Article: How the EU oligarchy has downsized democracy

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: How the EU oligarchy has downsized democracy

An article by Frank Furedi (University of Kent), published on 29 November 2011 by the British online magazine, "Spiked", was originally titled "How the EU oligarchy has downsized democracy", but now bears the rather nondescript title, "Frank Furedi on the EU".

Excerpt: "[I]t isn't the old-fashioned conservative detractors of the multitude who are at the forefront of the current cultural turn against democratic will-formation - no, it is liberal advocates of expert-driven technocratic rule who are now the most explicit denouncers of democracy. ... [A]nti-democratic ideologues believe that governments, especially democratic governments, have lost the capacity to deal with the key problems facing societies in today's globalised world."

sp!ked | Question Everything essays | How the EU oligarchy has downsized democracy

Article: The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond

James Petras (Binghamton University) is the author of an article on "The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond", published on 28 November 2011 on the alternative news website of the Montreal-based Centre for Research on Globalization, GlobalResearch .ca.

Excerpt: "We delineate a two-stage process of political regression. The first stage involves the transition from a decaying democracy to an oligarchical democracy; the second stage currently unfolding in Europe involves the transition from oligarchical democracy to colonial-technocratic dictatorship." (italics removed)

The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond

Article: Aesthetics of emptiness and withdrawal: contemporary European art and actually existing democratization

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Aesthetics of emptiness and withdrawal: contemporary European art and actually existing democratization

Against the "aesthetics of democratization": Anthony Gardner (University of Melbourne), "Aesthetics of emptiness and withdrawal: contemporary European art and actually existing democratization" ("Postcolonial Studies", 13 [2], 2010: pp. 179-97).

Quote: "Why, since the late 1980s, have a number of European artists critiqued democracy as the political, critical and aesthetic frame within which to identify their work? How have they done this? And what aesthetic and political discourses have artists proposed in lieu of the democracy they critique?"

Aesthetics of emptiness and withdrawal: contemporary European art and actually existing democratization

Chapter: Democracy and Its (Muslim) Critics: An Islamic Alternative to Democracy?

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Chapter: Democracy and Its (Muslim) Critics: An Islamic Alternative to Democracy?

Abdelwahab El-Affendi (University of Westminster) is the author of the chapter, "Democracy and Its (Muslim) Critics: An Islamic Alternative to Democracy?", in the contributed volume, "Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory, Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives", ed. M.A. Muqtedar Khan (Lexington Books, 2006: pp. 227-56).

Excerpt: "One can find what seems like a consensus among the various lines of thinking which object to democracy on Islamic grounds and seek to promote more authentic alternatives. All these schools of thought ... see the Islamic state as an 'Islamic constitutional' polity where Islamic law is supreme. All seem to agree that the establishment of Islamic law is the prerogative of certain privileged and especially qualified individuals".

Rowman.com: 9780739106440

Article: The Failure of Democracy in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: The Failure of Democracy in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis

Just published: Lauren McLaren and Burak Cop (both University of Nottingham), "The Failure of Democracy in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis" ("Government and Opposition: An International Journal of Comparative Politics", 46 [4], October 2011: pp. 485-516).

Quote: "Although Turkey took its initial steps toward establishing democracy in 1950, it has thus far failed to become a fully functioning democracy. ... The article ultimately contends that despite the EU's attempt to push Turkey towards full democracy in the modern day it is unlikely that it will become a fully functioning democracy".

The Failure of Democracy in Turkey: A Comparative Analysis - McLaren - 2011 - Government and Opposition - Wiley Online Library

Article: Democracy put to the test (from Spanish)

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Democracy put to the test (from Spanish)

A further article by José Ignacio Torreblanca (National University of Distance Education, Madrid), originally published in Spanish on the website of "El País" on 12 November 2011, "La democracia puesta a prueba", was translated into English by Ollie Brock for openDemocracy .net, where it appeared under the title, "Democracy put to the test".

