scholarly journals Agents of Popular Sovereignty

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Wolkenstein

Popular sovereignty requires that citizens perceive themselves as being able to act and implement decisions, and that they are de facto causally connected to mechanisms of decision making. I argue that the two most common understandings of the exercise of popular sovereignty—which center on direct decision making by the people as a whole and the indirect exercise of democratic agency by elected representatives, respectively—are inadequate in this respect, and go on to suggest a complementary account that stresses the central role of internally democratic and participatory political parties in actualising popular sovereignty, drawing on the democratic theory of Hans Kelsen.

Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz

This chapter examines the relationship between parliamentarism and the legislative branch. It explores the evolution of the legislative branch, leading to disillusionment with the rationalized law-making factory, a venture run by political parties beyond the reach of constitutional rules. The rise of democratically bred party rule is positioned between the forces favouring free debate versus effective decision-making in the legislature. The chapter analyses the institutional make-up and internal operations of the legislature, the role of the opposition in the legislative assembly, and explores the benefits of bicameralism for boosting the powers of the legislative branch. Finally, it looks at the law-making process and its outsourcing via delegating legislative powers to the executive.


Author(s):  
Zoran Oklopcic

As the final chapter of the book, Chapter 10 confronts the limits of an imagination that is constitutional and constituent, as well as (e)utopian—oriented towards concrete visions of a better life. In doing so, the chapter confronts the role of Square, Triangle, and Circle—which subtly affect the way we think about legal hierarchy, popular sovereignty, and collective self-government. Building on that discussion, the chapter confronts the relationship between circularity, transparency, and iconography of ‘paradoxical’ origins of democratic constitutions. These representations are part of a broader morphology of imaginative obstacles that stand in the way of a more expansive constituent imagination. The second part of the chapter focuses on the most important five—Anathema, Nebula, Utopia, Aporia, and Tabula—and closes with the discussion of Ernst Bloch’s ‘wishful images’ and the ways in which manifold ‘diagrams of hope and purpose’ beyond the people may help make them attractive again.


Author(s):  
Anita Indira Anand

This is a book about the ways in which capital markets have come to be shaped by the ubiquity of sophisticated investors. In particular, many of today’s investors have the economic might and technical capacity to play a role in the decision-making of the corporations in which they invest. This phenomenon brings with it a host of benefits, such as mechanisms to ameliorate the moral hazard that can exist when the people who bear the risk of corporate activity are different from those who make decisions. A key element of this book is an examination of the ways in which thinking about corporations and capital markets must change to reflect the prevalence of sophisticated shareholders. The book develops a concept—shareholder-driven corporate governance—to explain the role of powerful shareholders and to propose a regulatory scheme that furthers their participation in corporate decision-making. In doing so, the book considers a number of regulatory challenges that confront securities regulators. Ultimately, the book identifies an important trend in capital markets, highlights reasons for fostering this trend, and discusses the path that regulation can and should take in order to protect investors and foster well-regulated markets.


Author(s):  
Yuriy Kyrychenko ◽  
Hanna Davlyetova

The article examines the role of political parties in modern state-building processes in Ukraine. The place of political parties in the political and legal system of society is determined. The general directions of overcoming problematic situations of activity of political parties in Ukraine are offered. It is noted that political parties play an important role in the organization and exercise of political power, act as a kind of mediator between civil society and public authorities, influence the formation of public opinion and the position of citizens directly involved in elections to public authorities and local governments. It is determined that in a modern democratic society, political parties carry out their activities in the following areas: the work of representatives of political parties in public authorities and local governments; participation in elections of state authorities and local self-government bodies; promoting the formation and expression of political will of citizens, which involves promoting the formation and development of their political legal consciousness. These areas of political parties determine their role and importance in a modern democratic society, which determines the practical need to improve their activities and improve the national legislation of Ukraine in the field of political parties. Political parties are one of the basic institutions of modern society, they actively influence the ac-tivities of public authorities, economic and social processes taking place in the state and so on. It is through political parties that the people participate in the management of public affairs. Expressing the interest of different social communities, they become a link between the state and civil society. The people have the opportunity to delegate their powers to political parties, which achieves the ability of the people to control political power in several ways, which at the same time through competition of state political institutions and political parties contributes to increasing their responsibility to the people. It is noted that the political science literature has more than 200 definitions of political parties. And approaches to the definition of this term significantly depend on the general context in which this issue was studied by the researcher. It was emphasized that today in Ukraine there are important issues related to the activities of political parties. First of all, it is a significant number of registered political parties that are incapable, ie their political activity is conducted formally or not at all. According to official data from the Department of State Registration and Notary of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, 352 political parties are registered, of which 48 political parties do not actually function. The reason for the liquidation of such parties is not to nominate their candidates for the election of the President of Ukraine and People's Deputies of Ukraine for 10 years. According to this indicator, Ukraine ranks first among other European countries. Thus, 73 political parties are officially registered in Latvia, 38 in Lithuania, 45 in Moldova, 124 in Romania, and 56 in Slovakia. However, despite the large number of officially registered political parties in Ukraine, public confidence in their activities is low. It is concluded that political parties occupy a special place in the political and legal system of society and play an important role in the organization and exercise of political power, as well as a kind of mediator between civil society and public authorities. The general directions of overcoming problematic situations of activity of political parties in Ukraine are offered, namely: introduction of effective and impartial control over activity of political parties; creating conditions for reducing the number of political parties, encouraging their unification; establishment of effective and efficient sanctions for violation of the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine by political parties.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (58) ◽  
pp. 147-157
Author(s):  
Александр Игоревич Черкасов

