Democratic Theory Research Articles

Viewing inclusion through the lens of democracy—Conceptualizations and enactments in three early childhood educational settings

AbstractResearch on inclusion in early childhood educational (ECE) settings points to the need for a deeper understanding of professionals' perceptions of the dilemmas and challenges situated in the varying contexts of these settings. Viewing inclusion as a complex phenomenon, this study uses the Deweyan theory of democracy as a lived experience to describe how professionals in three ECE settings understand the values of inclusion and democracy and how these values are enacted in their everyday practices of creating democratic communities. Three case studies were conducted, including individual interviews with head teachers, focus‐group interviews with professionals and semi‐structured observations in three ECE settings. The results show that the three settings present unique prerequisites and challenges for the building of democratic communities related to the varying views on inclusion and democracy. The understandings of values of inclusion and democracy and how these are enacted in the three ECE settings are discussed with regard to the possibilities and obstacles involved in the creation of democratic communities.

Leadership. Decision-Making. Legitimacy. How deliberative are the labor unions in Romania?

Deliberative democracy theory highlighted democratic deliberation as a modus operandi for facilitating group decision-making. In 2023, members of Romanian labor unions in several sectors took to the streets in strikes and protests, demanding higher revenues and better work conditions. Nevertheless, misunderstandings and internal ruptures shadowed their noble ends and fueled mistrust amongst unionists. This dynamic reminds rather of interest party politics as it employs vertical power relations, influenced by social and professional background segmentation. One question that reasonably arises in this context is how deliberative the decision-making process is within the unions in Romania. We specifically analyze elements of deliberative organizational leadership and the power relations within labor unions through a qualitative study in the form of interviews. Keywords: Labor Unions, Romania, Deliberation, Representation, Leadership

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

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

VIII. Der Gastaufenthalt Otto Koellreutters in Tokio (1938/39): Eine Facette der Rezeption der nationalsozialistischen Staatslehre in Japan

Summary The Schieder-Conze controversy questioned the relationship between the German academic community and the National Socialist government; however, research on how the Japanese academic community dealt with the German-Japanese alliance is still in progress. This study focuses on Toyowo Ōgushi, a Ministry of Education official who invited Professor Otto Koellreutter of the University of Munich to Tokyo as a Japanese-German exchange professor, and his academic friend Teiji Yabe, an assistant professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo. Ōgushi, whose mentor was the conservative constitutional scholar Uesugi Shinkichi, left the graduate school of the Imperial University of Tokyo, which had highly liberal and socialist tendencies. He studied constitutional law at the University of Jena between 1928 and 1933, where he was influenced by Koellreutter and Carl Schmitt. Upon returning to Japan, Ōgushi became a proponent of German National Socialist jurisprudence. Ōgushi and his former schoolmate Teiji Yabe invited Koellreutter to visit Tokyo. As a researcher of democratic theory, Yabe had become an assistant professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo, but he had moved to the University of Munich in 1936 to study under Koellreutter after becoming increasingly critical of parliamentary democracy. The Faculty of Law of the Imperial University of Tokyo, which retained liberal tendencies, was not entirely at ease with Koellreutter. Nonetheless, the Faculty of Law at the Imperial University of Tokyo conducted systematic research on the already established German National Socialist regime; moreover, its tone was not always critical, and it did not prevent the alliance between Japan and Germany as they moved towards war.

Navigating pandemic waves: Consensus, polarisation and pluralism in the Finnish parliament during COVID-19

This article studies how the COVID crisis affected polarisation, politicisation and consensus in Finnish parliamentary discourse, a case in which we expect pluralist political institutions and culture to mitigate polarisation. In addition to the empirical contribution, we add to the theory of polarisation by drawing from Chantal Mouffe’s theory of plural democracy to argue that the opposite of polarisation may take the form of a depoliticised consensus or a pluralism of legitimate positions (‘agonism’). Furthermore, we apply Norman and Isabela Fairclough’s political discourse analysis to studying polarisation qualitatively, arguing that scrutiny of argumentative premises enables assessment of how profound certain political conflicts are. Studying 485 parliamentary speeches given in 2020–2021, we argue that a morally charged consensus imperative with nationalistic overtones quickly developed in Spring 2020, and pluralism gradually re-emerged later. The article highlights that while polarisation can threaten democracy, so can moralisation and enforced consensus.

