This paper examines two interrelated criticisms made of participatory democratic institutions = that their policy impact is weak and that they suffer from problems of scalability. Based on empirical analysis of a 'deviant' case the paper argues that impact and scalability critiques are legitimate but overstated and can be ameliorated through institutional design.

This article intervenes in the debate on the place of religious arguments in public reason. I advance the debate not by asking whether something called " religious reasons " ought to be invoked in the justification of coercive laws, but by creating a typology of (a) different kinds and forms of religious arguments and, more importantly, (b) different areas of political and social life which coercive laws regulate or about which human political communities deliberate. Religious arguments are of many different kinds, are offered to others in a variety of ways, and the spheres of life about which communities deliberate pose distinct moral questions. Turning back to the public reason debate, I argue then that political liberals ought to be concerned primarily about the invocation of a certain subset of religious reasons in a certain subset of areas of human activity, but also that inclusivist arguments on behalf of religious contributions to public deliberation fail to justify the use of religious arguments in all areas of public deliberation.

This paper explores theoretical and practical distinctions between individual citizens ('citizens') and organized groups ('stakeholder representatives' or 'stakeholders' for short) in public participation processes convened by government as part of policy development. Distinctions between 'citizen' and 'stakeholder' involvement are commonplace in government discourse and practice; public involvement practitioners also sometimes rely on this distinction in designing processes and recruiting for them. Recognizing the complexity of the distinction, we examine both normative and practical reasons why practitioners may lean toward-or away from-recruiting citizens, stakeholders, or both to take part in deliberations, and how citizen and stakeholder roles can be separated or combined within a process. The article draws on a 2012 Canadian-Australian workshop of deliberation researchers and practitioners to identify key challenges and understandings associated with the categories of stakeholder and citizen and their application, and hopes to continue this conversation with the researcher-practitioner community.

Most analyses of public opinion polling focus on questions of bias or accuracy. In contrast, this study assumes the validity of polling and instead investigates polling data as a form of rhetorical argument. While ancient and modern traditions conceive of doxa as unstated collective opinion, modern opinion polling represents a transformation of the concept of doxa in deliberative democracies. By analyzing specific polls, polling data is shown to advance implicit claims about public policy and good governance. Thus, polling data do not embody an objective empirical artifact, but rather a form of deliberative argumentation that is at odds with democratic life. The study concludes by advocating a revitalization of the public culture of contestation and by discussing more indirect, intuitive means of assessing larger opinion trends.

In a videotape analysis of five National Issues Forums, I investigate the nature of deliberative talk in small group deliberative settings. I show that deliberative talk in these forums mostly takes the form of storytelling. I argue that storytelling helps participants overcome barriers to deliberation, such as lack of knowledge and the need to manage one's public face in a context that privileges open conflict. Moreover, I show that storytelling also plays an important collective function for groups, allowing them to build a sense of moral community around issues without much explicit conflict or argument. I conclude that greater understanding of storytelling's role in small group deliberation is of benefit both to practitioners who initiate such forums and to the growing number of researchers who study the practice of deliberative democracy.

The current process of devolving powers within England constitutes a significant change of governance arrangements. This process of devolution has been widely criticised for including insufficient consultation. This paper assesses whether that criticism is fair. Modifying Archon Fung’s framework for the analysis of public participation mechanisms, we begin by considering whether the depth of public engagement has been limited. Then, by comparing these consultation practices with other examples (including one we have ourselves trialled in pilot experiments), we find that deeper forms of public engagement would have been both possible (though at some financial cost) and productive.

