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This paper examines how public education can ensure equity and diversity by clarifying the "democratic aspects" that can be captured through school-community collaborative activities in Japan and the U.S. As a result of comparison and analysis, it is indicated that in both Japan and the U.S., these activities are conducted in the context of streamlining educational administration. In addition, the participation in school management of diverse people such as local residents, parents, and children is promoted in order to grasp their needs and achieve deliberation on an equal footing. In contrast to Japan, however, these activities in the U.S. put importance on providing health and educational services to disadvantaged families and children. Furthermore, they aim to change not only schools but also communities. Therefore, this paper suggests that "democratic aspects" encompassed by collaborative activities have multiple layers: (1) "compensatory-type" (status-quo satisfaction -oriented democratic aspects), (2) "participatory-type" (deliberation-oriented democratic aspects), and (3) "transformative-type" (status-quo change-oriented democratic aspects). In order to guarantee equity of education that ensures fairness and inclusion to all children, this paper clarifies the importance of having both activities that distribute educational and welfare services on a curve to disadvantaged children and families (compensatory-type) and activities that involve children themselves in the practice, leading to the transformation and creation of the world (participatory and transformative type). The types of activities described above do not necessarily set the transformative-type as the ultimate goal. The three types interact together and pave the way toward a democratic and equitable education that is open to all and respects the voices of minorities.

This paper advocates for the integration of the 'sociological imagination', as proposed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, into pedagogical practices to foster inclusive and democratic classrooms. Departing from narrow evidence-based approaches, it explores how the sociological imagination connects personal experiences with broader societal structures, enhancing critical thinking and social awareness among students. Practical strategies for implementation across diverse subjects are discussed, emphasising its potential to empower school-age students as agents of social change amidst contemporary challenges.

Information has been omnipresent and all-powerful for almost two centuries, and now possesses sophisticated and invasive means of imposing itself and creating opinion. It was crucial in the Enlightenment and in the preparation of the French Revolution by the intellectual and bourgeois elites. Its characteristic is to be the opposite of intangible truths, to be moving, malleable and adaptable. It is the new replacing the old. It is bracketed by history, because it ignores tradition and no longer needs the past. The creation of opinion in the 18th century introduced a concept of freedom that in fact conceals totalitarianism. People are told what to think. Information is a weapon against all forms of personal reflection and inner life. It imposes itself and imposes, making it impossible to distance oneself. It even kills the democracy it boasts about.

The United States of America (US) committed nearly $1.4 billion in foreign assistance to Tunisia in support of its democratic transition and transitional justice process between 2011 and 2020. This paper seeks to identify and assess the ideational frameworks guiding the distribution of US assistance, and influencing US foreign policy behavior, throughout the democratization and transitional justice period in Tunisia. It provides considerable evidence showcasing the existence of two prevalent schools of thought in US policymaking circles: The first school believes that the US invested in the notion of Pacted Transitions, which advocates for rapid transitions through political compromise and power-sharing mechanisms without necessarily promoting grassroots democratic reform. This can indirectly explain the US emphasis on security sector assistance and the relative marginalization of transitional justice objectives mainly in terms of institutional vetting, lustration, and reform. The second school puts forward a Democracy Reduction Critique, arguing instead that US policymakers fell for the electoral democracy fallacy and fetishized the role of civil society. This paper critically accounts for both schools and argues that they represent two sides of the same coin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratic legitimacy is essential for democratic stability, as democracies rely on citizen support to survive. However, perceived legitimacy gaps can also be an important catalyst for change and potential democratic renewal, begging the question when challenges to legitimacy become problematic for democratic survival. Easton distinguished between citizen support for political authorities and the political system, and argued that if support for political authorities declined, such declining support could either be resolved by the current political authorities changing course, or by citizens electing new political authorities at the next elections. However, if dissatisfaction with political authorities would not be resolved, lacking support had the potential to eventually "spill-over" and undermine support for the political system as a whole. In most empirical research on legitimacy, the assumption is that such "spill-over" is visible only if declining levels of political trust and satisfaction with democracy start to undermine support for democracy as a political system. In this paper, we argue that "spillover" can also manifest in a different way: through the politicization of political support. When politics is no longer (only) about substantive policy decisions, but rather (increasingly) about the system itself, agreement on the rules of the game, or even on democracy as "the only game in town", is no longer self-evident. In this paper we further develop our theoretical argument about the connection between legitimacy and politicisation, and argue that European democracies appear to experience growing politicization of political support, in terms of the association of political support with citizens' substantive issue positions and voting behaviour. The paper demonstrates empirical evidence of such politicization of political support in 17 European democracies with European Social Survey data from 2002-2022. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the politicization of political support for democratic stability and renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some graph-theoretic conditions for a democratic system controlled by a social network to converge to a regressive or progressive system over time. The democratic system is modeled as a finite state automaton, and a social network of agents is modeled as a directed graph. Agents are controllers making decisions to enable or disable events such that their objectives are to be met. Based on the individual decisions of agents, the final decision is made by the majority rule. Specifically, the conditions obtained imply two strategies for the groups of regressive or progressive agents to achieve their objectives: one is to prevent informed agents in other groups from influencing uninformed agents, and the other is to make at least one uninformed agent in every cycle follow the decisions of the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor R.B. Bernstein was a legal historian with a J.D. from Harvard Law School who taught at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York and New York Law School. He presented the paper below on Professor Felix Frankfurter's The Public and Its Government, published in 1930. A little more than two months after the conference, sadly, Professor Bernstein passed. His brother Steven Bernstein provided the Touro Law Review with the draft of the paper that Professor Bernstein was preparing to submit for publication. We have added footnotes and made only minor revisions. It is our honor and privilege to publish Professor Bernstein's paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Empresa y Humanismo is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Political Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The year 2023 in Israel started with illiberal constitutional change efforts by the new right-wing government and concluded with a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists and the subsequent war. Both occurrences galvanized two massive surges of civil society activism. The first was a mass protest that impeded the government's undemocratic legislation. The second was a large- scale mobilization to support a variety of populations affected by the war, providing services and goods that supplanted the failed governmental crisis response. Using a Serving Elite perspective and elaborating on this concept in the Israeli context, the paper analyzes the organizations that transitioned overnight from protest to service delivery. While these are two known roles played by civil society in general, such a transition from protest to support within the same organization is unusual, if at all existent. The paper analyses nineteen (19) in-depth interviews with leaders of 10 prominent organizations active in the protest and the aid phases. It explores their participants, forms of organizing, activities, ideologies, and interconnections, particularly emphasizing the transition. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the emergence of a new Serving Elite in the making, liberal in orientation, and developed during the crises. This perspective provides an opportunity to highlight processes deeply embedded in Israel's social, political, and cultural landscapes, changing elites and power relations, and Israel's culture of entrepreneurship. It also provides a framework for analyses of serving elites in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous efforts by policymakers, trade among African countries remains abysmal. In this paper, we investigate whether democracy influences intra-Africa trade of goods. Using the gravity model on bilateral trade among 48 Sub-Sahara African countries over the period 2000 to 2018, we find that democracy fosters intra-Africa goods trade. This effect is more pronounced in the manufacturing sector. Reversals to autocracy, however, adversely impact intra-Africa trade flows. Our paper therefore highlights democratic development as an important channel for accelerating trade among African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the entanglement of democracy and social justice in education and the relationship to social mobility, this paper critiques the individualising nature of social mobility in policy discourse as inimical to human flourishing and education as a public good. The rhetoric of social mobility which responsibilises individuals for their success, without due regard to the systemic changes needed to enable this and the societal barriers to social mobility experienced disproportionately by some groups in society, is detrimental to social justice. A conception of education as a pathway to social mobility must be located in a wider vision of civic engagement in a more inclusive and fairer society. Yet civic engagement in education at the local level has been eroded, as illustrated in this paper by the example of an evolving model of school governance in England. As a corporatist, market driven reform, this model exemplifies how local democratic ties between schools and engagement with their communities can be undermined. Social mobility to enable opportunities, access and participation in democratic civic society becomes a fantasy when society is riven with systemic inequalities, lacks the necessary conditions to enable human flourishing and links to community engagement in education for democratic renewal are downplayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined good governance as a panacea