Democratic Theory and the Athenian Public Sphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Matthew Landauer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Accountability Practices ◽  
The Relationship

Classical Athens has left to political theorists a dual legacy: a crucial historical case of democratic practice, and a rich tradition of political reflection. A growing number of scholars have placed the relationship between these two legacies at the center of their research. I argue that these scholars collectively offer us a model of a broad, engaged, Athenian public sphere. Yet I also caution that we should avoid overly harmonizing pictures of what that public sphere was like. I focus in particular on two prominent claims in the literature: that Socratic philosophy can be read as an expansion of Athenian accountability practices, and that ancient dramatists, philosophers, and historians were alike engaged in a project to educate citizen judgment. I argue that both claims threaten to obscure arguments over the appropriate role of the judgment of the demos in democratic politics.

scholarly journals Introduction: Colonial Public Spheres and the Worlds of Print

Itinerario ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-242
Author(s):  
Emma Hunter ◽  
Leslie James
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Framework

AbstractA growing literature explores the varying role of print media in the colonial world and the new types of publics such newspapers and periodicals produced. However, this literature has tended to focus on specific regions, and has often sidestepped the larger question of how to conceptualise the relationship between print media and colonial rule. While some have used the term ‘colonial public sphere’ or ‘colonial publics,’ others have preferred to avoid these terms and instead thought in terms of multiple and overlapping publics. What this literature has shown is that a single analytic model for analysing public spaces of discourse is not usable. In this Introduction to our Special Issue we propose a new framework for studying the publics created through print media in the colonial world. We outline a set of four factors – addressivity, performativity, materiality and periodicity – that can be applied to specific historical case studies. We then explain how the issue as a whole models this methodology as a means to analyse how print media (as one medium within the public sphere) functioned in specific colonial and semi-colonial spaces around the world.

scholarly journals O papel da auditoria interna na promoção da accountability nas Instituições de Ensino Superior

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-265
Author(s):  
Anabela dos Reis Fonseca ◽  
Susana Jorge ◽  
Caio Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Internal Auditing ◽  
Management Effectiveness ◽  
Public Sector Organizations ◽  
International Convergence ◽  
Accountability Practices ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This paper discusses the link between accountability and internal auditing, particularly analyzing the extent to which the latter contributes to improve the former, in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This study applied a questionnaire to the management boards of a sample of HEIs, to empirical analyze the relationship between internal auditing and accountability. The main focus was on internal auditing carried out by the offices or departments in those institutions. The paper contributes to understand how management boards perceive internal auditing to foster transparency and accountability in HEIs, allowing to corroborate that auditing, and particularly internal auditing, favors the institutions’ accountability. In effect, it promotes the principles underlying accountability practices. The information provided in the scope of internal audits is acknowledged as contributing to improve management effectiveness and helping in decision-making. HEIs wanting to create an internal auditing office or to enhance the role of an existing one, should develop this office’s activities so that it becomes an instrument to support accountability and good governance of the organization. The sample consisted of Portuguese public HEIs, universities and polytechnics. Despite a certain international convergence regarding this type of public sector organizations, and regarding their purposes and governance, certain contextual specificities might limit the generalization of the findings for other jurisdictions.

Jacques Rancière

In the Street ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 121-150
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Çidam
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Theory Of Education ◽  
Democratic Action ◽  
Action Taking ◽  
As If

This chapter demonstrates that Rancière’s journey to democratic theory started in the aftermath of May 1968 with his efforts to overcome the problematic transformation of political theory into “a theory of education.” For Rancière, unpredictability is integral to democratic politics. Thus, in an anti-Rousseauian move, he emphasizes the theatrical aspect of democratic action: taking on a role other than who they are, acting as if they are a part in a given social order in which they have no part, political actors stage their equality, disrupting the existing distribution of the sensible. Rancière’s focus on the moments of disruption, however, opens him to the charge of reducing democratic politics to immediate acts of negation. Insofar as he erases the role of intermediating practices in the stagings of equality, Rancière imposes on his accounts a kind of purity that his own work, with its emphasis on broken, polemical voices, cautions against.