Resumen El derecho a la resistencia es la garantía que tienen todas las personas de las naciones para reclamar sobre abusos de autoridad o sobre actos privados por parte de quienes ostentan el poder de gobierno o poder económico que afecten el bien común; se remonta a los orígenes de la sociedad y nace con la necesidad de resistirse a estos actos contrarios al fin principal de la justicia. El derecho a la resistencia no está limitado a ciertos tipos de acciones, es más, es de libre expresión, siempre y cuando respete los principios y requisitos considerados en el neo constitucionalismo. Entonces, tanto valor tiene aquella protesta pacífica en las calles de una ciudad en resistencia a una política pública que vulnere derechos colectivos como aquellas manifestaciones pacíficas de protesta que se hacen en la red en las mismas condiciones, en particular los llamados ataques de denegación de servicio que en base a la garantía democrática de la resistencia pueden ser considerados y llamados-cuando están dentro de los requisitos-actos del derecho a la resistencia en línea. No obstante, ya sean las manifestaciones en las calles o los actos que generan denegación de servicios, si no se enmarcan en los principios básicos del derecho a la resistencia, devienen en actos peligrosos e incluso delictivos; sin embargo para el análisis se considera aquellas manifestaciones que no vulneran los derechos de los demás cuando son realizadas, pues son éstas las que enteramente demuestran actos del derecho a la resistencia en el internet.

Th is book explores the activism promoted by organised networks of civil society actors in opening up possibilities for more democratic supranational governance. It examines the positive and negative impact that such networks of civil society actors – named “interlocutory coalitions” – may have on the convergence of principles of administrative governance across the European legal system and other supranational legal systems.
Th e book takes two main controversial aspects into account: the first relates to the convergence between administrative rules pertaining to different supranational regulatory systems. Traditionally, the spread of methods of administrative governance
has been depicted primarily against the background of the interactions between the domestic and the supranational arena, both from a top-down and bottom-up perspective. However, the exploration of interactions occurring at the supranational
level between legal regimes is still not grounded on adequate empirical evidence.
The second controversial aspect considered in this book consists of the role of civil society actors operating at the supranational level. In its discussion of the first aspect, the book focuses on the relations between the European administrative law and the
administrative principles of law pertaining to other supranational regulatory regimes and regulators, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Asian Development Bank, and the Council of
Europe. The examination of the second aspect involves the exploration of the still little examined, but crucial, role of civil society organised networks in shaping global administrative law. These “interlocutory coalitions” include NGOs, think tanks,
foundations, universities, and occasionally activists with no formal connections to civil society organisations. Th e book describes such interlocutory coalitions as drivers of harmonized principles of participatory democracy at the European and global levels.
However, interlocutory coalitions show a number of tensions (e.g. the governability of coalitions, the competition among them) that may hamper the impact they have on the reconfi guration of individuals’ rights, entitlements and responsibilities in the global arena.

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

In the literature on international governance it is often claimed that deliberation can enhance the rationality and legitimacy of political rule-making beyond the nation state. It is unclear, however, under what conditions such deliberative processes contribute to the emergence of transnational democracy, understood as self-government on a global scale. In this paper we address this question and propose a set of criteria which can be used to assess the democratic quality of decision-making through empirical research. Our inquiry thus is linked to the more general debate on how to measure the quality of an existing deliberative practice. The criteria we suggest to measure democratic quality focus on access to deliberative settings and relevant information, transparency of the policy process, justification of agreements and decisions, responsiveness of the political agenda, and inclusion of all relevant concerns. This catalogue was developed with a view to the emergent role of non-state actors in inter-and supranational policy-making. Although the deliberative settings at this level of policy-making are quite particular we believe that our criteria can be a useful guide for studying other types of decision-making as well.

Adult educators stress the importance of civic education, but few studies have theorized and measured the impact of such educational programs. This study presents a social cognitive model of political participation that posits connections among deliberative education, civic dispositions, and political conversations. The validity of this model was tested using two field studies of National Issues Forums participants, and the results provided partial support for the model. The first investigation indicated that deliberative civic education had a negative relationship with participants’ group efficacy and conversation dominance and positive associations with the ideological and demographic diversity of participants’ conversation networks. A second study demonstrated that civic dispositions and behaviors were positively associated with forum experiences that involved higher levels of reading, listening, observing, and enactment. These findings suggest the potential value of deliberative forums as a means of civic education, but they also demonstrate that forums vary considerably in their educational impact.

