Suchergebnisse

We can observe a well-documented decline of trust levels in Western societies: from the reputation of political representatives as being "not trustworthy" to the rise of anti-system-oriented populist parties. Yet the implications of different forms of distrust for a society and democratic institutions have been theorized in conflicting ways so far. In order to illuminate existing inconsistencies in social and democratic theory, this article addresses two research questions: What are the implications of different manifestations of distrust for the acceptance of democracy and democratic institutions? How do different forms of distrust affect the motivation to become engaged in democratic decision-making and in civil society institutions? Taking empirical evidence from 25 focus groups in Germany, our findings show that growing social divisions affect the role distrust plays for political interest representation of social groups and for the acceptance of liberal representative democracy.

Obwohl die Energiewende als gesellschaftlicher Konsens gilt, nehmen lokale Proteste gegen Energiewendeprojekte zu. Doch welche Auswirkungen haben diese Proteste auf das soziale Gefüge in den Regionen? Wer beansprucht in diesen lokalen Konflikten, das Gemeinwohl zu vertreten? Diese Fragen werden im vorliegenden Artikel empirisch auf der Grundlage von zwei Fallstudien zu den Themenbereichen Stromtrassenbau und Windenergie diskutiert. Vor allem wird auf die Konfliktlinie der Allgemeinwohlvertretung sowie auf regionale Konfliktlinien eingegangen. Dabei werden die Sichtweisen aller beteiligten Akteure sowie der betroffenen, aber nicht aktiven Bevölkerung berücksichtigt. Es wird gezeigt, dass es in den Konflikten um mehr geht als um das spezifische Projekt, das verhindert werden soll. Vielmehr wird, eingebunden in lokale Konfliktlinien, der Vertretungsanspruch des Gemeinwohls verhandelt. ; While the "Energiewende" is a national and moreover global topic, the actual increasing conflicts are taking place at the local level. But who claims to represent the common good? Which impact do protests concerning the "Energiewende" have on the local social structure? In our text we discuss these questions based on two case studies on conflicts about the construction of new overhead power cables and wind farms. We focus on the cleavage between common good and particular interests. Furthermore we analyze certain regional cleavages. We integrate the perspectives of all actors involved in these conflicts, such as local politicians and authorities, companies, protest groups, as well as those affected citizens who decided not to join the protests. We show that the conflicts are not just dealing with their specific issues but that there are deeper regional conflicts concerning the question who is legitimated to represent the common good.