scholarly journals The Ballot Vote as Embedded Ritual: A Radical Critique of Liberal-Democratic Approaches to Media and Elections in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Willems
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.


Author(s):  
Tony Smith

This chapter examines the United States' liberal democratic internationalism from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. It first considers the Bush administration's self-ordained mission to win the “global war on terrorism” by reconstructing the Middle East and Afghanistan before discussing the two time-honored notions of Wilsonianism espoused by Democrats to make sure that the United States remained the leader in world affairs: multilateralism and nation-building. It then explores the liberal agenda under Obama, whose first months in office seemed to herald a break with neoliberalism, and his apparent disinterest in the rhetoric of democratic peace theory, along with his discourse on the subject of an American “responsibility to protect” through the promotion of democracy abroad. The chapter also analyzes the Obama administration's economic globalization and concludes by comparing the liberal internationalism of Bush and Obama.


Author(s):  
Tony Smith

This chapter examines Ronald Reagan's commitment to the tenets of liberal democratic internationalism, and in particular his promotion of a global “democratic revolution” characterized by an apparent contradiction between activism and moderation in American foreign policy. It begins with a discussion of the Reagan administration's strategy that called for a a minimal effort on its part to realize its vision of a world order dominated by democratic governments, with emphasis on three key operational programs: “constructive engagement”; the push for antistatist, free markets abroad; and the Reagan Doctrine. The chapter then considers the role played by the Reagan administration's policies to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the succeeding prestige of democratic governance worldwide. It argues that the American role in the spread of democracy worldwide in the twentieth century was a necessary, but not sufficient, cause for the current strength of democratic government.


Author(s):  
Joseph Chan

Since the very beginning, Confucianism has been troubled by a serious gap between its political ideals and the reality of societal circumstances. Contemporary Confucians must develop a viable method of governance that can retain the spirit of the Confucian ideal while tackling problems arising from nonideal modern situations. The best way to meet this challenge, this book argues, is to adopt liberal democratic institutions that are shaped by the Confucian conception of the good rather than the liberal conception of the right. The book examines and reconstructs both Confucian political thought and liberal democratic institutions, blending them to form a new Confucian political philosophy. The book decouples liberal democratic institutions from their popular liberal philosophical foundations in fundamental moral rights, such as popular sovereignty, political equality, and individual sovereignty. Instead, it grounds them on Confucian principles and redefines their roles and functions, thus mixing Confucianism with liberal democratic institutions in a way that strengthens both. The book then explores the implications of this new yet traditional political philosophy for fundamental issues in modern politics, including authority, democracy, human rights, civil liberties, and social justice. The book critically reconfigures the Confucian political philosophy of the classical period for the contemporary era.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-155
Author(s):  
Marta Maria Aragão Maciel

