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The aim of this article is to examine trends of democratic backsliding associated with the long standing reform work on regional institutions and policies in Sweden. To this end, democratic backsliding is conceptualized in a different manner compared to conventional understandings. By doing so, the article highlights a missing aspect in the research on democratic backsliding that concerns how well-intended reforms designed to strengthen democratic institutions can also harbor non-democratic consequences. In Sweden, a new political arena was created when the former county councils were transformed into so-called called regions in 2019. As part of this, the regions have been assigned responsibility for both health care and regional development planning. The overall research problem to be analyzed in this article focuses on the relations between the policy objectives for democracy and regionalist ideas of economic growth that both were central concerns in the reform processes. The results highlight how the governing rationalities in the regional reform processes have changed during the period between 1990 and 2020. The original conception of creating a mini-version of a liberal and representative democracy have turned into a form of democratic backsliding privileging economic goals. The economic rationalities that permeate the political sphere today close the space for articulated different interests and opinions-a dimension that we argue is crucial for any democratic society. We draw two main conclusions: First that the neoliberal aspect of governing is missing in the analysis of democracy at the regional level, resulting in a descriptive discussion of democracy that tend to ignore the effects of the particularly strong emphasis on economic growth. Secondly, that there is a lack of a discussion on democracy that takes the regional level into account, i.e., that the sub-national level should be regarded and thus discussed as a distinctive level of democracy.

Background. The function of representation is the main one among other functions of the institutions of representative democracy. At the same time, permanent transformations in the formation and organization of the activities of representative authorities actualize the problem of adequate provision of the representative function of these institutions. The purpose of the research is to analyze the provision of the representative function of the lower house of the Russian parliament, as one of the institutions of representative democracy, at the present stage. Materials and methods. The implementation of the research tasks was achieved on the basis of the analysis of modern constitutional concepts that reflect the understanding and content of the function of representation, the study of the constitutional legislation of the Russian Federation, the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, domestic and foreign experience in ensuring the representative function of parliaments. The methodological potential includes methods of comparative legal and historical-legal analysis, logical, institutional and formal-legal methods. Results. The article considers the provision of the function of representation by the institutions of representative democracy, in particular by the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, analyzes the content of this function, identifies shortcomings in its provision, and makes suggestions for improving the representative function of the institutions of representative democracy at the present stage. Conclusions. On the basis of the conducted research, it is proposed to distinguish two main directions in the content of the representative function of the parliament: the most complete and correct representation of voters in the formation of the body; ensuring the representative function directly in the organization of the activities of the parliament. Proposals were made to adjust some aspects of the formation of the chambers of Parliament, focused on ensuring the function of representation.

Copyright of Revista de Derecho Politico is the property of Editorial UNED 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.)

