scholarly journals Is Democracy Possible Without a Restriction of the Suffrage?

Studia Humana ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Alfano
Keyword(s):  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The Right

Abstract Today, the concept of democracy seems inextricably linked with that of universal suffrage. But is it true? To let that anyone with a given age has the right to vote is a very good democratic practice, or would prefer to question the criteria for access to this right, perhaps to develop new systems? The current crisis of democracy in the Western world is symptomatic of a detriment of the political consciousness of the people? And yet it is very likely to be admissible and that only from the mass, the large numbers, rises the better choices? In this paper I try to answer these questions, drawing from personal opinions and thoughts, which I hope will inspire questions and curiosity in those who, like me, believes that any system is always perfectible, and that its aim should be to that perfection, without fear of asking uncomfortable questions. Personally, in fact, I can accept democracy as “the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”, to quote a famous statement by Winston Churchill. But not for that I give up, and I try other ways. Ways that are more satisfying, more fair and keep us away from the horrors that only an angry mob can do.

La recherche appliquée: le cas du « Katholiek Sociaal Kerkelijk Instituut (KASKI) » aux Pays-Bas

1971 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolf Holl ◽  
Hyacinthe Crépin
Keyword(s):  
Professional Competence ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The People ◽  
Pastoral Planning ◽  
Senior Research ◽  
The Right

Following Vatican II changes are rapidly taking place within Dutch Catholicism — the bishops no longer make decisions in an authoritarian way: religious practice is de clining ; priests and religious are decreasing in numbers and many religious and pastoral experiments have come into being. KASKI has the responsibility of keeping pace with the Church during this process of change. In order to do this it makes use of several modes of work — the production of statistics relating to the position of religion in Society, the planning of religious and pastoral institutions and the study of new forms of the religious life in orders and congregations. For the first task it has used the same instruments for twenty- five years and the censuses thus produced yield valuable infor mation. As far as pastoral planning is concerned, it works in the field, playing the role of catalyst for those who have to make decisions and the people who have to carry out these decisions. This was the case, for instance, in the pastoral planning of the town of Eindhoven. Finally, when dealing with the new forms of communal religious life it adopts the method of studying through participation so that two of its researchers working in this sector are themselves members of religious groups. Applied research poses important problems, both from the methodological and from the political points of view. Amongst them may be noted the difficulty of determining precisely what constitutes rapid change in religious life, and the political choice of the persons for whom the research is being con ducted; the latter inevitably imposes a certain degree of conformity upon the perspectives of the work. (For example, the choice of the Dutch hierarchy which was to follow the general lines given by a large majority of Catholic opinion when it was tested particularly on questions like the liturgical and parochial changes). The fact, also, that the director of KASKI himself has a personal commitment to what may be described as the « right of centre » position in Dutch Catho licism poses problems for the work of the Institute. Political and religious radicalism is not a strong characteristic of the more senior research workers. KASKI is a rare example of a centre which brings socio logists together and uses their professional competence to accompany change in religious institutions.

The Case for Repealing the Second Amendment? The Historical Barriers to Constitutional Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-607
Author(s):  
David T. Konig
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Popular Constitutionalism

The controversy surrounding the Second Amendment—“the right of the people to keep and bear arms”—is, to a large extent, historical in nature, redolent of other matters in this country’s legal and constitutional past. But the historical analogies that might support the Amendment’s repeal do not permit easy conclusions. The issue demands that legal historians venture beyond familiar territory to confront unavoidable problems at the intersection of theory and practice and of constitutional law and popular constitutionalism. An interdisciplinary analysis of Lichtman’s Repeal the Second Amendment illuminates the political, legal, and constitutional dimensions—as well as the perils—of undertaking the arduous amending process permitted by Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

The German Elections of 1928

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 698-705
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
City Councils ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Methods ◽  
Political Consolidation ◽  
National Socialists ◽  
The Right ◽  
Intensive Work

The elections which were held throughout Germany on May 20, 1928, are of considerable interest and importance not only to Germany but also to the rest of the world. These elections, to be sure, did not have the dramatic interest which attended the Reichstag elections of December, 1924. But they deserve attention for a number of reasons: first, because they are the first elections to be held in the Reich under what may be called normal conditions; second, because elections for five Landtags and several city councils were held at the same time; and third, because the elections gave a further test, and supplied additional evidence of the operation, of the German system of proportional representation.Despite the intensive work of the political parties, the people were not aroused to much enthusiasm during the campaign. The old Reichstag was dissolved before Easter, but not until the last week of the campaign could one detect any excitement. Never before had the electors been bombarded with so much printed matter, posters, and, last but not least, loud-speakers and films. All the modern methods of appealing to the voters were tried by the numerous political parties. There were lacking, however, the overpowering issues and the battlecries which were so effective in 1924. Parades, demonstrations, meetings, and all the rest were carried through successfully on the whole, but they were quite dull and uninteresting. Only the two extreme parties, the National Socialists or Hitlerites on the right, and the Communists on the left, could appear enthusiastic. Nevertheless, the lack of what the Germans call a “grosse Parole” and the lack of excitement are not to be deplored; their absence probably indicates progress toward social and political consolidation.

