<p>This dissertation examines whether democratic citizens are responsible for the behavior of their governments. Through careful analysis of the political theory and practice of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Addams, I demonstrate that notions of democracy that are distinctly modern in their emphasis upon plurality and individuality can instill in citizens a sense of responsibility for public life. My analysis also calls attention to several challenges that make ethical democratic citizenship a demanding undertaking. In the final chapters, I construct an account of responsible democratic citizenship that addresses these challenges, drawing upon lessons learned from my discussion of Thoreau and Addams, as well as from more contemporary thinkers. Democratic citizens, I argue, do not fully control the circumstances in which they act, and thus they often become implicated in outcomes to which they have not explicitly consented. If they aspire to be self-ruling, however, they must accept some responsibility for political outcomes that affect their own wellbeing and are affected by their behavior. Furthermore, I argue that citizens are unlikely to recognize and discharge their shared responsibilities unless they cultivate particular attitudes, including curiosity, flexibility, sympathy, humility and courage. These attitudes enable citizens to learn about the problems for which they are responsible and cooperate with others to solve shared problems.</p> / Dissertation

<p>In this dissertation, I develop a political liberal ethics of citizenship that reconciles conflicting religious and civic obligations concerning political participation and deliberation--a liberal-democratic ethics of citizenship that is compatible with religious integrity. I begin by canvassing the current state of the debate between political liberals and their religious critics, engaging Rawls's Political Liberalism and the various religious objections Nicholas Wolterstorff, Christopher Eberle, Robert George, John Finnis, Paul Weithman, Jeffrey Stout, and Gerald Gaus and Kevin Vallier develop (Chapter One). I then critically evaluate political liberalism's requirements of citizens in light of the religious objections and the religious objections in light of political liberal norms of reciprocity, concluding that some religious citizens have legitimate complaints against citizenship requirements that forbid citizens from offering religious arguments alone in public political discussions (Chapter Two). Next, I propose an alternative set of guidelines for public political discussions in constitutional democracies, the phased account of democratic decision-making, that, I argue, addresses the religious citizens' legitimate complaints without undermining a constitutional democracy's legitimacy or commitment to public justification (Chapter Three). Then, I argue that a religious practice of political engagement I call prophetic witnessing is compatible with the phased account, can serve as a canonical model to guide religious citizens' political participation, and can help religious citizens navigate the substantive conflicts between their religious and civic obligations that remain possible even in a society that follows the phased account (Chapter Four). Finally, I conclude by imagining three different democracies, each adhering to a different set of guidelines for public political discussions, in order to argue for the benefit of adopting norms that balance citizens' obligations to govern themselves legitimately with citizens' ability to integrate their deepest moral and religious commitments and their public, political argument and advocacy.</p> / Dissertation

The addition of random selection to our arsenal of methods for selecting political officials would enhance performance against norms of representative democracy. I employ historical and analytic methods to explore the nature of sortition and its relation to political equality, rational decision-making, and legitimate representation. Sortition both expresses a democratic commitment to political equality and facilitates improved performance under this democratic norm. It can be rational to eschew reasons in the process of selecting political officials, and decision-making bodies chosen randomly can be expected to make good decisions. I also address concerns stemming from representative norms, surrounding random selection of officials, arguing that random selection can enhance the resemblance and responsiveness of representatives. Finally, I detail some possibilities for institutional arrangements that would deliver the benefits of sortition while addressing the challenges it presents. / text