In this article, we examine the assumption that, insofar as actors deliberate well, political integration will follow. We do so specifically with respect to the political integration of Muslims in the field of ethnic relations in Britain, using data retrieved from two quality British broadsheets. Our approach has two components. First, we consider the quality of the deliberative interventions actors make, comparing Muslim actors with other actors. Second, we use measures drawn from network analysis to assess the level of political integration as indicated by the ties that those deliberative interventions forge. Our findings show that the link between how Muslim actors deliberate and their political integration in the field is more complex that one might assume. Although Muslims do not deliberate as well as normative deliberative theory says they should, empirically they are politically integrated, having forged diverse relationships that avoid the danger of polarisation.

Deliberative democracy as a theoretical enterprise has gone through a series of phases or 'turns' (Mansbridge et al 2012: 25-26; Dryzek 2010: 6-9). The most recent manifestation, generating much excitement, is the conceptualization of the deliberative system; 1 and a particular essay, 'A systemic approach to deliberative democracy' (Mansbridge et al 2012) has emerged as a manifesto of this systemic turn, not only because of its central thesis, but also because of the impressive range of coauthors, well-known within deliberative circles, who have collaborated to articulate this manifesto: (from this point on, we refer to this collectively authored essay as the Manifesto).

Opisując początki filozofii oświeceniowej, wywodzi jej genezę z gnostycyzmu i wymienia jej kluczowe cechy na to wskazujące. W niniejszym artykule stawiam tezę, iż jednym z kluczowych elementów spajających główny nurt filozofii politycznej Oświecenia jest jej odwołanie do "apolityczności", rozumianej jako dążenie do ustanowienia esencji wszelkiej polityki poprzez dogmatyczne przyjęcie pewnych założeń, które ustanawiają absolutne ramy dla racjonalnej, progresywnej polityki. W drugiej części artykułu wskazuję na rolę, jaką ten trend odgrywa we współczesnych koncepcjach i praktykach demokracji liberalnej, a także wskazuję jego konkretne konsekwencje dla współczesnej nauki o polityce, które do dziś determinują badania na temat polityczności dyskursu o demokracji.

El giro empírico de la teoría deliberativa ha puesto de relieve las tensiones “prácticas” del ideal de democracia deliberativa, algunas de ellas ya señaladas en el debate teórico. Esto ha dado lugar a nuevas aproximaciones sociológicas orientadas a definir modelos complejos e impuros de democracia deliberativa y deliberación pública. Complejos, porque lo que se persigue es que un conjunto de instituciones o procesos sociales y políticos consigan, en su conjunto, satisfacer de manera razonable los estándares normativos asociados a la democracia deliberativa. Impuros, porque se acepta que las limitaciones que enfrenta la democracia deliberativa son tales, que se hace necesario, en la práctica, asociar nuevas expectativas a este ideal político (v.g. no perseguir el consenso, sino el meta-consenso) y buscar arreglos institucionales que puedan ser juzgados como realistas. El giro sistémico de la teoría deliberativa o los enfoques retóricos a la misma constituyen sendas respuestas a este reto. La teoría del aprendizaje colectivo de la sociología cognitiva habermasiana también ofrece una alternativa potencial a este desafío. La ponencia expone este panorama, explica brevemente en qué consiste cada una de las respuestas precitadas y, sobre todo, reconstruye esta teoría del aprendizaje colectivo y defiende su oportunidad y plausibilidad.

