Nicholas Aylott, Models of democracy in Nordic and Baltic Europe: political institutions and discourse

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-161
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Dvorak
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Models Of Democracy

scholarly journals Icelandic politics in light of normative models of democracy

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilhjálmur Árnason
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Normative Models ◽  
Extensive Involvement ◽  
Liberal Perspective ◽  
Models Of Democracy

Icelandic politics are analysed from the perspectives of three normative models of democracy: the liberal, republican and deliberative democratic theories. While the Icelandic constitution is rooted in classical liberal ideas, Icelandic politics can be harshly criticized from a liberal perspective, primarily because of the unclear separation of powers of government and for the extensive involvement of politics in other social sectors. Despite strong nationalist discourse which reflects republican characteristics, rooted in the struggle for independence from Denmark, republicanism has been marginal in Icelandic politics. In the years before the financial collapse, Icelandic society underwent a process of liberalization in which power shifted to the financial sector without disentangling the close ties that had prevailed between business and politics. The special commission set up by the Icelandic Parliament to investigate the causes of the financial collapse criticized Icelandic politics and governance for its flawed working practices and lack of professionalism. The appropriate lessons to draw from this criticism are to strengthen democratic practices and institutions. In the spirit of republicanism, however, the dominant discourse about Icelandic democracy after the financial collapse has been on increasing direct, vote-centric participation in opposition to the system of formal politics. While this development is understandable in light of the loss of trust in political institutions in the wake of the financial collapse, it has not contributed to trustworthy practices. In order to improve Icelandic politics, the analysis in this paper shows, it is important to work more in the spirit of deliberative democratic theory.

Value of Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungmoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Experience ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Intrinsic Values ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Confucian Values ◽  
Cultural Negotiations ◽  
Models Of Democracy

Presenting pragmatic Confucian democracy as encompassing both Schumpeterian and Deweyan models of democracy, each focused on political institutions and a way of life respectively, this chapter argues that democracy as a social experience has both instrumental and intrinsic values and, to the extent that Confucian democracy is a kind of democracy, it too has and ought to have both instrumental and intrinsic values. Once introduced and justified as a political system on instrumental and consequential grounds, democracy attains its noninstrumental value as it gets consolidated as a way of life, in the course of which democratic institutions, rights, and practices are socially mediated by and negotiated with existing Confucian values, habits, mores, and moral sentiments. It is through such a complex process of social and cultural negotiations that democratic institutions, rights, and practices (i.e., a democratic way of life) can be made intelligent to and further cherished by citizens.

Idea(l)s on e-democracy and direct online citizenship

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Oblak Črnič
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Electronic Democracy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Models Of Democracy

The idea of electronic democracy implies a form of democracy which would develop as the result of the implementation of new communication technologies within existing democratic processes. Ideas of electronic democracy are not always accompanied by positive associations, but come also with apprehension of the probable dangers for existing democratic processes. This paper addresses the question of technological democratization through two interrelated steps. First, it focuses on the history of e-democracy and its implementation in different models of democracy. Then, in the second part, it reveals the main proponents of e-democracy as an idea that could transform the existing representative democratic system. Since many obstacles, that are not only technologically driven, the text here extracts the critique of such intentions and beliefs. However, communication technologies seem to be effective tools for citizens to select governors and participate in the formation of laws and policies. By enabling immediate insight into governmental work and into decisions made by other political institutions, an informed electoral body can be formed. In this context, the last section presents a new Slovenian governmental tool which can be understood as an effective bridge between different paradigms on e-democracy.

Global Restructuring, Knowledge and Learning

2004 ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
E. Hershberg
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Lower Cost ◽  
International Competitiveness ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Competitiveness ◽  
Global Restructuring ◽  
Intensive Exploitation ◽  
High Road

The influence of globalization on international competitiveness is considered in the article. Two strategies of economic growth are pointed out: the low road, that is producing more at lower cost and lower wages, with increasingly intensive exploitation of labor and environment, and the high road, that is upgrading capabilities in order to produce better basing on knowledge. Restrictions for developing countries trying to reach global competitiveness are formulated. Special attention is paid to the concept of upgrading and opportunities of joining transnational value chains. The importance of learning and forming social and political institutions for successful upgrading of the economy is stressed.