Shaping Public Opinion and Community Mobilisation: The Role of Urdu Language Media in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-257
Author(s):  
Fahad Hashmi
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Community Mobilisation ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Indian State ◽  
The Public Sphere

Considering the role played by Rashtria Sahara, an Urdu daily newspaper that took recourse to the democratic practice of questioning and challenging the hegemonic formation of the maligned image of Islam and the faith community vis-à-vis terrorism in the discursive arena, that is, the public sphere, this article tries to understand the role of the Urdu language media in shaping the public opinion and mobilising people from within the community. To this end, first, the article seeks to comprehend the present configuration of the Indian public sphere keeping in view its colonial origin. Moreover, the ‘othering’ of Muslims in postcolonial India that has colonial roots, too, has been understood through the idea of ‘interior frontiers’. Second, the role and practices of the Indian state towards Muslims have been taken into account. And, the final section analyses strategies that were put to use by the newspaper to contest the hegemonic formation, which paved the way for social movement to emerge.

Marvels of the Levant: Print Media and the Politics of Wonder in Early Modern Venice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Stouraiti
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Empire Building ◽  
Emotional Dimensions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Heuristic Device ◽  
Early Modern Venice ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article uses the strange and marvellous as a heuristic device to study the relationship between emotions, media and politics in early modern Venice. In particular, it examines how printed news about the marvels of the Levant mediated Venice’s encounters with its colonial subjects and imperial rivals, and analyses the role of wonder and imagination in the creation of an imperial community of feelings. The article argues that a focus on the affective politics of the marvellous can shed new light on the emotional dimensions of the early modern Venetian public sphere and its links with war and empire-building.

scholarly journals Celebrity, Democracy, and Epistemic Power

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Archer ◽  
Amanda Cawston ◽  
Benjamin Matheson ◽  
Machteld Geuskens
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Epistemology ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Democratic Practice

What, if anything, is problematic about the involvement of celebrities in democratic politics? While a number of theorists have criticized celebrity involvement in politics, none so far have examined this issue using the tools of social epistemology, the study of the effects of social interactions, practices, and institutions on knowledge and belief acquisition. We will draw on these resources to investigate the issue of celebrity involvement in politics, specifically as this involvement relates to democratic theory and its implications for democratic practice. We will argue that an important and underexplored form of power, which we will call epistemic power, can explain one important way in which celebrity involvement in politics is problematic. This is because unchecked uses and unwarranted allocations of epistemic power, which celebrities tend to enjoy, threaten the legitimacy of existing democracies and raise important questions regarding core commitments of deliberative, epistemic, and plebiscitary models of democratic theory. We will finish by suggesting directions that democratic theorists could pursue when attempting to address some of these problems.

YESUS DAN MACHIAVELLI: MORALITAS, RELIGIUSITAS DAN KOMPETENSI POLITISI DI RUANG POLITIK

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Johanis Putratama Kamuri
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

This research was conducted to answer the question of what competent politicians are and the relationship between the strategies they use in the public sphere with moral and religious principles. The research rests on the thesis that the competence of politicians cannot be separated from morality and religiosity. The goal is achieved through asymmetrical comparison of the teachings of Jesus with Machiavelli's political thoughts. The teachings of Jesus and Machiavelli's thoughts–about the situation of public sphere, the strategy used to overcome the situation and the role of moral and religious principles in the public sphere–will be compared to understand and answer the questions asked. It shows that competencies have relations with effective strategies to overcome the unideal situations in political public sphere and the application of value systems that limit the use of political strategies. Thus, political strategy has a strong relationship with religiosity and morality.

