Donald Trump meets Carl Schmitt Scheuerman, William E.
Philosophy & social criticism,
12/2019, Letnik:
45, Številka:
9-10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
By revisiting late-Weimar debates between Carl Schmitt and two left-wing critics, Otto Kirchheimer and Franz L Neumann, we can shed light on the surprising alliance of populist politics with key ...tenets of economic liberalism, an alliance that vividly manifests itself in the political figure and retrograde policies of Donald Trump. In the process, we can begin to fill a striking lacuna in recent scholarly literature on populism, namely its failure to pay proper attention to matters of political economy. We can also perhaps begin to make sense of the roots of Trump’s assault on the US federal state: formal law and its organizational basis, modern bureaucracy, represent potential restraints on the alliance of populism with neoliberalism.
In its annual report, Freedom House stresses how '... after years of major gains, the share of free countries has declined over the past decade, while the share of not free countries has risen'. In ...this depiction of the profound crisis of mainstream political parties,
Portugal is a clear exception: unlike in Spain with Podemos, Italy with the Movimento 5 Stelle and Greece with Syriza, new anti-system parties did not find the political spaces in which to operate. However, we need to understand whether the absence of such parties in parliament corresponds
with a matching absence in public opinion of support for forms of disfigured democracy and underlying factors. This article is based on quantitative methods and multilevel analysis. Findings indicate that in Portugal the normative view of democracy is consistent on many levels with that of
Europeans in general: unanimous support for democracy (90%), alongside backing for different forms of democracy - direct democracy (80%), partial democracy (50%, plebiscitary and technocratic) and authoritarian rule (18%). Nevertheless, we can still detect differences in the underlying
factors on the level of illegitimacy and cognitive and political mobilization.
'Real-existing Democracies' (REDs) seem to be in real trouble. Academics and practitioners tend to agree on this and both can produce long lists of negative trends to illustrate it. The one thread ...that connects all of these symptoms is representation and, even more specifically, the extent to which citizen representation through political parties competing in 'free and fair' elections within territorial constituencies is capable of keeping rulers accountable and ensuring their legitimacy. Could it be that what are no longer working as they used to and, therefore, generating most of the disaffection among citizens are the partisan channels for articulating, aggregating, deliberating and deciding among competing interests and passions?
Democratic systems are currently facing multiple challenges. A central component of this is the disintegrating relationship between citizens and political actors; citizens simply do not feel ...represented by political actors any longer. As a result, we are seeing a decline in trust in politicians, increasing questioning of whether democracy is still the best political system, and the question of whether citizens are not also developing a changed understanding of democracy. Research into the underlying causes of these developments inevitably leads to an analysis of the outcomes resulting from political activities, which, in addition to the desired results, also produce unintended consequences due to the complexity of politics and society (Almond et al., p. 32–34). In this case, we speak of dysfunction or dysfunctionality. In this paper, which also serves as an introduction to the special section “Dysfunctional democracy(ies): Characteristics, Causes and Consequences.” we give a brief overview of the concept of dysfunctionality of democratic systems in order to distinguish it from considerations of the deterioration of the quality of democracy. The focus of our reflections is not the institutional consequences of the various challenges. The focus is on why democratic systems are unable to adapt adequately to the demands of a changing environment and thus produce unintended outcomes that harm the democratic political system.
Ante el giro participativo global que se registra en las denominadas democracias occidentales, este artículo tiene por objetivo conocer la forma particular que adopta dicho giro en España. Para ello, ...se realiza un análisis desde un punto de vista genético de la institucionalización de la participación ciudadana en el país entre los años 1978 y 2017. De dicho análisis se concluye la existencia de una tendencia neoliberal con la que se implementa el giro participativo. En el texto se esbozan los tres movimientos principales que componen el diagnóstico de giro participativo neoliberal: 1) La naturalización de topos de la crisis de la democracia de carácter mecanicista; 2) la burocratización neoliberal de la participación y 3) la mercantilización privativa de la participación. Se explican las líneas generales de los tres movimientos y se profundiza en el análisis particular del segundo de ellos, la burocratización neoliberal de la participación ciudadana.
The main methods of application of the participation budget in Europe and in Ukraine are analyzed. The application of five models of participatory budgeting, which exist in Europe, is researched on ...the example of the countries using these models. The basic criteria of application of this or that model for each concrete case and each concrete city are specified. The shortcomings and potential risks arising in the process of applying the participation budget in Ukraine are defined, it is proposed to try other methods of the participation budget to minimize risks.
In this special issue on "Democratization beyond the Post-Democratic Turn. Political Participation between Empowerment and Abuse", we have explored changing understandings of participation in ...contemporary Western representative democracies through the analytical lens of the concept of the post-democratic-turn. We have investigated technology-based, market-based, and expert-led innovations that claim to enhance democratic participation and to provide policy legitimation. In this concluding article, I revisit the cases made by the individual contributors and analyse how shifting notions of participation alter dominant understandings of democracy. I carve out how new and emerging ideas of participation are based on different understandings of political subjectivity; furthermore, how constantly rising democratic expectations and simultaneously increasing scepticism with regard to democratic processes and institutions point to a growing democratic ambivalence within Western societies. Making use of Dahl's conceptualization of democracy, in this article, I review changing understandings of participation in light of their contribution to further democratization. The article shows how under post-democratic conditions the simulative performance of autonomy and subjectivity has become central to democratic participation. It emphasizes that what in established perspectives on democratization might appear as an abuse of participation, through the lens of a post-democratic-turn might be perceived as emancipatory and liberating.
