Rule of, by, and for the People

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Dallmayr
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Alternative Conceptions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Rational Argumentation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Minimalist Conception

Probing the meaning of Lincoln’s phrase, the chapter calls into question the prevalent conceptions of “rule” and “people.” In the dominant procedural or “minimalist” conception, the “people” are defined as selfish utility-maximizers; that is, individuals who seek to maximize benefits in exchange for minimal investments. “Rule” is simply government by the most successful self-seekers. The chapter also discusses the (recently advanced) alternative conceptions of “agonistic” and “deliberative” democracy. By contrast to the homo economicus extolled by liberal minimalism, agonistics privileges homo politicus (human beings as power seekers), while the deliberative model stresses rational argumentation (animal rationale). By returning to the criteria of relationality and potentiality, the chapter lifts up the aspirational or “promissory” quality of democracy, paying special attention to Derrida’s notion of “democracy to come” (à venir) and to the open-ended, unfinished character of “people” and humanity. Seen from this angle, democracy can also be called aporetic or “apophatic.”

scholarly journals A STUDY ON ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AMONG THE TEACHER EDUCATORS OF KUVEMPU UNIVERSITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 289-295
Author(s):  
Dr. Shivakumar GS
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Concerted Action ◽  
The People ◽  
Decent Life ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right

Every human being has the right to decent life but today there are elements in our environment that tend to militate against the attainment and enjoyment of such a life. The exacerbation of the pollution of environment can cause untold misery. Unhappiness and suffering to human beings, simply because of our lack of concerns for the common good and the absence of sense of responsibility and ethics for sustaining a balanced eco-system. If we are to aspire to a better quality of life – one which will ensure freedom from want, from disease and from fear itself, then we must all join hands to stem the increasing toxification of this earth. What we need in order to defuse this environmental time bomb is immediate concerted action of all the people, but such needed action will come only if we reorient such citizenry values, i.e., imbibe them with proper awareness and values (ethics), specifically those that will lead to a greater concern for preserving balance in the ecosystem, besides teaching them how to save the environment from further degradation, and to help, make it more healthful and progressive place to live in, springs from a strong sense of social responsibility. KEYWORD: Environmental Ethics

scholarly journals A Comparison and Evaluation of the Views and Arguments of Commentators and Scholars About the Quality of Torment of Metamorphosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Abdullah Mir Ahmadi ◽  
Hossein Turkman ◽  
Parvaneh Naqdalian
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Accurate Approximation ◽  
Special Group ◽  
The People

The torment of metamorphosis is one of the traditions of divine correction that afflicts a person or special group following religious and moral deviations. Such a tradition is reported in the verses of the Qur'an in two ways: One of them is apparent metamorphosis that belonged to the people of Israel Who suffered it for disobeying the ban on fishing and using trickery. And the other is spiritual metamorphosis that is general and not belong to a particular nation and all human beings are suffered to it. Many verses with different words have reminded of the second type of torment. There is disagreement among the commentators of Sunni and the Shiite about the formal metamorphosis of the children of Israel. This difference has led to three views among them with different arguments. The Wise Men, especially the followers of Sadra's wisdom, while adhering to the appearances of verses and hadiths, based on the theory of divine metempsychosis and the type of types, it provides a more accurate approximation that includes external and internal metamorphosis. These views are based on the sequence of the bodies of the population and attention to the middle type and the lower genius. In this research, by means of content analysis. We will examine and evaluate the views and reasons of commentators and scholars about the quality and types of metamorphosis.

Human rights referendum: Dissonance between ‘the will of the people’ and fundamental rights?

