scholarly journals The Democratic Grotesque

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Charis Boutieri
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Democratic Ideals ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Grotesque

How do we understand the presence of the grotesque in negotiations of democratic life after a revolution? At the peak of procedural democratic consolidation, carnivalesque revelries in Tunisia became the object of public aporia and repugnance. The dissimilar interpretations of these revelries across generations evince an agonistic process of prizing open both the parameters of nationhood and democratic ideals within existing social relations. The concept of the ‘democratic grotesque’ captures the sensorial and affective ways Tunisian citizens negotiate the affordances and limitations of democracy in the post-revolutionary nation. The democratic grotesque has the double potential to revise intellectual and public understandings of democratic dispositions that emanate from liberal democracy and to blur the boundaries between revolution and democracy.

Paradoxes of Polarization: Democracy’s Inherent Division and the (Anti-) Populist Challenge

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannis Stavrakakis
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Theoretical Rationale ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
Consensus Values ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Relationship

This article carries out a theoretical analysis of the relationship between democracy and polarization. It utilizes examples from a variety of premodern and modern societies to argue that difference and division are inherent to a vibrant democratic life and to representation itself. At the same time, a stable and pluralist democratic culture presupposes the establishment of a common ground required for reflexive democratic decision making. To take into account both requirements, this must be a special type of common ground: an agonistic common ground. Agonism, as opposed to both the politics of raw antagonism and the postpolitics of consensus, values the existence of real alternatives and even ideological distance but aims at sublimating their pernicious effects. However, an agonistic outcome is always the result of a delicate balancing act between oligarchic and populist tendencies. In modernity, it predominantly took the form of a paradoxical blend of the democratic and the liberal tradition. The current crisis of liberal democracy and its postdemocratic mutation obliges one to ask whether democratic crisis may cause polarization, rather than the other way around, and puts in doubt the ability of the “moderate center” to deal with it in ways consolidating democracy. The article illustrates its theoretical rationale with examples from populism/antipopulism polarization in contemporary Greece, where elite-driven antipopulist discourse has consistently employed dehumanizing repertoires enhancing pernicious polarization.

Neo-Hobbesianism in the DPRK: A Provisional Theory of Authoritarianism

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-262
Author(s):  
Alzo David-West
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Republic Of Korea ◽  
Final Solution ◽  
Hybrid State ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Cognitive Framework ◽  
Academic Discussion ◽  
Sociopolitical History

Abstract This article presents an original historical-philosophical conception that attempts to discern the matter, form, and power of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (dprk). A panoramic and problematizing cognitive framework, the theory configurates 629 years of sociopolitical history from 1392 to 2021 and then comparatively discusses the dprk system in relation to ancient democracy and liberal democracy from Pericles to Samuel P. Huntington. The article is divided into three parts, which outline the theory and its principles, map historical foundations and political phases, and address social relations, state will, and political reality. Description and analysis convey the thesis that the dprk polity is home to a Neo-Hobbesian formation: a hybrid state entity that is historically modern, politically absolutist, and illiberally democratic, with a transforming cross-civilizational physiognomy. By design, the “soft” theory is conceived to stimulate academic discussion and debate, not declare a final solution.

Freedom, Equality and the Quality of Democracy

2015 ◽  
pp. 1778-1804
Author(s):  
Thorsten D. Barth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Quintuple Helix ◽  
Essential Questions ◽  
Democratic Life

