Summary literature
6 September - Studying democracy from a disciplinary perspective
“Democracy’s story… 250 years on – Mark Chou
Two stories of democracy
Story of success
Story of pessimism and fear
Tales of decline and crisis: Allan and Runciman
Both take the view that democracies are never safe
Both perceive of democracy’s second story through a set of exogenous threats now working
to undermine democracy from the outside in
Allan
o Less people in each of the five established democracies have less of a say on
influential political matters now than they did in the past
Runciman
o The two stories go together
o Democratic victories trap and blind us to what is about to go wrong
o Faith/fatalism: Faith makes people believe in democracy; fatalism, the flipside of
faith, mutates trust and devotion into recklessness and resignation.
Endogenous threats: Todorov, Urbinati and Kirshner
Democracy also produced its own endogenous threats
Todorov
o The greatest threats facing democracy are those that come ‘from within’, that is,
‘from ideologies, movements or actions which claim to defend democratic values’.
o The so-called ‘constituent elements of democracy’ – the people, freedom and
progress – all have the potential to become inner enemies of democracy if they break
away from each other and erect themselves as ‘a single principle’
Urbinati
o Addresses the perversion of ‘elections and the forum of opinions’ as ‘the site of
legitimate power and an object of control and scrutiny’. It tackles the way we form
and share opinions in the public realm and how this right has been privatised and
polarised.
o Representative democracy = diarchic system
What makes democracy ‘democratic’ is that citizens have the right to form
their own ‘will’ and ‘opinion’, this being the diarchy. For democracy to
survive, the balance of will and opinion needs constant attention.
Kirshner
o ‘Paradox of militant democracy: the possibility that efforts to stem challenges to self-
government might themselves lead to the degradation of democratic politics or the
fall of a representative regime’
o Backed by three inter-linked principles – the participatory principle, the limited
intervention principle and the democratic responsibility principle – Kirshner’s theory
of militant democracy keeps democracy messy.
,Ending with a defence of politics: Flinders
‘We are all part of the problem and part of the cure’
“The constitution of the kingdom of the Netherlands” - Besselink
I. Introduction: Constitutional development in the Netherlands
Most distinctive features
o Absence both of constitutional review of acts of parliament by courts and of a
doctrine of sovereignty of parliament
o Openness to international law and international society
o Lack of an explicit constitutionally relevant concept of sovereignty
o Low degree of ideology
Three essential features of the parliamentary system may be distilled from past events:
Political ministerial responsibility
Motion of censure > when parliament expresses this, the cabinet is forced to resign
If instead of resignation the course is taken to dissolve parliament, the subsequent elections
are decisive and not further possibility of dissolution exists
The reason it took so long for the general franchise to be constitutionally in entrenched (1922) was
the political linkage made with the other issue which dominated politics throughout the second half
of the 19th century: the issue of state subsidies for protestant and catholic schools: school struggle
II. The sources of constitutional law
It is settled case law that although international provisions which are not directly effective are
nevertheless part of the national legal order (and in particular bind public authorities), they
have no overriding effect over conflicting provisions of national origin
Formal characteristics of the sources
Rigidity of the constitution
The treaty-making power; parliamentary scrutiny of EU law
The amendment of the Charter
o The relevant act has to be adopted in each of the Caribbean countries of the
Kingdom by their local parliaments, which have to adopt it in two rounds of readings
and votes, unless in the first round it is adopted with a majority of at least two thirds
of the votes.
o If an amendment of the Charter entails a divergence from the Constitution of the
Netherlands, it needs to be adopted in the Netherlands under the procedure for
constitutional amendment, albeit that in second reading it can be adopted by simple
majority.
Customary constitutional law
o One of the most important rules of customary constitutional law is the rule of
monism in the sense that international law forms part of national law from the
moment it becomes binding on the Netherlands.
