Can Political Participation Become Dangerous for Democracy? Participatory Experiences in Brazil and the Reactions Against Them

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil A. Sobottka
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Many Instruments ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Representative System

In Brazil, political participation is a recent phenomenon. In the late 1970s, social movements and some NGOs began to demand what they called a ‘right to participate’ in the control of the state and the decision-making processes of public policy. The Federal Constitution from 1988 created many instruments to involve stakeholders directly in the formulation and management of specific policies by foreseeing direct participation in them. Probably the best known mode of participation is participatory budgeting. It was first implemented in Porto Alegre in 1990 and, then, expanded to many cities in Brazil and the world. New forms of relationship between citizens and the state have been attempted – with success – at the various levels of government and in the treatment of a variety of public issues. But severe difficulties in the political representative system and the problem of social inequality are still subsistent.

The Indirectly Political Word of the Church

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Word Type ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
The State ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Type 3 ◽  
The Church

This chapter continues the examination of Bonhoeffer’s first phase of resistance through an exposition of “The Church and the Jewish Question,” turning now to the modes of resistance proper to the church’s preaching office. Because such resistance involves the church speaking against the state, it appears to stand in contradiction with Bonhoeffer’s suggestion earlier in the essay that the church should not speak out against the state. This is in fact not a contradiction but rather the coherent expression of the political vision as outlined in the first several chapters of this book, which requires that the church criticize the state under certain circumstances but not others. The specific form of word examined here is the indirectly political word (type 3 resistance) by which the church reminds the messianic state of its mandate to preserve the world with neither “too little” nor “too much” order.

A New Quarrel

On Universals ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 96-120
Author(s):  
Étienne Balibar
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
To Come ◽  
Question Today ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe

This chapter assesses the new “quarrel of universals” that now occupies philosophy and other overlapping disciplines. In this new quarrel, the question today is not only whether one is for or against the universal; the question is also how one defines the universal—a term whose surprising equivocity has become increasingly clear. Still more fundamentally, the question is how one should articulate the relationship between three related but heterogeneous terms whose widespread use has prompted conflicting claims: the universal, universality, and universalisms. The chapter begins by situating the question of the universal and its variations within the field that seems to constitute the strategic site of intersecting domains: philosophical anthropology, understood as the analysis of the historical differences of the human and of the problem that those differences pose to their bearers. It then outlines the difficulties which can be identified in every philosophical and political usage of the universal and its “doubles” according to three aporias. The first is the aporia of the multiplicity of the “world,” or of the universe as multiversum; the second is that of Allgemeinheit or All(en)gemeinheit, in other words, the irreducible gap between the universal and the common (or community); and, finally, that of co-citizenship, the form of belonging to a political unity to come, a unity whose law of belonging (membership) would be the heterogeneity within equality or the political participation of those foreign to the community.

Understanding the State in South Korea

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES COTTON
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Political System ◽  
World System ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The World ◽  
The 1960S

South Korea cannot be seen as an example of the bureaucratic-authoritarian state type. Neither its position in the world system nor its industrialization strategy can be used to give a sufficient explanation of its political and social character. Although these factors have played a part, particular historical, political, and cultural circumstances have permitted the state to enjoy a degree of autonomy during the period of rapid social and economic transformation from the 1960s to the 1980s. The determinants and character of the transition to democratization generally support this analysis, but also indicate that limits exist to the degree of liberalization to be expected in the political system.

Policy Studies, Development, and Political Anthropology

1975 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Owusu
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Anthropology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
African Politics ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Research Results ◽  
The World

Policy research involves two acts of translation: translation of the problem from the world of reality and policy into the world of scientific method, and then a translation of the research results back into the world of reality and policy.1Since the political scientist, David Easton, commented critically in 1959 on the state of the study of politics by anthropologists,2 many interesting changes have taken place in the analyses of African politics – in fact, of politics of non-western societies in general.

Looking back from somewhere: reflections on what remains ‘critical’ in critical theory

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRIEDRICH KRATOCHWIL
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
World Order ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Looking Back ◽  
Blind Spots

ABSTRACTThis article revisits some of the theoretical debates within the field of IR since Ashley and Cox challenged the mainstream. But in so doing it attempts also to show that the proposed alternatives have their own blind spots that are subjected in the second part to discursive criticism. Neither Ashley’s celebration of the wisdom of old realists nor their ‘silence’ on economics, nor the notion of ‘internationalisation of the state’ and of the world order are adequate for understanding politics in the era of globalisation. Instead, a critical theory has to examine the political projects that were engendered by the Hobbesian conception of order and rationality. Highlighting the disconnect between our present political vocabularies and the actual political practices, I argue that a critical theory has not only to ‘criticise’ existing approaches but has to rethink and re-conceptualise praxis, which is ill served by the analytical tools which are imported to this field from ‘theory’.

