Liberal Democratic System Research Articles

전환기 슬로베니아 고등교육 개혁의 특징과 결과 연구

At the outset of Slovenia’s transition period, the urgent national task was to establish democracy, liberalism, and pluralistic values across all sectors. This comprehensive transition involved institutional reorganization in society, politics, education, and media, alongside reforms targeting the general public. Education emerged as a crucial tool for fostering and disseminating liberal democratic values, aiming to socialize individuals into understanding the moral, civic, and societal obligations of the new system. Slovenian school reform during this period was grounded in liberal democratic values, human rights, and knowledge. Initially, higher education reform lagged due to internal circumstances, with a focus on complementing previous socialist-era reforms rather than enacting substantive changes. However, upon Slovenia's accession to the European Union, a process of Europeanization swept across the nation, prompting the initiation of higher education reform aligned with the Bologna Process. Despite expectations, the Bologna Process encountered resistance in Slovenian higher education and yielded less favorable outcomes than anticipated. This study examines the foundational values of Slovenia’s educational reform for establishing a liberal democratic system and Europeanizing it, while also analyzing the controversies and results surrounding the ‘Bologna Process’, a key symbol of higher education globalization.

Quick Fix Solutions-Anticorruption as Core/Peripheral Modality of the ‘Rule of Law’

Anticorruption has become the fulcrum of conditionalities for unstable democracies. In the EU, antigraft packages formed the common denominator of stabilization policies for Romania, Bulgaria, the Western Balkans, Moldova, and Ukraine. Union conditionalities trailed broader international trends and campaigns. The shift led to a crescendo of institutional innovations. Discursively, it generated a degree of conceptual overlap: anticorruption, for peripheral stabilization purposes, equates with the rule of law. I argue that the exclusive stress on anticorruption as a panacea for the (semi)periphery is fraught with perplexities. Paradoxically, in systems that can be reliably described as corrupt, the policy has a propensity to be derailed from its ostensible purposes. This danger results partly from categorial tensions between RoL normativity, on the one hand, and, on the other, the ethical purism and policy quantification inextricably linked with anticorruption. In the context of peripheral crusades, tendencies towards legal instrumentalism and populist emotionalism are exponentially higher than in stable jurisdictions. Consequently, unidirectional attempts to stabilize such systems by way of repressive anticorruption backfire. Likelier results are instability or forms of stability that might not correspond to central, received understandings of how a rule of law liberal-democratic system should operate. By the same token, in the integrated transnational constitutional system located at the intersection of EU and Council of Europe guarantees, “reverse conformities” tend to upset core tenets and representations of the rule of law. The paper argues that anticorruption policies, albeit eminently useful, should be fettered by rule of law constraints, not equated with the notion of the rule of law.

Imagining and governing artificial intelligence: the ordoliberal way—an analysis of the national strategy ‘AI made in Germany’

AbstractNational Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies articulate imaginaries of the integration of AI into society and envision the governing of AI research, development and applications accordingly. To integrate these central aspects of national AI strategies under one coherent perspective, this paper presented an analysis of Germany’s strategy ‘AI made in Germany’ through the conceptual lens of ordoliberal political rationality. The first part of the paper analyses how the guiding vision of a human-centric AI not only adheres to ethical and legal principles consistent with Germany’s liberal democratic constitutional system but also addresses the risks and promises inherent to the ordoliberal problematization of freedom. Second, it is scrutinized how the strategy cultivates the fear of not achieving technological sovereignty in the AI sector. Thereby, it frames the global AI race as a race of competing (national) approaches to governing AI and articulates an ordoliberal approach to governing AI (the ‘third way’), according to which government has to operate between the twin dangers of governing too much and not governing enough. Third, the paper analyses how this ordoliberal proportionality of governing structures Germany’s Science Technology & Innovation Policy. It is shown that the corresponding risk-based approach of regulating AI constitutes a security apparatus as it produces an assessment of fears: weighting the fear of the failure to innovate with the fear of the ramifications of innovation. Finally, two lines of critical engagement based on this analysis are conducted.

