to constant condemnation from major U.S.-based human rights organizations on freedom-of-expression grounds. A close examination of these critiques and the Ecuadorian media reforms to which they correspond and a comparison of the Ecuadorian government’s and critical human rights organizations’ positions with liberal scholarship on the right to freedom of expression leads to the conclusion that Ecuadorian media reform is consistent with liberal social-democratic principles and, by contrast, human rights organizations uphold an early-modern interpretation of liberalism that is marginal within scholarship on freedom of expression.A pesar de su programa de reformas para democratizar el campo de los medios de difusión, el gobierno ecuatoriano ha sido objeto de una condena permanente por parte de las principales organizaciones de los derechos humanos de los Estados Unidos por motivos de la libertad de expresión. Un examen minucioso de estas críticas y de las reformas del gobierno ecuatoriano, así como una comparación de las posiciones del gobierno ecuatoriano y las de las organizaciones de derechos humanos con los estudios liberales sobre el derecho a la libertad de expression, revelan que estas reformas son consistentes con los principios liberales y socialdemócratas y que, en cambio, las organizaciones de derechos humanos defienden una interpretación del liberalismo correspondiente al principio de la era moderna temprana que queda marginal dentro de los estudios sobre la libertad de expresión.

Advancing Gender Equality through European Employment Policy: The Impact of the UK's EU Membership and the Risks of Brexit

This article examines the development of the EU's gender equality framework of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law, including the incomplete gender mainstreaming of the European Employment Strategy. It highlights contradictions, rooted in political tensions between the social democratic principles which underpin the European Social Model, and the promotion of neo-liberal economic policies. It assesses the UK's role in shaping this European framework, and the framework's impact on the UK's employment policy. It concludes that Brexit will harm the pursuit of gender equality in the UK due to decoupling from the EU's equality framework and policy pathway. An additional risk is greater insularity in UK policy making through reduced exposure to the Open Method of Coordination. Brexit may, however, help progress gender equality in the rest of the EU if the outcome is greater unity focussed on an inclusive employment policy without the UK dragging its heels in favour of deregulated flexibility.

Education in Nordic countries

The Nordic countries have historically offered a particularly distinct form of education, based on social democratic principles that have provided a certain degree of immunity to neo-liberal pressu...

Labouring under neoliberalism: The Australian Labor government’s ideological constraint, 2007–2013

AbstractWhen viewed against its ostensibly successful management of the global economic crisis between 2008 and 2013, growing electoral disenchantment with the Australian Labor Party government during that time defied standard explanations and calls for further analysis. A major reason for the party’s electoral loss in 2013 was arguably popular disappointment with its eschewal of social democratic principles. Notwithstanding some progressive measures initiated between 2008 and 2013, successive Australian Labor Party governments were constrained by neoliberal strictures, even when they chose to implement progressive policies. Whatever other reasons exist for its decline in popularity between 2007 and 2013, the Australian Labor Party’s unwillingness or inability to mark out a clear alternative to neoliberalism was fundamental. In making this case, this article uses the conceptual framework of ‘depoliticisation’, defined as the displacement of policy decisions from the sphere of democratic accountability and public debate, making them matters for regulation by technocratic experts operating according to supposed edicts of the market.

LIVING ACTION RESEARCH IN COURSE DESIGN: CENTERING PARTICIPATORY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

Action research (AR) courses provide openings in higher education to engage students, schools and communities in democratic and socially just ways within the contexts of research, classroom learning and broader social interactions. Such opportunities are strengthened when instructors design AR courses with the goal of enabling students to experience and 'live' AR principles within the learning environment itself. In this paper, we describe and critically examine how social justice and democratic principles were reflected and experienced by students in two online AR courses we co-designed. Our findings suggest AR courses embedded with AR principles can become transformative learning environments.

Running out of road? Dilemmas and issues for the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party in their search for a ‘modern’ welfare state narrative

Following significant electoral defeats in 2010, both the British Labour Party and the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) have been re-considering their approach to the welfare state. This article outlines some of the key themes of social democracy and social democratic social policy before discussing the evolution of the latter in both Sweden and Britain. The paper explores the cumulative effect of the revisionist approaches adopted by both parties over time which has resulted in a distancing from a welfare state strategy based on equality, universalism and publicly provided services. It is concluded that both parties now have little road left to construct a modern welfare state narrative that reflects “core” social democratic principles.

