Democratization

Tags: Lessons on democracy and the democratic system; 'Streamlined democracy' should be established in Bangladesh; Country Music vs. Jazz Music; Azam Khan's Pop songs; The songs of humanity, the songs of democracy; ‘Tokais’ (extremely poor vagabond children or urchins) sell dry nuts or ‘Jhal-muri’ (dry fried rice with intensive spices esp. chilies etc.) in Bangladesh; By practicing democracy, we can eliminate poverty, injustice and inequality from the society; The age of American democracy is about two hundred and fifty years; American ‘shelter homes’ for homeless people; The second 'step' for finding common ground would be 'emphasizing on the practice of rule of law and rights of people in every walks of our national life'; I wish there were no slums in Bangladesh one day; The sweet sound of ‘Azaan’ (call for the prayer for the Muslims); Truly speaking, in democracy, everyone is allowed to practice individual religion freely as part of freedom of belief; And showing tolerance for one another is a democratic norm.

Tags: The right relationship with any people is the real thing; Being able to cope with people is a great quality, it is also a great skill; Prohibition of netting Hilsa fish during breeding season in Bangladesh; "Some will eat, some won’t. It can’t be, it can’t be ..”; Democracy means rule of law and rights of people; Social Safety Net Program in Bangladesh; Nelson Mandela said that "none of us will be able to live in peace in true sense, as long as poverty, injustice and inequality prevail in this world”; Some permanent national programs might be undertaken to fortify the spirit of our independence; An ‘official permanent document of national consensus’ could be adopted, upon discussion, with signatures from all concerned political parties, factions, professional groups etc. to be the key document in the political history of Bangladesh.

Welche sind die Soziogenese und Psychogenese des
"Islamischen Fundamentalismus", das zu einer institutionellen
Entdemokratiserung der sozialen Kontrolle führt und zwar angesichts einer
funktionalen Demokratisierung als Ergebnis der "Modernisierung"

Welche sind die Soziogenese und Psychogenese des
"Islamischen Fundamentalismus", das zu einer institutionellen
Entdemokratisierung der sozialen Kontrolle führt und zwar angesichts einer
funktionalen Demokratisierung als Ergebnis der "Modernisierung"

在民主退潮的時代氛圍下，本研究認為探討公民社會透過民主機制，對於收入重分配的作用；回答公民社會的活躍，是否提供更佳的績效能力，如減緩貧富不均，兼具理論與實務意義。
    而本文以跨國實證數據，證實公民社會的活躍，在政權民主化、放寬社會控制的過程中，能減緩吉尼係數增加；使用數據自1980年至2016年，共37年164國，並採用廣義合成控制方法(Generalized Synthetic Control Method)，以未民主化國家模擬民主化國家，指出儘管民主未能改善收入分配的不均，然而公民社會在民主化的過程中提升，能夠藉由民主機制降低收入不平等。
    研究具體使用Varieties of Democracy的專家衡量指標：自變項是公民社會參與指標，並控制不同階級政治平等程度指標、社會福利普及指標，評估對於收入分配不平等的影響。
綜合而言，雖然公民社會透過民主機制平抑收入不平等的作用不清晰；但隨著民主化增加活躍程度的公民社會，確有解決資源分配不均的獨到之處；跨國層次上，公民社會對收入不平等起了顯著的降低作用。

مسئله کُردی و کُردها تقریبا در تاریخ یک قرن اخیر خاورمیانه، تحت‌الشعاع مسائل مختلف سیاسی و نظامی از جمله مسئله فلسطین و رقابت بلوک‌های شرق و غرب و منافع قدرت‌های بین‌المللی به حاشیه رانده شده است. فروپاشی جماهیر شوروی، سقوط رژیم بعث در عراق و اخیرا قیام موسوم به بهار عربی زمینه‌های لازم را فراهم آوردند تا مسئله کُردی در خاورمیانه بار دیگر در کانون توجهات قرار گیرد. ائتلاف بین‌المللی علیه داعش و نقش محوری کُردها در این پیکار به ویژه در سوریه سبب شد تا اهمیت مسئله کُردی در خاورمیانه دوباره در کانون توجهات قرار گیرد. تاثیرپذیری و تاثیرگذاری جنبش‌ها و حرکت‌های کُردی در کشورهای ترکیه، ایران، عراق و سوریه بر یکدیگر و بر کلیت جوامعی که در آنها زیست می‌کنند، گستردگی و البته پیچیدگی‌های کم‌نظیر این مسئله گمان‌زنی درباره افق‌های پیشِ‌رو را با چالش‌های جدی مواجه کرده است.