Excerpt: "We find ourselves in a situation unprecedented in the history of democracy. Historically, democracy has only existed on two levels: the Greek polis and the nation state. As we know, there was no transition from one to the other, nor any coexistence between the two forms: one disappeared and the other emerged centuries later. ... The problem is that just as the mechanisms that made democracy function in city states were not adequate for governing nation states, representative democracies today are showing themselves incapable of managing, effectively and democratically, the system that is emerging in Europe."

Original article: http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2011/11/12/actualidad/1321119086_848312.html

Democracy put to the test | openDemocracy

Article: It is not inevitable that the EU - or democracy - will survive this mess

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: It is not inevitable that the EU - or democracy - will survive this mess

A column by veteran British journalist Simon Jenkins, first published on the website of the "Guardian" on 24 November 2011, bears the title, "It is not inevitable that the EU - or democracy - will survive this mess".

Excerpt: "Are we all doomed? America's fiscal democracy this week collapsed in disarray. The Arab spring ran out of steam. Emergency regimes have taken power in Greece and Italy, while Germany could not sell a third of its bonds. ... Democracy is everywhere in tears ... Who is laughing? Dictatorial China, while Europe grovels for money at its feet. Moscow's oligarchs, just two decades after suffering the greatest humiliation in Russian history."

It is not inevitable that the EU – or democracy – will survive this mess

Article: It's not just our leaders who are in a crisis. Democracy itself is failing

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: It's not just our leaders who are in a crisis. Democracy itself is failing

Major media outlets from the right to the left now concede the abject failure of democracy. Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor of the centre-left UK Sunday paper, "The Observer", titled an article, published in that paper on 20 November 2011, "It's not just our leaders who are in a crisis. Democracy itself is failing".

Excerpt: "The dispiriting reality is that the west, even as it has preached the virtues of western democracy to other countries, has been moved inexorably towards an ever more procedural and debased version of democracy. ... We abrogated our engagement in the democratic process to politicians who abrogated influence to an unaccountable system as part of a pact that saw us happy as long as we were relatively comfortable. With that arrangement breaking down, we discover we have given up more than we bargained for."

It's not just our leaders who are in a crisis. Democracy itself is failing

Article: Anarchy in the U.S.A.

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Anarchy in the U.S.A.

Matthew Continetti, opinion editor of the conservative US "Weekly Standard", wrote an article, dated 28 November 2011, but published already on the magazine's website, titled "Anarchy in the U.S.A.".

Excerpt: "Both left and right have made the error of thinking that the forces behind Occupy Wall Street are interested in democratic politics and problem solving. ... Occupy Wall Street's supporters cried, 'You can't evict an idea whose time has come.' ... The idea is utopian socialism. The method is revolutionary anarchism. ... An anarchist does not distinguish between types of government. Democracy to him is just another form of control. ... By denying the legitimacy of democratic politics, the anarchists undermine their ability to affect people's lives. ... The reason that Occupy Wall Street has no agenda is that anarchism allows for no agenda. All the anarchist can do is set an example - or tear down the existing order through violence."

Anarchy in the U.S.A. | The Weekly Standard

CFP: Crisis

Erich Kofmel - Google+

CFP: Crisis

The Santa Barbara Global Studies Conference, organized by the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies and faculty of the G&IS Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be held 24-25 February 2012 on the general theme, "Crisis". The deadline for paper and panel proposals has just been extended to 15 December 2011. (Notifications of acceptance to be sent by 1 January 2012.)

In addition to the topics listed in the original call for papers they now also explicitly invite papers on "Crises of politics/authority/democracy(ies)".

Keynotes and other presentations by: Saskia Sassen, Bill Robinson, Craig Calhoun, Manfred Steger, Roland Robertson, Chris Chase-Dunn, Richard Falk, Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Alison Brysk, Mark Juergensmeyer, and others.

