scholarly journals Euxenippos at Oropos

2019 ◽  
pp. 68-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Bowden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dream Recall ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Moment

The chapter explores how divination through dream incubation was involved in the decision-making processes of the Athenian democracy. It focuses on the consultation of Amphiaraos in the mid-fourth century by a delegation including Euxenippos, which we know about from a speech of Isaios. It explores the wider evidence about the practical aspects of dream incubation, and draws on modern studies of dreaming, looking at the practice of recording dreams in writing at the moment of waking, and self-training to improve dreaming and dream recall. The chapter argues that, as in other forms of divination, Athens employed men like Euxenippos as ‘expert dreamers’, who were expected to have dreams when required, and who were supported by other Athenians, who acted as assistants and witnesses of the process. It further argues that divination by dreaming was taken seriously by the democracy, with expert dreamers having potentially great influence on decision-making, and becoming themselves inevitably part of the political process.

The Political Analysis of Negotiation: How Who Gets What and When

1974 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. William Zartman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Underdeveloped Area ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Complex Models ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Number Of Parties

Negotiation is one of the basic political or decision-making processes, but if processes in general have been sorely neglected in political analysis, negotiation has been neglected more than most. Legislation as an institutional function has a respectable literature; as a process wherein goal values are constant and decisions are made by aggregating a sufficient number of parties to constitute a numerically superior side, it has become the subject of coalition theory. Adjudication has also given rise to a large quantity of institutional literature, although a theory explaining the process wherein a single party combines events and values to produce a decision is less well established. Similarly, diplomacy—and more recently, collective bargaining—has been thoroughly described, and economists and mathematicians using game and utility theories have developed some complex models of bargaining. But negotiation as a political process, specifically explained in terms of power, is an underdeveloped area of theory.

Influence, Power, and the Policy Process: The Case of Franz Ferdinand, 1906–1914

1974 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel R. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Military

The death of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo galvanized the Habsburg monarchy into its most fateful decision: the initiation of local war against Serbia. His demise, among other things, ensured Berlin's fidelity to its alliance commitment, convinced (mistakenly) the decision-makers in Vienna that monarchical solidarity would keep Russia in check, and allowed the Hungarians to breathe more easily. But the heir apparent's death may also have had an importance generally overlooked in analyzing the crisis of July 1914.1 Put simply, his disappearance suddenly altered the decision-making processes of the Habsburg monarchy. The elaborate consultative procedures involving the archduke, his military chancellery, and advisers were abruptly terminated. No longer did the joint ministers, the national ministers, the military hierarchy or the emperor's court officials have to consider the archduke and his strong, often peaceful, views on foreign policy. Even Franz Joseph was now spared the irritation of having to explain a decision to his insistent nephew. Sarajevo thus not only supplied the occasion for Vienna's decision for war, it helped, by drastically revising the political process, to accelerate that decision.

Getting to the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Michael K. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Electoral Cycles ◽  
Shared Futures ◽  
Deliberative Processes

This chapter makes three arguments in support of the claim that we need inclusive deliberative processes to shape the future in collectively intentional, mutually accommodating ways. First, inclusive collective decision-making processes are needed to avoid futures that favour the interests of some groups of people over others. Second, deliberative processes are needed to shape our shared futures in collectively intentional ways: we need to be able to talk to ourselves about what we are doing and where we want to get to in the future. Third, deliberative exchanges are needed to help collectivities avoid the policy oscillations that are (or may be) associated with the political dynamics of short electoral cycles. Effective processes of reciprocal reason giving can help collectivities maintain policy continuity over the long term—when continuity is justified—even as governments and generations change.

Lottocratic Conceptions of Deliberative Democracy

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-137
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Ideal ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Decisional Power

This chapter analyzes “lottocratic” conceptions of deliberative democracy. Their defenders put their democratic hopes on the generalized use of deliberative minipublics such as citizens’ juries, citizens’ assemblies, and deliberative polls. Some propose conferring political decisional-power upon minipublics as a way of increasing citizens’ democratic control over the political process. Against this view, the chapter argues that such proposals cannot be defended on participatory grounds. By expecting citizens to blindly defer to the political decisions of a randomly selected group of citizens, the generalized use of minipublics for decision-making would decrease rather than increase the citizenry’s ability to take ownership over and identify with the policies to which they are subject, as the democratic ideal of self-government requires. Lottocrats are right to highlight the democratic potential of minipublics. But in order to unleash that potential we must resist the temptation of taking the “micro-deliberative shortcut” and keep our eyes on the macro-deliberative goal. Instead of empowering minipublics to make decisions for the rest of the citizenry, citizens should use minipublics to empower themselves.

