Democratic Situations

Democratic Situations places the making and doing of democratic politics at the centre of relational research. The book turns the well-known sites of contemporary Euro-American democracy – elections, bureaucracies, public debates and citizen participation – into fluctuating democratic situations where supposedly untouchable democratic ideals are contested and warped in practice. The empirical cases demonstrate that democracy cannot be reduced to theoretical schemes of conflict, institutions or deliberation. Instead, they offer an urgently needed renewal of our understanding of democratic politics at a time when conventional ideas increasingly fail to capture current events such as Brexit, Trump and Covid19.

A New Conatus for the New World: Dewey’s Response to Perfectionist Conceptions of Democratic Education

We argue for a reconsideration of the claim that Spinoza’s perfectionist conception of education was ushering in a form of radical humanism distinctly favorable to democratic ideals. With the rise of democratic societies and the corresponding need to constitute educational institutions within those societies, a more thoroughgoing commitment to democratic social ideals arose, first and foremost in American educational thought. This commitment can be seen especially in Dewey’s philosophy of education. Specifically, Dewey and Spinoza had strikingly distinct conceptions of the overall aims of schooling. While Spinoza takes the aim of education to be the perfection of a student’s original nature, Dewey takes education to involve the collective acquisition of an additional nature, reflecting the norms and expectations of one’s specific community. In this paper, we juxtapose these two distinct conceptions of education alongside one another, with an eye towards illuminating the limitations of a perfectionist theory of education for the individual, as we find it in Spinoza, within a democratic society.

Im geschützten Raum

This article explores the musical events organized by the Goethe Institute during the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990). An examination of the cultural and political discussions around these musical programmes demonstrates that the function of music as a tool for promoting democracy was understood in the context of the cultural activities of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chile. I explore the ways in which projects from the fields of jazz and contemporary music were understood as vehicles of democratic ideals, the consequences of the resulting musical transfers for the local musical life, as well as the shaping of a particular image of West Germany in Chile. (Vorlage)

Locked And Tied: Locking Chain And Change Of Problems

Blockchains are typically named as democratisation technologies, however ever, their relationship with the law and general democratic establishments remains uncertain. First, it compares blockchain technology with the broader theory of transparency. Second, it examines the link between transparency and democracy, and asks how blockchain technology mediates these relationships. Finally, it studies blockchain however technology affects specific manifestations of transparency and freedom of information. The conclusion of this text is that the relationship between transparency and democratic ideals is complex, controversial, and extremely contextual; the “democratized” technical transparency embedded within the blockchain will simply be evidenced in its application. It's undemocratic. while not considering the political gatekeepers and also the legal, social, and cultural desires that support these goals, blockchain technology cannot bring home the bacon the broader goals of transparency.

The Importance of being George

The focus on this paper is the political history of Greece in the immediate aftermath of the ousting of the kingdom's first monarch, King Otto von Wittelsbach, and on to the first years of rule of his successor, King George I. After narrating the events that led to the installation of the new king, it specifically examines his cohabitation, inspired as he was by supposedly democratic ideals, with the fresh constitution of 1864; the challenges that the political and cultural landscape in the country presented for him, and the way he chose to respond in the first decade of his rule.

Political Culture of Elitism as Barrier to Distributive Justice and Inclusive Democracy in Pakistan

The research aims to examine the democratic ideals ofparticipatory, inclusive democracy with "strong public" andclear means of interest articulation, in contrast to transitional, "delegativedemocracy," with local and national dynasties and the marginalized public.Employing the concept given by John Dewy, Jurgen Habermas, NancyFraser, Samuel P. Huntington, Takis Fotopoulos, the study is analytical andevaluative in nature, measuring the gap between theory and practice. Theprime area of concern is Pakistan, and the study is meant to answer "why"questions about the pendulum movement from authoritarian military ruleand democratic dispensations; and the inability of the delegatedtransitional democracy of Pakistan to transform into a consolidateddemocratic system. The supposition of the study is that though democraticnorms and awareness of people's interests are present even in the far-offperipheral regions of Pakistan yet in the presence of strong local dynastieswith local hegemonic designs, Pakistan remains a transitional democracy.

The Democratic 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.

The Concept of Regional General Election Dispute Resolution During the Reformation Era

A form of democracy’s manifestation is the organization of the general election, namely a ritual carried out to choose a leader. Indonesia’s general election is aimed to achieve people’s sovereignty and simultaneously apply the democratic principles and values, to increase the people’s political awareness to actively participate in the general election to achieve the Indonesian people’s democratic ideals. The first organization of the Head of the Region elections was during the Reformation Era, specifically in 2005, through direct election. The implementation of this direct regional general election surely resulted to some disputes. The direct organization of head of the regions certainly resulted to disputes, including the dispute between the General Election Commission and the general election participants regarding the national general election vote obtainment results which may influence the election participants’ seat acquisition. Another dispute regards the head of the region general election results. Formerly, the resolution of this type of dispute was carried out at the constitutional court.

The Low-Church Idea of a University

William Rainey Harper, founder of the University of Chicago, was an accomplished biblical scholar who convinced John D. Rockefeller Sr. that Baptists needed a great university. While Harper emphasized Christian character, chapel, community, and Christian dimensions in teaching, he was also an efficiency expert who was later accused, as by Upton Sinclair and Thorsten Veblen, of building a university too much beholden to business interests. Amos Alonzo Stagg saw football as contributing to building character and community. In Harper’s “low-church idea of a university,” America was his parish. Sociology, as represented by Albion Small, was presented as a Christian and democratic moral enterprise and can be seen as a last flowering of moral philosophy. John Dewey, who had abandoned earlier Christian faith, exemplifies how a broadly Christian moral heritage might blend with democratic ideals.

Who Participates in Public Participation? The Exclusionary Effects of Inclusionary Efforts

Highlighting public-service actors’ deliberately tokenistic or self-serving efforts, existing literature has shown that public participation often involves the co-optation of sympathetic citizens. In contrast, our study demonstrates that participatory advocates may discredit and marginalize critical voices despite their own inclusive, democratic ideals. We analyze the entangled legitimacy claims of participating citizens and “inviting” public-service actors, capturing (a) the often-unintended dynamics through which the inclusion of particular participants legitimizes the exclusion of others, while illuminating (b) the tenacious propensity of participatory initiatives to establish “constructive cooperation” as the norm for participation and, subsequently, to normalize exclusionary practices.