The rapidly changing political environment in our Western liberal democracies poses a big challenge not only to elected representatives but also to scholars. In this dissertation thesis I describe and clarify the main principles and ideas of the three currently most dominant, debated and promising democratic theories, namely participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and Mouffe's agonistic pluralism. Their criticisms and the most important polemics are included as well. The first theory introduced in dissertation's theoretical part is participatory democracy, which is heavily neglected in the Slovak academia. It is presented especially through the prism of Carole Pateman's, C.B. Macpherson's and Benjamin Barber's writings. Their ideas on civic engagement in public life appear to be noteworthy again, especially in the light of the changing conditions of democratic citizenship - particularly in regards to the EU-wide decline in voter turnout, increasing income inequality, downgrade of social solidarity and cooperation, growing intolerance or dissatisfaction with representative democracy and its institutions. This theory has been verified on the example of the European Citizens' Initiatives (ECI), which are deemed to be one of most promising political tools adjusting EU's democratic deficit....
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:357297 |
Date | January 2017 |
Creators | Sekerák, Marián |
Contributors | Salamon, Janusz, Valeš, Lukáš, Müller, Karel B. |
Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
Language | Slovak |
Detected Language | English |
Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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