Chile's Neo-Liberal Revolution: Incremental Decisions and Structural Transformation, 1973–89

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCUS J. KURTZ
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Structural Transformation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Outcome ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Over Time

This article analyses the surprising emergence of a comprehensive and coherent neo-liberal developmental model during the period of military rule in Chile. Rather than reflecting a clear and definitive choice, the political process that produced this model was characterised by hesitation, policy contradiction, shifting priorities, and incremental choices. This was a result of the military's efforts to deal with two, often conflicting, overarching goals – economic and political stabilisation – as they evolved and were redefined over time. The focus on incremental, iterated decision-making weaves the insights of other explanations based in underlying institutional, coalitional, or ideational factors into a micro-political explanation that is consistent with the substantial variations in policy outcome across different phases of military rule.

scholarly journals Technology, Public Participation, and the American Bureaucracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher George Torres
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Environmental Literacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Decision Making Processes

This dissertation analyzes three participatory technology assessment (pTA) projects conducted within United States federal agencies between 2014 and 2018. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) argues that a lack of public participation in addressing issues of science and technology in society has produced undemocratic processes of decision-making with outcomes insensitive to the daily lives of the public. There has been little work in STS, however, examining what the political pressures and administrative challenges are to improving public participation in U.S. agency decision-making processes. Following a three-essay format, this dissertation aims to fill this gap. Drawing on qualitative interviews with key personnel, and bringing STS, policy studies, and public administration scholarship into conversation, this dissertation argues for the significance of “policy entrepreneurs” who from within U.S. agencies advocate for pTA and navigate the political controls on innovative forms of participation. The first essay explores how the political culture and administrative structures of the American federal bureaucracy shape the bureaucratic contexts of public participation in science and technology decision-making. The second essay is an in-depth case study of the role political controls and policy entrepreneurs played in adopting, designing, and implementing pTA in NASA’s Asteroid Initiative. The third essay is a comparative analysis of how eight political and administrative conditions informed pTA design and implementation for NASA’s Asteroid Initiative, DOE’s consent-based nuclear waste siting program, and NOAA’s Environmental Literacy Program. The results of this dissertation highlight how important the political and administrative contexts of federal government programs are to understanding how pTA is designed and implemented in agency science and technology decision-making processes, and the key role agency policy entrepreneurs play in facilitating pTA through these political and administrative contexts. This research can aid STS scholars and practitioners better anticipate and mitigate the barriers to embedding innovative forms of public participation in U.S. federal government science and technology program design and decision-making processes.

Can Democracy be Deliberative & Participatory? The Democratic Case for Political Uses of Mini-Publics

Daedalus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Lafont
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Negative Conclusion ◽  
Political Decision Making

This essay focuses on recent proposals to confer decisional status upon deliberative mini-publics such as citizens' juries, Deliberative Polls, and citizens' assemblies. Against such proposals, I argue that inserting deliberative mini-publics into political decision-making processes would diminish the democratic legitimacy of the political system as a whole. This negative conclusion invites a question: which political uses of mini-publics would yield genuinely democratic improvements? Drawing from a participatory conception of deliberative democracy, I propose several uses of mini-publics that could enhance the democratic legitimacy of political decision-making in current societies.

E-Governance in Slovenia

2012 ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Suzana Žilic Fišer ◽  
Sandra Bašic ◽  
Dejan Vercic ◽  
Petra Cafnik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Legislative Procedure ◽  
Citizen Initiatives ◽  
The Republic

Modern communication technology in principle makes political participation feasible. Information, consultation, and participation of citizens in the working of their highest political body – a parliament- should be easier than ever. This chapter analyses if this is really so on the case of Slovenia and its parliament, the National Assembly. Parliamentary website of the Republic of Slovenia is studied in terms of usability, usefulness and utility those are the key criteria in discussion about website performance. The analysis of e-democracy takes into account citizen participation in the legislative procedure, enabling direct communication with the members of the parliament, possibilities for citizen initiatives, and procedure and content transparency at each stage of the decision-making process. The chapter reports on limits of the current website of the National Assembly of Slovenia and proposes guidelines for better use of new technologies in the political process and for improving user experience.

Chief Lamidi Adedibu and patronage politics in Nigeria

2007 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale ◽  
Akinpelu Olanrewaju Olutayo
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Patronage Politics ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Political Leverage

ABSTRACTSince the acceptance of multi-party democracy as the most viable alternative to autocracy and military rule in Africa, democratic rule has become the vogue. Nigeria's attempt at democracy was (and is) accompanied by patronage politics, whereby certain personalities exact great influence on the political process. This study spotlights Chief Lamidi Adedibu and his patronage style in Nigerian politics, and shows that Adedibu gained political ‘patronic’ prominence during Nigeria's Third Republic in the 1990s, through the provision of the survival needs of the poor majority who are, mostly, used as thugs for protection against challenges from opponents and for political leverage. Since then, he has remained a ‘valuable tool’ of ‘any government in power’ and politicians ready to provide the necessary goods for onward transmission to clients.

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