Military Intervention in Politics

The Military exhibits discipline and is organised by a chain of command system from superiors to subordinates. In liberal democratic systems where democracy is deep-seated and the existence of vibrant civil society and elected democratic institutions with very sophisticated political culture keep military force within its determined ambit and thus restrain the military from meddling with politics. The military remains under the control of the civilian authority. The influence of military authority has been trammelled by the all-pervasive legitimacy of a democratic system and a very enriched level of political culture. So reasonable possibility of a military coup or direct military intervention in this system is almost eclipsed. Contrastingly the dearth of democratic elements and low level of political culture in the countries of the Middle East, Latin America, and some countries of Southeast Asia, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar have turned them vulnerable to military coups and frequent intervention of the military in the political domain. Lack of social cohesion, political instability, political and administrative corruption, a vicious circle of poverty, the existence of extremist and separatist groups, and religious fundamentalism provide a conducive atmosphere for military intrusion in politics.

Communication and democratic erosion: The rise of illiberal public spheres

In recent years, many once stable democracies have experienced various degrees of disruptive communication, along with the erosion of core institutions such as the press, elections, courts, and the rights of citizens. We propose a framework to compare the logics of illiberal and liberal democratic communication and contrast traditionally dominant communication norms of tolerance, civility, responsiveness, and reasoned resolution of differences in liberal democracies with transgressions of those norms by illiberal rightwing movements, parties, leaders, and voters. We suggest that unlike ‘counter publics’ that seek inclusion in liberal democratic systems, engagement with illiberal communication creates “transgressive publics” that attempt to exclude others in the process of promoting ethnic and religious nationalism. This framework offers a corrective to recent scholarship on democratic public spheres that focuses mainly on why the ideals of more inclusive and egalitarian communication are ever more remote. We shift the focus to the systematic disruptions of mainstream public communication and the authority of public institutions. Our analysis develops a broader theoretical context in which interactions between illiberal leaders and publics occur, with the aim of understanding national variations in how communication systems contribute to democratic erosion.

Representing diversity in a liberal democracy: a case study of Australia

ABSTRACT Political representation of ethnic minorities in a liberal democratic system is a crucial step towards having the interests of ethnic minority groups heard. The under-representation of ethnic minorities in a political institution can exacerbate inequality between majority and minority populations and increase feelings of alienation among minority groups. As a country observing increasing ethnic diversity, Australia saw record-level ethnic minority candidates elected in the 2022 federal election. However, the shares of candidates and elected Members of Parliaments with ethnic minority backgrounds are still much lower than their relative shares in the population. In this regard, Australia has lagged behind other major settler countries. In this paper, we examine the political representation of ethnic minorities in Australia’s federal election. Drawing on data from the 2022 federal election and 2021 population census, we find a positive association between ethnic minority concentration and ethnic representation. However, for the two major parties, ethnic minority candidates are less likely to be in safe seats, even when the seat observes high ethnic minority concentration. Findings suggest that ethnic voting is evident but it is perhaps too early to celebrate higher levels of ethnic representation in Australian politics as political parties act as gatekeepers in safe seats.

Is the Party Really Over? Parties, Partisanship and the Politics of Crime

Abstract Political parties occupy a contradictory position in the criminological literature: at once active participants in the political contestation of crime but virtually absent from contemporary debates concerning the relationship between crime and democratic theory. In this paper, I present a ‘rational reconstruction’ of party and partisanship as distinctive modes of political association that are vital to liberal democratic systems that take seriously (1) the value of political pluralism and (2) the limits of public reason to yield definitive answers to the crime question. Currently, political parties are failing to perform these mediating roles satisfactorily and I conclude that a stronger normative commitment to an ‘ethic of partisanship’ can help to revitalize our representative democracies and foster a better politics of crime.

Fascism and the Trans Villain: Historically Recurring Transphobia in Far-Right Politics


 
 
 
 This article builds a base of historical and theoretical context to understand the resurgence of transphobic propaganda and violence led by the American far-right through an examination of the connections between trans politics and global political economies of capitalism. Through a synthesis of established theories of fascism, a historical analysis of fascism, and a case study of propagandistic transphobia in two American films from the height of the Cold War, I argue that the proliferation of contemporary anti-trans sentiment reflects the state of crisis that the American empire is experiencing as domestic and international resistance threatens its global hegemony. Further I argue that a historical and theoretical examination of fascism and trans issues show the capacity for fascistic anti-trans violence not as a departure from the norm of liberal democratic nation-state systems that developed through the processes of capital, but rather as a constitutive part of that norm. Trans historians must mobilize historical knowledge and practice to disseminate public facing works that furnish a wide base of readers with the tools to understand and contextualize contemporary trans panic as it metastasizes.
 
