From philosophy of history to political philosophy: an ideological investigation of globalization

Many have argued that one of the reasons for the irresistible trend of liberal democracy is the irreversible process of globalization. The logic assumes that globalization is not only an inseparable prerequisite for promoting economic development but also the dynamic to transform political structures into liberalism in less democratic countries, because economic development within countries creates new middle classes around the world, with their natural demands for more participation in decision and political pluralism. In other words, all societies will evolve to a point where they will adopt liberal democratic institutions. In turn, the resulting new world order will be characterized by international cooperation through market economies and liberal democracy. This paper investigates the ideological origin of globalization by inspecting Fukuyama's theory of the ‘end of history’. It argues that this belief is a continuance of modernization theory and reminiscent of functionalist concepts by Western scholars concerning the development of less developed countries. The difference is that globalizers cleverly cover their ethnocentrism with Hegel's philosophy, as it implies that the Western system is some perfect theory that all people will eventually accept as their cultures and societies evolve into a Western superior state.     

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.     

How Terrorism Affects Attitudes toward Democracy: Tunisia in 2015

Tunisia is the only country that emerged from the Arab Spring as a democracy. However, Tunisian democracy is threatened by political divisions, economic problems, and the threat of terrorist attacks. We shed light on Tunisia's democratic prospects by examining (1) the degree to which major terrorist attacks in 2015 influenced Tunisian public opinion on democracy and (2) the extent to which preference for a democratic system affected opinions on the prospects for democracy in Tunisia. We use data from three waves of a nationwide survey conducted just before and just after Tunisia's first major terrorist attack, and just after the country's second major terrorist attack. We demonstrate that after the attacks the Tunisian public became less favourable toward democracy and less optimistic that Tunisia would soon be ready for it. Such scepticism was widespread, affecting people who preferred democracy as much as those who did not. We conclude that the prospects for Tunisian democracy are more precarious than is sometimes assumed.     

Political discontent in new democracies: the case of Brazil and Latin America

Political changes related to globalization apparently produce similar effects on old and new democracies. All over the world, comparative research on democratization has showed that political distrust is a common variable affecting the whole of the State and the relationship between citizens and democracy. Nevertheless, political discontent in old democracies has stimulated citizens to adopt new attitudes and modes of political participation, while in newly democratized countries citizens tend to withdraw from politics as a consequence of institutional distrust. In fact, in many new democracies, although adhering to the normative meaning of the democratic regime, distrust of democratic institutions is associated to citizens’ negative feeling about political efficacy, low levels of political interest and political participation, and also preference for democratic models which exclude political parties and/or parliaments. This paper evaluates the meanings and consequences of the contemporary phenomenon of political discontent in Brazil and Latin America and discusses its implications for democratic theory.     

Equality FOR the labor market: An appreciation of W. H. Hutt

Conclusion I am optimistic about the future of labor economics. The socialist world-view, and the sentimentality that made that world-view so attractive to so many well inten-tioned people, has collapsed. Eventually even pro-union labor economists will have to accept that fact. The impulse to treat labor as a special case was, I believe, based on socialist sentiments. Private sector unionism is declining throughout the devel-oped world. According to Leo Troy (1994), American private sector union density will be 7 percent by the year 2000 — exactly what it was in 1900. Troy calls this the symmetry of history. Labor economists who focus on the private sector will come increasingly to regard unionism as irrelevant to contemporary analysis. They will come increasingly to believe, as Hutt always did, that labor economics should be nothing more or less than the application of economic principles to the labor market. More than most other economists of the twentieth century, Hutt has made straight the path to such a reconstruction of labor economics. I thank my colleague, James Ahiakpor, for several useful criticisms of the first draft of this paper and exonerate him from any blame for remaining faults.     