for the citizens’ well-being. The well-being of the citizens is the essence of government. In other words, government exists to ensure the well-being of the citizens. The well-being of the citizens can only be assured and guaranteed when there is good governance and reverse would be case in the midst of bad governance. Of all the forms of government, democracy has the greatest potential to offer good governance because it is people’s government and as such people have greater opportunity to participate one way or the other in the governance process making it possible for them to influence decisions that would be to their favor. It therefore means that for good governance to be enthroned in a polity; the people have great responsibility to bring it about by not being docile but to be seriously interested in participating in the governance process and system. Secondary method of data collection was adopted in this paper and analysis of data collected was done through the descriptive method. The paper found out that bad governance is responsible for the lack of the citizen’s well-being. The theoretical framework adopted in this paper is structural functionalism. The paper recommended among other things that for the well-being of the citizens to be guaranteed there should be the encouragement of good governance by all and sundry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current landscapes of intercollegiate sports and higher education are experiencing shifts toward more democratic representation. In college sport, student-athlete representatives are more engaged in policy decisions, hold voting rights, and are included on boards and committees. Despite this shift, little is known about what good intercollegiate athlete representation entails and how multi-level, democratic governance systems may support or impede good representation in the context of college sport. This paper explores qualities of good college athlete representation (CARep) and factors contributing to and/or detracting from the process of good CARep in the context of a democratic multi-level intercollegiate sport governance system. Findings showed individual attributes of good CARep, including interpersonal skills and leadership, were based on democratic representation virtues (i.e., fairmindedness, trust building, good gatekeeping) and helped foster democratic values of civic equality, self-governance, and inclusion. The intercollegiate sport governance system supports the work of athlete representatives primarily through its educative function. More specifically, administrators were key to identifying experiential learning opportunities for athlete representatives, which contributed to the process of good representation through responsiveness, inclusiveness, and egalitarianism. Lack of administrative support and education for all relevant interest groups characterized governance system inconsistencies impeding good CARep, primarily at institutional levels where the purpose of student-athlete committees varied and/or athlete representative roles were less understood. Implications for practice and directions for future research on good athlete representation are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the complex relationship between energy poverty and the maintenance of democratic values within the European Union (EU), suggesting that energy poverty not only impacts economic stability and health outcomes but also poses significant challenges to democratic engagement and equity. To measure energy poverty, a composite index is developed using the entropy method, which surpasses traditional measures focused solely on access to energy or its developmental implications. To assess the level of democratic governance in EU countries, the voice and accountability index (VEA), which is part of the World Governance Indicators compiled by the World Bank, is utilized. By analyzing EU data from 2006 to 2022, the findings suggest that a 1% improvement in VEA quality, represented by a coefficient of 0.122, is correlated with a notable improvement in the energy poverty index. This suggests that the EU should focus on enhancing transparency and public participation in energy decision-making, along with ensuring accountability in policy implementation. The research also differentiates between full and flawed democracies, noting that tailored approaches are needed. In full democracies, leveraging economic prosperity and trade is crucial due to their significant positive impacts on the energy poverty index. In contrast, in flawed democracies, enhancing governance and accountability is more impactful, as evidenced by a higher coefficient of 0.193. Strengthening legal and regulatory frameworks, improving regulatory quality, and ensuring public engagement in governance could substantially mitigate energy poverty in these contexts. In addition, this paper demonstrates that this relationship is influenced by factors such as income inequality, energy intensity, and trade openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) has a constitutional mandate as the country's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), and it strengthens democracy by providing monitoring, accountability, and governance in the public sector through auditing, hence increasing public trust. The AGSA, throughout the years, has been auditing municipalities throughout South Africa and giving them audit outcomes with the hope that the financial management and reporting in the local government sphere will improve. Unfortunately, the local government sphere in South Africa has worsened over the years, even though the AGSA has provided them with reports that speculate what is working and what is not working within the sphere, especially regarding the issues of using state funds. This paper examines the root causes of poor audit outcomes and proposes strategies the local government can implement to improve their audit outcomes. This paper will use a qualitative approach to review current literature and MFMA reports from 2014 to 2021 from the AGSA to meet its objectives and answer the