Times Of Democracy Research Articles

Do we have time for democracy? Climate action and the problem of time in the Anthropocene

The urgency of climate change has brought democracy to a critical juncture. Existing democratic systems struggle to address the pressing time frames required for effective climate action. This article explores a fundamental shift in temporal orientation caused by climate change. Democracy’s linear and progressive image of time clashes with the expanding scales of temporality, encompassing both planetary and microscopic processes. More specifically, the article examines the theoretical links between democracy, climate change, and time in the Anthropocene through empirical engagements with the climate politics associated with deliberative assemblies, community organizing, and activist movements. The core argument is that within these democratic innovations, new future-oriented responses to the crises are beginning to emerge. These innovations experiment with extending democracy’s temporal image beyond its conventional boundaries, paving the way for a multi-trajectory democratic politics. The article concludes by discussing the tensions and potential consequences of these democratic practices, ultimately arguing in favor of a multiple and layered understanding of democratic time that extends beyond distinctly human temporalities.

Perspetivas atuais da cooperação transfronteiriça da Euro-região Galiza-Norte de Portugal: os planos de investimentos conjuntos

Relations between Galicia and the north of Portugal go back a long way (to the Middle Ages), based on linguistic, cultural and historical ties over a common geographical area – the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. More recently, in times of democracy, territorial cooperation, based on the historical ties, geographical affinities and cultural identity that connect these regions, has developed through specific programmes and projects that receive funding from different sources, including funds from the European Union (EU) under the Interreg programme and the EU’s main financial instrument for promoting economic and social cohesion between European regions, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The aim of this study is to carry out a descriptive and explanatory analysis of the investment programmes of the Euroregion Galicia Norte de Portugal, identifying the evolutionary pattern of the axes of cooperation between the two regions, which aim to promote joint development and the resolution of common challenges, looking to the future of cross-border cooperation. The structure of the article is organised into three topics. The first defines the most recent evolutionary framework of relations between the two regions in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula, the second refers to the establishment of the Galicia-Northern Portugal Euroregion and finally the priority axes of cross-border cooperation framework are analysed, with an emphasis on the strategic programs and EU funding programmes since 2007 until 2027, in a comparative perspective.

Jain, Kajri. Gods in the time of democracy. xx, 336 pp., maps, tables, figs, illus., bibliogr. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2021. £26.99 (paper)

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteEarly View Book and film reviews Jain, Kajri. Gods in the time of democracy. xx, 336 pp., maps, tables, figs, illus., bibliogr. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2021. £26.99 (paper) Christopher Pinney, Christopher Pinney University College LondonSearch for more papers by this author Christopher Pinney, Christopher Pinney University College LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 June 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13969Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Material Acts in Everyday Hindu WorldsGods in the Time of Democracy

Material Acts in Everyday Hindu WorldsGods in the Time of Democracy

Cultivating classroom democracy: Educational philosophy and classroom management for social justice

Inequality and injustice in education have been viewed from the perspective of social justice. Since the emergence of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, social justice issues have attracted the attention of social and political philosophers. Theoretical consequences of social and political philosophy have been actively incorporated into the field of education. However, the issue of educational justice remains controversial and requires further philosophical consideration. To further philosophical consideration, this paper explores how the class or the classroom can generate space and time for democracy, by focusing on the educational specificity of the classroom community, which is called ‘Gakkyu’ in Japanese. Social justice in education is not only a policy issue, but also a practical issue which should be tackled in the classroom. Rethinking the ways of democracy to face conflicts arising due to differences and equality of children in the classroom is an important method of bridging social justice and education. In this paper, the following question will be explored: how classroom democracy can be nurtured and the classroom community transformed into a democratic place where children from various background and experiences gather and learn from each other.

Oil in times of democracy: debates on extraction and politics in Ghana

The discovery of oil in 2007 in Ghana came in a time when elections had shown the capacity to allow for alternation of two main political parties in government. The main objective of this article is to investigate the terms of the debates that have been developed in regard to the relation between natural resources and democracy in the country. Three main issues have been addressed: the capacity of democratic institutions to condition and configure the social and political effects of the oil industry in the country; the potential perverse effects of oil extraction on democratic institutions; and the role of international arena and actors in the constitution of the political economy of oil in Ghana.

