scholarly journals The Democratic Legitimacy of Secession and the Demos Problem

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
José L. Martí
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Main Obstacle ◽  
Normative Justification

The normative literature on secession has widely addressed the question of under which conditions the secession of a particular territory from a larger state might be regarded as justifiable. The idea of a normative justification of secession, however, remains ambiguous unless one distinguishes between the justice of secession and its legitimacy, a distinction that is now widely accepted in political philosophy. Much of the literature seems to have focused on the question about justice, while, in comparison, very little attention has been paid to the question of under which conditions secession can be regarded as democratically legitimate, as something explicitly different to the question of justice. This article addresses this second question. After some preliminary remarks, the article focuses on the main obstacle to develop a theory of democratic legitimacy of secessions, the so-called “demos problem.” Such problem, it is argued, has no categorical solution. This does not imply, however, that there is no democratic, legitimate way of redrawing our borders. Two strategies are proposed in this article to overcome the difficulty posed by the demos problem: an ideal strategy of consensus building and a non-ideal strategy of decision-making in the circumstances of disagreement.

Systematicity and Normative Justification

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Normative Justification ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines systematicity as a form of normative justification. Thompson’s contention is that the Hegelian commitment to fundamental presuppositionlessness and hence to methodological immanence, from which his distinctive conception of systematicity flows, is at the core of the unique form of normative justification that he employs in his political philosophy and that this is the only form of such justification that can successfully meet the skeptic’s challenge. Central to Thompson’s account is the distinction between systematicity and representation and the way in which this frames Hegel’s relationship to the traditional forms of justification and the creation of his own distinctive kind of normative argumentation.

scholarly journals The crisis of modernity as the crisis of the political: Towards a critique of the reason of the ethos

2003 ◽  
pp. 61-85
Author(s):  
Simo Elakovic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity ◽  
Political Decision Making

The crisis of modernity as the crisis of the political is seen by the author primarily as a crisis of the "measure" of the criterion of political decision making and action. This crisis is understood in the first place as a crisis of self-awareness and practice of the ethos. Machiavelli was the first to attempt a solution to this problem by introducing the concept of virtus, which became the fundamental principle of modern political philosophy. However, many modern and contemporary interpreters of Machiavelli's thought often ignore the social and political context in which the political doctrine of the Florentine thinker arose. Namely, Machiavelli's effort to find an authentic form of the political act that would make possible a harmonization and stabilization of the dramatic political circumstances then prevailing in Italian cities required a reliable diagnosis and adequate means for a successful therapy of the sick organism of the community. The epochal novelty in Machiavelli's political theory was the shift from the ancient theorization of virtue to its modern operationalization. Nevertheless, this shift is often interpreted as a radical opposing of the Greek concept of arete to the Roman virtus, which is crudely and simplistically reduced to bravery and strength necessary for taking and keeping political power. Hegel in his political philosophy travels an important part of the road - unconsciously rather than consciously - along with Machiavelli and Shelling. This particularly holds for his understanding of the necessity of strength and bravery in the process of operationalizing the spirit of freedom in history through the mediation of "negation" as "the power of evil". The mediation of subjectivity and substantiality, according to Hegel, takes place in the state by the brutal bridling of the world spirit where not just individuals but whole peoples are sacrificed - toward freedom, i.e. its realization in the community of the ethos. The "trouble of the times" is a consequence of the separation between I and the world (Entzeiung) and stems from a reduced political reason which lacks the criterion of the ethical totality for political action and decision making. By the separation of the ethos this reason get routinized and political action is reduced to naked technique of winning and keeping political power. In the concluding segment of the paper the author points to some global consequences of the crisis of political decision making in the historical reality at the end of 20th century.

scholarly journals Default Risk Assessment of Tunisian Smes: Multiple Criteria Decision Making Approaches

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Salah BEN HAMAD ◽  
Nesrine TURKI
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Default Risk ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Multiple Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Multiple Criteria ◽  
Support Structures ◽  
Main Obstacle ◽  
The Many ◽  
Multicriteria Methodology

<p>The default risk is a reality as well for the companies as for the economy of a country. This paper has highlighted the fact that in spite of the many incentives to promote Tunisian SMEs, creation of these companies remains below expectations. Thus, a study assessing the risk of failure is imperative. A multicriteria methodology of decision-making in a sample of 41 small and medium-sized enterprises used financing by the Tunisian Solidarity Bank (BTS) as one of the financial support structures relative to investment credits. The results showed that the application of a policy of caution (pessimistic procedure) in the granting of loans by the BTS is the main obstacle to the creation, development and sustainability of the Tunisian SMEs.</p>

scholarly journals La peculiare costituzione dell'Unione Europea

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Erik Fossum ◽  
Agustin José Menendez
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Distinctive Features

A unique political animal, the European Union has given rise to important constitutional conundrums and paradoxes that John Erik Fossum and Agustín José Menéndez explore in detail in this book. The authors consider the process of forging the EU's constitution and the set of fundamental norms that define the institutional structure, the decision-making procedures, and the foundations of the Union's democratic legitimacy. Their analysis illuminates the distinctive features of the EU's pluralist constitutional construct but also the interesting parallels to the Canadian constitutional experience and provides the tools to understand the Union's development, especially during the Laeken (2001–2005) and Lisbon (2007–2009) processes of constitutional reform.

scholarly journals LEGAL FORMALISM AND LEGAL REALISM: WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Legal Theory ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Leiter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Legal Realism ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Legal Formalism ◽  
The Law ◽  
Normative Considerations

In teaching jurisprudence, I typically distinguish between two different families of theories of adjudication—theories of how judges do or should decide cases. “Formalist” theories claim that (1) the law is “rationally” determinate, that is, the class of legitimate legal reasons available for a judge to offer in support of his or her decision justifies one and only one outcome either in all cases or in some significant and contested range of cases (e.g., cases that reach the stage of appellate review); and (2) adjudication is thus “autonomous” from other kinds of reasoning, that is, the judge can reach the required decision without recourse to nonlegal normative considerations of morality or political philosophy. I also note that “formalism” is sometimes associated with the idea that judicial decision-making involves nothing more than mechanical deduction on the model of the syllogism—Beccaria, for example, expresses such a view. I call the latter “Vulgar Formalism” to emphasize that it is not a view to which anyone today cares to subscribe.

Political representation: the view from France

2019 ◽  
pp. 89-103
Author(s):  
Raf Geenens
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Collective Decision ◽  
The Self ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Claude Lefort ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Way

It is now widely accepted that political representation is not merely a passive, ‘mirroring’ process, but that the process of political representation plays a constitutive role in the construction of citizens’ ideas and preferences. This chapter argues that French political philosophy points to an even more fundamental role for power and representation in the construction (or the ‘constitution’) of society and the self-image of its members. It focuses on a key argument of political theorist, Claude Lefort, who maintained that the specificity of a society is determined by the way power is organized and symbolically represented in that society. On this account, the importance of political representation goes far beyond the formation of opinions and the process of collective decision making. The organization and representation of power is instead seen as a key determinant of society’s self-understanding and of the way citizens within that society understand themselves and their mutual relations.

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