research problem. The authors agree that AGSA has done outstanding work as an oversight and accountability enabler in the Local Government sphere and that the recent material irregularity process, which was implemented as an enforcement tool to compel municipal managers to take action, is making progress towards ensuring that AGSA fulfils its constitutional mandate as the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on campaigns against the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). These campaigns not only obstructed ratification processes in a number of countries, but also that the openly hostile and highly gendered attacks had a direct impact on women's rights activists and their work, seriously hindering their work, but also affecting their well-being and safety. In this paper we explore the violent implications of the campaigns against the Istanbul Convention which are part of wider anti-gender campaigns. We argue that the violence of the campaigns and the violent implications should be considered gendered political violence, which effectively marginalizes women and other targeted groups and obstructs their participation in society and politics and as such is central to current autocratization tendencies and undermining of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global developments attempt to rectify serious human rights breaches within the context of legal regulations, as well as to build human rights systems and institutions on a national and global scale. However, in Indonesia, the paradigm shift from authoritarianism to democracy leads human rights as one of most important issues faced by the Indonesia government. In the last two decades, the red record in resolving major human rights abuses has not been attained, necessitating a study to evaluate effective legal choices in settlement of the past human rights violations settlement. This paper employed a statutory method, legal concepts, legal cases, and citations. The comparison validates the direction of this paper's research on the dynamics of national legal concerns in the policy of resolving gross human rights abuses and the selection of law that may be employed in effectively resolving major human rights violations in favor of transitional justice. The obtained results and findings show that problems have emerged in policy orientation at the macro, mezzo, and micro policy strata, as well as the need for future direction in the substance of legislation and the enforcement system, both through judicial and extrajudicial channels, against serious human rights violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptualization of radical food democracy (RFD) which links the diverse economies approach of Gibson-Graham with Tully's notion of diverse citizenship. Despite its invaluable contribution to theorizing the role of alternative food networks (AFNs) in transforming unsustainable industrial food systems, the diverse economies scholarship has been criticized for essentializing the autonomy of alternative economic practices--hence risking to confound emancipatory social change with punctuated forms of "local," "quality," "organic certified" products, which nevertheless remain embedded in market-mediated capitalist relations, and displacement and/or deferral of negative impacts. This paper aims to address such critiques, contending that the realization of RFD requires both (1) the experimentation with new economic practices that carve out food economies alternative to the working logic of capital accumulation, and (2) the cultivation of new political subjects capable of universalizing these particular struggles. After situating various existing practices associated with food democracy in a framework of various modes of democratic citizenship, we underpin our understanding of RFD with a theory of change informed by Bob Jessop's strategic-relational approach to social structures, agents' reflexive actions, and their contingency. Following a critical scientific approach to the social role of academics, this theoretical framework is illustrated using a case study from Germany. The empirical work draws on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with leaders of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) cooperatives and Food Policy Council (FPC) networks conducted in Cologne, Berlin, and Frankfurt in 2018-2020. To conclude, this paper argues that the emancipatory potential of food democracy should cultivate both lighthouse alternative economic practices that are connected with people's everyday lives, and political imagination that dares to critically engage with existing institutions. Likewise, RFD praxis requires a constant back and forth between the ideational and the practical, the abstract and the concrete, the actionable and the analytical, to challenge both the symbolic-discursive and the material dimensions of capitalist agri-food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food democracy and political agroecology, as closely allied social movements, have become associated in the main with what may be termed 'agrarian populist' and postcolonial problematics. While certainly 'radical' in relation to hegemonic neoliberal, or sub-hegemonic 'national developmentalist', framings of contemporary agricultural and ecological crises and their mitigatory responses to them, populist food democracy and political agroecology, it is argued here, fail convincingly to identify causality underlying the 'political' causes of these capitalogenic contradictions. While more convincing in identifying such causality in the 'ecological' domain in terms of the need to 'localize' and 'reterritorialize' food production and consumption networks, in its 'political' aspect populist food democracy and political agroecology demonstrate a failure to specify key ontological drivers of capitalogenic contradiction in terms of state, capital, class, and, more generally, power relations in their historical particularity. These shortcomings of 'populist' food democracy and agroecology in their 'political' aspect are exemplified by reference to