Audacious Searching of Spanish Mothers

Throughout the dictatorship in Spain, many strategies were used to manipulate and silence mothers’ voices. During this period (1940-1975) and also in later times of democracy, a total of 300,000 babies were stolen (Anadir, 2011).
 Currently, family organizations are looking for their children, stolen between 1940 and 1999. Their calls for memory, justice and reparation found a space for action in social media as the campaigns “We Are Looking for You” (2017, 2018), where they could their search after surviving obstetric violence and stigmatization. Transcending these deeds from a space of action, the precepts proposed by Frankl –on accepting pain, taking responsibility for what they feel in order to give meaning to the tragedy– are observed. Through this ethnographic study, carried out during the recording of two social media campaigns, we will endeavor to confirm the following hypothesis: their active participation in the campaigns, the members of SOS Stolen Babies of Catalonia are developing the virtue of audacity. This audacity is linked to Frankl’s theory of assuming suffering, asserting destiny and taking a stand before it (1987). This study used participant observation and interviews of the 20 families belonging to the Catalan organization.

Kajri Jain, Gods in the Time of Democracy

Kajri Jain, Gods in the Time of Democracy

Violencia político sexual desde octubre a diciembre de 2019 en Chile: análisis de contexto y prácticas institucionales de agentes del estado

El presente artículo busca exponer los elementos necesarios para intentar comprender la situación de violencia política sexual que experimentan en forma focalizada y desproporcionada las mujeres y disidencias sexuales entre octubre y diciembre de 2019, dando cuenta del continuo de este tipo de violencia que se ha ejercido en nuestro país desde la dictadura (y más atrás aún), y en tiempos de democracia, lo que se ha expresado en las denuncias recibidas en el contexto de manifestaciones estudiantiles y recientemente, durante el denominado “estallido social en Chile”. Además, busca ser un aporte para las políticas públicas que emanen del Estado, que deben preve¬nir, investigar, sancionar y erradicar dichas conductas mediante la concep¬tualización de este tipo de violencia a partir de su utilización en conflictos armados y el fallo Mujeres Víctimas de Tortura Sexual vs. México, de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.

Times of Democracy

Democracy became a popular and highly contested concept in the Danish-speaking parts of the Danish monarchy in 1848. For a brief time, it went from being an occasional guest in political language to a popular concept in the constitutional struggle of 1848–1849. This article argues democracy became attached to an equally popular concept of the time, movement, when introduced into everyday political communication in Denmark. In this context, democracy became a name for the movement observed in Europe and in the Danish monarchy. The article identifies three main interpretations of democracy that occurred in the Danish constitutional struggle of 1848–1849 and argues the battle over the constitution was essentially a battle over how one interpreted the past, the present, and the future. Democracy became a key term in this battle in 1848 Denmark.

Track 2.b Introduction: Design & Democracy

The issue of design and democracy is an urgent and rather controversial one. Democracy has always been a core theme in design research, but in the past years it has shifted in meaning. The current discourse in design research that has been working in a participatory way on common issues in given local contexts, has developed an enhanced focus on rethinking democracy. This is the topic of some recent design conferences, such PDC2018, Nordes2017 and DRS2018, and of the DESIS Philosophy Talk #6 “Regenerating Democracy?” (www.desis-philosophytalks.org), from which this track originates. To reflect on the role and responsibility of designers in a time where democracy in its various forms is often put at risk seems an urgent matter to us. The concern for the ways in which the democratic discourse is put at risk in many different parts of the word is registered outside the design community (for instance by philosophers such as Noam Chomsky), as well as within (see for instance Manzini’s and Margolin’s call Design Stand Up (http://www.democracy-design.org). Therefore, the need to articulate a discussion on this difficult matter, and to find a common vocabulary we can share to talk about it. One of the difficulties encountered for instance when discussing this issue, is that the word “democracy” is understood in different ways, in relation to the traditions and contexts in which it is framed. Philosophically speaking, there are diverse discourses on democracy that currently inspire design researchers and theorists, such as Arendt, Dewey, Negri and Hardt, Schmitt, Mouffe, Rancière, Agamben, Rawls, Habermas, Latour, Gramsci, whose positions on this topic are very diverse. How can these authors guide us to further articulate this discussion? In which ways can these philosophers support and enrich design’s innovation discourses on design and democracy, and guide our thinking in addressing sensitive and yet timely questions, such as what design can do in what seems to be dark times for democracy, and whether design can possibly contribute to enrich the current democratic ecosystems, making them more strong and resilient?

