scholarly journals The Patterns of Democracy in Context of Historical Political Science

Author(s):  
Jiacheng He

AbstractThe patterns of democracy are related to the success or failure of national governance; hence, they are a key topic in the theoretical research of political science. It is difficult to comprehend the worldwide political conflicts caused by the promotion of liberal democracy in the study of democratic models that have liberal democracy as their core. The emphasis of historical political science on the genes of civilization provides an opportunity to reinterpret the patterns of democracy. Relying on specific civilization genes, the patterns of democracy can be divided into the “value pattern”, which is shaped by historical civilization genes, and the “practice pattern”, which is based on the “value pattern”. Based on Christian concepts, Western civilization produced liberal democracy as the value pattern, and the value is inherited through the practice pattern of party democracy. Chinese civilization has continued the tradition of people-orientation and consultative practice, establishing socialist democracy in value and consultative democracy in practice. Theoretically, the analytical framework of the value pattern and the practice pattern of democracy illustrates the source of the diverse patterns of democracy, which helps demonstrate the limitations of liberal democracy and points out the possibility of developing a non-liberal democracy pattern.

Author(s):  
Tatsiana Chulitskaya ◽  
Irmina Matonyte ◽  
Dangis Gudelis ◽  
Serghei Sprincean

AbstractThe chapter explores the trajectories of the evolution of political science (PS) in four former Soviet Socialist Republics (Estonia and Lithuania, the Republics of Moldova and Belarus) after the USSR collapse. Departing from the premise that PS is appreciated as the science of democracy, the authors claim that its identity and autonomy are particularly important. Research shows that PS in these countries started from the same impoverished basis (“scientific communism”), but it soon took diverse trajectories and currently faces specific challenges. Democracy, pro-Western geopolitical settings and the shorter period of Sovietization contributed to the faster and more sustainable development of PS in two Baltic States. However, in Estonia, political developments have led to the retrenchment of PS and to downsize of universities’ departments and study programmes. In Lithuania, political scientists are very visible in the public sphere. In Moldova, its uncertain geopolitical orientation and a series of internal political conflicts have led to the weak identity of PS and questionable prospects for its further institutionalization. In authoritarian Belarus, PS as an academic discipline exists within a hostile political environment and under a hierarchical system of governance offering practically no degree of academic freedom.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 193-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Melvin-Koushki

Abstract This essay reviews a major new study of European Renaissance Arabist-humanist philology as it was actually practiced, humanist neoclassicizing anti-Arabism notwithstanding. While definitive and philologically magisterial, that study nevertheless falls prey structurally and conceptually to the very eurocentrism whose ideological-textual genesis it chronicles. Situating it within the comparative global early modern philologies framework that has now been proposed in the volume World Philology and the present journal is a necessary remedy—but only a partial one; for that framework too still obscures the multiplicity of specifically genetically Western early modernities, thus hobbling comparative history of philology. I therefore propose a new framework appropriate to the study of Greco-Arabo-Persian and Greco-Arabo-Latin as the two parallel and equally powerful philosophical-philological trajectories that together defined early modern Western—i.e., Hellenic-Abrahamic, Islamo-Judeo-Christian, west of South India—intellectual history: taḥqīq vs. taqlīd, progressivism vs. declinism. But a broadened and more balanced analytical framework alone cannot save philology, much less Western civilization, from the throes of its current existential crisis: for we philologists of the Euro-American academy are fevered too by the cosmological ill that is reflexive scientistic materialism. As antidote, I prescribe a progressivist, postmodern return to early modern Western deconstructive-reconstructive cosmic philology as prerequisite for the discipline’s survival, and perhaps even triumph, in the teeth of totalitarian colonialist-capitalist modernity.


Author(s):  
Isabelle-Christine Panreck

The rise of populist parties throughout Europe is fostering the debate on normativism in science. Klaus von Beyme – one of Germany’s leading political scientists of the Second Generation after World War II – is an early sceptic of normative thinking in the field of political science. He campaigns for a neoinstitutionalist perspective which combines historical insights and empirical findings to describe and explain political phenomenons. Not only in the times of bloc confrontation before 1990 but also in the current debate on populism, Beyme’s hesitation against normative thinking is sharply criticised as a lack of normative comittment to the fundamental values of liberal democracy. Following the concept of Intellectual History, this paper analyses Beymes scientific writings against the backdrop of biographical and historical contextes. Further, the paper shows how methodological and epistemological assumptions can shape the production of knowledge in scientific discourses.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gema Rubio-Carbonero ◽  
Ricard Zapata-Barrero

