Journal Article•
Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy
About: This article is published in Review of Metaphysics.The article was published on 1997-02-01 and is currently open access. It has received 2568 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Democracy.
Citations
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TL;DR: Hayward as discussed by the authors explores Iris Marion Young's argument for decentered deliberation in the context of climate change debate in the South Pacific and explores Young's criticisms of a centered approach to local planning.
Abstract: In this paper, Bronwyn Hayward, a New Zealander, explores Iris Marion Young's argument for decentered deliberation in the context of climate change debate in the South Pacific. Young's criticisms of a centered approach to local planning are examined. Hayward supports Young's argument for decentered deliberation and her concept of ‘linkage’ as a criterion of good decentered democracy. Local forums are identified as essential sites of struggle against injustice. Decentered democracy is strengthened when multiple linkages connect heal forums across time and space.
28 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...Young’s view of decentered democracy is most closely aligned with Jurgen Habermas (1996), Bohman (2004,2007), Charles Beitz (1990), and Thomas Christian0 (1996)....
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Dissertation•
28 Feb 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of Somaliland's transition from a kinship-based system that emphasises discursive democracy to an increasingly viable system of representative democracy is presented.
Abstract: There is and has long been great debate over the means and motivations necessary for societal
organisation, and most particularly in relation to the establishment and maintenance of governance
systems in the context of the nation state. One of the key fault-lines in this discourse
lies in the role played by the individual against that of the collective. At the centre of the argument
lies a disagreement on conceptions of justice and how these relate to acceptance by the
society involved as to the legitimacy or acceptability of the state being established. This thesis
aims to examine these arguments with respect to a case study which is at once both highly particular
and unusually apposite for that analysis. The case is Somaliland, which is undergoing a
transition from a kinship-based system that emphasises discursive democracy to the establishment
of an increasingly viable system of representative democracy. That this process has occurred
in the shadow of Somaliland’s southern neighbour, the erstwhile Republic of Somalia, a
country of which the international diplomatic community still insists Somaliland is a part, yet one
which is unable to establish a viable system of government itself, adds relevance to the analysis.
One of the key periods in Somaliland’s transition began in 1990, just prior to the fall of the
Siyaad Barre regime at the beginning of 1991, and 1997 when an interim constitution was adopted,
ending a final period of conflict within Somaliland. While there remain small if vociferous
sections of the population wedded to reunification with Somalia, the successful staging of a
series of elections and the fact that renewed widespread conflict has failed to materialise attest
to the evident fact that the accommodations reached between 1990 and 1997 enjoy the support
of the vast majority of the population. In order to understand the 1990-97 period, though, it is
also necessary to examine the complex links between Somalis and the political and social
changes that have occurred over the years. This thesis therefore examines the changes
wrought by shifting patterns of trade and pastoralism, and in particular those of the colonial era,
and in that light examines the 1990-97 transition using a framework synthesised from the theories
of the deliberative democracy of John Rawls and the Institutional Analysis of Elinor Ostrom
and her colleagues at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. It aims both to interrogate
the synthesised conceptual framework and to refine it, in the process examining the case
study and attempting to gain an understanding of some of the key elements that have permitted
the emergence of a viable system of state.
28 citations
TL;DR: The overall aim of the paper is to provide practice-based evidence, enriched by self-reflexive assessment of the approach used and its limitations, for guiding policy makers and communities who are, and will be, engaging with such questions.
28 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...(Habermas, 1980, p. 113) Rather than discussing a social system writ large, instead we have this challenge in a social system constrained by a given global aim, the HBP mission, and comprised of multiple sets of disciplinary matrices....
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...…4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ interventionist governance predicated on ethics, or on other transformative-by-intention grounds, could be said to have problems of perceived legitimacy, in the vein of those envisaged by sociopolitical analysts (Habermas, 1980, 1974)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the answer provided to this question by Joshua Cohen in a series of recent publications and show that his position is self-contradictory and furthermore, the Rawlsian framework suffers from a sociological deficit in its characterization of human societies and world views.
