Public Reason and Political Action: Justifying Citizen Behavior in Actually Existing Democracies

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Stears ◽  
Mathew Humphrey
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Actions

AbstractPolitical theorists seeking to respond to public concerns about citizen behavior in democratic politics might turn to the literature on public reason. Within that literature, idealized citizens are expected to abide by what we call the “public-reason-giving requirement” when engaging in political acts. Here we examine what the doctrine of public reason has to say to political actors in nonideal democratic circumstances. We find that the recommendations for actual behavior in this literature rely heavily upon a forward- and backward-looking “Janus-faced” justification, focused on the way in which non-reason-giving political actions have or could serve the long-term interests of public reason itself. Through a critical evaluation of this idea we suggest that public reason has nothing meaningful to say to contemporary political actors. This, we maintain, is a serious flaw in a putative standard for political behavior and thus the liberal commitment to “public reason” under nonideal circumstances is misplaced.

The constant mediation of resentment and retaliation

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 351-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naͨim
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Human Value ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Political Actions

This article calls for moral choices and political action to escape the trap of the duality of aggression and resistance, of domination and liberation. Conflict is a permanent feature of human relationships, but violence is not only unproductive in resolving conflict, but can be rendered unnecessary by developing normative resources and institutional mechanisms for mediating conflict. Taking self-determination as a core human value and political reality in today’s globalized world, this article argues that we should reconceive realpolitik to escape the trap by acknowledging the moral choices of others, and striving to be persuasive about our moral choices and political actions. Persuasion, and not violence, provides sustainable mediation of conflict. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the possibilities of mediation of the trap of resentment and retaliation in Dar Fur, Sudan, through multilayered strategies from immediate and short- to long-term action by local, regional and global actors.

Past Activism, Party Pressure, and Ideology: Explaining the Vote to Deploy Korean Troops to Iraq

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sookyung Kim ◽  
Paul Chang ◽  
Gi-Wook Shin
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Movement Participation ◽  
The Impact

Studies have found that participation in social movements has long-term consequences for individuals' personal life choices and political beliefs. An important but understudied subject in this literature is the impact of past activism on political behavior in an institutional context. The entry of past activists into Korea's National Assembly offers a unique opportunity to assess the continuing effects of movement participation in the context of institutional politics. Analyzing roll call data related to Korea's participation in the Iraq War, we explore the relative effects of movement participation and institutional pressure after accounting for legislators' current ideological positions. Results from regression analyses show that while party and ideology remain strong predictors of voting behavior, past participation in social movements continues to influence political action. This study extends the scope of research on the consequences of social movements by pointing to the impact of movement participation on political behavior in an institutional setting.

Deliberation and Long-Term Decisions

2018 ◽  
pp. 250-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Public Reason ◽  
Overlapping Generations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Time Inconsistency ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Future ◽  
Effective Representation

This chapter argues that deliberation can help support the effective representation of future generations in several ways. First, deliberation can help motivate long-term thinking. If our preferences are shaped by cognitive biases against the future, the demands of deliberation can encourage us to think more carefully about the future. Deliberation also creates pragmatic incentives for political actors to invoke the potential interests of future generations. Second, deliberative democracy (on the large scale) makes it possible for societies to talk to themselves about what they are doing and where they want to go. Third, practices of public reason-giving can help coordinate the actions of non-overlapping generations by providing long-term initiatives with a discursive basis of justification. This can help protect against the time-inconsistency problem and thereby provide incentives for contemporary actors to invest in long-term projects.

Keeping the Public Purse: An Experiment in Windfalls, Taxes, and the Incentives to Restrain Government

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 706-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA PALER
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Awareness Campaign ◽  
Public Purse ◽  
Original Survey

It is widely believed that rents from windfall revenue undermine accountability. An enduring explanation is that windfalls free leaders from the need to tax, producing a quiescent population. Yet, there is little direct evidence of how windfalls and taxes affect citizen political action. I use novel revenue and information experiments to examine whether and why windfalls (compared to taxes) affect how citizens participate in politics. The experiments were embedded in a public awareness campaign conducted with 1,863 citizens in Indonesia. The results—from an original survey and postcard campaign—indicate that the tax treatment increased monitoring and anti-incumbent political action. Yet, when given spending information, citizens in the windfall treatment cared just as much about misused revenue as those in the tax treatment. The findings have important implications for understanding not only how revenue affects citizen political behavior but also how people acquire and process information on government spending.

Strategies of Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burke A. Hendrix
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Political Choices

Political theorists often imagine themselves as political architects, asking what an ideal set of laws or social structures might look like. Yet persistent injustices can endure for decades or even centuries despite such ideal theorizing. In circumstances of this kind, it is essential for political theorists to think carefully about the political choices normatively available to those who directly face persistent injustices and seek to change them. The book focuses on the claims of Aboriginal peoples to better treatment from the United States and Canada. The book investigates two intertwined issues: the kinds of moral permissions that those facing persistent injustice have when they act politically, and the kinds of transformations that political action may bring about in those who undertake it. The book argues for normative permissions to speak untruth to power; to circumvent or nullify existing law; to give primary attention to protecting one’s own community first; and to engage in political experimentation that reshapes future generations. The book argues that, when carefully used, these permissions may help political actors to avoid co-optation and self-delusion. At the same time, divisions of labor between those who grapple most closely with state institutions and those who keep their distance may be necessary to facilitate escape from persistent injustice over the long term.