,“Democracy” – Swift
The universal reverence for democracy, and this tendency to call all good things democratic, Is rather
ironic. For most of human history, it was obvious to any clear-thinking person that democracy, should
it ever come about, would be a disaster.
Who constitutes the ‘demos’ in democracy?
What is democracy?
Lincoln – ‘rule of the people, by the people, for the people’
Elections happen in a context where much of the media is owned by a wealthy elite with
clear political interests of its own and where political parties are free to spend on advertising
whatever people are willing to give them. Is this way of governing really ‘people power’?
o Obvious response is practicality: direct democracy is not possible in today’s world
Rule by the people > a decision-making procedure. Procedures can be valued…
Instrumentally: because of the outcomes it is likely to produce
Intrinsically: for its own sake, on grounds independent of the outcomes it tends to produce
For many, democracy isn’t about making wise political decisions. It’s about the people making their
own decisions. The legitimacy of law, for many democrats, depends not on its being right, but on its
being a proper expression of what the people want, of the popular will – whether or not that would
stand up to philosophical scrutiny > the difference between correctness and legitimacy
“What is democracy”- Dahl
Effective participation
o All members must have equal and effective opportunities for making their views
known to the other members as to what the policy should be
Voting equality
o Every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes
must be counted as equal
Enlightened understanding
o Within reasonable limits as to time, each member must have equal and effective
opportunities for learning about the relevant alternative policies and their likely
consequences
Control of the agenda
o The members must have the exclusive opportunity to decide how and, if they choose,
what matters are to be placed on the agenda.
Inclusion of adults
o All, or at any rate most, adult permanent residents should have the full rights of
citizens that are implied by the first four criteria.
Why these criteria? Each is necessary if the members (however limited their numbers may be) are to
be politically equal in determining the policies of the association.
Are these realistic? Can any actual association ever be fully democratic? Probably not
, Are these useful? They are as useful as ideal standards can ever be, and they are more relevant and
useful than many.
These criteria may sometimes conflict with one another and we’ll have to make judgments about
trade offs among conflicting values.
8 September – Studying the crisis of democracy from an interdisciplinary
perspective
“Introducing interdisciplinary studies” – Repko & Szostak
Interdisciplinary studies: a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a topic
that is too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline, and draws on the
disciplines with the goal of integrating their insights to construct a more comprehensive
understanding.
Each discipline has its own defining elements—phenomena, assumptions, philosophical outlook (i.e.,
epistemology), concepts, theories, and methods—that distinguish it from other disciplines
“Studies” is plural because of the idea of interaction between disciplines
Two dominant forms of interdisciplinarity:
Instrumental interdisciplinarity is problem driven. It is a pragmatic approach that focuses on
research, borrowing from disciplines, and practical problem solving in response to the
external demands of society.
Critical interdisciplinarity seeks to transform the nature of the academy. It “interrogates the
dominant structure of knowledge and education with the aim of transforming them, while
raising epistemological and political questions of value and purpose”.
Practitioners are divided concerning the role of integration.
Generalist interdisciplinarians understand interdisciplinarity loosely to mean “any form of
dialog or interaction between two or more disciplines,” while minimizing, obscuring, or
rejecting altogether the role of integration.
Integrationist interdisciplinarians, on the other hand, believe that integration should be the
goal of interdisciplinary work because integration addresses the challenge of complexity.
This article is aligned with the integrationist understanding
o Integrationist position: integration is achievable and researchers should strive for the
greatest degree of integration possible given the problem under study and the
disciplinary insights at their disposal.
The Differences Between Multidisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinarity, and Integrative
Studies Summarized
Multidisciplinarity studies a topic from the perspective of several disciplines at one time but
makes no attempt to integrate their insights.
Interdisciplinarity studies a complex problem by drawing on disciplinary insights (and
sometimes stakeholder views) and integrating them. By employing a research process that
subsumes the methods of the relevant disciplines, interdisciplinary work does not privilege
any particular disciplinary method or theory.
