Unmasking the Weakness of Liberalism: Why the Future of the Liberal Order Is in Danger and What We Can Do to Safeguard It

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverly Crawford Ames
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Liberal Democratic Society

Liberal democracy is in decline across the globe. Why? The literature provides many answers, i.e., a decline in the power and gatekeeping role of political parties (Lavinsky and Ziblatt), the role of intellectuals (Applebaum), changes in political campaign financing (Balkin), the anti-liberal influence of Donald Trump (Kendzior), the flaws of “democracy” itself (Mounk), to name just a few. Most scholars, however, neglect the underlying causes of these proximate phenomena. In this essay I take a sociological and social-psychological approach to explore the underlying causes. I focus on liberal democracy’s decline in the Industrial West, particularly the United States. I argue that this decline can be partly attributed to the inherent weaknesses/limitations of liberalism, exacerbated in the 21st century by neo-liberal economic forces and digital technology. I contend that liberal values of equality, tolerance, the rule of law, and rational debate chafe against the sacrosanct entrenchment of the neo-liberal free market and its laissez-faire ideology, as well as the inherent liberal neglect of the human need for status, community, heroes, and the impulse to unleash passionate grievances. This chafing has now opened lesions in liberal institutions, exacerbated by widespread disinformation and obscene inequality, I offer three suggestions to strengthen 21st century liberalism: government regulation of social media to censure hate speech and disinformation, new taxes on wealth to reduce economic inequality, and an expansion of the public realm—parks, libraries, beaches, public schools, etc., where “money doesn’t matter.” This last suggestion is crucial. Because economic inequality and precarity will persist in a liberal democratic society even when taxation is more equitable, expansion of the public realm is needed to reduce the impact of inequality in liberal democratic society.

Tolerating Decent Societies

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 371-382
Author(s):  
Jon Mandle
Keyword(s):  
Public Reason ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Liberal Democratic Society ◽  
Political Decisions

Rawls argues that the public reason of a liberal democratic society should aim to include—and therefore tolerate—all reasonable persons. But the public reason that he defends for the Society of Peoples (globally) is considerably more inclusive. Rawls argues for the toleration of “decent” societies that are not liberal democracies. Critics have charged that such toleration, while perhaps pragmatic, is unprincipled. But a careful examination of Rawls’s criteria for “decency” reveals a defense of Rawls’s position that is grounded in the institutional requirements for a society to be able to make its own legitimate political decisions.

Implementasi Asas Keterbukaan pada Pengadaan Tanah bagi Pembangunan untuk Kepentingan Umum: Antara Harapan dan Kenyataan

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyo Katon Prasetyo ◽  
Rosye Villanova Christine ◽  
Sudibyanung Sudibyanung
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Land Scarcity ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Role Of Information

Abstract: Based on Law Number 2 of 2012 concerning Land Acquisition for Development in the Public Interest, the Openness Principle is one of the ten principles as the basis of the implementation of development. This principle is significant because its complex role can lead to conflicts and disputes. In this paper, discussions are divided into two parts: 1) how the implementation is expected to be applied according to the acquisition procedure in theory; and 2) the reality that occurs in the field. The first discussion was conducted by reviewing the applicable regulations and the methods or concepts of development of the openness principle. Meanwhile, the second discussion about the reality on the field was conducted by elaborating case studies regarding problems in land acquisition. The results of this study indicate that there are gaps in the implementation of the openness principle between theory and reality in regards of land scarcity, economic inequality, and information asymmetry among the involved parties. In conclusion, the implementation of the openness principle is significant with the role of information in land acquisition.Intisari: Berdasarkan Undang Undang Nomor 2 Tahun 2012 tentang Pengadaan Tanah Bagi Pembangunan Untuk Kepentingan Umum, Asas Keterbukaan adalah salah satu dari sepuluh asas yang menjadi dasar pelaksanaannya. Asas ini menjadi signifikan karena perannya yang kompleks dapat menimbulkan konflik dan sengketa. Artikel ini akan membagi pembahasan menjadi dua bagian: pertama, bagaimana implementasi yang seharusnya diterapkan pada prosedur pengadaan secara harapan, dan kedua, membahas mengenai realita yang terjadi di lapangan. Secara harapan pembahasan dilakukan dengan melakukan library research atau studi terhadap peraturan yang berlaku dan metode-metode atau prinsip perkembangan dari asas keterbukaan. Realitas di lapangan akan dielaborasi dari studi kasus mengenai permasalahan dalam pengadaan tanah. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan ada gap dalam implementasi asas keterbukaan antara harapan dan realitas di lapangan yang bersumber dari kelangkaan sumber daya/tanah, ketimpangan ekonomi dan asimetri informasi di antara para pihak yang terlibat. Tulisan ini menyimpulkan bahwa implementasi asas keterbukaan signifikan dengan peran informasi dalam pengadaan tanah. 