The aim of this article is to present the findings of an analytical framework we have designed to monitor discriminatory political discourse on immigration. Through the understanding of how some of the most relevant studies in three disciplines (political science, social psychology and linguistics) have framed racism, we try to infer how such racism may manifest in discourse through particular discriminatory tendencies. The combination of these tendencies has contributed to the designing of the proposed analytical framework that aims, by means of 12 standards, to systematically certify political discourse as discriminatory, quantify how much discriminatory discourse is and assess how such discrimination is legitimised or justified. By implementing such a framework within the context of Catalonia, this pilot study offers a global picture of how Catalan political discourse on immigration is constructed and how each of the standards appears (or does not appear) in discourse. Once the viability of this framework is proven, we conclude it could be the basis of comparative research in other contexts.


2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludger Helms

AbstractLegitimate political opposition constitutes a key component of any form of liberal democracy, which has, however, received surprisingly scant attention in the more recent political science literature. In an attempt to revitalize the debate about the various forms of political opposition, this paper starts with distinguishing five different ways or models of institutionalizing political opposition in liberal democratic systems. It goes on to look at how these different models have worked in the constitutional practice of selected western democracies. In the second part of this article, the focus is on the possible lessons that constitution-makers in democratizing countries could draw from this experience. Whereas there is no best model of opposition in general, some models would seem to be better suited to meet the particular needs of new democracies than others.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 208-213
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Petrov

In September 2019, the All-Russian Scientific Conference VIII Siberian Philosophical Seminar «The Siberian Dimension of Russian Philosophy: Schools, Directions, Traditions», organized by Novosibirsk State University and Gorno-Altaysk State University, was held in Novosibirsk and Gorno-Altaysk. The conference discussed key issues of philosophy and related sciences, such as history, political science, sociology, economics and jurisprudence, related to the modern interpretation of the foundations of philosophical culture, which played a key role in the formation of modern Western civilization. The conference showed that Siberian scientists have the potential to turn Siberian philosophy into one of the most important centers of the domestic and world philosophical network.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Brian G. Mattson

This article presents Jonah Goldberg’s Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy. Classical liberalism is under renewed attack from many directions. Many of its most notable defenders claim that the liberal order has no need of distinctively Christian theological resources. This essay scrutinizes that claim and argues for the necessity of a Christian doctrine of providence. KEYWORDS: God, gratitude, Jonah Goldberg, J. Gresham Machen, political science, Western civilization, providence, historicism, John Calvin


Author(s):  
V A Gutorov

In the given article, the author analyses the evolution of the concepts of civil society and political activism in western political science in their interrelationship with development of liberal democracy theory. Basing on wide array of political theories the author follows the main paradigm of the discussions on democracy that is constitutive for western political science.


2015 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
AARON L. HEROLD

This article proposes a new interpretation of Tocqueville's thought, one that focuses on his account of religious psychology. From his observations of America, Tocqueville concludes that human beings have a natural hope for immortality—a hope that is driven by a paradoxical but ineradicable desire to affirm and forget oneself simultaneously. Tocqueville formulates this insight as a critique of the Enlightenment thinkers who laid the foundations for liberal democracy; I argue that he crafts his “new political science” to provide healthy outlets for the religious hopes whose existence these thinkers largely denied and whose anomalous presence in the United States has accordingly led to unforeseen dangers. Tocqueville's analysis not only helps us understand and begin to remedy those dissatisfactions that characterize democracy today but it also reveals his theoretical depth, political moderation, and sober assessment of our moral psychology in a way not seen before.


1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (03) ◽  
pp. 326-328
Author(s):  
Gerald C. Wright

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation provides support for basic empirical and theoretical research on political institutions and processes. The goal of the program is to facilitate the development of scientific theory and knowledge on political behavior, the operation of political systems, and the actions of governments. The program seeks to meet this goal by supporting research on a very wide range of substantive topics falling under the rubric of politics. As part of its long-range planning, the program attempts to identify areas of intellectual growth for program emphases. In making funding decisions, however, the determining factor is the scientific merit of the proposed work rather than topical or methodological closeness to the major emphases in program plans.Support for basic political science research has been growing at a faster rate than overall NSF support for the social sciences. From fiscal 1977 to 1979 the Political Science Program allocation grew 35 percent compared to a 17 percent increase in the overall funding for the Division of Social and Economic Science.


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