“Old-New” Directions in Political Communication: Taking Michael Parenti's Media Criticism as a Guide

In this essay I outline where I think the study of political communication should go – or rather, return back to. First I discuss existing limitations and weaknesses of the current subfield of political communication, after which I highlight the work of political scientist Michael Parenti as an example of scholarship that I would like to see more of, especially in Frontiers in Political Communication. In the Conclusion I summarize my main points and specify what I think should be priorities for scholars of political communication, as the world moves forward through these precarious times for democracy, justice, and even species survival.

Dewey's Democratic Conception in Education and Democratic Schooling: Lessons from the United States for Japan in a Time of Democracy in Crisis

Dewey's Democratic Conception in Education and Democratic Schooling: Lessons from the United States for Japan in a Time of Democracy in Crisis

The Prophetic Voice of the Church in a Democratic South Africa – A Theological Reflection

This article is a reflection on the role and contribution of the church in a democratic South Africa. The involvement of the church in the struggle against apartheid is revisited briefly. The church has played a pivotal and prominent role in bringing about democracy by being a prophetic voice that could not be silenced even in the face of death. It is in this time of democracy when real transformation is needed to take its course in a realistic way, where the presence of the church has probably been latent and where it has assumed an observer status. A look is taken at the dilemmas facing the church. The church should not be bound and taken captive by any form of loyalty to any political organisation at the expense of the poor and the voiceless. A need for cooperation and partnership between the church and the state is crucial at this time. This paper strives to address the role of the church as a prophetic voice in a democratic South Africa. Radical economic transformation, inequality, corruption, and moral decadence—all these challenges hold the potential to thwart our young democracy and its ideals. Black liberation theology concepts are employed to explore how the church can become prophetically relevant in democracy. Suggestions are made about how the church and the state can best form partnerships. In avoiding taking only a critical stance, the church could fulfil its mandate “in season and out of season” and continue to be a prophetic voice on behalf of ordinary South Africans.

Un/Common Schooling : Alternative Education in the Time of Democracy

Un/Common Schooling : Alternative Education in the Time of Democracy

Landowners and Democracy

Are large landowners, especially those engaged in labor-dependent agriculture, detrimental to democratization and the subsequent survival of democracy? This assumption is at the heart of both canonical and recent influential work on regime transition and durability. Using an original panel data set on the extent of labor-dependent agriculture in countries across the world since 1930, the author finds that labor-dependent agriculture was indeed historically bad for democratic stability and stunted the extension of suffrage, parliamentary independence, and free and fair elections. However, the negative influence of labor-dependent agriculture on democracy started to turn positive around the time of democracy's third wave. The dual threats of land reform and costly domestic insurgencies in that period—often with more potent consequences under dictators—plausibly prompted landowners to push for democracy with strong horizontal constraints and favorable institutions that could protect their property more reliably over the long term than could dictatorship. The shift in support for democracy by labor-dependent landowners is a major untold story of democracy's third wave and helps explain the persistent democratic deficit in many new democracies.

Political Determinants of State Capacity in Latin America

Summary In this article, we argue that both democracy and governments’ partisanship have a bearing on state capacity in Latin America. We also maintain that state capacity is a condition rooted in history and society: it can be built or purposefully undermined. In particular, in Latin America parties of the left have frequently operated to reallocate social and political clout in favor of underprivileged groups: the inclusion of the latter in the political process helped states to thwart pressures from dominant elites opposing redistribution and tax increases. These mobilized groups have also pushed for universal public services, as high-quality education, health care or public housing, which required well-functioning administrations and an adequate institutional capacity, thus contributing to consolidate stateness in the area. Whereas previous qualitative studies analyzed the mechanisms that relate democracy and political partisanship to state capacity, we test this hypothesis quantitatively. To this end, we estimate the effect over time of democracy, political parties and other socio-demographic factors on a composite measure of stateness, obtaining supportive evidence: in particular, we find that higher democracy levels and left-leaning governments favored the growth of state strength in the area during 1975–2009 and discuss these findings with reference to the political experience of Latin America.