The Santa Barbara Global Studies Conference : : Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies

Article: Political Crisis and Social Transformation in Antonio Gramsci: Elements for a Sociology of Political praxis

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Political Crisis and Social Transformation in Antonio Gramsci: Elements for a Sociology of Political praxis

On the recurrence of crisis: Fabio de Nardis (University of Salento) and Loris Caruso (University of Turin), "Political Crisis and Social Transformation in Antonio Gramsci: Elements for a Sociology of Political praxis" ("International Journal of Humanities and Social Science", 1 [6], June 2011: pp. 13-23).

Quote: "The paper deals with the analogy between the concepts by which Gramsci, in his Prison Notebooks, analyzes the post-war crisis of democracy and the contemporary crisis of representative democracy."

The link is to a full-text copy of the article.

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol._1_No._6%3B_June_2011/3.pdf

Article: Western democracies are undermining people's rights

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Western democracies are undermining people's rights

Tariq Ramadan (Oxford) titled a column for the Dubai-based daily, "Gulf News", published on the paper's website on 15 November 2011, "Western democracies are undermining people's rights".

Excerpt: "We talk about separating religious authority from state authority - but who will protect the state from the economic, financial and media powers that are imposing their anti-democratic decisions and policies? It is all well and good to celebrate an idealised democratic model, but the truth of the matter remains that western democracies are eroding; people are losing their rights and prerogatives. ... The Arab world needs political creativity; but the West, deep in crisis, cannot be a model. It is time to find other ways, new horizons."

Western democracies are undermining people's rights

Article: Academic Politics between Democracy and Aristocracy

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Academic Politics between Democracy and Aristocracy

Then, as today, in Greece: Michael S. Kochin (Tel Aviv University), "Academic Politics between Democracy and Aristocracy" ("Political Research Quarterly", 64 [2], June 2011: pp. 247-59).

Quote: "Socrates' alternative to democracy is thus an academic rather than an aristocratic elite - an elite of those who know. Yet the academic elite Plato imagined does not dispute the right of the people to decide between it, the aristocrats, and the men of the people."

Academic Politics between Democracy and Aristocracy

Chapter: Hobbes's theory of representation: anti-democratic or proto-democratic?

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Chapter: Hobbes's theory of representation: anti-democratic or proto-democratic?

The chapter, "Hobbes's theory of representation: anti-democratic or proto-democratic?", by David Runciman (Cambridge), was published in the contributed volume, "Political Representation", eds. Ian Shapiro, Susan C. Stokes, Elisabeth Jean Wood, and Alexander S. Kirshner (Cambridge University Press, January 2010: pp. 15-34).

Excerpt: "[F]or all its apparent modernity, Hobbes's theory of representation suffers from one obvious flaw when judged by the standards of contemporary politics: it appears to be strikingly anti-democratic, and it is very hard to see how an anti-democratic theory can also be viewed as foundational for the political world we now inhabit. ... In this chapter, I want to argue that it is possible to close the gap".

Political Representation - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press

Article: Democracy in the Age of Populism, or the Self-Enmity of Democracy

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Democracy in the Age of Populism, or the Self-Enmity of Democracy

Ivan Krastev, editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian edition of "Foreign Policy", wrote an article, "Democracy in the Age of Populism, or the Self-Enmity of Democracy", published in a special issue of the Estonian journal, "Diplomaatia" (May 2011: no page numbers given).

Excerpt: "[T]here is a growing fear that the democratisation of society that has taken place in the last 40 years has led to the paralysis of democratic institutions. Democratic societies are becoming ungovernable ... The extension of citizens' rights and freedoms has not produced a feeling of empowerment. Democratic institutions are more transparent than ever, but they are less trusted than ever. Democratic elites are more meritocratic than ever, but they are more hated than ever."

The link is to a full-text copy of the article.

Diplomaatia: Democracy in the Age of Populism, or the Self-Enmity of Democracy

Book: Seeing

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Book: Seeing

A 2004 novel by the late Nobel prize-winning Portuguese author, José Saramago, explores how blank votes and peaceful protest might be construed as "terrorism" against democracy: "Seeing", trans. Margaret Jull Costa (Harvill Secker, 2006).

