scholarly journals A Normative Model of Politically Neutral Expertise

2021 ◽  
Vol V (4) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Liana Tukhvatulina

Increasing interaction between science and politics requires analysis of the risks of science politicization. The author considers the threat of political control over the expertise and proposes a normative model which allows to avoid this threat. The author argues that the protection of the “hard core” of scientific rationality of expert’s activity is possible if the role of scientists is limited to the “technical” stage of the expertise (aggregation of scientific consensus on the problem). At this stage, the experts should make risks of the proposed strategies visible for public (the author calls this “risks externalization”). In turn, a decision on the compliance of the proposed strategies with the political interests of society should be made at the stage of open discussion. The author claims that separation of these two levels of expertise has the following advantages: (1) allows one to minimize moral and political pressure on experts; (2) makes it possible to involve all parties in the discussion, thereby neutralizing “privatization” of the public sphere; (3) allows one to aggregate distributed knowledge; (4) provides an opportunity for the distribution of responsibility among wider range of participants, thereby maintaining the democratic spirit in the community. The author criticizes the idea of “expert decisionism” and claims that it should be considered as an exceptional mode of expertise in extraordinary situation.

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
LLOYD BOWEN

ABSTRACTCharles I and his clerical supporters are often said to have been wary of print and public discussion, only entering the public sphere reluctantly and to comparatively little effect during the political crisis of 1642. This article challenges such views by focusing on the neglected role of official forms of print such as proclamations, declarations, and state prayers and their promulgation in the nation's churches. It traces the ways in which the king utilized the network of parish clergy to broadcast his message and mobilize support during the Scottish crisis of 1639–40 and again in the ‘paper war’ of 1642. The article argues that traditional forms of printed address retained their potency and influence despite the proliferation of polemical pamphlets and newsbooks. The significance of these mobilizations is demonstrated by the profound disquiet they caused among the king's Covenanter and parliamentarian opponents as well as the ‘good effects’ they had in generating support for the royalist cause.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 650
Author(s):  
Matheus Da Cruz e Zica ◽  
Patrícia Barros de Oliveira

Este artigo procura elucidar o debate que se constituiu pela imprensa ao longo das décadas de 1870 e 1880 nas províncias brasileiras da Paraíba e de Pernambuco em torno do modelo francês de monarquia parlamentar que contrastava com o federalismo republicano dos EUA. Assumindo o lugar de formadora da opinião pública a imprensa procurou trazer destaque para a questão do Espaço Público na medida em que modos distintos de se lidar com ele estavam em jogo em cada um daqueles modelos políticos internacionais idealizados. Também foram mapeadas algumas relações que os jornais analisados indiciaram entre os debates sobre o Espaço Público e as retóricas de modernidade que os acompanhavam. Com frequência a questão da ciência e da técnica pareceu eclipsar a dimensão do conflito que é próprio do universo político e da esfera pública, unificando os olhares em torno de um deslumbramento com as benfeitorias materiais que o século prometia.Palavras chave: Espaço Público, Formação, Imprensa. AbstractThis article seeks to elucidate the debate that was constituted by the press throughout the 1870s and 1880s in the Brazilian provinces of Paraíba and Pernambuco around the French model of parliamentary monarchy that contrasted with the republicanism of the USA. Taking over the role of public opinion maker, the press sought to highlight the issue of the Public Space since that distinct ways of dealing with it was considered in each of those idealized international political models. This article also mapped some relations that the newspapers analyzed betrayed between the debates on the Public Space and the rhetoric of modernity that accompanied them. Often the question of science and technique seemed to eclipse the dimension of conflict that is proper to the political universe and the public sphere, unifying the glances around a dazzle with the material improvements that the century promised.Keywords: Public Space, Formation, Press.  ResumenEste artículo busca esclarecer el debate que se constituyó por la prensa a lo largo de las décadas de 1870 y 1880 en las provincias brasileñas de Paraíba y de Pernambuco en torno al modelo francés de monarquía parlamentaria que contrastaba con el federalismo republicano de EUA. Asumiendo el lugar de formadora de la opinión pública la prensa trató de destacar la cuestión del Espacio Público en la medida en que modos distintos de lidiar con él estaban en juego en cada uno de aquellos modelos políticos internacionales idealizados. También se han mapeado algunas relaciones que los periódicos analizados indiciaron entre los debates sobre el espacio público y las retóricas de modernidad que los acompañaban. Con frecuencia la cuestión de la ciencia y de la técnica parecía eclipsar la dimensión del conflicto que es propio del universo político y de la esfera pública, unificando las miradas en torno a un deslumbramiento con las mejoras materiales que el siglo prometía.Palabras clave: Espacio Público, Formación, Prensa.


