Search

This paper examines three questions: (1) (How) Is democracy promoted in secondary schools in England? (2) How is the promotion of democracy understood in education and teacher education policy? and (3) To what extent does existing education policy benefit the promotion of democracy in schools in England? To explore these questions, we first discuss the policy landscape surrounding democratic education in England. We then outline our data collection and analysis methods, which comprised (a) the coding of ten different policy documents, including curriculum specifications, teaching standards and inspection frameworks, and (b) the utilisation of an original survey of more than 3000 teachers working in approximately 50% of all secondary schools in England. Together, our data allow us to raise three important points. First, education and teacher education policy neglects to specify 'how' democracy should be promoted and by 'whom'. Second, schools are offering scant provision of democratic education. Third, the majority of teachers feel fundamentally underprepared to teach democracy. We conclude this paper by arguing that, if policymakers do wish to promote democracy, there is a need for a cohesive policy and teacher education approach that guarantees democratic education for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the cascading influence of revolutionary moments on democracy and inequality, not at home, but across borders. We use data on revolutions and other social upheavals over the past 120 years and examine their cross‐national impact on a range of variables in neighboring countries. Engaging with debates on whether substantial democracy and equality increases require extraordinary circumstances, our research investigates whether revolutionary activities induce consequential spillovers, such as policy concessions from elites in neighboring contexts. In exploring spillover effects, the paper examines how significant events in one nation influence social life in adjacent ones. It encompasses an analysis of 171 countries over two centuries, connecting data on revolution with democracy and equality metrics, and hypothesizing that elite fear of revolutionary contagion may necessitate democracy and equality concessions to mitigate potential uprisings. Findings suggest neighboring revolutions positively impact domestic democracy and equality levels. We observe significant increases in an index of democracy and two indices of economic egalitarianism, although one of the egalitarianism measures is robust to all model specifications. Additionally, we find that isolated “protest‐led ousters” can moderately increase suffrage and one of our indices of egalitarianism, while coups do not seem to impact democracy or inequality variables. By examining various upheaval types and outcomes across time and space, the study illuminates the causal relationship between global mobilizations and local changes, providing insights into how global events inform domestic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On balance, Africa generally has made some progress in good governance under liberal, multiparty democracy in the past two or three decades. But there are well‐noted, wide‐ranging dysfunctions in governance, which inhibit human development and fulfilment. Several papers have been published, which propose various solutions to the dysfunctions. Among them are proposals for types of all‐inclusive democratic politics. I examine a couple of these proposals and conclude that they generate formidable feasibility challenges, even for the types of democracy they advocate. This paper focuses on Ghana, but with a thrust intended to have import for the sustainability of democracy across Africa. The argument is basically that the operating democratic constitutions in Africa provide a normatively desirable liberal, multiparty democracy, which promises a reasonably good life for all without exception; but practice has resulted in enduring, multiple deprivations and low standards of living for millions of citizens. The reason for the undesirably wide gap between the ideal and the practice is not because multiparty democracy is inconsistent with African traditions or is otherwise not good for Africans, as some scholars claim, but because of those who tend to run it—their general incompetence, including or marked by their intellectual and ethical inability to rise above partisan limitations and failure to leverage the efficiencies of the free market system. The proposed solution for Ghana, intended to eliminate or significantly mitigate the dysfunctions just mentioned and to sustain the multiparty democracy, is to redesign the National Development Planning Commission (NPDC), a constitutional organ which serves the partisan executive, into a robust, non‐partisan, independent institution, anchored on the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, to enable it to do at least the following two things: (a) to produce, with representation from key stakeholders, including political parties, technocratically objective, competent, efficient and accountable rolling and all‐inclusive National Development Plans (NDPs) in place of vote‐inspired and partisan manifestoes, with budgets approved by parliament; and (b) to monitor, evaluate and report on the governing party's implementation of the NDPs to parliament. Democracy will become sustainable as the general quality of lives grows steadily under the continuous implementation of all‐inclusive NDPs, which are to be crafted to efficiently