This dissertation asks how the communication dimensions of technological literacy are understood in three informal education programs in Texas that aim to bridge the digital divide for female and low-income minority youth. Technological literacy is a prerequisite for economic, political, and cultural equality, yet different rationales for technological literacy highlight the economic, democratic, and social benefits for marginalized youth. Economically, technological literacy prepares youth to enter the workforce and positions the U.S. as competitive in the global market. Democratically, technological literacy allows citizens to participate in political discussions. Socially, technological literacy helps citizens make decisions in their everyday lives. Drawing from developmental democratic theory, I argue for an expanded definition of technological literacy that highlights the importance of communication and cultural production to democratic societies. Developmental democratic theory stresses the importance of individual development, including self-expression and creativity, to fostering democracy. I argue for an analysis of the digital divide that looks at capabilities, or the freedoms individuals have to pursue their own desires. These capabilities include self-representation, accessing information that is relevant to one’s life, learning to communicate about technology, and the freedom to achieve what one values. My research questions are grounded not only in the processes through which youth engage in technological learning through their participation in these informal educational programs, but also how the programs’ missions and activities envision technological literacy. Thus, I ask how is technological literacy conceptualized in three informal education programs? How is technological literacy implemented in program activities? How do youth themselves respond to technology and technological learning? I investigate these research questions through participant-observation, interviews, self-administered questionnaires, and analysis of program documents and students’ projects. I analyze these research questions in light of the economic, political, and social rationales for technological literacy. / text

Ordinary citizens are rarely charged with making consequential decisions in representative democracies. Almost all consequential decisions are delegated to elected representatives or political appointees. On what basis should we judge whether decisions should be placed in the hands of ordinary citizens or delegated to political elites? I argue that decision-making authority should be allocated in whatever way an assembly of randomly selected citizens would choose, given reasonable beliefs about the consequences of their possible choices. The standard I defend is a variation of the principal-agent model of political representation, in which the people are viewed as a principal and officeholders as their agents. As it is usually formulated, the objectives of the people are defined by the preferences of the majority. I draw on this formulation in chapter 4 to explain why the majority might rationally prefer to delegate authority to a citizens’ assembly instead of an elected legislature and why they might rationally view citizens’ assemblies with distrust, when they are organized and administered by elites. But the standard formulation of the principal-agent model does not provide a coherent standard when the will of the majority is not well-defined. Several chapters on social choice theory explain this problem and why political theorists’ previous responses to it have been unconvincing. In light of this problem, I argue for a revisionary understanding of the principal-agent model, according to which the people and its will are identified not with the preferences of the majority but rather with the decisions of a citizens’ assembly. To motivate this approach I offer a critique of the recent literature on “epistemic democracy,” which describes an alternative form of justification for empowering ordinary citizens. Appeals to expertise and knowledge have historically figured prominently in justifications of political exclusion and hierarchy, but epistemic democrats put them to use in defending participatory forms of democratic politics. Epistemic democrats claim that decision processes in which inexpert, ordinary citizens participate can exhibit greater “collective wisdom” than elite- or expert-dominated decision-making. Chapters 2 and 3 explain why these arguments sit uncomfortably with the nature of disagreements in politics. / Government

<p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1998</p> / digitalisering@umu

This thesis brings together democratic theory's calls for an understanding of the actually existing democratic state and anthropological work on innovative forms of citizen participation. Building on the work of Joao Biehl and Steven Robins, the research focuses on access to knowledge and claims of expertise as grounds upon which politicians and bureaucrats exclude citizen participation. It argues, using an ethnographic case study of South African student activist group Equal Education, that authors such as Max Weber, Michel Foucault, and James Scott are wrong to imply that citizens cannot train themselves in the technocratic manner frequently deployed by the state's representatives. It also argues, however, that the state's representatives are often not the technocrats they are hypothesised to be or that they claim to be, and their knowledge practices cannot be separated from politics. This makes the process through which citizens establish expertise and credibility with the government more complicated than simply training themselves in the government's knowledge practices. Drawing on the work of Danielle Allen and Francesca Polletta, the thesis thus also examines how questions of personal experience and identity on grounds of lived experience as well as claimed or perceived identity often interact with claims to knowledge, opening up or shutting down citizens' ability to participate. Even when citizens are able to leverage their technocratic expertise to successfully influence policy creation, they may still find it difficult to effectively participate in the implementation thereof beyond external monitoring and accountability enforcement. The thesis concludes that the current democratic theory ought not be so pessimistic about the spectre of a know-nothing citizenry, but nor ought it presume that education and expertise alone will be sufficient for democratic governments to take seriously an involved and engaged citizenry.

