scholarly journals The Bandung Spirit: Nation State and Democracy

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Cornelis Lay
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Democratic Movement

This article aims to show the relevance of the Bandung Asia Africa Conference in 1955 to the current debate on democracy. It argues that the Bandung Asian-African Conference was the second massive but wellcoordinated democratic movement on a global scale. It has paved the way for the production of new political space globally as well as for individual nations -- space that is more democratic in nature, where people can claim and exercise their citizenship rights. Re?ecting on Soekarnos speech at the opening of the Asia Africa Conference, this article argues that there is an urgent need for a deeper involvement of political and social forces of the Global South to put themselves as the front liners in defning and making use of democracy, instead of leaving it to be dictated by Neo-liberal lines of thinking. This is so because Indonesian experience during the last 15 years or so has clearly demonstrated the very limits of liberal democracy. This article further argues the need to build a collaborative e?ort amongst scholars of the Southern Hemisphere to challenge the superiority of liberal ideas and practices of democracy.

Normativität und Wissenschaft in Zeiten von Populismus

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-175
Author(s):  
Isabelle-Christine Panreck
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
World War ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Times ◽  
Fundamental Values

The rise of populist parties throughout Europe is fostering the debate on normativism in science. Klaus von Beyme – one of Germany’s leading political scientists of the Second Generation after World War II – is an early sceptic of normative thinking in the field of political science. He campaigns for a neoinstitutionalist perspective which combines historical insights and empirical findings to describe and explain political phenomenons. Not only in the times of bloc confrontation before 1990 but also in the current debate on populism, Beyme’s hesitation against normative thinking is sharply criticised as a lack of normative comittment to the fundamental values of liberal democracy. Following the concept of Intellectual History, this paper analyses Beymes scientific writings against the backdrop of biographical and historical contextes. Further, the paper shows how methodological and epistemological assumptions can shape the production of knowledge in scientific discourses.

Description and paleobiogeographic significance of a rare Cenomanian molluscan faunule from Bathurst Island, northern Australia

2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Stilwell ◽  
Robert A. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Nominal Species ◽  
Oceanic Circulation ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Continental Shelves ◽  
Deposit Feeding

A middle Cenomanian faunule from the Moonkinu Formation of Bathurst Island in Northern Australia contains the best-preserved suite of benthic Mollusca known from the Cretaceous of the Australian region. Twenty-four species of bivalves, gastropods, and scaphopods, many exquisitely preserved with original aragonitic nacre, are recognized. Thirteen are new: Nucula s.l. meadinga n. sp. (Nuculidae), Nuculana bathurstensis n. sp. (Nuculanidae), Jupiteria? n. sp. A (Nuculanidae), Varicorbula cretaustrina n. sp. (Corbulidae), Vanikoropsis demipleurus n. sp. (Vanikoridae), Euspira n. sp. A (Naticidae), Amuletum praeturriformis n. sp. (Turridae), Granosolarium cretasteum n. sp. (Architectonicidae), Echinimathilda moonkinua n. sp. (Mathildidae), Acteon bathurstensis n. sp. (Acteonidae), Biplica antichthona n. sp. (Ringiculidae), Goniocylichna australocylindricata n. sp. (Cylichnidae), and Dentalium (Dentalium) n. sp. A (Dentaliidae). Nominal species of Nuculana, Grammatodon, Cylichna, and Laevidentalium also are present. The occurrence of ammonites, including taxa that occur in the type Cenomanian, securely establishes the fauna as middle Cenomanian (Acanthoceras rhotomagense Zone). The Moonkinu Formation and its faunule were deposited in a high-energy, shallow-shelfal setting, as part of a large-scale regressive cycle recognized as the Money Shoals Platform of northern Australia. The assemblage represents a parauthochthonous suite which experienced little or no post mortem transport. Epifaunal and infaunal suspension feeders (some 60 percent) dominate the bivalve fauna with a subordinate representation of deposit-feeding infaunal burrowers (some 40 percent). Nearly all of the gastopods were carnivores with the aporrhaid Latiala mountnorrisi (Skwarko), probably a deposit feeder, the only exception. The scaphopods were probably micro-carnivores. Concentrations of the ammonite Sciponoceras glaessneri are likely the result of mass kills in surface waters. The cosmopolitan nature of the Bathurst Island fauna at the genus-level reflects unrestricted oceanic circulation patterns and an equitable climate on a global scale during the Cenomanian. The retreat and disappearance of the Australian epicontinental sea at the close of the Albian coincided with reduced endemism in the molluscan faunas, after which time the continental shelves hosted a rich suite of cosmopolitan affinity. The high number of endemic species in the Moonkinu Formation probably represents an early stage of broad-scale genetic separation among Southern Hemisphere molluscan stocks, a trend that became increasingly pronounced through the Late Cretaceous. The new records of Varicorbula, Amuletum, Granosolarium, Echinimathilda, and Goniocylichna represent the oldest occurrences recorded for these genera and are suggestive of Southern Hemisphere origins.

scholarly journals The Name of God in a Constitution: Meaning, Democracy, and Political Solidarity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Deagon
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Political Solidarity ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Name Of God

Abstract This article explores the idea that recognizing God in the Constitution of a modern liberal democracy benefits both religious and non-religious citizens through symbolizing transcendent meaning and facilitating political solidarity. It first argues that pure autonomous reason is not sufficient to support these benefits and any attempt to ‘translate’ the religious principles into secular ones will diminish the benefits for religious citizens. Second, recognizing God in a Constitution does not necessarily impose a religious character, belief, or practice which is detrimental to non-religious citizens. Rather, recognition alludes to a shared heritage and tradition and acknowledges that religious individuals and groups are legitimately part of and interact with the modern democratic state. Finally, and most importantly, recognition of God as a broader symbolic recognition of religion can enhance the democratic process by motivating virtuous conduct and opening up the political space to higher levels of meaning and the good.