Resumo: O presente texto objetiva uma abordagem, no interior do pensamento de Ernst Bloch (1885/1977), acerca da relação entre marxismo e utopia: um vínculo incomum no interior do marxismo, comumente tido numa oposição inconciliável. Daí a apropriação do termo “herético” em referência ao marxismo do autor alemão: a expressão é usada não em sentido pejorativo, mas apenas para situar seu distanciamento do marxismo vulgar, bem como sua intenção de crítica radical dessa tradição. Aqui entendemos que é, em particular, por meio da relação entre marxismo e utopia que o pensamento de Ernst Bloch aparece como um projeto inelutavelmente político com vistas a uma filosofia da práxis concreta na principal obra do autor: O Princípio esperança (Das Prinzip Hoffnung) [1954/1959]. Neste livro encontramos, com efeito, a tentativa de pensar a atualidade do marxismo para o contexto do século XX, a era das catástrofes, conforme definição do historiador Eric Hobsbawm. Palavras-chave: Marxismo. Utopia. Dialética. Crítica social. Cultura.  Abstract: This paper presents an approach within the thinking of Ernst Bloch (1885/1977) about the relation between Marxism and Utopia: an unusual link within Marxism, commonly held in an irreconcilable opposition. Hence the appropriation of the term "heretical" in reference to the German author's Marxism: the expression is used not in a pejorative sense, but only to situate its distancing from vulgar Marxism, as well as its intention of a radical critique of this tradition. Here we understand that it is particularly through the relationship between Marxism and Utopia that Ernst Bloch's thought appears as an ineluctably political project with a view to a philosophy of concrete praxis in the principal work of the author: The Principle Hope (Das Prinzip Hoffnung) [1954/1959]. In this book we find, in effect, the attempt to think the actuality of Marxism in the context of the age of catastrophe - as defined by Eric Hobsbawm - that is, the long twentieth century that experienced the extreme barbarism of the concentration camp, of which the thinker in question, Jewish and Communist, managed to escape.  Keywords: Marxism. Utopia. Dialectics. Social criticismo. Culture. REFERÊNCIAS   ALBORNOZ, Suzana. O enigma da Esperança: Ernst Bloch e as margens da história do espírito. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes, 1995.   ALBORNOZ, Suzana. Ética e utopia: ensaio sobre Ernst Bloch. 2ª edição. Porto Alegre: Movimento; Santa Cruz do Sul: EdUSC, 2006.  BICCA, Luiz. Marxismo e liberdade. São Paulo: Loyola, 1987.  BLOCH, Ernst. Filosofia del Rinascimento. Trad. it. de Gabriella Bonacchi e Katia Tannenbaum. Bologna: il Mulino, 1981.     BLOCH, Ernst. Héritage de ce temps. Trad. Jean Lacoste. Paris: Payot, 1978.  BLOCH, Ernst. O Princípio Esperança [1954-1959]. Vol. I.  Trad. br. Nélio Schneider. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ; Contraponto, 2005.   BLOCH, Ernst. O Princípio Esperança [1954-1959]. Vol. II. Trad. br. Werner Fuchs. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ; Contraponto, 2006.   BLOCH, Ernst. O Princípio Esperança [1954-1959]. Vol. III. Trad. br. Nélio Schneider. Rio de Janeiro: EdUERJ; Contraponto, 2006.  BLOCH, Ernst. Du rêve à l’utopie: Entretiens philosophiques. Textos escolhidos e prefaciados por Arno Münster. Paris: Hermann, 2016.  BLOCH, Ernst. Thomas Münzer, Teólogo da Revolução [1963]. Trad. br. Vamireh Chacon e Celeste Aída Galeão. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro, 1973.  BLOCH, Ernst. L’esprit de l’utopie, [1918-1023]. Trad. fr. de Anne Marie Lang e Catherine Tiron-Audard. Paris: Gallimard, 1977.  BLOCH, Ernst. El pensamiento de Hegel. Trad. esp. de Wenceslao Roces. Mexico; Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1963.   BOURETZ, Pierre. Testemunhas do futuro: filosofia e messianismo. Trad. J. Guinsburg. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2011, p. 690.  FREUD, Sigmund. Los sueños [1900-1901]. Trad. Luis Lopez-Ballesteros et al., Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 1981.  FREUD, Sigmund. A Interpretação dos sonhos. Vol. I. Trad. Jayme Salomão. Rio de Janeiro: Imago, 2006.  HORKHEIMER, Max. Filosofia e teoria crítica. In: Textos escolhidos. Trad. de José Lino Grünnewald. São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1980, p. 155 (Coleção Os Pensadores.). MÜNSTER, Arno. Ernst Bloch: filosofia da práxis e utopia concreta. São Paulo: UNESP, 1993.     MÜNSTER, Arno. Utopia, Messianismo e Apocalipse nas primeiras de Ernst Bloch. Trad. br. de Flávio Beno Siebeneichler. São Paulo: UNESP, 1997.  PIRON-AUDARD, Catherine. Anthropologie marxiste et psychanalyse selon Ernst Bloch. In: RAULET, Gérard (org.). Utopie-marxisme selon Ernst Bloch: un système de l'inconstructible. Payot: Paris, 1976. VIEIRA, Antonio Rufino. Princípio esperança e a “herança intacta do marxismo” em Ernst Bloch. In: Anais do 5° Coloquio Internacional Marx-Engels. Campinas: CEMARX/Unicamp. Disponível em: <www.unicamp.br / cemarx_v_coloquio_arquivos_arquivos /comunicacoes/gt1/sessao6/Antonio_Rufi no.pdf>.  VIEIRA, Antonio Rufino. Marxismo e libertação: estudos sobre Ernst Bloch e Enrique Dussel. São Leopoldo: Nova Harmonia, 2010.  RAULET, Gérard (Organizador). Utopie - marxisme selon Ernst Bloch: un sistème de l’inconstructible. Paris: Payot, 1976.  ZECCHI, Stefano. Ernest Bloch: Utopia y Esperanza en el Comunismo [1974]. Trad. esp. de Enric Pérez Nadal, Barcellona: Península, 1978.  