 
 

Czech Conspiracy Websites as Agents of Illiberalism: Case study of Parliamentary Elections 2021

In the past several years, conspiracy websites emerged as relevant actors in Czech uncivil society. The article uses the lens of the concept of illiberalism to explain their ideological position, relation to the liberal democratic system and understanding of politics. The analysis of their reporting about the Czech Parliamentary elections 2021 allowed the article to uncover their allies and enemies and describe the role they want to play in Czech politics.

The Populist Challenge to Normative and Geopolitical Europe

Populism has become a remarkable political force in contemporary European politics. Most populist parties in Europe currently have radical right leanings and stand for sovereigntism, nativism, and authoritarianism. Either in government or opposition, these parties have had various impacts on liberal democratic systems both nationally and supranationally. Drawing on the concept of geopolitical European power, the European Union has been in search of effective responses to current challenges, including populism. This research aims at grasping the populist challenge in terms of its impacts on European politics within the broader context of normative versus geopolitical European power debate. Our research shows that populism has not only corroded normative European power but has also turned into an obstacle to the EU’s aspirations for geopolitical European power.

DISKURSUS PEMIKIRAN KONTEMPORER INDONESIA: PEMIKIRAN POLITIK NURCHOLIS MADJID

Discussions about Islam and democracy are indeed a discourse that will never end to be explored. The fundamental difference between the two exponents is thought in the realm of fundamental intellectual debate. In this article, I will discuss the thoughts of Nurcholish Madjid in seeking the relationship between Islam and democracy. The method used by Nurcholish Madji is none other than the theological theology of democracy using the principles that exist in Islam. he uses an apologetic method that is imposing a liberal democratic system so that it is inherent in Islam. Nurcholish Madjid's thoughts cannot be separated from how democracy must accommodate the wishes of the people. According to him, a just leader, although not a Muslim, is better than a Muslim leader, but the leader is unjust and brings suffering to his people.

The Role and Development of the Function of ABRI (Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia) in the New Order Period

During the New Order era, the dual function of ABRI was used as a defense and security force and had the function of socio-political power which then had very important values ​​in realizing national stability. This research was carried out so that later it could become literature that could be known and known to us and others, by examining the history of the dual function of ABRI, the development of the dual function of ABRI, and the implementation of ABRI's role in the socio-political field. Then ABRI had a role in socio-political power in 1966-1997 with stabilizers, dynamists, and pioneers as well as being the main field in the implementation of a liberal democratic system, under the pretext of "military" which was positioned as something significant for changes in this country in the future, namely the need for towards modernization as well as his responsibility for his dedication to society and the country. In the end, it led to the involvement of the military in filling or occupying political positions such as ministers, governors, regents, Golkar members and even sitting in the Legislative Assembly.

Multicultural Politics of Recognition and Postcolonial Citizenship

One of the current debates in the social sciences is related to the linkage between aspects of ethnicity, race and cultural diversity, related to citizenship, the issue of inclusiveness and political community. This debate is inseparable from the tendency of the liberal democratic system today which currently dominates the dynamics of social science thinking. This debate is related to fact that these various aspects are often encountered in an understanding that seems to tend to be dichotomous. This condition makes discussion about these aspects encourage desire to examine them in various theories and various frameworks of thought. One perspective that is offered to examine the debate is structuralism which is then linked to normative theories of multiculturalism and is accompanied by the presence of postcolonial criticism of ethnic and racial hierarchies in politics as discussed very well in this book by Rachel Busbridge.

RETRACTED - Agents of Change? Families, Welfare and Democracy in Mid-to-Late Twentieth Century Europe

This special issue argues that historical work must take ‘the family’ seriously as an active participant in shaping historical change. The issue offers seven case studies from across the North to South and East to West of Europe, ranging from the 1940s until the present, and looking across authoritarian, liberal democratic, communist and fascistic systems. In all case studies, authors look ‘from below’ to show how individuals thought of themselves, in messy and complex ways, as living within ‘families’. This powerful yet shifting idea shaped people's social lives, political choices and activism. This introduction explores grand narratives of welfare and democracy in the twentieth century; offers a new working approach to analysis of family ‘agency’; and then summarises the collection's main findings around chronologies and geographies of change.

