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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01 Jan 2006
2,797 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
References
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2004
Abstract: This thesis investigates three major Web forums, namely the Spiegel Online Forum (SOF), Debattcentralen (DC) and The Guardian Unlimited Talk (GUT). Within the conceptual frameworks of Actor-Network Theory and Habermasian terminology, the investigation is informed by three separate research questions. The first and second take up Habermas’ strict criteria of the Ideal Speech Situation (ISS), and ask to what extent the given forums live up to its ideals. The third one concerns public opinion formation, and asks to what extent the strength of the better argument may transmit from Web forums to decision-making institutions of our societies (like parliaments and governments). Thus, the overall question unveils itself: To what extent, do Web forums in general, and the three selected forums in particular, support public debate that is free from coercion? Evidence suggests that Web forums do promote and facilitate democratic deliberation, although not entirely without being exposed to coercion.
20 citations
DOI•
01 Dec 2014TL;DR: The Citizens Revolution project in Ecuador has created a complex regulatory-institutional machinery, which, paradoxically, seeks to reify the main scenarios of action by civil society in the public sphere as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: With the aim of establishing a participatory democratic model, in line with the demands of social movements, the Citizens Revolution project in Ecuador has created a complex regulatory-institutional machinery, which, paradoxically, seeks to reify the main scenarios of action by civil society in the public sphere. This process has been characterized by the standard-ization and bureaucratization of opportunities for participation and social control; the design of state strategies of confrontation towards social movements, and the disciplinary control of spheres of opinion created by the media and universities.
20 citations
29 Jun 2016
TL;DR: This article used conceptual analysis to test the applicability of the public sphere concept to the study of modern public libraries and found that the liberal public sphere differs from the empirical reality of public libraries in terms of temporal and categorical locations, and argued that a considerable body of research related to public libraries that has accrued over several decades must confront allegations of anachronism and anatopism.
Abstract: Introduction. This theoretical and historical paper problematizes applications of the public sphere concept to the study of public libraries. By working through identified problems, this study sharpens the theoretical ideas of public library research, reveals new research directions, and speculates on how public library research could contribute to a new conception of the public sphere.
Methods. This paper uses conceptual analysis to test the applicability of the public sphere concept to the study of modern public libraries.
Analysis. This study compares and contrasts the meanings of the public sphere concept with empirical realities of public libraries.
Results. The liberal public sphere differs from the empirical realities of public libraries in terms of temporal and categorical locations. A considerable body of research related to public libraries that has accrued over several decades must therefore confront allegations of anachronism and anatopism.
Conclusion. Objections of anachronism and anatopism can be countered by either acknowledging multiple public sphere paradigms or by revising the substantive models of the public sphere. These strategies raise new research questions and suggest that further study of public libraries could contribute to a fuller understanding of the public sphere concept.
20 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the extent to which new practices of principled acts of illegal resistance that involve the use of digital technologies can fruitfully be interpreted as new forms of civil disobedience.
Abstract: This thesis examines the extent to which new practices of principled acts of illegal resistance that involve the use of digital technologies can fruitfully be interpreted as new forms of civil disobedience. The study focuses on three kinds of digital acts: whistleblowing, anonymous hacktivism, and radical initiatives to open access to academic publications. Through a detailed reconstruction of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, some of Anonymous’ distributed denial of service (DDoS) actions, and Sci-Hub’s and LibGen’s academic piracy, the thesis interrogates a large variety of positions from traditional liberal theories to more recent radical democratic accounts of civil disobedience. The investigation centers on the problems of whether civil disobedience can take place within and against private organizations such as corporations, if it necessarily excludes anonymous actions, and if property damage and other forms of somewhat violent actions are unavoidably incompatible with civility. The author offers an interpretation of the ‘civil’ of civil disobedience not as decorum, reasonableness, or respect for the law, but as the enactment of a broadly construed citizenship that is not limited to those officially recognized as citizens of a state. The notion of performative citizenship is proposed as a non-substantive essentially pluralist notion of civility that, together with the conditions of non-militarism and self-restraint, makes the radical democratic minimal definition of civil disobedience better-suited to account for ongoing transformations of the practices of contestation due to their increasing globalization and digitalization.
20 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative feminist analysis of religion in local politics within two London boroughs: Ealing and Newham is presented, where the authors make smaller claims that run alongside and pose questions for a growing consensus within feminist theory that seeks a distance from secularism.
Abstract: This is a comparative feminist analysis of religion in local politics within two London boroughs: Ealing and Newham. Starting from the observation that there has been a de-secularisation of relations between the state and civil society in Britain, it draws upon the feminist and anti racist critique of multiculturalism to produce new reflections on the shift to multifaithism. This thesis argues that the shift is the result of a double movement - from above and from below - and enables moral hegemony. By re-orienting an analysis of the religious-secular to local cartographies of power, this thesis makes smaller claims that run alongside and pose questions for a growing consensus within feminist theory that seeks a distance from secularism, that emphasises solidarities with faith based mobilisations and seeks to uncritically defend religious minority claims. The data comprises 47 in depth interviews with 'secular', 'religious' and 'state' actors. This is supplemented with ethnographic observations from public meetings, religious processions and other events. The empirical analysis discusses the following key themes: the way in which religion is welded to electoral politics; religious commitment as an ontological, aesthetic and affective source for social responsibility and political engagement; the shared pastoral-policing functions of religious organisations and the state; the emergence of religious 'election' as a new way of re-ordering local areas and access to welfare services; the negotiation of a new wave of Muslim political identifications in the context of the War on Terror; the perpetuation of a unanimist Khalsa norm and its implications for making religious claims; and a closer consideration of religious groups in alliance, the darker side of faith as social capital.
20 citations