and sustainably deliver public goods and services that serve district, regional and the common needs and interests of all Ghanaians rather than the interests of the few and powerful or, at best, of majorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy is a political system that has some universal appeal, and, this seems to invest it with some kind of legitimacy over other systems of government. But this in no way suggests that it is homogenously conceived or practiced across the world—particularly in Western and African countries. Yet there is some supposition that some cultures have (almost) perfected their practice of democracy while others are learning its rudiments. This tends to arouse the philosopher's interest in the conceptual and practical bases for the supposition. In African philosophy, the notion of consensus has often been touted as a kernel and mēnsūra for evidence of democracy in traditional African thought. This paper examines the propriety of this move, taking into account the specific positions of the Ghanaian philosophers, Kwasi Wiredu and Kwame Gyekye. It explores the political dynamics of contemporary Africa and brings out the challenges and prospects for the sort of democracy that is being practiced—or, at least, is said to be practiced—in Africa. It is often debated in African political thought whether consensus or majoritarian rule (characterized by such activities as voting and multipartism) defines democracy, but the paper argues that neither of them really brings about democracy. It then highlights the humanistic end of democracy. Using the Ghanaian experience especially, the paper proposes ways of improving the understanding and practice of democracy in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Editors of the Global Biogeochemical Cycles express their appreciation to those who served as peer reviewers for the journal in 2023. Plain Language Summary: Peer review builds trust in the scientific process and ensures high quality standards. Reviewers not only argue against the publication of certain research papers, but also help to improve the content and presentation of the final product. GBC is proud to engage a large and diverse pool of reviewers who are experienced in the publication process and offer their unique, world class expertise to the broader community. On behalf of GBC's editorial board and the entire biogeochemistry community, we thank 388 reviewers for their contribution to scientific progress in our interdisciplinary field. It has been said that peer review is like democracy—the worst method except for all others. As in a democratic system, peer reviewers play multiple other roles as members of our GBC community. Peer reviewers also engage as authors, colleagues, mentors, mentees, and sometimes as editors. Reviewers help to shape the journal content, help authors to improve the science, and also learn along the way. In 2023, 388 colleagues produced 495 review reports for GBC. These reports are a primary tool used to ensure scientific quality, novelty and integrity. Peer reviewers stand with editors and authors to protect AGU values such as excellence, inclusion and collaboration. The high trust placed on GBC papers only exists due to the unselfish dedication of our reviewers. Our editorial board is proud to work with this large, diverse pool of reviewers from all over the world, and expresses a deep gratitude to all colleagues engaging in the complex and democratic peer review process! Key Points: The editors thank the 2023 peer reviewers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly presents a complete analysis of the impact of such sanctions on the innovation performance of target countries by exploiting the difference‐in‐differences method for panel data of 91 countries in the period 1988–2016. The empirical results confirm a significantly negative impact of overall international sanctions on innovation in the target countries; moreover, except for noneconomic sanctions, other types of sanctions have a negative impact on the level of innovation in the target countries to varying degrees. These findings are also supported by two semiparametric matchings: artificially matching according to the two factors of geographical location and land area respectively and the propensity score matching, one nonparametric matching: entropy balancing, as well as the system generalized method of moments estimates that account for any bias due to lagged dependent variables. This paper also shows that the significantly negative effect of international sanctions is manifested in the countries with high levels of trade openness, globalization, and democracy, but not in the countries with low levels of trade openness, globalization, and democracy. Our empirical findings merit particular attention from policy‐makers in target countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporations significantly influence the public and political spheres. In light of this corporate power in society, academics have criticized the lack of legitimization (i.e., the legitimacy gap) and highlighted a potential divergence between corporate resource allocation and the needs and preferences of the public (i.e., the social issues gap). To address these problems, democratizing organizations has been proposed as a potential solution. In line with this, the authors argue that an increase in corporate power outside the economic realm should be counterbalanced by more democratic corporate governance (i.e., an internalization of democracy). While