A Mighty Power against the Cost of Living: Canadian Housewives Organize in the 1930s

2010 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Guard
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Domestic Roles

AbstractConsumer activists organizing in the 1930s against rising milk prices demonstrated the power of a strong grassroots movement to enlarge prevailing understandings of the political and to wring responses from an unwilling state. Their maternalism, combined with milk's emotional, social, and political meanings, attracted broad popular support and deflected criticism from the dairy industry, hostile public officials, and anticommunists. Their campaign for affordable milk became a synecdoche for broader demands that the state restrain business in the interests of consumers and protect ordinary people from the harsh injustices of the Depression. After winning immediate concessions, the Toronto Housewives Association failed to achieve their long-term goals, but their impact was nonetheless significant. Their campaign fueled and informed public debates about the political economy of food and government's responsibilities to protect citizens, pushing socialist policies onto the political agenda under the cover of maternalism. Participation in Housewives' campaigns transformed powerless victims into effective political actors. Housewife-activists challenged prevailing notions of normative feminine behavior, creating social space for ordinary women acting within their domestic roles to engage in direct political action.

scholarly journals Pitfall to Peace: FARC’s Political Participation and Mass Support for Peace Talks in Colombia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-344
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Carlin ◽  
Gregory J. Love ◽  
Jennifer L. McCoy ◽  
Jelena Subotić
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Vignette Experiment

Transforming armed groups into legitimate political actors is often considered an ideal way to settle armed internal conflicts. In democracies, the efficacy of such approaches depends on the public legitimacy that the citizenry grants them. How does the prospect of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s (FARC’s) political participation influence citizens’ support for the peace process? This study addresses this question by triangulating evidence from three separate studies: (1) regression analysis using face-to-face nationally representative survey data, as well as (2) a vignette experiment and (3) a conjoint analysis, both conducted online with national samples of Colombians. Though methodologically distinct, each analysis converges on a singular conclusion: mass support for the integration of ex-FARC guerrillas into democratic politics damaged support for negotiated peace, often to similar or greater degrees than mass support for transitional justice mechanisms. We suspect this reflects citizens’ fear of undermining democratic representation, the legitimacy of democratic institutions, and electoral integrity.

scholarly journals Asociacionismo inmigrante y nuevas formas de acción política. Facebook y la participación online de inmigrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Hernández Vega ◽  
Luis Escala Rabadán
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Multiple Voices ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Political Actions

Si bien el despliegue de acciones políticas ha sido una de las diversas funciones de las asociaciones de inmigrantes, en tiempos recientes muchos de estos grupos han incursionado en el uso de herramientas digitales para hacer política en favor de sus miembros y connacionales frente a los gobiernos de los países de llegada y de origen. En este artículo documentamos la creciente presencia de las asociaciones de inmigrantes mexicanos en Estados Unidos en las plataformas de Internet y explicamos su importancia al permitir un contacto directo, horizontal e inmediato entre dichas asociaciones, sus miembros y otros actores sociales y políticos, tanto de México como de Estados Unidos. Para ello, analizamos las acciones políticas de diversas asociaciones de inmigrantes mexicanos radicados en dicho país en la plataforma Facebook, con el fin de evidenciar los alcances de esta participación en lo que denominamos la “arena política glocaline”. Concluimos que el uso de espacios digitales amplía las dimensiones de la esfera pública, al abrir el acceso a múltiples voces desde la multi localidad, aunque en términos de efectos políticos directos los resultados pueden ser contingentes. Although the deployment of political actions has been one of the various functions of immigrant associations, in recent times, many of these groups have been increasingly using digital tools to make politics in favor of their members and fellow compatriots vis-à-vis the governments. of the countries of arrival and origin. In this article we document the growing presence of Mexican immigrant associations in the United States on Internet platforms, and we explain their importance by facilitating direct, horizontal and immediate contact between associations, their memberships, and other social and political actors, both from Mexico and the United States. For this purpose, we analyze the political actions of various associations of Mexican immigrants based on the Facebook platform, in order to demonstrate the scope of this participation in what we call the "glocaline political arena”. We conclude that the use of digital spaces broadens the dimensions of the public sphere, by opening access to multiple voices from multiple locations. However, their direct political effects may be contingent.

Negotiating Control

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 388-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Pfetsch ◽  
Katrin Voltmer
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Journalism ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Relationship

After the demise of communist rule the relationship between media and politics in Eastern European countries has to adjust to the conditions of democratic politics and a competitive communication environment. This study explores how journalists and politicians understand their relationship past and present and what orientations govern their day-to-day interactions. The political communication cultures in Bulgaria and Poland are investigated on the basis of semi-structured interviews with journalists and politicians. The findings suggest that in Bulgaria closed-knitted networks between the two sets of actors continue to shape political communication breeding ‘deals’ and even corruption that seriously undermine the independence of political journalism. In contrast, political communication roles in Poland appear more differentiated making it more difficult for political actors to exercise control over the public agenda.

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