Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

1.. HARD CASES 5. Legal Rights A. Legislation . . . We might therefore do well to consider how a philosophical judge might develop, in appropriate cases, theories of what legislative purpose and legal principles require. We shall find that he would construct these theories in the same manner as a philosophical referee would construct the character of a game. I have invented, for this purpose, a lawyer of superhuman skill, learning, patience and acumen, whom I shall call Hercules. I suppose that Hercules is a judge in some representative American jurisdiction. I assume that he accepts the main uncontroversial constitutive and regulative rules of the law in his jurisdiction. He accepts, that is, that statutes have the general power to create and extinguish legal rights, and that judges have the general duty to follow earlier decisions of their court or higher courts whose rationale, as l

Taking Rights Seriously

政治自由主义 = Political liberalism

The Concept Of Law

The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom by Evgeny Morozov New York: Public Affairs, 2011 409 pages $16.99 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a highly touted speech on Internet freedom in which she stated, "The freedom to connect is like the freedom of assembly, only in cyberspace. It allows individuals to get online, come together, and hopefully cooperate. Once you're on the Internet, you don't need to be a tycoon or a rock star to have a huge impact on society." Evgeny Morozov, in his book The Net Delusion, takes great issue with the implication, however, that the so-called "Arab Spring" and "Twitter Revolution" were caused by unfettered access to the Internet. Instead, Morozov, a research academic, provides a cautionary tale about what he argues is any attempt to establish a monocausal relationship to meaningful political change (especially when that single focus is information technology). The book opens with a discussion of cyber-utopianism and Internet-centrism--mind-sets that focus on the positive "emancipatory" aspects of Internet communication while ignoring the downsides. The argument throughout centers on nation-state policy, or lack thereof, that attacks the "wicked" problem of authoritarianism by, as a colleague of mine has dubbed it, "wiring the world." Morozov, expectantly, but importantly, cites the hedonistic world portrayed by Huxley and the "Big Brother" world of Orwell to consider both the proactive and reactive approaches to Internet freedom by authoritarian regimes. Interestingly, he notes that there is often a mix of both. Such regimes certainly use the anonymity and openness of the Internet to spy on their people and shutdown undesirable sites. But there is also a subtle approach that belies the jackboot on the keyboard methodology. While China may be known more for suppressing the Internet and for employing the masses to counter antiregime rhetoric, Russia imposes no formal Internet censorship. It relies on entertainment (porn is specifically cited) to soothe the masses, assuming that given options for political discourse and anything else, most opt for "anything else." Hitler would understand. And in nations where freedom is not widely understood from a western perspective, any bit of additional mindless diversion may be viewed as liberty by the populace. Perhaps most importantly, Morozov rails against social media determinism as driving the end of authoritarianism, labeling it "an intellectually impoverished, lazy way to study the past, understand the present, and predict the future." He does not dismiss the value of Facebook and Twitter to quickly mobilize like-minded individuals. He notes as well that the development of that very like-mindedness is complex and potentially can be manipulated by authoritarian governments using the same Internet freedom. …

The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

DELIBERATIVE democracy has traditionally been defined in opposition to self-interest, to bargaining and negotiation, to voting, and to the use of power. Our assessment differs in two ways from the traditional one. First, we contend that self-interest, suitably constrained, ought to be part of the deliberation that eventuates in a democratic decision. Indeed, some forms of negotiation involving self-interest meet all of our criteria for ideal deliberation, in particular the criterion that in their ideal form deliberative methods eschew coercive power. We thus include such constrained self-interest and these forms of negotiation in our reformulation of the deliberative ideal, that is, the regulative standard to which real deliberations should aspire. Second, we argue for a complementary rather than antagonistic relation of deliberation to many democratic mechanisms that are not themselves deliberative. These nondeliberative mechanisms, such as aggregation through voting as well as fair bargaining and negotiation among cooperative antagonists, involve coercive power in their mechanisms of decision. Yet they can and must be justified deliberatively. Our ideal polity is diverse and plural. Its members both strive for

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The Place of Self‐Interest and the Role of Power in Deliberative Democracy*

Preface vii Chapter 1: The Spanish Context 1 Chapter 2: Civic Republican Theory 31 Chapter 3: The Theory in Practice? Spain 2004-8 69 Appendix: Challenges and Queries 95 Chapter 4: An Interview with Prime Minister Zapatero 109 Chapter 5: Giving Philosophy a Public Life 135 Notes 161 References 183 Index 191

A Political Philosophy in Public Life: Civic Republicanism in Zapatero's Spain

Contents: Introduction, Samantha Besson and Jose Luis MartA-. Part I Why Deliberate: Is the ideal of a deliberative democracy coherent?, Cristina Lafont The epistemic conception of deliberative democracy defended - reasons, rightness and equal political autonomy, Jose Luis MartA- The value added by theories of deliberative democracy: where (not) to look, Andreas Follesdal. Part II How to Deliberate: Democracy and the real speech situation, David Estlund Depoliticizing democracy, Philip Pettit Conflict and self-interest in deliberation, Jane Mansbridge Framing public deliberation and democratic legitimacy in the European Union, Deirdre Curtin. Part III Where to Deliberate: The people in deliberative democracy, Francis Cheneval Deliberative demoi-cracy in the European Union - towards the deterritorialization of democracy, Samantha Besson Institutional reform and democratic legitimacy: deliberative democracy and transnational constitutionalism, James Bohman Should deliberative democrats defend the judicial enforcement of social rights?, Roberto Gargarella. Index.

José Luis Martí

Papers

The Place of Self‐Interest and the Role of Power in Deliberative Democracy*

A Political Philosophy in Public Life: Civic Republicanism in Zapatero's Spain

Deliberative Democracy and its Discontents

The Epistemic Conception of Deliberative Democracy Defended Reasons, Rightness and Equal Political Autonomy

Derecho y desacuerdos