Rationalism or Revelation?

1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 579-587
Author(s):  
Robert Grafstein ◽  
Darrell Dobbs
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Epic Poem ◽  
Sacred Values ◽  
Political Decision Making

Are there appropriate limits to the application of rational choice in political decision making? Does rationalism in politics lead to absolutism? Is there a “pressing threat” to liberal democracy “posed by the irreverent conviction of the hegemony of reason”? In the June 1987 issue of this Review, Darrell Dobbs drew lesson from Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, to argue the limits of rationalism in politics. In this Controversy, Robert Crafstein argues that Dobbs's case against rationalism is not proved. In turn, Dobbs holds to his construction of the relevance of Odysseus' nod to sacred values.

scholarly journals Technoscience, technological cultures and socialisation

2009 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. C04 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Aarden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
Political Decision Making

Technoscience is deeply linked to national cultures across terrains as diverse as medicine, agricultural biotechnologies, ICTs, energy technologies, etc. Understanding the cultural dimension of technoscience is vital for the project of socialisation. This project should be embedded in technological and political cultures, taking variation in cultural approaches to technoscience, national identity and political decision-making seriously. Socialisation of science and technology in Europe should therefore approach socio-technical developments in a way that allows for the emergence of controversies and alternative scenarios and their resolution. Only when we take the links between technological cultures, liberal democracy and technoscience seriously we will be able to confront some of today's most pressing and complex problems.

The political vitality of Mapuche stones: Heteronomy and political decision-making

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-347
Author(s):  
André Menard
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Personal Use ◽  
Political Decision Making

In the ethnographic literature on Mapuche culture from the late 19th century to the present, there are many references to the existence of stones charged with symbolic, magical, religious and even political powers. These range from large rocks that are the object of collective worship to small stones that are put to (more-or-less) personal use. This article focuses on the political role of these stones. In many cases, they are depicted as subjects that form alliances with their owners and create the conditions for victories in politics and war thanks to their oracular powers and the force and prestige they confer. This article also includes an analysis of how these stones are inscribed in a certain logic of Mapuche decision-making, in which that activity is often moved to a heteronomous space (dreams, omens, divine voices and other signs) in which these stones seem to participate as subjects. This suggests that Mapuche society has a specific relationship with political decision-making and the problem of sovereignty, one that stands in opposition to both Carl Schmitt’s authoritarian decisionism and the rationalism of liberal democracy.

Wegvoeringen en weggevoerden tijdens de meidagen van 1940

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Risky Business ◽  
Political Decision Making

Met dit boek levert Frank Seberechts een nagenoeg volledige studie af van een van de minder fraai kanten van de Belgische samenleving in 1940: de administratieve arrestatie en de wegvoering naar Frankrijk van enkele duizenden personen (de ‘verdachten’), Belgen of in België verblijvende vreemdelingen. De extreem-rechtse en pro-Duitse arrestanten hebben na hun vrijlating dit feit politiek in hun voordeel uitgebaat, waardoor volledig in de schaduw kwam te staan dat de overgrote meerderheid van de weggevoerden joodse mensen waren die in de jaren voor de oorlog naar België waren gevlucht. Dat het beeld van de wegvoeringen niet volledig is, is grotendeels te wijten aan het feit dat de meeste archieven die hierop betrekking hebben tijdens de meidagen van 1940 vernietigd werden. Met name de politieke besluitvorming over de wegvoeringen vertoont nog steeds schemerzones, zodat het vastleggen van verantwoordelijkheden ook vandaag nog een gewaagde onderneming is.________Deportations and the deported during the Maydays in 1940 By means of this book Frank Seberechts provides an almost complete study of one of the less admirable sides of Belgian society in 1940: the administrative arrest and the deportation to France of some thousands of people (‘the suspects’), Belgians or foreigners residing in Belgium. The extreme-right and pro-German detainees politically exploited this fact after they had been freed, but this completely overshadowed the point that the large majority of the deported people were Jews who had fled to Belgium during the years preceding the war. This incomplete portrayal of the deportations is mainly due to the fact that most of the archives relating to the events had been destroyed during the Maydays of 1940. The history of the political decision-making about the deportations in particular still shows many grey areas and it is therefore still a risky business even today to determine which people should be held accountable.

scholarly journals A survey of methods for evaluating mini-publics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeuchi Ayano
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Political Decision Making

AbstractPublic participation has become increasingly necessary to connect a wide range of knowledge and various values to agenda setting, decision-making and policymaking. In this context, deliberative democratic concepts, especially “mini-publics,” are gaining attention. Generally, mini-publics are conducted with randomly selected lay citizens who provide sufficient information to deliberate on issues and form final recommendations. Evaluations are conducted by practitioner researchers and independent researchers, but the results are not standardized. In this study, a systematic review of existing research regarding practices and outcomes of mini-publics was conducted. To analyze 29 papers, the evaluation methodologies were divided into 4 categories of a matrix between the evaluator and evaluated data. The evaluated cases mainly focused on the following two points: (1) how to maintain deliberation quality, and (2) the feasibility of mini-publics. To create a new path to the political decision-making process through mini-publics, it must be demonstrated that mini-publics can contribute to the decision-making process and good-quality deliberations are of concern to policy-makers and experts. Mini-publics are feasible if they can contribute to the political decision-making process and practitioners can evaluate and understand the advantages of mini-publics for each case. For future research, it is important to combine practical case studies and academic research, because few studies have been evaluated by independent researchers.

scholarly journals The Process of Political Decision-Making in Groups

1976 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel A. Kirkpatrick ◽  
Dwight F. Davis ◽  
Roby D. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making

The effect of cross-cutting partisan debates on political decision-making

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Sheagley
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Original Experiment ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Political Decision Making

Party identification provides citizens with an anchor from which they derive many of their political attitudes and issue preferences. But what happens when people encounter political debates that place their partisan identities and policy attitudes into conflict with one another? This article draws on an original experiment designed to study the effect of debates that cut across people’s partisan identities and policy attitudes. The results show that cross-cutting debates make people less likely to engage in selective exposure, more likely to feel ambivalent toward their political party, and less likely to rely on party cues when rendering a judgment.

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