Government and Democracy

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Ahead of Print. Across North America, Europe and Latin America, multiple sub-state jurisdictions have declared themselves to be migrant “sanctuaries”. By adopting sanctuary status, sub-state jurisdictions signal their welcoming attitude towards migrants as well their opposition to the state-level policies that target them for exclusion. In this article, I examine the place of sanctuary in the broader literature of political resistance and opposition in democratic states, and then whether it can be justified all things considered. I (...) locate my examination in the political theory of federalism, to identify an expectation of cooperation – which, it appears, sanctuary jurisdictions are refusing to accept, usually with respect to immigration enforcement efforts. I refer to this form of opposition as “democratic non-cooperation” and identify its key features. I describe a “cooperation continuum”, to suggest that non-cooperation takes four main forms – evasion, non-engagement, disruption and obstruction – which I describe both in general terms and in relation to sanctuary practices in particular. Finally, I observe that the form of opposition that sanctuary is, is not limited to sanctuary: that is, there are other cases of this form of opposition in other policy domains, and moreover, not all of the objectives taken by those who deploy this form of opposition are progressive. Ultimately, this article's central contribution is to fleshing out modes of opposition in democratic spaces in general, by examining the morality of sanctuary actions taken around the world. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. Major debates on democratic renewal suggest two ways of eliciting social change: either by strengthening vertical practices of representation or by expanding horizontal forms of participation. The article develops an argument for why there is a need to rethink democratic resistance beyond the vertical–horizontal divide. If contemporary forms of resistance encompass a strategic interplay between vertical and horizontal practices, then an alternative framework is required to capture this logic. Filling this gap, the article (...) introduces the concept of ‘horizontal experimentalism’. Such an idea comprehends an understanding of political means and ends as a continuum and as adjusting each other in an ongoing process of experimental inquiry. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In this essay, I reconsider the constitution of democratic freedom in aesthetic terms. My interest is in articulating a conception of aesthetic freedom that can be mapped onto a conception of democratic freedom. For this purpose, I bring together Charles Sanders Peirce’s ontology, which comprises fragments of an aesthetic theory, Friedrich Schiller’s concept of aesthetic play and Stanley Cavell’s democratic perfectionism. By providing a philosophical framework for constructing an aesthetics and politics that supports (...) the recent aesthetic turn in political theory, which urges overcoming political theory’s excessive dependence on an epistemological theory of representation, and by proposing a modification to the turn’s heavy reliance on theories of affect, my reading of Peirce, Schiller and Cavell offers a new way to think about the political significance of the autonomy of aesthetic experience and affect for democratic freedom. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In political science, the theme of critical citizenship is often interpreted negatively and understood to express distrust. However, criticism can be motivated by positive aspirations towards democracy and how to improve it. In order to test this idea, we asked respondents to the Democracy and citizenship survey to rank how the features of different types of democratic legitimacy appealed to them. The module adopted an innovative methodology by bringing together philosophy and political science. (...) This approach led to a series of results that tempered and questioned the more prevalent pessimistic understandings of critical citizenship. Furthermore, this article looks closely at controversy surrounding the meaning ascribed to criticism and discusses the presuppositions made by many political sociology studies and their differing hypotheses on critical citizenship. It shows that the very definition of criticism remains unclear and proposes a ‘critical understanding of criticism’ adopting a meta-critical stance to better identify four possible types of criticism: reactive criticism, evaluative, propositional and pluralist political criticism. (shrink)