DIALOGUE

In light of the common mission of social studies education to prepare future democratic citizens, the field continues to be rooted in didactic and monologic practices. Finding an alibi in the current accountability movement that favors teaching about democracy instead of teaching through democracy, many social studies teachers have reneged on their responsibility to engender the democratic capacities of students. In this article, I draw on the writings of literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin to examine the possibilities that emerge when grounding pedagogy in dialogue. Based on Bakhtin's writings, I sketch three possible pathways that a dialogic pedagogy allows social studies educators to explore: (1) nonneutrality of language, (2) testing of authority, and (3) development of voice. Through my discussion of Bakhtin's history, pedagogic action, philosophy, and sociology, I argue that pedagogy in social studies grounded in dialogue provides an aesthetic for democracy as a means to an end.     

Beyond cheap labour: trade unions and development in the Turkish metal industry

The ability of developing countries to export to more developed parts of the world is often associated with cheap labour. But such very obvious economic advantage is not always the end of the story. A fuller account needs to consider the wider institutional context. In some instances trade unionism can be an important part of this. This paper addresses trade unionism with specific reference to workers employed in large firms in Turkey that are significant exporters of consumer goods to the European market. The union examined is the largest union in the metal industry, an industry that is a driving force in the Turkish economy, and a major centre of trade unionism with over half a million of Turkey's three million trade unionists. The particular ‐ autocratic ‐ character of this union is critically examined and located with reference to wider forces of political economy and the specific constraints and difficulties to which its members are subject. Finally, the significance of this sort of trade unionism for economic ‐ and socio‐political ‐ development is discussed.     

欧盟与沙特阿拉伯王国的民主化进程

“9·11”后欧盟加大对沙特等海合会国家的关注力度，这对未来如何建立新型的西方与伊斯兰世界的关系有重要参考价值。欧盟推进沙特民主化进程的动机主要表现在四个方面：维护欧洲安全、促进沙特稳定、弘扬欧洲民主、抵消美国压力。欧盟主要从经贸领域着手，积极推进沙特更好地融入世界经济，此外，还辅以对其现行政治制度的宽容和对伊斯兰的理解与尊重。欧盟民主观建立在维护人权的基础上，其民主只是一种手段而非终极目标。在欧盟的间接影响下，沙特在地方选举、政府机构改革和发展、非暴力民间组织的诞生、妇女地位改善等方面有所推进。欧盟与沙特之间存在着良性互动。     

DEMOCRACY AND GROWTH: A PERSPECTIVE FROM DEMOCRATIC EXPERIENCE

This article investigates the impact of democracy on growth by simultaneously considering a country's secular‐historical experience of democracy and current political regime. The results obtained show that the effect of democracy on growth exhibits an asymmetrical pattern depending on the country's democracy stock. Only in “democratic countries” with “prolonged experiences of democratic rule” can democracy promote growth. This claim stands in contrast to the earlier literature in which there is either no consistent relationship between growth and democracy or perhaps a nonlinear relationship. This conclusion provides circumstantial support for the claim of the “democracy promotes growth” hypothesis. (JEL O43)     

Sparks and Ashes

The conditions for liberal democracy – by any operational definition of that concept – include some minimum level of knowledge. We can assume everybody knows something about local matters. But total ignorance of non-local matters must make people incompetent to deliberate about those issues. If a majority of citizens know nothing about such problems, are they ready for non-local democracy? This question has been raised by scholars with reference to the pace of democracy in developing countries. But it is equally relevant for some developed countries where widespread ignorance is demonstrable. Some theorists argue that ‘democratic ignorance’ is not harmful because electoral democracies are actually run by well-informed elites. The problem with this model of elite politics is that ignorant citizens vote (even if their voting rate is lower),1 For an estimate of the relation between political knowledge and voting in the US, see Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, What Americans Know About Politics and Why it Matters, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996, p. 227. View all notes and are sampled in political polls. Elections and polls are used to legitimize both policies and rule by particular elites. Ignorance, therefore, has consequences. There is no democratic society where a majority of the electorate are completely ignorant about non-local matters. But large proportions of the population in some countries are uninformed to the point of ignorance. What is the minimum level of non-local knowledge which should be the goal of a democratic society? This abstract question has implications for education, for political citizenship, and for the evolution of democratic politics in developing and developed countries.     