Freedom and equality are the content, the substance and the tension in a liberal democracy of today. Freedom and equality describe the design, stability and the quality of a democracy. Especially in a Quintuple Helix Model, the quality of democracy and sustainable development are closely related, because a high-quality democracy is a prerequisite for promoting sustainability in democracies. By investigating the quality of democracy this article develops two theses: 1.) Democracy with their quality rises or falls with the expression of freedom and/or equality; 2.) Democracy generates its stability from a balanced interaction between freedom and equality. With the concept of Democratic Life this article examines these two theses: Democratic Life as newly developed concept measures the quality of democracy with providing information about the type of a democracy and an approach to measure a democracy´s democratic development for the top 20 of the Democracy Ranking (2009). The central keys of the Democratic Life concept are the ‘Index of Classification' and the ‘Democratic-Life-Index', which are formed from an ‘Index of Freedom' and an ‘Index of Equality'. By empirical examination of the research question of Democratic Life two essential questions in the modern democratic theory can be investigated: 1.) How democratic is a democracy? 2.) How much freedom and equality does a liberal democracy need? The countries analyzed for the Democratic Life concept in this article are the United States, Australia, Sweden and Germany in comparison between 1995 and 2008. This degree of democratic quality will create a lot of problems towards developing sustainability in a democracy, because in the United States there is currently a big disparity between freedom and equality.

Unequal Citizenship

2019 ◽  
pp. 34-55
Author(s):  
Natasha Behl
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Gendered Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Gang Rape ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
And Shifts

Chapter 3 focuses attention on women’s unequal experience of the Indian state through an examination of the debates surrounding the 2012 gang rape. Chapter 3 examines both the progressive political opening and the retrenchment of patriarchal norms following Jyoti Singh’s murder, and argues that this opening and retrenchment are emblematic of the Indian state’s radical promise of equality and its horrific failure to achieve this equality. An analysis of politicians’ responses demonstrates how gendered norms operate to exclude women in the name of inclusion. This analysis highlights the difficulty of eradicating gendered violence through legal reform, demonstrates the unpredictability of the political process, and shows how gendered norms operate in the public sphere to undermine and frustrate progressive change. The chapter outlines the difficulty of turning to the law as a liberatory strategy in a liberal democracy and shifts attention to other spheres of life as potential sources for more egalitarian social relations.

Anti-Pluralism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Galston
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Democratic Life

The Great Recession, institutional dysfunction, a growing divide between urban and rural prospects, and failed efforts to effectively address immigration have paved the way for a populist backlash that disrupts the postwar bargain between political elites and citizens. Whether today's populism represents a corrective to unfair and obsolete policies or a threat to liberal democracy itself remains up for debate. Yet this much is clear: these challenges indict the triumphalism that accompanied liberal democratic consolidation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To respond to today's crisis, good leaders must strive for inclusive economic growth while addressing fraught social and cultural issues, including demographic anxiety, with frank attention. Although reforms may stem the populist tide, liberal democratic life will always leave some citizens unsatisfied. This is a permanent source of vulnerability, but liberal democracy will endure so long as citizens believe it is worth fighting for.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice and Democratic Consolidation in the Post-Communist Space: A Comparative Review of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-142
Author(s):  
Yerkebulan Sairambay
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Comparative Review

Abstract In this comparative review, I first evaluate scholarly findings attempting to dis/prove a relationship between transitional justice and the consolidation of democracy. Second, I outline several criteria for ‘democratic’ transitional justice in order to be able to judge transitional justice policies. Third, I examine and judge transitional justice policies of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia by these criteria. Last, I argue that transitional justice is neither a prerequisite for the successful consolidation of democracy nor inherently democratic unless it is carried out in coordination with the ideals of liberal democracy, which might support the achievement of peace and societal stability in a transition period.

scholarly journals Putting Democracy Under An Ethnographic-lens: Understanding of 'Democracy' and Popular Politics of JHU in Sri Lanka

PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Premakumara De Silva
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Moment

My main premise is that for anthropologists of post-colonial societies (but not only), 'democracy' should be regarded as one of many traditional ethnographic topics (such as kinship, religion, Caste, etc.) which ethnographers study to unpack the socio-cultural institutions and practices of the societies under investigation. The hypothesis behind this approach is that the moment democracy enters a particular historical and socio-cultural setting it becomes what Michelutti calls "vernacularized", and through vernacularisation it produces new social relations and values which in turn shape political rhetoric and political culture (2007). The process of vernacularisation of democratic politics, she means the ways in which values and practices of democracy become embedded in particular cultural and social practices, and in the process become entrenched in the consciousness of ordinary people (2007: 639-40). Democratic practices associated with popular politics often base their strength and legitimacy on the principle of popular sovereignty versus the more conventional notions of liberal democracy. These popular forms of political participation are often accompanied by a polarisation of opinions and political practices between the so-called 'ordinary people' and the elites. Looking at democratisation processes through the prism of vernacularisation will therefore help to understand how and why democracy grounds itself in everyday life and becomes part of conceptual worlds that are often far removed from theories of liberal democracy.