Iqbal's Spiritual Democracy and Habermas's Deliberative Democracy: A Comparative Study

The current study is written in the context of the civilizational dialogue between the West and the Muslim world with reference to Jürgen Habermas and Muhammad Iqbal's political views. It explores the congruence and contrasts between Habermas's discourse theory of democracy or deliberative democracy and Iqbal's theory of spiritual democracy. This research strives to find out the extent to which the core values of Habermas's theory and that of Iqbal’s are compatible. For Habermas, the core values of social order are liberty and equality, whereas Iqbal upholds liberty, equality, and solidarity. It has been investigated whether they both mean the same phenomena by the same terms or not. For Habermas and Iqbal, democracy is the best form of government but neither one is satisfied with the existing democratic practices. In principle, they accept democracy as the best political system. The research paper also sheds light on the historical and cultural influences that have shaped the political ideologies of both Habermas and Iqbal, considering the impact of Western Enlightenment ideals on Habermas and the role of Islamic jurisprudence and spirituality in shaping Iqbal's democratic theory. Through critical analysis, this study aims to deepen the understanding of complexities inherent in the dialogue between Western and Muslim civilizations and offers insights into potential avenues for collaboration in political theory and practice.

Thinking hegemony otherwise – an educational critique of Mouffe’s agonism

ABSTRACT The question ‘What is to be done?’ underpins Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic theory of democratic politics. Yet, despite this affirmative tone that distinguishes her from other radical theorists, her theory neglects the cultural work required for hegemony-building. This omission has resulted in operational difficulties when agonistic democracy is put into practice. This article shows how academics inspired by Mouffe unintentionally depend on theoretical resources from competing democratic theories. As a result of this, agonistic practices risk to reinforce neo-liberal regimes instead of developing counter-hegemonic alternatives. To meet this challenge, and to expand the scope of Mouffe’s agonism, we draw on educational theory to provide a more developed theorization of the cultural work required for hegemony-building. We propose that only by embracing different conceptualisations of education, we can activate cultural interventions that facilitate counter-hegemonic ventures.

Examining the Political Influences on School Governance in South Africa: A Case Study of the Zululand District

This research examines the impact of political party affiliations and interference on school management in the Zululand District of South Africa. Using an interpretive research approach and qualitative methods, including an extensive review of existing literature and data collection through interviews, the study conducts semi-structured interviews with 21 individuals from three public primary schools. It also explores the influence of political factors on School Governing Bodies (SGBs), including their involvement in party politics and the challenges they face in enhancing their capacities. The findings confirm significant political interference in school governance, particularly in rural areas where political affiliations influence decision-making. SGBs often align themselves with political parties, leading to governance inefficiencies and conflicts among parent governors. Through the lens of participatory democratic theory, the study reveals governance capture in rural schools, with discriminatory practices and corruption arising as consequences of political intervention. The recommendations call for empowering SGBs to navigate political pressures through policy reforms, ensuring autonomy for parent governors, and reassessing the permissible extent of political influence within the governance framework. Additionally, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is urged to address socioeconomic factors exacerbating corruption and to uphold integrity within school governance structures. By addressing the influence of politics and enhancing transparency, the DBE can cultivate a more equitable and effective educational environment for rural South African students.

