scholarly journals Post-Normal Science: Passing the Scylla of Uncertainty and the Charybdis of the Politicization of Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol V (4) ◽  
pp. 15-33
Author(s):  
Vladimir Porus ◽  
Valentin Bazhanov
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages

The goal of the article to assess and comprehend the legitimacy, advantages, and disadvantages of the idea of “post-normal” and “citizen science”, the problem of treating science as a political actor, as well as the potential “democratization” of contemporary science. The nature and epistemological status of “post-normal” and “citizen” science, their place, and potential role in political decision-making in situations of significant uncertainty of the future (which is especially characteristic of ecology) discussed. We are prone to emphasize the importance of the traditional criteria of rationality, dominant among scientists working under the milieu of the norms and principles of “normal” science. Despite the transdisciplinary nature of the problems and the format of decision-making that are at the core of post-normal science. Nevertheless, the political subjectivity of modern science far from being full-fledged. Science does not participate in politics in an independent actor acting on the same plane and on a par with other political actors (parties or other political structures). The acquisition by the science of the status of a political subject or the loss of such largely depends on the nature of the political climate of the society. Political subjectivity is an imitative political atmosphere that cannot be the immediate goal and value of science. Aspiration for political subjectivity as a norm for post-normal science implies a radical change in its “self-consciousness”, socio-cultural status, and thus, increasing its political weight. However, this aspiration has any reasonable theoretical and practical sense only as an integral part of the movement towards true civil society and democracy.

Political Agenda Setting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political agenda setting is the part of agenda-setting research that refers to the influence of the media agenda on the agenda of political actors. More precisely, the central question of political agenda-setting research is whether political actors adopt the issue agenda of the news media in various aspects ranging from communicating about issues that are prominently discussed in the news media to prioritizing issues from the news media agenda in political decision making. Although such effects have been studied under different labels (agenda building, policy agenda setting) for several decades, research in this field has recently increased significantly based on a new theoretical model introducing the term political agenda setting. Studies based on that model usually find effects of media coverage on the attention political actors pay to various issues, but at the same time point to a number of contingent conditions. First, as found in research on public agenda setting, there is an influence of characteristics of news media (e.g., television news vs. print media) and issues (e.g., obtrusive vs. unobtrusive issues). Second, there is an influence of characteristics of the political context (e.g., government vs. oppositional parties) and characteristics of individual politicians (e.g., generalists vs. specialists). Third, the findings of studies on the political agenda-setting effect differ, depending on which aspects of the political agenda are under examination (e.g., social media messages vs. political decision making).

When in parliamentary debate there is no debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gema Rubio-Carbonero ◽  
Núria Franco-Guillén
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Minimal Points ◽  
Parliamentary Debate ◽  
Political Decisions

Abstract On the 1st October 2017 an independence referendum was organised in Catalonia. The aim of this paper is to analyse the nature of the political debate going on in the Catalan Parliament during the whole process by focusing on the kind of argumentation strategies that were used by each of the leanings to legitimise their political decisions. We do that relying on a methodological distinction that differentiates between sound argumentation and fallacious argumentation. By using a Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this study offers a wide picture of the kind of argumentation used by the main political actors involved in the process of decision making in Catalonia. The results show that there is more emphasis in antagonising with the others, than engaging in sound argument exchange that could facilitate minimal points of consensus. Such results may help explain why the Catalan conflict is still unsolved at the political level.

scholarly journals The Development of the Constituent Social Class as Political Participation in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Rena Juliana ◽  
Reni Juliani ◽  
Nurkhalis Nurkhalis
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The People ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Banda Aceh

Indonesia adheres to a democratic system of government. Each citizen, on the basis of the choice of ordinary people, chooses free political participation and then changes their direction as a sympathizer. Today, the excitement of political participation in Indonesian society to spread on Aceh has been somewhat hurt because some people have changed the political climate to be bad. This is reflected in the previous political participation side by side to deliver rhetoric to reap the voice of the people, but it has become a competition for each other. The purpose of this study is to find out what types of political participation occurred in constituents in Banda Aceh and West Aceh and who are the actors or groups that weaken or strengthen political participation in the constituents. The research method used is a qualitative approach with informants consisting of key informants, subject informants and non-subject informants. The results showed that the types of political participation in the constituents of Banda Aceh and West Aceh were very different and that sympathizers and political actors continued to strengthen and weaken the constituents. It is expected that this research will be a comparative study of the dynamics of policy in the Aceh region.

scholarly journals Can Science be a Political Agent without a Race for Power?