This article deals with the institute of mayor and his interaction with municipal councils in the countries of Eastern Europe. The author points out that the mayor personifies the whole urban governance mechanism and acts as an arbitrator in the struggle of various interests coming into confrontation at the level of a modern city. The article contains analyses of the trend towards “presidentialization” of the local political system and decollectivization of the decision making process at the municipal level common for many modern cities. On the basis of popular support and expectations the mayor begins to increasingly squeeze positions of local councils in the municipal mechanism. Direct mayoral elections are becoming more common and increase the independence of the head of local administration from political parties and slightly reduce the role of the latter in the decision making process


2021 ◽  
pp. 155-177
Author(s):  
Sarah Mortimer

From the 1560s, tensions between Protestant and Catholics escalated and this was accompanied by a wave of writing on political and religious ideas, especially in France and the Netherlands. There was a renewed interest in the nature and origins of authority within the political sphere, particularly the importance of the ‘people’ and the ways in which their will could be both represented and controlled. This chapter considers some of the key texts of resistance theory written in the 1560s and 1570s, including Francogallia and the Vindiciae, Contra Tyrannos in France, and George Buchanan’s De Jure Regni apud Scotos in Scotland. Discussions of liberty and privileges in the Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt are also considered; here historically based arguments began to be supplemented by appeals to wider principles of morality and natural law. The election of Henry of Valois to the Polish throne provides one example of elective monarchy in practice. This chapter discusses the role of religion and of legal arguments in the development of resistance theories. It also highlights some of the practical and conceptual difficulties in appealing to popular sovereignty, especially in a period of deep confessional divisions, and shows how the authority of magistrates could be understood in different ways.


Author(s):  
Eva Sørensen

Representative democracy is in transition in theory as well as in practice, and this transition affects the way we think about political leadership and democratic representation. New theories of democracy challenge traditional understandings of what it entails to represent the people, and a mushrooming of new forms of political participation destabilizes traditional views of the role of citizens in democratic decision-making. Chapter 4 shows how these theoretical and empirical developments, which are partially triggered by inherent tensions in democratic thought, promote a turn towards interactive forms of political leadership. Interactive political leadership can potentially alleviate the tensions in democratic thought and strengthen the input legitimacy of representative democracy in times of declining trust in politicians. A turn to interactive political leadership is no panacea. It triggers new dilemmas and challenges for elected politicians.


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Oldenburg

This paper explores the decision-making processes used by the inhabitants of Goma during the Kivu Crisis in October 2008. The paper's aim is twofold: After providing a short history of the October 2008 events, it seeks in the empirical part to distinguish and clarify the role of rumours and narratives in the setting of violent conflict as well as to analyse their impact on decision-making processes. As the epistemological interest lies more on the people who stay rather than those who flee, in the second part the paper argues that the practice of routinization indicates a conscious tactic whose purpose is to counter the non-declared state of exception in Goma. Routinization is defined as a means of establishing order in everyday life by referring to narratives based on lived experiences.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaka Sarmah ◽  
Chucheng Fa Gogoi

Governance today is of paramount apprehension for any state. Concern for governance therefore reveals new areas of articulation for a state and the people living within its jurisdiction. For many, governance refers to certain conditions necessary for a state through which it can exercise power in managing the nation's social and economic assets and also becomes the precondition for realizing democratic ideals. Though the notion of governance is different for different people, one common understanding of it is the decision making process as well as the process of implementation of those decisions. This process also identifies involvement of different structures from different walks of life, signifying both the formal as well as informal actors. In this background, the traditional institutions of a society also have their appeal for involvement of local structures in the issues of governance. The traditional institutions of Karbi Anglong also entails such appeals, because of its involvement in civil, socio-economic and religious jurisdiction of the local interests. Therefore the participation of people through such institutions has been recognized as a process of grass rooting the democratic principle of governance in its most popular form as mentioned above. In this paper an attempt is made in recognizing the effect of the traditional institutions in Karbi Anglong more specifically among the Karbi Tribes.


2004 ◽  
Vol 178 ◽  
pp. 335-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Holbig

This article examines the formation of the Open Up the West policy from the 1980s to the present. Focusing on the dynamic interaction between central party-state and provincial-level players, it analyses the various ideological and pragmatic factors that have shaped the policy over time. The campaign to Open Up the West is decribed as a “soft policy” to highlight a very diffuse decision-making process which has produced a highly diverse set of agendas and instruments. Due to the amorphous nature of the policy, the article finds, its realization depends to a great extent on the specific interpretations and arrangements of the provincial jurisdictions involved.In June 1999 in the ancient city of Xi'an, Comrade Jiang Zemin made the appeal to the whole party and the people of the whole country on the great development of the western region. Three years have gone by, and the roads have become passable, the lights have become lit, the mountains have become green, the rivers have become clear and the travelling traders have become abundant. One after another, wonderful stories about the homeland of the western region have been circulated and sung.


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