Resentment is a complex, multi-layered emotion, within which perceptions of unfairness and feelings of anger are central. When linked to politics, it has predominantly been associated with the alleged "crisis of representative democracy" and populism. However, recent studies have shown that resentment can intervene positively in people's relations to politics and political institutions by facilitating certain types of political participation (Capelos & Demertzis, 2018). Despite this, the concept of resentment, and hence its role in contemporary representative democracy, is often poorly defined, with empirical investigations of its manifestation(s) remaining scarce. Borrowing a conceptualization of resentment as "resentful affectivity," our article draws on the analysis of focus groups carried out in Belgium (2019-2020) with individuals where resentful affectivity is likely to be observed (i.e., contemporary movements of contestation such as the Yellow Vests, Youth for Climate, and individuals who occupy a socially disadvantaged position). We find that experiences of intense anger, fear, disappointment, and the unfairness of representative democracy, i.e., of how representative democracy works on the ground, coexist simultaneously with remaining hopes in the democratic system. We show how this complex blend of emotions confronts citizens with what we call a "democratic dilemma." We document the different ways in which citizens cope with this dilemma and conclude by highlighting both the positive and negative ways in which resentment intervenes in the contemporary "crisis of representative democracy.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an approximation to the understanding of the so-called "confidence" and "satisfaction" crises of the Representative Democratic System in Mexico; Starting from the doctrinal and empirical establishment of the Democratic Representative System in the international context and in Mexico, the growing disaffection for political institutions and the level of satisfaction expressed by people in key moments of the Mexican democracy is studied: the first federal electoral process with the presidential party alternation, year 2000; the choice of the return to continuity and the consolidation of political pluralism, year 2012; and, the new post-alternation 2018. Statistical, theoretical and social data are used from surveys in Mexico that ask about the degree of satisfaction with democracy as a representative system, to what extent citizens have more or less trust in public and private institutions, and how these feelings have evolved. The available data show that the Mexican Representative Democratic System is suffering a crisis of confidence and satisfaction and that it has important challenges ahead. We propose a defense of institutional representation with corrections that can make it closer to the people, more sensitive and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their multiplication over the last 15 years, studies on the support for assemblies composed of citizens selected by lot are rare and the few that exist analyse citizens' attitudes towards such mini-publics as consultative bodies associated with traditional representative institutions. In this article, we examine support for citizens selected by lot as new policymakers who take the most important political decisions instead of political representatives. We contrast support for this radical democratic innovation with support for two other reforms that increase citizen participation: generic support for a greater involvement of citizens in policymaking, and specific support for citizen-initiated referendums. The goal is to understand whether the drivers of support for citizens selected by lot overlap or differ from the drivers of support for other forms of citizen participation. We rely upon data from the 2017 French Election Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Pädagogik is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa 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 action against climate change involves both civil society and public authorities. Putting them in an appropriate relationship is a historic challenge, and the climate paradigm is the context necessary for defining this relationship for the future. The issue of climate change occurs, at the level of public administration systems, at a time of transformations generated by a broad liberal trend at the level of the administrative action and of the administration-citizen relationship, and the generalization of dialogue between administration and citizens is a way to promote some new forms of action, such as the collaborative one, as a model of future administrative conduct. The problems of global warming and of the effects of climate change have imposed the intensification of the movement of association of the public to the decision-making process and the emergence of new forms of manifestation, in the sense of involving citizens in political options with a strong eco-climatic, scientific and technical dimension. Receiving extremely diverse characterizations, some even severe, from „innovation" to democratic „scam", the public decision-making procedures with the substantial and direct involvement of citizens, such as those exposed, can be a solution to the growing lack of legitimacy of the traditional representative instruments, insufficiently able to meet the requirements of the eco-climatic emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms are a primary means of communication in society. Public libraries play an empowering role in these processes, strengthening citizens' digital competences. This raises questions about what democratic processes the digital technology is made to enable. The study investigates how a Swedish Digital Library (DL) is envisioned and organised within a national digitalisation strategy. Qualitative methods are used, and a theoretical democracy framework is developed and used together with the concepts of education and Bildung in the analysis. Four empirical themes are identified. The analysis centres on tensions related to horizontality and hierarchy, and Bildung and sociality. The DL vision is dominated by a hierarchical and instrumental educational vision that connects to representative democracy. A subordinated social and pedagogical vision of inner motivational drives and partial forms of sharing, connected to deliberative and semi-participatory democracy forms, exists, mostly in the form of some cherry-picked Web 2.0 discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author conducts a comparative analysis of authoritarian liberalism’s concepts in contemporary political theory. The paper deals with the main directions of interpretation of authoritarian liberalism in the framework of methodological approaches and conceptual models of neoliberalism, ordoliberalism, political liberalism, J.-W. Mueller’s ‘restrained democracy’, J. Habermas’ ‘legitimation crisis’, C. Crouch’s ‘post-democracy’, C. Macpherson’s ‘participatory democracy’, M. Wilkinson’s ‘dedemocratisation and delegalisation’, W. Streeck’s ‘democratic capitalism crisis’ and G. Majone’s ‘crypto-federalism’. The basic analytical concept is the idea of authoritarian economic liberalism, first proposed by H. Heller and K. Polanyi. This paper will sub-stantiate that in crisis and transformational periods the actualisation of authoritarian liberalism corresponds to the fundamental tension between market capitalism and representative democracy. The author conceptualises authoritarian liberalism as the practice of dedemocratisation and restrained democracy, which results in the regionalisation of radical protest against the supranational regime of political integration in Europe. Latent political authoritarianism strengthens economic liberalism, which, in turn, reinforces the further EU’s ‘liberal authoritarian transformation’. Authoritarian liberalism restricts traditional forms of representative democracy, contributing to the reanimation of populism and political radicalism. The authoritarian restriction of representative democracy can lead not only to the strengthening of market capitalism, but also to the revival of reactionary forms of ‘new nationalism’ and illiberalism. Today, the EU’s regime is transformed from a nominally rule-based structure supported by market discipline into a ‘discretionary order’ reinforced by bureaucratic power. The EU’s transnational solidarity can become a democratically legitimate tool for a de-escalation of tensions between market capitalism and representative democracy.

