Civility at the Breaking Point

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
Laura Newhart ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Shared Social Values

This paper explores the recent social phenomenon of the confrontation by critics of government officials while they are out in public, yet engaged in “private” activities, e.g. eating dinner at a restaurant, shopping in a bookstore, or getting into their cars. This paper argues that such confrontations are a symptom of the lack of trust brought on by the absence of shared social values that results in toxic forms of public discourse, the blurring of the classical liberal distinction between the public and the private realms, and the inability to hold one another responsible for the violation of self-avowed moral norms. Implicit in this argument is the conclusion that such confrontations are ineffective at best. Some have suggested more physical intermingling among people who hold conflicting political views in order to establish such trust (Haidt, Wilk). In the absence of such opportunities for intermingling, sharing our value-laden personal stories with each other, in the spirit and style of Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, might help to create tolerance and trust among those with differing political perspectives.

scholarly journals PEMIKIRAN ARISTOTELES TENTANG KEWARGANEGARAAN DAN KONSTITUSI

HUMANIKA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Winarno Winarno
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
Shared Social Values ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sense Of Justice

Citizenship includes elements of identity, participation, rights, obligations, and acceptance of shared social values. Aristotle, the ancient Greek thinker states that citizenship is a form of citizen participation in public life. Good citizens are those engaged in public life better while being ruled and governed. Citizenship can not be separated from the concept of the constitution. Determining who is a citizen based on the state constitution. There is a "Wrong Constitutions", which includes Tirany, Oligarchy and Democracy and the "Right Constitutions", covers Kingship, Aristocracy and Polity or Constitutional Government. The Constitution is important for a country as long as it is intended for the public good and reach a sense of justice.

scholarly journals RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1, 2 & 3) ◽  
pp. 2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Blaikie ◽  
Diana Ginn
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Political Views

Full, open, and civilized discourse among citizens is fundamental to the life of a liberal democracy. It seems trite to assert that no discourse should be prohibited or excluded simply because it is grounded in religious faith or employs religious beliefs to justify a particular position.1 Yet there are those who contend that it is improper for citizens to use religious arguments when debating or deciding issues in the public square,2 that metaphorical arena where issues of public policy are discussed and contested. In this article we challenge this position, examining the various arguments that are put forward for keeping public discourse secular, arguments that when citizens explicitly ground their social and political views in their religious beliefs, this is divisive, exclusionary, and ultimately antithetical to the liberal democratic state. We maintain that none of these arguments are persuasive.

Throwing Away the Key: The Unintended Consequences of “Tough-on-Crime” Laws

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Frank R. Baumgartner ◽  
Tamira Daniely ◽  
Kalley Huang ◽  
Sydney Johnson ◽  
Alexander Love ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Class ◽  
Life Without Parole ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Prison Populations ◽  
Blind Spots

During the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. policymakers adopted draconian criminal justice polices including widespread use of extremely long sentences, including life without parole. The country is now coming to face the consequences of these policies: a new class of geriatric prisoners posing little threat to public safety as they age into their seventies and beyond. Using a perspective drawn from bounded rationality, framing, and agenda-setting, we recount how policymakers adopted these policies, with key blind spots relating to obvious consequences of these harsh laws. We show how political leaders can over-respond to a perceived public policy crisis, particularly when powerful frames of race, fear, and dehumanization come to dominate the public discourse. We show how these trends are radically changing the demographics and needs of prison populations through a chronological review, mathematical simulation of the prison population, review of statistics about prison population, and personal stories illustrating these themes drawn from inside prison.

scholarly journals Zola Award Honorable Mention: Sculpting Body Ideals: Alison Lapper Pregnant and the Public Display of Disability

2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Millett
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Visible Part ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Marble Sculptures ◽  
Marble Statue ◽  
Trafalgar Square

British artist Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005) is a monumental marble statue in London's Trafalgar Square that displays a nude, full body portrait of British resident and artist, Alison Lapper. The work features Lapper, who was born without arms and with shortened legs, in all her glory — unclothed and seven months pregnant. The work has been highly criticized for capitalizing on the shock value of disability, as well as lauded for its progressive social values. Alison Lapper Pregnant and the controversy surrounding it showcase disability issues at the forefront of current debates in contemporary art. The work and Quinn's many previous marble sculptures of amputee models, in the series The Complete Marbles (2002), adopt the highly idealizing traditions and conventions of Neoclassicism, the art form characteristically employed for public statues, which idealize political figures and the often patriarchal and nationalistic social values such statues personify. In Quinn's piece and in Lapper's own self-portraits, Lapper's body on display makes a bold statement about representations of disability in the public realm. In this paper, I argue how Alison Lapper Pregnant disrupts artistic and social ideals for bodies, therefore becoming an anti-monument, and it simultaneously continues in traditions that purport public heroes. The work embodies the stereotypes of disability as heroic, tragic, and freakish and functions to make such stereotypes visible, part of public discourse, and open for debate. I underscore how artistic and historical contexts are crucial to interpreting the representation of the disabled body in art and public life. Lapper's own voice is a key component to these discussions of disability and artistic versus social representations, as are her self-portrait sculptures, photographs, and collages. By comparing Quinn's statue to Lapper's artwork, I illustrate the informative and beneficial results of viewing the work of non-disabled and disabled artists in dialogues.