2021 ◽  
Vol V (4) ◽  
pp. 44-56
Author(s):  
Evgeny Maslanov
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Major Purpose ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Human Actors

The article is an attempt to answer the question on the political subjectivity of modern science. It is hardly possible to speak of the specific political subjectivity of science and scientists as a conscious participation in the struggle for power. First, the race for power itself is not a major purpose for them: scientists concentrate on studying the world and creating new technologies. Second, even if they participate in such a race, they are not different from other social groups which protect their interests in political process. Changing the point of view on the political subjectivity of science enables to see its specific position in the space of the political. During discipline power and biopower formation and governmentality development, science became a basic element of public administration and politics. It forms the ideas of the objects managed, possible ways of interaction with them and creates the space of the political and management decisions implemented. In this case, social sciences and humanities obtain special political subjectivity. This also applies in a specific way to natural science and technical sciences. New scientific theories and technological solutions become representatives of non-human actors in the human world. They result in changing our ideas on “Nature”, a “scene” for history and political actions. The emergence of new non-human actors can cause the technological revolution which can influence the ways of political action implementation and provide new opportunities to execute political projects. This is an important element of the political subjectivity of science.

Policy analysis, the political game and institutional change in the labor market

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graciela Bensusan ◽  
Ilan Bizberg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This chapter analyses two public policy cases: The most recent labour and educational reforms in Mexico. It focused on these two cases because they show the interplay and decision making of social and political actors framed in a corporatist arrangement and its consequences on the design and implementation of public policies. The chapter is organized as follows: First, it presents an analysis of each of the abovementioned public policies and their institutional changes. It then studies the political processes through which the decisions were made, taking into account what was at stake, the actors involved, the scenarios and the rules of the game. The chapter then discusses the way in which all these factors influenced the quality of policy analysis, the implementation of the policies adopted and the manner in which corporatism diminished their effectiveness, credibility and permanence.

The voting rights and political culture in North Macedonia and Albania

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-104
Author(s):  
Muaz Agushi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Competitive System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political culture is a set of attitudes and practices of people that shape their political behaviour. It includes moral judgments, political myths, beliefs, and ideas about what makes a good society while language of politics is the way of using language and words in the political arena. Words are the “currency” of power in elections. Voter turnout is an indicator of the level of interest and civic participation in political decision making, competitive party offerings, and civic trust in political actors. Extensive participation, when it comes to a competitive system, significantly increases the responsibility of political actors for civic demands and concerns. The aim of the article is to analyze the political culture and electoral behaviour in North Macedonia and Albania. The author makes conclusion based on the analysis presented in the article, that the process of applying democracy in these countries would face extraordinary challenges, caused by the lack of democratic traditions, as well as by established values and attitudes unfavorable for the democracy development. Important aspects of the political culture includes mutual respect, contra voting, the constant and productive political dialogue, political and parliamentary collaboration, stable institutions instead of strong leaders, high level of participation in elections, and expanding the political decision-making area. All of these aspects are considered to be a fragile occurrence in all countries of Southeastern Europe and especially in Albania and North Macedonia.

