Literacy of Islamic Thought: Contestation, Claim of Truth, and Polemic of Religion in Islam in Gorontalo, Indonesia

As many previous studies tend to discuss the biography of local Islamic figures and overly-textual interpretation in exploring the Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia and criticize the western concepts of democracy in Gorontalo, this study aims to explore the newly-found dynamics of contestation of local Islamic thought in Gorontalo Province. Conducting in Gorontalo, a northern province in Sulawesi Island inhabited mainly by Muslim communities, this study employs a qualitative approach with a descriptive method. In the present work, the discourse of Islamic thought in Gorontalo is found to develop into a massive and uncontrolled state, leading to polemics among the Muslim community in the area. The polemics among people, including in the social media, involve two groups that are ideologically and epistemologically different: the liberal Islamic groups, i.e., ANSOR and PMII, and the fundamental Islamic groups, i.e., Tablighi Jamaat and Wahdah Islamiyah. Issues of religion-culture debate, khilafiyah, religious pluralism, and prohibition of Christmas salutation are among the main highlights of the polemic, especially among Muslims in Gorontalo. The presence of fundamentalists represents the new phenomenon in the Islamic thought discourse in Gorontalo, which is known for its subjectivity in perceiving the absence of the basic principles or nash (Qur'an and hadith) of the fundamentalists. Consequently, a debate between the two groups, claiming which one has the absolute truth, is inevitable. This situation also ends up with fundamentalist extremism labelling others as infidels (takfiri) and deviant to Islamic teachings.

The crisis of the classical concept of liberal democracy in the context of modern challenges

The main aim of this paper is to examine the problem of the crisis of liberal democracy in the modern world, referring to the phenomenon of a loss of balance between social and personal good in a pluralistic society. There are several concepts of democracy in political science, including the classic liberal concept, which sees its core priorities collide with recent global challenges. Thus, the relevance of this problem refers to the recent disappointment in the idea of liberal democracy, which shows disillusionment in democracy as such. In response to this trend, some hybrid regimes offer an alternative in the form of so-called democracies with illiberal approaches. From the other side, the liberal democratic platforms are used by populist political forces, which results in dividing democratic societies about the questions hard to finally solve. The Brexit problem – the process of British exit from the European Union – shows recent examples of long-lasting social effects derived from the crisis of liberal democratic concept. The author of the article has come to the conclusion that when it comes to modern democratic processes, classic liberal approach brings the populism threat back to the table. When there is no balance between the totally free civil society with its direct democratic influences and the state structure with formal procedures aimed at total good of beneficial functioning, the liberal instruments would be used by populists. Populism can create severe divisions within liberal democratic societies providing dilemmas, such as Brexit, which are difficult to solve with the same liberal democratic procedures. This means that liberal democratic approach undermines itself with the very fact of the existing tendency to lose balance between the ideal personal freedom (that includes satisfying every citizen’s choice) and public good.

Dziecko jako byt pogranicza. Romantyczne ujęcie dziecka w kontekście edukacji

W artykule stawiamy tezę, że romantyczne ujęcie dziecka jest bliższe nowym koncepcjom demokracji i podmiotowości (Negri, Baridotti, Lewis) niż ujęcie dziecka w dyskursie obywatelskim. Wskazujemy, że dziecko romantyczne stanowi podmiot monstrualny, usytuowany pomiędzy światami. Dziecko jako monstrum, homo sacer (Agamben), stanowi specyficzny splot władzy i opozycji wobec niej. Jest uprzywilejowanym miejscem, w którym możliwe jest konstruowanie zewnętrza, exodus, będący praktyką exopedagogiczną (Lewis, Kahn). In this article we argue that the romantic notion of a child is closer to the new concepts of democracy and subjectivity (Negri, Baridotti, Lewis) than a child included in the discourse of citizenship. We show that a child is a romantic monstrous entity, situated between the worlds. The child as a monster, homo sacer (Agamben), it is a specific entanglement of the power and the opposition to it. The monster is the privileged place in which it is possible to construct the exterior – exodus – which is the practice of exopedagogy (Lewis, Kahn).

DEMOCRACY AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Within the thematic of the application of the democracy under the political, economic, social and cultural slopes, there is the development of the same within the labor sphere. The concepts of democracy, employment relationship and social responsibility of the company, although at first seem disconnected, intertwine when one sees the applicability of democracy within the company. A State to be effectively democratic in law, there must be the application of democracy under various spheres, including labor. Thus, this article seeks, through a bibliographical review, to present the concepts of democracy and social responsibility of the company, demonstrating the applicability of the same in the relation employee x employer, presenting answers about the proposed questioning.

