scholarly journals Demokratiparadokset

2020 ◽  
pp. 120-145
Author(s):  
Jacob Torfing ◽  
Marte Winsvold
Keyword(s):  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Direct Participation ◽  
Subsequent Chapter ◽  
Participatory Practices ◽  
Representative System

In this chapter we discuss what we have conceptualized as “the paradox of democracy”, pointing to the conflict between the idea of the sovereign people on one side, and the idea that democracies need representatives and political leaders, on the other. The chapter gives an overview of democratic arrangements that encourage direct participation, including arrangements that feed into and support and arrangements that challenge the representative system. Furthermore, the chapter provides examples of arrangements that actively and intentionally link together representation and direct participation. Lastly, we discuss how the tension between participatory practices and representative democracy can be solved. In a brief and subsequent chapter, a Norwegian Mayor reflects on the conflict between representation and direct participation.

Is Formalism a Friend or Foe?

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 354-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn Jurgen Keeman
Keyword(s):  
Functional Approach ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Direct Participation ◽  
Rules And Principles

Contemporary armed conflicts are known to blur the categories of civilians and combatants, leading to problems with the principle of distinction. These categories are the result of an essentially formalised IHL, and have become less accurate by being over- or under-inclusive. Although formalism is vital to IHL’s functioning, maintaining it in its present excessive strength perpetuates distinction problems. In numerous cases a functional inroad based on actual conduct has been introduced, for instance with the concept of direct participation in hostilities. This solution should be implemented across a wider spectrum. Where the two categories are difficult to tell apart, a functional approach for one category benefits the other. This article shows how this can be attained by using existing rules and principles of IHL, such as the concept of military objectives and the prohibition on terrorism, or newer rules.

Getting a Hand By Cutting Them Off: How Uncertainty over Political Corruption Affects Violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-480
Author(s):  
Paul Zachary ◽  
William Spaniel
Keyword(s):  
Political Corruption ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Criminal Violence ◽  
Police Enforcement ◽  
Using Data

Criminal violence differs from other conflicts because illegal cartels primarily use violence to eliminate rivals rather than overthrow the state. However, politicians’ ability to influence cartel behavior remains unclear. This article argues that politicians alter the use of violence by setting their jurisdiction’s police enforcement levels, but that cartels can bribe politicians to look the other way. Because cartels are uncertain about politicians’ corruptibility, not every bribe is successful. Following an election, cartels must invest resources into learning politicians’ level of corruption. Cartels only increase their level of violence after successfully bribing political leaders, which implies that local violence levels should increase the longer parties remain in office. The study formalizes this argument and tests its implications using data on homicides and political tenure from Mexico. The results link incumbency to violence and suggest Mexico experiences an additional 948 homicides for each year of increased political tenure after holding an election.

De sociale achtergrond van de lokale politieke elite in Vlaanderen 1946-1988

Res Publica ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Herwig Reynaert
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Representative System

From the analysis of the social background of the local elected people in Flanders during the period 1946-1988 one can conclude that there are barriers for women, lower social classes and certain age categories preventing them from moving up the local political elite. The democratization process of the Flemish local political elite bas not yet made much progress. It appears from the fact that men are more numerous in political fonctions, that the distribution among the various professional categories strongly deviates from the general social stratification and from the conclusion that certain age categories are clearly dominant. It is however clear that the composition of the elites neverfully reflect society as a whole. On the other hand, the important fact is that the differences cannot be reduced to smaller variances which inevitably go together with any representative system.

Collective Identity in National Anthems

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Hesham Mesbah
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political System ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
National Symbols ◽  
The Common

This chapter explores how national anthems of African and non-African Arab nations reflect a collective national identity. The national anthems of 22 Arab countries were analyzed using the textual thematic analysis to identify the common attributes of national identity in these anthems and the variance in referring to political entities, national symbols, and natural artifacts according to the political system (republic vs. monarchy) in the country. The analysis shows five thematic components of the national identity presented by those anthems, with an emphasis on the themes of religion and local political leaders in the anthems of monarchies. On the other hand, republics base their identity on religion, history, and nation-related natural and national artifacts. The anthems of the republics show a higher level of complexity (thematic richness) and more tendency to use emotionally charged, forceful language, in contrast to the anthems of the monarchies.