European Integration: From Nation‐States to Member StatesBickerton, Chris J.Oxford, Oxford University Press (2012), 240 p., ISBN 978‐0‐19‐960625‐2

European Integration: From Nation‐States to Member StatesBickerton, Chris J.Oxford, Oxford University Press (2012), 240 p., ISBN 978‐0‐19‐960625‐2

Brazilian Pharmaceutical Diplomacy: Social Democratic Principles versus Soft Power Interests

Current debates concerning the rise of health diplomacy are polarized between competing international relations theories of realism, based on power politics, and constructivist approaches, which emphasize the norms, values, and identities shaping foreign policies. A case study of Brazil's health diplomacy over the past 10 years, focusing on issues related to pharmaceuticals, seeks to provide data to assess these theories. The country's intellectual property disputes, multilateral lobbying efforts, and foreign assistance programs are contrasted with those of the United States, Mexico, and other countries. Instead of viewing Brazilian efforts as a form of soft power, the evidence suggests that the origins of Brazil's involvement and continued efforts in this arena stem more from values based on human rights and social democratic principles. A close examination of domestic political considerations leads to a more nuanced understanding of the drivers behind a country's health diplomacy.

Scanner of Our Capitalism <i>(On the New Book by G. Tsagolov </i> <i>“Why Everything Is not the Way It Should Be”)</i>

According to the opinion of the author of the book, in present Russia is at a deadlock of beaurocratic-oligarchic capitalism. Sustainable economic development can be maintained only on the basis of social-democratic principles. Deliberate construction of convergent society is necessary that would combine advantages of capitalism and socialism, market and plan.

Varieties of feminism: German gender politics in global perspective

Varieties of Feminism investigates the development of German feminism by contrasting it with women's movements that arise in countries, like the United States, committed to liberalism. With both conservative Christian and social democratic principles framing the feminist discourses and movement goals, which in turn shape public policy gains, Germany provides a tantalizing case study of gender politics done differently. The German feminist trajectory reflects new political opportunities created first by national reunification and later, by European Union integration, as well as by historically established assumptions about social justice, family values, and state responsibility for the common good. Tracing the opportunities, constraints, and conflicts generated by using class struggle as the framework for gender mobilization-juxtaposing this with the liberal tradition where gender and race are more typically framed as similar-Ferree reveals how German feminists developed strategies and movement priorities quite different from those in the United States.

Will to power? Intra-party conflict in social democratic parties and the choice for neoliberal policies in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain (1980–2010)

Why do social democrats choose neoliberal labor market policies? Since social democrats are typically punished for welfare state retrenchment and because these policies do not equate well with social democratic egalitarian principles, it is difficult to see what they gain from it. We argue that, depending on the intra-party balance of power between activists and leaders, some parties are office-seeking, whereas others are policy-seeking. This behavioral difference explains why some parties are responsive to environmental incentives such as the economy and public opinion (office-seeking parties) and others are responsive to policy-motivated activists (policy-seeking parties). Using three case studies of social democratic parties (Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) in the period 1980–2010, we analyze when and why these parties introduced neoliberal reforms. The study shows that office-seeking parties introduce neoliberal measures if the risk of losing votes due to an underperforming economy becomes larger than the risk of losing votes due to the mobilization of unions and opposition parties. Policy-seeking social democrats retain a social democratic ideology, unless prolonged failure to win office empowers pragmatic leaders to push through office-seeking strategies.

Social Studies and Humanities Textbooks in Post-Socialist Bulgaria

As Bulgaria went through a radical socioeconomic transition involving democratization and integration in the European Union, school textbooks and curricular contents were progressively reviewed to reduce traces of bias, value judgments, ideological content and opinions, which were thought to inflame passions and sustain mistrust and misunderstandings. The present paper discusses important changes made in Bulgarian social studies and humanities textbooks since 1989, which involved discharging educational content considered to be ideologically overloaded and overly nationalistic, and incorporating content promoting social inclusion and democratic principles. The analysis points to the strengths and weaknesses of the newly revised textbooks in upper secondary education, which seek to prepare students as future citizens in a democratic country. The conclusions drawn are based on empirical research carried out through analysis of official curricula of history, geography, Bulgarian language and literature and in-person interviews with policy makers and key stakeholders of the Bulgarian educational community.