Book•
政治自由主义 = Political liberalism
01 Jan 2000-
About: The article was published on 2000-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1762 citations till now.
Citations
More filters
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The flood had crippled the hospital's capacity to provide standard medical care for its patients and, with perhaps 2,000 patients and refugees crowded together, Memorial Medical Center may have become a health hazard.
Abstract: Medical Center (MMC) during the darkest hours of the New Orleans catastrophe.1 We do know that, in addition to staff, patients and family members, hundreds of others had sought shelter in the hospital as hurricane Katrina approached Louisiana on Sunday, August 28, 2005. By Monday afternoon the storm had passed but the levee walls along the city's canals had begun to fail. A foul mixture of waters from the New Orleans sewer system and Lake Pontchartrain was coursing through the streets, eventually reaching the low-lying area where the hospital stood, inundating the lower floors of its buildings and submerging the cars in the hospital's parking lot. From the outside, MMC had become an island. On the inside, the electricity and plumbing were failing. The staff would have no lighting, no elevators, no toilets, no running water, no overhead pagers, no refrigeration, no air conditioning, no telephones, no ventilation, and no powered medical devices. The flood had crippled the hospital's capacity to provide standard medical care for its patients and, with perhaps 2,000 patients and refugees crowded together, Memorial Medical Center may have become a health hazard. Notwithstanding this, the staff continued to care for patients, moving those they could to the roof of a nearby parking garage, where they might be evacuated by helicopters, or to the second floor, where they might board water craft.2
10 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the conceptual foundation of India's free speech regime by focusing on the debates of the Constituent Assembly (1946-1949), and traces the development of the Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.
Abstract: This article outlines the conceptual foundation of India’s free speech regime by focusing on the debates of the Constituent Assembly (1946–1949), and traces the development of the Article 19 of the...
10 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between parliaments and citizens between elections and provide a systemic empirical study of parliament and citizens in the context of Finnish democracy, focusing on how the Eduskunta has responded to increasing public demands for more transparent, accessible and participatory decision-making and what political dynamics have been created through expanding public engagement.
Abstract: This dissertation studies a frontier topic in legislative studies – the relationship between parliaments and citizens between elections. Legislative scholars have mainly focused on the formal functions of parliamentary institutions, legislative-executive relations or party influence on parliamentary decisions, while democratic innovations discourses often ignore or bypass the central roles that parliaments play when linking the government and the people. The multi-dimensional linkages between contemporary legislatures and their electorates have not been sufficiently explored, although recent years have seen an increase in related literatures. (Norton 2002; Leston-Bandeira 2012a) The transformational political challenges facing most of established democracies have urged scholars to investigate this ‘ignored’ agenda from new perspectives. However, there is an increasing need for conceptual and empirical studies about the evolving nature of parliamentary representation, and the dynamics or tensions between established systems of representative democracy and new forms of citizen participation. This study fills the gap in the literature by providing a systemic empirical study of parliaments and citizens in the context of Finnish democracy. Finland offers a particularly important case. While exercising a strong model of party-based representative democracy like the other Nordic countries, Finland is currently standing on the frontline of political and social innovations. Its 2000 constitutional reform has strengthened the roles of parliament (Eduskunta) and the PM in national politics while reducing the powers of the president. It also established the Citizens’ Initiative Act in 2012, which enables the public to participate in legislative agenda-setting. The study primarily seeks to investigate how the Eduskunta has responded to the increasing public demands for more transparent, accessible and participatory decision-making and what political dynamics have been created through expanding public engagement. To this end, this dissertation sets up a series of new analytical frameworks: (1) a comprehensive framework combining core normative principles of democratic parliaments (IPU 2006; Arter 2012) – visibility, accessibility, permeability, and inclusive and sustainable democracy – with full-scope empirical indicators for parliamentary public engagement activities; (2) ‘Committee Consultation Index’ scaling the civic engagement practices in parliamentary committees, ranging from standard (expert) consultation, co-consultation, to extensive outreach practices; and, (3) five-dimensional empirical criteria for evaluating the citizens’ initiatives. Multiple types of data are utilized: (1) a wide range of parliamentary documents; (2) longitudinal and comparative statistical data measuring the engagement activities of Eduskunta; and (3) around 30 in-depth interviews with MPs, parliamentary staff and civil society leaders. Guided by systemic analytical frameworks, the study presents a ‘legislative audit’ style of empirical assessment on the public engagement of Eduskunta – (1) parliament as public space, (2) sharing of information, (3) accessibility of MPs, (4) media and digital engagement, (5) transparency of legislative process, (6) actual participation in legislative decision-making, (7) civic education and outreach, (8) parliament as future forum, and (9) strategy and leadership. A variety of measures and reforms are identified, from Citizen Information Center, free working environment for journalists, broadcasting of plenary sessions, Youth Parliament, to the unique role of the Committee for the Future. The analysis also includes a critical review of the closed nature of committee procedures. The dissertation scrutinizes specifically the working methods of Eduskunta committees and the practical use of citizens’ initiatives. Through a case study on the Social Affairs and Health Committee and its dealing with the Governmental Proposal of the Alcohol Act (HE 70/2013 vp) in 2013, as well as a full-scale analysis of the Eduskunta committees’ legislative consultation practices during 1998-2014, it shows the committees held to the standard mode of consultation. Despite the advantages of confidential negotiations between committee members and party groups behind the closed doors, as well as a wide-scope ‘functional’ representation based on neocorporatist mode of associational democracy, limited committee transparency and lack of public consultation channels like e-Parliament platforms cast a challenge on the future role of Eduskunta. The study submits the latest empirical assessment on the institutional implementation of the citizens’ initiative in Finland during its first parliamentary term (March 2012 – April 2015). The mechanism was introduced through a ‘top-down’ project of Finnish government. It has basic limitations of an ‘agenda initiative’ without a link to popular vote. Nevertheless, this participatory institution has been rapidly consolidated as an alternative channel of legislative agenda-setting. New political dynamics are developed by enhancing direct inputs from civil society. Demonstrating the potential of democratic innovations ‘coupled’ with formal decision-making institution, the Finnish experiment may provide a significant example of cultivating a dynamic and compatible relationship between established representative democracy and new forms of post-representative democracy. However, the adaptive capacities of parties and interest groups, and its longterm influence on democratic citizenship remain to be observed during the second parliamentary term (2015-2019). Based on empirical findings and comparisons with the other Nordic legislatures, as well as the UK and Scottish Parliaments, the study finally presents key agendas for making the Eduskunta a more open and inclusive legislature, including opening up the closed committee system and facilitating the role of citizens’ initiatives. It also argues for new theoretical perspectives to conceptualize the changing nature of parliamentary representation, as well as of Nordic / Finnish democracy, beyond formalistic and conventional approaches.
