The crisis of representation: the limits of liberal democracy in the global era

In liberal thought, democracy is guaranteed by the unity of community and government. The community of citizens elects its government according to political preferences. The government rules over the community with powers which are limited by unalienable human, civil, and political rights. These assumptions have characterized Classical Liberalism, Revisionist Liberalism and contemporary Neo-liberal theories. However, the assumed unity of community and government becomes problematic in Global Post-Fordism. Recent research on the globalization of the economy and society has underscored the increasing inability of nation-states to exercise power over their communities which, in turn, limits the ability of communities to express their will at the nation-state level. The current phase of capitalism is characterized by socio-economic relations which transcend the jurisdictions of nation-states and local spaces. This paper addresses the issue of the fracture of the unity of community and government by introducing feature characteristics of Classical Liberalism, Revisionist Liberalism and Neo-liberalism. Moreover, it analyzes the contribution of the theory of Reflexive Modernization which represents a novel attempt to rethink democracy within the liberal tradition. The paper concludes that the inability of governments to control economic and non-economic environments creates a crisis of representation which implies serious limits to liberal democracy. This situation is particularly important for rural regions as their socio-economic development, and programs for its democratization have been historically based on the intervention of agencies of and control by the nation-state.     

Justice of a Different Kind: The Original Kibbutz

Abstract

The aim of this article is to compare and contrast basic moral principles of justice, as articulated by Rawls (1999) and by a presumably utopian society (the original Israeli Kibbutz) that purposefully attempted to design a community that was just and free, by collectivizing it. The principles it evolved were noble but its outcome was doomed to failure because by making social justice the dominant goal it did not allow for sufficiently free liberty of individual moral agents on which social justice is based     

Varieties in developing sustainability: the case of the Israeli kibbutz

Kibbutz communities and organizations were originally structured to be egalitarian and democratic. The last two decades proved to be a major challenge for their sustainability due to a serious economic crisis. Many scholars have lamented the end of the kibbutz, some of them claiming that there is no place for utopias in the twenty-first century. Kibbutz communities were trying to survive within a turbulent economic and social environment. This article will attempt to analyse varieties in developing sustainability that were adopted by kibbutz communities. Focusing on the impact of the economic crisis, we will investigate processes of value change within the kibbutz, taking into consideration that the kibbutz does not exist in a vacuum but is rather embedded within a society that has undergone transformation processes from a socialistic to a capitalistic orientation. The article will look at different solutions that kibbutz communities have adopted and strategies that kibbutz members used in order to cope with this crisis. We will explain how these solutions and strategies are reflected in members' values and attitudes as well as taking into consideration in which areas value change was fast and in which it was slower. Our analysis will lead to a reflection on the different communitarian and non-communitarian models that might evolve in the kibbutz communities and their possible outcome. The discussion will focus on three dimensions of sustainability methods adopted by kibbutz communities that integrate value change, organizational change, and community processes.     

Judging public relations: An analysis of an Israeli court judgement on a defamatory and negative campaign

This article analyzes a recent court ruling in Israel and argues that it has major implications for the public relations community internationally. To date, the public relations literature on legal judgments has focused on cases where media channels were sued for defamation. The article uses a 2012 Israeli court decision that may be unique in ruling out defamatory intentions in a public relations plan that was part of a lawsuit. The defendant in this case was not the media but rather a company that hired a public relations firm to, according to the judgement, conduct a defamatory campaign against a competitor. Although this is just one case in one country, the article also considers some of the wider implications for the profession and for democracy.     

Governability of Democracies: —A Japanese Perspective—*

Abstract Some twenty years ago, the Trilateral Commission organized a project on ‘governability’ of democracies. At that time, North American and West-European democracies were facing serious crises of governability. while Japan was not. Now, although Japanese democracy is not in total crisis, but is facing new tasks to be tackled as a ‘major industrial democracy.’ Homogenization of economic institutions among major industrial countries is functionally inevitable in an age of globalized economy. Political reforms to enhance it are urgently required. Burden sharing for world democratic governance is posing serious tasks to Japan as a ‘civilian power.’ Although it is certain that Japan will remain as a democracy for any foreseeable future, but her governability in the sense of the capacity to contribute to world democratic governance is now, and will be, put on severe trial for years to come.     

