Communication, Ideology, and Democratic Theory

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Bohman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Fourth Condition ◽  
The Core ◽  
Theory Of Communicative Action ◽  
Starting Point

Using Habermas' theory of communicative action and his remarks on the legitimacy of the state under modern social conditions as a starting point, I combine normative democratic theory with the critique of ideology. I first outline four necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions of communication for democratic decision making: such agreements must (1) be formally and procedurally correct, (2) be cognitively adequate, (3) concern issues on which consensus or compromise can be reached, and (4) be free of ideology. The first three conditions form the core of a normative democratic theory, one that is not purely procedural, as many have argued it is. I then discuss the fourth condition and establish the relation between ideology and democracy. Taken together, these conditions not only provide an answer to troubling questions for democratic theory but also delineate the extent to which politics is rational and political claims are “truthlike.”

Introduction: Questioning the Punitive Paradox

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Insa Lee Koch
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
The State ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The Core ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
State Coercion

The introduction starts with what many have seen as a worrying paradox: the illiberal turn that liberal democracies have taken with, or perhaps because of, popular support. While commentators have focused on ‘why’ liberal democracy has taken an illiberal turn, the book proposes an alternative starting point that focuses on the ‘how’ and the ‘what’: what democracy means to some of Britain’s most marginalized citizens in the first place and how these citizens engage with the state. It is by shifting the analytical focus to these questions that a more encompassing legacy of state coercion than commonly acknowledged in narratives of the punitive turn can be brought into focus, as well as the possibility of its critique and subversion. The introduction sets out council estates as a historical and ethnographic setting for such a project, outlines the methodology, and introduces the anthropological framework at the core of the book.

scholarly journals Public Councils as a Legal Form of Partnership between the State and Its Citizens

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-117
Author(s):  
Pavlo Krainii
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Legal Forms

Today, the existence of every society and every state is marked with the presence of generally accepted phenomena that radically distinguish the legal status of an individual from his ancestors, who lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago. These phenomena are: democracy, legal society, human rights, good governance, participatory democracy, etc. The study of legal relations between an individual or a group of individuals and the state, represented by the system of government in one form or another, has been carried out by a large number of well-known legal scholars, sociologists, political scientists, and economists, all of whom offered numerous theoretical concepts, represented different scientific schools, and worked in various fields of research. The basic issue they have been trying to solve both in the past and at present is how an individual citizen or a group of individuals can influence the decision-making processes of public authorities that affect the interests of each of them. It turned out that the institutions we are aware of (like those of political parties, public organizations, unions) are not the only legal forms of association of the country citizens who seek to exercise public power and represent the interests of certain groups of their compatriots. The active changes that took place in the world after the Second World War, as well as the emergence of the third generation of human rights were a logical continuation of the growing influence of liberal ideas and views, which proved the existence of new scientific alternatives, ideas and concepts for developing the theory of deliberative democracy. The latter’s main objective was the idea of citizens’ active involvement in decision-making by the authorities and local governments, which consequently led to the phenomenon of public-private partnership. The article under discussion contains a legal analysis of the institution of public councils as one of the legal forms of such interaction through the theory of communicative action. At the same time, the paper will contain an attempt to analyze the current Ukrainian legislation that determines and regulates the legal status of public councils. This will enable to draw conclusions about the level of involvement of citizens in the decision-making process. In addition, the article will lay particular emphasis on a study of the already established and existing public councils in Ukraine, as well as will identify the positive and negative aspects of their activities, which will help to work out the problematic aspects of their legal status and offer practical ways to eliminate them.

Paradoxes of Engagement with Irish Language Community Management, Practice, and Ideology

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
The State ◽  
First Century ◽  
Community Management ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Irish Language ◽  
The Core ◽  
English Speaking

Since gaining independence in 1922, the Irish Government’s pro-Irish language policy has gone through several stages of development, moving from openly coercive maintenance strategies in designated areas (Gaeltacht) and obligatory Irish-medium schooling throughout the country, to a contemporary stance where the state sees Irish speakers as customers who require services. Policy for the majority Anglophone population is now based on a heritage role for Irish. Despite the evolution of state and community policies, some early ideological stances have remained at the core of decision-making. In the first decade of the twenty-first century the state has further reassessed its positions. The power of ideologically driven state language policy has inevitably produced mismatches which may paradoxically have further endangered the future of Irish as a community language. This chapter focuses on the stance of the monolingual English-speaking minority and inactive Irish speakers in Gaeltacht regions.

THE CONCEPT OF POST-METAPHYSICAL THINKING OF JüRGEN HABERMAS

2021 ◽  
pp. 188-206
Author(s):  
Yuriy Kimelev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Action ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Core ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Theory Of Communicative Action

The concept of «post-metaphysical» philosophy of J. Habermas is part of his vast philosophical and sociological creativity. The core of this creativity is formed by the «theory of communicative action».

scholarly journals Gender Justice in India: A Feminist Jurisprudential Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-88
Author(s):  
Shampa Dev
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Core ◽  
Social Conditioning ◽  
Paternalistic Approach

A perusal of the criminal laws and personal laws reveal that laws adopt a protectionist and paternalistic approach for empowering and providing autonomy to women. This paper initiates a discussion on issues at the core of gender justice. It questions the man-woman dichotomy and asserts that if men and women are fundamentally different as categories, then a single yardstick for measuring justice is wrong. And, if they are not class wise different, and evince only personal traits, then the whole idea of gender justice based on the dichotomy is flawed. This paper further argues that social conditioning restricts the possibility of autonomous decisions. In conclusion, it is argued that laws need to create just social conditions and institutions that guarantee freedom from socially imposed disabilities, and subsequently, strengthen autonomy in decision making.