Because of its content, because it highlights the immense inequality between men and women of flesh and blood, the modern or bourgeois novel educates the reader in what Martha Nussbaum calls ..."judgment of similar possibilities", encourages him to perceive the equal dignity of people: it is, therefore, a formidable promoter of the moral and legal value of equality. The modern novel does not limit itself to offer the public that individuals change according to circumstances, it accustoms them to thinking that they have the right to want to change: its appearance was therefore also a significant psychological factor in social mobility. After having unmasked the alibi of economic and social success as a synonym of merit and virtue and thus having called into question the imperfect affirmation of equality in the order of political relations (ending, in other words, the form of census democracy), literature presses today to free the principle of equality, universalist by essence, from another contradiction: from the decline on a small scale of individual and separate States. This is just one of the good reasons to introduce a little literature in the training of lawyers.
Per i suoi contenuti, per mostrare l’infinita diseguaglianza degli uomini e delle donne in carne e ossa, il romanzo moderno o borghese educa il lettore a quello che Martha Nussbaum chiama «il giudizio delle analoghe possibilità», stimola a percepire la pari dignità delle persone: è dunque un formidabile promotore del valore morale e giuridico dell’eguaglianza. Il romanzo moderno non si limita a mostrare al pubblico che in relazione alle circostanze gli individui cambiano, ma lo abitua a pensare che abbiano giusto titolo a voler cambiare: la sua comparsa fu quindi anche un rilevante fattore psicologico di mobilità sociale. Dopo aver smascherato l’alibi del successo economico e sociale come sinonimo di merito e di virtù, e con ciò posto fine all’imperfetta affermazione dell’eguaglianza nell’ordine dei rapporti politici (posto fine, in altri termini, alle forme della democrazia censitaria), la letteratura spinge oggi per affrancare il principio d’eguaglianza, per sua essenza universalistico, da un’altra contraddizione: dalla declinazione nella scala ridotta dei singoli e separati Stati. È questo solo uno dei buoni motivi per dare ingresso a un po’ di letteratura nella scuola dei giuristi.
Por seu conteúdo, por evidenciar a imensa desigualdade entre homens e mulheres de carne e osso, o romance moderno ou burguês educa o leitor naquilo que Martha Nussbaum denomina "juízo de possibilidades semelhantes", estimula a perceber a igual dignidade das pessoas: ele é, portanto, formidável promotor do valor moral e jurídico da igualdade. O romance moderno não se limita a oferecer ao público que os indivíduos mudam de acordo com as circunstâncias, ele o acostuma a pensar que se têm o direito de querer mudar: a sua aparição foi, portanto, também um significativo fator psicológico da mobilidade social. Depois de ter desmascarado o álibi do sucesso econômico e social como sinônimo de mérito e virtude e de, assim, ter colocado em xeque a imperfeita afirmação da igualdade na ordem das relações políticas (acabando, em outras palavras, com a forma da democracia censitária), a literatura pressiona hoje para libertar o princípio da igualdade, universalista por essência, de outra contradição: do declínio em reduzida escala dos Estados individuais e separados. Esta é apenas uma das boas razões para introduzir um pouco de literatura na formação dos juristas.
Democracy’s Conceptual Politics Hobson, Christopher
Democratic theory (Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)),
12/2021, Letnik:
8, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The language we use for democracy matters, the struggles over how it is defined are real, the outcomes are consequential. This is what a conceptual politics approach emphasizes, pointing to the vital ...role played by contestation in determining which meanings prevail and which are marginalized. Among all the meanings of democracy that exist, it is liberal democracy that stands at the center, it has effectively won conceptual and political battles resulting in its current primacy. In this sense, liberalism is much more deeply baked into contemporary discussions about democracy than some might be comfortable admitting. This is not without cause, as liberal democracy has achieved, and continues to unevenly provide, political, economic, and social goods. In the rush to dig up alternatives, it is important not to lose sight of how and why this liberal conception of democracy has come to dominate and the ways it conditions democratic possibilities.
Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like.—Nathan Heller, New Yorker
How a new model of democracy that opens up power to ordinary citizens could strengthen ...inclusiveness, responsiveness, and accountability in modern societies
To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people—with the right suit, accent, wealth, and connections—are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the lost openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy in which power is genuinely accessible to ordinary citizens.
Hélène Landemore favors the ideal of “representing and being represented in turn” over direct-democracy approaches. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Landemore recommends centering political institutions around the “open mini-public”—a large, jury-like body of randomly selected citizens gathered to define laws and policies for the polity, in connection with the larger public. She also defends five institutional principles as the foundations of an open democracy: participatory rights, deliberation, the majoritarian principle, democratic representation, and transparency.
Open Democracy demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, today more than ever, urgently needed.
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