Suchergebnisse

CRITICS OF HANNAH ARENDT'S ARGUMENT FOR COUNCIL DEMOCRACY HAVE FOCUSED PRIMARILY ON STRUCTURAL QUESTIONS, GENERALLY TO THE NEGLECT OF BOTH THE ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES SHE BELIEVED COUNCIL DEMOCRACY EMBODIES AND HER INTERPRETATION OF HISTORICAL EXAMPLES OF COUNCIL DEMOCRACY. THE RESULT HAS BEEN A CERTAIN AMBIGUITY, WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE SEEKS TO DISPEL. HE ANALYZES WHAT ARENDT HAS HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE IDEA OF COUNCIL DEMOCRACY, REVIEWS AND CRITICIZES THE CRITICS OF HER POSITION, AND CONCLUDES WITH HIS OWN CRITIQUE OF HER THEORY.

A narrative chronicle of Israeli democracy that defines historic phases and follows thematic challenges to democracy, including: competition between religion and the rule of law; the statist society and chaotic minoritocracy; modern illiberal populism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The comprehensive portrait exposes endemic flaws of democracy in Israel, but also shows that Israel has considerable capacity - and responsibility - to fulfill the promise of democracy

The article analyses special features and the prospects of E-Democracy (in particular E-Government) mechanisms development in Russia in the context of world trends. Two parallel processes are being thoroughly examined. The official state E-Democracy development policy (E-Democracy "from above") covers objections, statements, official documents and institutions created by the Russian Government in the described field. These achievements reflect Russia's positions in international ratings. As concluded, the Russian Government mostly focuses on E-Government development, though also declares the implementation of the real E-Democracy mechanisms (like E-Elections, E-Participation in political decision-making) in the future. The so called E-Demoracy "from below" consists of the civil society initiatives in forcing political and financial transparency of the state affairs, fighting corruption. Individuals and civic organizations in Russia develop the network of related Internet-sites focusing on different e-democratic mechanisms. It compensates and sometimes replaces the official state policy in this field. The future of E-Democracy in Russia depends not only on technical progress, but also on successful integration of the official and civic initiatives.

This article examines the discourses of democracy in the context of political development in Hong Kong during the first 12 years after the 1997 handover using rhetoric and frame analysis. Overall, the study shows how political actors define political options and promote development, which is favourable to their interests and views, through framing democracy in different ways. The study reveals the frames that describe different points of view, and contributes to the understanding of democrats' position as re-framers. The found frames are clustered into paradigmatic framesets that deal with the concrete democracy issue and the political situation in present-day Hong Kong. Consequently, the democracy debate in Hong Kong is organised around two opposite and idealised templates for democracy. The first cluster forms the pro-establishment model, which suggests solutions built around consensus and practical means. The second frameset, mostly used by the pro-democrats, supports the idea of a wider democratic change which entails broad normative changes in politics. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

Democracy in the Philippines is a paradox. It was the first country in the region to topple authoritarian rule. Signs of a vibrant democracy are extensive: high voter turnout, civic engagement, institutional arrangements that theoretically promote accountability and safeguard rights and liberties. Yet the flaws in the democratic process are also extensive: elite dominance, institutional weakness, and widespread abuse of public office, which suggest true representation is largely illusory. Concerns about the quality of democracy have become central to political discourse in the Philippines, as seen in debates about constitutional reform and the hopes associated with the election of reform candidate Benigno Aquino III as president in 2010. This analysis examines how oligarchic structures and dysfunctional institutions threaten the emergence of true democracy in the Philippines.

The article argues that deliberative democracy has now entered a third generation, to which the three recent books considered here contribute. The first generation included the normative assertions of Habermas and Rawls. The second generation involved the fusing of these two first generationalists, and reconciling them with features of social complexity. The second generation has rendered deliberative democracy more practically achievable, and the three books here seize this opportunity to provide considerable institutional innovation about how to achieve the reformed deliberative theory in practice. In doing this the third generation of deliberative democracy is emerging. In the main, a more practically relevant version of deliberative democracy is welcomed, but we must also guard against jettisoning its normative ideals in the process.

THIS STUDY MAINTAINS THAT THE ANALYSIS OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN CALIFORNIA CAN SUGGEST MORE LESSONS FOR STUDENTS OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS THAN THE TRADITIONAL SWISS EXAMPLE. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY IN CALIFORNIA IS REVIEWED AND THE RECENT EXPANSION IN ITS USE IS RELATED TO THE DEVLEOMENT OF AN "INITIATIVES INDUSTRY." AS IN ALL ASPECTS OF CALIFORNIAN POLITICS, MONEY HAS A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE RESULTS OF REFERENDUMS. DIRECT DEMOCRAC UNDERMINES THE ROLE OF THE LEGISLATURE AND ENCOURAGES POLITICIANS TO FOLLOW POPULAR TRENDS RATHER THAN TO ATTEMPT TO EXERCISE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. VARIOUS POSSIBLE REFORMS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY ARE REVIEWED. ALTHOUGH NOT WITHOUT ITS MERITS, DIRET DEMOCRACY IN CALIFORNIA IS MORE OF A WARNING THAN AN EXAMPLE TO BE EMULATED.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Plates -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations and Glossary -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Thai State, Democracy, Decentralization and Development -- 3. Rural Transformations in a Central Thai District -- 4. From the 'Era of Dictatorship' to the 'Era of Democracy': The Election of a Subdistrict Head -- 5. 'It's About Giving': The Provincial Council Election of 1990 -- 6. A Coup, Three General Elections and Learning Democracy: Local Participation in National Politics 1990-1995

This article analyzes the loss of legitimacy that the economic crisis brought upon representative democracy and the consequences that can be drawn for the thesis of the end of History. The thesis we defend here is that the deterioration of the welfare state, as a result, under very specific conditions, of the capitalism in certain parts of the world, runs parallel with the delegative degradation of democracy. Keywords: Democracy; capitalism; politics; history; Fukuyama.

Intraparty democracy is considered an important feature of former rebel movements' adaptation to democracy more generally. What conditions intraparty democracy in former rebel parties? This article traces internal debates about and organizational adaptation to intraparty democracy in Partai Aceh (Indonesia) and Fretilin (East Timor), paying specific attention to the interaction between party leaderships and the wider rebel organization. Leaning on theories of party change and organization, the article finds that even in the presence of formal procedures that prescribe inclusive decision-making, the nature and persistence of decentralized wartime command structures and relative strength and dependence on these networks limits intraparty democracy.

By E.L. Kirkpatrick and Agnes M. Boynton. ; Cover-title. ; Mode of access: Internet.