Ideas about the presence, absence, and growth of democracy in global politics take different forms. After surveying the basic justifications for global democracy, three frames for making sense of the significance of particular developments and proposals are canvassed. “Soup” involves the proliferation of democratic practices, though the consequences of this proliferation for the overall shape of international politics remain open. “Society” stresses the democratization of processes that affect constitutive norms and discourses. “System” identifies differentiated yet ordered parts, geared to (...) the production of collective outcomes. The soup framing is undemanding yet limited. System provides a way to pinpoint democratic deficiencies and possibilities, but its requirements can be highly demanding, and it leaves open the question of normative integration. Understanding global democratization requires both society and system framings. (shrink)

The article critically analyzes how contemporary image practices involving generative artificial intelligence are entangled with processes of democratization. We demonstrate and discuss how generative artificial intelligence images raise questions of democratization and citizenship in terms of access, skills, validation, truths, and diversity. First, the article establishes a theoretical framework, which includes theory on democratization and aesthetics and lays the foundations for the analytical concepts of ‘formative’ and ‘generative’ visual citizenship. Next, we argue for the use of explorative (...) and collaborative methods to investigate contemporary image practice, before analyzing the central part of our investigation, which takes the form of four collaborative workshops conducted in 2023 with external partners in different domains (the art scene, art therapy, education, and the news media). After analyzing insights from these workshops, the article significantly nuances how visual citizenship is at work in different manners depending on the different concrete image practices using generative artificial intelligence. Finally, we conclude that an aesthetic perspective offers valuable insights into foundational aspects of belonging to contemporary visual communities. (shrink)

This article seeks to provide a comprehensive re-evaluation of the redistributive models of democracy advanced by Carles Boix, and Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, their reception within the democratization literature, and the subsequent trajectories of their authors. Contrary to the existing literature, which commonly envisions RMDs as a unified framework, this article argues that Boix and Acemoglu and Robinson’s models should be understood as divergent theories of democratic transitions. In the aftermath of numerous criticisms, both authors have developed sharply (...) different understandings of democratization. We argue that Acemoglu and Robinson have backtracked from their original formulation toward a “Whiggish” history of the rise of liberty, while Boix has increasingly reverted to the core propositions of classical modernization theory. In the process, this article argues that RMDs have lost, and reneged on, much of their apparent explanatory power regarding transitions to and reversions from democracy. (shrink)

Were women agents of their own political emancipation or did politicians preemptively grant rights to them in a bid for electoral success? This article claims that both electoral politics and the ordinary strategies of women’s movements explain the timing of female suffrage. Drawing on archival evidence from the United Kingdom, I show how in an electoral environment where the incumbent Liberals saw disadvantage to reform, an enterprising group of Liberal suffragists formed a pact with the Labour party, trading economic resources (...) for the party’s promise to push for suffrage reform. The Election Fighting Fund, as the pact was called, was key to securing women’s place in the 1918 Representation of the People Act. In raising the possibility that ordinary instead of revolutionary tactics proved key to voting rights reform, women emerge as an interesting new case for the study of democratization. (shrink)

Education is viewed as not merely a particular domain of social life. It is more a universal process than a mere learning of sciences and arts; it is richer than an individual's socialization. The educational democratization turns out to be a prerequisite of humanization of the entire social life. The orientation at the supreme humane values as a strategic direction of democratic evolution of education is opposed to the authoritarian tendencies as an “antivalue” of pedagogical relations.Being a significant step (...) towards a genuinely humane society, democratization is unable, however, to resolve the fundamental problem of human formation: that of alienation. The opportunity to resolve it is dependent upon proper conditions for a free self-determination of a personality in culture. (shrink)

When we ask modern questions about democracy and democratization, we have to clarify the meaning of these words. It has been 21 years since the Velvet Revolution and we still think that it had to do with democracy and the democratization of our Czechoslovak society in that time, as if the common use of the word "democratization" makes possible the expression or the vindicate one´s own opinion. There is a question whether the majority of our society was (...) thinking this way. In this context it would be very interesting to see the practical purposes of our Church society during the revolution, as hierarchic or as non-hierarchic. Also there are still the voices of some people that echo the unpreparedness of the Church for this modern world, especially when communicating with the faithful and the society. . (shrink)

