Decisiveness and Fear of Disorder examines how democratic representatives make decisions in crisis situations. By analyzing parliamentary asylum debates from Germany’s Asylum Compromise in 1992-1993 ...and the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, Julius Rogenhofer identifies representatives’ ability to project decisiveness as a crucial determinant for whether the rights and demands of irregular migrants were adequately considered in democratic decision-making. Both crisis situations showcase an emotive dimension to the parliamentary meaning-making process. As politicians confront fears of social and political disorder, they focus on appearing decisive in the eyes of the public and fellow representatives, even at the expense of human rights considerations and inclusive deliberation processes. Rogenhofer shows how his theoretical approach allows us to reinterpret a range of crisis situations beyond the irregular migration context, including democracies’ initial responses to Covid-19, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, and United States climate politics. These additional case studies help position concerns with decisiveness amid the challenges that populism and technocracy increasingly pose to representative democracies.
Benedict Spinoza, the seventeenth-century rationalist philosopher, is, according to some authors, the first theorist to offer serious philosophical arguments justifying the idea of democracy as the ...best (and most natural) political system. Spinoza’s political philosophy is, therefore, one of the first to be examined in today’s political situation, which is often characterized by the phrase “crisis of (liberal) democracy”. This study attempts to capture the philosophical arguments used by Spinoza to support his pro-democratic conclusions, detects his initial assumptions, and illuminates what specifically should characterize a democratic regime in his imagination. Among the primary sources used for this purpose are both those writings of Spinoza that are traditionally understood as political-philosophical (Theologico-Political Treatise and Political Treatise) and Spinoza’s most famous work (Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order). Although the latter may appear distant from the issue at hand, some of the most strongly formulated relevant positions are found in it. The intention of the present study is twofold: first, to demonstrate on the example of Spinoza’s thought how inextricably the preference for a democratic regime is linked to certain philosophical premises, not only ethical and axiological but also gnoseological and ontological ones; and more importantly, second, to formulate a hypothetical answer that Spinoza would have given to the question of the crisis of democracy and the possibilities of its solution.
The essay explains the necessity of mechanisms that maintain a certain homogeneity of beliefs in human societies that rely on cooperation and discusses several causes for the decline of contemporary ...societies’ belief in the attainability of truth and the reliability of science, one being the replacement of epistemology by the sociology of knowledge. It analyzes on purely conceptual grounds the deleterious consequences that this decline must have for the stability of democracies and ends by showing some parallels between the rise of Fascism and National Socialism and the current situation.
Phantasmagoria Shukhrat-Zade, Asad
Central European Journal of Politics,
2022, Letnik:
7, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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Odprti dostop
This paper provides a philosophical reflection of the crisis of democracy. Its central research focus is on what is referred to as “the world of artificial images and the lost truth” (or ...phantasmagoria), where the West European society experiences a sequence of distorted perceptions of reality (simulacra) broken down between various social movements, and the effect of those on the conflict-settling function of democracy, which less and less observable in contemporary societies of Western Europe. Starting from this very brief description, the article elaborates the issue of lost truth and meaning as well as the resurrection of myth based on a multitude of sub-realities or simulacra, which deprive democracy of its conflict settling mechanism and prevent social groups/movements in an atomized society from discursive consensus building.
•In conflicts over concrete projects, repressed disputes over the overall common good goals of the Energiewende are unleashed.•Thereby a disaffection with democratic institutions and their ...performance is revealed.•These disaffection tendencies are reinforced by a one-sided orientation towards the deliberative democracy model.•Agonistic politics could open up the political scope for imaginative visions and counteract disenchantment with politics.•To this end, the confrontation between competing Energiewende visions should be forced in a pluralistic-democratic way.
This paper makes a threefold contribution to reflecting on the German energy transition (Energiewende). First, the shaping of the Energiewende by national government policies is analyzed. The prevailing focus on questions about technology (promotion and acceptance) is interpreted as symptomatic of the depoliticizing paradigm of ecological modernization. However, the consensus on the ecomodern approach is eroding, as evidenced by increasing conflicts over the implementation of the Energiewende. Second, competing justice claims and energy visions that are articulated in these conflicts as well as the related disaffection with present democratic institutions and their performance are elaborated. Third, the insights gained on conflicts over concrete energy projects are discussed in the light of democratic theory. Thereby, it is argued that a one-sided orientation towards the deliberative democracy model further exacerbates the tendencies of disaffection with democratic institutions. From a radical democratic perspective, the key to constructively addressing both climate and democratic challenges is to foster confrontation between competing Energiewende visions. Agonistic politics could, in the best case, open up the political scope for ambitious energy visions beyond the realm of ecological modernization and, at the same time, counteract disenchantment with politics.
