Constitutional Democracy or How to Prevent the Rule of the People

2002 ◽  
pp. 75-96
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People

scholarly journals Political Theory of Populism

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Urbinati
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Democratic Principles

Populism is the name of a global phenomenon whose definitional precariousness is proverbial. It resists generalizations and makes scholars of politics comparativist by necessity, as its language and content are imbued with the political culture of the society in which it arises. A rich body of socio-historical analyses allows us to situate populism within the global phenomenon called democracy, as its ideological core is nourished by the two main entities—the nation and the people—that have fleshed out popular sovereignty in the age of democratization. Populism consists in a transmutation of the democratic principles of the majority and the people in a way that is meant to celebrate one subset of the people as opposed to another, through a leader embodying it and an audience legitimizing it. This may make populism collide with constitutional democracy, even if its main tenets are embedded in the democratic universe of meanings and language. In this article, I illustrate the context-based character of populism and how its cyclical appearances reflect the forms of representative government. I review the main contemporary interpretations of the concept and argue that some basic agreement now exists on populism's rhetorical character and its strategy for achieving power in democratic societies. Finally, I sketch the main characteristics of populism in power and explain how it tends to transform the fundamentals of democracy: the people and the majority, elections, and representation.

scholarly journals REFLEKSI DALAM MEMAKNAI EKSISTENSI RAKYAT; ANTARA PEMILIHAN PRESIDEN DAN PEMILIHAN MPR

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (01) ◽  
pp. 310
Author(s):  
Efriza Efriza
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People

This paper attempts to re-unravel the results of the 1945 amendment in analyzing the development and division in Indonesia, highlighting democracy and the people between the President's choice directly with the President's choice through the MPR, and addressing the 1945 Constitution amendment as the basis of the spirit of constitutional democracy in Indonesia. The results of this study clearly explain that democracy in Indonesia is more favorable based on the results of the 1945 Amendment and the Presidential Election directly and better and as part of the implementation of constitutional democracy in a more comprehensive manner.Keywords: Voters, Political Parties, Presidential Election, MPR and Constitutional Democracy 

Populism and the Principle of Majority

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Urbinati
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Direct Competition ◽  
Electoral Representation

What puts populism and democracy in tension although they rest on the same principle of majority and claim to be government by the people? The answer is that when it seeks to implement its agenda through state power, populism enters a direct competition with constitutional democracy over the meaning and expression of the people and puts into question a party-democracy’s conception of representation because it is impatient with the tension between pluralism of social interests and unity of the polity that electoral representation triggers and channels. Hence although ingrained in the ideology of the people and the language of democracy, populism as a ruling power tends to give life to governments that stretch the democratic rules toward an extreme majoritarianism.

scholarly journals Ustav, populizam i kraj liberalne demokracije - "referendumanija" ugrožava temelje ustavnog poretka

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-784
Author(s):  
Branko Smerdel
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The People ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Parliamentary Supremacy ◽  
Political Groups

Democracies are at risk to be strangled by the populist demagogues, posturing as the only and true leaders of 'the people', while disregarding constitutional "structure of liberty", meaning that, the parliamentary supremacy, judicial review and, above all, the constitutional limits to the very direct decision making by the voters' constituencies. Referenda are being used ever more, often to push certain decision, which could not pass the parliament. The claim is that there must not be any limits to the power of the people. That phenomenon the most esteemed liberal magazine "The Economist" nicknamed coining the word "referendumania", apparently combining 'a mania' with 'referenda'. It has been received with a lot of sympathy by the general public, in circumstances when the television and the Internet shows all the misery of the numerous assemblies, not only in a new but also in the mature democracies. After the referendum on the Brexit has been used as an instrument of the political struggle in the mother of parliaments, Great Britain, which lead to the ongoing "melting down" of the highly valued British political system, it seems that the worst of prophecies are realized by advancing populist forces in a number of Euroepan states. Republic of Croatia has been for a long time exposed to such treats, by the political groups extremely opposed to governmental policies, first by the Catholic conservatives and most recently by the trade unionists. Due to the very inadequate regulation of the referenda on civil initiatives, whereas the decision is to be made by a majority of those who vote, without any quorum being provided, the posibilites of manipulation are enormous. In the lasting confusion, a number of politicians has already proclaimed their intention, if elected the president of the Republic, to use such a referendum in order to remove all the checks and balances between the chief of state and "the people". Taking such treats very seriously in the existing crisis of democracy, the author emphasizes hi plead for an interparty agreement which would enable the referendum to be properly regulated and thus incorporated into the system of a democratic constitutional democracy.

scholarly journals Implikasi Ideologi Pancasila pada Gerakan Sosial Islam dalam Prinsip Demokrasi Konstitusional

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-191
Author(s):  
Tatu Afifah ◽  
Fuqoha Fuqoha ◽  
Sukendar Sukendar
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Law And Legislation

Pancasila implementation should not be used as a substantive source in aspects of law and legislation in Indonesia. Pancasila as the highest source of law in Indonesia is actualized in every behavior and action both individually and collectively. Social movements are a characteristic and manifestation of democratic principles as a reflection and reaction to social dynamics in society. The research method used is in the form of qualitative research which tries to explore a meaning arising from social dynamics. The influence of the Pancasila ideology on every social movement, especially the Islamic social movement, is based on the view of life together within the framework of the Indonesian nation and the concept of a rule of law. The consequence of the principle of constitutional democracy in implementing the Pancasila values ​​framework is not a threat to democracy, because the values ​​of Pancasila also provide respect for the rights of the people which are in line with the principles of constitutional democracy. Keywords: Implication; Ideology; Pancasila; Social movement; Constitutional.