2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Hunold

In this essay I examine the dispute between the German GreenParty and some of the country’s environmental nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs) over the March 2001 renewal of rail shipmentsof highly radioactive wastes to Gorleben. My purpose indoing so is to test John Dryzek’s 1996 claim that environmentalistsought to beware of what they wish for concerning inclusion in theliberal democratic state. Inclusion on the wrong terms, arguesDryzek, may prove detrimental to the goals of greening and democratizingpublic policy because such inclusion may compromise thesurvival of a green public sphere that is vital to both. Prospects forecological democracy, understood in terms of strong ecologicalmodernization here, depend on historically conditioned relationshipsbetween the state and the environmental movement that fosterthe emergence and persistence over time of such a public sphere.


Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier ◽  
Michael Weber

This essay examines official forms of governmental inquiry into the religious feelings of Muslim citizens. It identifies a series of normative problems with currently available investigative practices in that regard. Government can push too far in its investigations of religious practitioners’ feelings, and various forms of investigation, currently allowed under liberal-democratic legal codes, appear to permit violations of citizens’ basic rights. The essay offers grounds for restructuring conditions under which government officials may permissibly question Muslims about their emotions and sentiments; for rethinking how far government functionaries may proceed in their examinations; and supporting a more general right of citizens to refuse to disclose their feelings to government officials, when questioned about them.


Author(s):  
Richard A. Falkenrath

This chapter examines strategy and deterrence and traces the shift from deterrence by ‘punishment’ to deterrence by ‘denial’ in Washington’s conduct of the Global War on Terror. The former rested on an assumption that the consequences of an action would serve as deterrents. The latter may carry messages of possible consequences, but these are delivered by taking action that removes the capabilities available to opponents – in the given context, the Islamist terrorists challenging the US. Both approaches rest on credibility, but are more complex in the realm of counter-terrorism, where the US authorities have no obvious ‘return to sender’ address and threats to punish have questionable credibility. In this context, denial offers a more realistic way of preventing terrorist attacks. Yet, the advanced means available to the US are deeply ethically problematic in liberal democratic societies. However, there would likely be even bigger questions if governments failed to act.


Author(s):  
Markus D. Dubber

Part III of Dual Penal State uses dual penal state analysis to generate a comparative-historical account of American penality. With comparative glimpses at Germany and, to a lesser extent, England, it distinguishes between two responses to the shared challenge of legitimating state penal power in a modern liberal democratic state: (1) the failure to appreciate the legitimatory challenge of modern state penal power in particular (United States) and of modern state power in general (England); and (2) the failure to address the legitimatory challenge of modern state penal power as an ongoing existential threat to the legitimacy of the state (Germany). Chapter 7 brings the narrative of modern American penality up-to-date, following on the heels of the discussion of Jefferson’s Virginia criminal law bill of 1779 in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 focuses on the Model Penal Code of 1962, which was far superior to Jefferson’s draft in every respect but one: it, too, failed to integrate state punishment into the American legal-political project, leaving the penal paradox unaddressed and unresolved to this day.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document