Regulatory framework of local citizen participation: Instruments of Direct and Participative Democracy in the Municipal Field

This article focuses on the analysis of the regulatory framework of citizen participation in the local government, which organises direct and participatory democracy at the local level, and identifies the laws and mechanisms through which the constitutional requirements for participation are accomplished. Mu nicipalities, the authority closest to citizens, are the best level of government since they directly involve civil society in the decision-making process experiencing the scope and appropriateness of the instruments by which it is channeled.

Democracy begins at home : parenting, empathy, and adolescents' support for democratic values

Bakgrund Demokratiska samhällen är sårbara och historiskt sett sällsynta. Förutsättningarna för en fungerande demokrati innefattar mer än formella institutioner eller enbart frånvaron av diktatorer och extremgrupper. För att en regim skall fungera enligt demokratiska principer behövs medborgare som stöder demokratiska värden. Därför är det av vikt att förstå de processer som får individer att känna tilltro till demokratiska värden. Trots att man kan anta att stöd för sådana värderingar utvecklas som ett resultat av social inlärning är de konkreta omständigheterna som leder till ett dylikt lärande mindre uppenbara. Den klassiska litteraturen beträffande politisk socialisation lyfte fram föräldrarna som avgörande för de ungas medborgerliga fostran, men i moderna samhällen har föräldrarna sällan som en uttalad målsättning att försöka påverka sina barns nuvarande eller framtida politiska preferenser. Den föreliggande studiens mål var att fördjupa diskursen kring politisk socialisation gen om att analysera föräldraskapets betydelse för demokratiska värderingar hos ungdomar. Metod Den föreliggande studien utgick från två slumpmässiga urval. Det ena omfattade 1341 studerande, 17 år gamla, inom andra stadiets utbildning i tre regioner i Finland (södra, syd-västra och västra) och det andra 678 studerande, 16 år gamla vid studiens inledande, från den flamländska delen av Belgien. Studien innefattade frågeformulär som besvarades under skoltid. Resultat De centrala resultaten från studien kan sammanfattas i fyra punkter. För det första kunde empatiskt tänkande konstateras vara en god förklarande variabel för ungdomars demokratiska värderingar (Artikel 1). För det andra gav studien stöd för antagandet att stödjande föräldraskap är av betydelse för utvecklingen av empati under ungdomsåren (Artikel 2). För det tredje utvärderades empati, i relation till andra betydelsefulla variabler, som förklarande variabel för demokratiska värderingar (Artikel 3). För det fjärde gav den föreliggande studien bevis för att demokratiskt föräldraskap, både direkt och indirekt, är relaterat till demokratiska värderingar hos ungdomar. Sammanfattning Sammanfattningsvis visade den föreliggande studien hur föräldraskap både direkt och indirekt kan påverka demokratiska värderingar hos ungdomar och hur dessa resultat kunde användas för demokratisk samhällsfostran.

Democracy over governance

Varieties of institutional economics are available to evaluate varieties of capitalism. These methodologies dig behind preferences and technology to arrive at the ground on which agents make choices. The individual is at the foundation of these edifices, neoclassical and otherwise. Consequently, the denouement of all these models is that the market knows best in the absence of effective counterfactuals. A natural corollary is that the task of the government is to set effective mechanisms in place in order to approach the best outcomes. In contrast, we propose a framework which contends with the modern economy as an aggregate that evolves in historical time. Problems like effective demand failures are endemic to capitalist economies. Therefore, systematic State intervention is essential to their functioning. In particular, political economy teaches us that intervention must be in the interest of wage earners. In contrast to the earlier model, the fabric of norms and conventions that facilitate the growth and development of economies must emerge from the consciousness and practices of the working class.

Globalization and democracy

ABSTRACTThe gathering momentum of globalization in the world economy has coincided with the spread of political democracy across countries. Economies have become global. But politics remains national. This essay explores the relationship between globalization and democracy, which is neither linear nor characterized by structural rigidities. It seeks to analyze how globalization might constrain degrees of freedom for nation states and space for democratic politics, and how political democracy within countries might exercise some checks and balances on markets and globalization. The essential argument is that the relationship between globalization and democracy is dialectical and does not conform to ideological caricatures.

Razão e democracia: uso público da razão e política deliberativa em Habermas[ign] [title language="en"]Reason and democracy[ign]: [subtitle]Public use of reason and deliberative politics in Habermas

O objetivo do artigo é examinar como Habermas, orientado pela intuição normativa do uso público da razão, reconstrói uma concepção procedimental de democracia deliberativa, que, sem desconsiderar da dimensão estratégica e instrumental da esfera pública e da política, reformula a dimensão epistêmica da democracia: a aceitabilidade racional dos acordos políticos. Inicialmente, apresento brevemente a análise sociológica e histórica do conceito de esfera pública crítica, realizada em Mudança Estrutural da Esfera Pública (1962), para, em seguida, expor duas linhas de argumentação sobre o conceito de esfera pública e de política deliberativa, em Direito e Democracia (1992): a que se refere ao princípio de legitimação baseado na razão pública como uma reconstrução intersubjetiva e política do conceito kantiano de autonomia; e a que concerne aos aspectos essenciais da teoria crítica da sociedade fundada na distinção entre mundo da vida e sistema e a "tradução" sociológica e institucional do uso público da razão, nos conceitos de sociedade civil e esfera pública.