This article explores the Brexit referendum, focusing on the political events that led to the vote, namely, the Conservative Party’s return to power, David Cameron’s attempts to appease the European divide within his party and the role played by the British Parliament in the whole process. It then discusses whether the referendum was the most suitable way to decide on European Union membership, considering the sovereignty of the British Parliament, as well as the contrast between representative democracy and direct democracy.

Populism is a particular type of constitutional pathology; a brand of groupthink in which a leader establishes a direct connection with the people and, by virtue of this connection, is able to govern outside the established constitutional processes of the state. This Article reflects on the interaction between populism and political parties. It argues that one of the roles of political parties is to act as a medium between political elites and the people; a medium that can, or should, enable the people to exercise control over this elite through their membership of parties. Populism therefore presents a threat to the proper operation of political parties, and the proper operation of political parties correspondingly threatens populism.

This exceptional book for our public opens dilemmas about the potential of democracy as it is, an opinion which is frequently taken for granted or rejected here, in a rather arbitrary manner. In contrast, both in structuralism and in its "post" stage there is also extreme strictness of opinion which is observed by the author throughout her presentation. The author does not choose to present the view from this point of view by sole discretion, but instead, in our opinion, does it because such perspective ensures meaningful alternatives in relation to the idea and actuality of (essentially totalitarian) (neo)liberal democracy. On the whole, this is a book by the author mature in political philosophy, the author with an attitude, whose detailed and reliable analysis brings to light the burning questions of contemporaneity.

Under the current confessional system, representative democracy in Lebanon suffers from a double crisis. At the institutional level, the prolonged presidential and cabinet vacancies combined with the slowness of the governmental machine reveal a considerable efficiency deficit. At the structural level, the current electoral representative system increasingly supports the organization of an oligarchic Lebanese regime where the concentration of power in a small number of people serves to benefit the interests of the confessional political elite. In this paper, I consider the establishment of a randomly selected senate as an alternative political answer to the crisis facing representative democracy in Lebanon. I identify the structural and political inadequacies of one of the dominant proposed resolutions, the "referendum solution," to deal with the current representative crisis. I argue that the introduction of sortition in Lebanese political procedures could be considered an evolution toward further deliberative democratization of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kafkas University, Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences Faculty / Kafkas Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of University of Kafkas, Faculty of Economics & Administrative Sciences 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.)