Organized Environmentalists: Democracy as a Key Value?

This article, taking as its point of departure that voluntary organizations are of crucial importance in a democracy, views the transformation of the Norwegian voluntary sector through the lenses of what happens within the environmental field. Seeing changes within this field as prototypical for the transformation of the voluntary sector more generally, we start with the organizational level and contrast old versus new environmental organizations. The aim is to ascertain to what extent the newly built organizations are leaving the historically important democratic organizational model. Second, we compare attitudes toward democracy of members of the democratically and nondemocratically built organizations: attitudes both toward democracy within a voluntary organization (internal) and democracy in society (external). Furthermore, we compare these findings with what we find for the population at large. The last section analyzes demographic characteristics of organized environmentalists to see whether a new type of elite, more distanced from the population at large, is emerging in the new and nondemocratically built organizations. The study finds that new organizations are definitely breaking with the democratic organizational model. The support for democracy (internal and external) is comprehensive but not always overwhelming, and there is a tendency in the direction of congruence between organizational structure and individual attitudes. That is, members of democratically built organizations especially value internal but also to some extent external democracy more than members of nondemocratically built organizations. However, even if formal democratic structure and democracy as an absolute and generalized value seems to be under pressure, it does not follow that a new type of elitism is emerging.     

The Contemporary Family in Poland: New Trends and Phenomena

At the beginning of the 21st century, Poland can still be examined in the context of a political and economic transformation. The building of democracy and the intentional, ongoing reshaping of the Polish economy in the direction of a market economy are exerting significant influences on a wide range of issues that are affecting contemporary life. This article examines how these changes have affected women, men, and children as members of contemporary families. The article places the transformation to a market economy and to democracy within the context of the historical economic and social forces that have affected all modern states and concludes with a discussion of the potential short and long run impact of Polands entry in the European Union.     

Work rehabilitation for migrant workers with work injury--the magic of Chinese paper cutting

As China has gradually transformed from agricultural economy into industrial economy since 1978, occupational injuries and diseases become a serious social problem in China. For occupational rehabilitation professionals, helping workers with occupational injuries and diseases, return to work and re-integrate to community are the ultimate goals of occupational rehabilitation. This article reports a new indigenous initiative with cultural notions in occupational rehabilitation piloted by Guangdong Provincial Rehabilitation Center. Case studies reflected that by learning and practicing traditional Chinese paper cutting, workers with occupational injury and disease could regain their self confidence, identity their strengths, learn more vocational skills as well as to re-integrate into community.     

The (Un)Happy Objects of Affective Community

Affect permeates understandings of racial and cultural mixture as well as racial democracy in Brazil. Sentiments of interconnectedness, harmony and conviviality shape the ways in which Brazilians of diverse races/colours feel identity and belonging. These sentiments also drive hopeful attachments to possibilities for moving beyond race, influencing how people encounter and relate to racism and inequality. However, studies of race in Brazil tend to either take the affective for granted as positive unifying force or ignore its role in shaping the appeal of dominant racial discourses on identity, nation and belonging. Through an examination of the different ways people feel, experience and live orientations towards mixture and racial democracy as the dominant affective community, this paper analyzes the role the affective plays in constituting racial ideologies and shaping anti-racist action. I explore the ways histories of race, racism, privilege and disadvantage generate unequal attachments to and experiences of mixture and racial democracy as what Sara Ahmed calls ‘happy objects’, those objects towards which good feeling are directed, that provide a shared horizon of experience, and that shape an affective community with which all are assumed to be aligned. Not everyone attaches themselves to the same objects in the same way and for the same reasons – the affective community involves positive, hopeful attachments for some and an unhappy, alienating and unequally shared burden for others. These affective states demonstrate that histories of race and racism cannot be wished away through commonly asserted attachments to abstract ideals of shared belonging. At the same time, examining these affective states provides deeper understanding of the ways unequal attachments move people towards action or inaction in relation to race, racism and discrimination.     