Workers before the Court: Conflicts and Labor Justice in the Context of the 1964 Coup d'Etat in Brazil

Workers before the Court: Conflicts and Labor Justice in the Context of the 1964 Coup d'Etat in Brazil

Rebuilding public authority in Uganda dualist theory, hybrid social orders and democratic statehood

Conflicted African societies are confronting a crisis of public authority caused by the ethnic, sectarian and class conflicts generated by their ongoing transitions from authoritarian to liberal democratic institutional systems. Most have introduced competitive elections which have rarely produced stable and inclusive political outcomes, discrediting the dominant liberal democratic state-building agenda. We draw on classical ‘dualist’ and ‘new institutionalist’ theorists to explain these failures and suggest alternative strategies. They attribute these tensions to the co-existence of contradictory liberal and illiberal rules and cultural systems that interact in dissonant ways in hybrid social orders, and they enable us to develop a ‘society-centric historical methodology’ that attributes their ability or inability to achieve democratic statehood to the ability of their regimes to build inclusive and hybrid political settlements and organisational structures that reconcile the competing demands of modern and traditional elites and subordinate classes. We then demonstrate the utility of this approach by using it to explain Uganda’s transition from a stable, but dualistic colonial state, to a predatory dictatorship and then to a relatively successful competitive autocracy.

Legal bases of Ukraine’s European integration

The purpose of the article is to analyze trends in the development of legal support for Ukraine's European integration. In essence, the Association Agreement with Ukraine differs from the Association Agreements, signed by the European Union in the early 1990s with Central European countries, preparing to join the EU, or with the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America, which do not have any chances of joining the EU. The coordination of the issues of European integration of Ukraine depends on the effectiveness of the mechanisms of functioning of the legal institution of society as an apparatus, organized by society and responsible for the formation, observance and implementation of legal relations of legal entities. The legal order of the European Union does not provide for a special accession procedure. In June 1993, the Copenhagen membership criteria were developed, covering the candidate country's ability to have a functioning liberal democratic political system, to introduce European law into national law, and to have an economy capable of competing in the EU Common Market. The European Union set a precedent for the admission of a state with an unresolved territorial conflict when it accepted the Greek part of Cyprus on 1 May 2004. Outside the EU, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus remains recognized only by Turkey. This problem remains unresolved and is hampering constructive negotiations on Turkey's accession to the European Union. Therefore, the issue of recognizing Ukraine as a candidate for EU membership has a broad geopolitical context. Ukraine is working with the European Commission to agree on the procedure for negotiating accession to the European Union. The European Union has different strategies for negotiating the accession of new countries

Constitutional problems of a naturalization oath Focus on the ‘oath of citizenship’ under the Nationality Act

