Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Legitimation, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Mark C Modak-Truran

This article identifies three different conceptions of legitimation - pre-modern, modern, and post-secular - that compete both within and across national boundaries for the coveted prize of informing the social imaginary regarding how the government and the law should be legitimated in constitutional democracies. Pre-modern conceptions of legitimation consider governments and rulers legitimate if they are ordained by God or if the political system is ordered in accordance with the normative cosmic order. Contemporary proponents of the pre-modern conception range from those in the United States who maintain that the government has been legitimated by the “Judeo-Christian tradition” to those …

Environmental Inequalities And Democratic Citizenship: Linking Normative Theory With Empirical Research, Fabian Schuppert, Ivo Wallimann-Helmer

Fabian Schuppert

The aim of this paper is to link empirical findings concerning environmental inequalities with different normative yard-sticks for assessing whether these inequalities should be deemed unjust, or not. We argue that such an inquiry must necessarily take into account some caveats regarding both empirical research and normative theory. We suggest that empirical results must be contextualised by establishing geographies of risk. As a normative yard-stick we propose a moderately demanding social-egalitarian account of justice and democratic citizenship, which we take to be best suited to identify unjust as well as legitimate instances of socio-environmental inequality.

Dynamics Of Civil Resistance In Oceania, Thomas Dick, Jason Mcleod, Luke Johnston

Thomas Dick

The Dynamics of Civil Resistance (DOCR), is a not-for-profit popular education and cultural development programme in Oceania. We work in collaboration with churches, human rights organisations, traditional leaders, women leaders, youth and student groups and community organisations to establish a network of indigenous educators who can resource nonviolent social movements and democratic transitions.

DOCR has developed out of programs that originated in 2005, in response to requests from Papuan human rights activists (Rayfield and Morello 2012). The purpose of the Project is to build their capacity of activists and artists working nonviolently for a just and sustainable peace in the …

Formal Democracy, Structural Violence, And The Possibility Of "Perpetual Peace.", Andrew Pierce

Andrew J. Pierce

In this paper, I revisit and evaluate Kant’s prerequisites for “perpetual peace,” including the claim, central to contemporary political rhetoric, that formal democracy produces peace. I argue that formal democracy alone is insufficient to address the kinds of deep-rooted structural violence that ultimately manifest in terrorism and other forms of direct violence. I claim that the attempt to eliminate structural violence, and so achieve real “perpetual peace,” requires a more substantive sort of democracy, of which the United States and the West remain poor examples. It requires a political critique that goes deeper than just the critique of state power …

Opinion Polls And Presidential Campaign In Colombia, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

The polls, these surveys do not withstand any rigorous testing. And contrary to expand the formation of public opinion, impaired. To overcome this defect should propose means fewer surveys and more discussions. Presidential campaigns should seek democratic enlargement, and a less massive media exposure to foot the surveys. Simplify

Democracy In Dangerous Places: Colombia. Vote With Paramilitary Preferences, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

This paper discusses the problem of paramilitary violence in Colombia and its effects on democracy. The elections were part of the purpose of self defense and constituted a disguised form to retain its drug trafficking economy. The impacts on institutional technology have been negative: representative democracy, the electoral system and voting, they were not the same. With paramilitary violence changed the electoral map in areas contested by the traditional political parties. Voting with paramilitary preferences mean the biggest challenge is constitutional democracy in Colombia.

Postnationalist Democratization, Cillian Mcbride

Cillian McBride

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of The Romanticization Of Popular Culture, Or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment, Eric Bain-Selbo

Eric Bain-Selbo

No abstract provided.

Hak Ve Ozgurlukler Hareketi Ornek Olabilir Mi? (Can Rights And Freedom Movement Be A Sample?), Cuneyt M. Yenigun

Cuneyt M. Yenigun

This article studies Rights and Freedom Movement (RFM) Party's success in Bulgarian Politics and the evolution of Bulgarian Democracy. Author discusses about the positive effects of RFM and could be used in the other regional countries to improve minority rights in politics and society.

Assuming Bosnia: Taking The Polity Seriously In Ethnically Divided Societies, Timothy W. Waters

Timothy W Waters

This essay is a reflection on democracy, justice and intervention. It focuses on the Bosnian experience, where since the Dayton Accords the indispensable context for reform has been the international protectorate. This essay examines the assumptions used by the international community to govern Bosnia, which suggest a policy premised upon resistance to the fragmentation of the state under any circumstances, and a belief that the international intervention is simultaneously morally justified and a purely technical process for increasing efficiency. How necessary – indeed, how related at all – are those commitments to the dictates of justice? What is their relationship …

Introduction: Theorising Politics, Cillian Mcbride, Jurgen De Wispelaere, Shane O'Neill

Jurgen De Wispelaere

This is the introduction to a special issue of Irish Political Studies on "Recognition, Equality, Democracy", to appear in December 2007 as a journal and sometime in 2008 as an edited collection published by Taylor & Francis.

Reason, Representation, And Participation, Cillian Mcbride

Cillian McBride

No abstract provided.

Constructing Indigenousness In The Late Modern World, Robert Cribb, Li Narangoa

Robert Cribb

Examines changing meanings of the term 'indigenous" in relation to other ideas that have been valued in various (mainly Western) philosophical system, such as priority, attachment to the land, and technical knowledge.

Environmentalism In Indonesian Politics, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Environmential politics emerged in Indonesia during the autheoritarian Suharto era. Rather than being a reaction to Suharto's predatory approach to the environment, many environmental policies were closely tied to the managerial, technocratic and campaign-oriented approach of the New Order.

Remembering, Forgetting And Historical Injustice, Robert Cribb, Kenneth Christie

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

Shura And Democracy, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

No abstract provided.

Leadership In Asia: Indonesia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Suharto's style of leadership in Indonesia changed significantly over the course of his time in office. In its later stages it was marked by a striking self-effacement.

Elections In Jakarta, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.