Submitted by Caroline Falcao (caroline.rfalcao@ufpe.br) on 2017-05-09T15:49:57Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese Julio Cezar Gaudencio da Silva.pdf: 2494212 bytes, checksum: 444dd559077991f28c8988faa5d129c3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-09T15:49:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Tese Julio Cezar Gaudencio da Silva.pdf: 2494212 bytes, checksum: 444dd559077991f28c8988faa5d129c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-25 / O presente trabalho realizou uma reflexão acerca dos principais estudos que têm sido realizados pela ciência política brasileira e cujo foco central é a democracia no país. Todavia, dado o grande número de trabalhos que versam sobre essa questão, a opção feita foi por privilegiar os que enfatizam a dimensão institucionalista e a cultura política. Com ênfase nos aspectos epistemológicos, teóricos e metodológico, para assim identificar potencialidades e limitações do ponto de vista analítico. A partir daí, foram apresentadas algumas iniciativas de maior aproximação entre a vertente institucionalista e a vertente da cultura política, na tentativa de permitir a constituição de um cenário ainda mais fértil do ponto de vista das possibilidades de análise no campo da teoria democrática contemporânea e do próprio regime político adotado no Brasil. / This study conducted a reflection on the major studies that have been conducted by the Brazilian political science and whose central focus is the democracy in the country. However, given the large number of papers that deal with this issue, the choice was made to favor those that emphasize the size institutionalist and political culture. With emphasis on the epistemological, theoretical and methodological, thus identifying the potential and limitations of the analytical point of view. From there, we presented some initiatives to further integration between the strand and the strand of institutionalist political culture, in an attempt to allow the creation of a scenario even more fertile in terms of the possibilities of analysis in the field of contemporary democratic theory and the actual political regime adopted in Brazil.

Cette thèse doctorale porte sur la promotion de la démocratie par l’Union Européenne (UE) dans ce qui est défini comme son ‘voisinage’, selon le point de vue de la théorie politique normative. A cet effet, ces travaux théorisent les fondations philosophiques de la valeur de la démocratie (chapitre 1), décrivent les activités de promotion de la démocratie par l’UE dans son voisinage (chapitre 2), développent une théorie normative générale de la promotion de la démocratie (chapitre 3), l’appliquent à la promotion de la démocratie par l’UE (chapitre 4) et confrontent cette promotion de la démocratie par l’UE à leur propres standards normatifs (chapitre 5). / This dissertation examines EU democracy promotion in what it defines as its ‘neighbourhood’ from the perspective of normative political theory. To that end, it theorises the philosophical foundations of the value of democracy (chapter one); describes the substance of EU democracy promotion in the neighbourhood (chapter two); develops a general normative theory of democracy promotion (chapter three); applies this to EU democracy promotion (chapter four); and tests EU democracy promotion to its own normative standards (chapterfive).

Democracies are argued to be imperative for the advancement of LGBTQ human rights. In the last two decades, however, the picture regarding LGBTQ rights has been extremely contradictory with countries adopting ‘LGBTQ friendly’ policies such as same-sex marriage or adoption while other democratic nation-states have constrained or not developed the rights of sexual minorities. Flaws in the democratic political system and the international human right regime are believed to be responsible for that. The aim of this paper is to investigate the significance of democracy in relation to sexual and gender minority human rights. This is done by (a) framing the study through previous studies related to the topic, the use of Queer IR and democratic theory, and (b) conducting a small-N comparison with content analysis where Brazil, Bulgaria and Namibia are analysed to answer the research question. Democracy is demonstrated to be a necessary factor in the process of LGBTQ right advancement, but not essential. Other factors are believed to influence the process, especially social movements and their effect in norm internalisation processes.