scholarly journals Contestation in Participatory Budgeting: Spaces, Boundaries, and Agency

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1348-1365
Author(s):  
Markus Holdo
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Exclusion

Local political leaders as well as international organizations have embraced participatory budgeting in response to problems of political exclusion and citizens’ dissatisfaction with representative democracy. This article provides a framework to highlight important aspects of the politics of participation. The framework allows scholars to explore how factors external to spaces of participation interact with aspects of participation within them. The framework conceptualizes participatory budgeting as political spaces, whose boundaries are shaped by ideologies, interests, and patterns of social exclusion. In dynamic spaces, such boundaries are constantly renegotiated and contestation helps maintain their openness. In static spaces, by contrast, predefined boundaries are imposed on participants who may accept or reject them. Empirical examples of participatory budgeting illustrate the usefulness of this framework. The article ends by discussing key avenues for further research.

e-Democracy and Community Networks

2011 ◽  
pp. 249-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Gross
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Community Networks ◽  
Considerable Proportion ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Electronic Democracy ◽  
The One

Political systems and technology are interdependent and influence each other. On the one hand, political systems and political leaders aim at influencing technological development and benefiting from technological progress; on the other, technological development has a considerable proportion of its own dynamics and potential to influence society and political systems. This chapter particularly focuses on electronic democracy and virtual communities and accordingly discusses recent ideas and plans of political leaders, derives requirements for technology, presents systems and prototypes, and reports cases demonstrating how and what technology is really used.

scholarly journals Thinking about elections and about democratic representation

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
LH ◽  
GvdS ◽  
WTE
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Modern Representative

[Political representation] is the basis of modern representative democracy. Older and less sophisticated forms, such as direct democracy, subsist marginally, even if they keep exerting a certain attraction. But representative democracy does not carry the self-evident authority it once had. Like every modern institution it is under challenge and consequently needs to be defended. In actual politics, the defence often takes the form of discussion of the merits of one system over the other and of proposals for change. The part of this defence appertaining to constitutional scholarship is not concerned primarily with proposals and changes. It is, before all, to brush up the fundamentals underlying representative democracy, on the basis of topical issues.There are three current issues upon which we would like to draw attention. They are: equality in structuring electoral systems, the processes of electoral reform and the rise of non-majoritarian institutions versus parliamentary democracy.

Measuring Taiwanese Public Opinion on Taiwanese Independence

2005 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 158-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fuh-sheng Hsieh ◽  
Emerson M.S. Niou
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Large Percentage ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Conditional Preferences

Whether there will be a war between China and Taiwan depends very much upon whether Taiwan will declare independence. And given that Taiwan is a democracy now, public opinion on the issue will certainly affect the political leaders' decision to move one way or the other. Since the early 1990s, several competing methods have been used in surveys to study Taiwanese attitudes on the independence – unification issue. The existence of a large percentage of respondents with conditional preferences makes us realize that the traditional six-point or 11-point scale measures of preferences oversimplify the situation. In this article, we construct a new measure of preferences and show that it clearly outperforms the traditional methods.

scholarly journals Enhancing Democracy Through Legislative Redistricting

1994 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gelman ◽  
Gary King
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
The Relationship

We demonstrate the surprising benefits of legislative redistricting (including partisan gerrymandering) for American representative democracy. In so doing, our analysis resolves two long-standing controversies in American politics. First, whereas some scholars believe that redistricting reduces electoral responsiveness by protecting incumbents, others, that the relationship is spurious, we demonstrate that both sides are wrong: redistricting increases responsiveness. Second, while some researchers believe that gerrymandering dramatically increases partisan bias and others deny this effect, we show both sides are in a sense correct. Gerrymandering biases electoral systems in favor of the party that controls the redistricting as compared to what would have happened if the other party controlled it, but any type of redistricting reduces partisan bias as compared to an electoral system without redistricting. Incorrect conclusions in both literatures resulted from misjudging the enormous uncertainties present during redistricting periods, making simplified assumptions about the redistricters' goals, and using inferior statistical methods.

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