Pre-Rehearsal Questions of Performance Tradition and Play-Selection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Jeffs
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Golden Age ◽  
Royal Shakespeare Company ◽  
The Public ◽  
Performance Tradition ◽  
Performance Traditions ◽  
Public Consciousness

This chapter asks the questions: ‘what is the Spanish Golden Age and why should we stage its plays now?’ The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Spanish season of 2004–5 came at a particularly ripe time for Golden Age plays to enter the public consciousness. This chapter introduces the Golden Age period and authors whose works were chosen for the season, and the performance traditions from the corrales of Spain to festivals in the United States. The chapter then treats the decision taken by the RSC to initiate a Golden Age season, delves into the play-selection process, and discusses the role of the literal translator in this first step towards a season. Then the chapter looks at ‘the ones that got away’, the plays that almost made the cut for production, and other worthy scripts from this period that deserve consideration for future productions.

scholarly journals The Metamorphosis of Written Devotion in the Age of Vatican II (c. 1948–c. 1998) in Hungary—Guestbooks in Hungarian Marian Shrines

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Krisztina Frauhammer
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Personal Prayer ◽  
The Church

This article presents the Hungarian manifestations of a written devotional practice that emerged in the second half of the 20th century worldwide: the rite of writing prayers in guestbooks or visitors’ books and spontaneously leaving prayer slips in shrines. Guestbooks or visitors’ books, a practice well known in museums and exhibitions, have appeared in Hungarian shrines for pilgrims to record requests, prayers, and declarations of gratitude. This is an unusual use of guestbooks, as, unlike regular guestbook entries, they contain personal prayers, which are surprisingly honest and self-reflective. Another curiosity of the books and slips is that anybody can see and read them, because they are on display in the shrines, mostly close to the statue of Virgin Mary. They allow the researcher to observe a special communication situation, the written representation of an informal, non-formalised, personal prayer. Of course, this is not unknown in the practice of prayer; what is new here is that it takes place in the public realm of a shrine, in written form. This paper seeks answers to the question of what genre antecedents, what patterns of behaviour, and which religious practices have led to the development of this recent practice of devotion in the examined period in Hungarian Catholic shrines. In connection with this issue, this paper would like to draw attention to the combined effect of the following three factors: the continuity of traditions, the emergence of innovative elements and the role of the church as an institution. Their parallel interactions help us to understand the guestbooks of the shrines.

Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Science Media

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.

War without Citizens

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-38
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Rosow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Advanced Technologies

Contestation over war memorialization can help democratic theory respond to the current attenuation of citizenship in war in liberal democratic states, especially the United States. As war involves more advanced technologies and fewer soldiers, the relation of citizenship to war changes. In this context war memorialization plays a particular role in refiguring the relation. Current practices of remembering and memorializing war in contemporary neoliberal states respond to a dilemma: the state needs to justify and garner support for continual wars while distancing citizenship from participation. The result is a consumer culture of memorialization that seeks to effect a unity of the political community while it fights wars with few citizens and devalues the public. Neoliberal wars fought with few soldiers and an economic logic reveals the vulnerability to otherness that leads to more active and critical democratic citizenship.

Of Digital Images and Digital Media

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 74-102
Author(s):  
Nicole Karapanagiotis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
The United States ◽  
Digital Marketing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Imagery

This article is a theoretical and ethnographic investigation of the role of marketing and branding within the contemporary ISKCON movement in the United States. In it, I examine the digital marketing enterprises of two prominent ISKCON temples: ISKCON of New Jersey and ISKCON of D.C. I argue that by attending to the vastly different ways in which these temples present and portray ISKCON online—including the markedly different media imagery by which they aim to draw the attention of the public—we can learn about an ideological divide concerning marketing within American ISKCON. This divide, I argue, highlights different ideas regarding how potential newcomers become attracted to ISKCON. It also illuminates an unexplored facet of the heterogeneity of American ISKCON, principally in terms of the movement’s public face.

scholarly journals Big Data and Journalism: How American Journalism is Adopting the Use of Big Data

Novum Jus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Julián Rodríguez ◽  
Andrew M. Clark
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Big Data ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
American Journalism ◽  
Depth Interviews

This research uses in-depth interviews with three data journalists from the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times in the United States to describe the role of data journalists, and to illustrate how and why they use big data in their stories. Data journalists possess a unique set of skills including being able to find data, gather data, and use that data to tell a compelling story in a written and visually coherent way. Results show that as newspapers move to a digital format the role of a data journalist is becoming more essential as is the importance of laws such as the Freedom of Information Act to enable journalists to request and use data to continue to inform the public and hold those in power accountable. 

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