In light of the notions of freedom, legitimacy, equality, autonomy, plurality, publicity and action in the philosophies of Rousseau and Arendt, it can be seen that formal democracy, having ceased to be the expression of the sovereignty of the people, fell into a legitimacy crisis and has become a system which makes the people apolitical. Behind these problems, there are many reasons like the ethical deficiency of the monetarist system, deputies&rsquo / abuse of authority and tyranny of the majority. The facts in question have pushed philosophers to re-think the fundamental concepts underlying democracy and search for new conceptions of democracy. Nevertheless, it seems that no political model can succeed unless the people reach a certain level of ethical maturity. In this context, we are confronted with two models: liberal deliberative model which is criticized for giving negative rights priority over the process of public will-formation, and Habermas&rsquo / proceduralism which is based on the theory of discourse ethics. Habermasian democracy&mdash / which, contrary to majoritarianism, assumes the consent of all people as the basis of legitimacy&mdash / has goals like intersubjective understanding through rational justification and consensus in an ideal speech situation. Although it has criticizable sides, being the most appropriate account for our understanding of democracy ethics, which considers politics as a part of being human rather than a matter of governance, proceduralism can be defended with the contributions of Benhabib and Young. In the end, the point is making ethics of democracy prior to political models for re-politization of the people.

<p>There is a gap between the citizens and the political institutions of the European Union. Several years of low participation in the European Parliamentary elections and a number of surveys shows that the EU has weak legitimacy in the eyes of the people.</p><p>This thesis is a critical study of EU’s communication with the citizens until 2005. Based on Habermas’s theoroetical framework, it searches for deliberative qualities within the EU’s structure. According to Habermas, political legitimacy requires that people can shape and express their opinions in a public sphere, but the EU does not really have a public sphere. He also emphasizes the importance of good channels of communication between people and politicians, but within the EU, communication has been synonymous with information (or marketing) and practically unilateral. This leads to the conclusion that the EU’s lack of deliberative qualities can have affected EU’s political legitimacy negatively.</p>

<p>There is a gap between the citizens and the political institutions of the European Union. Many theorists think that this is due to the fact that the EU suffers from a “democratic deficit” and that the EU is perceived as a project made by and for the political elite. Several years of low participation in the European Parliamentary elections and the French and Dutch rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty in Spring 2005 shows that the EU has weak legitimacy in the eyes of the people.</p><p>In 2004, Margot Wallström was charged to renew the European Commission’s communication strategy and to reconnect with the citizens by stimulating dialogue and debate. This thesis is a critical study of the deliberative qualities of the new communication strategy based on Habermas’s discursive theory, which discusses the strategy’s possible effects on EU legitimacy. It finds that the communication strategy, despite several deliberative apects, have little chances to have an impact on EUs legitimacy, since it fails to engage “common people” in the debate and since it is not part of a major institutional reform but just an “icing on the cake”.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

This study explored the nature of Future Session workshops in current Japan by identifying the motivations, conducting analysis from the point of view a deliberative democracy, and examining the potentials for developing future visions of society. Four workshops were targeted that dealt with a wide range of societal problems and commonly challenged existing societal structures. The study found that the workshops were motivated by the doubt over the current direction of the society, a demand for a crosscutting cooperation between different fields, and a need to foster proactive actors through participatory workshop processes. Accordingly, it is argued that “deliberative democracy of workshops” based on dialogue and collaboration rather than confrontational communication and competition constitutes a Japanese deliberative democracy. The study also shows that the created projects and processes of deliberation contained many critical perspectives towards the dominant societal structure and norms. Finally, it is concluded that the process of actualizing the projects should be reflected carefully and the potential of these methods depends on the overreaching objective of its use.