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Ignatius Yordan Nugraha
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
The Will

Referendums and popular initiatives have proliferated in many parts of the world as part of the effort to improve the quality of democracy and enhance citizen participation in policy making. However, even before the surge of populist nationalism in the 2010s, referendums have become a sort of weapon to restrict various rights. Furthermore, the juxtaposition between ‘the will of the people’ and human rights has once again brought back the classical criticism against direct democracy that it constitutes ‘a tyranny of the majority’ that could erode minority rights. With these concerns in mind, this paper is written to analyse the dissonance between human rights referendums and international human rights law through a positivist lens. The overall goal is to determine whether States have an ex ante obligation to prevent a referendum on a subject matter that is contrary to human rights.

scholarly journals Marxist Analysis of Mohammed Hanif's Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-120
Author(s):  
Nazakat ◽  
Muhammad Imran ◽  
Adil Khan
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
The People ◽  
Marxist Analysis ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender

In the novel "Our Lady of Alice Bhatti", the novelist depicts the worse and pitiable plight of the lower classes living on the edges of marginality. The story is narrated through the perspective of a young Christian nurse and her 'choorah' family. Her oppression may well be interpreted as an instance of a class struggle between the capitalist and the proletariat. The study contends that religious and gender discrimination is, in some ways, the by-product of an uneven economic system and hegemonic capitalistic power structures. Basic tenets of Marxist theory are employed as a theoretical framework to conduct the research in a systematic way. The study reveals that the ideologies of creed, caste and colour are very often used as capitalistic tools to divide human beings, especially the lower classes. It suggests that there is a dire need for educating the people on how to come together simply for what they actually are.

scholarly journals TATA KELOLA PEMERINTAHAN DESA PASCA IMPLEMENTASI UNDANG-UNDANG DESA

NEO POLITEA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
DEDEN SUHENDAR
Keyword(s):  
Physical Development ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Village Governance ◽  
The Will ◽  
District Government ◽  
The Village

Although the village has been given authority by the Village Law to conduct its own affairs, in practice most of the villages studied still tend to depend on the district government. Related to the implementation of village democracy, the space for citizen articulation has not yet been functioned optimally. BPD, as a vehicle for the representation of citizens has not played an optimal role, and there is no effort to strengthen these roles, both from the BPD itself and by residents. So that it can be said that village governance after the implementation of the Village Law can be said to have not experienced much change. The village's authority to form Perdes is also not fully utilized. Not many perdes have been issued, other than major perdes such as the APBDes. With full authority, more perdes should be issued because the consequences will be that many matters will be managed by the village itself. The mindset of the village head seems to have shown something positive, in the sense that the village head has begun to open up democratic space, but nevertheless it takes courage to run it without the need for fears of intervention from the district government. The low quality of democracy has an impact on the performance of village governments. Government performance is only understood as physical development performance. Voices from residents regarding other development needs besides physical development are still not accommodated. In the Sarinagen case, the development carried out was more likely because of the will and initiative of the village head. Even though it still refers to the will of the people conveyed in the Musdes, the portion is not significant.

scholarly journals South Africa’s democracy: The Quality of Political Participation over 25 Years Victoria Graham

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-51
Author(s):  
Victoria Graham
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Considerable Progress ◽  
The Political ◽  
Active Citizenship ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The People

South Africa has made considerable progress since 1994 in institutionalising and consolidating the quality of its democracy. However, serious and persistent governance and socio-economic related problems have angered and frustrated the people and motivated increased protest action through both conventional and less conventional channels. The opportunity for citizens to participate in the political process is essential for a healthy democracy, therefore it is important that appropriate procedures and mechanisms are in place to facilitate this participation. Using quality of democracy methodology, the paper addresses several important questions, namely: how developed are the opportunities for conventional participation in South Arica, and to what extent are these taken up? and, what non-conventional forms of participation exist and what is government’s response? In addressing these questions, this paper explores the link between active citizenship and political participation over the last 25 years with a view to ascertaining the quality of South Africa’s political participation.

