Kant’s Political Philosophy as ausübende Rechtslehre

Based on Kant’s own concept of politics, it is possible to construct his political philosophy that is related to but also different from his metaphysics of right. Politics is the practice of realizing the principles of right in experience; therefore, Kant’s political philosophy must explore the general conditions that make this practice possible. These conditions, such as political judgement, publicity and the enlightenment of the people, are indispensable to Kant’s thinking about human external freedom but do not belong to the metaphysics of right. Kant’s metaphysics of right is undoubtedly a liberal theory, but we can also identify some republican elements in his political philosophy. In this way, Kant provides us with a very instructive programme to absorb republican elements within a liberal theory.

Political Constitutionalism under a Culture of Legalism: Case Studies from Ireland

Political constitutionalism understood in terms of autonomy of political judgement rather than allocation of powers – Irish case studies as example – Judicial doctrines recognise political discretion concerning rights – However, legalism or legal constitutionalism arises within the sphere of political judgement itself – Legal constitutionalism restricts political autonomy epistemically as well as institutionally

Ghosts

This chapter examines how Philip Roth responds to Jewish American readers and contexts in his fiction. Roth exploits the tensions and transitions in Jewish American political aspirations in the period, setting heated political debates about assimilation and particularism against different measurements of value in the novel. By using live cultural debates from the period, Roth courts ethnic categorization, while ultimately relativizing such categories in his attempt to pursue alternative understandings of literary value. In Roth’s earlier ‘Nathan Zuckerman’ fictions, the comedy and intelligence emerge through his practice of contrasting the ‘humble needs’ of a desiring body with the rush either to pass political judgement or to withdraw the novel from the complications of embodied life. The second half of the chapter demonstrates how Roth engages both directly and indirectly with the work of Hannah Arendt and the 1950s context for thinking about the Holocaust. This section of the chapter focuses in particular on an unpublished screenplay housed in Roth’s literary archive.

Political judgement competency among upper secondary-school pupils

Within the discipline of political didactics, differing views exist on political judgement as the goal or content of classroom teaching. In this study, political judgement is understood as a competency. It requires situational deliberation and decision-making, but must also take into account political values. For this study, 401 upper secondary pupils in years 11–12 were presented with a 45-minute judgement test. The pupils were asked to adopt a personal position on a specific matter in an essay, using argumentative deliberation. As in the lens model of judgement, they were required to adduce and evaluate different aspects under conditions of uncertainty, since no definitive information was available. In the test, five levels were used to assess the ‘complexity’ of a judgement. All previous tasks had to be solved before a higher level of complexity could be reached. On the basis of the assumed interdependencies of levels (tasks) in a testlet, the test was scaled using a testlet model from item response theory. All the testlets show significantly higher variances than the test as a whole. The test was able to produce a good total variance. The analyses of construct validity by means of fluid intelligence and subject knowledge conform to expectations. The test evaluated with the testlet model indicates that this can be assumed to be a multilevel process.

Reinhold Niebuhr and the Christian realist pendulum

Reinhold Niebuhr is widely acknowledged as the father of Christian realism and a staunch critic of pacifism. In a famous exchange with his brother H. Richard in The Christian Century, Niebuhr defended the necessity of entering the fray of battle to combat evil as opposed to opting for non-violent detachment that ultimately usurps God’s authority to decide on final matters. Niebuhr, however, never endorsed an aggressive Just War doctrine. Striving to reconcile the Christian command of love with the harsh realities of power resulting from universal sinfulness, Niebuhr emphasised the necessity of negotiating the distance between the two extremes of a pendulum swinging from Christian pacifism to the endorsement of interventionist policies. Rather than this being an expression of the ambiguity of his moral convictions, this paper argues that it is a product of his sensitivity to applying contextual moral and political judgement as an exercise of theological responsibility.

Casual Vacancies under Proportional Representation

Various systems have been tried or proposed for filling casual vacancies in legislative Houses elected by proportional representation. Because such Houses involve multi-member constituencies and representatives of a variety of views, the traditional by-election to elect a single member would not be sensible as the majority would win even seats previously held by minorities. Thus, various other methods of filling casual vacancies have been adopted. Some involve a new selection in the form of indirect election by continuing Members of Parliament (‘MPs’), while others involve a process which does not require renewed political judgement such as re-examining the ballot papers from the general election. Several other methods of replacing departed members have also been used or proposed in Australia. This article outlines the features of all the systems, past, existing or proposed, and assesses them against a list of criteria which represent the desirable features of such a system.

Improving the political judgement of citizens: why the task environment matters

Internal political efficacy (that is, beliefs about one’s ability to process and participate effectively in politics) is known to be shaped by factors such as levels of interest in politics, trust in institutions and awareness of political developments and debates. In this article, we show that the task environment also has an impact on internal political efficacy, and that little research has been done on this issue. We draw on data from focus groups in Australia, where citizens were asked to make political judgements in contrasting task environments: state elections and the 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite. We examine four features of task environments: framing choice; issue content; the nature of available cues; and whether the task environment stimulates cognitive effort. We conclude that concerns about the internal political efficacy of voters should be addressed by exploring how the task environment created for political choice might be made more amenable in order to improve the political judgement of citizens.