Freedom, Equality and the Quality of Democracy

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten D. Barth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Essential Questions ◽  
Democratic Life

Freedom and equality are the content, the substance and the tension in a liberal democracy of today. Freedom and equality describe the design, stability and the quality of a democracy. Especially in a Quintuple Helix Model, the quality of democracy and sustainable development are closely related, because a high-quality democracy is a prerequisite for promoting sustainability in democracies. By investigating the quality of democracy this article develops two theses: 1.) Democracy with their quality rises or falls with the expression of freedom and/or equality; 2.) Democracy generates its stability from a balanced interaction between freedom and equality. With the concept of Democratic Life this article examines these two theses: Democratic Life as newly developed concept measures the quality of democracy with providing information about the type of a democracy and an approach to measure a democracy´s democratic development for the top 20 of the Democracy Ranking (2009). The central keys of the Democratic Life concept are the ‘Index of Classification’ and the ‘Democratic-Life-Index’, which are formed from an ‘Index of Freedom’ and an ‘Index of Equality’. By empirical examination of the research question of Democratic Life two essential questions in the modern democratic theory can be investigated: 1.) How democratic is a democracy? 2.) How much freedom and equality does a liberal democracy need? The countries analyzed for the Democratic Life concept in this article are the United States, Australia, Sweden and Germany in comparison between 1995 and 2008. This degree of democratic quality will create a lot of problems towards developing sustainability in a democracy, because in the United States there is currently a big disparity between freedom and equality.

Citizenship Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 431-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Strandbrink
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Heuristic Model ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Value Sets ◽  
Democratic Life

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate salient approaches to citizenship and civic-normative education in liberal democratic life. The chapter argues that core technocratic assumptions about clarity, linearity, and predictability feeding into civic-educational deployment and change warrant critical attention. The chapter aims to shed new light on states' instinct to regard themselves and their value sets as seamless conceptual wholes. A range of ramifications of this typical approach are interrogated, in principle as well as in relation to Swedish civic-educational matrices. The chapter refines a heuristic model for unpacking citizenship and civic-normative education thinking in liberal democracy originally presented in an earlier work by the author. It is concluded that even as the enormous policy efforts that go into organizing and revamping public civic-normative education in response to new societal challenges have little chance of meeting governments' intentions; they may still be important since they are exerted in highly visible public spaces and domains.

scholarly journals Radicalising citizenship education

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Stuart Moir ◽  
Jim Crowther
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Uk

Democracy faces two key threats today. The first is evident in the growth of authoritarian, right-wing, populism which is evident in a number of European countries and beyond. The second has been the un- dermining of democratic life by neoliberalism. Liberal democracy has aided the latter by the separation of economics from politics and the focus on the individual at the expense of the public sector and the common good. At the same time, some of the virtues of liberal democracy – the separation of powers, for example – are threatened by authoritarianism. We argue the importance of a critical engagement with current versions of democracy by drawing on a more participatory and active democratic tradition. This has significant implications for how we view citizenship and citizenship education. The dominant ver- sion of citizenship education in Scotland and the UK (possibly in Europe too) embodies a ‘minimalist’ model of citizenship through a curriculum for taking personal responsibility. This is inadequate for the challenge democracy faces. We argue the need to ground citizenship education in more radical soil, to nurture a critically engaged and active citizenry capable of challenging the democratic threats of right- wing populism and neoliberal subjectivity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document