There is a growing understanding of the potential of spatial planning to constitute a co-ordinating arena for sustainable development, and planning processes are expected to merge all dimensions of sustainability. Since the concrete manifestation of spatial planning takes place at a micro level, it all boils down to the need for bring- ing together stakeholders at municipal level in a well functioning planning processes. Alongside this viewpoint, there is also an increasing awareness of the need for a decentralization of such processes, bringing them closer to the grassroots. Commu- nicative planning is a planning ideal and a theoretical stream that has developed from this new ‘paradigm’. It is based on citizen participation as a win–win situation, where the planning process builds a social sustainability, in turn enhancing the likelihood of the process to be successful. However, global and national visions of sustainabil- ity and local implementation are in many ways separate from one another. Bringing it further, to the individual level, the gaps are even wider. These gaps make the daily job for the planner increasingly complex and difficult. This article aims to contribute to understanding the characters of these gaps by describing them as four threats. The discussion is purely theoretical and based on the eight proposals of Goodin and Dryzek (2006) on possible pathways from micro-level deliberation towards the macro political system. However, the seed of the discussion is based on the authors’ joint experiences from a number of evaluations of planning processes carried out in a Swedish context.

On reproche souvent au référendum d'être très peu délibératif. En opposition avec la « force non coercitive de l'argument meilleur » qui habite l'idéal délibératif, le vote sanctionne un rapport de force : la loi du plus grand nombre. Le secret du vote n'incite pas non plus à une attitude délibérative. Cet article met en avant une pratique – le vote justifié – susceptible de rendre l'acte de vote et les référendums plus délibératifs en promouvant une attitude plus délibérative dans l'isoloir et en stimulant le débat public. Combinée à l'usage de mini-publics, elle ouvre des perspectives nouvelles à la participation démocratique référendaire.

The Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law issued by the ICRC in 2008 recommended two interpretive standards on the use of force against individuals in armed conflicts. While one standard defines ‘direct participation in hostilities’ by reference to ‘functional membership’ such that anyone with a continuous combat functions in an organised armed group will lose her/his civilian immunity and be subject to attack on a continuous basis, the other standard requires that the kind and degree of force used in the attack be graduated according to military necessity. This paper surveys the court decisions, military manuals and legal or policy documents in different domestic jurisdictions since the publication of the Interpretive Guidance to illustrate the different levels of the adoption of these standards in domestic legal orders. The paper then borrows Franck’s theory of legitimacy to identify the possible legitimating factors that gave these standards the capacity to induce their adoption by domestic actors. Lastly, the paper employs Habermas’ theory of deliberative democracy in order to examine whether and how the governance by these transnational standards of the people subjected to them may be justified by their democratic legitimacy.

Comment l’Union européenne peut-elle parvenir à mieux informer et communiquer avec ses citoyens ? Quelles sont les initiatives participatives et délibératives qu’elle a promues à ces fins ? Peuvent-elles contribuer à atténuer sa crise de légitimité chronique ? Devraient-elles être institutionnalisées à l’intérieur du processus décisionnel européen?

Et si oui, comment procéder ? Autant de questions auxquelles cet ouvrage apporte des réponses concrètes, grâce à ses analyses – réalisées par des experts reconnus dans le domaine de la démocratie délibérative – des principales expériences participatives promues par l’Union européenne. En comparant les différentes tentatives d’accroître l’engagement des citoyens et en évaluant leur impact, cet ouvrage propose une contribution importante et originale sur le potentiel des innovations visant à renforcer la légitimité démocratique de l’Union européenne.

« L’Europe est à la croisée des chemins : soit elle développe la participation des citoyens en vue d’accroître sa légitimité politique, soit son existence sera menacée. Ce livre nous aide à mieux comprendre comment la première voie pourrait être crédible. »

Yves Sintomer, Université Paris 8, France

« Ce livre apporte une contribution opportune et originale sur l’efficacité des expériences délibératives au niveau européen. »