The New Order

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Women's Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Order ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
Women’S Work ◽  
The People ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Circular Structures ◽  
The Right

How would someone who had been brought up in a roundhouse adapt to life in a rectangular world? The experience of a servant working for a family in Malawi shows how difficult it could be. Her predicament is described in a book entitled Women’s Work in Heathen Lands, published in 1886. Jan Deregowski quotes the following extract:… In laying the table there is trouble for the girl. At home her house is round; a straight line and the right angle are unknown to her or her parents before her. Day after day therefore she will lay the cloth with the folds anything but parallel with one edge of the table. Plates, knives and forks are set down in a confusing manner, and it is only after lessons often repeated and much annoyance that she begins to see how things might be done (Laws 1886, quoted by Deregowski 1973: 180–1)… That simple story introduces a larger issue. Under what circumstances did people make the transition from a world of circular structures to one of squares and rectangles, and how were their lives affected by that process? It is surprising how much attention had been paid to structural changes among ancient buildings and how little to the political and social circumstances in which they happened. One way of approaching this topic is not only studying the advantages offered by new styles of architecture, but also asking which important features might be lost. That is too rarely considered. Many of the approaches described in Chapter 2 emphasized the possibilities offered by the change from circular to rectangular buildings. Houses could be larger and could accommodate more people; they would be easier to maintain; they could be expanded as the number of inhabitants increased and space was subdivided; in many cases rectilinear dwellings could be inhabited over longer periods than roundhouses. None of those arguments is unsatisfactory in itself, but all are incomplete because they do not take into account the motives of the people who chose to live there. Chapter 2 also showed how houses could be used to emphasize subtle distinctions among their inhabitants: differences that were based on age, gender, and social standing.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Fry
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Self Image ◽  
World Power ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Independent Country

The North’s victory in the American Civil War had profound domestic and international significance. By prevailing in this epic conflict, the United States preserved both the nation’s territorial integrity and its experiment in republicanism and democracy. Sustaining territorial integrity and republicanism enabled the nation to continue its ascent toward world power status and to emerge in the twentieth century as the world’s foremost democratic government. The South’s secession and forceful defense of slavery challenged US nationalism, liberalism, and sense of providential destiny. The young nation had been an independent country for fewer than eighty years, and neither its survival nor its form of government was firmly established in 1861. To the contrary, at the midpoint of the nineteenth century, it was unclear that the “nation state—as opposed to empires or confederations—would define the political organization of Europe and the Americas” or that democratic government would not fall before monarchial or aristocratic rule in the western world. Therefore, the Union’s victory provided a great boost to both nationalism and liberalism in the Americas and Europe and reinforced the American self-image as a chosen people....

Hegel's Critique of the Triumph of Verstand in Modernity

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (01) ◽  
pp. 54-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Houlgate
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
The People ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
The World ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Revolution

In his lectures on the philosophy of history Hegel passes this famous judgement on the French Revolution. “Anaxagoras had been the first to say that nous governs the world; but only now did humanity come to recognize that thought should rule spiritual actuality. This was thus a magnificent dawn”. What first gave rise to discontent in France, in Hegel's view, were the heavy burdens that pressed upon the people and the government's inability to procure for the Court the means of supporting its luxury and extravagance. But soon the new spirit of freedom and enlightenment began to stir in men's minds and carry them forward to revolution. “One should not, therefore, declare oneself against the assertion”, Hegel concludes, “that the Revolution received its first impulse from Philosophy” (VPW, p 924). However, Hegel points out that the legacy of the revolution is actually an ambiguous one. For, although the principles which guided the revolution were those of reason and were indeed magnificent – namely, that humanity is born to freedom and self-determination – they were held fast in their abstraction and turned “polemically”, and at times terribly, against the existing order (VPW, p 925). What ultimately triumphed in the revolution was thus not concrete reason itself, but abstract reason or understanding (VPW, p 923). In Hegel's view, the enduring legacy of such revolutionary understanding was, not so much the Terror, but the principle that “the subjective wills of the many should hold sway” (VPW, p 932). This principle, which Hegel calls the principle of “liberalism” and which we would call the principle of majority rule, has since spread from France to become one of the governing principles of modern stat. It has been used to justify granting universal suffrage, to justify depriving corporations and the nobility of the right to sit in the legislature, and in some cases to justify abolishing the monarchy. What is of crucial importance for Hegel, however, is that such measures have not rendered the state more modern and rational, but have in fact distorted the modern state.

