Abstract In the beginning of 2007 the Swedish municipality Örebro decided to have a democratic experiment, which ought to go under the name, “Dialouge for the citizens”. The representative elected politicians in Örebro tried to find ways to involve the people in the process of ruling. Why they choose to try this experiment on this very delicate matter, the closure of several schools in the municipal, is one of the questions this essay is trying to answer. The purpose of this essay is to find out whether the process was an attempt for the politicians of the representative democracy to implement deliberative democracy in the structure of the local governance. The result of this study is that the politicians didn’t manage to reach to the citizens the way they formerly had planned.

Delegative democracy is a new concept of democratic governance. It is meant as a new system of trust among people. It is derived from principles of direct democracy and presents only minimal form of representation. The voter is not forced to cast his vote directly, but it can be transferred to a delegate. Delegative democracy is based on openness, awareness and trust. It is still only a concept and for real application it has to face rising critics. Main issues are high costs, threat of populism and corruption and overall complexity. Agent-based modelling is chosen to test the validity of delelagative democracy principles. It is suitable for studying social phenomena such as democratic governance. Agent-based models apply a "new kind" of artificial intelligence -- a dynamic system composed of individual and autonomous units -- agents -- which interact within the environment. Universal methodology called Agentology is used to propose a new agent-based model. This methodology is composed of subsequent steps. These steps cover initial analysis, conceptual and technological proposal and development of the model itself. Assessment of delegative democracy principles is achieved with data acquired from the agent-based model. Delegative democracy is less effective for small and cooperative system than direct democracy. If more voters are delegating, this effectiveness decreases even more. This conclusion is based on initial parameters of the model. Delegating voters count is indeed a relevant parameter whereas total voters count is not. The model has its basic predicative value and is open to further elaboration.

This paper analyzes the relationship between citizenship, civil society and nation state. It argues that citizenship is often viewed only in relation to the state and its active potential - arising from public activities mediated through communication media and civil society institutions - is neglected. As a result increasing number of permanent resident immigrants is in a long run denied full political rights which in turn endangers representative potential of liberal democracies. In the Czech Republic this situation concerns Vietnamese immigrant children who, though fully integrated into the Czech society and able to actively participate in public space, i.e. able to use the active citizenship element, usually do not enjoy Czech citizenship status (passive citizenship) and therefore they are not represented in public administration bodies. Current system of granting of Czech citizenship endangers representative character of our democracy and at the same time does not utilize the potential of young active people living in our territory for a long time.

The Diploma thesis will deal the main actors who support elements of direct democracy in Czech political system. Concurrently I want critically approach to their thesis and valorize its relevance, viability and potential impact for Czech society. First of all I will present each of elements of direct democracy, which are town meeting, initiative, referendum and recall. I refuse that a direct election of president or other political actor is an element of direct democracy. I classify a direct election of political actor like a synonym of representative democracy in this Diploma thesis. I will also present examples of countries like Switzerland or California, which has huge experience with using of direct democracy. Focus of my interest will be also on Scottish independence referendum and Slovak referendum about family and marriage. After this theoretical and empirical introduction I will critically approach to thesis about elements of direct democracy of Czech political actor like the Dawn of Direct Democracy, the Public Affairs, the Movement for Direct Democracy and the Czech Pirates Party, however I will mention other political actors and theirs ideas of elements of direct democracy, mainly I will mention the Czech government's proposition of law about general referendum in Czech republic. The...

Inspired by the barriers to social integration between aboriginals and non-indigenous people in Taiwan, as well as the limitations of representation and participation in national politics, and extending to turn deeply to aboriginal identity recognition and related movements, this dissertation adopts liberalism as grand background and takes scholarly scientific theory constructivism to illustrate the meanings and applicability of discourse analysis method in order to investigate textual materials notably official documents including the Constitution and Acts, press releases as well as academic articles about how those materials describe indigenous peoples. Additionally, through the deployment of practical theories such as (post) colonialism, multiculturalism, representative democracy and deliberative democracy to interpret social and political facts in Taiwan. The author has found that the description of indigenous people in Taiwanese statute through the change from inequitable titles to relatively respectful takes into account the acceptability of aboriginals. The integration of indigenous Taiwanese in society is still persisting and causes troubles for the routine life of aboriginals. Furthermore, it has been observed that the recognition of aboriginal identity hinders the willingness and possibility of indigenous peoples to participate in national politics. Meanwhile, the national global status impact on indigenous peoples has been evident.