다른 나라의 국적을 후천적으로 취득할 수 있는 귀화는 국민의 범위를 결정한다는 점에서 중요한 헌법적 문제인데, 최근 국적법 개정으로 국민선서 및 귀화증서 수여라는 의례적 요소가 새로 도입되었다. 귀화의 허가요건으로 그 국가의 헌법원칙과 사회질서를 준수하겠다는 의지를 선서와 같은 특정의 형식으로 외부로 표명케 하는 것은 드물지 않은 입법례이다. 국적개념이 연혁적으로 통치자에 대한 신민의 충성의무를 기초로 정립되었던 것과 같이, 귀화선서 또한 정치적 의미를 가진 선서로서 국가에 대한 충성과 애국심을 검증하기 위한 장치로 기능해왔다. 정치적 충성선서로서 귀화선서는 다원성과 개인의 자유를 존립기반으로 하는 민주주의 공동체에서도 그 공동체 유지를 위해 필요한 경계, 즉 특정 헌법과 정치형태 및 이데올로기를 고지하고 그에 대한 준수의 의지를 표명하도록 함으로써 공동체의 통합과 통일성을 추구하기 위한 것이다. 그러나 귀화선서는 귀화자의 새로운 공동체에 대한 결속의 공적 표명일 뿐만 아니라, 귀화허가 여부를 결정짓는 법정요건으로 작용할 수 있다. 현행 국적법상 국적취득은 국민선서를 하고 귀화증서를 수여받은 때인데, 극히 예외적인 경우 이외에는 귀화허가를 받은 모든 사람은 국민선서를 하도록 한다. 즉 국민선서는 대한민국 국적을 취득하기 위해 요구되는 필수적 절차요건이다. 이처럼 자유민주주의 헌법체제에서 귀화신청자의 정치적 가치관을 검증하고자 하는 국민선서는 개인의 내심을 직간접적으로 외부로 나타내도록 강요당하지 아니할 침묵의 자유에 대한 중대한 침해 가능성을 내포한다. 오늘날 다원적, 다문화적 민주주의 사회에서 다양한 출신배경을 가진 귀화자에게 국적취득을 대가로 요구되는 의무적 선서는 선서자의 양심의 자유의 희생하에 충성을 획득하려는 것으로서, 이는 국적이 개인과 국가 간의 법적 유대관계라는 현대적 국적개념에 부합하지 않는다.Naturalization, which allows one to acquire the nationality of another country, is an important constitutional issue in that it determines the scope of citizens. By ths way, with the recent revision of the Nationality Act, a new ceremonial element was introduced: the oath of citizenship and the conferment of the certificate of naturalization. As a requirement for permission for naturalization, it is not uncommon for a country to express its will to comply with the constitutional principles and social order in a specific form such as an oath. Historically, just as the concept of nationality was established on the basis of the duty of loyalty of subjects to the ruler, the oath of naturalization has also functioned as an oath with political meaning and as a device to verify loyalty to the country and patriotism. Even in a democratic community based on pluralism and individual freedom, the oath of naturalization as a political loyalty oath is to inform the boundaries necessary for maintaining the community. In other words, it is to seek unity of the community by confirming a specific constitution, political form, and ideology, and expressing the will to comply with it. However, the oath of naturalization is not only a public expression of the naturalization s solidarity with the new community, but also acts as a statutory requirement to determine whether or not to allow naturalization. Under the current Nationality Act, nationality is acquired when a person has taken a national oath and received a certificate of naturalization. In other words, the national oath is an essential procedure required to acquire Korean citizenship. In this way, in the liberal democratic constitutional system, the national oath to verify the political values of naturalization applicants has a serious possibility of infringing upon the freedom of silence that will not be compelled to directly or indirectly express one s inner opinion, thoughts to the outside. Today, in a pluralistic and multicultural democratic society, the obligatory oath required by naturalized persons of various backgrounds in exchange for acquiring nationality is to acquire loyalty at the expense of the freedom of conscience. However, this does not conform to the modern concept of nationality: nationality is a legal bond between an individual and a state.

THE STATE, POWER... AND WORK – THAT IS, ABOUT UNCONDITIONAL AXIOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF LABOR LAW (A RESPONSE TO THE DOCTRINAL SUGGESTION OF THE INTERPRETATION OF LABOR LAW “WITHOUT” AXIOLOGY

The subject of the following text is a model analysis of what results from the mutual relations of the state and power in a liberal-democratic system for the phenomenon of human labor and an attempt to formulate conclusions resulting from this for the Polish legal regulation of work. I start by establishing some fundamental issues, and thus defining, from the perspective of law (labor law), the concept of the state and power. And then I would like to show its fundamental consequences in the field of axiology of labor law

Ethnicity, Democracy, and Political Instability in Nigeria: An Appraisal

The article examined how ethnocentrism is used to further the interest of petty bourgeoisie leading to political instability in Nigeria. The establishment of elective principle midwifed liberal democratic party system in 1922. The Nigerian National Democratic Party in Nigeria was the first party to be birthed. The electoral requirements for candidates and electorates provided opportunities for the educated elite to hijack the process. The partitioning of the country into three regions-east, north and west in 1945 led to the formation of ethnic based political parties- National Congress Nigeria and Cameroon (east), Northern People Congress(north), and Action Group (west), which gave rise to fierce ethnic competition among the political elite. The political elites fell back to the region to consolidate their power base. The contention for space-dominance became more pronounced. However, over decades, this politics of ethnic acrimony has continued and increased the degree of political instability to the extent that almost all the general elections conducted in the post-independence era have been bedeviled with electoral violence leading to destruction of lives and properties. The study adopted clientelist theory and culture of violence theory in its theoretical underpinning. The study explored qualitative method of data gathering technique. The study unraveled that the competition for political position predicated on primitive accumulation of natural resources promotes ethnic cleavage. The study recommends amongst others that politicians indicted for electoral violence in past and present should be tried in the content court of jurisdiction to discourage political violence in Nigeria.