Geography and Foreign Policy, I

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Spykman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Simultaneous Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
The People ◽  
Geographic Factor ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Foreign Ministers ◽  
Human Destiny

“La politique de toutes les puissances est dans leur géographie,” conceded the man whose famous retort, “Circonstances? Moi, je fais les circonstances,” indicates his contempt for any agency but the human will as the arbiter of human destiny. But since the Red Sea parted for Moses and the sun obligingly paused for Joshua, the human will has been unable to recapture the control over topography and climate exhibited by those forceful gentlemen, and it is probably safe to say that it was by Russian geography rather than by men that the diminutive Corsican was finally defeated. If he is still living, there is at Waterloo even today a loyal guide who asserts with unshakable conviction that neither genius nor skill but a swampy ditch gave that victory to Wellington.Unfortunately for the political scientist with a fondness for simplification, but fortunately for the statesman striving to overcome the geographic handicaps of his country, neither does the entire foreign policy of a country lie in geography, nor does any part of that policy lie entirely in geography. The factors that condition the policy of states are many; they are permanent and temporary, obvious and hidden; they include, apart from the geographic factor, population density, the economic structure of the country, the ethnic composition of the people, the form of government, and the complexes and pet prejudices of foreign ministers; and it is their simultaneous action and interaction that create the complex phenomenon known as “foreign policy.”

Public Spectating and Political Undertones in Durbar The Emirate Court Art of Northern Nigeria as Instrument of Governance

Matatu ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 373-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Inuwa Umar–Buratai
Keyword(s):  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
The Public ◽  
Performance Artists ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Many ◽  
Public Exhibition

The discourses of nationhood and nation-building in the developed Western world have been facilitated by the prevalent cultures of writing and documentation. The situation in the developing world has remained largely fragmented because of the absence of such coherent, broadcast, and comprehensive forums for a discourse on 'nationhood'. Different societies articulate their perception of the priorities of nationhood in a range of forms – manifest in ritual visual displays, entertainment and formal rhetoric such as poetry, religious sayings and quotations – which were not dependent on literacy, including the ceremony of durbar. The ordinary people construe the durbar as a spectacle, perhaps because it encompasses a wide range of performance artists drawn from the many groupings within society. However, durbar functions, through its display of martial strength, to reinforce the political and religious power of the ruling elite: durbar within society. The focus in this essay is to examine political undertones of durbar, specifically the ways in which localized participation in the reinforcing ritual of relationships of power provides the people with an opportunity for the public exhibition of individual skills and for the elites an avenue for containing any nascent – or potential – articulation of resistance in society.

scholarly journals Politics and Political Participation of “Grass-Roots” in General Election 2019, Bandar Selamat Regency, Medan, Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rehia K. Isabella Barus ◽  
Armansyah Matondang ◽  
Nina Angelia ◽  
Beby Masitho Batubara
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
Two Stages

Ahead of the 2019 general election which is divided into two stages, namely the Legislative election and the Presidential election. This event is the right moment to find out the political participation of the people at the grass-roots level while at the same time seeing the interaction between the people in the grass-roots and political parties. The interaction that wants to be seen is what forms of political behavior and community participation at the grassroots, as well as how political parties behave in interacting with this community. Then the important point that is also seen is how political parties behave in involving and seeking to raise support from the community. In the end, through this research, it will be known the quality of political participation from the public and electoral political parties in 2019.

scholarly journals STRATEGY OF THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MODEL

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Andiwi Meifilina ◽  
Sulistyo Anjarwati
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
The People ◽  
Strategy Model ◽  
The Right

The problems faced when approaching the election are many, one of which is the problem related to how to lobby politics to the public to use their voting rights so that they do not abstain. This problem that is often encountered can be solved by implementing the right political campaign model strategy. The strategy in political campaigns is a careful plan for activities to achieve specific goals where the activities carried out are carried out by political organizations or competing candidates to compete for positions in parliament in order to get the support of the mass of voters (voters) in voting. In line with Law No. 10 of 2008 concerning elections for members of the DPR, DPD and DPRD loaded with 30 percent quota for women in article 53, coupled with article 8 paragraph 1 mentioned regarding statements of at least 30 percent quota of women's representation in central party political party management as one of the requirements political parties to be able to become participants in the election. The purpose of this study was to find out in depth about the strategy of the political campaign model of female candidates in Blitar Regency as a method used by legislative candidates to attract their voters. This way of lobbying politics to the community has the aim of introducing candidates to the public through political campaigns that bring up the positive image of legislative candidates by involving the community. One way in which legislative candidates take to attract attention and get votes from various communities is starting from giving promises when campaigning. The subject of this research is that all the people and female candidates in Blitar Regency and the object of their research are the political campaign model strategies in Blitar Regency. The type of research used is qualitative research using the phenomenology approach. The phenomenology approach aims to describe the meaning of life experiences experienced by some individuals about certain concepts or phenomena by exploring the structure of human consciousness. So here the researcher wants to know the meaning of the experience experienced by the community and female candidates related to the political campaign model strategy through this phenomenology study. This research method uses a qualitative approach with interviews, observation, and documentation studies. This research produced a strategy model for political campaigns related to the phenomenon of female candidates in Blitar District.  

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