Teachers’ challenges in implementing a learner’s code of conduct for positive discipline in schools

In the majority of South African schools, maintaining discipline remains a challenge – a situation which commands the attention of departmental officials both locally and internationally. When negative disciplinary approaches were prohibited in schools in this country, positive disciplinary measures were recommended in the form of a code of conduct for learners. In the study reported on here we examined the challenges that teachers face in using a code of conduct to maintain positive discipline among the learner cohort. The study was guided by positive discipline and democratic theories. These theories imply that discipline must be taught to learners so that they are equipped to behave appropriately and obey the school/classroom rules. Data were gathered from a total of 16 educators in 2 sampled schools in Pinetown, Durban, through semi-structured interviews, observation and document review. The findings reveal that a variety of challenges impeded the use of a learners’ code of conduct, including a failure to review the document on a regular basis. The content of those codes was not widely communicated either, which meant that they remained ineffective in addressing each school’s specific needs with regard to correcting misbehaviour. Based on the findings, we recommend that the Department of Basic Education raise awareness around democratic governance in schools to enhance positive discipline by means of up-to-date, enforced codes of conduct. Schools also need to encourage parents to be actively involved in their children’s schooling, as a means of supporting teachers.

Practicing deliberation in challenging speech cultures: the role of metadiscourse

Abstract This qualitative research draws on language and social interaction (LSI) approaches to consider how speech culture shapes the practice of deliberation in a country presumed to be a challenging environment for deliberative practices: Israel. Our analysis examines structured deliberative forums conducted by communication students in Israel, to demonstrate how participants reference, use, and orient to both deliberative democracy discourse and Israeli speech culture in ways that enable them to overcome cultural challenges to doing deliberation. We found that participants utilize metadiscourse to take stances that frame cultural challenges of deliberation, negotiate the tensions between deliberative principles and local speech culture, and creatively integrate local speech norms with deliberation. This research contributes to LSI and Political Communication scholarship, by enhancing practical theory of deliberative democracy. The explication of the role of metadiscourse reframes the relationship between culture and deliberation thereby providing new directions for scholars, practitioners, and educators of deliberative democracy.

CONCEPTUAL IDEAS AND GUIDELINES OF NORTH AMERICAN MODEL OF ADULT EDUCATION

The article deals with conceptual ideas and guidelines of North American model of adult education. It is substantiated that North American model of adult education is based on the philosophical principles of liberalism, progressivism, behaviorism, humanism, radicalism, and constructivism. Liberalism has ancient roots and is based on the position that since the person is the real source of progress in society, it is necessary to ensure his/her rights and freedoms, providing equal access to education regardless of social status and well-being. The basic principle of liberal education is singled out, which is to develop a personality that meets the purpose of liberal education in ancient times – provision of education for citizens who can become active participants of a democratic society. It is proven that non-formal adult education should be continuous, focus on the development of intellectual abilities, be accessible to all layers of the population, and its content must meet their needs. It is found out that the historical roots of the philosophy of progressivism are associated with progressive political movement in society and education. Its basis is the concept of interaction between education and society, empirical theory of democratization of education. It is determined that behavioral philosophy, founded by John Watson, appeared in the USA in the early 20th century. Based on the theory of Pavlov's conditioned reflexes, its supporters (J. Watson, B. Sninner and E. Thorndike) considered personality as a set of behavioral responses to stimuli of the environment. It is identified that the purpose of adult education is the modification of a person’s behavior. It is proven that unlike behaviorists, representatives of humanistic philosophy (J. Brown, A. Maslow, M. Knowles, K. Rogers, etc.) considered a man to be independent, active, open to change and self-actualization. It is stressed that the founders of the radical trend, based on theories of anarchism, marxism, and socialism, considered education in general and adult education, in particular, as an important mechanism to achieve radical changes in society. Meanwhile, the social role of non-formal adult education was updated, because it required critical thinking and personal participation in these changes.

What’s Left? Democratic Theory in Between Facts and Norms After Three Decades

This essay revisits my earlier 1999 critique (Between Radicalism and Resignation: Democratic Theory in Habermas’ ,Between Facts and Norms‘) of Habermas’ most important contribution to political and legal theory. Some of my criticisms stemmed from a failure to address the book’s complicated attempt to navigate between ,facts‘ and ,norms‘, and thus Habermas’ vision of ,rational reconstruction‘. Nonetheless, I argue that key elements of that original criticism not only remain pertinent, but that they can help us understand lacunae within Habermas’ more recent contributions to a critical theory of politics. First, my worries about Habermas’ apparent marginalization of systematic Kapitalismuskritik have been corroborated by his more recent writings. Second, there is no question that Habermas borrowed heavily from the democratic theory developed by Bernhard Peters, an important interlocutor for Habermas in the Frankfurt legal theory study group he coordinated during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Habermas’ debts to Peters have continued to shape his thinking. While they have helped Habermas pursue some productive analytic paths, others, unfortunately, have consequently been neglected.