在民主退潮的時代氛圍下，本研究認為探討公民社會透過民主機制，對於收入重分配的作用；回答公民社會的活躍，是否提供更佳的績效能力，如減緩貧富不均，兼具理論與實務意義。
    而本文以跨國實證數據，證實公民社會的活躍，在政權民主化、放寬社會控制的過程中，能減緩吉尼係數增加；使用數據自1980年至2016年，共37年164國，並採用廣義合成控制方法(Generalized Synthetic Control Method)，以未民主化國家模擬民主化國家，指出儘管民主未能改善收入分配的不均，然而公民社會在民主化的過程中提升，能夠藉由民主機制降低收入不平等。
    研究具體使用Varieties of Democracy的專家衡量指標：自變項是公民社會參與指標，並控制不同階級政治平等程度指標、社會福利普及指標，評估對於收入分配不平等的影響。
綜合而言，雖然公民社會透過民主機制平抑收入不平等的作用不清晰；但隨著民主化增加活躍程度的公民社會，確有解決資源分配不均的獨到之處；跨國層次上，公民社會對收入不平等起了顯著的降低作用。

The concept of democracy in political science is one of the most discussed concepts in the 20th century. Yet it was a form of government in the nineteenth century, it became a compulsory management approach rather than a political choice in the last century. Therefore, this has led to a series of forced political transformations. It can be seen as a result of this forced story of democratization in the Middle East. At this point, it should be argued that democracy is not the best form of governance. Naturally, democracy is a desirable system for every nation. The question is how democracy should be, rather than whether it should be. Because modern democracy has emerged as a political culture as a result of socioeconomic and political organizations in western Europe. What needs to be done here is not to perceive democracy as an absolute formula or method, but as a political understanding or culture whose essence must be understood. In this context, the first chapter focuses on five basic concepts that lead to democracy and ensure its sustainability. Reasoning rationality, equality, liberties, laws and political legitimacy.The emergence or creation of the values discussed in the first chapter is important for a healthy democracy in any society. In the second part, the evolution of the institutional side of democracy in Egypt has been emphasized. Indeed, this example illustrates that democratic institutions show how they can be manipulated by political actors. In this respect, one of the most important deficits of democracies is the faulty institutionalization made by ignoring the values of democracy. Because in such a case, the problem is not the absence of democracy, but the wrong being of democracy.