Lucy Hatton, Journal of Common Market Studies, 2014

Sous la monarchie de Juillet, les orateurs politiques sont aussi des « orateurs personnels ». L'expression est de Delphine de Girardin1. Ils parlent à l'auditoire de toute leur âme mise à nu. Rien à voir avec aujourd'hui, où l'éloquence politique, certes héritière de cette intrusion du privé dans l'espace public si féconde à l'époque romantique, offre seulement une vision dégradée de ce qu'un Guizot, un Lamartine ou encore un Louis Blanc étaient capables de faire. Mais vous ne devez pas imaginer que tous les orateurs romantiques parlaient comme Malraux (on a dans l'oreille quelque chose de très ampoulé, n'est-ce pas ?) ou, s'ils le faisaient, vous ne vous en seriez pas le moins du monde rendu compte parce qu'étant homme ou femme de 1830, vous aussi, vous auriez eu le sentiment que les orateurs personnels vous parlaient directement au coeur, et avec le coeur, seulement. 2L'éloquence dont il sera ici question concerne, de plus, un type particulier d'hommes politiques. Elle concerne les orateurs parlementaires rentrés au bercail, dans leur circonscription ou dans leur arrondissement. Elle concerne les orateurs qui soufflent enfin, les orateurs qui peuvent, en toute quiétude, parler à des gens qui les aiment et qu'ils aiment en retour pour cette raison même. Et donc, il n'y a point de lyrisme parlementaire à percevoir dans leurs discours, mais il y a à entendre un idéal lyrique transporté à « un balcon de campagne »-l'expression est de Lamartine-ou encore, un idéal oratoire amoureux de la politique vécu à l'image d'un banquet idéal pendant le siècle. Aujourd'hui on en connaît seulement la méchante caricature qu'en faisait Flaubert dans sa Correspondance au sujet de la campagne pour la Réforme électorale pendant l'année 1847. La campagne mène directement aux journées de Février 18482. Avec Lamartine-dont nous faisons ici le représentant de tous ces orateurs sensibles et romantiques qui, fourbus par la dernière session parlementaire, rentrent au berceau de leur engagement originel, au berceau de leurs plus intimes convictions-il ne s'agit pas même de banquets mais seulement de bonnes petites et paisibles assemblées de province au sein desquelles le « tintement sensible de la voix de l'homme intime, du poète, s'entend en lieu et place d'une voix rationalisante et raisonneuse qui serait émise au moyen d'une bouche intéressée et cynique3 ». À Mâcon, l'orateur romantique abandonne l'éloquence parlementaire. Il parle même contre elle pour se faire entendre de ceux qui aiment la belle éloquence et ...

DUPART, Dominique. Éloquence sensible, éloquence à la Jean-Jacques : un idéal lyrique transporté sur un balcon de campagne ou les Discours familiers de Lamartine In : Les Formes du politique [en ligne]. Strasbourg : Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2010 (généré le 16 octobre 2020). Disponible sur Internet : <http://books.openedition.org/pus/2562>. ISBN : 9791034404964. DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pus.2562.

Democracy is in crisis. As neo-Nazis, right-wing populists, and authoritarians, old and new, stake their claims around the world, democracy faces its greatest challenge yet. The only way to save it is to change it.

Democracy as we know it is flawed. The three branches of power in liberal democracy—the executive, legislative, and judicial—keep citizens from making decisions about policies that affect them most. For a true democracy to flourish, argue Patrizia Nanz and Claus Leggewie, we need a fourth branch: the consultative.

This short and accessible guide to a new kind of political engagement offers a chronicle of the political past and present—including an important analysis of right-wing populism’s recent and historic allure—and a robust analysis of the accomplishments of protest movements and citizens’ groups. With a rare optimism, which values the wisdom of the masses over the narrow-mindedness of today’s tyrants, this guide is a modern call-to-arms for a more democratic future.

Where connections between demography and politics are examined in the literature, it is largely in the context of the effects of male aspects of demography on phenomena such as political violence. This project aims to place the study of demographic variables’ influence on politics, particularly on democracy, squarely within the scope of political and social sciences—and—to focus on the effects of woman-related demographics, namely fertility rates. I test the hypothesis that demographic variables—female-related predictors in particular—have an independent effect on political structure. Comparing different countries over time, when fertility rates decline, we observe a growth in democracy. In the theoretical framework developed, it is family structure, and the economic and political status of women that account for this change at the macro and micro levels. Findings based on data for over 140 countries over 3 decades are robust when controlling not only for alternative effects, but also for reverse causality and data limitations.