Inter-country inequality as a dynamic process and the problem of post-industrial development

2018 ◽  
pp. 5-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Grigoryev ◽  
V. A. Pavlyushina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Modern World ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Development Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Post Industrial

The phenomenon of economic growth is studied by economists and statisticians in various aspects for a long time. Economic theory is devoted to assessing factors of growth in the tradition of R. Solow, R. Barrow, W. Easterly and others. During the last quarter of the century, however, the institutionalists, namely D. North, D. Wallis, B. Weingast as well as D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson, have shown the complexity of the problem of development on the part of socioeconomic and political institutions. As a result, solving the problem of how economic growth affects inequality between countries has proved extremely difficult. The modern world is very diverse in terms of development level, and the article offers a new approach to the formation of the idea of stylized facts using cluster analysis. The existing statistics allows to estimate on a unified basis the level of GDP production by 174 countries of the world for 1992—2016. The article presents a structured picture of the world: the distribution of countries in seven clusters, different in levels of development. During the period under review, there was a strong per capita GDP growth in PPP in the middle of the distribution, poverty in various countries declined markedly. At the same time, in 1992—2016, the difference increased not only between rich and poor groups of countries, but also between clusters.

Sinn Féin and the IRA

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew Whiting
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Sinn Fein ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
British Rule ◽  
Irish Republicanism ◽  
The Republic ◽  
British State ◽  
State Responses

When Sinn Féin and the IRA emerged in Northern Ireland in 1969 they used a combination of revolutionary politics and violence to an effort to overthrow British rule. Today, the IRA is in a state of ‘retirement’, violence is a tactic of the past, and Sinn Féin is a co-ruler of Northern Ireland and an ever growing political player in the Republic of Ireland. This is one of the most startling transformations of a radical violent movement into a peaceful political one in recent times. So what exactly changed within Irish republicanism, what remains the same, and, crucially, what caused these changes? Where existing studies explain the decision to end violence as the product of stalemate or strategic interplay with the British state, this book draws on a wealth of archival material and interviews to argue that moderation was a long-term process of increasing inclusion and contact with political institutions, which gradually extracted moderate concessions from republicanism. Crucially, these concessions did not necessitate republicans forsaking their long-term ethno-national goals. The book also considers the wider implications of Irish republicanism for other cases of separatist conflict, and has significance for the future study of state responses to violent separatism and of comparative peace processes.

India's New Political Institutions

Asian Survey ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 898-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myron Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions

The Southern Slope of Monsalvat: How Spanish Wagnerism Became Catalan

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47
Author(s):  
Clinton D. Young
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Southern Slope ◽  
Modern Music ◽  
The Past ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Symphonic Culture ◽  
Similar Dynamic ◽  
The Way

This article examines the development of Wagnerism in late-nineteenth-century Spain, focusing on how it became an integral part of Catalan nationalism. The reception of Wagner's music and ideas in Spain was determined by the country's uneven economic development and the weakness of its musical and political institutions—the same weaknesses that were responsible for the rise of Catalan nationalism. Lack of a symphonic culture in Spain meant that audiences were not prepared to comprehend Wagner's complexity, but that same complexity made Wagner's ideas acceptable to Spanish reformers who saw in the composer an exemplar of the European ideas needed to fix Spanish problems. Thus, when Wagner's operas were first staged in Spain, the Teatro Real de Madrid stressed Wagner's continuity with operas of the past; however, critics and audiences engaged with the works as difficult forms of modern music. The rejection of Wagner in the Spanish capital cleared the way for his ideas to be adopted in Catalonia. A similar dynamic occurred as Spanish composers tried to meld Wagner into their attempts to build a nationalist school of opera composition. The failure of Tomás Bréton's Los amantes de Teruel and Garín cleared the way for Felip Pedrell's more successful theoretical fusion of Wagnerism and nationalism. While Pedrell's opera Els Pirineus was a failure, his explanation of how Wagner's ideals and nationalism could be fused in the treatise Por nuestra música cemented the link between Catalan culture and Wagnerism.

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