Partisanship and Conflicting Obligations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Bonotti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Empirical Point ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Political Decision Making

This chapter argues that under certain conditions participation in politics through political parties can contribute to significantly reducing the tension between conflicting obligations experienced by many citizens in contemporary societies, both from a normative and from an empirical point of view. More specifically, the chapter claims that when party politics is a fair scheme of cooperation, the participation of these citizens (and citizens in general) in politics through political parties produces two desirable outcomes for liberal democracies. First, it relaxes the tension between these citizens’ political and non-political obligations, by allowing them to have a greater influence upon political decision-making, and therefore to shape laws and policies in a way that is more responsive to their interests and values. Second, it provides them with a motivation to comply with the laws of their political community, thus enhancing the stability of the polity in which they operate.

Multiculturalism in the Age of Terror: Confronting the Challenges

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gurpreet Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Question Mark ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Clout ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
Europe Today

Multiculturalism appears to be under siege in Western liberal democracies. The encounter with organised terrorism has placed a question mark against the multicultural wisdom of recognising and accommodating cultural differences in the public arena. As concerns of national security dominate the post-9/11 world, distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are surfacing in a way that has prompted some to say that the present war on terror is actually a war on Islam. Will the multicultural ethic survive in this environment? Will states be willing to accommodate cultural diversity and live with the presence of visible differences? The article explores these questions through the lens of India. India has been battling with terrorism for more than a decade now. While this has severely strained the capacity of the political community to nurture multiculturalism, it has successfully resisted the challenges posed by an assertive cultural/religious majoritarianism that surfaced in the shadow of terrorism. India has dealt with the schisms produced by terrorism by drawing upon the collective imaginary and past cultural legacies that ensued from its understanding of a ‘situated self’. This was supplemented by a functioning democracy in which significant minorities were able to shape the electoral fate of political parties and reduce the political clout of those who were insensitive to their concerns. The multicultural ethic is far from secure in India, yet it does not, and has not, faced the problems that confront multiculturalism in Western Europe today. The issues before European democracies may have been accentuated by terrorism but they are linked closely to the liberal notion of tolerance. Does a notion of the ‘situated self’ that informs tolerance in India offer a viable alternative? We cannot expect any political community to erase its historically defined identity, yet a reflection on other ways of thinking and living may assuage some of our anxieties and open us to the possibility of redefining our understanding of differences.

Partisanship and Political Obligation

Politics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Bonotti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Political parties have generally been disregarded in the literature on political obligation. In this article I argue that, regardless of whether ordinary citizens or residents of a polity have any political obligations, partisanship generates its own kind of political obligations. Participating in party politics qua party members, supporters, activists or even mere voters produces benefits that generate corresponding and proportionate political obligations for those who enjoy them. The political obligations of partisans are easier to justify than those of ordinary citizens as the conditions under which the benefits of partisanship can be rendered excludable are easier to obtain.

Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Bonotti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Overlapping Consensus ◽  
Political Obligations ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Stability

Since its publication in 1993, John Rawls’s Political Liberalism has been central to debates concerning political legitimacy, democratic theory, toleration, and multiculturalism in contemporary political theory. Yet, despite the immense body of literature which has been produced since Rawls’s work was published, very little has been said or written regarding the place of political parties and partisanship within political liberalism. This book aims to fill this gap in the literature. Its central argument is that political liberalism needs and nourishes political parties, and that political parties are therefore not hostile but vital to it. First, partisanship generates its own distinctive kind of political obligations, additional to any political obligations people may have qua ordinary citizens. Second, contrary to what many critics argue, and despite its admittedly restrictive features, Rawls’s conception of public reason allows significant scope for partisan advocacy and partisan pluralism, and in fact the very normative demands of partisanship are in syntony with those of public reason. Third, parties contribute to the overlapping consensus that for Rawls guarantees stability in diverse societies. Fourth, political liberalism nourishes political parties, by leaving many issues, including religious and socio-economic ones, open to democratic contestation. In summary, parties contribute both to the legitimacy and to the stability of political liberalism.

scholarly journals THE 2020 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC FROM A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-87
Author(s):  
Peter Horváth ◽  
Erik Urc
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
National Council ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Stability ◽  
European Parliament Elections

The subject of this article is the analysis of the 2020 parliamentary elections in the Slovak Republic from the point of view of the regional success of individual political entities. The authors refer the strong and weak areas of support for individual political parties, which gained more than five percent of the votes on a nationwide scale. As the Slovak Republic is considered as single constituency in the parliamentary elections, the results themselves do not literally indicate the areas with the strongest or weakest voter support. It is interesting to observe the extent of influence of the residence of the electoral leader, the ethnic composition of the population or the religiosity on the electoral behaviour. Equally interesting is the observation of the stability of electoral preferences, as we have witnessed largely different results in the 2020 parliamentary elections compared to the 2019 elections (presidential elections, as well as the European Parliament elections). Key words: parliamentary elections, Slovak Republic, electoral gain, National Council of the Slovak Republic, regions.

scholarly journals Regionalist Movements in Contemporary Switzerland: Ticino and Bernese Jura Cases

