Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2002. / AD-A404 713. Thesis advisor(s): Lyman Miller, Donald Abenheim. "AD-A404 713." Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-59). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

In this essay I investigate whether political deliberation in an assembly of 300 people that is randomly selected from the entire population (democratic deliberation) is epistemically superior to political deliberation in an assembly of the same size where individuals have been selected based on certain criteria (non-democratic deliberation). I present Helene Landemore’s argument in favor of the epistemic superiority of democratic deliberation and consider Aaron Ancell’s critique of this argument. I argue the point that Ancell’s critique fails but that a conclusive result on whether democratic deliberation is epistemically superior to non-democratic deliberation has to await further investigations, some of which I take to be empirical in nature. / I denna essä undersöker jag huruvida politiskt problemlösande i en grupp av 300 slumpmässig utvalda personer från hela befolkningen befolkningen (demokratiskt problemlösande) är epistemiskt överlägsen politisk problemlösande i en grupp av samma storlek där individer har blivit utvalda baserat på vissa kriterier (icke-demokratiskt problemlösande). Jag presenterar Helene Landemores argument som visar på den epistemiska överlägsenheten av demokratiskt problemlösande och undersöker sedan Aaron Ancells kritik av detta argument. Jag argumenterar för att Ancells kritik misslyckas men att ett slutgiltigt resultat om huruvida demokratisk problemlösning är epistemiskt överlägsen icke-demokratisk problemlösning behöver invänta vidare undersökningar, däribland empiriska sådana.

In 2011, Levine & Molina contributed to the research within the field of the quality of democracy by creating a framework focusing on the quality of the political process. The purpose of this study is to further contribute to the theoretical discussion of the quality of democracy by empirically applying Levine & Molina’s model of quality of democracy on a case: Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The data was collected through a field study in Bogota through semi-structured interviews with elites. The first research question aims at deciding what quality the democracy in Bogota has, if analyzing it through Levine & Molina’s five main dimensions. The second question asks if their model captures the central dimensions needed for concluding the quality of democracy if contrasting their dimensions to other societal factors lifted as important in Bogota by the informants.   The conclusions show that Bogota appears to have a rather low quality of democracy. Its strongest dimension is electoral decision, while the weakest one is participation. When comparing Levine & Molina’s dimensions to the surrounding society in Bogota, their framework can mainly be concluded to be including the main aspects for being able to evaluate the quality of democracy in a given place. However, it appears obvious that a strong and active emphasis on surrounding circumstances is central for drawing any conclusions of the quality of the political process.

This thesis examines the group of political advisors within the government offices of a right-wing and left-wing government, showing differences between the two in terms of recruitment. The political advisors, among many roles both inside and outside the government offices, fall under the category of policy professionals. The policy professionals are defined as a social group employed without being elected, but perhaps capable of affecting policies. With collected resumes of policy professionals inside the government offices, the backgrounds of the policy professionals are examined showing differences in the qualities valued most in recruitment between the two governments selected for the thesis. The political profiles ‘media-talent’ and ‘party democrat’ show what type of government metamorphosis is present on the basis of Bernard Manin’s theory of the representative democratic form of government. The results showed a majority of policy professionals belong to the party democratic profile representing Bernard Manin’s second metamorphosis. The growing group of media-talent profiles within both governments however show, that the metamorphosis might be in a state of change, moving towards the public democracy.

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.

In this paper I discuss e-voting through the theories of Robert Dahl and Carole Pateman.  Dahls view of an electoral democracy and Patemans participatory democracy is used as a foundation for the discussion. A brief introduction to e-democracy is also provided and used in the discussion because of the strong conection between e-voting and edemocracy. E-voting is explained mostly with the help of understanding the Norwegian and Estonian experiences. The aspects of e-voting that is focused on include trust for the system, accessibility and secrecy and freedom of the vote. In the results I can show that e-voting has both positive and negative inpacts on Dahl and Patemans theories and why it is controversial. The results also points to the positive inpacts e-democracy might have on both the theories and on democracy altogether.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

by Chui Wing Tak, Ernest. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-200). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

<p>The aim of this essay is to study the development of democracy in the Halland province, with focus on participating measures. First and foremost to test earlier research about the causes of the development of democracy, which says that the work takes place with obvious variation between the municipalities and that it is caused by economic resources and experienced problems in the democracy. The purpose is also to conduct a general discussion about the conditions and effects of the development.</p><p>Thus the method can be characterised as theory consuming because I as far as possible assume the method that has been used in earlier research. Still, my study is limited to the six municipalities of the Halland province and is therefore a study of few cases. One person in each municipality has been interviewed in order to collect a list of all the measures that have been carried out. This material has been analyzed with a variety of variables. </p><p>The results points out that neither economic resourses nor experienced problems in the democracy can be considered as satisfactory causes, at least not in these six cases. Instead, the results tell that the incidence of driving forces and real enthusiasts is a better explanation, which together with a well-functioning local government administration are the most important factors for achieving positive effects in the participating democracy.</p>