The author investigates the problem with coercive democratization, in regard to the Islamist response to the U.S. Democracy Reform Initiative.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the role played by political parties in the penetration/maintenance of informal rules, norms, and networks within state structures, rendering the operation of the rule of law ineffective and undermining democratization processes. Here, we argue that the malfunction of the rule of law from persistent phenomena such as the dominance of informal institutions/rules, state capture, political clientelism, and patronage networks by political parties in Western Balkans countries has made their democratic institutions, (...) or what Guillermo O’Donnell (1996) calls the “full institutional package” of polyarchy, to function with serious deficits. By conceiving the rule of law as a crucial dimension of the democratic system, and by maintaining that democratic rights and freedoms are effectively ensured only to the extent that state institutions/structures are bound by the rule of law, we here advance the argument that political parties have managed to exploit the structural weakness of the state in their environments to subjugate them for partisan gain and advantages. The cases from the Western Balkan countries considered in this study are Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Keywords: Rule of Law, Democratization, State institutions, Informal rules/networks, Particularism, Clientelism, Patronage, Western Balkan countries. (shrink)

Historically, there has been little agreement between advocates of radical financial reform and socialist theoreticians. However, in the new circumstances of the twenty-first century, a productive synthesis of these two traditions might be possible. Drawing on the franchise model of credit creation elaborated by Robert C. Hockett and the dysfunctions created by the extreme concentration of private financial institutions, this article outlines a reform agenda that would both democratize finance and facilitate the flow of funds into valuable forms of investment (...) that are currently starved for resources. If the new institutions envisioned in this proposal were able to take root and expand, they could ultimately facilitate a transition to socialism, defined as the subordination of the market to democratic politics. (shrink)

For decades, scholars and politicians have vigorously debated whether Confucianism is compatible with democracy, yet little is known about how it affects the process of democratization in East Asia. In this book, Doh Chull Shin examines the prevalence of core Confucian legacies and their impacts on civic and political orientations in six Confucian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Analyses of the Asian Barometer and World Values surveys reveal that popular attachment to Confucian legacies has mixed (...) results on democratic demand. While Confucian political legacies encourage demand for a non-liberal democratic government that prioritizes the economic welfare of the community over the freedom of individual citizens, its social legacies promote interpersonal trust and tolerance, which are critical components of democratic civic life. Thus, the author argues that citizens of historically Confucian Asia have an opportunity to combine the best of Confucian ideals and democratic principles in a novel, particularly East Asian brand of democracy. (shrink)

This chapter examines Central Asia’s complex transitioning process marked by a noticeable tilt toward autocracy. Beginning from a similar post-independence foundation, the countries have since taken diverse political paths, with many failing to establish democratic systems. Apart from Kyrgyzstan, which was considered to be an electoral democracy prior to 2021, elections have enabled the same ruling elite to remain in powerful positions for over thirty years. The chapter focuses on voting and political participation as crucial indicators of democracy, addressing their (...) significance for the maintenance of the regimes and the reactions of the citizens to these practices. Additionally, the influence of global efforts to promote democracy and the role of external actors such as Russia and China are both examined for Central Asia. Drawing on data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project, this analysis provides a nuanced understanding of the region’s democratic trajectory and the domestic and international forces shaping it. (shrink)

Medical artificial intelligence (MAI) creates an opportunity to radically expand access to healthcare across the globe by allowing us to overcome the persistent labor shortages that limit healthcare access. This democratization of healthcare is the greatest moral promise of MAI. Whatever comes of the enthusiastic discourse about the ability of MAI to improve the state‐of‐the‐art in high‐income countries (HICs), it will be far less impactful than improving the desperate state‐of‐the‐actual in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). However, the almost exclusive (...) development of MAI in HICs risks this promise being thwarted by contextual bias, an algorithmic bias that arises when the context of the training data is significantly dissimilar from potential contexts of application, which makes the unreflective application of HIC‐based MAI in LMIC contexts dangerous. The use of MAI in LMICs demands careful attention to context. In this paper, I aim to provide that attention. First, I illustrate the dire state of healthcare in LMICs and the hope that MAI may help us to improve this state. Next, I show that the radical differences between the health contexts of HICs and those of LMICs create an extraordinary risk of contextual bias. Then, I explore ethical challenges raised by this risk, and propose policies that will help to overcome those challenges. Finally, I sketch a wide range of related issues that need to be addressed to ensure that MAI has a positive impact on LMICs—and is able to improve, rather than worsen, global health equity. (shrink)

