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. 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”.

After the appointment of a new European Commission in 2004, “communication” was made a top priority on the agenda. The Commission presented a new communication policy, which would establish a dialogue with the citizens, thereby bringing more democracy to the union and bridging the gap to the citizens. Three documents containing the policy were published, namely an internal action plan for the Commission, Plan D which establishes the framework for national debates and a whitepaper on EU communication policy. These documents were met by mistrust and criticism from many different actors such as journalists and experts. The aim of this master thesis is to examine this new communication policy from a deliberative democratic perspective. The thesis asks whether the new policy has a potential of contributing to deliberative democracy, by investigating the documents from a discursive point of view. Deliberative democracy focuses mainly on public discussions and the generation of a general will by public conversation where every one has a right to participate on equal terms. This thesis uses a discursive interpretation, as stated by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas, where the public sphere and political rights which constitutes the public area plays an important role. The theoretical perspective is used in the thesis to understand and assess the policy. To be able to draw conclusions, the new communication policy is searched for discursive ideas and the occurrence is analyzed by a both qualitative and quantitative text analysis. The analysis shows that the policy includes a lot of actions that goes well along with a discursive perspective, as defined in the thesis, although some important considerations are missing. The new communication policy as presented by the European Commission has therefore a good potential of contributing to deliberative democracy in the Union. The policy is also discussed in relation to the criticism that has been presented regarding the theory of deliberative democracy. The thesis shows that the communication policy includes actions which decrease the importance of this criticism, allowing for the policy to possibly contribute to European democracy and decreasing the democratic deficit.

This thesis shows how democratic politics requires a commitment to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other in their otherness. I contend that it is necessary to commit to such an idea of pluralism because of the problem of incomplete understanding. I establish this premise by drawing on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Based on this premise, I argue that the instantiation of Gadamer’s principle of openness leads democratic politics to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other. Further, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. In chapter 1, I establish discourse as a necessary element for democratic politics by drawing from the way Jurgen Habermas uses ‘discourse ethics’ to address the problems of understanding in plural societies. In chapter 2, I demonstrate how incomplete understanding poses a problem for discourse and gives rise to interpretive conflicts by drawing from Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Here I also develop an account of openness as a suitable principle for beings with incomplete understanding based on Gadamer’s idea of hermeneutical experience. In chapters 3-5, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. I do so by drawing from Iris Young’s, John Dryzek’s, and Chantal Mouffe’s approaches to the problems that plurality poses to discourse ethics and democratic politics.

[pt] O objetivo do presente trabalho é tratar do fenômeno do ativismo judicial utilizado pela jurisdição constitucional brasileira para sindicar inúmeras omissões legislativas, dentre as quais se destaca a condução da reforma eleitoral pelo Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE), a partir da regulamentação da perda do mandato por infidelidade partidária pela Resolução 22.610/07. O objetivo do estudo é examinar os impactos negativos do ativismo judicial em relação ao princípio da separação de poderes e ao princípio democrático, bem como a possibilidade de aplicação da teoria de autocontenção judicial da autoria de Sunstein ao direito brasileiro visando combater tanto o ativismo judicial quanto o institucionalismo assimétrico, que sobrevalorizam a capacidade institucional do Poder Judiciário em detrimento do Poder Legislativo para tratar de questões constitucionais complexas. Aborda-se, ainda, a potencialidade desta teoria para incentivar a prática de um diálogo material entre os poderes Legislativo e Judiciário num contexto de interpretação cooperativa da Constituição, com intervenções recíprocas destes poderes no aprimoramento do sentido e do alcance do texto constitucional. Ao final do trabalho, pretende-se demonstrar que a aplicação da referida teoria ao constitucionalismo brasileiro garante ao Poder Legislativo igual capacidade institucional para interpretar a Constituição, ao lidar com questões constitucionais complexas, o que atesta a sua potencialidade de combater o ativismo judicial e incentivar o debate público a partir do ideal de democracia deliberativa. / [en] The aim of this paper is to address the phenomenon of judicial activism used by the Brazilina constitucional jurisdiction to syndicate several legislative omissions among which stands out the conduct of electoral reform the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), based on the regulation of the disqualification by party loyalty by Resolution 22.610/07. The objective is to examine the negative impacts of judicial activism in relation to the principle of separation of powers and the democratic principle and the possibility of applying the theory of judicial selfrestraint Sunstein authored by Brazilian law to combat both judicial activism and asymmetrical institutionalism, which overemphasize the institutional capacity of the judiciary at the expense of the Legislature to deal with complex constitutional issues. Covers are also the potential of this theory to the practice of encouraging a dialogue between the legislative material and judicial interpretation in the context of cooperative Constitution, with powers of reciprocal assistance in enhancing the meaning and scope of the constitutional text. At the end of the work is intended to demonstrate that the application of that theory to the Brazilian constitutionalism provides the legislature with equal institutional capacity to interpret the Constitution, dealing with complex constitutional issues, which attests to their potential to combat judicial activism and encourage public debate from the ideal of deliberative democracy.