Autorka sa zaoberá problematikou súladu ostatného navrhovaného referenda s ústavou. Jej cieľom je diskusiu otvoriť, preto poskytuje skôr rámcovú argumentáciu. Základné argumenty, cez ktoré dospieva k záveru o nemožnosti vyhlásiť referendu o predložených otázkach sú najmä: 1. inštitúty priamej demokracie boli obmedzené v prospech inštitútov reprezentatívnej deliberatívnej demokracie aj z dôvodu ochrany menšín pred väčšinou; 2. konštitučná demokracia je v istých otázkach proti-väčšinová; 3. rozsah základných práv a slobôd býva podmieňovaný (aj) zákonmi; 4. referendum nie je drahým prieskumom verejnej mienky; 5. rozšírenie rozsahu jedného práva je v zásade zúžením rozsahu práva iného.

The human society has been running on fumes - the fumes of pleasure, reward, gratification and charm. And while walking on this
illustrious path, they have constructed illustrious ideals without thinking about their practicality and actual implications in the society
and have tried their best to stand up for those ideals, despite the fact that these so-called ideals have nothing to do with genuine everyday
human existence whatsoever. On this disorderly path of delusions, humanity has organized its religions - it has developed its methods of
education - and to watch over all these structures, it has developed its so-called governments on an illustrious ideal of democracy. Democracy
- that is what it’s called, when a huge population of sapiens are made to think that they are competent enough to choose the individual
or individuals who would essentially be in control of their lives in the society.

Als afronding van een zes maanden durende stage bij de Tweede Kamercommissie voor Europese Zaken, heb ik de deliberatieve kwaliteit van Tweede Kamercommissies onderzocht met behulp van de Discourse Quality Index-methode. De deliberatieve kwaliteitseis aan bijeenkomsten (DQI) komt voort uit de filosofische theorie van de deliberatieve democratie, die competitieve besluitvorming met argumentatieve besluitvorming beoogt te vervangen.
Circa 50 procent van alle uitingen tijdens een algemeen Kameroverleg kunnen als deliberatief gekenmerkt worden. Dit betekent onder andere dat, alhoewel Kamerleden goed scoren op zelfarticulatie, bij de helft van alle stellingen gedegen argumenten ter onderbouwing ontbreken en consensusvorming vrijwel afwezig is. Mogelijkheden voor Kamerleden om zich te informeren zijn wel ruimschoots aanwezig. Dit kan als inspiratie voor deliberatieve fora dienen. Concluderend kunnen we Tweede Kamercommissies niet als een deliberatieve bijeenkomst kwalificeren. Om Nederlands beleid via deliberatie tot stand te laten komen, moeten er opties onderzocht worden buiten het kader van het partijenstelsel.

“Transformation” describes deeply rooted, profound, long-lasting change in attitudes, perspectives, worldviews and or perspectives.  Enabling such transformations is a key component of addressing or forestalling conflicts, particularly identity based conflicts.  The first section of this paper analyzes the relevant scientific literature on transformation. (pp. 1-10) In the second section we elaborate the ways in which Sustained Dialogue creates opportunities for profound attitudinal and behavioral transformations. (pp. 11-16) Interviews with a wide variety of participants in Sustained Dialogue in a variety of settings suggestive of actual transformative experiences are presented in the third section. (pp. 17-29)  For those interested in greater detail, the full texts of these interviews are included in the Appendix. (29-54)

In the face of widespread dissatisfaction with contemporary democratic practice, there has been a growing interest in theories of deliberative democracy. However theorists have often failed to sufficiently address the question of institutional design. This paper argues that recent experiments with citizens' juries should be of interest to deliberative democrats. The practice of citizens' juries is considered in light of three deliberative democratic criteria: inclusivity, deliberation and citizenship. It is argued that citizens' juries offer important insights into how democratic deliberation could be institutionalised in contemporary political decision making processes. 2 The growing interest in forms of deliberative democracy indicates, on the one hand, a widespread dissatisfaction with aspects of our contemporary political practices and, on the other hand, a reflective awareness that alternative practices are plausible options for us.