Democracy as a regime and as a way of life requires strong ethical-political sensibilities and enabling social preconditions to the creation of which education may be especially conductove. The related normative tasks that we expect from education to carry out are daunting as such. However, they become even more difficult to fulfil in the contemporary contexts of exacerbated adversities. Democracy and democratic education have fallen into various crisis and are facing multiple challenges; this worry is shared by many educational theorists. (...) Thus, today, there is an urgent call to rethink the relationship between education and democratization. This special issues reponds to that call with educational-philosophical papers that explore yet undertheorized dimensions of the connection of civic education and democratic development. (shrink)

Asia’s history of democracy is relatively short. Modern democracies, namely, polities in which representatives are elected through universal suffrage, emerged in Europe and the United States starting in the early nineteenth century.

Las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) han ganado gran relevancia derivado de la situación de salud producida por el Covid-19, por lo que se plantean nuevas dinámicas en la formación docente. El estudio es de corte cualitativo descriptivo y se utilizó el estudio de casos, el análisis de contenido y del discurso. Los docentes exponen la adaptación del diseño tecnopedagógico, motivándolos al autoaprendizaje proactivo de sus estudiantes. El sentido pedagógico del uso de TIC propició un escenario de (...) aprendizaje para favorecer el enriquecimiento de las prácticas de los docentes, donde se logra la democratización del conocimiento. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between stateness (and its constituent attributes) and democracy by conceiving the effective state as an independent variable and a prerequisite for the success of a well-functioning democracy. Such a conditioning relationship between the state and the regime has often been subject to being neglected among many scholars of democratization, who have not considered the state as an important explanatory or at least obstructive variable for the success of democratization. (...) This paper argues that the existence of an effective and legitimate state is essential to build a well-functioning democracy. Herein, the variable of stateness is analysed in terms of four attributes: that of monopoly on the legitimate use of force; citizenship agreement; infrastructure capacity of the state; and law enforcement capacity. (shrink)

This article delves into the intricate dynamics of democratization in Albania, a key case study within the broader context of the Western Balkans. It critically examines how the entrenched system of patronage politics influences the democratization process, challenging conventional models of political development. By categorizing Albanian party systems based on their competitiveness and consolidation, the study unveils how these systems, regardless of being dominant or plural, primarily function as expansive patronage networks. This patronage framework, deeply embedded in the (...) political fabric, effectively inverts the standard paradigm of accountability between political parties and the electorate. The article argues that this inversion poses significant obstacles to the democratization trajectory, necessitating a critical reevaluation of party politics in Albania. Through a comprehensive analysis of Albania’s political landscape, the study seeks to unravel the complexities of patronage politics and its implications for democratic consolidation, offering insights that contribute to the broader discourse on democratization in post-socialist states. (shrink)

Identity politics is commonly criticized as endangering democracy by undermining community, rational communication, and solidarity. Drawing on both radical democratic theory and standpoint theory, this article posits the opposite thesis: identity politics is pivotal for the democratization of democracy. Democratization through identity politics is achieved by disrupting hegemonic discourse and is, therefore, a matter of power, while such forms of power politics are reasonable when following minority standpoints generated through identity politics. The article develops this approach by connecting (...) radical democratic theories with standpoint theories and highlighting their commonalities and potential for mutual enhancement. Standpoint theory allows us to substantiate and reconcile two initially contradictory claims: particular minority standpoints are necessary to criticize the prevailing discursive and institutional orders, and these standpoints stem from intersubjective reason and embody ‘strong objectivity.’ This discussion presents a new perspective on the tension between particularity and universality, as well as the relationship between power and reason in democracy. Democratization is an oscillation between these polarities, and political theory should not aim to resolve this tension but to recognize and articulate it. Such recognition might involve elevating knowledge emerging from oppressed groups and exercising epistemic modesty when assessing specific forms of identity politics. (shrink)