2021 ◽  
pp. 69-111
Author(s):  
Graham Murdock

In this chapter, Graham Murdock analyses the role of public service media in the contemporary times of crisis that have been shaped by connectivity, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 crisis. Using lots of examples, the political economy of communication approach, and Habermas’s concept of the public sphere, the chapter points out that Public Service Media is not something of the past, but is needed for guaranteeing a vivid and democratic public sphere in the digital age. The chapter points out the potentials of public service media for creating and maintaining digital public spaces that advance information, education, entertainment, and participation. This chapter is a written and amended version of a talk by Graham Murdock that he gave on 15 February 2021 at a webinar that was part of the AHRC project “Innovation in Public Service Media Policy” (https://innopsm.net/) and its research focus on “Envisioning Public Service Media Utopias”. A video of the talk is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4dJSzyW_GM.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Villanueva-Mansilla

OLPC, the One Laptop Per Child initiative, was accepted by just a few countries, including Peru. The largest acquisition of computers has produced a fairly low impact in education and is now being quietly phased-out. Peru's government decision to adopt the computers, back in 2007, was not contested or questioned by the political class, the media or even teachers, with just a rather small number of specialists arguing against it. This chapters discussed the political and argumentative processes that brought OLPC into the public sphere, through the use of a specific narrative, that of hackerism, i.e., the hacker attitude towards computers, and how social and political validation resulted in adoption. An assessment of the process of framing OLPC as a hacker product and the perils of such reasoning lead to discuss the need for a counter-narrative about the role of computers in society.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Zaprulkhan Zaprulkhan

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong><strong><em> </em></strong><em>As if it never finished to talk about the role of women in the public sphere. This is because the role of women in the public sphere, particularly in their political role is considered to be less significant. Up to the third millennium, some scholars and intellectuals still had a negative view about the role of positive contribution of women in the political arena. They interpreted the Qor’an and the hadith (traditions of the Prophet, sayings of the Prophet)</em> <em>textually with which prohibited women involve in politics. Through constructive critics and holistic reconstruction, this study tried to explore the political role of women in the public sphere based on ‘notion’ of Musdah Mulia. According to Musdah, the important things that should be done was not only the reconstruction of the interpretation of the fundamental doctrines of Islam (Qur'an and Hadith), but also practical implementation in the fields of education, culture, and public policies. All reconstructions of woman</em> <em>role in political leadership should be carried out simultaneously in order to produce concrete changes. This is because there were a number of internal factors that had caused women not be able to play their role significantly in the political sphere that consisted of figure of women themselves who were unconfident and passive to the given opportunities they had. They also got lack of support; they were chained in stereotypes as guardians of household, and still confined by misogynistic tradition, as well as caused by the biased interpretation of religious doctrines related to the patriarchal values and gender domain.</em> <em></em></p><p dir="RTL"><strong>الملخص</strong> :كاد لا ينتهي الحديث عن دور المرأة في وسط المجتمع . وذلك لأن دورها فيه – وخاصة في المجال السياسي – قليل. وإلى هذا الحين لا يزال بعض العلماء والمثقفين نظروا إلى دور المرأة الإيجابي في وسط المجتمع نظرة سلبية.  فسّر هؤلاء الآيات القرآنية والأحاديث النبوية الناهية المرأة عن الاشتراك في المجال السياسي تفسيرا حرفيا. حاولت هذه الدراسة – بمدخل نقدي بنّاء شامل – دراسة الدور السياسي للمرأة وسط المجتمع فكرة موسدة موليا. ترى موسدة أن العمل الواجب قيامه به هو، ليس فقط إعادة طريقة تفسير القرآن والحديث بل كذلك إيجاد الحركات في مجال التربية، والثقافة، والقرارات الإجتماعية. وجميع إعادة بناء لدور المرأة لابد أن تقام جماعية لتحقيق التغيّر الواقعيّ. وهذا لأن هناك عوامل داخلية للمرأة تمنع المرأة للتدخّل في المجال السياسي، وهي عدم ثقتها بنفسها وعدم انتهازها للفرصة الموجودة. وكذلك التأييد لها قليل، محبوسة في ضوء المقولة " إنها ربّة البيت"،</p><p><strong>Abstrak: </strong><em>Membincang peran perempuan di wilayah publik, seakan tidak pernah selesai. Hal ini karena peran perempuan di wilayah publik ini, khususnya peran politik diyakini masih kurang signifikan. </em><em>Hingga memasuki milenium ketiga, masih terdapat sebagian ulama dan cendekiawan yang memandang negatif peran dan kontribusi positif kaum perempuan di ranah politik. Mereka melakukan interpretasi secara tekstual terhadap al-Quran dan hadis yang melarang kaum perempuan terlibat dalam politik. Melalui kritik konstruktif dan rekonstruksi holistik, kajian ini mencoba untuk mengeksplorasi peran politik kaum perempuan di ruang publik gagasan Musdah Mulia. Bagi Musdah, hal yang perlu dilakukan adalah tidak saja rekonstruksi interpretasi terhadap doktrin-doktrin fundamental Islam (al-Quran dan hadis), tapi juga gerakan praktis dalam bidang pendidikan, kebudayaan, dan kebijakan publik. Semua rekonstruksi terhadap peran kepemimpinan politik perempuan tersebut mesti dilakukan secara bersamaan agar menghasilkan perubahan secara konkret. Hal ini karena terdapat sejumlah faktor internal yang menyebabkan perempuan tidak bisa berperan secara signifikan dalam ranah politik yang mencakup pada sosok perempuan sendiri yang kurang percaya diri dan pasif terhadap peluang yang ada. Mereka juga kurang mendapat dukungan, terbelenggu stereotip sebagai penjaga ranah domestik, masih terkungkung tradisi misoginis, serta penafsiran agama yang bias nilai-nilai patriarki dan bias gender. </em></p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>perempuan, publik, steorotip, patriarkhi, tafsir agama.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 351-366
Author(s):  
Azmi Bishara