Quote: "José Saramago has deftly created the politician's ultimate nightmare: disillusionment not with one party, but with all, thereby rendering the entire democratic system useless. Seeing explores how simply this could be achieved and how devastating the results might be."

Seeing

Article: Farewell to Democracy?

Erich Kofmel - Google+

Article: Farewell to Democracy?

On fascist "Authoritarian Populism" in the US: Philip Green (New School for Social Research), "Farewell to Democracy?" ("Logos: a journal of modern society & culture", 10 [2], 2011: no page numbers given).

Excerpt: "[I]n the traditional heartland of democracy - Western Europe and its offshoots - the long, world-changing democratic upsurge appears to be coming to an end. After three hundred and fifty years of advance, the counter-revolution is well under way, and there do not appear to be any long-term countervailing forces moving to successfully oppose it."

Apparently an electronic journal, and the link is to the full text.

Farewell to Democracy? Logos

CONF: The Rise of the Extreme Right and the Future of Liberal Democracy

Erich Kofmel - Google+
CONF: The Rise of the Extreme Right and the Future of Liberal Democracy

The Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies (IEIS) is organizing a conference on "The Rise of the Extreme Right and the Future of Liberal Democracy", to take place 9-10 December 2011, at Cercle-Cité, a conference centre in Luxembourg City.

The programme does not (yet) include speakers' names, but lists topics such as "Is liberal democracy in Crisis?" and "Dysfunction/failure of democracy and the rise of political alienation?".

If you're interested, please contact the IEIS Director: armand.clesse@ieis.lu

http://www.ieis.lu/conferences/Programme%20The%20Rise%20of%20the%20Extreme%20Right.pdf

Book: Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909-1939

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909-1939

On modern art as the harbinger of fascist revolution: Mark Antliff (Duke University), "Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909-1939" (Duke University Press, 2007).

Review: " Avant-Garde Fascism puts a spotlight on theories of aesthetics and revolution that some anticapitalist, anti-democratic intellectuals propounded in France from 1909 to 1939. The fountainhead of those theories was the writing of Georges Sorel, the anarcho-syndicalist who shifted his hopes to the ultra-royalist, anti-Semitic, and Catholic right (the Action Française in particular) around 1909." (Charles Rearick, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Welcome To Duke University Press

Article: Europe's democratic deficit grows wider by the day

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Article: Europe's democratic deficit grows wider by the day

The wife of the Polish Foreign Minister, political columnist for the British "Sunday Telegraph", Janet Daley, just penned her second article in as many weeks on the crisis of democracy in Europe. What's that all about? One would think that she had more direct channels to find the ear of the powers-that-be ... Her "rant" of 5 November 2011, on her paper's website, is titled "Europe's democratic deficit grows wider by the day".

Excerpt: "It isn't often that you are aware of the world order changing before your eyes. ... Welcome to post-democratic Europe. What an irony that the rise of freedom in the Middle East - the Arab Spring - should coincide with the acceptance of its decline in the West. (The European Autumn?) ... In peacetime, the voluntary renunciation of democratic rights is, so far as I know, unprecedented. But modern standards of prosperity have become so addictive ... that even the temporary loss of them may be too great a price to pay for an abstraction like political liberty. ... If you lose the right to choose who governs you - or allow some greater authority to determine the limits of their power - what recourse do you have when the promises are broken and 'security' becomes a prison?"

See also her article of last week: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109507108125539761871/posts/DwgRRBTd5yM?hl=en

Europe's democratic deficit grows wider by the day - Telegraph

Article: We are at the end for now (in German)

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Article: We are at the end for now (in German)

In Germany, an essay in the "Berliner Zeitung" continues the debate on the end of democracy. Dirk Pilz und Friederike Schröter, two freelance journalists, titled their article of 5 November 2011 "Wir sind zunächst am Ende" ("We are at the end for now"; my rough translation).

Excerpts (translated by me): "Western democracy ... has become a mere administrative apparatus of its own principles ... The time has come: Democracy calls itself into question. ... Whether there is an alternative to democracy that doesn't boil down to dictatorship or the authoritarian state will only be discovered if we don't take it as an absolute. Proscribed imaginations may not block our thinking."