[pt] Esta dissertação traz como tema a crise da democracia brasileira atual e como objetivo compreender a sua natureza. Através de uma abordagem interdisciplinar que une a Teoria Política e a Ciência Política ao Direito Constitucional, concedendo uma relevância central aos estudos teóricos da politóloga italiana Nadia Urbinati sobre modos de governabilidade desfiguradores da democracia representativa, quais sejam, a antipolítica, o populismo e o plebiscitarismo, a pesquisa bibliográfica busca, através de uma metodologia hipotético-dedutiva, interpretar e compreender a fase atual da terceira república brasileira, sob a ordem da Constituição de 1988, iniciada após as eleições gerais disruptivas de 2018. Neste sentido, sugiro, com base em estudos recentes, que após um breve período iniciado em 2019 com a marca de um governo-movimento caracterizado não apenas pelas três desfigurações democráticas concebidas por Urbinati, mas também por ensaios de ruptura institucional, o Governo eleito em 2018 termina por se render aos mecanismos próprios de um governo de coalizão. Ao fim, concluímos que as desfigurações democráticas (a antipolítica, o populismo e o plebiscitarismo), ou as ameaças de ruptura institucional autoritária, têm sido contidas pelas pressões do Congresso Nacional, com todos os seus custos lícitos e potencialmente ilícitos, pelo exercício da liberdade de imprensa, por pressões da opinião pública, bem como pelo contrapeso exercido pelo Poder Judiciário, dentro do seu papel no jogo de separação dos poderes, mas não impediram a criação de um ambiente de degradação constitucional (constitutional rot), conforme conceituação de Jack Balkin exposta na dissertação. / [en] This dissertation has as its theme the crisis of current Braziliam democracy and aims to understand its nature. Through an interdisciplinary approach that unites Political Theory and Political Science to Constitutional Law, giving a central relevance to the theoretical studies of the Italian political scientist Nadia Urbinati on modes of governability that disfigure representative democracy, namely, anti-politics, populism and plebiscitary. , the bibliographic research seeks, through a hypothetical-deductive methodology, to interpret and understand the current phase of the third Brazilian republic, under the order of the 1988 Constitution, which began after the disruptive general elections of 2018. In this sense, I suggest, based on recent studies, that after a brief period that started in 2019 with the mark of a government movement characterized not only by the three democratic disfigurements conceived by Urbinati but also by tests of institutional rupture, the elected government in 2018 ends up surrendering to the mechanisms of a coalition government. In the end, we conclude that democratic disfigurements (anti-political, populist, and plebiscitary), or threats of authoritarian institutional rupture, have been contained by the pressures of the National Congress, with all its licit and potentially illicit costs, for the exercise of freedom press, by pressure from public opinion, as well as by the balance exercised by the Judiciary, in its role in the game of separation of powers, but they did not prevent the creation of an environment of constitutional degradation (constitutional rot), according to Jack Balkin s conceptualization exposed in the dissertation.

In recent years, the number of local referendums in Sweden has increased. Referendumsallow citizens to influence specific political issues directly, and the instrument is advisory todecision-makers. At the same time, referendums have become a complex issue in manySwedish municipalities. They pose a fundamental challenge to local democracy - to deal withtwo legitimate popular wills representing two different ideals of democracy. However, there is little empirical evidence on how municipal politicians deal with thischallenge in local decision-making. This study aims to examine how we can understand therole of referendums in this context. In order to do so, the study focuses on referendums in thefield of infrastructure in two municipalities, the sale of the municipally-owned energycompany Öresundskraft in Helsingborg and decommissioning of Västerås airport in Västerås.Empirical evidence was compiled from mainly public documents in order to perform aqualitative content analysis; interviews were also conducted with a total of ten municipalpoliticians to reinforce the findings of the processes. The study utilizes a general frameworkwith theoretical ideas on governance, policy analysis and direct democracy to deepen ourunderstanding of these processes. The results of the study show that in both cases, the respective referendum has been given adecisive role. The municipal politicians seem to have chosen to stop the politicalproposal/decision after the referendum's result based on turnout and the clear result that thecitizens did not want to sell/decommission. Furthermore, the results also illustrate that allmunicipal politicians, in general, think it is important to involve citizens but in differentways. Some politicians had a more positive view of the instrument and some much less so inthe two cases. They underline that a referendum may be more or less appropriate in certainissues or circumstances. At the same time, the majority maintain the idea of referendums as acomplement to representative democracy. The study also shows how different interests fromdifferent societal actors can come into play in a referendum on infrastructure that does notonly relate to the local and municipal sphere. The study was delimited to referendums oninfrastructure in two large municipalities; therefore, it cannot bridge the much-neededresearch gaps that further research can address.

