Overdoing Democracy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Talisse
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Democratic Ideal ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Social Goods

Democracy is an extremely important social political good. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. When we overdo democracy, we allow the categories, allegiances, and struggles of politics to overwhelm our social lives. This has the effect of undermining and crowding out many of the most important correlated social goods that democracy is meant to deliver. What’s more, in overdoing democracy, we spoil certain social goods that democracy needs in order to flourish. Thus overdoing democracy is democracy’s undoing. A thriving democracy needs citizens to reserve space in their shared social lives for collective activities and cooperative projects that are not structured by political allegiances; they must work together in social contexts where political affiliations and party loyalties are not merely suppressed, but utterly beside the point. Combining conceptual analyses of democratic legitimacy and responsible citizenship with empirical results regarding the political infiltration of social spaces and citizens’ vulnerabilities to polarization, this book provides a diagnosis of current democratic ills and a novel prescription for addressing them. Arguing that overdoing democracy is the result of certain tendencies internal to the democratic ideal itself, the book demonstrates that even in a democracy, politics must be put in its place.

Analyzing Freedom from the Shadows of Slavery

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 162-184
Author(s):  
John Christman
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Labor Trafficking ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Central Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theories Of Justice

Philosophical treatments of core value concepts often abstract from the troubled history and fractured present of the societies to which those concepts are meant to apply. In the case of the political tradition of liberal democratic thought, stretching from the social contract theories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries up through contemporary writers, the notion of individual freedom or liberty is central. However, often that idea, and the assumption of its foundational value for persons, is specified from the perspective of those who enjoy it rather than those struggling to attain it. Moreover, the social spaces that theories of justice that locate freedom as a central value have continue to bracket out of existence the patterns of enslavement, oppression and domination that mark all social spaces. This article attempts a reappraisal of certain dominant understandings of the idea of freedom in both historical and contemporary philosophical discourse in light of this alteration of perspective. Specifically, the current practices of coercive labor, trafficking, irregular labor migration, and other forms of “marginal” social lives are brought into focus in order to guide this reappraisal. The article argues that if we assess these conditions as modes of unfreedom then we must utilize an account of freedom that diverges significantly from those dominant notions. A sketch of this alternative, positive, conception of freedom is then offered.

Steuerzahlverhalten quantifizieren

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 473-503
Author(s):  
Korinna Schönhärl
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
The Political ◽  
Tax Morale ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Measuring Methods ◽  
Ideal Image ◽  
Tax Payments ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Payment Behaviour

Abstract From the 1880s scientists developed methods to measure (dishonest) tax payment behaviour. The first part of this article provides an overview of these methods and their development. The second part enquires into the function of measuring methods in the societal discourse about (honest) tax payments. The tax morale research of Günter Schmölders, carried out in the 1950s and 1960s, is then examined as a case study. The focus of interest is on the political advice that Schmölders gave, as based on his empirical results, and on the ideal image of the citizen and society which underlay the scientific method.

scholarly journals Katherine Mansfield and Periodical Culture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Mourant
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
The Political ◽  
Katherine Mansfield ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Literary Journal ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Story Writer ◽  
The Many

Katherine Mansfield’s contemporaries knew her primarily as a contributor to magazines and periodicals. In 1922, for instance, Wyndham Lewis described her as ‘the famous New Zealand Mag.-story writer’. This book provides the first in-depth study of Mansfield’s engagement in periodical culture, examining her contributions to the political weekly The New Age, the avant-garde little magazine Rhythm and the literary journal The Athenaeum. Reading these writings against the editorial strategies and professional cultures of each periodical, Chris Mourant situates Mansfield’s work within networks of production and uncovers the many ways in which she engaged with the writings of others and responded to the political, aesthetic and social contexts of early twentieth-century periodical culture. By examining Mansfield’s ambivalent position as a colonial woman writer working both within and against the London literary establishment, in particular, this book provides a new perspective on Mansfield as a ‘colonial-metropolitan modernist’ and proto-postcolonial writer.

scholarly journals Historia rozwoju Republiki Rzymskiej według Polibiusza

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Anna Ceglarska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The State ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mutual Relation ◽  
Perfect System ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment

History of the rise of the Roman Republic as described by Polybius The aim of this article is to refer Polybius’s political theory, included in Book VI of The Histories, to the history of the rise of the Roman Republic. This theme must have been particularly significant for Polybius. For him, Rome was the most perfect example of a mixed government system, and the aim of describing its history was to show the development of this perfect system. The article presents the mutual relation of theory and history, starting with the period of kingship, up to the emergence of the democratic element, i.e. the moment when Rome acquired the mixed system of government. Both the political and social contexts of the changes are outlined. The analysis suggests that Polybius related his political theory to the history of the state he admired, thus providing the theory with actual foundations. Reconstructing his analysis makes it possible to see the history of Rome in a different light, and to ponder the system itself and its decline, even though the main objective of both Polybius and this article is to present its development.

scholarly journals The social origins and political uses of popular narratives on Serbian disunity