The Underclass in the United States: Some Correlates of Economic Change*

This paper analyzes the important manifestations of the underclass, outlines some differing positions on its origin and persistence, and lends further support to the argument of its link with the changing United States economy. The processes that produce and maintain the underclass are discussed along with their conflicting and converging interpretations. An analysis of the impact of industrial restructuring in the early 1980s shows that massive job losses affected blacks in the inner city areas much more severely than any other groups. The economic recovery that followed has not benefitted this group and, as a consequence, many census tract areas that were predominantly poor have become designated underclass. Consequences of the polarization of the labor force that has contributed to the isolation of inner city blacks from the economy is discussed, and recommendations are offered for solving this national problem.     

Social economy: Community action towards social integration and the prevention of unemployment and poverty

In these times, when unemployment, marginalization and poverty are spreading while world capitalism takes its course, new approaches for guaranteeing subsistence at the community level need to be explored. Social economy provides people with an alternative which is work-intensive, equitable, and integrative. It is based on the principles of grass-roots democracy and can be facilitated through community-based social work. First, this paper outlines how social economy can be constituted and developed. Secondly, it describes successful community-based business enterprises and federations of social co-operatives in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. These profiles provide evidence that community workers can and must help to create, reinstate, and redesign social, political, and economic bonds within the community.     

Multiculturalism and political integration in Birmingham and Bradford

The article discusses multiculturalism and political integration in Birmingham and Bradford, two cities that are amongst the main urban areas of immigrant settlement in England outside London. The article focuses especially on the subject of ethnic mobilization, and describes for each ethnic community in each of the two cities the type and character of their organizations and their role in multi‐culturalist politics. On the basis of the evidence presented for each city it is concluded that despite some negative indications about the success of multiculturalism, there are also very many positive signs which speak in favour of a limited claim for multiculturalism, as delineating the creation of a political situation in which relatively new ethnic minorities are able to have the protection of a cultural home and the resource of ethnic culture to provide solidarity as they fight for their rights. This limited claim for multiculturalism is far from being incompatible with democracy. It may even serve to strengthen it     

System-wide economic community in capital-based market systems

Viewing labor and capital as utterly distinct and competitive categories of economic actors, modern or “neoclassical” economics denies the existence of community in the economy. This study scrutinizes the elementary relations of economic life, finding a dimension of community, rather than a total absence or thorough going manifestation of it. Whereas neoclassical theorists ascribe alternative and independent ends to labor and capital, their goals also exhibit some profound commonalities. Contemporary communitarians also discern some community in the economy yet tend to identify it in subsystems, such as the firm. My analysis suggests a broader dimension of community on a system-wide scale. Mainline economists understand the common interest as the indirect consequence of the pursuit of alternative goals, a view of the common interest that does not lead them to affirm the existence of community. But the common interest also results more directly from pursuing goals with some commonalities, placing community within the deep structure of economic life, where it is fused with the competitive dimension.     

Introduction

CAPITALISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN about the destruction of community. The removal of communities of aboriginals and peasants from their land and craftsmen from their tools and their skills were crucial conditions for the development of early industrial capitalism. The triumph of capitalism required a cultural revolution, for, as E.P. Thompson has written, "there is no such thing as economic growth which is not at the same time, growth and change of a culture."¹ New ideologies of possessive individualism, secularism and scientism were part of this far-reaching cultural revolution, which accompanied and legitimated an economy that for the first time in history was conceived and justified as operating according to its own rational laws, independent of community.     

Before the Emergence of Critical Citizens: Economic Development and Political Trust in China

Political trust has been declining among the publics of almost all advanced industrial societies in recent years. This has been attributed to a Materialist–Postmaterialist value shift, which has given rise to a public that is less deferential to authority and increasingly ready to challenge government. This phenomenon has been interpreted as a ‘crisis of democracy’. Although one might expect to find low level of political trust in repressive authoritarian societies, survey data indicates that political trust in China is actually very high. Does this simply mean that people are afraid to express any opinions that might be viewed as critical of authority? As this article will demonstrate, this does not seem to be the case. The Chinese public expresses fairly strong criticism of some aspects of Chinese society – but they express high levels of confidence in the national government. Although rich democracies provide both a higher standard of living and more personal freedom than is available to the average Chinese citizen, the Chinese public expresses higher levels of confidence in government than those found in most advanced industrial societies. We conclude that economic development has the immediate effect of enhancing public support for the government – but in the long run it also leads to value changes that promote critical citizens. At least for now, the regime-enhancing effect of economic development still dominates the regime-eroding effect. The effect of changing values on distrust of government is largely overwhelmed by the support for government brought by the increased level of affluence.     