Legal Basis of the Formation and Functioning of the Democratic Regime: the Antinomy of Liberalism and Totalitarism

The article is devoted to the problems of the legal foundations of the formation and functioning of a democratic regime in its liberal and totalitarian dimensions. At the same time, since the unlimited power of the people hides the danger of totalitarianism, which has repeatedly manifested itself in the past of both our country and the world as a whole, the study of the democratic regime is of an urgent nature. Therefore, the purpose of this study is the legal basis of the formation and functioning of a democratic regime in the context of its interaction with liberalism and totalitarianism. The implementation of the specified goal requires the performance of a number of scientific tasks. The article substantiates that «pure» political regimes have a sufficiently abstract character. It was found that within the framework of the «dual» approach there are two dichotomies of political regimes: depending on the interaction of the state with the individual and according to the affiliation of sovereignty. It is proven that as a result of duality, the regime of «totalitarian democracy» is distinguished, an example of which is the USSR during the era of the personality cult of Y. Stalin, and the regime of «liberal democracy», the example of which is the USA for a significant part of its history. The article concludes that the philosophical foundation of «totalitarian democracy» was formed within the framework of the so-called «theory of collectivist democracy», according to which the people were considered as a multi-headed single collective being, which could often have negative consequences in the form of, for example, the maxim «enemy of the people». It is emphasized that the involvement of the broad masses of the people in the repressive Stalinist system created a certain «democratic surrogate» - the Soviet «totalitarian democracy», under which the Soviet people are involved in the trials of the «enemies of the people» (democratic dimension), and the nature of the repression itself has a mass character, which brings it closer to genocide (totalitarian dimension). It was found that the liberal-democratic regime in the USA was formed as a result of the combination of the fact that the people take an active part in the sending of state power (democratic dimension) and the constitutional and legal declaration, as a fundamental principle, of freedom (liberal dimension). The practical value of the work lies in the need to create safeguards for the revival of totalitarianism in the world in conditions of active use of the postulates of democracy by non-democratic regimes.

Streaming and blocking: how to take back the streets (for democratic theory)

Streaming and blocking: how to take back the streets (for democratic theory)

On ‘the Politics of Repair Beyond Repair’: Radical Democracy and the Right to Repair Movement

AbstractThis paper analyses the right to repair (R2R) movement through the lens of radical democracy, elucidating the opportunities and limitations for advancing a democratic repair ethics against a backdrop of power imbalances and vested interests. We commence our analysis by exploring broader political-economic trends, demonstrating that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly shifting towards asset-based repair strategies. In this landscape, hegemony is preserved not solely through deterrence tactics like planned obsolescence but also by conceding repairability while monopolizing repair and maintenance services. We further argue that the R2R serves as an ‘empty signifier’, whose content is shaped by four counter-hegemonic frames used by the R2R movement: consumer advocacy, environmental sustainability, communitarian values, and creative tinkering. These frames, when viewed through Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy, reveal different potentials for sustaining dissent and confronting OEMs' hegemony in the field of repair. Analysed in this way, an emerging business ethics of repair can be understood as driven by the politics of repair beyond repair. This notion foregrounds the centrality of non-violent conflict and antagonism for bringing radical democratic principles to repair debates, looking beyond narrow instrumentalist conversations, where repairability is treated as an apolitical arena solely defined by concerns for eco-efficiency and resource productivity.

