The notion of political competence, when it is used, encourages to rank the individuals as more or less competent (in sense that they control certain political categories). This article aims at showing that ordinary citizens can really turn out to be competent, but in mobilizing means that are not political, which allow them to return comprehensible the political field & its stakes. Thus, the author is interested in very general forms of competence in politics, revealed in agents who knock up & understand politics from ordinary levels of pertinence. Adapted from the source document.
"This book offers a look at the latest research within digital literacy and competence, setting the bar for the digital citizen of today and tomorrow"--Provided by publisher
Two moral abilities are particularly important for living together in a democracy: firstly the ability of all citizens to judge and to act in accordance with their own moral principles; secondly, the ability to solve conflicts by means of fear-free discussions instead of the use of violence and the exercise of power. As research shows, both basic abilities, which are often summed up under the overall concept of moral competence, are essential for a democratic way of life and the functioning of democratic institutions. They are important for many things, e.g., for helping people in distress (not just readiness to help), for making quick decisions, learning effectively, for tolerating ambiguity, and for rejecting violence as a means of social change. Research also shows that the school promotes moral competence less effec¬tively and less sustainably than is needed and seems possible today. In this editorial, I attempt to give a broad overview on the research on moral competence and its application in education and educational policy-making in the past thirty years, in which I have been personally involved. It is not a comprehensive handbook article, which remains to be written.
Grass-roots citizen groups have posed a fundamental challenge to institutional politics in West Germany over the past twenty years, an important aspect of which has been their adverse reaction to state-sponsored technological projects. Citizen protestors have challenged not just government policy decisions, but the legitimacy of the bureaucracies producing them, & have sought alternative political forms that would reconcile participatory democracy & technological development. Case studies of specific protest movements are subjected to a comparative analysis exploring their different forms & their impact on German politics. Adapted from the source document.
Despite much evidence that municipal services are delivered mostly without significant class bias, suspicions remain that municipal administrators discriminate against the disadvantaged, particularly in one-to-one citizen-administrator interactions. This research develops evidence on that possibility by examining how helpfully and courteously citizens feel they have been treated on a broad range of contacts with the municipal bureaucracy in Cincinnati, Ohio. The findings suggest some areas of possible racial discrimination in bureaucratic treatment of citizens but no discrimination by income. In addition, much of the apparent racial discrimination results from blacks bringing more difficult problems to the bureaucracy, not from bureaucrats giving less consideration to blacks. Municipal administrators appear mostly to be exercising neutral competence in their dealings with citizens, and not always in a manner working to the disadvantage of blacks.
ABSTRACT: This research had the objective of exploring the impact of education in citizens' competences, whilst using the Participatory-Action-Research (PAR) methodology—created by the sociologist Orlando Fals Borda (1970)—on leaders that work with teens in impoverished and marginalized communities. The study explores the impact of the training on five NGO's in citizens competences for the empowerment and promulgation of participatory democracy. We expected to scrutinize PAR's methodology and the training in citizens competences with content and other methodologies that transform the research practices and encourage citizen's empowerment. By practicing the seven phases of PAR, we designed surveys, conducted interviews and visited five NGO's that offer educative services in Puerto Rico to identify their needs. We facilitated workshops on cognitive, emotional, social and communicative competences—according to their felt-expressed needs. Afterwards, we designed and implemented evaluations using participatory methodologies. The results indicate they incremented in 75 percent their consciousness, knowledge and strengthened their ability to make individual and collective decisions. It led them to a sense of empowerment as citizens and leaders that can play a role in the development of democratic practices in their NGO's, their community and the public policy education of their country. They recognize, in over 80 percent of their responses, the need of incorporating participatory methodologies as well as citizens' competences to their programs and curriculums. Also, they suggested the board of directors should be trained on these methodologies and contents, in order to transform the NGO's that serve disadvantaged communities. KEYWORDS: PAR, citizens competences, participatory democracy, empowerment
In the light of recent developments in democracies, particularly voter abstentionism, the concept of political competence needs to be broadened to allow for the diversity of skills & knowledge agents may possess or acquire to express their preferences in the public sphere. This article presents a pragmatic synthesis of some recent studies based on an expanded praxiological & processual analysis of the acquisition of civic competence. This epistemological & theoretical approach is then illustrated by an ethnographic study of access to civic competence in a participatory budgeting organization, which underscores the malleability of the competence of agents placed in a favorable institutional setting. It therefore offers a model of politicization in interaction; iterated participation results in the bifurcation of agents' trajectories -- either towards more institutionalized civic engagement or increased cynicism about politics. Adapted from the source document.