Historiquement, c'est-à-dire dans les faits, l'École s'est plutôt et presque toujours montrée au service de la reproduction du corps social, structuré par tel ou tel imaginaire dominant. Mais nous pensons que l'École recèle, de droit, un potentiel de libération qui excède les faits. Nous nous penchons alors ici, patiemment, sur l'imaginaire contemporain qui affecte l'École. Plus précisément, nous souhaitons rendre intelligible cette réforme appelée "Pacte pour un Enseignement d'Excellence", en faisant apparaître qu'elle doit sa grande cohérence à une matrice extrêmement précise : l'utilitarisme. Aussi, c'est en mesurant la profondeur du mal actuel, qui va jusqu'à s'attaquer aux promesses et aux exigences de l'institution, que nous allons tenter de sortir par le haut : en redéfinissant à grands traits les lignes de force de ce qui est en péril.

A palavra democracia é uma velha conhecida. Ela está presente na história, nos contos, nos romances, no direito, nas constituições, engolfada pelas crises dos sistemas democráticos e almejada pela alma humana. É uma técnica de liberdade, um espírito livre, pleno de um sentido igualitário . 
Representa uma indefinição semântica que traduz um processo sujeito a uma contínua invenção e reinvenção. Percebe-se a pluralidade de núcleos que se submete às condições históricas e altera-se naturalmente com a transição da conjuntura política de uma realidade para outra. Possui vida há pelo menos dois mil e quinhentos anos, traduzindo significados diferentes para os povos, tempos e lugares . Por isso, ela pressupõe e representa uma luta incessante pela justiça social, como bem marcado por Julien  não podendo “resignar-se com as ‘favelas’, os alojamentos insalubres, os salários miseráveis, as condições de trabalho infames”. É de Jackson  a afirmação de que a visão do direito constitucional deve perceber a democracia como “uma árvore da vida” - uma metáfora que capta a ideia de que um documento “vivo” não é limitado por suas origens.
Contemporaneamente, as consciências legais investiram muito mais energia sobre os valores da democracia, no sentido de vincular a legitimidade da governança, o que acabou permitindo ampliar a visão de que a democracia hoje não se concretiza apenas pela possibilidade de escolha de atores políticos, mas inclui ainda uma proteção constitucional que afirma: a superioridade da carta fundamental; a existência de direitos fundamentais; a legalidade das ações estatais; um sistema de garantias jurídicas e processuais ; a descentralidade do poder.
Na contemporaneidade, tem-se identificado crises em sistemas democráticos como sendo atribulações do próprio ideal democrático, atrelando-se a ele noções de “morte”, “colapso” ou “erosão”. Porém estas crises decorrem não da democracia em si – sendo ela imaculada em sua essência, mas sim dos sistemas democráticos, materializados pela via do desenho institucional. São os sistemas democráticos decantados na realidade que a corrompe, violenta e deturpa.

The women’s movement has become increasingly entangled with the
“
secularism versus Islamism” debate in today’s Turkey. While secular feminists
believe that escalating authoritarianism and Islamic revivalism threaten
gender equality and the gains of the women’s rights movement, Islamist
women contest the

“western/secular” ideal of gender equality on account of
its being antithetical to the Islamic canon. The mutual marginalization by
feminists and Islamists, mainly fueled by partisan politics, harms the much
needed solidarity among women’s groups to solve the problems women face
in Turkey, such as violence and unequal political participation. Moreover, this
polarization has the harmful effect of reinforcing patriarchy: men, therefore
face no challenges and simply continue to remain the sole producers and
controllers of socio-political policies and epistemic resources. Hence, there
seems to be a pressing need for secular feminists and Islamists to start a
dialogue and focus on problems and issues they share in common, so as to
seek urgent solutions to them. This article inquires into the viability of such
an alliance through the proliferation of deliberative platforms where civil
society organizations can meet at a safe distance from partisan politics and
enter productive dialogue and generate policies to resolve the crucial
problems women are facing in Turkey.

