The New World From an American Viewpoint

Мир меняется, время доминирования Америки проходит. Россия, Китай и Штаты вступают в новые взаимоотношения. Природа технологий и инвестиций определяет никогда ранее в истории не встречавшиеся критерии социального, политического и военного превосходства. Технические возможности растут вне зависимости от роста моральной ответственности.Притязания Америки на лидерскую позицию подвергаются сомнению, в тот же момент, когда сомнению подвергается и власть внутри страны. Статус России, как одной из крупнейших военных держав, оспаривается. Стремление Китая к господству наталкивается на внутренние преграды — зависимость от импорта ресурсов, реакцию инициативы «Один пояс и один путь», экономическое давление. Основополагающий принцип доминирования демократического устройства общества под вопросом из-за повсеместного распространения авторитарных форм правления.Планирование стабильного развития перешло в разряд категорий теории сложности.Новые задачи -- контроль климата, пандемия, кибер-угрозы, негосударственные террористические группировки, внутренние экономические раздоры -- вместе не позволяют выработать действующий сценарий стабильного развития.Традиционные политические, экономические и религиозные учения не дают ответы на заданные обществом вопросы.В статье обсуждаются эти факторы и описываются сложности, с которыми сталкиваются Россия, Китай и Соединенные Штаты. As the world shifts from an American-dominated presence, the roles of Russia, China and the US enter a new relationship. The nature of technology and investment will determine social, political, and military power, in a form not previously viewed in history.Technological capability develops at an unrelated pace to moral considerations.American assumptions of continuing world leadership are being challenged at the very moment when internal American governance is being challenged.Russian desires to remain an international force are questioned in many quarters.Chinese desires for world leadership face internal issues of resource dependency, reaction to the Belt and Road Initiatives, and economic pressures. The basic issue of democratic governance is under threat from growing worldwide authoritarianism.Planning for stability has entered a realm of complexity theory, with challenges such as climate control, pandemics, cyber threats, terrorism by non-state actors,and growing internal economic divisions do not allow a clear theory for guaranteed growth and abundance.Traditional political, religious and economic theories have not provided answers to a world which seeks solutions.The article discusses these factors and describes the difficulties facing Russia, China, and the United States.

Health Committees as Vehicles for Democratic Governance in Health Systems: Lessons from Selected Health Unit Management Committees in Uganda

Introduction: For over forty years, community participation has been a central component of a well-functioning health system. Despite its important role there are many difficulties in defining and understanding community participation as part of governance. Through a case study of selected health unit management committees in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that these committees can be structures for community participation and vehicles for democratic governance in health systems that advance health equity. Guided by the theoretical underpinnings of deliberative democracy the paper evaluates the performance of health unit management committees as a mechanism for citizen participation in health systems. Methods: This paper uses a qualitative, case-study methodology. Through an in-depth look at the health unit management committees of Kiboga and Kyankwanzi in Uganda, the study considered these as examples of structures for democratic community participation in health system. The study undertook literature review on the theories of deliberative democracy and human rights principles, and this provided the theoretical underpinnings of the study. Findings: Our findings underscore that community participation in health systems through health unit management committees ought to be grounded in the principles of deliberative democracy. The core of deliberative democracy is considered to be authentic deliberation and consensus decision-making, which can happen in both direct and representative democracies, giving rise to the notions of populist and elitist deliberative democracy, respectively. As such, a balance needs to be struck between the competitive notions of democracy and the public health requirements of inclusive and direct participation of communities in decision making processes on matters that affect their health. Conclusions: Community participation in the health sector in Uganda hinges on health unit management committees at the lower service provision points. These HUMCs are also perceived as vehicles to strengthen health governance through realizing the right to health of the communities. However, these have been established without attention to investing in capacity building needed to enable them to exercise community voice in the health system.

Emotion and Politics: Noncognitive Psychological Biases in Public Opinion

Contemporary politics is noteworthy for its emotional character. Emotions shape and, in turn, are elicited by partisan polarization, public opinion, and political attitudes. In this article, we outline recent work in the field of emotion and politics with an emphasis on the relationship between emotion and polarization, issue attitudes, information processing, and views on democratic governance. We also highlight a growing body of scholarship that examines the racial and gender differences in emotion's ability to affect political behavior. We conclude with a discussion of unaddressed questions and suggestions for future directions for scholars working in this area of growing importance. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 25 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The architecture of school governance: Rebuilding democratic legitimacy within an academized system

