The architecture of school governance: Rebuilding democratic legitimacy within an academized system

2022 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Andrew Allen ◽  
Nigel Gann
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Governance Environment ◽  
State Education ◽  
Governance Network

Successive governments, in embracing a neoliberalist ideology of decentralization and privatization, have radically reformed the nature of community-based, comprehensive state education. The transition from ‘government to governance’ (Rhodes, 1997) combined with the ideology of academization (DfE, 2010a) has created a democratic deficit 1 (Corbett, 1977). Academies are placed outside of local elected scrutiny or community-based accountability systems and governance legitimacy is in crisis (Glatter, 2013). This article explores the problematization of academized governance (Allen and Gann, 2017) with respect to the democratic deficit and the consequential lack of stakeholder engagement – argued as unethical within a democratic society and a system that frequently leads to failings of accountability (Wilkins, 2016). Utilizing the conceptual lens of Empowered Participatory Governance (EPG) (Fung and Wright, 2003), the authors seek to present a new architecture of governance that seeks to restore democratic legitimacy. Democratic governance innovations, the micro-governance network (Allen, 2017) and a refreshed local education board (Gann, 2021) provide a new architecture for a post new governance environment and, in so doing, a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of academization.

scholarly journals Schools as Refuge? The Politics and Policy of Educating Refugees in Arizona

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Koyama ◽  
Ethan Chang
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Academic Support ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Community Based ◽  
English Language Acquisition ◽  
Refugee Students ◽  
State Education

Despite the central role schools have played in the resettlement of refugees, we know little about how principals, teachers, parents, and staff at community-based organizations interpret and negotiate national immigration policy and state education policies. Combing critical discourse analysis (CDA) and actor-network theory (ANT), we capture how these actors work together and against each other to enact supports with regard to these newcomer students. Data includes a 36-month ethnography of refugee networks in Arizona. We argue that policies around English language acquisition and academic support further isolate refugee students and diminish their formal learning experiences in the United States.

Democratic Legitimacy and the Recognition of States and Governments

1999 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean D. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Community ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
The Government

In a seminal 1992 article Thomas Franck postulated the emergence in international law of a right to democratic governance.1 Franck argued that, increasingly, the acceptance of a government by other States turns on whether the government governs with the consent of its people.In supporting this notion, Franck pointed to events such as the 1991 effort by Haitian military and police authorities to overthrow the elected President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Although those authorities exercised complete control over Haiti, the international community condemned the coup leaders, refused to engage in normal diplomatic relations with them or to seat their representatives at international organisations, and instead continued to recognise the exiled President Aristide as representing the legitimate government of Haiti. Severe economic and ultimately military sanctions were imposed on Haiti, and finally, in 1994, the coup leaders were forced to relinquish power. President Aristide then returned to Haiti to complete his term as president.

scholarly journals The democratic legitimacy of public participation in planning: Contrasting optimistic, critical, and agnostic understandings

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-370
Author(s):  
Sherif Zakhour
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Research Engagement ◽  
Individual Citizen ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations

How does public participation in planning and environmental governance engender democratic legitimacy? Drawing a distinction between the optimistic and critical participation literature, I argue that both these strands of research have tended to neglect the public’s perspective on this question. This oversight has, in effect, produced strongly normative and essentialist understandings of democratic legitimacy that treat legitimicy as intrinsic to either process or substance of participatory governance. Proceeding from an anti-essentialist understanding of democratic legitimacy, which primarily relies on contemporary social perceptions and expectations of democratic institutions, I outline a normatively agnostic framework for exploring how legitimacy is engendered through participation. Using this framework to investigate citizen experiences of participation processes in Sweden, I highlight how democratic legitimacy can gainfully be understood as a multidimensional, provisional, and contingent quality that individual citizen participants “confer” and “retract” in a plurality of ways. Based on this, I conclude by suggesting that sustained research engagement with the public’s expectations and experiences of participatory governance can reveal critical insights into the potentials and challenges for realizing democratic planning outcomes.

scholarly journals Traktat Lizboński a wspólnotowe wartości europejskie

2018 ◽  
pp. 249-264
Author(s):  
Maciej Banaszak
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
National Parliaments ◽  
Single European Act ◽  
General Elections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Formal Solutions

An issue raised more and more frequently in political, as well as scientific discourse in the context of the European Union, is “democratic deficit”. At the time, EU is perceived as an institution guaranteeing the preservation of democratic values in Europe and promoting them both on the continent and beyond. This article discusses both points of view, with emphasis placed on the democratic deficit aspect, measures undertaken to eliminate the negative consequences of the process, as well as the history of the concept: starting from the single European Act, through general elections to the European Parliament, and formal solutions leading to the gradual increase of EU powers. It is assumed in the article that the problem of democratic deficit has persisted in the European Union, especially since several changes were introduced to the political system of EU after The Treaty of Lisbon. As result, the key question that must be answered is whether under the provisions of the Treaty the EU will strengthen its democratic legitimacy. This article attempts to provide an answer, analyzing the role of national parliaments in the new institutional and normative reality and in the context of the democratic legitimacy deficit.

The Role of Participatory Governance and Community-Based Management in Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management in Canada

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kearney ◽  
Fikret Berkes ◽  
Anthony Charles ◽  
Evelyn Pinkerton ◽  
Melanie Wiber
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Ocean Management

scholarly journals The Role of the Information Society in Promoting a Better and a More Democratic Governance

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imane Hijal Moghrabi ◽  
Meghna Sabharwal
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Open Systems Theory ◽  
The Past

One of the major shifts that our society has witnessed in the past few decades is the paradigm shift from traditional bureaucracies to network arrangements in policy making and service delivery. This paper explores the New Governance as a paradigm shift in Public Administration with an emphasis on the democratic aspect of it. Approaching the New Governance from an Open Systems Theory perspective, this paper argues that the advent and the widespread use of ICTs and the “infosphere” – and the “information society” that has emerged from it – would help in promoting a better and a more democratic governance by providing new channels to put democracy into practice. This paper also acknowledges the dark side of the “infosphere” and the ethical challenges that have come along with it.

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