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
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify key tensions within British urban policy and show how both the re-scaling of urban governance and the urban design process have emerged as key strategies to overcome these tensions.
Abstract: The contours of the so-called 'urban renaissance' in British cities have been the subject of increasing amounts of critical attention from urban scholars. In particular, many have noted the exclusionary consequences of the renaissance for urban public spaces in revalorized city centres. In this paper, the authors ask whether New Labour's urban policy might also be opening up new political opportunities for progressive interventions in contests over the meaning of the urban. After considering the influence of New Labour's social liberalism in the recently released Urban White Paper, the authors identify key tensions within British urban policy and show how both the re-scaling of urban governance and the urban design process have emerged as key strategies to overcome these tensions. The emphasis on urban design, it is argued, is opening up a new public sphere through which visions of the 'good city' might be contested. The political possibilities of this emergent public require further empirical investigati...
44 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...In decentred democracies political discussion and contests over the meaning of citizenship extend over a range of political spaces—both ‘embodied’ and ‘discursive’, to use Iris Marion Young’s language (Habermas, 1996; Young, 2000)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine oligarchic tendencies within institutionalised deliberative democracy in theory and practice and examine the role of the minority in the deliberative process and its influence on the majority.
Abstract: This article examines oligarchic tendencies within institutionalised deliberative democracy in theory and practice. Institutional deliberative democracy consists of deliberations within an institution according to regulations that are enforced and lead to voluntary changes of preferences that conclude in a majority vote. Oligarchic tendencies in deliberative democracy are changes in the preferences of a majority to match those of an interested minority through its control and manipulation of the deliberative process. The usual chain of reasoning with respect to oligarchic deliberative democracy is: (1)Democratic majority rule should reflect the common will, what is good for all members of society upon reflection and deliberation.(2)When the majority does not vote for the common will, the vote is not truly democratic.(3)If the majority does not vote for the common will, special interests or their imposition on the majority by a dominating and oppressive minority are to blame.(4)The necessary initial task o...
44 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...But in a secularized society that has learned to deal with its complexity consciously and deliberately, the communicative mastery of these conflicts constitutes the sole source of solidarity among strangers (Habermas, 1996, pp. 307–8, emphases in original)....
[...]
...Later, Habermas (1996) distanced himself from Rousseau, whom he considered merely a representative of the republican tradition that he wished to overcome....
[...]
...Later, Young still considered justice – institutions that prevent oppression and domination – a precondition for true democracy....
[...]
...This gives the manager of the deliberative democratic institution the kind of oligarchic power I analyse below.2 Later, Habermas (1996) distanced himself from Rousseau, whom he considered merely a representative of the republican tradition that he wished to overcome....
[...]
TL;DR: This paper studied how minority groups in Britain use the Internet in their interventions in the politics of asylum/immigration, and what conclusions can be drawn for the relationship(s) between the Internet and (multicultural) democracy.
Abstract: Focusing on refugee support groups set up and operated by minority groups themselves, this paper asks how minority groups in Britain use the Internet in their interventions in the politics of asylum/immigration. How do minority groups online attempt to contribute to this politics, and what conclusions can we draw for the relationship(s) between the Internet and (multicultural) democracy? Theoretically, this paper discusses deliberative democracy as the model underlying accounts of the relationship between the Internet on the one side, and politics and multiculturalism on the other. Despite their affinities, these perspectives cannot be easily combined due to the universalising claims of politics and political theory, and the emphasis on identity/difference in multiculturalism. These tensions are also encountered empirically, in the online political conduct of the groups under study: despite a pluralisation of the forms of political conduct, which stretch beyond the public justification of claims, and the ...
44 citations
Cites background from "Between Facts and Norms: Contributi..."
...The agora metaphor, with its classic connotations and its focus on dialogue, points to an understanding of democracy associated with deliberative democratic models, such as, for instance, the one proposed by Habermas (1996)....
[...]
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a method to solve the problem of "uniformity" and "uncertainty" in the context of education.iii.iiiiii.
Abstract: iii
44 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that community development is an expression of the political and politicised assembly of an active citizenry in civil society, and may therefore be characterised as a late modern agora -the ancient Greek concept describing the interface between the public and private spheres of social life.
Abstract: In this article we argue that community development is an expression of the political and politicised assembly of an active citizenry in civil society, and may therefore be characterised as a late modern agora - the ancient Greek concept describing the interface between the public and private spheres of social life. Drawing on Bauman (in Globalization: the Human Consequences, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998), we argue that the enemy of political association - of the agora -i n late modernity is neoliberalism. The meaning of community development as the late modern agora is then explored, and we note the subsequent contestation over its status, as revealed in variant ideological perspectives on the role of civil society. In particular, we identify three dominant understandings and practices of community development: a neoliberal version where civil society is subservient to the needs of economic development; a corporatist version that advocates a partnership between the state, market and civil society; and an activist version, where community development is envisaged as local, nodal and global resistance to neoliberalism. In essence, we are posing the question: 'community development: of, alongside or against neoliberalism?'
44 citations
References
More filters
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