Enabling children’s deliberation in deliberative systems: schools as a mediating space

In recent years, there has been a growing scholarly interest in conceptualising schools beyond their educational functions, as sites and agents of democracy. Yet this interest is often underpinned by a narrow conception of democracy, focusing solely on schools’ public and social aspects. To capture the democratic potential of schools more fully, this article suggests adopting a deliberative systems approach, which conceptualises democracy as differentiated yet linked sites of democratic communications and views schools as one such site. Using this approach as a broader framework and drawing on the fieldwork conducted in two Japanese schools, this article identifies the condition under which schools can become a meaningful part of deliberative systems. It reveals that schools contribute to deliberative systems when they serve as a bridge between children’s everyday practices and deliberative actions in the public space. In light of the findings, this article suggests conceptualising schools as a ‘mediating space’.     

The Logic of A Co‐Operative Economy and Democracy 2.0: Recovering the Possibilities for Autonomy,Creativity, Solidarity,and Common Purpose

Over the past 30 years, the collectivist‐democratic form of organization has presented a growing alternative to the bureaucratic form, and it has proliferated, here and around the world. This form is manifest, for example, within micro‐credit groups, workers’ co‐operatives, nongovernmental organizations, advocacy groups, self‐help groups, community and municipal initiatives, social movement organizations, and in many nonprofit groups in general. It is most visible in the civil society sector, but demands for deeper participation are also evident in communities and cities, and the search for more involving and less bureaucratic structures has spread into many for‐profit firms as well. Building on research on this form of organization, this article develops a model of the decisional processes utilized in such organizations and contrasts these “Democracy 2.0” standards for decision making from the Democracy 1.0 (representative and formal) standards that previously prevailed. Drawing on a new generation of research on these sorts of organizations, this article and this special section discuss: (a) how consensus decisional processes are being made more efficient; (b) how such organizations are now able to scale to fairly large size while still retaining their local and participatory basis; (c) how such organizations are cultivating a more diverse membership and using such diversity to build more democratic forms of governance; (d) how such organizations are combatting ethnoracial and gender inequalities that prevail in the surrounding society; and (e) how emotions are getting infused into the public conversations within these organizations and communities.     

Discourses of service user involvement in meeting places in Norwegian community mental health care: a discourse analysis of staff accounts

In previous research, meeting places have been favourably addressed by service users, but they have also been contested as exclusionary. In this participatory explorative study, we sought to perform a contextual analysis of meeting places in Norway based on a discourse analysis of three focus group discussions with 15 staff members. We asked the following question: how do meeting-place employees discuss their concrete and abstract encounters with service users and their experiences? We focused on service user involvement, which was largely analysed as neoliberal consultation and responsibilisation. Service users were positioned as resisting responsibility trickling down and defending staffed meeting places. Social democratic discourse was identified in the gaps of neoliberal discourse, which is noteworthy given that Norway is a social democracy. This relates to global concerns about displacements of democracy. We suggest that meeting places appear to hold the potential for staff and service users to collaborate more democratically.     

Gezi Park and EuroMaidan: social movements at the borders

Both Turkey and Ukraine are located at the external borders of the European Union (EU), and are seen as important partners of the EU, especially in terms of economic relations and strategic partnership. Both countries experienced en masse protest events in 2013: the Gezi Park protests and EuroMaidan, starting, respectively, in May 2013 and November 2013. Although these protests started initially for different reasons – the brutal eviction of a sit-in organized for protecting the trees in Taksim Gezi Park and the Ukrainian government's abandonment of EU trade agreement talks – and seem spatially, temporally and ideologically separate, they both include claims related to a “more just and transparent system”. Such claims are not purely political and are closely linked to a social dimension, especially in terms of local and European space-making. This article aims to understand the importance of Gezi Park and EuroMaidan within the framework of new social movements in terms of space-making and the perception of human rights, democracy, justice, identitarian politics and consensual social relations as Euro-concepts or European ideals.     

从村民自治中透视转型期中国农村的公民权建设——以定县村民自治的权利调查为基础

本文采用在定县农村进行问卷调查取得实证资料的基础上,通过定量分析与定性分析相结合的方式,从法社会学的视角对村民自治中农村公民应然权利与实然权利之间的落差及对中国农村的公民权建设的剖析,揭示中国农村公民权的现状与存在的一些问题及其对中国未来发展的影响,探索中国未来农村公民权建设的模式与方案。     

如何理解民主执政

坚持民主执政是社会主义的本质要求,坚持民主执政对党获得广泛的执政基础、巩固党的执政 地位具有重要意义。坚持民主执政必须努力发展人民民主,推进政治体制改革,坚持民主集中制与 实现党内民主。民主执政与科学执政、依法执政是有机统一体。     

儒家式的民主主义

有关“儒家民主”讨论不是一种乌托邦思想的发挥。通过借助于美国实用主义大师杜威的眼光及其关于人类社群的思想对中国“逝者和民主”考察,可发现中国更接近杜威的社群主义民主理想,在未来东西文化的交往过程中,很有可能是中国的影响使得美国与其他北大西洋民主国家益发接近杜威的民主观。我们希望来自将来对话的中西价值和信仰的结合将成为中国的儒学及西方的实用主义这两者的组成部分。     

乡土文化制约下的农村基层民主选举制度的重构

全国各地在探索村民自治过程中,出现了平行选举、职次选举、叠加选举、累计选举四种选举方式,从选举制度本身来看,均重视了候选人个体素质的选择,体现了传统“选贤举能”的政治理念,但是共同的缺点是忽视了发挥选举制度整体功能的重要性,不能很好地解决浓厚的乡土文化对民主选举的制约问题。笔者以此为着眼点,分析比较了现行的几种选举模式的优缺点,提出了“组合竞选制”的选举模式。     

关于我国权力机关行政法制监督的思考

行政法制监督作为一种法律制度,是依法行政和行政法制化的重要内容。权力机关作为国家行政法制监督的主体,其对行政的监督是行政法制监督的重要方面。我国的权力机关是指全国人民代表大会和地方各级人民代表大会。它在我国现行的行政法制监督中发挥着巨大作用,但随着社会主义民主法制的运行和市场经济的发展,权力机关的行政法制监督也呈现出不足和弊端。     

I'm Not for Sale: Teaching About Human Trafficking

Even though slavery is illegal in all countries, it is still practiced in the form of human trafficking. In fact, there are about twenty-five million men, women, and children who are victims of human trafficking, a 150-billion-dollar industry that affects every country across the globe. Modern communications, such as the Internet and cell phones, exacerbate the problem of human trafficking and law enforcement faces enormous challenges in detecting, arresting, and prosecuting human traffickers. Victims, fifty percent of whom are children, are sold into prostitution, forced marriages, and forced labor in sweatshops, agriculture, and mining. Additionally, some victims are forced into armed conflicts as children; others are killed and their organs are harvested and sold on the black market. It is estimated that 50,000 victims are brought into the United States annually. Human trafficking is a moral outrage, as well as a violation of American and international law. Social studies education must teach about this egregious human rights violation and encourage students to become involved in stopping this modern-day slavery. By incorporating lessons into their curricula, all teachers can help produce young citizens dedicated to protecting human rights for all people.