The Evolution of Cognitive Representational Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin W. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The State ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Efficiency Gains ◽  
Cognitive Efficiency ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Core Idea

This chapter develops a new account of the evolution of cognitive representational decision making—i.e. of decision making that relies on representations about the state of the world. The core idea behind this account is that cognitive representational decision making can—at times—be more cognitively efficient than non-cognitive representational decision making. In particular, cognitive representational decision making, by being able to draw on the inferential resources of higher-level mental states, can enable organisms to adjust more easily to changes in their environment and to streamline their neural decision making machinery (relative to non-representational decision makers). While these cognitive efficiency gains will sometimes be outweighed by the costs of this way of making decisions—i.e. the fact that representational decision making is generally slower and more concentration- and attention-hungry than non-representational decision making—this will not always be the case. Moreover, it is possible to say in more detail which kinds of circumstances will favor the evolution of cognitive representational decision making, and which do not.

The Sovereignty of the State and the Problem of International Law

Sovereignty ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 140-158
Author(s):  
Hermann Heller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Essential Requirement ◽  
World State ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Units

This chapter argues that any study of international law that does not take the existence of a plurality of sovereign units of will as its starting point is doomed to fail from the start. International law exists only as long as there are at least two universal and effective territorial decision-making units. The sovereign state is a necessary part of juristic thought but international law is not. The “world state” and the state that isolates itself behind a Chinese wall would exist as sovereign decision-making units even without international law; international law without sovereign states, however, is a conceptual impossibility. The chapter shows that the sovereignty of the state is not an obstacle to international law, but an essential requirement for it.

The role of think tanks in influencing policy-making in Israel

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heba Gamal El Din
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
The State ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Issues

This paper examines the emergence and role of research think tanks in Israel, particularly with regard to their influence on policy-making. The establishment of the first think tanks coincided with the founding of the state, with their numbers increasing since the 1990s. This paper attempts to map these Israeli think tanks, which are classified under four categories: government, private or independent think tanks, political party think tanks, and academic think tanks (‘universities without students’). The paper is divided into two themes. The first considers the core issues of their interest against the existence of these think tanks in the Israeli parliamentary political system. The second applies both the quantitative and the qualitative features of these think tanks in an attempt to discover the extent of their influence within the process of decision-making in Israel.

scholarly journals Anderbereddering: Met Adorno by die hartslag van die postmoderne intellek

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann C. Beukes
Keyword(s):  
Communicative Action ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
The Core ◽  
Theory Of Communicative Action ◽  
Postmodern Thought ◽  
Identity Thinking

Other illumination: With Adorno at the heartbeat of the post-modern intellect. In this article Adorno's critique of identity thinking and modem systems of thought are exploited within the context of the current debate of modernity. It is argued that the usurpation of the so-called Other (which the author Calls "Anderverdringing") is at the core of modem thought, and that the illumination of the  Other (which the author calls "Ander-bereddering") is at the core of postmodern thought. Habermas' theory of communicative action is used to  bring Adorno's critique of identity thinking to the Jore as a form ofpostmodern critique, exactly in the sense that Adorno's philosophy is essentially Otherilluminating.

Geographies of Diplomacy

Geography ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
The Core ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
External Actors

From the micro-geographies of specific diplomatic sites to the global imaginations of world politics that inform diplomatic relations, diplomacy has countless spatial dimensions. In recent years, scholars from various disciplines, including geography and International Relations (IR), have begun the task of critically engaging with geographical questions that diplomacy raises. At the core of this endeavor is foregrounding the often overlooked significance of space in diplomatic practice. At a micro-scale, diplomacy is comprised of a collection of activities and materials that are necessarily located somewhere in space. These specific “sites” of diplomacy have their own spatial organization—from the seating plan of a state dinner to the offices and corridors of embassies and foreign ministries—and these locations are shaped by their unique micro-geographies. The spatial dynamics of both spectacular and mundane diplomatic sites have led scholars to draw on the core geographical concept of “place” in analyzing diplomatic practice. Location has an emotional and affective agency that influences our perception of events; decisions as to where diplomacy takes place are as significant as the diplomatic actions themselves. Beyond specific sites, scholars have also considered how diplomacy plays a much wider role in the spatialization of world politics. First, diplomacy is an act closely associated with the functionality of the state. Performing the capacity to represent a polity through engagement with external actors is a legitimacy-building process and a key tool of statecraft. Second, the act of diplomacy also has transformative potential. Encounters between states that take place in diplomatic settings can mediate disputes, ignite arguments, and generally reshape how relations between actors are imagined. Research into the geographies of diplomacy benefits from a great breadth of perspectives. At a time when technological innovation and forces of globalization have given rise to “new” diplomatic actors and practices, multiple disciplinary perspectives have highlighted the changing spatial dynamics of diplomacy. In particular, innovative theoretical and methodological approaches have been developed to study alternative diplomatic actors both “above” and “below” the state. This challenge to traditional notions of who and what might be considered as diplomatic actors suggests that scholarly work on the geographies of diplomacy sits at the forefront of engagement with the rapidly changing terrain of contemporary diplomatic practice. The works included in this bibliography were selected to reflect current trends in this vibrant and rapidly evolving subfield. They are, however, only a sample of the wider work associated with the geographies of diplomacy and should be seen as a starting point for engagement with the literature.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document