The accountability of power: Democracy and governance in modern times

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hupe ◽  
Arthur Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Dual Problem ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
The Common

In modern governing, a variety of actors in the public domain daily make decisions with consequences for the common good, but how these actors are held accountable to political representatives is not always clear. While representative democracy in most societies still functions as the traditional standard, deficits in democratic control are perceived. There is an exercise of power-without-corresponding-representation. At the same time modern citizens appear hard to engage in politics. Representation-without-corresponding-participation also appears. We address this dual problem, one of accountability and one of legitimacy, in terms of political theory. Various strategies are explored, indicating that some of them contribute to bringing democracy up to date more than others. In particular, it seems fundamental to rethink contemporary democracy by connecting it with the multi-dimensional character of governance. Functional participation by modern citizens can enhance the legitimacy of the exercise of power by making the latter accountable in a multi-local way.

What Can Economists Contribute to the Common Good Tradition?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Yuengert
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Common Pool Resources ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Provision ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Insight Into

Although most economists are skeptical of or puzzled by the Catholic concept of the common good, a rejection of the economic approach as inimical to the common good would be hasty and counterproductive. Economic analysis can enrich the common good tradition in four ways. First, economics embodies a deep respect for economic agency and for the effects of policy and institutions on individual agents. Second, economics offers a rich literature on the nature of unplanned order and how it might be shaped by policy. Third, economics offers insight into the public and private provision of various kinds of goods (private, public, common pool resources). Fourth, recent work on the development and logic of institutions and norms emphasizes sustainability rooted in the good of the individual.

Translating for the Commonwealth

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
The Common ◽  
Modern Europe

This chapter begins by presenting translation as an aspect of the Erasmian legacy in England, and it argues that translation helps to heal the division discussed in Chapter 3 by enabling Protestantism and humanism to work together. Translation was part of a Protestant programme of nation-building and spreading the word for the common good, but it was also the means through which the literature of antiquity and of modern Europe was communicated to the public at large. Erasmus’ Paraphrases, Grimald's Cicero, and Hoby's Courtier are discussed in these two contexts. Translation points towards the Renaissance, as an insular purism based on Protestant fears of contamination and adulteration was superseded by a hospitality towards the foreign. The chapter ends by arguing that by the 1580s it is Protestant Bible translation that it is accused by Catholics of being literary.

Corporate Politics in the Public Sphere: Corporate Citizenspeak in a Mass Media Policy Contest

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nyberg ◽  
John Murray
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article connects the previously isolated literatures on corporate citizenship and corporate political activity to explain how firms construct political influence in the public sphere. The public engagement of firms as political actors is explored empirically through a discursive analysis of a public debate between the mining industry and the Australian government over a proposed tax. The findings show how the mining industry acted as a corporate citizen concerned about the common good. This, in turn, legitimized corporate political activity, which undermined deliberation about the common good. The findings explain how the public sphere is refeudalized through corporate manipulation of deliberative processes via what we term corporate citizenspeak—simultaneously speaking as corporate citizens and for individual citizens. Corporate citizenspeak illustrates the duplicitous engagement of firms as political actors, claiming political legitimacy while subverting deliberative norms. This contributes to the theoretical development of corporations as political actors by explaining how corporate interests are aggregated to represent the common good and how corporate political activity is employed to dominate the public sphere. This has important implications for understanding how corporations undermine democratic principles.

The Purpose and Practice of a Public Theology in a Time of Climate Change

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Public Agenda ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common ◽  
Level Of Concern ◽  
Opinion Polls

AbstractThe nature of a public theology is to concern itself with the common good and the flourishing of all. The subject of climate change is to the forefront of the public agenda. Now and then the level of concern can slip down the opinion polls and it does attract a concerted degree of scepticism. It is nevertheless an issue that can allow us to consider the purpose and practice of a public theology. This article sets out to draw upon the insights of others who have contributed to this issue of the International Journal of Public Theology. It also sets out to place this work inside other discussions on what is a public theology and its intersection with an ecotheology.

scholarly journals The Concepts of Common Good and Public Interest: From Plato to Biobanking

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
KADRI SIMM
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Worthy Goal ◽  
The Common

The expression “common good” usually conjures up benevolent associations: it is something to be desired, a worthy goal, and it would be a brave person who declared he or she was against the common good. Yet modern times have taught us to be critical and even suspicious of such grand rhetoric, leading us to query what lies behind this ambitious notion, who formulates what it stands for, and how such formulations have been reached.

scholarly journals Informing Systems as the Transformers of Information Wave into Virtual Civilization and Their Ethics Question

10.28945/2264 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 177-204
Author(s):  
Andrew S Targowski
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Implication ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this investigation is to define the central contents and issues of the impact of informing systems on the rise and development of Virtual Civilization. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the Virtual Civilization’s elements of development and their interdependency. Among the findings are: Virtual Civilization has infrastructural characteristics, a world-wide unlimited, socially constructed work and leisure space in cyberspace, and it can last centuries/millennia - as long as informing systems are operational. Practical implications: The mission of Virtual Civilization is to control the public policy of real civilizations in order to secure the common good in real societies. Social implication: The quest for the common good by virtual society may limit or even replace representative democracy by direct democracy which, while positively solving some problems, may eventually trigger permanent political chaos in real civilizations. Originality: This investigation, by providing an interdisciplinary and civilizational approach at the big-picture level defined the ethics question of the role of informing systems in the development of Virtual Civilization.

scholarly journals The standing of the public interest

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (49) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitai Etzioni
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Common Good ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Common ◽  
Liberal Communitarianism

Liberal communitarianism holds that a good society is based on a carefully crafted balance between individual rights and the common good; that both normative elements have the same fundamental standing and neither a priori trumps the other. Societies can lose the good balance either by becoming excessively committed to the common good (e.g. national security) or to individual rights (e.g. privacy). Even societies that have established a careful balance often need to recalibrate it following changes in historical conditions (such as the 2001 attacks on the American homeland) and technological developments (such as the invention of smart cell phones).

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