scholarly journals Krzysztof Kieślowski's Art of Film

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Miczka
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
The Real ◽  
The World ◽  
Real Socialism ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Polish Culture

"WE LIVE IN THE WORLD LACKING IDEA ON ITSELF: KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI's ART OF FILM" OUR "little stabilization" -- this ironic phrase by Tadeusz Różewicz, the poet and playwright, rightly characterized the low living standards of Poles and the state of apathy of the society in the 1960s. It also reflected well the situation of the Polish culture which, at that time, was put under strong political pressure and, except for very few instances, half- truths and newspeak replaced the clear dichotomy of truth and falsity. However, it finds its strongest expression if seen against the background of the Polish cinema of that time, since the cinema was, so to say, the "light in the eyes" of the Workers' Party activists devoutly building the 'real socialism' state. After the period of the political thaw which, among other things, brought to life artistically courageous works of the 'Polish film school', the...

scholarly journals Age-Distinctions, The Philosophy of Childhood, and Political Participation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Children’S Perspectives ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
The World ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
Political Inclusion ◽  
The Cost

<p><b>In the philosophy of childhood, conceptions about children and childhood are often understood to be contextually dependent on time and place. I explore and question contemporary conceptions about childhood and how these might be subject to change in the political sphere. Not only is there much vagueness inherent in the adult-child distinction, but many implied inaccuracies as well. Although these distinctions allow for the efficient structuring of social institutions, this comes at the cost of exacerbating the problems brought about by this vagueness and inaccurateness. I challenge the different enfranchisement status of children and adults, arguing that it is better to do away with age-based distinctions in politics. These distinctions are arbitrary and constitute ageism towards children. </b></p> <p>My approach is unique in applying a philosophy of childhood lens to children’s enfranchisement. Emerging ‘strengths-based’ conceptions about childhood that move away from ‘deficit’ conceptions allow for a more accurate representation of children and support a case for their political inclusion. This reconceptualisation of childhood involves a shift in focus away from what children lack relative to adults. Consistently with the strengths-based conception, broader understandings of competency allow us to see children’s perspectives and lack of habituation to the world as an asset, including in the political sphere.</p> <p>Age-based demarcations that prohibit children’s inclusion reinforce inaccurate, exaggerated and misleading stereotypes about children and adults alike. Actively challenging these stereotypes allows us to overcome these inaccurate understandings about children to see their political inclusion as justified. Practical concerns with children’s inclusion, including whether this would compromise the ‘goods of childhood’, are addressed and quelled. I also speculate on the possible implications of children’s enfranchisement in other domains. Challenging the adult-child distinction does not amount to an argument to do away with talk about ‘adults’ or ‘children’, but it does command a critical analysis of the implications associated with these terms. Ultimately, there are many avenues for political participation, of which voting is just one. Still, this paper provides a framework for establishing on what terms citizens are justifiably involved in political participation at all.</p>

scholarly journals Terror in utopia: Crisis (mis-) management during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 961-1007
Author(s):  
Sörensen Stilhoff
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
The State ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Account ◽  
State Functions

This article provides an early account to document Swedens strategy to the COVID-19 pandemic and critically examines the countrys crisis response during the first six months of 2020. Sweden stood out internationally with a hands-off approach that gained much attention. Schools remained open, no lock-downs were underaken, no face masks reccommended, even in care homes, and testing-tracing-isolation was very limited. Although Swedens death rate per million was among the seven highest in the world during the period, there was no change in strategy. The article employs concepts to analyse and understand this peculiar approach and the secutity culture and political culture underpinning it. It uncovers deeper systemic defects and a breakdown in the state functions accompanyied by secrecy and cover-ups, as well as a totalitarian element in the political culture.

scholarly journals Federal System and Direct Democracy in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Matyja
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Unique System ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

The main aim of this work is to present and analyze the structure and the way of operating of the Swiss instruments of direct democracy, as well as its significance for the country’s development. The Swiss example is the best case of functioning democracy in the world. Throughout the centuries, the Swiss political system has evolved into a mature and efficient democracy. The process of its improvement is still going on. Today, the political system of Switzerland can be described as parliamentary-cantonal. In 1848, the country adopted the Federal Constitution and a system based on referenda, while local issues, such as taxes, judiciary, schooling, police, and welfare were left to the cantons. In 1874, the document was amended and the optional referendum was introduced. In 1891, another amendment cemented the unique system by rooting in strongly in direct democracy. The current constitution of Switzerland was adopted by the majority of voter through a referendum that took place in 1999.

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