The Church, Democracy and Responsible Citizenship

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clint Le Bruyns
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Church State Relations ◽  
State Relations

Abstract The quality of our democratic life is intimately bound up with the quality of our church-state relations. The aim of this article is to direct attention to the contribution that churches and other faith communities can possibly offer towards the nurturing of a responsible citizenship in political life together. It recognizes and applauds the role of the state itself in advancing the common good, but resists the tendency among many who confine this role to the state alone. Church-state relations are typically discussed simply with reference to church and state, with a blind spot for the people comprising our political community. Responsible citizenship affirms the meaningful and constructive role which ordinary people in their personal and professional capacities can fulfill towards the common good. It consequently discusses the notions of hope, power and grace as some of the concrete ways through which a more participatory democracy or active citizenship might be envisaged, embodied and practiced by the people as part and parcel of their political responsibility together. Each of these aspects bear implications for the contribution churches can provide in public life as they nurture as well as exercise this sense of responsible citizenship.

The Machiavellian Budgeter

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Cowart
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
The Common ◽  
As If

Some political theorists maintain that Niccolò Machiavelli was a rather immoral sort. His exhortations to guile, perfidy, deception and opportunism were numerous, his scruples few. Others, in a more revisionist vein, suggest that his preferred tactics were only meant for the common good. Yet, whether Machiavelli was a scientist, a descriptivist, a technician, a moralist or an immoralist is immaterial from one standpoint: he taught us something about the nature of human interaction in the State. Machiavellian interpretations of human events underlie many of our personal impressions of political life. We speak of strategy, tactics, morality, honesty as if the locations of political leaders along those dimensions determine what governments do for us or to us.

Speaking for Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
French Model

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.

scholarly journals Valores jurídicos en la Regulación Penal de la Competencia Desleal en Ecuador

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (69) ◽  
pp. 21-41
Author(s):  
Jorge Núñez Grijalva
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Unfair Competition ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Legal Security

In all areas of the legal world there are higher aspirations, which represent legal values to be protected, like the justice, the common good and legal security stand out. The present work was proposed to analyze if the Ecuadorian Legislator, in its process of construction and promulgation of the criminal law regulating against the unfair competition, incorporated these three values into it. Regrettably, the results show an apparent absence of the three legal values in criminal law, leaving legal operators at a disadvantage in view of the need to control this type of crime and society, awaiting compliance. Through an exercise of legal hermeneutics, the study starts from a real problem in the Ecuadorian legal system of the criminal law against of the unfair competition, which demands to be discussed in the search for the State to take the necessary measures to solve this problem.

Speaking for Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
French Model

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.

The Separation of Powers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. W. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
State Action ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Single State

The point of the separation of powers is examined, and it is argued that accounts of the principle that identify liberty as the guiding purpose of the principle are flawed, the products of an unattractive account of the state. A richer understanding of the state produces a richer understanding of the principle. The second and third parts of the chapter outline such an account, reflecting on the institutional framework required by the separation of powers: the divisions and connections that the principle demands. Different state institutions are well-placed to identify different aspects of the common good and, through their differing skills and instruments, well-suited to modify the policies of the state in light of these assessments. The constitution then combines these decisions into a single state action. The chapter then considers apparent exceptions to the separation of powers.

Radical democracy

2019 ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
Paul Spicker
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Civic Virtue ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Active Citizenship ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Civic Republicanism ◽  
Good Citizenship ◽  
The Common

The model of civic republicanism is associated with a range of principles: a concept of the common good, citizenship, a presumption of civic virtue and freedom. The idea of radical democracy is strongly associated with a sense of active citizenship, engagement in a political community and collective action. At times, however, it tips into populism, which claims to pit a virtuous people against a corrupt elite, but risks bringing radical democracy into disrepute.

Rousseau's General Will: A Condorcetian Perspective

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Grofman ◽  
Scott L. Feld
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The People ◽  
Collective Judgment ◽  
Jury Theorem ◽  
The Common

We identify three basic elements of Rousseau's theory of the general will: (1) there is a common good; (2) citizens are not always accurate in their judgments about what is in the common good; and (3) when citizens strive to identify the common good and vote in accordance with their perceptions of it, the vote of the Assembly of the People can be taken to be the most reliable means for ascertaining the common good. We then show that Condorcet's (1785) model of collective judgment shares these assumptions with Rousseau and that understanding the implications of Condorcet's (1785) “jury theorem” enables us to clarify many of the most obscure aspects of Rousseau's treatment of the general will, including his discussion of the debilitating effects of factions and his confidence in the ability of the Assembly of the People to discern the general will by means of voting.

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