Extant literature on Political CSR and the role of governments in the governance of business conduct tends to neglect key implications of the political-institutional macro-context for public deliberation. Contextual assumptions often remain rather implicit, leading to the need for a more nuanced, explicit and context-sensitive exploration of the theoretical and practical boundary conditions of Political CSR. In non-democratic political-institutional contexts, political pluralism and participation are limited, and governmental agencies continue to play the most central role in regulation and its enforcement. (...) Drawing on a qualitative case study on a nuclear energy project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, we show how both governments and MNCs co-create a context hostile to socially responsible business conduct in the sense of Political CSR. Utilizing rich qualitative data derived from interviews, public documents, and participant observation between 2008 and 2018, we specifically illuminate how—through which interactions and strategies—the multiple governmental and corporate actors involved counter civil society demands for public deliberation, indicating the limitations of Political CSR in non-democratic political-institutional contexts. We particularly contribute to the development of Political CSR by analysing the role of coercive and discursive forms of power. We thus offer a more nuanced perspective on the role of governments in constraining the room for public deliberation in the sense of Political CSR. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss the political value of the right to privacy. The classical accounts of privacy do not differentiate between privacy as the right of a citizen against other citizens vs. the right to privacy as the right against the state or the government. I shall argue that this distinction should be made, since the new context of the privacy debate has surpassed the historical frames in which the intelligence methods used by governments were comparable to those available (...) to individuals. I also present cases in which political privacy serves as an instrument of protecting important collective agendas exceeding the context of personal privacy. I argue that due to its function, political privacy should be considered a necessary element of democratic governance with the rule of law, imposing legal bounds on governments’ discretionary actions. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Militant democracy calls for pre-emptive measures against political actors who use democratic institutions to undermine or outright abolish a democratic political system. Born in the context of interwar fascism, militant democracy has recently been revived by political and legal theorists concerned about the rise of authoritarian right-wing populists. A long-standing charge against militant democracy—also articulated with renewed force in our era—is that, as a top-down way to deal with the intolerant, militant democracy is inherently elitist and bears uncomfortable similarities (...) with technocracy. But while it is true that militant democracy relies on state institutions to preserve democracy, it by no means excludes citizen engagement: “courts or the people” is a false choice. On the other hand, citizens engaged in militant democracy must take on the difficult task of distinguishing very clearly between democratic essentials under threat and political questions about which citizens might reasonably disagree. While citizen assemblies are not the answer to all of contemporary democracies’ travails, they might be very helpful in clarifying such distinctions for wide audiences. (shrink)

José Luis Moreno argumenta contra lo que considera una variedad de formas de fetichismo político. Lo que tienen en común es depositar una confianza excesiva o monolítica en algún mecanismo democrático en particular. Compartimos su motivación y en esta nota crítica intentamos llevar sus argumentos más lejos preguntándonos si diferentes tipos de conocimiento políticamente relevante pueden distinguirse, si en algunos contextos es necesario dejar las decisiones en manos de expertos y si la propuesta de Moreno cae en un nuevo tipo (...) de fetichismo con respecto al sorteo como mecanismo capaz de eliminar injusticias sociales profundas. (shrink)

One of the challenges facing complex democratic societies marked by deep normative disagreements and differences along lines of race, gender, sexuality, culture and religion is how the perspectives of diverse individuals and social groups can be made effectively present in the deliberative process. In response to this challenge, a number of political theorists have argued that empathetic perspective-taking is critical for just democratic deliberation, and that a well-functioning democracy requires the cultivation in citizens of empathetic skills and virtues. In this (...) paper, we begin by distinguishing several kinds of imaginative projection and corresponding kinds of empathy. On the basis of this analysis, we suggest that genuine empathetic perspective-taking, especially across gendered, racial and embodied differences, is more challenging than is often assumed in the literature. This poses a dilemma for theorists who place great store on the role of empathetic imagination to overcome the challenges of democratic deliberation. On the one hand, placing responsibilities for empathetic perspective-taking primarily on the socially privileged raises risks of inaccurate and inappropriate projection. On the other hand, mitigating the risks of projection by calling on the socially marginalised to articulate their experiences and feelings in a way that can engage the imagination of the socially privileged, risks perpetuating epistemic injustice. We suggest that while this dilemma may be difficult to overcome, its effects can nevertheless be mitigated through both the cultivation of individual deliberative virtues and pragmatic institutional responses. (shrink)

