Suchergebnisse

This thesis focuses on the territorial dimension of democracy by studying the division of Swedish municipalities. It consists of two parts focusing on two types of changes to the division of municipalities: amalgamation and secession. The consequences of a series of amalgamation reforms are the starting point for the first part. The question is if the new structure of the municipalities following from amalgamation, e.g. increased size, changed centre-periphery relations and an increased number of urban areas within municipalities, has had any importance for local democracy. The structural factors are looked at in the light of three aspects of democracy: municipalities as community units, their democratic legitimacy and political participation. This study shows that amalgamations can have negative effects for democracy and the conclusion is that the optimal division, from a democratic point of view, is one of small municipalities with only one dominating urban area in each municipality. As for secession, the study shows that few citizens want their part of the municipality to secede, except for those who live in parts that have had an application for secession rejected in recent years. The most important reason for supporting secession is that it would improve democracy. The main reason for opposing secession is that it would lead to decreased efficiency. The study also shows that certain conditions may change the attitude to secession, but these conditions cannot explain why a higher proportion than average is positive to secession in municipality parts that have applied for secession in recent years.

Considers the possibility of using the Internet as an arena for political deliberation. The Internet provides user anonymity, a feature that can be used & refined to force the participants in a discussion to focus on content & ideas rather than the sender. The systematic use of democratic avatars -- a user-identity that protects the physical identity of the sender but at the same time reveals all messages that the user has sent -- would purify the deliberation & allow dissentient opinions to be expressed without fear, while at the same time forcing the participants to be open & consistent in their argumentation. Adapted from the source document.

The Democracy Commission's case for participatory democracy is criticized. Participatory democracy undermines the political equality of the citizens, & requires a prevalent interest in public affairs that does not exist today. A compulsive & professional use of opinion polls on current political issues would be a better way to strengthen public political influence between elections. Adapted from the source document.

The concept of civil society has lately become fashionable in political as well as scientificcontexts. This article critically discusses the 'politics of truth' in A Persistent Democracy!, thefinal report of the Swedish Commission on Democracy. The argument in the article is that thereport over-stresses the importance of civil society and the role of individual responsibilitiesand initiatives against public arrangements and interventions, referred to in the report as statepaternalism. The report is making specific 'technologies of government' visible, as it is creatingcitizens as primarily 'moral human beings'. The problem with strategies to 'roll back theState' for the benefit of a civil society of this kind, is that they necessarily open up for inequalitiesand conflicts in-built in civil society. To deepen democracy presupposes a continuouslong-term struggle for changing predominant power structures and unequal distributionsof vital resources, material and non-material. In this perspective, the report of the Swedish Commission on Democracy does not offer an adequate answer to challenging questions forthe future of a vitalized Swedish democracy. ; Reprint ur Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift 2000 (http://www.statsvetenskapligtidskrift.se/section.asp?id=552)