The Evolving Role of the United States Sentencing Commission

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Barkow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Sentencing Policy ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Political Value

This essay explores how the role of the United States Sentencing Commission has changed over time. It has gone through three different phases in terms of its role (either actual or perceived) in federal sentencing. The first phase covers the Commission at its inception, and the perceived role of the Commission that dominated then was that of a politically insulated, expert agency that would serve, essentially, as an independent policy maker. This vision of the Commission never materialized, but it is important to understand this model in order to appreciate why the Commission was set up the way it was. During the second and dominant phase, which lasted for roughly two decades, from 1986 until 2007, the Commission played a weak supporting role to the political actors who oversaw its work, with Congress largely controlling its output. This period was characterized by political battering by Congress. Given the political climate of the time, that meant increases in sentences, but little else, from the Commission. The third phase began in 2007 and continues today. The Commission is now seen as a respected supplier of data, and its judgments are given more deference. In a sense, this role combines the first two. The Commission is recognized for its expertise, but that expertise is valuable only insofar as the information it generates has political value. The essay concludes with ways the Commission’s design can be improved to give it greater political influence in setting sentencing policy.

The Use of Observational Data to Study Law and the Judiciary

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara C. Benesh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Made In

The study of courts has been tremendously advanced via the availability of data, key to an empirical, scientific analysis of the decision-making of the political actors that make up the judiciary. Data availability has also enabled a rich and complete description of the courts’ work. This chapter considers the evolution of the study of the subfield of political science that considers judges and courts with particular focus on the role of data therein. It concludes that the Spaeth database, and other, similar multi-user publicly available databases, have had a huge influence on the evolution of public law into mainstream political science. While some argue over the specifics of the plethora of coding decisions made in the creation of such databases, the positive impact they have had on the scholarship about courts cannot be overstated.

scholarly journals Post-Normal Times Laboratory

2021 ◽  
Vol V (4) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Evgeny Zharkov
Keyword(s):  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Discussion Article ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nuclear Problem ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Number Of Authors

Nowadays, for science as a type of activity and a socio-cultural institution, the question of the boundaries of its own agency is extremely relevant. Various global challenges (energy, climate, pandemics, security, etc.) are in tune with the challenges for the very concept of science, for its norms and values. In a discussion article, V.N. Porus and V.A. Bazhanov discuss aspects of the political agency of post-normal science (J. Ravetz, S. Funtowicz) — a type of science that claims to go beyond normal science (T. Kuhn) as a process simple and definite solution of problems within the framework of the prevailing paradigms. This article discusses aspects of the political subjectivity of science in the language of locations, the most important of which is the laboratory, understood in broad socio-cultural and socio-epistemic aspects. With the involvement of historical and scientific (atomic-nuclear problem) and modern situational cases (COVID-19), the problems of the relationship between “scientific” and “political” in the location of the expanded laboratory are considered. In the extended laboratory, the situational realization of the political agency of science is carried out. It is emphasized that science has not yet acquired the status of an independent and full-fledged political agency, and the corresponding institutionalization. The political agency of science is specific and episodic. Loaded with complexity and uncertainty modernity is considered by a number of authors at the present time as a post-normal times. It is noted that in the light of the post-normal nature of modernity while striving for political subjectivity, science (at the level of a multitude of participating actors) should not change its “personal ontology” (responsibility for the truth), which is difficult to achieve without an appeal to the virtue of wisdom.

Critical Junctures, Religion, and Personal Status Regulations in Israel and India

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (02) ◽  
pp. 387-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Lerner
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
Personal Status

The article aims at advancing our understanding of critical junctures in the evolution of religious/secular regulations, referring to those moments in history when one particular arrangement is adopted among several alternatives, establishing an institutional trajectory that is resistant to change in the following years. It traces the regulation of personal status laws in Israel and India, which, despite attempts by political leaders at time of independence to defer clear choices regarding the role of religious law, became generally entrenched in later decades. Based on the Israeli and Indian cases, and in contrast with common approaches, the article demonstrates how decisions made by influential political actors during the foundational stage of the state appear difficult to reform, regardless of the content of these decisions—whether they introduce a radical change or maintain existing practices—or the level of decision making—whether constitutional or ordinary parliamentary legislation.

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