På spissen Denne boken kom ut første gang i 1962 i da forfatteren var 33 år gammel. Det dreier seg om en litt utvidet utgave av et såkalt habilitasjonsskriften postdoktoravhandling som normalt er nødvendig for å kunne bli professor i Tyskland. Skriftet vokste ut av et arbeid Habermas var med og skrev for det berømte Institut für Sozialforschung i Frankfurt, der lederne var Max Horkheimer og Theodor Adorno, også kjent som hovedpersoner i «Frankfurterskolen », som Habermas så skulle komme til å føre videre, på selvstendig grunnlag. Dette arbeidet, som fikk tittelen Student und Politik ii , var en undersøkelse omkring studenters politiske holdninger basert på intervjuer, og er det mest berømte sosiologiske arbeidet som er gjort på instituttet etter at det på ny ble grunnlagt i Tyskland, i forbindelse med Horkheimers og Adornos tilbakekomst etter annen verdenskrig. Hva empirien angår, ble arbeidet ledet av Ludwig von Friedeburg, mens Habermas blant annet skrev en teoretisk innledningen briljant 50 siders avhandling, der grunntankene i den foreliggende boken allerede kommer til uttrykk. Deretter fikk Habermas et stipend fra Det tyske forskningsråd for å kunne skrive Strukturforvandlingen av offentligheten, som den foreliggende boken het på tysk. Oversetterne til norsk valgte en litt mindre tung tittel, Borgerlig offentlighetdens fremvekst og forfall. Cambridge-historikeren T.C.W. Blanning har i ettertid skrevet om Borgerlig offentlighet: «Dette må sikkert vaere den mest innflytelsesrike akademiske avhandling som noen gang er trykket.» iii Her sikter han nok til avhandlinger som har vaert innlevert til doktorgrad eller habilitasjon, ikke avhandlinger i sin allmennhet. Det er likevel ikke lett å vurdere en slik påstand, og det slår meg at Michel Foucaults avhandling om Galskapens historie må vaere en svaert seriøs konkurrent. Men Blannings påstand står likevel; den står der hvor sannheter ifølge Adorno står best: på spissen. Slik er for øvrig også Habermas' bok: så omstendelig den ofte er formulert, så full av all slags kunnskap og synspunkter fra forskjellige teoritradisjoner den er, så nyansert og dialektisk naer sine teoretiske og politiske motstandere, så står boken likevel temmelig på spissen, blant annet med et ganske grelt kritisk perspektiv på etterkrigstidens velferdsstatlige demokratier, implisitt ikke minst

What is the role of Jürgen Habermas’s critical theory amidst the prevalence of disinformation, polarization, and distrust in the media? In the book Habermas and the Media, Hartmut Wessler offers a “media lens” to make sense of Habermas’s work. He makes a case for the relevance of Habermas’s thought today, although his work needs to be updated to respond to developments in media studies and empirical political science. The book is an invaluable resource to any reader looking for an introduction on Habermas’s media theory. Its strongest point is its presentation of Habermas’s work in a clear and concise manner. It presents Habermas’s thinking chronologically, which is an effective way of walking readers through how Habermas’s ideas about the media evolved over 40 or so years. The discussion covered Habermas’s best-known books including The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989) and The Theory of Communicative Action (1984) as well as his little-known work such as The Inclusion of the Other (1998), the chapter “Further Reflections on the Public Sphere" in the book Habermas and the Public Sphere (1992) and the essays on Political Communication in Media Society published in Communication Theory (2006) and Europe: The Faltering Project (2009).