After a long time of neglect, Artificial Intelligence is once again at the center of most of our political, economic, and socio-cultural debates. Recent advances in the field of Artifical Neural Networks have led to a renaissance of dystopian and utopian speculations on an AI-rendered future. Algorithmic technologies are deployed for identifying potential terrorists through vast surveillance networks, for producing sentencing guidelines and recidivism risk profiles in criminal justice systems, for demographic and psychographic targeting of bodies for advertising or propaganda, (...) and more generally for automating the analysis of language, text, and images. Against this background, the aim of this book is to discuss the heterogenous conditions, implications, and effects of modern AI and Internet technologies in terms of their political dimension: What does it mean to critically investigate efforts of net politics in the age of machine learning algorithms? (shrink)

Let us understand economic democracy as the fourfold capacity (i) to decide what social relations we wish to “enter” in order to work; (ii) to determine the (im)material nature of the space where we decide to stay and work, which requires the capacity of having a “voice” that is effectively listened to; (iii) to opt for “exiting” this space in case its nature and functioning go against what we wish for our lives; and (iv) in case we opt for leaving, (...) to resort to an outside-the-previous-workplace offering tools for second and subsequent opportunities, that is, to effectively “restart” our (re)productive lives in other terms and conditions. Basic income can play a crucial role in fostering such capacity. Because of its unconditionality, and thanks to bargaining power deriving from it, basic income is a sort of income that is convertible in terms of (a) time to conceive of (and put into practice) projects of one’s own, be it individually and/or collectively; (b) a capacity to explore alternative options and take promising risks; and (c) the right to credit, in the twofold sense of the right to financial resources and the right to social trust. As noticed and appreciated by some post-crash social movements, there are some spheres where such democracy-enhancing bargaining power may unfold: wage-earning work, the decommodification of labour force and the possible subsequent constitution of cooperatives and other self-managed (re)productive spaces, the household, entrepreneurship, socio-political participation, etc. In sum, more flexible combinations of different kinds of work may emerge when individuals and groups enjoy an income stream that is guaranteed as a right, which echoes both classical and contemporary discourses on the need for humans to have the democratic right to autonomously choose and determine work(s) all along the life cycle. (shrink)

The feminist movement may seek democratization on a global scale, but women are still hampered by a democratic deficit in terms of economic and political power. On the other hand, global feminist networks and new expanded forms of non-territorial political space do appear to be increasing democratic participation for women.

What would it mean for the institutions of finance to be democratized? I explore this question from a broadly Rawlsian conception of justice. In the first part of the paper I outline Rawls’s theory of justice. In the second part I briefly review what Rawls had to say about justice in the economic sphere. Notably, he thought that his conception of justice can only be realized in either “Property-Owning Democracy” or “Liberal Socialism.” I briefly explore the nature of these two (...) “regimes,” before turning my attention to the institutions of finance, and in particular banking. In the third part I discuss the role of finance in contemporary liberal democracies, the social and political power that private banks are endowed with in such societies, and what problems this engenders from the perspective of justice. In the fourth part I argue that, among other things, the democratization of finance would entail wide dispersal of power and control over decisions about finance and investment. In the fifth and final part of the paper, I argue that there are reasons to believe that both of Rawls’s just economic regimes would fail with respect to the distribution of power and control in the economy. (shrink)

Unlike Artistotle's analysis, recent treatments of democratization identify pathways and propose necessary conditions but fall short of specifying cause-effect relations. Democratization does not follow a single path, and is unlikely to have universally applicable necessary or sufficient conditions. A political process analysis of democratization defines it as movement toward broad citizenship, equal citizenship, binding consultation of citizens, and protection of citizens from arbitrary state action. High levels of all four elements depend on a significant degree of state (...) capacity. Democratization emerges from interacting changes in public politics, categorical inequality, and networks of trust, which in turn depend on specifiable mechanisms of change in social relations. When the shocks of conquest, confrontation, colonization, and revolution promote democratization, they do so by accelerating the same causal mechanisms. The next round of research and theory on democratization requires identification, verification, and connection of the relevant causal mechanisms. (shrink)