A partir da análise do curso ministrado por Michel Foucault em 1979, Nascimento da Biopolítica, este artigo apresenta o neoliberalismo como uma racionalidade de governo que impregna tanto a lógica de atuação do Estado quanto a maneira de viver dos sujeitos. A indissociabilidade entre estes dois âmbitos de atuação tem como efeito principal o enfraquecimento da democracia, embora Foucault pouco trate dela neste curso. O Estado regido pela lógica do mercado e o indivíduo produzido como sujeito de interesse são considerados (...) as duas faces do neoliberalismo, em relação às quais é possível propor o exercício da atitude crítica. (shrink)

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Ahead of Print. Across North America, Europe and Latin America, multiple sub-state jurisdictions have declared themselves to be migrant “sanctuaries”. By adopting sanctuary status, sub-state jurisdictions signal their welcoming attitude towards migrants as well their opposition to the state-level policies that target them for exclusion. In this article, I examine the place of sanctuary in the broader literature of political resistance and opposition in democratic states, and then whether it can be justified all things considered. I (...) locate my examination in the political theory of federalism, to identify an expectation of cooperation – which, it appears, sanctuary jurisdictions are refusing to accept, usually with respect to immigration enforcement efforts. I refer to this form of opposition as “democratic non-cooperation” and identify its key features. I describe a “cooperation continuum”, to suggest that non-cooperation takes four main forms – evasion, non-engagement, disruption and obstruction – which I describe both in general terms and in relation to sanctuary practices in particular. Finally, I observe that the form of opposition that sanctuary is, is not limited to sanctuary: that is, there are other cases of this form of opposition in other policy domains, and moreover, not all of the objectives taken by those who deploy this form of opposition are progressive. Ultimately, this article's central contribution is to fleshing out modes of opposition in democratic spaces in general, by examining the morality of sanctuary actions taken around the world. (shrink)

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Ahead of Print. Across North America, Europe and Latin America, multiple sub-state jurisdictions have declared themselves to be migrant “sanctuaries”. By adopting sanctuary status, sub-state jurisdictions signal their welcoming attitude towards migrants as well their opposition to the state-level policies that target them for exclusion. In this article, I examine the place of sanctuary in the broader literature of political resistance and opposition in democratic states, and then whether it can be justified all things considered. I (...) locate my examination in the political theory of federalism, to identify an expectation of cooperation – which, it appears, sanctuary jurisdictions are refusing to accept, usually with respect to immigration enforcement efforts. I refer to this form of opposition as “democratic non-cooperation” and identify its key features. I describe a “cooperation continuum”, to suggest that non-cooperation takes four main forms – evasion, non-engagement, disruption and obstruction – which I describe both in general terms and in relation to sanctuary practices in particular. Finally, I observe that the form of opposition that sanctuary is, is not limited to sanctuary: that is, there are other cases of this form of opposition in other policy domains, and moreover, not all of the objectives taken by those who deploy this form of opposition are progressive. Ultimately, this article's central contribution is to fleshing out modes of opposition in democratic spaces in general, by examining the morality of sanctuary actions taken around the world. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta uma proposta de vivência da democracia na escola discutindo num primeiro momento a relação entre educação escolar e democracia a partir de Biesta e, num segundo momento, a proposta de educação formulada por Dewey em Democracia e educação. Em seguida, abordando a obra de Joseph Püig et al., Democracia e participação escolar, trata das características da escola democrática e de como elas podem efetivar-se no cotidiano escolar.

O artigo aborda o tema do diálogo como fundamento político da democracia. Trata-se de um texto de homenagem, que procurou revisitar, no âmbito das reflexões proferidas e publicadas pelo Prof. Pedro Goergen, a temática em questão. A exposição da argumentação percorre dois caminhos: 1) a perspectiva dialógica da Teoria do Agir Comunicativo de Habermas e 2) o diálogo como fundamento político da democracia. O texto encerra-se com o desafio da consciência individual e coletiva, da convivência, do “entender-se”, na vida democrática. (...) Desafio este que, segundo Goergen, pode e deve ser enfrentado dialogicamente. (shrink)

This article discusses the hypothesis of a recovery of the phenomenological and literary paradigms of antiquity to cross the complexity of the existential, educational and relational experience in the digital contemporary world, focusing on the problems of the construction of identity and digital citizenship in social coexistence intended as a place of education.