“1·25革命”前后埃及政治转型比较

“1·25革命”后，埃及的政治转型一度为中东政治发展带来一丝曙光，但之后更剧烈的社会动荡又为民主转型带来了巨大的不确定性。事实上，在西方民主转型理论的诱导下，埃及的民主化走向误区具有必然性，西方民主转型理论注重即时性的结果，片面地将民主制度的建立及公民政治权利尤其是选举权的实现视作民主转型的终点，而忽视了民主的深刻内涵。民主某种程度上就是各种公民权利，包括基础权利、政治权利及社会权利，依次实现的漫长过程。三种权利互相支撑，构成三位一体的民主。穆巴拉克时代的民主转型缺乏基础权利和社会权利的支撑，最终导致民主的空心化。革命后的埃及尽管在民主制度建设上取得实质性进展，但公民权利的匮乏对民主的成熟构成严重制约，从选举到善治，埃及的民主转型任重而道远。     

Tolerance of Homosexuality in 88 Countries: Education,Political Freedom,and Liberalism

Researchers have repeatedly found a positive correlation between education and tolerance. However, they may be victims of an unrepresentative sample containing only rich Western liberal democracies, where political agendas have a liberalizing effect on curricula. In this paper, we specify the relationship between education and liberal attitudes by analyzing data on educational attainment and tolerance of homosexuality (one dimension of liberalism) drawn from a heterogeneous sample of 88 countries over the period 1981–2014. We argue that nonliberal political agendas in some countries undermine the supposed universality of the positive relationship between educational attainment and tolerance of homosexuality. In relatively free countries, education is indeed associated with greater tolerance. However, in relatively unfree countries, education has no effect on tolerance and in some cases encourages intolerance. Specifically, our analysis demonstrates that education is associated with tolerance of homosexuality only when regimes energetically promote liberal‐democratic values. The larger theoretical point is that the agendas of political regimes shape civic values partly via education systems. Especially in an era when democracy is at risk in many countries, it is important to recognize that education is not always a benign force.     

POLITICAL DEMOCRACY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DISARTICULATION, AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The level of political democracy is hypothesized to have an independent positive effect on social well-being irrespective of either level of economic development or level of disarticulation of economies of developing countries, which is considered to be the most socially harmful structural feature created by dependency. In addition, political democracy is hypothesized to buffer the negative effects of disarticulation on social well-being. Findings from the analysis of data from eighty-two developing countries confirm these hypotheses. Political democracy showed a consistent positive effect on social well-being measures, and the least democratic countries were more vulnerable to the negative effects of disarticulation. These findings underscore the independent positive role that political democracy may play in improving social well-being in developing countries.     

MARKODEMOCRACY?

Robert Dahl identifies a "democratic paradox" in which citizens have low faith in democratic institutions but high esteem for democratic principles and ideals. Dahl asserts that the paradox is resolved if citizens principally perceive democracy in terms of political rights (i.e., freedom of speech and assembly) and not political responsibilities (i.e., regular voting). Such an argument, however, excludes the economic realm from conceptions of democracy. Alternatively, we argue that some citizens may actively include market principles in their perceptions of democracy. These citizens may perceive market participation as a form of democratic participation, thus providing an additional explanation of why widespread distrust of political institutions does not detract from support for democratic values. In this article we provide some preliminary evidence from a targeted survey of college undergraduates, union workers, and churchgoers that illuminates these possibilities.     

Ökonomische und nicht-ökonomische Gefahren für Demokratien

Muller (1995a) claimed that during the 1960s and 1970s countries with (high) income inequality are more likely to face decline in democracy than countries with lower income inequality. This article uses new data to compare the negative impact of two economic determinants (income inequality, inflation) and two non-economic determinants (percent of Islamic population, world system periphery) on democracy. It is found that neither income inequality nor world system periphery does contribute to the explanation of the decline in democracy. Only inflation offers a tentative explanation for decline in democracy. The validity of the results is lessened by sample problems. Especially the data from communist countries appear to be less reliable.     