European democracies have experienced drastic changes in electoral competition. Voter support for insider parties that have traditionally governed has declined while support for radical and populist ...parties has increased. Simultaneously, citizens’ declining political trust has become a concern, as confidence in political institutions and actors is low across numerous countries. Interestingly, the linkage between political trust and support for insider parties has not been empirically established but deduced from the fact that outsider parties are often supported by dissatisfied citizens. We address this gap adopting both an institutional- and an actor-centered approach by investigating whether trust in parliaments and in parties is associated with the electoral performance of insider parties on the aggregate level. Combining different data sources in a novel way, we apply time-series cross-section models to a dataset containing 30 countries and 137 elections from 1998 to 2018. Our results show that when political trust is low, particularly institutional trust, insider parties receive less electoral support. Hence, we provide empirical evidence that decreasing levels of political trust are the downfall of insider parties, thereby opening a window of opportunity for challenging outsider parties.
In this article, we critically analyze the phenomenon of the crisis of democracy emerging in different parts of the world and propose that the solution to the problem lies in an appreciation of the ...contentious dynamics presented by social movements. We explain to what extent the problems of legitimacy of representative political systems have been caused by the historical dynamics imposed by neoliberalism, through a process of social de-democratization, and we expose the difficulties that exist in the political field itself to finding alternatives to populism. On this basis, we maintain that social movements and their actions provide the foundations for a democratic configuration of society.
Demokratie und Technikfolgenabschätzung Armin Grunwald; Thomas Saretzki
TATuP - Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis (Online),
12/2020, Letnik:
29, Številka:
3
Journal Article
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Odprti dostop
Technikfolgenabschätzung (TA) ist vor über 50 Jahren zur Unterstützung demokratischer Meinungsbildung und Entscheidungsfindung entstanden. Sie hat sich seitdem in demokratischen Gesellschaften ...westlichen Typs weiterentwickelt und diversifiziert. Dieses Modell ist seit einigen Jahren mit Herausforderungen konfrontiert, darunter: (1) In fast allen westlichen Ländern wird anlässlich des Erstarkens populistischer Strömungen von einer Krise der Demokratie gesprochen. (2) Die Digitalisierung ermöglicht neue Kommunikations- und Mobilisierungsmuster weitab von den klassischen Formen demokratischer Meinungs- und Willensbildung. (3) Basisdemokratische und partizipative Verhandlungen werden für die Ausgestaltung und Akzeptanz von neuen Technologien immer relevanter. In dieser Einführung entfalten wir diese Herausforderungen und geben einen Überblick über die Beiträge des TATuP-Themas.
Demokratie und Technikfolgenabschätzung Armin Grunwald; Thomas Saretzki
TATuP - Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis (Online),
12/2020, Letnik:
29, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Technikfolgenabschätzung (TA) ist vor über 50 Jahren zur Unterstützung demokratischer Meinungsbildung und Entscheidungsfindung entstanden. Sie hat sich seitdem in demokratischen Gesellschaften ...westlichen Typs weiterentwickelt und diversifiziert. Dieses Modell ist seit einigen Jahren mit Herausforderungen konfrontiert, darunter: (1) In fast allen westlichen Ländern wird anlässlich des Erstarkens populistischer Strömungen von einer Krise der Demokratie gesprochen. (2) Die Digitalisierung ermöglicht neue Kommunikations- und Mobilisierungsmuster weitab von den klassischen Formen demokratischer Meinungs- und Willensbildung. (3) Basisdemokratische und partizipative Verhandlungen werden für die Ausgestaltung und Akzeptanz von neuen Technologien immer relevanter. In dieser Einführung entfalten wir diese Herausforderungen und geben einen Überblick über die Beiträge des TATuP-Themas.
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