El presente artículo analiza parte de la historia reciente del peronismo cordobés, a mediados de los años 80. En este período, se produjo un recambio dirigencial, motorizado por una línea interna denominada Renovación Peronista, junto con una transformación simbólica que incluyó la nominación de Domingo Cavallo, economista neoliberal, como tercer candidato a diputado nacional en las elecciones legislativas de 1987. Planteamos que el fenómeno de la Renovación Peronista en Córdoba implicó dos dimensiones inescindibles: la emergencia de una nueva dirigencia partidaria (...) local apelando a valores democráticos y de consolidación institucional representativa; y un temprano acercamiento, en 1987, de esa dirigencia con sectores intelectuales y empresariales reformistas pro-mercado. A partir de un aparato categorial que articula el lenguaje del análisis organizacional de los partidos políticos con la teoría política del discurso, estudiamos en primer lugar la dinámica de resolución de las diferencias internas en la organización partidaria local entre 1983 y 1987. Luego analizamos la doble dimensión de la línea política del peronismo renovador a partir de la defensa de valores democráticos y la reivindicación de transformaciones económicas estructurales. A lo largo de este análisis, utilizamos fragmentos recopilados de la prensa local de la época, enfocándonos en los argumentos con que los protagonistas de los procesos políticos mencionados daban cuenta de sus decisiones y propuestas. (shrink)

Contra las imágenes que pretendían representar a las sociedades del siglo XXI como sociedades del conocimiento reflexivo, en las que se habría vuelto finalmente posible un uso autorreflexivo y un control democrático de los efectos de la ciencia y la tecnología, vemos cómo reaparecen en la actualidad los viejos dilemas que Habermas había diagnosticado a finales de la década de 1960 sobre la función ideológica de la ciencia y la técnica. Tanto el dilema político, que abarca el dislocamiento trágico entre (...) la libertad y el sometimiento del sujeto que produce el discurso científico, como el dilema teórico, en el que la ciencia oscila entre la apertura y la clausura del mundo cultural, generan una serie de problemas que continúan exigiendo investigaciones teóricas y prácticas. En esta ocasión, quisiera pensar la actualidad de estos dilemas políticos y teóricos de la relación de la ciencia con la sociedad a través de una reflexión en dos pasos: primero, voy a intentar reactualizar el diagnóstico crítico que estudiaba las transformaciones de la ciencia y la técnica como nuevas formas de ideología, que seguía de cerca a las transformaciones de la esfera pública y el desarrollo de nuevas formas de poder que se justifican exclusivamente con criterios de perfeccionamiento técnico; luego, intentaré demarcar, mediante un análisis de algunos límites que este planteo podría tener en nuestra actualidad, cuáles son a mi entender los principales desafíos que la ciencia y la técnica vuelven a plantearle a nuestro mundo social contemporáneo. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. Major debates on democratic renewal suggest two ways of eliciting social change: either by strengthening vertical practices of representation or by expanding horizontal forms of participation. The article develops an argument for why there is a need to rethink democratic resistance beyond the vertical–horizontal divide. If contemporary forms of resistance encompass a strategic interplay between vertical and horizontal practices, then an alternative framework is required to capture this logic. Filling this gap, the article (...) introduces the concept of ‘horizontal experimentalism’. Such an idea comprehends an understanding of political means and ends as a continuum and as adjusting each other in an ongoing process of experimental inquiry. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In this essay, I reconsider the constitution of democratic freedom in aesthetic terms. My interest is in articulating a conception of aesthetic freedom that can be mapped onto a conception of democratic freedom. For this purpose, I bring together Charles Sanders Peirce’s ontology, which comprises fragments of an aesthetic theory, Friedrich Schiller’s concept of aesthetic play and Stanley Cavell’s democratic perfectionism. By providing a philosophical framework for constructing an aesthetics and politics that supports (...) the recent aesthetic turn in political theory, which urges overcoming political theory’s excessive dependence on an epistemological theory of representation, and by proposing a modification to the turn’s heavy reliance on theories of affect, my reading of Peirce, Schiller and Cavell offers a new way to think about the political significance of the autonomy of aesthetic experience and affect for democratic freedom. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In political science, the theme of critical citizenship is often interpreted negatively and understood to express distrust. However, criticism can be motivated by positive aspirations towards democracy and how to improve it. In order to test this idea, we asked respondents to the Democracy and citizenship survey to rank how the features of different types of democratic legitimacy appealed to them. The module adopted an innovative methodology by bringing together philosophy and political science. (...) This approach led to a series of results that tempered and questioned the more prevalent pessimistic understandings of critical citizenship. Furthermore, this article looks closely at controversy surrounding the meaning ascribed to criticism and discusses the presuppositions made by many political sociology studies and their differing hypotheses on critical citizenship. It shows that the very definition of criticism remains unclear and proposes a ‘critical understanding of criticism’ adopting a meta-critical stance to better identify four possible types of criticism: reactive criticism, evaluative, propositional and pluralist political criticism. (shrink)

Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 4, Page 388-402, May 2022.

Desde el Homo sacer: el poder soberano y la nuda vida y luego en Medios sin fin. Notas sobre la política, Agamben expone, apelando a la antigua Grecia, la dificultad original —si se quiere— del hecho de que esta civilización no disponía de un término único para expresar lo que nosotros queremos decir con la palabra vida. Y esta palabra está hondamente ligada a sacerización, dado que cuando esta se expresa, aquella se desvanece o, mejor, desaparece en su acepción más (...) mínima. La sacerización es el fin de la vida, en la nuda vida. Dice nuestro autor que los términos que usaban los griegos eran semántica y morfológicamente distintos: zoé expresaba el simple hecho —continúa Agamben— de vivir que es común a todos los vivientes, mientras que bíos significaba la forma o manera de vivir propia de un individuo o de un grupo. Esta oposición desapareció gradualmente en las lenguas modernas sin dejar viva ninguna diferencia sustancial. Nos preguntamos por la expresión forma de vida entendiendo, sin desprendernos de Agamben, que esta se refiere al hecho de que una vida que no puede separarse nunca de su forma es una vida en la que nunca es posible aislar algo como una nuda vida. Entonces planteamos que, una vez reducida la vida a una nuda vida en la sacerización, la democracia queda en manos del latrocinio político y la corrupción, lo cual provoca paulatinamente su declive en tanto expresión popular originaria. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. Major debates on democratic renewal suggest two ways of eliciting social change: either by strengthening vertical practices of representation or by expanding horizontal forms of participation. The article develops an argument for why there is a need to rethink democratic resistance beyond the vertical–horizontal divide. If contemporary forms of resistance encompass a strategic interplay between vertical and horizontal practices, then an alternative framework is required to capture this logic. Filling this gap, the article (...) introduces the concept of ‘horizontal experimentalism’. Such an idea comprehends an understanding of political means and ends as a continuum and as adjusting each other in an ongoing process of experimental inquiry. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In this essay, I reconsider the constitution of democratic freedom in aesthetic terms. My interest is in articulating a conception of aesthetic freedom that can be mapped onto a conception of democratic freedom. For this purpose, I bring together Charles Sanders Peirce’s ontology, which comprises fragments of an aesthetic theory, Friedrich Schiller’s concept of aesthetic play and Stanley Cavell’s democratic perfectionism. By providing a philosophical framework for constructing an aesthetics and politics that supports (...) the recent aesthetic turn in political theory, which urges overcoming political theory’s excessive dependence on an epistemological theory of representation, and by proposing a modification to the turn’s heavy reliance on theories of affect, my reading of Peirce, Schiller and Cavell offers a new way to think about the political significance of the autonomy of aesthetic experience and affect for democratic freedom. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Ahead of Print. In political science, the theme of critical citizenship is often interpreted negatively and understood to express distrust. However, criticism can be motivated by positive aspirations towards democracy and how to improve it. In order to test this idea, we asked respondents to the Democracy and citizenship survey to rank how the features of different types of democratic legitimacy appealed to them. The module adopted an innovative methodology by bringing together philosophy and political science. (...) This approach led to a series of results that tempered and questioned the more prevalent pessimistic understandings of critical citizenship. Furthermore, this article looks closely at controversy surrounding the meaning ascribed to criticism and discusses the presuppositions made by many political sociology studies and their differing hypotheses on critical citizenship. It shows that the very definition of criticism remains unclear and proposes a ‘critical understanding of criticism’ adopting a meta-critical stance to better identify four possible types of criticism: reactive criticism, evaluative, propositional and pluralist political criticism. (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, EarlyView.