key academic texts arising from the movement. The paper then proceeds to identify how these populist assumptions differ from a Marxian derived understanding of contradiction and the resulting proposal for a 'radical' political agroecology as substantive food democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the responsibility of AI experts for guiding the development of AI in a desirable direction. More specifically, the aim is to answer the following research question: To what extent are AI experts responsible in a forward-looking way for effects of AI technology that go beyond the immediate concerns of the programmer or designer? AI experts, in this paper conceptualised as experts regarding the technological aspects of AI, have knowledge and control of AI technology that non-experts do not have. Drawing on responsibility theory, theories of the policy process, and critical algorithm studies, we discuss to what extent this capacity, and the positions that these experts have to influence the AI development, make AI experts responsible in a forward-looking sense for consequences of the use of AI technology. We conclude that, as a professional collective, AI experts, to some extent, are responsible in a forward-looking sense for consequences of use of AI technology that they could foresee, but with the risk of increased influence of AI experts at the expense of other actors. It is crucial that a diversity of actors is included in democratic processes on the future development of AI, but for this to be meaningful, AI experts need to take responsibility for how the AI technology they develop affects public deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the collaborative development of the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation (GCDI), and its month-long virtual pilot workshop, the 'Climate Change Design Jam'. The GCDI is an integrated learning partnership between three international universities located in Canada, South Africa, and Sweden, and civil society partners the Vancouver Design Nerds (VDN). Each partner brought unique skills to the GCDI, as new processes and methods for virtual, global student engagement and dialogue were co-designed. The GCDI hosted the Climate Change Design Jam over four consecutive weeks in March 2022. By employing a design thinking methodology, it facilitated online student project development around the interconnected and broad topics of climate change and democracy. Students and student facilitators were guided through the process of design thinking to develop grounded projects that address climate change issues locally and internationally. This paper argues that fundamental principles of fostering genuine connections (both 'online' and 'offline') between students can act as a useful foundation from which project development can be based. Further, this paper illustrates that when faced with 'wicked problems' such as climate change and challenges to democracy worldwide design thinking methods and collaborative approaches can act as a catalyst for action (Manzini, 2015). Exploring political theory, democracy, and civic agency through dialogue and co-design provides students with innovative approaches to research, critical thinking, and activism. This pilot series provides insight into student engagement across international contexts, and thus the development of cross-cultural and collective intelligence which can be formative for similar projects in the future (Behari-Leak, 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into the determinants of national innovation performance from the perspective of policy regime and establishes a theoretical model on how a country's dual Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policy regimes, democratic and meritocratic, and national absorptive capacity (NAC) jointly determine its national innovation performance. A democratic STI policy regime promotes innovation through channels of freedom, social equality, and public participation. A meritocratic STI policy regime promotes innovation through channels of good governance and rational policymaking. The model further proposes that the relationships between STI policy regimes and national innovation performance are moderated by potential NAC (PNAC) and realized NAC (RNAC) in opposing directions. The fixed-effects panel regression of OECD countries confirms that both democratic and meritocratic STI policy regimes have positive effects on national innovation performance. Moreover, the democratic effect is positively moderated by PNAC but negatively moderated by RNAC. In contrast, the meritocratic effect is positively moderated by RNAC but negatively moderated by PNAC. The major contribution of this paper is to highlight the importance of a country's STI policy regimes as the bedrock and NAC as the leverage to generate more homegrown innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the second part of a two-part series, we explore the cultural stability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The analytical framework adopted, formulated on a background of social cybernetics, uses Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) within a metacybernetic framework. Our exploration involves a thorough investigation of signs pointing to cultural instability, identification of potential pathologies, and the provision of insights into the underlying dynamics within ASEAN. Expanding on the theoretical foundation established in the first part, we explore the notion that regional organisations (ROs) like ASEAN can be viewed as complex adaptive systems with agency. Heterogeneity of RO membership can be both beneficial and detrimental, especially when this delivers cultural diversity. If detrimental, pathologies can arise that affect both ROs' institutional dynamics and their affiliated regional organisations, a significant interest of this paper. In response to certain cybernetic aspects introduced in part 1 of the research, MAT is shown to be a specialised framework imbued with systemic and reflexive elements. Through this, the analysis sheds light on how an