New Zealand's system of government is vulnerable to undue influence and distortion by private wealth. Our legal framework contains no limits on domestic political donations (including donations from corporations and lobbyists), weak disclosure standards for political financing, no political expenditure limits outside the election period, insufficient regulations on lobbying and the revolving door between public and private employment, and few meaningful regulations on conflicts of interest. Given the nation's high level of wealth concentration, these vulnerabilities pose a critical threat. Comprehensive electoral reforms are required to prevent economic inequality from becoming politically entrenched and representative democracy from being undermined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties seeking reelection should try to fulfill their election pledges. A number of studies trying to confirm this assumption were written in the last three decades. Existing studies have also identified a number of factors that increase or decrease the probability of pledge fulfillment. The goal of this review is to apprise the reader with the most important findings of these research attempts. To achieve this, the author have analyzed 44 studies focused on the topic of pledge fulfillment. The results clearly show that a political pledge has a better chance of fulfillment if it doesn't seek to change the status quo, its passing is agreed upon in the government coalition, and its fulfillment is not obstructed by the economical situation. The analyzed studies, however, also show that controlling the specific portfolio and issue saliency do not, contrary to the prevailing theoretical assumptions, increase the chance of fulfilling political pledges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study seeks to verify whether the performance of Brazilian Congressional Representatives is related to MHDI and GDP per capita indices and the regions they represent. Methodology - Regarding the performance of the parliamentarians, the data used were those made available by the Transparência Brasil portal and analyzed using the multivariate exploratory non-hierarchical cluster analysis technique K-means. Federative Units were divided into clusters according to the similarities they presented with respect to the variables that made up the analysis. Findings - After the analyses, we were able to determine that there is no relation of equivalence between the performance of representatives in Congress and the observed research development indices (MHDI and GDP per capita) with states of different regions and quite distinct conditions of development making up the same group of analysis. Originality/value - The researched data, or even the identification of transparency actions demonstrates the wide variety of analysis possibilities that are available in terms of discussions of the performance of political agents and their respective returns for the population. We would suggest that future studies can use other data or other reports displayed in the transparency portals of various spheres of government. Other research possibilities can be developed based on qualitative analyses of the effective representativity of the projects proposed by these representatives of the people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Socjologiczne is the property of Studia Socjologiczne 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 paper analyses limitations and shortcomings of representative democracy in Vietnam today as incomplete election principles, limited selection ability in election of voters, weaknesses in election campaign, weaknesses in electoral district design, weaknesses in establishing the relationship between the National Assembly delegates and voters, dependence and no real power of National Assembly. On that basis, the paper offers some solutions to innovate and improve the representative democracy in Vietnam today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latin American Law Review is the property of Universidad de los Andes 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.)

Many contemporary democratic theorists are democratic egalitarians. They think that the distinctive value of democracy lies in equality. Yet this position faces a serious problem. All contemporary democracies are representative democracies. Such democracies are highly unequal: representatives have much more power than do ordinary citizens. So, it seems that democratic egalitarians must condemn representative democracies. In this paper, I present a solution to this problem. My solution invokes popular control. If representatives are under popular control, then their extra power is not objectionable. Unfortunately, so I argue, in the United States representatives are under loose popular control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a reaction against contemporary democracy's inherent short-sightedness in solving problems that are likely to affect distant future generations, there has been a recent increase in proposals for different kinds of democratic representation of future persons. This article shows that even though there can be no such thing as political representation of future persons, the relevant affected interests of the as-yet unborn can still be taken into consideration in political decision making. This aim is achieved by focusing on the political representation of children as special cases of semi-future members of the class of the represented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive participation of young people regarding political events was muted for many years. However, with the positioning of communications globally, the millennial generation is becoming more and more involved. Thus, in the framework of representative democracy of revealing an increasingly active participation, young people now communicate their feelings and their position, showing their agreement or disagreement with political decisions and events. Starting from this premise, and with a mixed approach, a questionnaire of 16 questions was applied to 3474 millennials, students of higher and technological institutes located in Lima. Furthermore, an analysis was carried out of the statements of academics and heads of state, as well as international cases where the participation of this generation stands out, as happened in the Arab Spring and in other events that occurred in South America, to glimpse the gaps that are open in the political structure of Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Araucaria is the property of Araucaria-Revista Iberoamericana de Filosofia, Politica y Humanidades 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 Annals of the Croatian Political Science Association / Anali Hrvatskog Politoloskog Drustva is the property of Croatian Political Science Association 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, following classical methodological patterns, as well as their evolution framework, identifies key features of the two most predominant constitutionalism traditions -- political and legal, simultaneously drawing indispensable red lines with regard to correlation of the doctrine and a Fundamental Law itself. Respectively, the features have been rendered as the very elements of constitutionalism's role within times of change -- i. e., over the aforementioned time frames and transition states in between -- whereas the doctrine's capacity to answer so-called "questions of constitutionalism" constitutes its underlying response mechanism. The article addresses the phenomena of authority, society and democracy in their modern perception, and makes crucial points upon the constitutionalism's effect on their sheer structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Debates is the property of Revista Debates 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.)