A lo largo de la historia la ciudad ha constituido el espacio por excelencia de la democracia. Esta es la razón por la que reconstruyendo la cambiante funcionalidad de los espacios urbanos podemos rastrear la genealogía de la esfera pública. Este artículo aborda el estudio de las prácticas democráticas a través de los lugares de la ciudad en los que se han desarrollado, particularmente las plazas públicas. Las plazas se presentan desde esta perspectiva como un espacio agonístico añadido a las (...) instituciones formales de representación política. (shrink)

Mientras Carole Pateman afirma que «para las feministas la democracia no ha existido jamás», Julieta Kirkwood sostiene que «no hay democracia sin feminismo». Ambas aluden a la deuda del ideal democrático con la emancipación de las mujeres, e incluso a la función estructural de la exclusión de las mujeres en la democracia liberal. A partir de los encuentros y desencuentros entre democracia y feminismo, el presente artículo pretende ofrecer una definición de la democracia feminista que vaya más allá de la (...) inclusión a través de la acción afirmativa, abordando las tensiones que esta genera en el debate feminista de las últimas décadas y los nuevos desafíos en torno a las políticas de redistribución y de reconocimiento. ¿Es posible superar la opresión y la dominación a partir de políticas centradas en el interés de grupo? ¿Cómo se define ese interés sin esencializar la diferencia? Responder a estas preguntas resulta clave para plantear un concepto eficaz de democracia feminista. (shrink)

Discussing Plato's views on knowledge, recollection, dialogue, and epiphany, this ambitious volume offers a systematic analysis of the ways that Platonic approaches to education can help students navigate today's increasingly complex moral environment. Though interest in Platonic education may have waned due to a perceived view of Platonic scholarship as wholly impractical, this volume addresses common misunderstandings of Plato's work and highlights the contemporary relevance of Plato's ideas to contemporary moral education. Building on philosophical interpretations, the book argues persuasively that (...) educators might employ Platonic themes and dialogue in the classroom. Split into two parts, the book looks first to contextualise Plato's theory of moral education within political, ethical, and educational frameworks. Equipped with this knowledge, part two then offers contemporary educators the strategies needed for implementing Plato's educational theory within the pluralistic, democratic classroom setting. A Platonic Theory of Moral Education will be of interest to academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of: ethics; Plato scholarship; moral psychology; educational foundations; and the philosophy of education. This book would also benefit graduate students and scholars in teacher education. Mark E. Jonas is Professor of Education and Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College, US. Yoshiaki Nakazawa is Assistant Professor of Education at University of Dallas, US. (shrink)