Review: Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933–1959, by Timothy Hyde

Timothy Hyde Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933–1959 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012, x + 371 pp., 11 color and 67 b/w illus. $31.50, ISBN 9780816678112 Through times of democracy and dictatorship, revolution and rebuilding, cultural actors in twentieth-century Cuba self-consciously constructed national traditions, synthesizing colonial anachronisms left after the island’s independence from Spain in 1898 with imported modernist innovations. Between the ouster of the infamous president-cum-dictator Gerardo Machado in 1933 and the revolution of 1959, a complex set of historic, social, and aesthetic conditions emerged that set modern architecture in dialogue with a developing discourse of civil society and constitutionalism. These were years of military rule under Fulgencio Batista, an autocrat who haunted the Cuban political landscape as a behind-the-scenes puppeteer, quasi-legitimate president, and eventually an unfettered dictator until Castro’s coup. Alongside politicians and civil servants, writers, artists, urbanists, and architects simultaneously struggled to define Cuba’s national identity. The resulting urban forms and social and legal histories are the subject of Timothy Hyde’s Constitutional Modernism . The book focuses in particular on modernist architecture and urbanism as forms of civic expression, and it deals almost exclusively with the capital city of Havana, which is understood as an urban metonym for the nation as a whole. It brings welcome complexity to discussions of mid-twentieth-century Cuban art and architecture, which are often framed in terms of design typologies. Bringing the social, civic, and architectural realms into dialogue with one another, Hyde asks, “How does architecture make its appearance in civil society?” (2). His thorough and scrupulous study charts the confluence of politics and architecture, anchored by the discourse of constitutionalism. The Cuban Constitution of 1940 aimed to establish a stable, independent republic, enacting a historical transition from colony to nation, a transition that many still believed incomplete. It is no small thing, then, for Hyde to claim that the principles and intentions of …

Synopsis of the Africanization of the South Pacific Thesis: Is the Africanization Thesis a True Diagnosis of Instability in Melanesia

Ben Reilly (2000) states in his article titled “The Africanization of the South Pacific” in the Australian Journal of International Affairs that these are troubling times for Democracy in the South Pacific. In the last 3 decades the Pacific has seen a growing trend of political uncertainty and instability that has resulted in armed conflict and in political violence (Henderson and Watson, 2005). Of particular interest is the fact that the majority of the instability and uncertainty has been occurring within Melanesia.Henderson and Watson (2005) have used the term “Arc of Instability” to describe the aforementioned Melanesian States and this is reflective of the level of political instability and uncertainty that these States have experienced.This paper looks at the main arguments proffered by Reilly in his Africanization of the South Pacific Thesis and aims to focus the discussion in the light of whether it is a true and proper diagnosis of what has been manifested in the South Pacific Region. For ease of analysis, I will concentrate on the Melanesian States in particularly Fiji and the Solomon Islands to determine the extent of the relativity of Reilly’s Thesis.

Of Tensions and Tricksters: Grassroots Democracy between Theory and Practice

Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy. By Mark R. Warren; Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life. By Harry C. Boyte; Going Public. By Michael Gecan; and Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice. By Edward T. Chambers with Michael A. Cowan.These are not easy times for democracy. In the face of multinational corporations, an increasingly corrupt and deceitful political system, mega-media conglomerates, and militaristic televangelists, it is easy to understand how some radical democrats succumb to a politics of the bullhorn. The objective of such politics is to hone the correct line and strategize ways to project it clearly, loudly, and righteously into the public arena. Yet the success of politics thus framed has been marginal in recent decades, and its democratic credentials questionable—if by democratic we mean a politics that engages a manifold people in the difficult reciprocities of active critical judgment, organizing, action toward common goods, more egalitarian distributions, and deepening acknowledgments of plural modes of being. Most Americans are Teflon to it.Romand Coles is Associate Professor of Political Science at Duke University (coles@duke.edu). The author wishes to acknowledge helpful comments and criticisms from Susan Bickford, Kimberley Curtis, Jeffrey Isaac, Sanford Schram, and anonymous reviewers for Perspectives on Politics. Romand Coles is the author of Self/Power/Other: Political Theory and Dialogical Ethics, Rethinking Generosity: Critical Theory and the Politics of Caritas, and most recently Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections for the Possibility of Democracy.