Abstract: How can human rights be formulated so as to constitute an essential aspect of public reason in a pluralist world, in which differences of religion, culture and world-views are paramount? This article examines the answer provided to this question by Joshua Cohen in a series of recent publications. Proceeding from a Rawlsian framework, Cohen Maintains that human rights are about conditions of membership and inclusion in liberal as well as decent-hierarchical societies. He denies, however, that democratic self-government is among such conditions. There is no ‘human’ right to democracy. Through a close reading of Cohen’s argument, it is shown that his position is self-contradictory, and that furthermore, the Rawlsian framework suffers from a sociological deficit in its characterization of human societies and world-views. The methodological ‘holism’ of the Rawls-Cohen approach minimizes competing narratives and traditions within other cultures and thus hinders a complex conversation to evolve within and across cultures – a conversation that has intensified in the modern age when the demand for democratic self-government has become a world-wide claim.
28 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...I accept here Jürgen Habermas’s insight that “the democratic principle states that only those statutes may claim legitimacy that can meet with the assent (Zustimmung) of all citizens in a discursive process of legislation which has been legally constituted” (Habermas 1996, 110)....
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TL;DR: Public sphere theory has come to an epistemic crossroads The rise of right-wing movements in Europe and the US, for example, pose a challenge to public sphere theorists as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Public sphere theory has come to an epistemic crossroads The rise of right-wing movements in Europe and the US, for example, pose a challenge to public sphere theorists This holds especially tr
28 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves.
Abstract: With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today's emerging networked information environment. In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing--and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained--or lost--by the decisions we make today.
4,002 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation, including who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action.
Abstract: The multifaceted challenges of contemporary governance demand a complex account of the ways in which those who are subject to laws and policies should participate in making them. This article develops a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation. Mechanisms of participation vary along three important dimensions: who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action. These three dimensions constitute a space in which any particular mechanism of participation can be located. Different regions of this institutional design space are more and less suited to addressing important problems of democratic governance such as legitimacy, justice, and effective administration.
1,526 citations
01 Dec 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the current debate about the nature of democracy and discuss the main theses of the approach called "deliberative democracy" in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forth by Jurgen Habermas.
Abstract: This article examines the current debate about the nature of democracy and discusses the main theses of the approach called 'deliberative democracy' in its two main versions, the one put forward by John Rawls, and the other one put forwardby Jurgen Habermas. While agreeing with them as regards to the need to develop a more of democracy than the one offered by the 'aggregative' model, I submit that they do not provide an adequate understanding of the main task of democracy. No doubt, by stating that democracy cannot be reduced to a question of procedures to mediate among conflicting interests, deliberative democrats defend a conception of democracy that presents a richer conception of politics. But, albeit in a different way thanthe view they criticize, their vision is also a rationalist one which leaves aside the crucial role played by 'passions' and collective forms of identifications in the field of politics. Moreover, in their attempt to reconcile the liberal tradition with the democratic one, deliberative democrats tend to erase the tension that exist between liberalism and democracy and they are therefore unable to come to terms with the conflictual nature of democratic politics. The main thesis that I put forward in this article is that democratic theory needs to acknowledge the ineradicability of antagonism and the impossibility of achieving a fully inclusive rational consensus. I argue that a model of democracy in terms of 'agonistic pluralism' can help us to better envisage the main challenge facing democratic politics today: how to create democratic forms of identifications that will contribute to mobilize passions towards democratic designs.;
1,338 citations
TL;DR: Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The public sphere is the space of communication of ideas and projects that emerge from society and are addressed to the decision makers in the institutions of society. The global civil society is the organized expression of the values and interests of society. The relationships between government and civil society and their interaction via the public sphere define the polity of society. The process of globalization has shifted the debate from the national domain to the global debate, prompting the emergence of a global civil society and of ad hoc forms of global governance. Accordingly, the public sphere as the space of debate on public affairs has also shifted from the national to the global and is increasingly constructed around global communication networks. Public diplomacy, as the diplomacy of the public, not of the government, intervenes in this global public sphere, laying the ground for traditional forms of diplomacy to act beyond the strict negotiation of power relationships by building on shared...
936 citations
Book•
05 Oct 2012
TL;DR: Tweets and the Streets as mentioned in this paper examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest, arguing that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality.
Abstract: Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the "indignados" protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest. Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups around "occupied" places such as Cairo's Tahrir Square or New York's Zuccotti Park. An exciting and invigorating journey through the new politics of dissent, Tweets and the Streets points both to the creative possibilities and to the risks of political evanescence which new media brings to the contemporary protest experience.
911 citations