What Is Democracy (and What Is Its Raison D’Etre)?

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALVIN I. GOLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Power Measurement ◽  
Gradable Adjective ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Power Equality ◽  
Substantial Equality

ABSTRACT:This article aims to say what democracy is or what the predicate ‘democratic’ means, as opposed to saying what is good, right, or desirable about it. The basic idea—by no means a novel one—is that a democratic system is one that features substantial equality of political power. More distinctively it is argued that ‘democratic’ is a relative gradable adjective, the use of which permits different, contextually determined thresholds of democraticness. Thus, a system can be correctly called ‘democratic’ even if it does not feature perfect equality of power. The article's central undertaking is to give greater precision to the operative notion(s) of power. No complete or fully unified measure of power is offered, but several conceptual tools are introduced that help give suitable content to power measurement. These tools include distinctions between conditional versus unconditional power and direct versus indirect power. Using such tools, a variety of prima facie problems for the power equality approach are addressed and defused. Finally, the theory is compared to epistemic and deliberative approaches to democracy; and reasons are offered for the attractiveness of democracy that flows from the power equality theme.

Tocqueville: Neutrality and the Use of History

1964 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin Zetterbaum
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Social System ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Democratic Revolution ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
The One

It is not uncommon for a major writer to be seen by his critics in widely divergent, even contradictory terms; Alexis de Tocqueville shares this fate. To the familiar causes of controversy, Tocqueville added his own—a veil of neutrality or objectivity concealing his deepest views. The publication in 1835 of the first part of Democracy in America thus gave rise to an effort, still continuing, to discover Tocqueville's true intent: behind the façade of neutrality does he favor one social system, aristocracy or democracy, over the other?On the one hand, does he not reveal in his writings the ineradicable bias of his aristocratic origins? Was he not hostile to the openended, unformed, and unforeseeable consequences of the democratic revolution? Did he not intend by his criticisms of the democratic system to “carry the reader to the point of wishing for its destruction?” Was not the liberty he defended a “restricted liberty, protecting a small group of privileged people who were really independent so far as economic circumstances went?” Was it not “a liberty for believers, [a] liberty for owners…an aristocratic liberalism?” Did he not believe that “the mass of men should remain bereft of political power?”

scholarly journals ISLAM AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THE POSTMODERN

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Ahmad Sidqi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
A Current

The Islamic experience in the modern world reconstitutes the relation between human and God on the basis of the fundamental authority of the holy Quran. Mosque as a symbol, this monument to political power contains some of the most basic contradictions thats characterize Muslim societies in the modern world. A similar distinction applies to the to the morning officialy attributed to the mosque, it maybe “open”, “toleran”, “cosmopolitan”, and “modern” Muslim reformers, embattled governments against increasingly militant oppositional groups which have adopted Islam as an overarching instrument of discourse and struggle. Muslim reformers, activists, and militants nearly always say that theirs is a “movement”, a ‘current” which is still in the process of gestation and evolution. Emancipatory politics is concerned, above all, with themes of justice, equality, and participation, the very same themes that most Muslim reformers are in fact concerned with. Islamic experience involves a redefination of identity in a world which has become homogenized by the globalizing process of modernism The Islamic experience is therefore a call for an emancipatory politics which means justice where there is none, a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and a more democratic system of decision making. 

Dsp-based algorithm for electric power measurement

1993 ◽  
Vol 140 (6) ◽  
pp. 485 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-C. Montaño ◽  
A. López ◽  
M. Castilla ◽  
J. Gutierrez
Keyword(s):  
Electric Power ◽  
Power Measurement

Russia in international capital movement: Turn of tendencies

2017 ◽  
pp. 148-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bulatov
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Capital Movement ◽  
International Capital ◽  
Capital Outflow ◽  
The Past ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Future Situation ◽  
International Capital Movement

The paper deals with the past, current and future situation in Russian capital outflow and inflow. The specific features of the past situation (2001-2013) were as follows: big scale of Russian participation in international capital movement; turnover of national capital between Russia and offshores; stable surplus of capital outflow over inflow; inadequacy of industrial structure of capital inflow to Russian needs. The current situation is characterized by such new features as radical cut in volumes of capital outflow and inflow, some decrease in its level of offshorization. In the mid-term the probability of continuation of current trends is high. In the long-term the mode of Russian participation in international capital movement will prima facie depend on prospects of realization of systematic reforms in the Russian economy.

‘Imagined San Francisco’: Unpacking Urban Regime Theory through Interactive Cartography

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-143
Author(s):  
Ocean Howell
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Urban Regime Theory ◽  
Digital Mapping ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The City ◽  
Interactive Cartography

American urban historians have begun to understand that digital mapping provides a potentially powerful tool to describe political power. There are now important projects that map change in the American city along a number of dimensions, including zoning, suburbanization, commercial development, transportation infrastructure, and especially segregation. Most projects use their visual sources to illustrate the material consequences of the policies of powerful agencies and dominant planning ‘regimes.’ As useful as these projects are, they often inadvertently imbue their visualizations with an aura of inevitability, and thereby present political power as a kind of static substance–possess this and you can remake the city to serve your interests. A new project called ‘Imagined San Francisco’ is motivated by a desire to expand upon this approach, treating visual material not only to illustrate outcomes, but also to interrogate historical processes, and using maps, plans, drawings, and photographs not only to show what did happen, but also what might have happened. By enabling users to layer a series of historical urban plans–with a special emphasis on unrealized plans–‘Imagined San Francisco’ presents the city not only as a series of material changes, but also as a contingent process and a battleground for political power.

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