scholarly journals Islam as a Civilizational Threat: Constitutional Identity, Militant Democracy, and Judicial Review in Western Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1228-1256
Author(s):  
Malthe Hilal-Harvald
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Imminent Threat ◽  
Constitutional Identity

AbstractMultiple laws and regulations in Western Europe have been enacted on the premise that headscarves and face veils constitute an existential threat to the constitutional identity of the respective legal systems. Thus, the logic of militant democracy as a justification for restricting fundamental rights have been applied in order to restrict the freedom to manifest one’s religion. Yet, the politicymakers claiming to defend the constitutional identity through militant democracy have not been able to prove the existence of a concrete, imminent threat against the state from the women who wear headscarves or face veils. Nonetheless, the European judiciaries have taken the political claim at face value and allowed the restrictions without compelling the political decision-makers to provide substantive justifications. Thus, the cases of headscarves and face veils offer a prism, through which we can study fundamental paradoxes of liberal democracy and constitutionalism.

scholarly journals Religious Engagement and the Migration Issue: Towards Reconciling Political and Moral Duty

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Joanna Kulska
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Religious Engagement ◽  
The Face ◽  
Religious Actors

The increasingly acknowledged post-secular perspective has resulted in the emergence of some new approaches theorizing this phenomenon. One such approach has been the concept of religious engagement, which calls for the redefinition of the perception of religious non-state actors towards including them as important partners in the process of identifying and realizing political goals. According to this view, due to the multidimensional role played by religious communities and non-state religious actors, they need to be recognized as pivotal in creating a new form of knowledge generated through encounter and dialogue of the political decision-makers with these subjects. Among numerous others, the challenge of migration calls for enhanced debate referring to both political and ethical issues. When such a perspective is applied, the question is raised of the duties and limits of nation-states using more or less harsh political measures towards refugees and migrants based on the concept of security, but also short-term political goals. In the face of a state’s lack of will or capacity to deal with the problem of migration, the question of religion serving not only as the service-provider but also as the “trend-setter” with regard to fundamental ethical questions needs to be considered.

Where Do New Ideas (About Class) Come From?

2000 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Labor History ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Working Class History ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
American Labor

In my comment I raise two main questions about the Eley/Nield essay. First, I express some doubts about whether the issues discussed in their essay can be unproblematically transposed to historiographical debates in areas beyond Western Europe and North America. Certain themes, such as the need to reemphasize the political, are hardly pressing given the continual emphasis on politics and the state in Latin American labor history. Closely related to this, I question whether the state of gender studies within labor history can be used, in the way these authors seem to be doing, as a barometer of the sophistication and vitality of labor and working-class history. Despite recognizing the tremendous contribution of gendered approaches to labor history, I express doubts about its ability to help us rethink the category of class, and even express some concern that it might occlude careful consideration of class identities. Instead, pointing to two pathbreaking works in Latin American labor history, I argue that the types of questions we ask about class, and primarily about class, can provide the key to innovative scholarship about workers even if questions such as gender or ethnicity go unexamined. Finally, I point out that class will only be a vital category of analysis if it is recognized not simply as “useful,” but as forming a basis for genuinely creative and innovative historical studies.

scholarly journals The Centre–Periphery Antagonism in Adjudication: A Case Study on the Spatial Dimension of the Political

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Rafał Mańko
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Court Case ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Cheap Labour

One of the key elements of the critical theory of adjudication is the identification of an objective antagonism that is at stake behind a given court case. The identification of the antagonism allows to develop an axis, along which interpretive possibilities can be spread and arranged from those most favourable to social group A (e.g. workers) to that most favourable to social group B (e.g. businesses). The paper discusses the famous Laval–Viking case-law which was concerned with the fundamental rights of workers (right to strike and undertake collective action) and their relation to the economic freedoms of businesses, seeking to escape the high standards of worker protection in their own country either by changing the flag of a ship to a flag of convenience (Viking) or by importing cheap labour force from abroad, without guaranteeing the workers equal rights (Laval). Whereas the vast majority of scholars have interpreted the Viking–Laval jurisprudence as relating to the fundamental socio-economic antagonism opposing workers and businesses, the Slovenian scholar Damjan Kukovec has proposed an alternative reading. According to him, the real antagonism is ultimately between workers from the periphery (Central Europe, in casu Baltic countries) and workers from the centre (Western Europe, in casu Scandinavian countries). By introducing the spatial dimension to the political, Kukovec entirely changes the formulation of the underlying antagonism. The paper engages critically with Kukovec’s analysis and argues that the objective interest of Central European workers lies not in selling their labour at dumping prices, but gaining the same guarantees of social protection as existing in the West.

Citizens in Robes

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Fundamental Rights And Freedoms ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Communicative Power ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter articulates a participatory defense of the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. This defense is based on an analysis of the democratic significance of citizens’ right to legal contestation. Against the widespread view of judicial review as an expertocratic shortcut that requires citizens to blindly defer to the political decisions of judges, the analysis shows that the institutions of judicial review empower citizens to make effective use of their right to participate in ongoing political struggles for determining the proper scope of their fundamental rights and freedoms. This is true no matter how idiosyncratic their fellow citizens may think their interests, views, and values are. By securing citizens’ right to legal contestation, judicial review offers citizens a way to avoid having to blindly defer to the decisions of their fellow citizens. This is the case insofar as it offers an institutional venue where they can call their fellow citizens to account by effectively requesting that proper reasons are publicly offered to justify the laws and policies to which they all are subject. It is in virtue of this communicative power that all citizens can participate as political equals in the ongoing process of shaping and forming a considered public opinion that supports the political decisions that they can all own and identify with—just as the democratic ideal of self-government requires.