Education, Propaganda, and the People: Democratic paternalism in 1930s Siam

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1122-1142 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARJUN SUBRAHMANYAN
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Top Down ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The People ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Second Category

AbstractOn the morning of 24 June 1932 the ‘People's Party’, a small group of civil and military bureaucrats, toppled the Thai absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy. This article discusses the establishment of democracy as an endeavour in ‘democratic paternalism,’ by which is meant the Party's attempt to establish a new moral and intellectual leadership that had as its main goal the creation of a depoliticized democratic citizenry. To implement their programme for democracy, the Party embarked on an ambitious plan to modernize education and explain popular sovereignty through countrywide lectures and radio programmes. The democratic paternalist effort had mixed results. State weakness limited the reach of the educational and propaganda campaigns, and further the ‘people’ in whose name the revolution was staged, constituted two different groups: a largely illiterate peasantry and a small, incipient new intelligentsia. Because of its limited capacity, the People's Party tasked the second group with assisting in democratic mentorship of the masses, but many in this second category of people had a broader conception of democracy than the Party's ‘top-down’ model and criticized the Party for its paternalist constraints on popular sovereignty. Democratic paternalism and frustration with the limits imposed on popular democracy are two central aspects of this period of history that have endured in Thai society.

scholarly journals Central Europe’s descent into autocracy: A constitutional analysis of authoritarian populism

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 597-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojan Bugarič
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
The People ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Media ◽  
Democratic Support ◽  
Almost All

Abstract The article offers an analysis of the particular type of populism that has evolved in Eastern and Central Europe, most notably in Hungary and Poland. The new populism in ECE differs from other populisms because it combines the elements of populism, ethnonationalism, and authoritarianism. Adhering to a similar script, which consists of sustained attacks on rule of law institutions, civil rights and freedoms, the media, and electoral rules, both populist governments in a relatively short period of time dismantled almost all the key cornerstones of democracy in Hungary and Poland. The current surge of populism in ECE demonstrates that constitutional democracy is in great danger when its core principles no longer enjoy wide democratic support. Paradoxically, constitutional democracy can play its “counter-majoritarian” role only when a majority of the people believe that it is the only game in town. Ultimately, democratic political parties and social movements with credible political ideas and programs offer the best hope for the survival of constitutional democracy. The role of law and constitutional checks and balances is less of an essential bulwark against democratic backsliding than is traditionally presumed in the legal literature.

Hannah Arendt and the Glimmering Paradox of Constituent Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-113
Author(s):  
Hanna Lukkari
Keyword(s):  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
The Other ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The People ◽  
The One

This chapter presents a reading of Hannah Arendt’s constitutional thinking from the perspective of the paradox of constituent power. The paradox at issue here is that, on the one hand, in order to exercise its constituent power, ‘the people’ needs some kind of representation, but on the other hand, all forms of representation are determinations of collective existence and held, in a constitutional democracy, to derive their power from ‘the people’. At stake in constitutional democracy is the contingency of representations of ‘the people’ and the possibility of their modification in response to claims that exclusion from or inclusion within ‘the people’ is violent and alienating. This chapter argues that the paradox ‘glimmers’ in Arendt’s work: it almost crystallizes into an account of the tensions present in ‘the act of founding’, but the ambiguities are again obscured by her republican ideal of constitutio libertatis. The chapter also traces an implication of this ‘glimmering’ in Arendt’s work that is problematic from the perspective of political pluralism: her ‘civilisationalism’. 

Between Decision and Deliberation: Political Paradox in Democratic Theory

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
BONNIE HONIG
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Vicious Circle ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Good People ◽  
Chantal Mouffe ◽  
The People ◽  
Material Conditions

Deliberative democratic theorists (in this essay, Seyla Benhabib and Jurgen Habermas) seek to resolve, manage, or transcend paradoxes of democratic legitimation or constitutional democracy. Other democratic theorists, such as Chantal Mouffe, embrace such paradoxes and affirm their irreducibility. Deliberativists call that position “decisionism.” This essay examines the promise and limits of these various efforts by way of a third paradox: Rousseau's paradox of politics, whose many workings are traced through Book II, Chapter 7 of theSocial Contract. This last paradox cannot be resolved, transcended, managed, or even affirmed as an irreducible binary conflict. The paradox of politics names not a clash between two logics or norms but a vicious circle of chicken-and-egg (which comes first—good people or good law?). It has the happy effect of reorienting democratic theory: toward the material conditions of political practice, the unavoidable will of the people who are also always a multitude, and the not only regulative but also productive powers of law.

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