important groundwork exists, academic attention to these topics remains limited. The authors provide an overview of the literature linking corporate power and the claim for democratizing organizations, advocate for legitimization, identify research gaps, and develop a research agenda to inspire and guide future research efforts. The paper's findings suggest the importance of conceptual and empirical research on the micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐levels and the cross‐level effects, which is needed to advance this incipient research area. Future research must (1) clearly define corporate power and discuss how democratizing organizations can contribute to more legitimate organizational decisions, (2) unveil novel approaches for more democratic corporate governance, and (3) understand the organizational‐ and individual‐level factors necessary for the successful realization of democratic organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how a structure of Weberian rational domination has been built and consolidated in Spain since 1959, the year when the so‐called Economic Stabilization Plan was approved. This sort of economic constitution represents one of the most important foundations of a technocratic regime that survived the death of a dictator (General Francisco Franco), not only transcending the traditional differentiations between autocratic and democratic regimes but also offering a different perspective to the debate about the degree of continuity and rupture attained by the Spanish political transition in the 1970s. We analyze the institutions, leadership, most influential networks, political discourse, and historical myths through a theory of power and elites to examine the Spanish case. With this remarkable example of structural transformation and institutional resilience over decades, we also propose a more complex and multidimensional approach that could be fruitful to understanding some of the problems of political representation that current democracies are undergoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a democracy, when a group of deliberators have a set of differing (and contrary) views and beliefs about a particular policy or action, p, a recommended course of action is for them to pursue, and ultimately reach, a consensus on p. The pursuit of consensus allows deliberators to 'reach over the aisle' in accommodating dissenting views through rational dialogue until a consensual agreement is reached by all the deliberators. What fuels this pursuit of consensus is the 'will to consensus'—a 'frame of mind' or a 'disposition' to resolve disagreements into a consensus. In this paper, I will raise some conceptual problems with positing a 'will to consensus' that is prior to, and supervenes on, the rational discussion of deliberators. Instead of a 'will to consensus', democratic theorists should be content with the minimal claim of a 'will to dialogue'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes Rawls's moral psychology and the claim that a just society must foster a sufficiently strong sense of justice. When Rawls investigates the development of the sense of justice under a just basic structure, he tacitly narrows down the focus: he only demonstrates the development of a sense of justice on the premise that all members of society are already in possession of a full‐fledged sense of justice, save the one individual under investigation. This begs the question, largely presupposing what needs to be explained, namely, how citizens at large develop a sense of justice. Rawls's narrowing of perspective leads to distortions in the analysis of stability, particularly with regard to a property‐owning democracy. However, in lesser known parts of his work, Rawls offers clues for a more plausible account. Here, the idea is that institutions must be structured such that they enable all of us to nurture the sense of justice of each of us. With this idea of collective self‐transformation in place, it becomes clear that economic institutions must be broadly democratized because of their profound educational role. Thus, the choice between a property‐owning democracy and liberal socialism falls more strongly upon the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Swiss Political Science Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper was to assess the effects of social inequality, democracy, and economic growth on the climate justice performance of a nation. To achieve this goal, the research technique Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‐SEM) was applied to a sample of 133 countries selected based on indicators available in international databases in 2019. The main results of the analysis were: (a) the effect of democracy on the performance of climate justice is positive; (b) the moderating effect of inequality on the relationship between democracy and climate justice is negative; and (c) economic growth has a U‐shaped relationship with climate justice performance, which indicates the existence of a Kuznets curve for climate justice performance. Based on these results, the main theoretical implications of this study were the discoveries that: (a) the weakening of democratic institutions may be associated with increased social inequality, which reduces the implementation of climate policies aimed at guaranteeing justice; (b) forms of cooperation and financing of climate actions at the global level may be ineffective only if the quality of democracy in vulnerable countries is observed, which can be explained