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.
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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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TL;DR: Pulished article in Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 17 (1), 818-840.
Abstract: Pulished article in Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 17 (1), 818-840. Also available from the publisher: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol17/iss1/37/
108 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a different relationship between the public and data mining might be established, one in which publics might be said to have greater agency and reflexivity vis-a`-vis data power.
Abstract: New methods to analyse social media data provide a powerful way to know publics and capture what they say and do. At the same time, access to these methods is uneven, with corporations and governments tending to have best access to relevant data and analytics tools. Critics raise a number of concerns about the implications dominant uses of data mining and analytics may have for the public: they result in less privacy, more surveillance and social discrimination, and they provide new ways of controlling how publics come to be represented and so understood. In this paper, we consider if a different relationship between the public and data mining might be established, one in which publics might be said to have greater agency and reflexivity vis-a`-vis data power. Drawing on growing calls for alternative data regimes and practices, we argue that to enable this different relationship, data mining and analytics need to be democratised in three ways: they should be subject to greater public supervision and regulation, available and accessible to all, and used to create not simply known but reflexive, active and knowing publics. We therefore imagine conditions in which data mining is not just used as a way to know publics, but can become a means for publics to know themselves.
108 citations
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce normative assessment as a way to advance the horizons of political communication research by bringing these usually hidden claims to light and clarify the normative standards that empirical scholarship implicitly uses to evaluate media and citizen performance.
Abstract: Political communication research often claims that empirical findings are important or relevant for democratic politics without identifying the value judgments that support these assertions. Because these value judgments often lurk in the background as unstated premises, empirical scholars frequently advance normative claims about the importance or relevance of their findings without being aware that they are doing so. This chapter introduces normative assessment as a way to advance the horizons of political communication research by bringing these usually hidden claims to light. Doing so clarifies the normative standards that empirical scholarship implicitly uses to evaluate media and citizen performance. Drawing attention to these normative standards makes it possible to spot theoretical inconsistencies in empirical research while simultaneously broadening the theoretical foundation of this research to better appreciate varied ways that democratic communication can occur within complex information systems. The purpose of normative assessment is not to contend that one state of the world is somehow ‘better’ than another in an absolute sense, but rather to evaluate when and why a pattern of findings might be more important for some social problems than others, or might align more readily with some theoretical concerns than others. This chapter details how normative assessments relevant for political communication research can be made and defended.
108 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a model of cultural citizenship suitable for a cosmopolitan age is developed, focusing on the continued importance of democratic notions of civil society, questions of cultural exclusion, the impact of the development of the media of mass communication, globalisation and identity politics.
Abstract: This article seeks to develop a model of cultural citizenship suitable for a cosmopolitan age. A variety of themes and issues are raised: the continued importance of democratic notions of ‘civil’ society, questions of cultural exclusion, the impact of the development of the media of mass communication, globalisation and identity politics. In particular, the argument stresses the continued importance of Habermas and Foucault to ‘cultural’ understandings of citizenship. In the middle section, I discuss competing definitions of cultural citizenship offered by Will Kymlicka, Joke Hermes and Tony Bennett. These authors are discussed due to the emphasis they place on cultural questions and their relation to citizenship. However, while offering important contributions for debate, they are found to be limited in respect of cosmopolitan understandings of culture and society. Finally, I seek to link some of the themes suggested by Habermas and Foucault to a discussion of the forms of education that are appropriate ...
108 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the possibility and challenges of deliberative governance, taking the case of community forestry in Nepal, and identify patterns of symbolic violence that limit the possibility of deliberation: creating boundaries in social field, cultivating internalised beliefs among governance actors, and sustaining unequal access to symbolic capital.
108 citations