scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal Article

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

01 Feb 1997-Review of Metaphysics-Vol. 51, Iss: 1, pp 153-155
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
Journal ArticleDOI
Archon Fung1
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

Journal ArticleDOI
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
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate this argument by exploring actual cyberspace experiences of selfhood and by looking further at the notion of communicative rationality, showing that the changes that result are not as radically hyperreal as some cyber-theorists claim, and furthermore that these changes are able to be taken in.
Abstract: A number of Internet-democracy commentators have proposed that online communications may facilitate the Habermasian public sphere of communicative rationality. In contrast, Mark Poster and other cyber-postmodernists claim that this public sphere notion is “outmoded” in relation to online practices. They argue that cyberspace represents a “hyperreality” in which the rational subject is radically decentred. As such, cyber-postmodernists argue, cyberspace undermines communicative rationality and the public sphere. The concept is seen to be useless for evaluating democratic interaction through the Internet. In this paper I evaluate this argument by exploring actual cyberspace experiences of selfhood and by looking further at the notion of communicative rationality. My investigation shows that the Internet does indeed alter interactions in new ways, but that the changes that result are not as radically hyperreal as some cyber-theorists claim, and, furthermore, that these changes are able to be taken in...

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that state-to-state negotiations often fall into "gridlocks"; international policy-making also suffers from "democratic deficits" while we live in a twenty-first-century world of interdependence.
Abstract: Diplomacy is in trouble. With globalization come global problems. While we live in a twenty-first-century world of interdependence, we face seventeenth-century Westphalian political institutions with defined boundaries and separated responsibilities of nation-states. When we think of diplomacy, we are thinking of state-to-state relations; however, with sovereign obligation and national interest obsession, state-to-state negotiations often fall into “gridlocks”; international policy-making also suffers from “democratic deficits”. David Held offered cosmopolitan democracy as the answer, but his “world government” thesis provides no realistic policy implications.In very recent years, city-to-city (“trans-municipal”) networks have received significant international recognition as cities are able to cooperate, with concrete actions, on a range of global issues. Surprisingly, scholars of international relations have largely neglected the role of cities in global governance. This paper argues for city diplomacy ...

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The structural transformation of the public sphere has been studied in the context of transnational public spaces as discussed by the authors, where a globalizing capitalist economy is restructuring the public space and reshaping its modes of exclusion.
Abstract: Despite the richness of the various contributions to public sphere theory, one deficit has become increasingly conspicuous over the past fifteen years: the overall failure to confront adequately a contemporary scenario in which a globalizing capitalist economy is restructuring the public sphere and reshaping its modes of exclusion. The majority of scholars have remained so tied to a notion of the public sphere as a nation-centered arena that they have not been able to offer a significant contribution to our understanding of the current status of, or the democratic prospects for, transnational public spaces. In addressing the fixation of Habermas’ critics on the stage of capitalism that provides the background for the conclusion of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Postone (1992: 176) surmises that ‘any critical theory that, like the French General Staff, prepares for future battles by planning to win the previous war may all too easily find itself outwitted by what apparently can still be characterized as the cunning of history.’ Viewed from another angle, current critiques of Habermas appear to have been outmaneuvered by the cunning of the public sphere itself, which, as Negt and Kluge (1993: 79) have pointed out, has always worked to avoid its own disintegration by reaching out into the future. At the very moment that Habermas and other critics were preparing their responses to the English translation of The Structural Transformation, the largely national arrangement described by ‘the public sphere’ was already changing its costume. It is only in the past few years that the more prominent contributors to public sphere theory have begun to address the ways in which the contours of both the nation and its semblance of a public sphere are changing under the pressures of an ascending neoliberal economic orthodoxy. And yet, since at least the early 1990s, there has been evidence that an incipient transnational civil society is emerging as networks of activists and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have begun to make connections in cyberspace in an attempt to intervene in matters of global governance. In a less ‘official political’ sense of the public sphere, we can also see the development of a semblance of transnational public spheres in the form of web site and chat room venues for fans of music,

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Hans Agné1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine and question a principle in democratic theory which has become particularly fashionable in analyses of globalization and European integration, namely that everyone affected by a decision should be able to participate in making it.
Abstract: This article examines and questions a principle in democratic theory which has become particularly fashionable in analyses of globalization and European integration, namely that everyone affected by a decision should be able to participate in making it. It is found that this principle is too strong to fit with the meaning of democracy, leads to tautological arguments, is indeterminate in politically important cases and, if its indeterminacy is rectified, fails to support ideas of political equality and accountability. Removing this principle from the concept of democracy implies, among other things, that empirical analysis becomes more significant, indeed necessary, for assessment of effects of globalization on democracy. Parallel to the development of critical arguments is the defence of a theoretical alternative according to which the delimitation of democratic communities should be decided on the grounds of what effect it produces in terms of autonomy for everyone, those included as well as those excluded.

40 citations

Dissertation
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: The authors investigated the place that a pedagogically rich language-in-use holds in three Australian primary schools striving for school improvement using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore these experiences.
Abstract: Drawing on personal experience, as well as the lived experiences of others, this thesis investigates the place that a pedagogically rich language-in-use holds in three schools striving for school improvement This Australian research has been conducted in schools that have undertaken the Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievement in Schools (IDEAS) process in an effort to improve outcomes for students Adherence to process protocols and the use of on-going professional conversations has seen significant changes in leadership and pedagogical practices take place within these schools A manifestation of these changes can be found in the way each school community now interacts and communicates resulting in a unique meaning system emerging which is both pedagogical and metaphorical by nature This thesis incorporates knowledge from a wide range of fields related to school improvement including: organisational change; workplace stress; school restructuring; school leadership; capacity building; the creation of learning communities; meaning making systems; organisational culture; and, common language as a sign of cultural identity, shared understandings and knowledge creation The research approach lies within a view that knowledge is socially constructed and that learning is a socio-cognitive process where new knowledge is co-created through exploring understandings with others in a continual cycle of practice and reflection The data from leaders and teachers within these schools was analysed for the lived experiences that each participant had of the language construct under investigation The three schools involved were Primary schools and varied considerably in their contexts, with two schools being part of a State Education system and the third being from a Catholic Education context The two state schools are in Queensland, while the Catholic school is situated in New South Wales At the time of data collection, the smallest school had a student population of around 70 students while the largest had approximately 480 students enrolled Situational contexts varied from a small rural community to a large suburban one All schools and their staff are identified by pseudonyms alone Data were collected through individual interviews with teachers and school leaders, group sessions with school staff and classroom observations of general classroom practice focussing on the visual and verbal language on display In addition the multifaceted texts of each school, such as newsletters, websites, posters, display boards, and other cultural artefacts, were analysed for their contribution to the meaning system under investigation A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken to explore these experiencesWithin this approach, the works of Merleau-Ponty, Dilthey, Ricouer and van Manen have been drawn upon and combined to produce a distilling process that reduces the multiple voices within the data down to the essence of the phenomenon in question - thus answering the over-arching research question: What is the underlying significance of a contextually constructed language-in-use within the life-world of three Australian schools engaged in on-going school improvement? The findings of this research are substantial as they point the way to the elusive goal of sustainable school improvement made possible through cultural change processes which facilitate and are facilitated by a contextually specific meaning system The underlying pre-requisites for the development of such a meaning system are closely tied to the school improvement process itself and the development of distributed leadership practices which in turn lead to the building of a new school culture In addition contributions are made to the field of hermeneutic phenomenological research and communication theory

40 citations