The Classical Daoist Concept of LI 理 (Pattern) and Early Chinese Cosmology

Early China ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 157-183
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Expression Of Emotions ◽  
To Come ◽  
Lushi Chunqiu ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Concrete Image

This study traces the origins and development of the concept of Li 理 (Pattern) in early Chinese Cosmology, locating its foundation in the root metaphor derived from the natural lines or veins along which a block of jade can be split by a skilled artisan. From this relatively concrete image, li comes to eventually represent in Daoist cosmology the more abstract quality of the natural patterns or structures within the universe along which all phenomena move and interact with one another without the interference of human beings. After examining how early Confucian works emphasize the more abstract and derivative qualities of order and structure, we see that the likely Yangist authors in the Lüshi chunqiu return to the original metaphor of veins in jade but, instead, apply this to the veins through which the qi circulates through the human body.We then see how this metaphor is expanded beyond the human body in the classical Daoist texts to come to represent the natural guidelines both within all phenomena and those that guide their movements within the cosmos. Within phenomena these include such varied things as the structures for the generation and expression of emotions within human beings as well as the natural lines along which the butcher's chopper passes in order to cleave oxen. In Daoist inner cultivation literature it is these patterns with which sages accord so that their spontaneous actions are completely in harmony with the greater forces of the cosmos. Only after long practice of the apophatic contemplative methods that include concentrating on one breathing and emptying out the normal contents of consciousness can the sage be able to accomplish this goal of “taking no action yet leaving nothing undone.” Thus the concept of li as these natural guidelines comes to serve as an explanation for why this classical Daoist dictum is effective in the world.Finally, the Huainanzi contains the most sophisticated and sustained usages of the concept of li as the natural patterns and guidelines in the cosmos arguing that complying with them is the key to a genuinely contented life.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James S. Fishkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
The Will ◽  
Public Voice ◽  
To Come

Democracy requires some connection to the “will of the people.” But there are impediments to how that will is formed and how it is connected to public decisions. Efforts to manipulate public opinion, the competitive pressures of campaigns, discussions among the like-minded on social media, distortions of campaign finance all make it difficult for a mostly inattentive mass public to come to considered judgments. “Deliberative democracy” offers a useful method of supplementing our current political practices. There is a need for research and experimentation into entry points for a thoughtful and representative public voice. Such efforts provide a solution to a recurring dilemma—do we listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public’s concerns. Populism or technocracy? Deliberative democracy can provide a thoughtful and representative public voice.

Deliberative Democracy and Comparative Democratization Studies

2018 ◽  
pp. 489-501
Author(s):  
Nicole Curato ◽  
Jürg Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides an overview of the relationship between the normative theory and empirical research on deliberative democracy and comparative studies of democratization. We begin the chapter by making a case for the role of deliberation in democratic transitions. We provide case studies on each of the roles we identify to illustrate how precisely deliberation unfolds amidst sensitive political contexts. We then chart directions for deliberative democratic scholarship to deepen its engagement with democratization studies. We first focus on how deliberative democracy can speak to current indices that measure the quality of democracy, and then propose ways in which the literature on deliberative systems and sequences can further contribute to challenging our assumptions about what counts as “good” democratic transition.

scholarly journals Democratic Practices in Bangladesh

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
Khadga K.C.
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

Unless Bangladesh will find credible means to change the political culture within which it function, the viability of democracy will remain doubtful. Though it is about four decades of independence, the history of democracy isn’t worth to value its principles in its actual practice. Bangladesh’s democracy is distorted by the malpractices of political power by her politicians. The quality of democracy in the country has been jeopardized by the immature practices and attitudes by its political party, in or out of power. In fact, the democracy in Bangladesh is deprived within/by the practice of democracy itself. Consequently, democracy becomes fragile and cannot run smoothly with its own spirit. It is now widely accepted that Bangladesh is facing a crisis of governance which originates in malfunctioning of the democratic process. The qualitative deterioration of governance leads to raise lack of concern in pursuing democratic values in practice. The people of this country cannot extract favors from democracy rather their interests become somewhat distorted. In this way the steady failure to get better governance could threaten the sustainability of practicing democracy in Bangladesh repeatedly.

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