Successive governments, in embracing a neoliberalist ideology of decentralization and privatization, have radically reformed the nature of community-based, comprehensive state education. The transition from ‘government to governance’ (Rhodes, 1997) combined with the ideology of academization (DfE, 2010a) has created a democratic deficit 1 (Corbett, 1977). Academies are placed outside of local elected scrutiny or community-based accountability systems and governance legitimacy is in crisis (Glatter, 2013). This article explores the problematization of academized governance (Allen and Gann, 2017) with respect to the democratic deficit and the consequential lack of stakeholder engagement – argued as unethical within a democratic society and a system that frequently leads to failings of accountability (Wilkins, 2016). Utilizing the conceptual lens of Empowered Participatory Governance (EPG) (Fung and Wright, 2003), the authors seek to present a new architecture of governance that seeks to restore democratic legitimacy. Democratic governance innovations, the micro-governance network (Allen, 2017) and a refreshed local education board (Gann, 2021) provide a new architecture for a post new governance environment and, in so doing, a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of academization.

A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power

The relationship between populism and democracy is a hotly debated topic. Some believe that populism is inherently bad for democracy because it is anti-pluralist and confrontational. Others argue that populism can reinvigorate worn-out democracies in need of an infusion of greater popular participation. This book advances this debate by examining the empirical relationship between populism in power and democracy. Does populism in power always lead to regime change, that is, the demise of democracy? The answer is no. The impact of populism on democracy depends on the variety of populism in power: the worst outcomes in democratic governance are found under unconstrained populism. This book discusses the conditions that explain how populism becomes unconstrained, and advances a dynamic theory of change that shows how the late victories of populists build on early ones, resulting in greater power asymmetries. The book analyzes five populist presidencies in the Andes. In four of them (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), populism became unconstrained and regime change followed. In one case, Colombia, populism in power was contained and democracy survived. The concluding chapter places the Andean cases in comparative perspective and discusses how unconstrained populism in other cases (Nicaragua and Hungary) also lead to the end of electoral democracy. Where populism in power was constrained (Honduras and the United States), regime change did not materialize. This book advances a theory of populism that help us understand how democracies transition into non-democracies. To that extent, the book illuminates the processes of democratic erosion in our time.

Conclusion

This chapter discusses lessons the candlelight vigils and other similar cases offer for our understanding of how collective actions co-adapt with information ecosystems. In particular, the author discusses how empirical data analysis informs the agent-affordance framework by illustrating ways in which information generation and distribution mechanisms involve diverse agents within the information ecosystem. This chapter also discusses how insights offered in this book might be applicable to citizens’ calls for major political changes in other democratic countries. The chapter concludes by summarizing the scholarly and policy contributions of the book and suggesting a need for specific research to examine challenges for democratic governance posed by the rapidly growing volume of information available in the public sphere.

Aristotle and the Ọmọlúwàbí Ethos: Ethical Implications for Public Morality in Nigeria

This essay explores the philosophical affinity between Aristotle’s concept of virtue as character habituation and the Yorùbá ethical and ontological understanding of ọmọlúwàbí as the foundation for re-examining the philosophical foundation of democratic governance in Nigeria. Based on the Aristotelian insistence that the good life is the end of politics, the essay argues for a rethinking of the concept of public morality as character-based political dynamics that enables politicians to think more about the social contract between the government and the governed, rather than an amoral understanding of politics that eschew morality and undermines the well-being of the citizens. The absence of public morality, the essay argues, has resulted in a neopatrimonial framework within which the political elite willfully circumvent constitutional rules and regulation in order to vitiate the public interest. The essay concludes by arguing for a rigorous public enlightenment as well as a reform of the educational curriculum through an injection of virtue ethics.

Autorytarna merytokracja — zarys modelu i jego legitymizacja na przykładzie Chin

The article analyses the model of authoritarian meritocracy and its legitimisation on the example of the Chinese People’s Republic. The discussed model is based on three principles: 1. power is exercised by a monoparticle elite that legitimises its position on the basis of moral and substantive criteria; 2. patriarchal and anti-democratic governance; 3. the authorities’ policy aims to meet the material needs of citizens, but without granting them political rights. The Communist Party of China in its official narrative, on the one hand, refers to the assumptions of Maoism, but on the other hand, to a much greater extent — especially in the field of economic cases and the operation of the administrative apparatus — to the Confucian tradition. The model of authoritarian meritocracy in China should be treated as an ongoing experiment, whose final shape has a much more local nature than universal one, which it tries to claim. Nevertheless, the economic success and rapid modernization progress of the “Central State” undermined the theses formulated in the West after 1989 that economic development must be accompanied by the implementation of liberal democracy principles. For this reason, the Chinese authoritarian meritocracy may be perceived as a real alternative to the existing hegemonic vision of the West — the need to combine a free market economy with political freedoms and autonomy of individuals.