The Social Economy in Bolivia: Indigeneity,Solidarity, and Alternatives to Capitalism

The social economy (SE) is alternatively conceptualized as a third sector (between the private and public sector); or by a typology of the organizations involved (such as cooperatives, non-profit organizations and social enterprises); or by the principles and values driving such activities (such as cooperation, mutual benefit, and democracy). One important consideration is often overlooked, namely that the SE emerges in different forms and with varied emphases depending on location. The SE is ‘place-based’—rooted in specific geographic, historical, cultural, and socioeconomic settings. This article explores the conceptualization of the SE in the Bolivian context from the perspective of government and civil society actors. The research took place after the country recognized the importance of the social, cooperative and community economy in their new constitution and found that the understanding of the SE in Bolivia relates strongly to the country’s indigenous and colonial heritage.     

Die Zukunft einer Gemeinde

The co-existence in communities as territorial social units currently undergoes severe changes. The withdrawal of industries (as well as their moving in) as motors of the economy causes great challenges for the community. The results can even reach to a complete self-questioning of the whole commune. The article describes a process with a professional facilitation, leading the commune out of a deep crisis. The first section directs the attention to the process with its milestones. The second section deals with special occasions and showplaces occurring during this process and describes roles and functions of the professional facilitation with the challenges arising out of it. Finally reflective considerations relate theory to practice in three graphic examples from the process.     

CONTROL: the extractive ecology of corn monoculture

This article tells the history of the industrial and biotechnological development of large-scale corn agriculture, from a new materialist perspective. Addressing the large-scale economy of industrial food production as a form of more-than-human configuration, it demonstrates how corn has been made into a quintessential commodity and factor of production for a consumption-based economy. Set within discourses around the climate crisis, this account critically assesses the Anthropocene and its advocacy for human accountability in regards to the exploitation of nonhuman matters. I ask: who is the Anthropos? How does it/he/she meet with its domesticated subjects, or rather makes them into domesticable materials? Telling the history of corn monoculture from a new materialist standpoint exposes this industry’s distribution of agency, power and control across a diversity of human and nonhuman actors. This is at the centre of this article’s three sections: (1) an argument for inscribing extractivism within new materialist literature, (2) an account of the industrialization of corn monoculture, exposing the industry’s main mechanisms and economic endeavours, as well as its ramifications with a biopolitics of invasion and (3) the biotechnological development of the industry and its shifts from a biopolitics of vegetal matter to an informational extractivism and a necropolitics of killable life. Thus I argue that if the industry of corn monoculture belongs to a broader network of detrimental industries characteristic of the Anthropocene, the geological Anthropos is not to be understood as synonymous with the human species, but as a very restrictive ecology of humans and nonhumans, including corporate, industrial, technoscientific and extractive actors. As such, the article emphasizes the moral necessity of rupturing with the narrative of the Anthropocene, a discourse better suited for supporting existing mechanisms of domination and exploitation constitutive of the economy of climate change.     

An Experiment Inspired by Fourier: J.B. Godin's Familistere in Guise

Founded in 1859 by Jean‐Baptiste Godin, the Familistere in Guise (France) is one of the rare, if not the only Fourierist experiment to pass successfully the test of time. Like C. Fourier, who inspired him, Godin thought and acted above all in terms of social experimentation. What were the main social innovations to see the light within the scope of such research? In what way could they be said to have remained faithful to Fourier? And, in the end, how can we explain that Godin succeeded where so many other Fourierists had failed? In order to answer this question, a first section sketches the portrait and trajectory of Godin. The paper then mentions Godin's principal belief and analyzes a few Fourier‐inspired experiments carried out by Godin in order to promote industrial democracy. It also points to the limits of the schemes imagined by Godin to permit a community of sometimes nearly 2,000 men, women and children to exist.