agency's mindset connects with its behaviour and performance. ROs exhibit coherence in their operations when they successfully achieve adaptive goals. ROs, as agencies defined through a population of state agents, have mutual relationships and are encouraged to pursue shared regional objectives, such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. However, in highly diverse cultural environments, this poses unique challenges to achieving and maintaining cultural stability. The analysis scrutinises ASEAN's behaviour, relating it to manifestations of cultural instability, and deduces conditions that encompass an inability to undertake collective action, covert narcissism, and a lack of authority. Employing MAT as a diagnostic tool to comprehend ASEAN's intricate nature, the paper concludes with practical recommendations aimed at enhancing ASEAN's cultural health and sustainability. The ultimate vision is to foster a more integrated and proactive regional entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper navigates the complex roles that the Catholic Church assumes in fragile democracies, exploring whether it functions as an influencer, a moral guide, or a judge in shaping public policies and societal values using the Peruvian context as a focal reference. The authors begin by providing an overview of the global religious landscape, highlighting the diverse and polarized trends within the ecclesial institution. In the second part of this paper, this study delves into the homilies of two influential Peruvian prelates, Mgr. Cipriani and Mgr. Castillo, representing opposing theological currents within the Catholic Church, offering a pertinent exploration of how religious institutions engage with evolving international and local trends in the context of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many North American Protestant circles, especially those with Baptist or Free Church roots, the notion of the total separation of church and state is presented as the ideal to be attained in all church and state relations. We are told that the state should have no legislative power to ordain anything in relation to church doctrine or practice, and that the church should be entirely excluded from all political, secular, or state actions. In this paper, we are going to suggest that such an approach to church–state relations (even though some might think that it flows from or is necessary for democracy) is, in fact, impossible in a true democracy. We will first consider the nature of the church and the state, and present three principles that Maritain suggests are first principles in this debate. We will then look at the classical notion of the "Citizen". We will conclude by arguing that based upon the nature of a citizen, of the church, and of the state, a strict separation of church and state is, in fact, impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of generative AI and specifically large language models (LLMs), exemplified by ChatGPT, the intersection of artificial intelligence and human reasoning has become a focal point of global attention. Unlike conventional search engines, LLMs go beyond mere information retrieval, entering into the realm of discourse culture. Their outputs mimic well-considered, independent opinions or statements of facts, presenting a pretense of wisdom. This paper explores the potential transformative impact of LLMs on democratic societies. It delves into the concerns regarding the difficulty in distinguishing ChatGPT-generated texts from human output. The discussion emphasizes the essence of authorship, rooted in the unique human capacity for reason—a quality indispensable for democratic discourse and successful collaboration within free societies. Highlighting the potential threats to democracy, this paper presents three arguments: the Substitution argument, the Authenticity argument, and the Facts argument. These arguments highlight the potential risks that are associated with an overreliance on LLMs. The central thesis posits that widespread deployment of LLMs may adversely affect the fabric of a democracy if not comprehended and addressed proactively and properly. In proposing a solution, we advocate for an emphasis on education as a means to mitigate risks. We suggest cultivating thinking skills in children, fostering coherent thought formulation, and distinguishing between machine-generated output and genuine, i.e., human, reasoning. The focus should be on the responsible development and usage of LLMs, with the goal of augmenting human capacities in thinking, deliberating and decision-making rather than substituting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study discusses how the democratic governance principles and norms impact development in the Southern African Development Community and how institutional and structural reforms require greater participation by society to address the governance challenges encountered in this subregion of Africa. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to examine and assess the relationship between SADC’s governance, democratic principles and norms, and development plans and processes. A comparative analysis was conducted using SADC’s key democratic achievement connected to policies, processes, and remaining challenges. Subsequently, the key causes of SADC’s slow development on the African continent were explored, focusing on the failure to institutionalize liberal democratic governance consistently during postcolonial transition periods, speculating SADC’s slow development. The findings suggest that SADC is impacted by democratic principles, norms, and processes, such as local governance, civil society, and decentralization of power. Bearing in mind, Southern Africa’s economic frailty, elevated levels of civil unrest and poor service delivery, and SADC authorities require a strong sub-regional governance strategy supported by robust national programs to determine and overcome the factors hindering the institutionalization of democratic principles in SADC and promote strengthened institutional capacity. The unambiguous