This book develops a historical concept of liberal democratic law through readings of the pivotal twentieth century legal theoretical positions articulated in the work of Herbert Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Duncan Kennedy, Rudolf Smend, Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt. It assesses the jurisprudential projects and positions of these theorists against the background of a long history of European metaphysics from which the modern concept of liberal democratic law emerged. Two key narratives are central to this history of European political and legal (...) metaphysics. Both concern the historical development of the concept of nomos that emerged in early Greek legal and political thought. The first concerns the history of philosophical reflection on the epistemological and ontological status of legal concepts that runs from Plato to Hobbes. The second concerns the history of philosophical and political discourses on law, sovereignty and justice that starts with the nomos-physis debate in fifth century Athens and runs through medieval, modern and twentieth century conceptualisations of the relationship between law and power. Methodologically, the reading of the legal theoretical positions of Hart, Dworkin, Kennedy, Smend, Kelsen and Schmitt articulated in this book is presented as a distillation process that extracts the pure elements of liberal democratic law from the metaphysical narratives that not only cradled it, but also smothered and distorted its essential aspirations. Drawing together key insights from across the fields of jurisprudence and philosophy, this book offers an important and original re-articulation of the concept of democratic law. (shrink)

In Populism and Passions, twleve scholars engage with discourse analysis, democratic theory, and post structural political thought to study the political logic of passion for contemporary populism.

Nietzsche's Philosophy of Education makes the case that Nietzsche's ​philosophy has ​significant import for the theory and contemporary practice of education, arguing that ​some of ​Nietzsche​'s most important ​ideas ​have been misunderstood by ​previous ​interpreters. ​In ​providing novel reinterpretations of ​Nietzsche's ​ethical theory, political​ philosophy​ and philosophical anthropology ​and outlining concrete ways in which ​these ideas can enrich teaching and learning in modern democratic schools, the book sets itself apart​ from previous works on Nietzsche​. This is one of the first (...) ​extended engagements with Nietzsche's philosophy ​which attempts to determine his true legacy for democratic education. ​In its engagement with both the vast secondary literature on Nietzsche's philosophy and the educational implications of his philosophical vision, this book makes a unique contribution to both the philosophy of education and Nietzsche scholarship. In addition, its ​development of four concrete pedagogi​cal approaches from Nietzsche's educational ideas ​makes the book a potentially helpful guide to meeting the practical challenges of ​contemporary teaching. This book will be of great interest to Nietzsche scholars, researchers in the philosophy of education and ​​students studying educational foundations. (shrink)

In the 21st century, as the peoples of the world grow more closely tied together, the question of real transnational government will finally have to be faced. The end of the Cold War has not brought the peace, freedom from atrocities, and decline of tyranny for which we hoped. It is also clearer now that problems like economic risks, tax havens, and environmental degradation arising with global markets are far outstripping the governance capacities of our 20th century system of distinct (...) nation-states, even when they try to work together through intergovernmental agreements and organized bureaucracies of specialists. This work defends a cosmopolitan approach to global justice by arguing for new ways to combine the strengths of democratic nations in order to prevent mass atrocities and to secure other global public goods. While protecting cultural pluralism, Davenport argues that a Democratic League would provide a legal order capable of uniting the strength and inspiring moral vision of democratic nations to improve international security, stop mass atrocities, assist developing nations in overcoming corruption and poverty, and, in time, potentially address other global challenges in finance, environmental sustainability, stable food supplies, immigration, and so on. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations, philosophy and global justice. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's thesis --Temple University, 2012, under the title: Postcolonial tragedy: Jamaica and South Africa in comparative perspective.

Intergenerational justice and democratic theory -- A narrative turn -- Archê, finitude, and community in Aristophanes -- Mothers, powerlessness, and intergenerational agency in Euripides -- Freedom, responsibility, and transgenerational orientation in Aeschylus -- Art, space, and possibilities for intergenerational justice in our time.

