scholarly journals Deliberative Democracy in Multicultural Societies: The Challenges of Effectiveness, Legitimacy, and Equality

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Barros Soares ◽  
Catarina Chaves Costa ◽  
Andréa Braga de Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Cultural Minorities

Multicultural societies are marked by the coexistence of ethnic, sexual, religious, racial, and cultural minorities and mainstream groups. This coexistence can either be tense or collaborative. How to bridge the gap between the political demands of majority and minority groups? What are the obstacles to meaningful participation? What are the main challenges faced by such societies? And finally, how do we encourage large-scale debates around issues of minorities? In order to provide answers to these questions, this review examines Intercultural Deliberation and the Politics of Minority Rights by R. E. Lowe-Walker (2018), Deliberative Democracy Now: LGBT Equality and the Emergence of Large-Scale Deliberative Systems by Edwina Barvosa (2018), and Deliberative Democracy, Political Legitimacy, and Self-determination in Multicultural Societies by Jorge M. Valadez (2018).

scholarly journals Deliberative Democracy in Multicultural Societies: The Challenges of Effectiveness, Legitimacy, and Equality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Barros Soares ◽  
Catarina Chaves Costa ◽  
Andréa Braga de Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Cultural Minorities

Multicultural societies are marked by the coexistence of ethnic, sexual, religious, racial, and cultural minorities and mainstream groups. This coexistence can either be tense or collaborative. How to bridge the gap between the political demands of majority and minority groups? What are the obstacles to meaningful participation? What are the main challenges faced by such societies? And finally, how do we encourage large-scale debates around issues of minorities? In order to provide answers to these questions, this review examines Intercultural Deliberation and the Politics of Minority Rights by R. E. Lowe-Walker (2018), Deliberative Democracy Now: LGBT Equality and the Emergence of Large-Scale Deliberative Systems by Edwina Barvosa (2018), and Deliberative Democracy, Political Legitimacy, and Self-determination in Multicultural Societies by Jorge M. Valadez (2018).  

I. The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, Minority Rights and Self-Determination

1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Warbrick ◽  
Dominic McGoldrick ◽  
Geoff Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Right

The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement1 was concluded following multi-party negotiations on Good Friday, 10 April 1998. It received 71 per cent approval in Northern Ireland and 95 per cent approval in the Republic of Ireland in the subsequent referenda held on Friday 22 May, the day after Ascension. To some, it must have seemed that the timing was singularly appropriate following 30 years of “The Troubles”, which were perceived as being between a “Catholic minority” and a “Protestant majority”. While there are some minority groups identified by their religious affiliation that do require rights relating only to their religion, such as the right to worship in community,2 to practise and profess their religion,3 to legal recognition as a church,4 to hold property5 and to determine its own membership,6 some minority groups identified by their religious affiliation are properly national or ethnic minorities–religion is merely one factor which distinguishes them from the other groups, including the majority, in the population. One example of the latter situation is to be seen in (Northern) Ireland where there is, in fact, untypically, a double minority: the Catholic-nationalist community is a minority in Northern Ireland, but the Protestant-unionist population is a minority in the island of Ireland as a whole.7 The territory of Northern Ireland is geographically separate from the rest of the United Kingdom. The recent peace agreement addresses a whole range of issues for Northern Ireland, but included are, on the one hand, rights for the populations based on their religious affiliation, their culture and their language and, on the other, rights with respect to their political participation up to the point of external self-determination. It is a holistic approach. Like any good minority rights agreement,8 it deals with both standards and their implementation and, like any good minority rights agreement, it is not a minority rights agreement but, rather, a peace settlement.

How Benefits Recipients Perceive Themselves through the Lens of the Mass Media - Some Observations from Germany

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Fohrbeck ◽  
Andreas Hirseland ◽  
Philipp Ramos Lobato
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

Dominant cultural representations of ‘the typical benefits recipient’ – notably in reality television and the tabloids – have been marked by an increasing focus on the character and alleged moral defects of individuals. Drawing on interviews from a large-scale German qualitative longitudinal study, this article explores how benefits recipients respond to such negative media images. Our analysis of interviewees’ ‘identity work’ finds that they have internalised and replicate negative public discourses to a surprising extent. The figure of the ‘typical’ benefits recipient constructed in the media emerges as both a threat to recipients’ self-identities, and as a central reference point in the strategies through which they attempt to defend their respectability. The article concludes with some thoughts on the relationship between such negative representations and the political legitimacy of welfare reform.

scholarly journals Minorities in Postcolonial Transitions: The Ndebele in Zimbabwe

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-185
Author(s):  
Khanyisela Moyo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
State Practice ◽  
Fundamental Objective

AbstractThis article argues that there is a legal and political basis for attending to concerns of ethnic minorities in postcolonial transitions. If left unattended, this issue may prompt members of minority groups to resort to preservative measures, including violence to the detriment of the security which is a fundamental objective of the transition. This reaction is often generated by an axiomatic fear of assimilation. The case of the Ndebele of Zimbabwe illustrates this. The article’s position is confirmed by post-colonial state practice that implements minority rights and accords affected groups a right to self-determination or autonomy in tandem with liberal democratic reforms.