Participatory Skepticism: Ambivalence and Conflict in Popular Discourses of Participatory Democracy

In recent years researches have focused on the preferences of ordinary citizens towards democratic deepening, asking: Do people want more institutional participation? The present work analyzes how different classes of people envisage a participatory democracy and its problems. Supported by qualitative research based on 16 focus groups conducted in Spain between 2011 and 2013, it is shown that skepticism plays a central role in the views of participatory democracy. Doubts surrounding its viability, negative expectations on the responsiveness of governments and, overall, distrust of the capacities of ordinary citizens, contribute to skepticism. In some groups these beliefs lead to a rejection of participatory reforms. In other groups, participants harbor hopes and positive prospects. For them, the key point is faith in education as a shortcut to political equality.     

The Fate of Former East German Police in Reunified Germany, 1990–1996: The Dialectics of Inclusion and Exclusion

This article analyzes the vetting of former East German police in Berlin and Brandenburg in the context of the former East Germany's transition to democracy and German unification. Police are one of the most critical and sensitive sectors of the civil service and typically, along with teachers, among the first groups to be vetted in the context of democratic transitions. The German case illustrates the often unpredictable and inconsistent approaches to vetting that led to very different outcomes throughout the East. It identifies several factors that influenced vetting and employment prospects for former East German police officers. These included political geography, who did the vetting, how a candidate's past was interpreted (whether aggravating or mitigating circumstances were weighed), the institutional arrangements for vetting, state‐mandated guidelines or criteria for determining suitability, and timing.     

City diplomacy and “glocal” governance: revitalizing cosmopolitan democracy

Diplomacy is in trouble. With globalization come global problems. While we live in a twenty-first-century world of interdependence, we face seventeenth-century Westphalian political institutions with defined boundaries and separated responsibilities of nation-states. When we think of diplomacy, we are thinking of state-to-state relations; however, with sovereign obligation and national interest obsession, state-to-state negotiations often fall into “gridlocks”; international policy-making also suffers from “democratic deficits”. David Held offered cosmopolitan democracy as the answer, but his “world government” thesis provides no realistic policy implications.

In very recent years, city-to-city (“trans-municipal”) networks have received significant international recognition as cities are able to cooperate, with concrete actions, on a range of global issues. Surprisingly, scholars of international relations have largely neglected the role of cities in global governance. This paper argues for city diplomacy and “glocal” governance to fill the theoretical gap. It has two purposes: (1) to break the “conceptual jail” of regarding nation-states as the legitimate subject to manage world affairs, and open the door for cities and (2) to revisit the condition of cosmopolitan democracy, and offer a realistic model to revitalize the concept while bypassing the infeasibility of world government. In Part I, as I revisit Confucian philosophy da-tong (great unity), Rosenau's “sovereignty-free” actors and Athenian democracy, I argue that cities are our best hope to transcend nationality for the common well-being of humanity, connect local citizens to global public policy, and move towards cosmopolitan democracy. In Part II, drawing on Dahl's democratic criteria and DeBúrca's “democratic-striving approach”, I will develop two “building blocks” of democracy at the global level – —equal participation and popular control. In Part III, with reference to the “building blocks”, I will conduct a qualitative analysis to evaluate the cosmopolitan characteristics of C40 and develop political justifications for “trans-municipal networks”.     

Constraining Is Enabling? Exploring the Influence of National Context on Civil Society Strength

This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four key dimensions: level of democracy, political stability, rule of law and economic development. Whereas existing studies mainly focus on Western and post-communist countries, we explicitly include developing countries in our analysis. We use associational membership as proxy for civil society strength and include data of 53 countries. Rule of law, economic development and (to a lesser extent) political stability emerge from our multilevel regression models as the main factors affecting civil society membership. Unlike previous studies, we show that these relations are quadratic instead of linear. This means that where existing theories predict a drop in memberships in developing countries, we find a rise. In other words, harsh conditions actually strengthen civil society in terms of membership levels. We argue that this could be the case because reasons for CSO membership are essentially different in the developed and in the developing world. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, democratic rights do not appear critically important for civil society membership.