10 citations
Cites background from "政治自由主义 = Political liberalism"
...(Davision & Elstub 2014: 369) Habermas (1996) and Rawls (1993) elaborated theoretical justifications of legitimate democratic constitutional states in ‘post-metaphysical’ conditions of contemporary politics....
[...]
...Following the general framework of Schiller and Setälä (ed.) (2012) mapping the diverse constellation of popular or citizens’ initiatives in European countries, it asks the following empirical questions: Why did the Eduskunta enact the citizens’ initiative legislation, which acts as a direct channel for civic engagement in legislative process? What...
[...]
TL;DR: Inspired by Rawls's admission that his twentieth-century contract theory builds in the parochial horizon of modern constitutional democracy, the authors critically examines two truisms abou...
Abstract: Inspired by Rawls’s admission that his twentieth‐century contract theory builds in the parochial horizon of modern constitutional democracy, this essay critically examines two truisms abou...
10 citations
Cites background from "政治自由主义 = Political liberalism"
...‘In contrast to what Nagel calls “the impersonal point of view”’, he explains in Political Liberalism , ‘constructivism both moral and political says that the objective point of view must always be from somewhere’ (Rawls 1993: 116)....
[...]
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (“CT”) strengthened some of the federal features of the future European political order, and hence made it more appropriate to apply standards of assessment from federal thought as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (“CT”) strengthens some of the federal features of the future European political order, and hence makes it more appropriate to apply standards of assessment from federal thought. Stable and legitimate federal political orders require multiple forms of balancing. Many of the changes in the CT are improvements on the Nice Treaty in these regards, and the CT would therefore go some way toward creating a European political order more likely to both merit and facilitate trust and trustworthiness. Such trust is crucial if the institutions are to foster willing support and ‘dual loyalty’ among the citizenry and authorities toward both one’s own member state and toward the union as a whole.
10 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore an important concept in the work of the later Rawls, the idea of the reasonable, and conclude that this concept helps to bridge the gap between liberal theory and democratic practice.
Abstract: This paper aims to explore an important concept in the work of the later Rawls: the idea of the reasonable. While the concept has its roots in both Aristotle and Kant, Rawls develops a unique account of the reasonable in the light of his theory of political liberalism. The paper includes Rawlsian responses to the practical challenges of radical democrats on the one hand, and epistemological challenges to the reasonable on the other. It concludes that Rawls’s account of the reasonable helps to bridge the gap between liberal theory and democratic practice.
1,108 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors integrate the concern for human development in the present with that in the future, and explore the relationship between distributional equity, sustainable development, optimal growth, and pure time preference.
726 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the materiality of change in urban Africa, focusing particularly on the kitchens of a group of first-generation pro-lifers in the Ivory Coast.
Abstract: Meaning is inscribed in the material/built environment and this article considers the materiality of change in urban Africa, focusing particularly on the kitchens of a group of first-generation pro...
635 citations
TL;DR: The notion of deliberative democracy was coined by Bessette, who explicitly coined it to oppose the elitist or "aristocratic" interpretation of the American Constitution.
Abstract: roposed as a reformist and sometimes even as a radical political ideal,deliberative democracy begins with the critique of the standard practices ofliberal democracy. Although the idea can be traced to Dewey and Arendt andthen further back to Rousseau and even Aristotle, in its recent incarnation theterm stems from Joseph Bessette, who explicitly coined it to oppose the elitist or‘‘aristocratic’’ interpretation of the American Constitution.
595 citations
TL;DR: This article propose an anaysis of gender that is broad enough to house the full range of feminist concerns, those central to the old socialist-feminism as well as identity-based conceptions.
Abstract: In the course of the last 30 years, feminist theories of gender have shifted from quasi-Marxist, labor-centered conceptions to putatively ‘post-Marxist’ culture-and identity-based conceptions. Reflecting a broader political move from redistribution to recognition, this shift has been double edged. On the one hand, it has broadened feminist politics to encompass legitimate issues of representation, identity and difference. Yet, in the context of an ascendant neoliberalism, feminist struggles for recognition may be serving less to enrich struggles for redistribution than to displace the latter. Thus, instead of arriving at a broader, richer paradigm that could encompass both redistribution and recognition, feminists appear to have traded one truncated paradigm for another – a truncated economism for a truncated culturalism. This article aims to resist that trend. I propose an anaysis of gender that is broad enough to house the full range of feminist concerns, those central to the old socialist-feminism as w...
570 citations