Profiling activities used to personalise user content can place online corporations in a position of significant influence over user behaviour. The ability to deliver different search engine results, news feeds, discriminatory prices, and so forth, can be exploited to grant unequal access to different kinds of content. This is likely to intensify with the Internet of Things (IoT), which will surround individuals with sensors capable of 24/7 full tracking. This content-shaping power jeopardises the neutral accessibility that a democratic internet should ensure. Indeed, both neutrality and accessibility should refer not only to the service connection but also to the content it delivers. This study examines this personalisation and filtering power in light of Privacy and Data Protection regulations to explore how privacy principles can be used to enhance IoT accessibility. It elaborates a comparative analysis of legislative sources related to public goods and interests, data flows and contract law relationships, into a holistic narrative reasoning. The discussion addresses the monopolistic economic position of platforms, their connected revenue models and the power to control and influence information. Fake news plays a crucial role in this and is addressed consequently. Therefore, the study analyses how these factors together could form profiling 'multi-monopolies' in connection with a non-neutral Internet of Things. Furthermore, techniques of influence have more grip where there is a lack of awareness and knowledge, and a new model of digital "divide et impera" seems to enhance these phenomena. Besides, social score systems and discriminatory pricing can be powerful tools in this sense. We discuss the gap between regulatory approaches and real-world situations, offering common legal tools and Privacy by Design (PbD) as potential solutions for neutral accessibility. We highlight how the current regulatory framework requires more harmonisation to guarantee effective user protections, especially in an IoT ecosystem. Neutralidade da rede importa: anticorpos de privacidade para monopólios de informação e profiling em massa Resumo As atividades de profiling usadas para personalizar o conteúdo disponibilizado aos usuários podem colocar as empresas de Internet em uma posição de influência significativa sobre o seu comportamento. A capacidade de fornecer diferentes resultados de mecanismos de pesquisa, feeds de notícias, preços discriminatórios, dentre outras, pode ser explorada para garantir acesso desigual a diferentes tipos de conteúdo. É provável que isso se intensifique com a Internet das Coisas (IoT), que cercará indivíduos com sensores capazes de rastreamento completo 24 horas por dia, 7 dias por semana. Esse poder de modelagem de conteúdo põe em risco a acessibilidade neutra que uma Internet democrática deve garantir. De fato, tanto a neutralidade quanto a acessibilidade devem se referir não apenas à conexão do serviço, mas também ao conteúdo que ele fornece. Este estudo examina esse poder de personalização e filtragem à luz dos regulamentos de Privacidade e Proteção de Dados para explorar como os princípios de privacidade podem ser usados para aprimorar a acessibilidade da IoT. Elabora-se uma análise comparativa de fontes legislativas relacionadas a bens e interesses públicos, fluxos de dados e relações de direito contratual, em um raciocínio narrativo holístico. A discussão aborda a posição econômica monopolista das plataformas, seus modelos conectados de receita e o poder de controlar e influenciar as informações. Fake news desempenham um papel crucial nisso e, consequentemente, são abordadas. Portanto, o estudo analisa como esses fatores podem, juntos, formar 'multimonopólios' de profiling em conexão com uma Internet das Coisas não neutra. Além disso, as técnicas de influência são mais abrangentes onde há falta de consciência e conhecimento, e um novo modelo digital de "dividir para conquistar" parece intensificar esses fenômenos. Ademais, sistemas de pontuação social e preços discriminatórios podem ser ferramentas poderosas nesse sentido. Discutimos a lacuna entre abordagens regulatórias e situações do mundo real, oferecendo ferramentas legais comuns e o Privacy by Design (PbD) como possíveis soluções para acessibilidade neutra. Destacamos como a atual estrutura regulatória exige mais harmonização para garantir proteções efetivas ao usuário, especialmente em um ecossistema de IoT. Palavras-chave Privacy by design; Profiling; Neutralidade da rede; Fake news; Preços discriminatórios; Sistema de crédito social; Internet das Coisas.

This thesis investigates the role of the rights-based civil society organizations in promoting democratization in Turkey. I consider rights-based civil society organizations as focal actors for democratization because they initiate, secure and advance democratic rule by upholding liberties and freedoms. From the late Ottoman period to the 1980s rights-based civil society organizations were absent. However, after the 1980s, they emerged to represent different right themes. By employing the existing literature on Turkish politics and civil society, I attempt to explore how rights-based civil society organizations became major actors in society and discuss their strong influence on Turkish politics since the late 1980s. I provide examples of rights-based civil society organizations which have been working on various rights areas to trigger democratization. These organizations have been benefiting politically and financially from the European Union to stress their own democratizing visions. In that aspect, the rights-based civil society organizations, which promoted democratizing ideals, realized a positive trend after the accession negotiations with the European Union began. I also present how rights-based civil society organizations in Turkey promoted democratization in politics and refer to their significance on political parties, ministries and municipalities. The thesis also follows the growth of the rights-based civil society organizations especially after Gezi Park protests in 2013 when they became central to the political struggles for democratization.

This article focuses on the structural impediments to authoritarianism in Ukraine during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. First, it argues that the prospect of Ukraine to descend into authoritarianism is complicated by low-level structural factors. That is why the regime, in a year and a half of Yanukovych's presidency, became no more than quasi-authoritarian. Second, the quick concentration of the president's powers was the result of the decline of constitutionalism — the conscious destruction of laws by all key players. Third, the authorities artificially promote the slogan “the re¬building of stability.” The author proposes two scenarios for the authorities' actions with possible consequences for society and government.