The aim of this essay is to bring to light the role played by concern for the ēthos of citizens in the establishment and preservation of regimes by virtuous legislative activity, with special reference to democratic forms of government. To this goal, I will lay stress on the idea of “political friendship”, which Aristotle explores in his ethical works in relation to the power of virtuous legislative activity to shape the habits of citizens. An analysis of different types of democratic (...) regimes will show that they lack of authentic political friendship. I will also contend that, although democratic measures might occasionally ameliorate and preserve imperfect regimes, Aristotle continues to maintain a negative view of such politeiai. (shrink)

Today, examples of the public's engagement with political issues through commercial and communicative mechanisms have become increasingly common. In February 2012, the Susan G. Komen Foundation reversed a decision to cease funding of cancer screening programs through Planned Parenthood amidst massive public disapproval. The same year, restaurant chain Chic-fil-A became embroiled in a massive public debate over statements its President made regarding same-sex marriage. What exactly is going on in such public engagement, and how does this relate to existing ideas (...) regarding the public sphere and political participation? Is the public becoming increasingly vocal in its complaints? Or are new relationships between the public and economic and political leaders emerging? Timothy Kersey's book asserts that the widespread utilization of internet communications technologies, especially social media applications, has brought forth a variety of new communicative behaviors and relationships within liberal polities. Through quick and seemingly chaotic streams of networked communication, the actions of these elites are subject to increasingly intense scrutiny and short-term pressure to ameliorate or at least address the concerns of segments of the population. By examining these new patterns of behavior among both elites and the general public, Kersey unearths the implications of these patterns for contemporary democratic theory, and argues that contemporary conceptualizations of "the public'" need to be modified to more accurately reflect practices of online communication and participation. By engaging with this topical issue, Kersey is able to closely examine the self-organization of both elite and non-elite segments of the population within the realm of networked communication, and the relations and interactions between these segments. His book combines perspectives from political theory and communication studies and so will be widely relevant across both disciplines. (shrink)

Most people agree that schools should prepare young people for democratic life. Yet in the United States there has never been agreement on what types of skills, dispositions, and knowledge ought to be taught, nor even agreement on how they should be taught. Grounded in thick empirical description and rich in ethical debate, The Political Classroom is the first book to focus on how democratic education is actually taught in real schools with real teachers and students. Based on one of (...) the largest, mixed-methods studies of civic education ever undertaken, award-winning author Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy provide a systemic analysis of various approaches to teaching young people about democracy and democratic participation that exist in high schools throughout United States. By bringing the tools of social science and philosophy into conversation, this book engages readers in an examination of some persisting, important, and challenging dilemmas that are inherent in the process of educating young people to actively participate in political and civil society. Both clear and thoughtful in their presentation, Hess and McAvoy promote a coherent plan for improving the quality of classroom-based democratic education. (shrink)

Despite ongoing technical and professional advances, urban and regional planning is often far less effective than we might hope. Conflicting approaches and variable governmental settings have undermined planning's legitimacy and allowed its goals to be eroded and co-opted in the face of mounting challenges. Deeper organising principles for self-understanding, action and productive critique are lacking. This book takes steps toward resolving these problems by providing a clear theoretical position to practically examine urban planning systems within democratic governance settings: the basis (...) of planning's legitimacy and action. (shrink)

This stimulating volume considers whether the Founding Fathers' vision of the American democratic republic has been transformed and if so, in what ways. Krason looks to the basic principles of the Founding Fathers, then discusses changes that resulted from evolving contemporary attitudes about and approaches to government. He considers how contemporary law and public policy might be reshaped in accordance with the religious principles and cultural norms of the eighteenth century and earlier. Krason's exploration of the possibilities of restoration is (...) fashioned with reference to philosophical principles and the thought of great Western political thinkers. He offers a variety of modest proposals that could begin to forge a foundation for restoration. His analysis proceeds with full awareness that the American political order grew out of a heritage rather than being invented. It is evident that any attempt to revive the Founders' thinking about the principles and conditions necessary to sustain a democratic republic must start in the public sphere. Krason focuses on concerned, public-spirited citizens who are aware of the extent to which our current political structures deviate from the vision of the Founders, and who see this as a problem and want to do something about it. Ultimately, a democratic republic can exist, be sustained, and flourish only when there is a deep commitment to it in the minds and norms of its people. The great experiment that the United States represents is explored in brilliant historical terms by a foremost writer in the field of US Constitutional law. (shrink)

Based on presentations at a conference in Varanasi, 2008.