Most researchers and democracy theorists who define what democracy is or should be, agree that civic participation is the core of a democracy. Without citizen participation, there would be no democracy. The broad participation in political processes symbolizes the idea of political equality. A high level of political participation among citizens is usually seen as a sign that democracy is functioning satisfactorily. Unfortunately, today's political reality, on the other hand, shows that actual democracy does not reflect the democratic ideal models. The economic and social gaps in society largely explain how participatory activity is distributed among the citizens. The purpose of this master's thesis, which is a case study, has been to study the political equality in the e-proposal process within Linköping municipality. This means that the socio- economic representativeness among the proposers has been studied between the years 2016 and 2021. Furthermore, the geographical spread of the proposals has been studied between the years 2016 and 2018, together with the political priority areas of the proposers.  A web survey was conducted to gather information on the proposers’ socio-economic conditions. In total, the survey was answered by 207 respondents. This survey has contributed to either verifying or falsifying the research hypothesis. The hypothesis states that it is mainly socio-economically resourceful individuals who submit Linköping proposals. In summary, the study shows that it has been particularly resourceful individuals who have submitted Linköping proposals. Furthermore, the proposals are intended to be implemented in areas where the socio- economic standard is relatively high. The study has also shown that the proponents to a large extent (80.9 percent) have requested initiatives that relate to urban planning issues and culture and leisure. Finally, the results of the study illustrate that the approvals mainly refer to socio- economically strong areas. In conclusion, the empirical results of the study have contributed to the hypothesis being verifiable, as it has mainly been socio-economically resourceful individuals who have submitted Linköping proposals.

[pt] A União Europeia se apresenta como a mais bem sucedida experiência supranacional. Diante do seu inevitável, e necessário, projeto de integração regional, a presente pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar a existência de um déficit democrático em sua instituição parlamentar. Para tanto, serão abordadas as teorias democráticas liberais que dão forma teórica à democracia representativa ocidental, para que se possa fundamentar as instituições que compõem o bloco. Após, serão analisadas as posições quanto à existência do déficit democrático na União, a perspectiva de um constitucionalismo para além do Estado-Nação, a impossibilidade de aprofundamento federalista, e às críticas à abordagem liberal europeísta, para que assim se analise a atuação do Parlamento Europeu como órgão democraticamente legítimo de representatividade supranacional. / [en] The European Union presents itself as the most successful supranational experiment. In view of its inevitable and necessary regional integration project, the present research aims to verify the existence of a democratic deficit in its parliamentary institution. To this end, liberal democratic theories that give theoretical form to western representative democracy will be addressed, so that the institutions that make up the bloc can be founded. Afterwards, the positions regarding the existence of the democratic deficit in the Union, the perspective of a constitutionalism beyond the Nation-State, the impossibility of federalist deepening, and the criticisms of the liberal Europeanist approach will be analyzed, so that the performance of Parliament can be analyzed. European Union as a democratically legitimate supranational representative body.

Il Bilancio Partecipativo (BP) è probabilmente l’esempio più famoso ed interessante di governance locale per i suoi effetti democratici e redistributivi. Per via del coinvolgimento diretto dei cittadini nel processo decisionale, il BP è considerato una forma di democrazia diretta capace di ovviare agli attuali limiti della democrazia rappresentativa moderna. Tuttavia, ad un’attenta analisi, è possibile identificare nel suo funzionamento anche degli elementi rappresentativi che non sono mai stati presi molto in seria considerazione. Infatti, poiché la partecipazione avviene solitamente attraverso gruppi ed associazioni, nuove forme di rappresentanza e nuovi rappresentanti emergono in competizione con quelli tradizionali politici in termini di consenso, sostegno popolare e dunque legittimità. Il presente lavoro vuole andare oltre il pensiero corrente e proporre un’interpretazione originale del modello istituzionale del BP come una forma nuova ed alternativa di democrazia rappresentativa, in cui le organizzazioni della società civile assumono un ruolo centrale: dietro al BP vi sarebbe una sorta di democrazia ‘civile’. Questo punto di vista alternativo non solo può stimolare un ulteriore dibattito in letteratura, ma aprire anche degli scenari interessanti in relazione ai temi più generali della crisi delle istituzioni liberal-democratiche e del ruolo e dell’identità della società civile. / Participatory Budgeting (PB) is probably the most famous and interesting example of innovative local governance for its redistributive and democratic effects. Due to the direct involvement of citizens in the decision-making process, PB is celebrated as an example of direct democracy which can help to deal with the limits of representative democracy. However, on closer analysis, it is possible to identify elements of representation in its functioning, which are taken into little consideration and which could probably modify the prevalent theoretical belief. In fact, as citizens usually participate through their groups and associations, new representatives emerge challenging the traditional channels of political representation in terms of popular approval, consensus, hence legitimacy. This work aims to go beyond the prevailing narrative and propose an original interpretation of the PB’s institutional model as a new and alternative representative democracy, where the main political actors become organizations from the civil society: behind PB there seems to lie a sort of ‘civil’ democracy. Hence, introducing this alternative viewpoint can, not only further questions which are never fully considered in the literature, but also open interesting scenarios in the debate over the crisis of liberal-democratic institutions and the role and the identity of civil society.