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Vsevolod Bederson ◽  
◽  
Irina Shevtsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Political Space ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
The Stability

The article looks into characteristics of regionalist movements in contemporary Switzerland. The authors try to answer the question why, despite the stability of federal relations in Switzerland and the existence of institutions representing the interests of the regions, there are regionalist movements in the canton of Ticino and the Bernese Jura, and why only in these two regions? The study is based on open data on the political and socio-economic characteristics of the regions, as well as on materials of research interviews with representatives of movements and experts. The study analyzes the cases of the regionalist movements of the League of Ticino and the Groupe Bélier in the Bernese Jura. The results point to the similarities of the movements: linguistic minorities surrounded by a German-speaking majority, accumulation of similar contradictions over the years. The regionalism of the League of Ticino stands out in the context of other parties; the League has made the regionalist agenda a platform for promoting right-wing demands without being marginalized in the political space. The Groupe Bélier, from the point of view of regionalist demands, is distinguished by a weak visibility of its agenda in political parties’ programmes.

Democracy as a Telos

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-224
Author(s):  
Kenneth Minogue
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Liberal Democracies

My aim in this essay is to distinguish and comment on a specific movement of thought which I shall call “democracy as a telos.” This expression refers to a conception of democracy, cultivated by normative political philosophers, in which all democratic potentialities have at last been realized. The result is thought to be a perfected political community. Democracy as a telos must thus be distinguished from the actual liberal democracies we enjoy at the end of the twentieth century. Indeed, democracy as a telos takes off from a specific rejection of such familiar institutions as elections, political parties, oppositions, a free press, and the rest, which are regarded, according to taste, as individualistic, bourgeois, atomistic, formal, and abstract. Democracy as a telos refers to the theories of reformers who, dissatisfied with our present condition, argue that only a radically transformed democracy can generate a real political community.

scholarly journals MUSLIM WOMEN AND THE NIGERIAN PARTY POLITICS

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
AbdulGafar Olawale Fahm
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Ruling Party

Women’s participation in party politics in Nigeria has been largely marginal. This has led to the clamour for more involvement of women in political decisions and increased presence in political sphere. The objective of this paper is to examine the participation of Muslim women in the Nigerian party politics. Muslim women have made significant contributions in Nigerian society through their efforts in educational, economic, health, and humanitarian services i.e. playing a social responsibility role. Descriptive and analytical methods were adopted for this purpose. The study revealed that the involvement of Muslim women in party politics in Nigeria was impeded by cultural and religious bottlenecks and not lack of participation. It concluded that emphasis should be placed on the complementarity roles between men and women in order to suppress the intolerance often encounter by Muslim women in Nigeria party politics. Hence, there is a need for the existing political parties and most especially the ruling party to take advantage of the complementary differences in order to create balance in political decision-making.

Searching for Political Parties in the Past

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Common

Chapter 1 introduces the long and difficult process of the theoretical legitimation of the political party as such. The analysis of the meaning and acceptance of ‘parties’ as tools of expressing contrasting visions moves forward from ancient Greece and Rome where (democratic) politics had first become a matter of speculation and practice, and ends up with the first cautious acceptance of parties by eighteenth-century British thinkers. The chapter explores how parties or factions have been constantly considered tools of division of the ‘common wealth’ and the ‘good society’. The holist and monist vision of a harmonious and compounded society, stigmatized parties and factions as an ultimate danger for the political community. Only when a new way of thinking, that is liberalism, emerged, was room for the acceptance of parties set.

The Social and Attitudinal Basis of Political Parties: Cleavage Politics Revisited

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Social Embeddedness ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

As a result of various political and non-political developments, the socio-culturally anchored and well structured character of European party systems has come under strain. This article assesses the overall social embeddedness of modern party politics and identifies newly emerging conflict-lines. It draws attention to phenomena that do not fit into the trend of dealignment, and discusses the relationship between group-based politics and democratic representation.

scholarly journals Suboptimal Disturbance Observer Design Using All Stabilizing Q Filter for Precise Tracking Control

Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wonhee Kim ◽  
Sangmin Suh
Keyword(s):  
Design Method ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Observer Design ◽  
Linear Matrix ◽  
External Disturbances ◽  
Closed Loop Systems ◽  
Control Target ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Unified Index

For several decades, disturbance observers (DOs) have been widely utilized to enhance tracking performance by reducing external disturbances in different industrial applications. However, although a DO is a verified control structure, a conventional DO does not guarantee stability. This paper proposes a stability-guaranteed design method, while maintaining the DO structure. The proposed design method uses a linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based H∞ control because the LMI-based control guarantees the stability of closed loop systems. However, applying the DO design to the LMI framework is not trivial because there are two control targets, whereas the standard LMI stabilizes a single control target. In this study, the problem is first resolved by building a single fictitious model because the two models are serial and can be considered as a single model from the Q-filter point of view. Using the proposed design framework, all-stabilizing Q filters are calculated. In addition, for the stability and robustness of the DO, two metrics are proposed to quantify the stability and robustness and combined into a single unified index to satisfy both metrics. Based on an application example, it is verified that the proposed method is effective, with a performance improvement of 10.8%.

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