The Limits of Deliberation About the Public's Values

A Review of The Public's Law: Origins and Architecture of Progressive Democracy by Blake Emerson.

Managing Democracy in Malaysia (Identity, Minorities, and Representation)

The Malaysian General Election (GE-14) in May 2018 raised an interesting and new phenomenon. For the first time since independence of Malaysia in 1957, the rulling alliance known as the National Front (Barisan Nasional, BN) which led by UMNO failed to secure simple majority in parliament and lost control of seven of Malaysia’s 13 states. This was due to the challenge presented by the new opposition alliance known as Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope, PH) which won 113 of seats in parliament and gain control the central government. It is interesting that this significant increase in support for the opposition is due to their change the way minorities, identity and representation is managed. The Malaysian Supremacy as political manifesto of Pakatan Harapan which involves eradicating affirmative action based on etnicity, basing it instead on need, for instance need due to prosperity through the removal of government service tax (GST), and reformation of law. This would potentially increase the justice and equality for all ethnic or racial groups. This paper links the 2013 and 2018 elections, the more global trend in which minorities and youth representation are standing up to demand their right and to the challenge multiracial presents in Malaysia as a Muslim country. Therefore, the fundamental questions in this paper of how Pakatan Harapan manage minorities, identity and representation within in the process of democracy and to what extent the opportunities and the involvement of youth as voters and parliamentary candidates in order to support a progressive democracy in Malaysia.

The Normative Architecture of Progressive Democracy

This chapter develops a normative model of Progressive democracy on the basis of the intellectual and institutional history presented in the previous chapters. The Progressive theory remedies deficiencies in existing arguments for administrative legitimacy—those based on efficiency, constitutional values, or republican political theory. Unlike these theories, Progressivism draws an intrinsic connection between the purpose and the structure of regulatory law. Its purpose is to promote individual freedom through law. The structure of regulatory law ensures that such norms arise from the people’s own self-understandings. Progressivism aligns with deliberative democratic theory, but focuses on ex post deliberation about the consequences of policies, rather than solely on ex ante justification. This democratic theory requires an iterative process where abstract norms are expressed in law and then specified in a participatory and rational administrative process. The United States has a thin version of such a process in the Administrative Procedure Act’s “notice-and-comment” rule-making provisions. But today this process is too technocratic and distorted in favor of well organized and powerful interests. Opportunities for inclusive and egalitarian participation must therefore be deepened. At the same time, administrators must understand that they have an official duty to further the equal freedom of the persons their decisions affect. Judicial review of administrative action impedes such a self-understanding because it focuses on technocratic and instrumental reasoning. At the same time, the increasing investment of power in the president threatens to undermine deliberation with arbitrary assertions of personal will.

Managing Democracy in Malaysia (Identity, Minorities, and Representation)

The Malaysian General Election (GE-14) in May 2018 raised an interesting and new phenomenon. For the first time since independence of Malaysia in 1957, the rulling alliance known as the National Front (Barisan Nasional, BN) which led by UMNO failed to secure simple majority in parliament and lost control of seven of Malaysia’s 13 states. This was due to the challenge presented by the new opposition alliance known as Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope, PH) which won 113 of seats in parliament and gain control the central government. It is interesting that this significant increase in support for the opposition is due to their change the way minorities, identity and representation is managed. The Malaysian Supremacy as political manifesto of Pakatan Harapan which involves eradicating affirmative action based on etnicity, basing it instead on need, for instance need due to prosperity through the removal of government service tax (GST), and reformation of law. This would potentially increase the justice and equality for all ethnic or racial groups. This paper links the 2013 and 2018 elections, the more global trend in which minorities and youth representation are standing up to demand their right and to the challenge multiracial presents in Malaysia as a Muslim country. Therefore, the fundamental questions in this paper of how Pakatan Harapan manage minorities, identity and representation within in the process of democracy and to what extent the opportunities and the involvement of youth as voters and parliamentary candidates in order to support a progressive democracy in Malaysia.