by the persistence of high social inequality; (c) allowing women access to income, education and health might be ways of reducing gender inequality and improving the level of adaptation of countries vulnerable to climate challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a country's constitutionally imposed democracy in an academic performance evaluation system was designed and practiced. Building upon agonistic democracy and deliberative democracy perspectives, a qualitative inductive case study in a Vietnamese public university involved 52 interviews, direct observations, and the analysis of archival documents. The findings revealed three dimensions of democracy in the university's performance evaluation system, namely, democratic context, democratic discourse, and democratic outcomes. The university enforced democracy in its performance evaluation system for academics in line with the country's constitutional obligation. In such an explicit democratic context, there happened democratic discourse (debating academics' performance in public forums) and implicit discourse (informal social interactions). The outcome of this democracy at the practice level resulted from temporary consensus supported by shared cultural values within the country's socio‐political context with an understanding that it will change as with any change in the macro or micro contexts. These findings contribute to the literature by providing insights into how individuals pursue democracy in an accounting tool legally built to promote democracy through their multiple voices and collective wisdom. Thus, democratizing accounting technologies and processes, such as an academic performance evaluation system, can effectively promote democracy in multi‐cultural workplaces across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of literature argues that macroeconomic stability is a prerequisite for the sustainable development of economies. Moreover, it is also recognized that the most dynamic economies do not necessarily grow faster than others in good times, but they do manage to be more resilient and limit the extent of a downturn in bad times. Therefore, this study draws on this theoretical framework to examine the effect of macroeconomic instability on access to electricity in developing countries. We find that macroeconomic instability reduces access to electricity for the total urban and rural populations. In addition, macroeconomic instability increases the access gap between urban and rural populations in terms of electricity access. However, the adverse effect of macroeconomic instability on access to electricity is more pronounced in oil exporting countries. However, democracy mitigates this deleterious effect of macroeconomic instability on access to electricity. Based on these results, several policy recommendations are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epistolary periodicals associated with English coffee house culture have often been associated with Jürgen Habermas' model for the rise of the 'bourgeois public sphere'. Habermas proposed this ultimately gave rise to the free articulation of public opinion and the emergence of democratic values. Written at a time of socio‐political upheaval, John Dunton's serial publications relied upon anonymous authorship, particularly his most famous periodical, the Athenian Mercury (1691–97), which pioneered the question‐and‐answer format and gave rise to many imitations. In the present era, we are witnessing democracy imperilled by the proliferation of AI‐driven 'fake news'. This paper proposes that the origins of this phenomenon may be found in epistolary periodicals which normalized giving and receiving offence in print. The pernicious quality of anonymous print, free from personal accountability or consequences, embedded from its inception a fatal flaw in the project of constituting a democratic public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Developing nations have to overcome a number of obstacles to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the five poorest nations in the world and faces several challenges in combating problems related to poverty, health, and sanitation while linking the environment to anthropogenic activities. Methods: This study analyzes anthropogenic activities and their impact on the environment while providing access to the public health of the Congolese population based on the objectives of sustainable development. Thirty‐five articles were selected for further analysis as well as relative data. Results: In 2022, 21 million cases of malaria were recorded by the national malaria control program, with 13,000 cases of death. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest typhoid incidence, with 315 cases per 100,000 people. A number of 31,342 cases of cholera were reported in 2023, according to multiple reports, with 230 deaths, mainly affecting children. In the same year, a triple epidemic of typhoid, shigellosis, and cholera was identified, with 2389 cases and 52 deaths. These observations cause a health emergency, which can be alleviated and resolved by the establishment of an adequate sanitation system. Waste can be recycled and returned to usable raw materials. Conclusion: Finally, it will be necessary to establish a water safety management plan to combat all diseases linked to the consumption of nonpotable water and improve national coverage on the treatment of recent cases to reduce and at best avoid observed cases of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]