Technological Citizenship in Times of Digitization: An Integrative Framework

This article introduces an integrative framework for technological citizenship, examining the impact of digitization and the active roles of citizens in shaping this impact across the private, social, and public sphere. It outlines the dual nature of digitization, offering opportunities for enhanced connectivity and efficiency while posing challenges to privacy, security, and democratic integrity. Technological citizenship is explored through the lenses of liberal, communitarian, and republican theories, highlighting the active roles of citizens in navigating the opportunities and risks presented by digital technologies across all life spheres. By operationalizing technological citizenship, the article aims to address the gap in existing literature on the active roles of citizens in the governance of digitization. The framework emphasizes empowerment and resilience as crucial capacities for citizens to actively engage with and govern digital technologies. It illuminates citizens’ active participation in shaping the digital landscape, advocating for policies that support their engagement in safeguarding private, social, and public values in the digital age. The study calls for further research into technological citizenship, emphasizing its significance in fostering a more inclusive and equitable digital society.

The Rise, Fall and Re-Rise Of Deliberative Democracy In New Zealand

In New Zealand the last few years have seen a re-emergence of interest in processes that build on the theory of deliberative democracy. Commentary on this trend, which typically positions deliberative democracy as a novel development in New Zealand politics, ignores several decades of public agencies’ democratic experimentation. In this article we describe three of the 15 identified processes displaying the critical elements of deliberative democracy: the Capital Power citizens’ jury (1996); Toi te Taiao: the Bioethics Council’s public deliberation on pre-birth testing (2007–08), and the citizens’ advisory panel on the Newtown–Berhampore cycleway (2014). We analyse the reasons for their ostensible failure and identify lessons that current policymakers interested in deliberative democracy should draw from these historical cases.

Немецкий подход к гарантированию плюрализма в сфере массовой коммуникации

Using the political and philosophical context, the article analyzes the German model of guaranteeing pluralism in the field of mass communication, the core of which is formed by the communication rights of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, which have undergone a deep reinterpretation by the Federal Constitutional Court. Starting from the abstract politico-philosophical value of pluralism as the foundation of German democratic theory, its path is traced through its integration with general constitutional and legal principles. This integration leads to the concretization of pluralism in the communication sphere as specific regulatory provisions within constitutionalized ordinary legislation. Through the examination, the article highlights the key parameters of this model that correspond to the pluralistic theory of democracy. These parameters determine the logic of constitutional-legal regulation in the German communication sphere and influence the doctrinal aspects of fundamental rights.

The Plural Planet: A Democratic Culture of Earthlings

Abstract We are entering the age of planetary politics defined by consciousness of human impact on the Earth System, and the planetary ecosystem's responses to our activities. This poses a major challenge to democratic theory. How do we protect life without evoking a planetary sovereign? This article argues that the planetary condition requires imaginatively expanding existing democratic concepts to make room for new connections, realities, and beginnings. It demonstrates this by focusing on Hannah Arendt's notion of plurality as the law of the earth. Read through the Roman lex, which emerges from the conflict between the plebs and the patricians, this notion helps us imagine a planetary politics premised on the creation of new relationships between previously discrete entities. Building on this interpretation, I discuss scientific expertise and indigenous perspectives as modes of cultivating political imagination to expand our understanding of the democratic stage beyond the human species.

The Rise and Decline of Ennahda Party

Abstract Tunisia’s democratic trajectory has seen much regression in the past decade after the toppling of the former regime of Ben Ali and the rise of Ennahda party to power, following Tunisia’s uprising. Employing democratic theory, the research contends that, despite growing popular discontent with Ennahda’s performance, Ennahda remained Tunisia’s leading party even with its declining parliamentary representation until the 2021 setback in Tunisia’s democratic path. People’s disappointment with Ennahda emanated from volatile politics and socio-economic problems rather than ideology, and although the party reconsidered its strategy, which enabled it to withstand fractured polity and secure a leading seat in the political landscape until Kais Said’s power grab in 2021, it still bore much responsibility for poor government performance. In conclusion, Said’s hold on power is likely to persist and the future of Ennahda, in light of the on-going consolidation of power in Tunisia, depends on domestic and international efforts to regain democracy.