Continuity with Deficiencies: The New Basic Law of Hungary

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Jakab ◽  
Pál Sonnevend
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Constitution ◽  
Legal Procedures

Hungarian constitutional law – New Basic Law – Continuity with the previous democratic Constitution – Vision of the political community embedded in the new Basic Law – The level of protection of fundamental rights – Continuity and lack of foreseeability in the organisation of the state – European legal procedures against or about Hungary – The life prospects of the new Basic Law – Danger of constitutional crisis whenever the government does not hold a constitution-amending majority

Protest und Partizipation

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Accepted Practice

In democracy, political participation is seen as the most important way for citizens to communicate information to political decision-makers (Sydney Verba) and the bureaucracy affiliated to them. Protest plays a special role here among the political and cultural varieties of participation, since it can be seen as a symptom of democratic defects or as an expression of a living, transformative democracy. Civic education situates itself in relation to this particular form of expression of political culture in a multidimensional way: it transmits basic democratic values to educational institutions and marks the boundaries of accepted practice of protest quite differently. This can also result in a transformative practice of protest (Banks), which is also discussed in this volume. In it, the authors resurvey the field of political education according to the conditions of the current crisis-ridden transformation in democracy. This anthology was created to document the 2017 Münster Conference of the DVPW-Committee on Political Science and Civic Education.

scholarly journals A political corrida. Spanish-Catalan parallels

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
Wioletta Husar-Poliszuk
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
Independence Movement ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe Corrida de tores, as an important component of Spanish culture, has also been the subject of a dispute between the aficionados (supporters of the corrida) and the antitaurinos (opponents of the corrida) for centuries. Naturally, the spectacle has become an object of interest for researchers not only in the socio-cultural context, where it is becoming a spectacle full of artistry, accompanied by great emotions, or a tradition in some aspects resembling the Fiesta Nacional, but also becoming increasingly important on the political, moral and ethical level. The latter is related to the issue of animal protection and their humane treatment, while in the political dimension the links between the taurammatic tradition and the actions of political decision-makers are mainly analysed. Importantly, in the Catalan and Spanish public spaces, the corrida has become a national sporting role, with similar links to politics. In the light of the Catalan-Spanish antagonisms, this perspective is gaining particular importance, as evidenced, for example, by the flashback of football competition (Real Madrid FC vs. FC Barcelona) in the country under Francisco Franco’s regime, where sporting competition became an exemplary political game.The aim of the article is to analyze the dispute between politicians in Madrid and Catalanists and independents in the region in the context of the banning of the de toros corrida in Catalonia in 2010 and the reaction of the centre’s decision making centre to these actions. Moreover, the motives for this ban are sought, whether they are of an autotelic nature - in this case, the protection of animal rights -or whether they show the traits of instrumental use of tradition, de facto considered to be a “foreign”, because Spanish, part of the rhetoric and real policy pursued by Catalan nationalists and independents in the era of radicalisation of the independence movement in Catalonia.

The role of the Wali al-Faqih in the process of external political decision-making: An analytical study of the relevant articles of the revised Iranian constitution of 1989

2020 ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Wissam Saleh Abdul-Hussein Jassim Al-Rub
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Supreme Leader ◽  
Political Decision Making

The Iranian Constitution of 1979 and the amendment of 1989 considered the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution the most powerful institution in influence and presence in the political system. The guide, directly or indirectly, through the agencies operating under his administration, and here we say that the political vision of the wali al-Faqih governs its authority over all the perceptions of decision-makers in their formulation and implementation of strategic decisions that achieve the goals of the Iranian regime at home and abroad.

Cognitive Bias and the Misuse of Military Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-103
Author(s):  
Ned Dobos
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The State ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Military Establishment ◽  
Political Decision

Wherever there is a military establishment, there is a danger that its use will not be confined to the prosecution of ‘just wars’ and interventions. In other words, there is a risk of the armed forces being overused or misused by the state. In this chapter I argue that some unjust wars are bound to be perceived as just by our political decision makers, not because of the unique pressures they face, or because they are morally deranged, or because they are ignorant of the facts, but simply because they carry the same unconscious biases as the rest of us. This means the prospect of military misuse is not limited to societies whose political elites are hawkish warmongers or sociopathic careerists. We can fully expect that even ‘decent’ governments, genuinely committed to never waging unjust wars, will wage them sometimes.

Israeli penetration in South America (1973-1947)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
South American ◽  
American Continent ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
South American Continent

This research is an attempt to uncover the reality and method of Israeli penetration in the South American continent, and aims to draw attention to the weaknesses and mistakes in the role of Arab communities that they had to play in South America, and the position of Arab governments towards that continent. The research was divided into two main axes, as the first dealt with the means of Israeli penetration in South America until 1947, providing a brief overview of the roots of the penetration in the South American continent and the methods it adopted in achieving this. While the second axis focused on the stance of the South American countries on the Arab-Israeli conflict (1947-1973). However, the Israeli infiltration was affecting the political decision-makers in that continent towards the decision to partition Palestine up to the October 1973 war. Key words: the penetration, Palestine, Israel, immigration, Arabs, America

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