Political Representation in Leader Democracy

2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Körösényi
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Public Office

AbstractThe essay focuses on the neglected problem of democratic politics, i.e. on the role of leadership. Although in democracies public office holders are controlled to a certain extent, leaders still have wide room for political manoeuvre and decide without any ‘instruction’ of the citizens. Re-working Weber's and Schumpeter's theory, the author aims to build the model of leader democracy. He highlights the major traits of it in a comparison with the deliberative and the aggregative–utilitarian concepts of democratic theory. The theory of leader democracy is applied to the problem of representation, which, in contrast to mechanical mirroring, gains a new, dynamic and qualitative meaning.

scholarly journals DISKURSUS AGAMA DALAM RUANG PUBLIK MENURUT JÃœRGEN HABERMAS

LOGOS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Leo Agung Srie Gunawan ◽  
Nathanio Chris Maranatha Bangun
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Consensus ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

Today, the role of religions still exists in the public sphere. Habermas sees that religious citizens tend to give their aspirations in the public sphere in a destructive way. As a result, A religion is considered the cause of crime. Actually, It has a various positive benefits to be brought into the public sphere. Therefore, they can convey aspirations in a more appropriate way, namely through a religious discourse. The religious discourse is an act of discourse, that is a discussion with arguments to reach a rational consensus of the best arguments, in the realm of religion. It involves the religious, the secular, and the citizens. It also faces several challenges such as religious fundamentalism, religious privatization, and political religiofication, but it is very relevant to Indonesia, which has many religions and belief streams. Particularly, it is important to see how the relationship between religion and state in Indonesia in order to should be realized.

scholarly journals RÁDIO E CIDADANIA: um estudo comparado da atuação de rádios de Lisboa e de Brasília

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 603
Author(s):  
Valquíria Guimarães da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Organizations ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion ◽  
Stimulation Of

É fundamental discutir o papel da mídia como um dos principais fóruns de discussão em sociedades democráticas. Neste trabalho analisamos a relação entre cidadania e rádio. A nossa intenção foi compreender como a rádio contribui para o entendimento de mundo indispensável à formação de opiniões sobre questões relevantes ao exercício da cidadania. Para isso estudámos as grades de programação de rádios em Lisboa e em Brasília, nos anos 2011 e 2012, e realizamos entrevistas com os respectivos diretores. Também realizamos grupos focais, no contexto de diversas organizações sociais, para compreender a relação dos cidadãos com a rádio. Observamos que a rádio continua a ter um grande potencial cívico, mas neste momento, de um modo geral, a sua programação pouco contribui para a promoção de uma cidadania efetiva.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Rádio; Cidadania; Democracia; Espaço Público; Jornalismo.   ABSTRACT It is essential to discuss the role of the media as one of the main debate forums in democratic societies. This research analyzes the relationship between citizenship and radio. Our intention was to comprehend how the radio contributes to the understanding of the world, which is crucial to the formation of opinions concerning pertinent issues to the citizen’s duty. For this, we studied the programming guides of some of Lisbon`s and Brasilia’s radios, in 2011 and 2012, and also interviewed their directors. In addition to that, focus groups were conducted in the context of different social organizations, in order to understand the relationship between citizens and the radio. In general, we have noticed that the radio still has a great civic potential, but currently, its programming does not contribute much to the stimulation of an effective citizenship.   KEYWORDS: Radio; Citizenship; Democracy; Public Sphere; Journalism.     RESUMEN Es importante analizar el papel de los medios de comunicación como uno de los principales foros de discusión en las sociedades democráticas. En este trabajo, se examinó la relación entre la ciudadanía y la radio. Nuestra intención era entender cómo la radio contribuye a la comprensión del mundo indispensable para la formación de opiniones sobre cuestiones relacionadas con el ejercicio de la ciudadanía. Para ello se estudiaron las rejillas de programación de radios en Lisboa y Brasilia, en los años 2011 y 2012, y se realizaron entrevistas con sus directores. También se formó grupos de enfoque en el contexto de diversas organizaciones sociales, para comprender la relación entre los ciudadanos y la radio. Observamos que la radio sigue teniendo un potencial cívico importante, sin embargo, en este momento de una manera general, su programación contribuye poco a la promoción de una ciudadanía efectiva. PALABRAS CLAVE: Radio; Ciudadanía; Democracia; Espacio Público; Periodismo.

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