Essay: Wir sind zunächst am Ende

Book: Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others?

Erich Kofmel - Google+
Book: Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others?

Just published: John Fonte (Hudson Institute), "Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others?" (Encounter Books, August 2011).

Publisher's description (Amazon): "Global governance seeks legitimacy not in democracy, but in a partisan interpretation of human rights. It would shift power from democracies (U.S., Israel, India) to post-democratic authorities, such as the judges of the International Criminal Court. Global governance is a new political form (a rival to liberal democracy), that ... could disable and disarm democratic self-government at home and abroad."

Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others | Encounter Books

Article: R.I.P. European democracy, 1945-2011

Erich Kofmel - Google+ 
Article: R.I.P. European democracy, 1945-2011

The libertarian columnist, Theodore Beale (a.k.a. Vox Day), titled an article for the conservative news site, WorldNetDaily (WND), published on 30 October 2011, "R.I.P. European democracy, 1945-2011".

Excerpt: "[I]t will become increasingly difficult for intellectuals to deny the connection between Christianity and democracy as the recognized, even celebrated, post-Christianity of Europe has been closely followed by European post-democracy. ... European democracy is effectively dead. The European political elite is no longer even pretending to be representing the will of the European people in any way ... Until both left and right unite and turn against the Washington-Wall Street axis of oligarchy, American democracy will continue to die."

R.I.P. European democracy, 1945-2011R.I.P. European democracy, 1945-2011

Article: Democracy has junk status

Erich Kofmel - Google+ 
Article: Democracy has junk status

Presseurop, a Paris-based website that compiles articles from hundreds of European newspapers every day, was quick to translate into English an article by one of the co-publishers of the major conservative German daily, "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", Frank Schirrmacher, originally published on that paper's website on 1 November 2011 under the title, "Demokratie ist Ramsch". This was translated, not entirely accurately, to "Democracy has junk status" (actually, "Ramsch" is "junk"; "has junk status" would be "hat Ramschwert").

Excerpt: "[T]he moral conventions of the postwar period are being wiped out in the name of a supposedly higher financial and economic rationale. Such processes occur gradually ... until out of them a new ideology comes forth. That was invariably how it went in the incubation phases of the great crises of authoritarianism in the Twentieth Century. ... Europe is going through ... a power struggle between the primacy of economics and the primacy of politics. The primacy of politics has already lost ground massively. And the process is speeding up."

Original article: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/der-griechische-weg-demokratie-ist-ramsch-11514358.html

Democracy has junk status

Article: This was the week that European democracy died

Google:
Article: This was the week that European democracy died

Janet Daley, a political columnist for the conservative British "Sunday Telegraph", wrote an article, published on 29 October 2011 on the paper's website, titled "This was the week that European democracy died".

Excerpt: "The agreed EU 'stability union' ... will have the power to approve or disapprove budgets of countries in the eurozone ... before they are submitted to the elected parliaments of those countries. In other words, parliaments which are directly mandated by, and answerable to, their own populations will not control the most essential functions of government: decisions on taxation and spending. ... And if, as a voter, you cannot influence your prospective government's tax and spending policies, what exactly are you voting for? ... When dissatisfied national populations become convinced that their democratic institutions are useless or irrelevant, they will take to the streets."

This was the week that European democracy died - Telegraph

CFP: Crisis of American Democracy

Google:
CFP: Crisis of American Democracy

Proposals for papers on the "Crisis of American Democracy" are invited for a conference to be organized by the Human Rights Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Forth Wayne (IPFW) on 27-28 April 2012. Deadline for submissions is 1 December 2011.

The convenor, Clark Butler (Purdue University), described the conference elsewhere as being "on the dysfunctionality of American democracy in facing the real challenges of this country. ... We anticipate a significant book to result from this conference, including some of the first scholarly reflection[s] on the Occupy movement."

Crisis of American Democracy Conference Call for Papers - News Release - IPFWNews Detail - IPFW