Constitutions and Democracy in Post-National Times: A Political-Sociological Approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Blokker
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Democratic Participation ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Functionalist Approach ◽  
Constitutional Pluralism

The modern idea of the constitution is closely tied up with the political form of the nation-state, but the post-national age assists various challenges to this idea, not least due to the emergence of constitutional or quasi-constitutional regimes both beyond and below the nation-state. While a good, and steadily growing, amount of research probes the constitutional dimensions on the international and supranational levels, the domestic dimensions and related transformations, and in particular the implications of constitutional pluralism for meaningful democratic practice, seem, however, less prominent in current debate. Domestic constitutional dynamics and conflict, not least regarding democratic participation, can be fruitfully analysed through the lens of a political-sociological approach to constitutions and constitutionalism. In order to outline such an approach in one specific way, firstly, the recent (re-) emergence of constitutional sociology is discussed. Secondly, constitutional sociology is situated within a wider debate on constitutionalism and democracy. Thirdly, a sociological, ‘historical-functionalist’ approach to the analysis of constitutions is proposed, which is then related to a comparative and interpretative political sociology of constitutional discourses and political, legal, and social critique.

Deliberation and Deconstruction: Two Views on the Space of a Post-National Democracy

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
Promising Development ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

Theorists of deliberation and deconstruction each claim commitments to a more open and legitimate democracy than existing liberal democracy. Eschewing traditional foundations such as natural law, historical inheritance, or the constitutive formation of the nation, they seek to develop a theory of democracy that is more inclusive in conditions of social diversity and complexity. This article investigates the meaning of the open political space that fosters the democratic experience under such conditions. First, a sociologically informed political theory, such as Jürgen Habermas' powerful if flawed attempt, is required to conceive participation in the democratic political sphere. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and others, the author then argues that deconstructive insights that introduce an openness to the non-identical contribute to a more complete democratic theory, offering a crucial mode of democratic inclusion of the other and an acknowledgment of difference that might assist in reforming current institutions. Thus a blend of Habermasian orientation toward deliberation and deconstruction's ethical sensibilities presents a promising development of democratic possibilities.

scholarly journals WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE WE? LAW, RELIGION, AND APPROACHES TO AN ETHIC OF MIGRATION

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-334
Author(s):  
Silas W. Allard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Space ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

In her essay “The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man,” Hannah Arendt famously wrote, “Nobody had been aware that mankind, for so long a time considered under the image of a family of nations, had reached the state where whoever was thrown out of one of these tightly organized closed communities found himself thrown out of the family of nations altogether.” Surveying the aftermath of the world wars, the same aftermath that eventually led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Arendt found that a person had to be emplaced—the subject of a political space—in the state-oriented order of geopolitics to be cognizable as a subject of human rights. The stateless, being displaced, were excluded from such a regime of rights and from the global political community. Bare humanity, Arendt argued, was an insufficiently binding political identity. As she wrote in her arresting language, “The world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.”

scholarly journals Touchstones for Sustainable Development: Indigenous Peoples and the Anthropology of Sustainability in Our Common Future

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 369-393
Author(s):  
John Ødemark
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sustainable Living ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Origin Story ◽  
Common Future

The Anthropocene is regularly invoked as an occasion for the rethinking of the Anthropos, for instance through a reexamination of human origin stories. This article examines one such anthropological origin story; the construction of an exemplary and sustainable humanity based upon notions of “indigenous cultures” in Our Common Future in the context of D. Chakrabarty’s call for a history of the human that merges the biological and cultural archives of humanity. The UN report, Our Common Future, first formulated “sustainable development” as a global policy. Through a close reading of the report, the article demonstrates that a combined ecological and anthropological exemplarity is associated with “indigenous and tribal peoples”, who are also construed as living examples of sustainable living for the global society, and links to humanity’s past. Furthermore, the article aims to show that particular conceptions of “culture” and “ecological” wholes enables a translation between different scales, between local and “bounded” indigenous cultures and earth as the bounded habitat of humanity. The fusion of the concepts of “development” and “sustainability” in Our Common Future lies behind present UN concerns with sustainable development goals in current international policy. Hence, an inquiry into the anthropological and cultural historical assumptions of the report is vital. Questions of natural and cultural time have come to dominate discussions of the Anthropocene. The article also reconnects the global scale with a very literal struggle over space inside the Brazilian nation state, through reading the comment on the report from Ailton Krenak. Applying what we could call a language of survival, Krenak relates the global eco-political scale of OCF with a very concrete struggle over territory inside the political space of the Brazilian nation state.

scholarly journals EG~metropolitane Integration und die Krise linker Wirtschaftspolitik

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (92) ◽  
pp. 473-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Röttger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
New Model ◽  
Regional State ◽  
New Form ◽  
Political Project

The prevailing process of European integration is based on a new compromise between globalization and regionalization, represented by competing social forces. This transnational compromise has produced a new model of policy in the EC, characterized by networks of interorganizational policy-making at the levels of supranational policy, the nation-state and the regional-state. The coordinated decision-making is creating a new form of political regulation of transnational accumulation. The contemporary strain between globalization and social fractionalization tends to undermine an alternative alliance of social groups. Left politics threatens to become an appendix of the dominating process of acumulation. An independed political project is, so far, out of sight.

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