This chapter discusses the transformation of sectarianism from a channel for public participation in the political sphere into an obstacle to this participation. Identity politics, which includes sectarianism, means popular participation in service of political interests presented as the interests (in our case) of the ta’ifa. And although this sectarianism politicizes the masses and drives them into the public sphere, it nonetheless quickly becomes an obstacle to popular participation, and specifically to democratic transformation. It is no coincidence that there are no federations or confederations of ta’ifas. A federation in a modern state is either merely administrative or based on ethnic and cultural units. But collective rights are possible in a liberal democracy, assuming that they are based on citizens’ rights.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Tomasz Sochański

This study aims to highlight the role of education in a democratic society in the political philosophy of Nicolas de Condorcet. Condorcet refuted legitimising political power on the idea of general will and postulated to replace it with the notion of reason and probability of truth. This assumption tightly linked the wellbeing of democracy with a public education system which, on the one hand, was to prepare citizens to take an active role in the public sphere, and on the other, allow them to improve the political system in which they function in accordance with the progress of the human spirit.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 147-165
Author(s):  
Rafał Wonicki

The main purpose of this article is to compare the liberal and republican understanding of the role of political culture. The reconstruction of the liberal and republican elements of the political sphere demonstrates how these theories present the role of citizenship, government and democracy, thus revealing differences in the concepts of political culture. Firstly, the liberal concept of political culture is described as a practice that allows citizens to fulfil their individual interests. Liberal political culture helps to integrate people in the institutional framework, thus enabling them to realize their individual preferences without the state’s pressure to choose one particular model of a good life. Secondly, the republican model of political culture is analysed. It stresses citizens’ engagement in the public sphere and the role of positive freedom, based on an active search for common good and the cultivation of common practices supporting the state’s paternalistic techniques of integration. This type of culture allows citizens to achieve common moral development. In conclusion, it is argued that in the age of galloping globalization, these two normative models do not fit perfectly well into the Western social and political landscape because today we live in communities which embrace both the liberal and republican elements of political culture. Thus, it is demonstrated that there is some space for compromise between these two approaches, i.e. liberal republican culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 328-338
Author(s):  
Melati Dama ◽  
Nur Hasanah ◽  
Sry Reski Mulka

An analytical study on the quality of the political participation of the people of Paser Regency seen from the perspective of gender. This paper is to see how the quality of women's group participation in the public sphere in Paser Regency in this case is participation in the political field. The method used in this paper is descriptive with a qualitative approach, namely the data source in the form of interviews or observations in the field. Based on the findings, the decline in the quality of women's political participation in Paser Regency is related to the cultural perspective of the community in seeing the role of women. In addition, there is a tendency in women to show a lack of motivation and competence.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 460
Author(s):  
Janusz Węgrzecki

The article analyzes the content of the Pope’s speeches discussing, reconstructing and interpreting the concept of two dominant western cultures and their mutual relationships to the perspective of Pope Benedict XVI, who calls them the culture of radical enlightenment and the culture of humanism that is open to transcendence. The article identifies fundamental contentious issues including: anthropological issues, human dignity, political anthropology, freedom, reason, its rationality, and the role of religion in the public sphere. Thus, the article provides a positive answer to the question of whether the perspective of the clash of cultures outlined by Samuel Huntington can be cognitively used in interpreting the contrast of cultures presented from the perspective of Pope Benedict XVI. However, contrary to Huntington, who describes the clash of western cultures with other, non-western cultures, Pope Benedict XVI claims that there is a clash between two dominant western cultures.


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