progression toward the consolidation of democracy, within the SADC, has impacted the governance and development successes of the region, resulting in democratic values and practices remaining shallowly rooted, and slow progress toward open and transparent governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ANAFORA is the property of Anafora and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While right-wing attacks on the ideas of democracy and socialism in academia are a worldwide trend, in the remainder of the paper, I will focus on India, considered to be the largest democracy in the world. India has become a hotbed of right-wing politics, led by an authoritarian Hindu-nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There are various reasons why this has happened which this paper will not discuss (Das, 2020a; Jaffrelot, 2021; Vanaik, 2017). Suffice to say that the BJP is the political wing of the fascistic paramilitary organization called RSS (or, National Volunteer Corps) which, in part inspired by European fascism, aims to build a Hindu nation where religious minorities can live only as second-class citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Theological Review / Bogoslovska Smotra is the property of University of Zagreb, Catholic Faculty of Theology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article investigates reasons to participate in non-deterministic elections, where the outcomes incorporate elements of chance beyond mere tie-breaking. The background context situates this inquiry within democratic theory, specifically non-deterministic voting systems, which promise to re-evaluate fairness and power distribution among voting blocs. This study aims to explore the normative implications of such electoral systems and their impact on our moral duty to vote. We analyze instrumental reasons for voting, including prudential and act-consequentialist arguments, alongside non-instrumental reasons, assessing their validity in the context of non-deterministic systems. The results indicate that non-deterministic elections could strengthen the case for voting based on prudential and act-consequentialist grounds due to their proportional nature and the increased influence of each vote. We conclude that, while non-deterministic elections strengthen our duty to vote overall, they do not strengthen it for all the arguments in the literature. This paper contributes to the discourse on electoral systems by critically evaluating the moral obligation to vote in non-deterministic elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between a country's political governance and financial market dynamics, with a specific focus on non-U.S. stocks listed on the NYSE. Utilizing an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with heteroscedasticity-robust (Huber–White) estimators, we analyze the impact of political governance on stock liquidity and information asymmetry. Our analysis shows that stocks from democracies demonstrate improved liquidity and decreased information asymmetry, contrasting with stocks from autocracies that exhibit the opposite trend. Furthermore, shifts in political regimes dynamically impact stock liquidity and information transparency. These findings offer essential insights for investors, policymakers, and regulators, contributing to informed decision making and the formulation of policies that promote market health and transparency. Additionally, these findings underscore the importance of promoting political stability and transparent governance to foster healthy and efficient financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Comparative Politics is the property of Journal of Comparative Politics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Social media platforms have played a significant role in recent elections in the U.S. and other democracies. While Facebook and Twitter (now renamed X) claimed that they are "on a journey to connect the world," to serve the goals of reforms and to bring about more democracy, their platforms have been effectively used to spread lies, misinformation, and disinformation which led some analysts to argue that we now live in a post-truth world and that the Orwellian dystopia is upon us. This paper is an attempt to assess whether big tech companies have created an Orwellian state in the U.S. We argue that the idiom of the Orwellian dystopia has been misused by scholars, commentators, and politicians on the political left as well as the political right. Our analysis of social media, especially Facebook, shows that the social media companies are not intentionally trying to subvert American democracy. Instead, as a business, they are driven by a profit motive and the logic of "surveillance capitalism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cogito (2066-7094) is the property of Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is becoming increasingly common for authoritarian regimes to leverage digital technologies to surveil, repress and manipulate their citizens. Experts typically refer to this practice as digital authoritarianism (DA). Existing definitions of DA consistently presuppose a politically repressive agent intentionally exploiting digital technologies to pursue authoritarian ends. I refer to this as the intention-based definition. This paper argues that this definition is untenable as a general description of DA. I begin by illustrating the current predominance of the intention-based definition (Section 2). Section 3 then presents four counterexamples to this definition: benign surveillance; digital sovereignty; attention-harvesting algorithms; and tech-induced loneliness. In each case, we witness authoritarianism being promoted by digital technologies without any evidence of this being intentionally caused by politically repressive agents. Based on these observations, I contend that the intention-based definition is underinclusive and is therefore unsustainable. Section 4 outlines an improved definition of DA – what I call the promotion-based definition. Since this more expansive definition does not posit