Syftet med studien var att synliggöra fem grundskolelärares tolkning, förhållningssätt och behandling av värdegrunds- och demokratiarbetet. Studien har utgått från två forskningsfrågor och samtliga fem lärare har återgett sina utsagor för att studien ska kunna ge en klar bild av syftet. Studien har utgått från kvalitativa metoder där semi-strukturerade intervjuer ligger till grund för insamling av empiri. Lärarna som blivit intervjuade kommer från två olika skolor, fördelade i två olika städer i södra Sverige. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i deliberativ- och deltagande demokrati teori. Samtliga grundskolelärare har med sina tolkningar, behandlat och förhållit sig till värdegrunden och det demokratiska uppdraget på varierande sätt. De hade enad uppfattning att kärnan i värdegrundsarbetet är alla människors lika värde. I det demokratiska arbetet var samtliga lärare eniga om att kärnan av arbetet utgörs av att eleverna ska få vara aktiva i diskussioner och samtal där de får yttra sina ståndpunkter. En ytterligare uppfattning lärarna var enade om av det demokratiska arbetet är att eleverna ska få vara delaktiga och påverka, exempelvis genom att få vara med och rösta i demokratiska sammanhang. Slutsatsen är att värdegrunden och det demokratiska uppdraget är grundskolelärarens främsta uppdrag i skolväsendet och den ska genomsyra hela verksamheten och undervisningen. För att skolan ska kunna fostra sina elever till demokratiska samhällsmedborgare så behöver verksamheten präglas av värden och demokratiska förhållningssätt för att förbereda eleverna till framtida samhällsmedborgare. / The purpose of this study was to examine how five teachers in two different primary schools interpret, process and approach democracy and values in their education. The study is based on two research questions and all five teachers have reproduced their statement so that the study can provide a clear picture of the purpose. The study has been based on qualitative methods where semi-structured interviews formed the basis for data collection. The teachers who have been interviewed originates from two different schools, distributed in two different cities in the southern part of Sweden. The study is based on deliberative- and participatory democracy theory. Following five teachers interpreted, treated, and related to the Swedish value-system and the democracy mission in different ways. All teachers had a common view on how to work with the Swedish value-system and that the core of the value-system is the human equality. In the democratic mission, all teachers agreed on the meaning of the democracy task which the pupils should be active in discussions and conversations where they can express their opinions. A further view such as the teachers agreed on was in order that the pupils should be allowed to participate and influence, for instance be allowed to participate and vote in democratic contexts. The conclusion is that the Swedish value-system and the democratic mission are teacher’s main task in the school system and must permeate entire school activity and the education. The school need to be able to educate the pupils to become democratic citizens and the school activities need to be characterized by values and democratic attitudes to prepare the pupils to become future citizens.

This case study has looked at the significance transition from petitions to e-petitions has have for the proportion of approved proposals in the municipal council within Östersund municipality. The study has used a deliberative approach to how conversations are conducted between institution and citizen, this has been tested using a quasi-experiment and included a comparison with an after-before scenario with petitions and possible effects within different social groups that can be affected. The results of the study show that the difference between petitions and e-petitions is small, but that the color of the political majority in the council has a decisive factor behind whether proposals are approved more or rejected. Gender turns out to have a certain factor in how decisions are approved or rejected, where women received more approval than men which is interesting as it goes against previous research. / Denna fallstudie har tittat på vilken betydelse som en övergång från petitioner till e-petitioner har fått för andelen bifallna förslag i kommunfullmäktige inom Östersund kommun. Studien har använt sig av ett deliberativ tillvägagångsätt för hur samtal förs mellan institution och medborgare, detta har prövats med hjälp av ett kvasi-experiment och en jämförelse med ett efter-före scenario för möjliga effekter inom olika sociala skikt som kan påverkas med en ändrad petition. Resultatet av studien visar att skillnaden mellan petitioner och e-petitioner är små, men att den politiska majoritetens färg i fullmäktige har en avgörande faktorn bakom om förslag bifalls eller avslås. Kön visar sig även ha en viss faktor för hur beslut bifall eller avslås där kvinnor fick fler bifall än män, vilket är intressant då den går emot den tidigare forskningen. / <p>2021-06-04</p>