The Lake Wobegon Effect is a general tendency for people to overestimate their own abilities. In this study, the authors conducted a large, nationally-representative survey of U.S. citizens to test whether Americans overestimate their own gun-relevant personality traits, gun safety knowledge, and ability to use a gun in an emergency. The authors also tested how gun control attitudes, political identification, gender, and gun experience affect self-perceptions. Consistent with prior research on the Lake Wobegon Effect, participants overestimated their gun-related competencies. Conservatives, males, and pro-gun advocates self-enhanced somewhat more than their counterparts but this effect was primarily due to increased gun experience among these participants. These findings are important to policymakers in the area of gun use, because overconfidence in one's gun-related abilities may lead to a reduced perceived need for gun training. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion
The Lake Wobegon Effect is a general tendency for people to overestimate their own abilities. In this study, the authors conducted a large, nationally-representative survey of U.S. citizens to test whether Americans overestimate their own gun-relevant personality traits, gun safety knowledge, and ability to use a gun in an emergency. The authors also tested how gun control attitudes, political identification, gender, and gun experience affect self-perceptions. Consistent with prior research on the Lake Wobegon Effect, participants overestimated their gun-related competencies. Conservatives, males, and pro-gun advocates self-enhanced somewhat more than their counterparts but this effect was primarily due to increased gun experience among these participants. These findings are important to policymakers in the area of gun use, because overconfidence in one's gun-related abilities may lead to a reduced perceived need for gun training.
The Lake Wobegon Effect is a general tendency for people to overestimate their own abilities. In this study, the authors conducted a large, nationally-representative survey of U.S. citizens to test whether Americans overestimate their own gun-relevant personality traits, gun safety knowledge, and ability to use a gun in an emergency. The authors also tested how gun control attitudes, political identification, gender, and gun experience affect self-perceptions. Consistent with prior research on the Lake Wobegon Effect, participants overestimated their gun-related competencies. Conservatives, males, and pro-gun advocates self-enhanced somewhat more than their counterparts but this effect was primarily due to increased gun experience among these participants. These findings are important to policymakers in the area of gun use, because overconfidence in one's gun-related abilities may lead to a reduced perceived need for gun training.
URL del artículo en la web de la Revista: https://www.upo.es/revistas/index.php/ripp/article/view/3637/2877 ; El ciudadano competente es esperanza de renovación de la democracia de las sociedades del siglo XXI. Este ciudadano, generador de una nueva democracia, es producto de una educación democrática cuyos ejes fundamentales son una ética cívica democrática (posconvencional, procedimental, dialógica) y un modelo de democracia éticamente deseable. A partir de la reflexión acerca de estos dos ejes se propone un modelo educativo que genere una competencia cívica democrática, siguiendo el modelo educativo por competencias clave de aprendizaje permanente propuesto por la OCDE, el cual formaría ciudadanos para la práctica democrática en cualquier momento y lugar, preparados para dar respuesta a cualquier reto que deban afrontar en su compromiso con su comunidad. ; The competent citizen is the hope of democratic renewal for societiesm in twenty first century. This citizen, who is able to generate a new democracy, is the result of a democratic education whose fundamentals are a democratic civic ethic (post-conventional, procedural and dialogic) and an ethically desirable model of democracy. From the reflection about these two fundamentals it is suggested an educational model that produces a democratic civic competence, according to the educational model of key competences for long-life learning from OECD, which would prepare citizens for democratic practice at any time and in any place, ready to take up any challenge relating to their compromise with community. ; Universidad Pablo de Olavide
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, at the request of the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI Committee), sheds light on cross-border commercial contracts and their operation in theory and practice. It describes the legal framework in which commercial contracts operate and analyses current commercial practice as regards choice of law and choice of forum. It concludes that the laws and the courts of some states are more popular than others and suggests to adopt a bundle of measures that will improve the settlement of international disputes in the EU. Among others, the study suggests to introduce an expedited procedure for cross-border commercial cases and to establish specialized courts or chambers for cross-border commercial matters in each Member State. In addition, the study suggests to establish a European Commercial Court.
This study analyses the Active Citizens program conducted in seven Czech elementary schools in 2017/2018. The data were obtained in a mixed-design research study containing pre/post experimental/control groups (N = 114), eight focus groups with selected students (N = 56), and group interviews with teachers (N = 14). The mean age of the students was 13.8 years. The study focuses on the students&rsquo ; and the teachers&rsquo ; perception of the process, the program&rsquo ; s barriers and benefits, and on the impact of the program on the students&rsquo ; self-efficacy and on perceived democratic school culture. The analysis revealed that while the participants felt empowered because of their experience, they started to perceive their school environment as less democratic than before the program. The program also likely influenced girls more than boys as the latter seem to have been unaffected. Finally, the implications of the findings for the practice are discussed.
This paper considers the place of children within liberal-democratic society and its related political morality. The genesis of the paper is two considerations which are in tension with one another. First, that there must be some point at which children are divided from adults, with children denied the rights which go along with full membership of the liberal community. The justification for the difference in the statue between these two groups must be rooted in some notion of capacities, since these are the only relevant differences between adults and children. Second, that linking an individual's capacities to her status undermines the central liberal commitment of political equality. This dilemma explains what I term the threshold view, which holds that children become adult citizens upon reaching an age of competence and that above this level differences in abilities cease to matter to an individual's status. While this view has attractions, this paper argues that this view must eventually be rejected because of its inability to deal with the actual process of human development. In its place, the paper proposes a modification to this view which sees the threshold constrained by moral demands and applied indirectly to age groups rather than individuals. These constraints preserve the commitment to equality in a way consistent with a plausible view of children's place in society. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]