intentional, politically repressive agency as a precondition of DA, it can accommodate the counterexamples discussed in Section 3. Moreover, it enables us to catch a broader spectrum of cases of DA, such as tech-induced loneliness, which those adhering to the intention-based definition are prone to overlook. After outlining further practical benefits of the promotion-based definition, I argue that we still need to distinguish between intentional and unintentional forms of DA since they call for distinct types of remedial action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-related issues feature prominently on the EU's agenda and in policies such as the Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025 which identifies gender equality as a core principle of the EU. Within the broader convergence discourse which examines whether candidate countries are converging with the EU, prompted by Turkey's withdrawal from the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention and the Sofagate incident, this paper conducts a gender-centric convergence analysis in the case Turkey. To this end, it uses five gender-focused indices compiled by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project. The empirical results from the convergence tests do not provide evidence supporting convergence in terms of these five gender-related indices. The findings of the present study concur with the existing relevant literature and should be viewed in the broader context of Turkey's democratic backsliding and de-Europeanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The wide circulation of conspiracy narratives and their frequent intertwining with populist rhetoric is both an element of concern and a topic of intense scientific and philosophical debate. The depth of the link between conspiracy theories and populism represents a crucial issue whose comprehension can facilitate understanding their specific nature and the factors behind their diffusion in public communication. To this end, it is necessary to cultivate an interdisciplinary approach and great critical attention, eschewing monocausal explanations. This paper addresses the question of the essentially political nature of conspiracism, confronting the recent epistemological debate that, by putting the positivist paradigm aside, has sought to explore and understand the socio-cultural roots of conspiracy rhetoric, with its sceptical, antagonistic and hermetic traits. By integrating the reflections of epistemologists such as Cassam or Harris with the considerations of political scientists such as Taggart and with Schmitt's radical reflections on politics, it is perhaps possible to reintegrate the different approaches to populist conspiracism into an overall social genealogical perspective, thanks also to recent demographic elaborations. Thus, we could ascribe the spread of conspiracism to the prevalence in societies of a hyperpolitical discursive regime, i.e., founded on the principle of opposition, without the possibility of compromise, between different groups and interests. At the basis of such Manichaeism, it is plausible to place in the first place the growing inequalities and related social disintegration, which hinder the circulation of trust and recognition between individuals and groups, thus ending up undermining democracy at its roots, as a political system that legitimises and thus peacefully regulates conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to conduct a literature review of the existing nexus between conspiracy theories and populist politics. Most of the literature considering the political nature of conspiracy theories has focused mainly on individual action and electoral choices, hence setting aside the agency of political leaders that deliberately resort to these tales to mobilise supporters. On the contrary, conspiracy theories are increasingly moving away from extremist politics to enter the institutional political arena and become part and parcel of the political narratives and strategies of institutional figures. Against this backdrop, the present work offers a new approach to investigate the connection between populist conspiracy theories and conspiracist populism and attempts to explain how conspiracist populism works and what its potential impact on contemporary democracies is. The analysis of the literature offers some theoretical insights to explore the specific case of the presidency of Kais Saied in Tunisia, which has been labelled as a form of constitutional populism integrating conspiracy theories. The inquiry on the Tunisian case demonstrates that conspiracy theories can represent both tactics and framings for populists in power, and, if democratic checks and balances are weak enough, they can lead to the erosion of democracy itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, artificial intelligence is being applied in areas ranging from public institutions to people's everyday lives. Its pervasiveness makes it a protagonist of essential changes in society. In recent years, sustainable development has moved to the centre of public discourse and national and international planning. The UN defines sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" and has developed the 2030 Agenda to achieve this objective (UN, 2015). AI's ubiquity and relevance mean it can be either a facilitator or a barrier to sustainable development. In a paper published in Nature, Vinuesa and colleagues (2020) highlighted how AI can facilitate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals but also pose a threat to their attainment. The importance of AI today requires a redefinition of the concept of sustainable development in order to protect areas that have become particularly sensitive to its proliferation. Therefore, reflection on how AI can contribute to achieving sustainable development should be in parallel with how AI redefines the dimensions of sustainable development. The dimensions worthy of attention identified in this work are Transparency, Autonomy, Democracy and Privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]