The formation of growth coalitions: the role of the rural sector

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD GRABOWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Oriented Growth ◽  
Growth Coalitions

AbstractThe political elite require resources in order to survive politically. Given the conditions existing in most developing nations, this implies following an inward-oriented development strategy promoting a large-scale, capital-intensive industrial sector. This strategy impoverishes agriculture and implies that the leaders of the industrial sector will make up a critical component of the coalition providing political support to the political elite. Reform allowing for outward-oriented growth will be extremely difficult. Dramatically increasing agricultural productivity provides a means to provide political legitimacy for the ruling elite as well as the political leverage to bring about reform.

Examining the Suitability of the International Minority Rights Regime as an Avenue for Advancing Self-Determination Claims

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-727
Author(s):  
Rhys Carvosso
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

The international legal right of all ‘peoples’ to self-determination applies indeterminately to minority groups. The limited jurisprudence tends toward an ‘internal’ dimension of the right being available to minorities, to be exercised and negotiated domestically. However, where a state-minority negotiation process fails, the international law of self-determination is inadequate to resolve the ensuing deadlock. Accordingly, this article examines the suitability of minority protections under international human rights law (‘minority rights’) as a supplementary set of rules by which disputes concerning the self-determination of minorities might be resolved. It argues that owing to the strong conceptual and doctrinal overlap between the two areas, the enforcement of minority rights is a suitable strategy for advancing a self-determination claim. However, two bars within existing international human rights enforcement procedures – the non-justiciability of self-determination, and the requirement that complainants must be “victims of a violation” – substantially reduce the utility of this strategy at present.

Confronting the Indian State: islamism, secularism, and the Kashmiri Muslim question

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Iymon Majid
Keyword(s):  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Indian Secularism ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This paper investigates the framework of Islamist politics of Jama'at e Islami in Indian-administered Kashmir. Even though Jama'at e Islami creates the notion of “other” in the Indian state and challenges it but Kashmir's provincial relationship with India also forces it to work within the limits set up by the same state. This paper, thus, conceptualizes the relationship between Indian state and Islamists in a Muslim Majority region that demands the right to self-determination. In doing so, the paper interrogates Jama'at e Islami's rhetorical opposition to the political doctrine of Indian secularism and raises queries about minority rights and their place in the Islamist project.

Speech as a Form of Participation: Floor Time and Perceived Influence

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher F. Karpowitz ◽  
Tali Mendelberg
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Mixed Gender

This chapter asks whether critics are correct that women participate less than men during deliberation and thus have less perceived influence in it. Advocates and critics of deliberative democracy posit equal meaningful participation as a necessary requirement of deliberation. Results show how far actual discussion deviates from that ideal standard, where women speak substantially less than men in most mixed-gender combinations. Further, speech is a crucial form of participation that meaningfully shapes perceptions of authority. As critics of deliberation contend, deliberation can produce inequalities of participation that affect deliberators' influence. Even if men and women enter deliberation with the same preferences and equal formal rights, the disproportionate exercise of these rights by men erodes the political and civic standing of women, a group not yet equal in society.

The Political Legitimacy of International NGOs

2019 ◽  
pp. 231-256
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Rubenstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Political ◽  
Minimum Threshold ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
International Ngos ◽  
Political Agents

Should large-scale, Western-based humanitarian and development INGOs such as Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders be evaluated based on whether they are politically legitimate? The philosophical literature on political legitimacy has addressed this question with regard to non-state actors in general, but has not said much specifically about INGOs. The INGO literature has discussed issues of political legitimacy, but has focused almost exclusively on one dimension of the concept—the criteria that INGOs must meet to be politically legitimate—while largely overlooking two other dimensions: that political legitimacy is (a) a minimum threshold for (b) the moral right to rule. Bringing the full “three-dimensional” concept of political legitimacy developed in the political philosophy literature to bear on INGOs is valuable in several ways: It flips the script of traditional charity-based approaches, treats aid recipients and other subjects of INGO rule as moral and political agents capable of making and acting on moral judgments, provides a locus of agreement for people who otherwise disagree about INGOs, and works synergistically with democratic criteria for INGO political legitimacy.

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