‘Ivory tower’ is frequently used phrase when Turkish executive politicians question the representativeness of other parties or their members. The intention of this claim is to provoke other parties into a discussion about the legitimacy of the targeted party. This research aims to shed a light on the problem of party-voter congruence in Turkish politics, which has important implications for the representativeness of Turkish political parties. Comparing the three major political parties in Turkey; the current study investigates to what extent these political parties’ manifesto documents, fail to connect with their constituencies’ policy positions on four prominent issues in Turkish politics: Left-right political positioning, democratic support, support for the military, and support for a controlled economy. Party level Manifesto Project data and aggregated individual level World Values Survey (WVS) data were combined for the analysis of this research and analysed by using a series of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis. The findings suggest that the ivory tower claim is largely correct for all three political parties investigated. Finally, these findings also have important implications for the legitimacy of the Turkish democratic political system.

Democratization is a process of collective emancipation through self-government. Continuous political contestation is essential for emancipation but, in order to know which strategies and conditions will emancipate us, we also need to know which ones subjugate us. Political mechanisms with the capacity to modulate our individual and collective bodies and make them docile tend to be close relatives of those which make us equal and free. Drawing on the latest theories concerning globalization and democracy, this book argues that postnational and postsovereign multilevel governance regimes, including the European Union, should be understood as mechanisms of global capitalism aimed at privatizing democracy. Through a detailed applied analysis of the Basque case, the author illustrates how democratization is closely linked to ideas about territory, collective empowerment and institutional political capacity. Democratization always takes place partially: it never «ends». Contrary to the dominant thinking, this book argues that the incomplete nature of democratization is a positive aspect, with perpetual conflict leading to perpetual change. This is precisely what allows, and obliges, each generation to shape its own forms of emancipation.

The European Union (EU) faces an existential crisis. The ‘liberal core’, which played an
important role in transforming the ‘illiberal-authoritarian periphery’ in much of the post-war period, suffers from a series of setbacks. What we experience today is a process of ‘reverse transformation’ in European integration, where the pendulum swings in the direction of the illiberal-authoritarian periphery. This paper argues that the possibility of reverse transformation, i.e., the power of the illiberal periphery to influence the liberal core, emerged as a real possibility for the first time in the history of European integration. The present paper makes a contribution to the growing debate on the sources of the EU’s crisis and its future from a global political economy perspective. We suggest that a refined ‘core-periphery framework,’ located at the intersection of global push-and-pull dynamics, provides a better analytical toolkit to explain the properties and nature of reverse transformation in European integration with its potential implications on the future of Europe.
Keywords: Multiple crises of the EU, reverse transformation, illiberal periphery, global
political economy, de-Europeanization.

Traducción al español del texto “Il male minore” de Dominique Miséin publicado en Turín, Italia en la revista Diavolo in Corpo, primera edición en diciembre de 1999. Esta traducciónal españofue basada en la traducción al inglés publicada en el 2001 en San Francisco “This is what democracy looks like” por la editorial independiente Venomous Butterfly ☠, luego colgada en la güeb por www.theanarchistlibrary.org.

Facing the possibilities of digital music production and the Internet, the “digital revolution” promised to bring about new aesthetic possibilities as well as a democratization of music culture. How did the promises play out in the experience of musicians? This article traces the main developments in the musical instruments industry in the course of digitalization and discusses its effects on artistic strategies and musical practice. It argues for a differentiated view of the effects of digitalization for musicians. On the one hand, the computer expanded the artistic possibilities of musicians while it facilitated the precarization of working conditions on the other.

Der Aufsatz betrachtet die Herausbildung der modernen Freizeit in Mittel- und Westeuropa als Lernprozess, den vor allem die Masse der einfachen Bevölkerung, der abhängig Arbeitenden, zu durchlaufen hatte und erfolgreich durchlief. Dabei lag in Deutschland eine Wasserscheide um 1900. Galt es bis dahin zu lernen, wie man überhaupt arbeitsfreie Zeit bekam, so ging es nun vorrangig darum, errungene Freizeit zu nutzen. Wie und warum dabei den Unterhaltungen und Vergnügungen der kommerziellen Populärkultur eine zentrale Stellung im Leben der Massen zuwuchs, wird aus historischer Sicht verstehend als andauernder Selbsterziehungsprozess nachvollzogen.