This report addresses how leaders at the Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) can respond to changes in administration, staff, and funding to promote awareness and recognition of the UWC and increase funding to both preserve and enhance UWC programs and services that will address the needs of UT’s dynamic student population. In doing so, I apply reflective and deliberative practitioner theories to writing center work, analyzing my work at the UWC from the perspective of a reflective practitioner and participatory planner. I first provide an overview of the UWC. I then explore theories related to writing pedagogy and practice and serving as a reflective and deliberative practitioner. Next, I discuss trends in the university climate in general and UT in particular, using them to contextualize the challenges affecting the UWC as an organization working with the university system as it enters into the transition period. Finally, I propose responses to these challenges as well as future directions for UWC leaders. / text

This thesis examines the quality and effectiveness of online political deliberation, within the framework of Jurgen Habermas’ public sphere and discourse theories. The thesis analyzes a deliberative process that took place online, in June 2011, as part of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Extraordinary Convention, specifically through content and discourse analysis of data from online discussion platforms. The analysis sought to ascertain whether the objectives of the convention were met, measured the quality of discourse and identified insights to support the creation of more effective spaces for political deliberation online. Analysis of the results revealed a difference in the discourse quality for each platform, attributed to the synchronicity or asynchronicity of the platform. The thesis concludes with suggestions for a design that makes use of both the synchronous and asynchronous features of the online discussion platforms in order to more specifically target the objectives of the political process.

This thesis examines the quality and effectiveness of online political deliberation, within the framework of Jurgen Habermas’ public sphere and discourse theories. The thesis analyzes a deliberative process that took place online, in June 2011, as part of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Extraordinary Convention, specifically through content and discourse analysis of data from online discussion platforms. The analysis sought to ascertain whether the objectives of the convention were met, measured the quality of discourse and identified insights to support the creation of more effective spaces for political deliberation online. Analysis of the results revealed a difference in the discourse quality for each platform, attributed to the synchronicity or asynchronicity of the platform. The thesis concludes with suggestions for a design that makes use of both the synchronous and asynchronous features of the online discussion platforms in order to more specifically target the objectives of the political process.

Greater public participation has been recognized in the socio-political sphere as a growing imperative and a recent phenomenon is a shift in governance towards the "politics of inclusion" at the local and in some cases, the provincial level. Democracy is fundamental to sustainable development because when people participate in the decisions that affect their lives, they are more committed to their implementation. Once community buy-in is garnered, people are empowered to engage in organized action and advocate for the causes they stand for which can affect the necessary changes in moving towards a sustainable community. Our Street London is a grassroots collective that supports alternatives to mainstream modalities of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation, as well sustainable urban form. My objective is to understand the richness and detail of the social constructions of the actors in the lived environment. My research explores successful community engagement strategies and how the knowledge generated through the inquiry process can benefit Our Street London members to mobilize group capacity, hence affecting the future directions of the group. My main method of data collection consisted of semi-structured, open-ended interviews with experts on community engagement. Participants consisted of academics, long-time practitioners, and employees of small to medium-sized sustainability/environmental and social justice organizations. This research does have an action-oriented intent to work with Our Street London beyond the scope of this project in translating recommendations into action.

According to the Swedish curriculum the education should establish respect for human rights and democratic values (Skolverket, 2011, s.7). The purpose of this study is to investigate how five first grade teachers understand the democracy education and how they practice it in reality. I have, based on the purpose of this study issued following questions: What is the teachers interpretation of the democracy education?  How does the teachers work with democracy in practice? What difficulties does the teachers see with the democracy education? This study is made through a qualitative method based on interviews with five teachers. The results show that the teachers at both schools, despite the different definitions of the concept of democracy, yet interprets democracy education relatively equal. All of the teachers perceive the democracy education as an assignment where the focus is on student participation, responsibility and opinions as well as human rights. In practice the work with the democracy education is done through activities such as class councils and voting. The teachers also emphasizes discussions as an important part of the democracy education which can be linked to deliberative democracy. The difficulties that teachers see with the democracy education concerns being neutral to certain values. One conclusion from this study is that teachers work with democracy education mostly on the basis of learning for and learning through democracy.