Public Governance and the Classical-Liberal Perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Dragos Aligica ◽  
Peter J. Boettke ◽  
Vlad Tarko
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Classical Liberalism ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
Incentive Problems ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Liberal Perspective

Classical liberalism entails not only a view about the proper scope of government and its relationship with the market but also a distinct theory about how government should operate within its proper area. This book presents the basic governance theory and political economy principles underpinning this vision. Building upon the works of diverse authors such as Friedrich Hayek, James Buchanan, and Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, the book offers a profound challenge to how public governance is commonly understood, by shifting the focus along several dimensions. First, it challenges the technocratic-epistocratic perspective in which social goals are set and experts simply provide the means to attain them. Instead, the focus is on the diversity of opinions in any society regarding “what should be done,” and on the design of democratic and polycentric institutions capable of limiting social conflicts and satisfying the preferences of as many people as possible. Second, the book explains the knowledge and incentive problems associated with technocratic-epistocratic governance. This has deep implications for how public governance itself should be construed. The book’s three parts reconstruct the theoretical foundations of the position, then explore its nature and development at the interface between public choice and public administration, and finally illustrate via a set of concrete governance issues how it operates at the applied level. The book thus fills a large gap in the academic literature, as well as the public discourse, about the ways decision makers understand the nature and administration of the public sector.

Engaging Sensibilities and the Common Good

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Practical Relevance ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Sharing Values ◽  
The Common ◽  
Shared Social Values

This chapter discusses two interrelated concerns. It begins by explaining why sentencing should engage more directly and effectively with the emotions and sensibilities of its relevant audiences before considering the broader question of how it might better serve the ‘public interest’ by contributing more effectively to the ‘common good’. The discussion then explains why an ideological commitment to shared social values is considered pivotal in encouraging adherence to penal norms and influencing conduct. It suggests that embedding and sharing values within and between communities is more likely where the state takes a positive role in encouraging the development of reciprocal notions of awareness, mutual respect, and responsibility, both individual and collective. Such policies should have moral credibility and practical relevance. Important parallels between religious and secular notions of the common good are drawn, providing insights that bear directly on sentencing policy’s role in promoting social justice.

The War that Took Place in Germany: Intellectuals and September 11

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliot Neaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
German Society ◽  
Talk Shows ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Terror Attacks

The epigraph seems to border on hyperbole: were the debates in thefall of 2001 really “exclusively” subsumed by domestic politics? ButBassam Tibi, one of the hundreds of experts who made the roundson the endless talk shows and conferences in Germany, may be on tosomething. In a recent book about how the public intellectuals, religiousleaders, and celebrities reacted to the terror attacks of September11th, Der Spiegel essayist Hendryk Broder made a similar point ashe aimed his bittersweet satirical wit at the navel-gazing, self-righteousness,and hypocrisy of Germany’s public intellectuals.2 Broder’sbook is a self-conscious example of that timeless German genre, theStreitschrift, an erudite polemic in the service of both noble edificationand less high-minded settling of scores with one’s intellectualopponents. Although exaggerated, one-sided, and terribly funny,Broder’s analysis of the German public discourse of the fall of 2001does contain some serious arguments that anyone interested in theEuropean perception of America cannot ignore. In this essay, I willsketch the contours of that reaction by focusing first on the kinds ofissues that preoccupied German intellectuals in the wake of theattacks of September 11th; second, I will contrast that reaction to how ordinary Germans and government officials perceived thoseevents; third, I will explore the role that anti-Americanism played inthe intellectual debates of fall 2001; and finally, I will reflect on thesignificance of September 11th for German society in general.

The Nature and Structure of MS-13 in Los Angeles County

2021 ◽  
pp. 073401682110299
Author(s):  
Lidia E. Nuño ◽  
Edward R. Maguire
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
Latin American Immigrants ◽  
Key Aspects

Recent descriptions of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) by senior U.S. government officials suggest that the gang is highly organized, has significant transnational capacity, and is heavily involved in violence. Arguably, these depictions have created moral panic among the public and have fed xenophobic attitudes toward Latin American immigrants. However, little is known from empirical research about the nature and structure of MS-13 in the United States. In this article, we draw on data from interviews with incarcerated MS-13 members in Los Angeles County, the birthplace of MS-13. We examine three key aspects of MS-13: its organizational characteristics, its transnational capacity, and its involvement in criminal behavior, including violence. Our findings provide a useful descriptive summary of MS-13 in Los Angeles County, where the gang originated. Our findings also suggest that while there are good reasons to take MS-13 seriously as a threat to public safety, much of the public discourse on the gang is based on inaccurate assumptions.

Discursive construction of an anti-immigration Europe by a Sweden Democrat in the European Parliament

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-439
Author(s):  
Kamber Güler
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Power ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Group

Discourses are mostly used by the elites as a means of controlling public discourse and hence, the public mind. In this way, they try to legitimate their ideology, values and norms in the society, which may result in social power abuse, dominance or inequality. The role of a critical discourse analyst is to understand and expose such abuses and inequalities. To this end, this paper is aimed at understanding and exposing the discursive construction of an anti-immigration Europe by the elites in the European Parliament (EP), through the example of Kristina Winberg, a member of the Sweden Democrats political party in Sweden and the political group of Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy in the EP. In the theoretical and methodological framework, the premises and strategies of van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach of critical discourse analysis make it possible to achieve the aim of the paper.

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

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