The purpose of the study is to investigate how the curriculum for the Swedish upper secondary school meets the democratic challenges facing Sweden. These challenges come in the form of democratic exclusion, anti-democratic values​​and threats to the democratic conversation. The study is based on a qualitative text analysis in the form of discourse analysis. The material that forms the basis for the work is the Swedish curriculum for the upper secondary school and the syllabus for social science. Social science is a subject that has a special position in the sense that the subject should also convey knowledge about democracy. The study shows that the curriculum seeks to provide students with knowledge and values​​in order to gain skills for effective participation in society. The curriculum together with the syllabus for social science seeks to create justice oriented citizens with a focus on academic reasoning. A large part of how the curriculum manages to meet the democratic challenges lies in the curriculum's intention to transfer certain values. Human rights, gender equality and people's equal value are some of the fundamental values ​​that counter democratic challenges. On the other hand, the so-called democracy mission faces challenges in itself. Discussions about the goal- and knowledge-oriented curriculum are conducted. Even the high level of interpretability of the curriculum may be the basis for a problem.

The leader of the climate change regime is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which hosts the international climate change negotiations at the annual Conference of Parties (COP). In addition to official parties which represent nations in the UNFCCC, businesses and environmental groups are also playing a role in the negotiations as observers, which are grouped together in constituencies. This research will look at the two largest and original constituencies, the Business NGOs (BINGOs) and the Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) which represent business and environmental groups respectively. Both constituencies have a focal point for their members with the UNFCCC Secretariat, which for BINGOs is the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Climate Action Network (CAN) for ENGOs. Specifically, this paper compares the ICC and CAN and finds similarities and differences between their functioning within the UNFCCC in regards to their ability to build coherent policies between their members and how transparent they are in their activities. It was predicted that businesses groups have a harder time working together and are less transparent than the environmental groups which the research indeed confirmed. A series of interviews with various actors in the climate negotiations...

Public power in democratic society emanates from the citizens and is, in its turn, responsible to them. The citizens are entitled to observe, scrutinize and influence it. The public consists of private individuals actively engaged in public affairs and coordinating this activity with others. The present essay is concerned with Jürgen Habermasʼ concepts of the public in his The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, The Theory of Communicative Action, and Between Facts and Norms. At first, these works are interpreted and critically evaluated here. Then, the issue of the public is developed with special emphasis on the concept as it is elaborated in Between Facts and Norms. This essay tries to characterize the civil public and pursues the question how it is positioned in the larger frame of the civil society. The public is studied from the point of view of its influence in society. Habermas ascribes a substantial role to the public, for, according to his idea of the deliberative democracy, the public takes a part in the democratic processes of lawmaking and that by means of a dialogue with the public power. In this perspective, the public is conceived of as communicative power. This dissertation concentrates on the origins and forming of the communicative power and the ensuing process of its...

Mass media has always played the key role in democratic process. They are not only the indicator of its right functioning, but also the iniciator. From historical point of view is obvious, that technological progress and changes in the way of informing people were related to the political area. But with the increasing role of media, they changed their position from pure mediators of informations to the main actors of social and political life. The ‚old' media, such as newspapers, radio and television, are therefore partly responsible for commercialization of the public sphere and also for its depolitization. With contribution of the globalization effect on today's world, which causes besides other things the weakening of the nation state, there are only a little of the key democratic aspects left. Some find the solution in the ‚new' media represented by the Internet and social media, which are more interactive so they could get the citizens back to the game. And right in the increase of civic engagement see the theorists the potencial for creating a new democratic order based on high-level participation. KEY WORDS Mass media, Democracy, Public Sphere, Civic Engagement, Internet, Social media, Participative Democracy, Deliberative Democracy