2005 ◽  
pp. 65-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slobodan Naumovic
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Party System ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Based

The text offers an examination of socio-political bases, modes of functioning, and of the consequences of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on Serbian disunity. The first section of the paper deals with what is being expressed and what is being done socially when narratives on Serbian disunity are invoked in everyday discourses. The next section investigates what political actor sty, by publicly replicating them, or by basing their speeches on key words of those narratives. The narratives on Serbian disunity are then related to their historical and social contexts, and to various forms of identity politics with which they share common traits. The nineteenth century wars over political and cultural identity, intensified by the struggle between contesting claims to political authority, further channeled by the development of party politics in Serbia and radicalized by conflicts of interest and ideology together provided the initial reasons for the apparition of modern discourses on Serbian disunity and disaccord. Next, addressed are the uninnally solidifying or misinterpreting really existing social problems (in the case of some popular narratives on disunity), or because of intentionally exploiting popular perceptions of such problems (in the case of most political meta-narratives), the constructive potential related to existing social conflicts and splits can be completely wasted. What results is a deep feeling of frustration, and the diminishing of popular trust in the political elites and the political process in general. The contemporary hyperproduction of narratives on disunity and disaccord in Serbia seems to be directly related to the incapacity of the party system, and of the political system in general, to responsibly address, and eventually resolve historical and contemporary clashes of interest and identity-splits. If this vicious circle in which the consequences of social realities are turned into their causes is to be prevented, conflicts of interest must be discursively disassociated from ideological conflicts, as well as from identity-based conflicts, and all of them have to be disentangled from popular narratives on splits and disunity. Most important of all, the practice of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on disunity and disaccord has to be gradually abandoned.

scholarly journals Electoral and Mechanical Causes of Divided Government in the European Union

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 1349-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Manow ◽  
Holger Döring
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Mechanical Effect ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Government Formation ◽  
European Elections ◽  
The Eu

Voters who participate in elections to the European Parliament (EP) apparently use these elections to punish their domestic governing parties. Many students of the EU therefore claim that the party—political composition of the Parliament should systematically differ from that of the EU Council. This study shows that opposed majorities between council and parliament may have other than simply electoral causes. The logic of domestic government formation works against the representation of more extreme and EU-skeptic parties in the Council, whereas voters in EP elections vote more often for these parties. The different locations of Council and Parliament are therefore caused by two effects: a mechanical effect—relevant for the composition of the Council—when national votes are translated into office and an electoral effect in European elections. The article discusses the implications of this finding for our understanding of the political system of the EU and of its democratic legitimacy.

3. The Transfer of Powers and Union Competences

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-93
Author(s):  
Nigel Foster
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Union Section ◽  
And Control

This chapter examines the multifaceted and increasingly complex relationship between the European Union and its member states. The chapter begins with the transfer of sovereign powers and the democratic legitimacy of the Union and the establishment of constitutionalism within the Union. Section 3.4 considers the transfer of powers from the member states and the division and control of competences between the Union and the member states. In this context, the principles of subsidiarity and of proportionality are discussed, which are the political solutions to the very emotive questions about how power is shared between the Union and the member states.

The Political Saturation of Social Space

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Robert B. Talisse
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Tyranny Of The Majority

This chapter begins to develop the book’s diagnostic argument. Overdoing democracy is partly the result of a widespread social phenomenon identified as the political saturation of social space. Politics has permeated our lives enough to guide where we shop, what we wear, even what we drink (Starbucks latte versus Dunkin’ Donuts coffee). Our social spaces are increasingly sorted and segregated according to our political allegiances, while our political allegiances are increasingly constitutive of our broader social identities. The result is that we are more than ever enacting democratic citizenship, but almost always under conditions that are themselves politically homogeneous. Until citizens are open to each other’s arguments, we cannot plausibly see democratic political rule as consistent with each citizens’ status as an equal, and thus more than merely the tyranny of the majority.

Citizens in Robes

2019 ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Fundamental Rights And Freedoms ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Communicative Power ◽  
Political Decisions

This chapter articulates a participatory defense of the democratic legitimacy of judicial review. This defense is based on an analysis of the democratic significance of citizens’ right to legal contestation. Against the widespread view of judicial review as an expertocratic shortcut that requires citizens to blindly defer to the political decisions of judges, the analysis shows that the institutions of judicial review empower citizens to make effective use of their right to participate in ongoing political struggles for determining the proper scope of their fundamental rights and freedoms. This is true no matter how idiosyncratic their fellow citizens may think their interests, views, and values are. By securing citizens’ right to legal contestation, judicial review offers citizens a way to avoid having to blindly defer to the decisions of their fellow citizens. This is the case insofar as it offers an institutional venue where they can call their fellow citizens to account by effectively requesting that proper reasons are publicly offered to justify the laws and policies to which they all are subject. It is in virtue of this communicative power that all citizens can participate as political equals in the ongoing process of shaping and forming a considered public opinion that supports the political decisions that they can all own and identify with—just as the democratic ideal of self-government requires.

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