Legitimacy in question : elite-mass relations, constitutional reform and Canadian democracy /

During the 1980s and 1990s, Canadian political authority orientations underwent a significant transformation. Canadians are no longer deferential towards their political elites. Instead, they are autonomous, challenging, and increasingly participatory, and this continuing trend has brought the procedural legitimacy of the Canadian political process into question. The following study of elite-mass relations within Canadian democracy attempts to provide insight into the meaning of this change and how it should be addressed. An attitudinalbehavioural analysis ofthe electorate presents evidence that popular cynicism and alienation is rooted more deeply in a dissatisfaction with political institutions and traditions than with politicians. A structural analysis of the elected political elite reveals the failure of consociational traditions to provide effective representation as well as the minimal impact which the aforementioned orientation shift has had upon this elite. An event-decisional analysis, or case study, ofelite-mass relations in the arena of constitutional politics augments these complementary profiles and illustrates how the transformed electorate has significantly restricted the elected political elite's role in constitutional reform. The study concludes that the lack ofresponsiveness, representativeness, and inclusiveness ofCanada's elected political elite, political institutions, and political traditions has substantially eroded the procedural legitimacy of Canadian democracy during the 1980s and 1990s. Remedying these three deficiencies in the political system, which are the objects of increasing public demand, may restore legitimacy, but the likelihood that such reforms will be adopted is presently uncertain in the face of formidable difficulties and obstacles.

A crisis of social democracy : organized labour and the NDP in an era of neoliberalism

The NDP was founded out of the ashes of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation to cooperate with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the 'political arm of organized labour' in Canada. The NDP has long claimed they are the party which represents the policy goals of organized labour in Canada: that the NDP alone will fight for trade union rights, and will fight for Canadian workers. Divergent Paths is an examination of the links between the labour movement and the ND P in an era ofneo-liberalism. Provincial NDP governments have become increasingly neoliberal in their ideological orientation, and have often proved to be no friend to the labour movement when they hold office. The Federal party has never held power, nor have they ever formed the Official Opposition. This thesis charts the progress of the federal NDP as they become more neoliberal from 1988 to 2006, and shows how this trend effects the links between the NDP and labour. Divergent Paths studies each federal election from 1988 to 2006, looking at the interactions between Labour and the NDP during these elections. Elections provide critical junctions to study discourse - party platforms, speeches, and other official documents can be used to examine discourse. Extensive newspaper searches were used to follow campaign events and policy speeches. Studying the party's discourse can be used to determine the ideological orientation of the party itself: the fact that the party's discourse has become neoliberal is a sure sign that the party itself is neoliberal. The NDP continues to drive towards the centre of the political spectrum in an attempt to gain multi-class support. The NDP seems more interested in gaining seats at any cost, rather then promoting the agenda of Labour. As the party attempts to open up to more multi-class support, Labour becomes increasingly marginalised in the party. A rift which arguably started well before the 1988 election was exacerbated during that election; labour encouraged the NDP to campaign solely on the issue of Free Trade, and the NDP did not. The 1993 election saw the rift between the two grow even further as the Federal NDP suffered major blowbacks from the actions of the Ontario NDP. The 1997 and 2000 elections saw the NDP make a deliberate move to the centre of the political spectrum which increasingly marginalised labour. In the 2004 election, Jack Layton made no attempt to move the party back to the left; and in 2006 the link between labour and the NDP was perhaps irreparably damaged when the CAW endorsed the Liberal party in a strategic voting strategy, and the CLC did not endorse the NDP. The NDP is no longer a reliable ally of organized labour. The Canadian labour movement must decide wether the NDP can be 'salvaged' or if the labour movement should end their alliance with the NDP and engage in a new political project.

Deliberative Democracy and Precautionary Public Reasoning : Exploratory Thoughts

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The Constituents of Democracy. The Individual in the Work of Madame Justice Wilson

Cet article a précédemment été publié par le Dalhousie Law Journal.

The Snail Darter, The Tellico Dam, and Sustainable Democracy — Lessons for the Next President From a Classic Environmental Law Controversy.

This presentation was the product of an invitation to speak at a symposium for students and faculty from a variety of different non-law departments at the University of Tennessee, where in 1973 I had started what became a six-year legal campaign to divert the Tennessee Valley Authority from impounding the last flowing 33 miles of the Little Tennessee River behind TVA’s Tellico Dam.