Political pedagogy and its role within humanistic knowledge: analysis of Western approaches

The subject of this research is the conceptualization of political education in educational science. Political education functions as a privileged point of intersection of various political discourses. It is claimed that different versions of political education comply with different ontological and epistemological assumptions, normative approaches towards democracy, and concepts of correlation between education, humanistic knowledge, and politics. It is noted that in majority of historical and philosophical concepts of democracy, there is a tacit link between politics and education. Recommendations for educational practice contain the definition of pedagogy within the framework of the theory of political education, as well as specific pedagogical methodologies with consideration of humanistic knowledge. The author describes the versions of political education that emerged as a result of analysis of the material. The corresponding political discourse and its philosophical principles, educational consequences for politics and practice, as well as debates and criticism, are viewed for each version. Thus, the elitarian version of political education and political pedagogy is associated with the elitarian democratic discourse. The supporters of liberal political education need education for political, epistemological, and moral reasons. Political equality can be guaranteed only in the society of informed and rational citizens; therefore, democracy requires the universalization of education. Neoliberals, in turn, recommend substituting public education with practice of competitive market, while debating pedagogues understand the education of democratic civic consciousness as cultivation of skills and values for the public discussion.

An Analysis of a Lay Adjudication System and Open Judiciary

This paper presents analyses of impacts of lay adjudicators' participation in criminal matters in Japan due to the introduction of the new lay adjudication system – the Citizen Judge System [Saiban-in Seido] – in 2009. Since the late twentieth century, the introduction of the lay adjudication system seems to have been in international movement democratising the criminal justice system. This paper is devoted to an evaluation of the new system in terms of the balance between the concepts of democracy and a fair trial with consideration of the citizen judge procedures and the role of the citizen judges. In view of the closed nature of the Japanese criminal procedures and secrecy in the citizen judge system, this study will point out the challenges which prevent the fulfilment of democratic values in the practice of the citizen judge system.

PhD revisited: Students’ Perceptions of Democracy, Politics, and Citizenship Preparation and Implications for Social Studies Education

While several studies have investigated young people’s attitudes towards and participation in democracy and politics, as well as the influence of citizenship education on young people’s political participation, few studies have explored students’ perceptions of the concepts of democracy and politics and their own perceptions of citizenship education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the theme of democracy and politics in social studies in upper secondary school. Methodologically, this study relied on multiple methods of data collection and analysis to investigate students’ perceptions: Qualitative focus groups and interviews and a quantitative survey. To analyse students’ perceptions, I drew on citizenship education literature, focusing on the role and teaching of school subjects such as social studies, as well as political theory, focusing on theoretical perspectives on the concepts of democracy and politics. The findings show that the students perceived ‘democracy’ and ‘politics’ both in terms of top-down notions of government and other political institutions and bottom-up perspectives focused on discussions and other non-institutional aspects of democratic politics. Moreover, the findings indicate that students perceived social studies as valuable in terms of preparing them for current and future citizenship and that their enjoyment and aspects of instruction were most strongly associated with these perceptions.

The People and the People: Democracy and Vitalism in Walt Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass

This chapter examines the relationship between politics and philosophy in Walt Whitman’s 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. It focuses on Whitman’s articulation of two different concepts of democracy: a vitalist version, based on the organic life of the nation, and a revolutionary version, based on transforming the political culture of the people for the sake of fulfilling the American Revolution. The chapter traces Whitman’s reception as a Spinozist (an inheritor of the radical philosophy of Baruch Spinoza), a pantheist, and a monist. It argues that this philosophical legacy enables Whitman to reimagine the nation as the common property of the people and to reconceive of national belonging in terms other than citizenship. The chapter pays particular attention to Whitman’s commitments to labor politics and the abolition of slavery.

Why Low Levels of Democracy Promote Corruption and High Levels Diminish It

Theory predicts democracy should reduce corruption. Yet, scholars have found that while corruption is low at high levels of democracy, it is high at modest levels, as well as low when democracy is absent. A weakness of studies that aim to explain this inverted curvilinear relationship is that they do not disaggregate the complex concepts of democracy and corruption. By contrast, this paper disaggregates both. We demonstrate that the curvilinear relationship results from the collective impact of different components of democracy on different types of corruption. Using Varieties of Democracy data, we examine 173 countries from 1900 to 2015, and we find freedom of expression and freedom of association each exhibit an inverted curvilinear relationship with corruption—both overall corruption and four different types. The introduction of elections and the quality of elections each act in a linear fashion—positively and negatively with corruption, respectively—but jointly form a curvilinear relationship with both overall corruption and many of its types. Judicial and legislative constraints exhibit a negative linear relationship with executive corruption. We offer a framework that suggests how these components affect costs and benefits of engaging in different types of corruption and, therefore, the level of corruption overall.