Democracy

and its discontent

Or is it not?

• Democracy, CITIZENSHIP & Education

But before we begin

• 1) Define what democracy is; 2) Why we need it; 3) What kind of democracy is Morocco; and 4) Is democracy compatible with Sharia or Islam(ic law)?

• Be divided into two groups: Be in the group you don’t believe in.

To recap: Three ‘kinds’ of citizenship

• The personally responsible citizen: She or he who “acts responsibly in his/her community by, for example, picking up litter, giving blood, recycling, obeying laws, and staying out of debt” (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004, p. 3). The role of education here is to teach how to become a volunteer.

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• The participatory citizen: One who actively participates in the civic affairs and social life of the local community at local, state and national levels. The role of education here is to teach about how government and community based organizations work and how to be informed in changing, for example, school policy.

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• The justice oriented citizen: One who is informed on the structural nature of injustice and the interplay of social, economic, and political forces. The role of education here is teach social change and that charity and volunteerism are not ends in themselves, but we need to effect systemic change, in the root of a problem. “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist” (Bishop Dom Helder Camara)

Democratic Theories

• Renascent liberal democracy (John Dewey)• Strong democracy (Benjamin Barber)• Deliberative democracy (Iris Young)• Radical democracy (Laclau & Mouffe)

What is ‘democracy’?

• Greek: ‘demos’ (people) & ‘kratia’ (rule, power, force)• Conceived in the ‘city-state’ of Athens as a reaction

to a concentration and abuse of power by the rulers and as the ‘rule of the people’ - (for and by the people - Lincoln).

• ‘People’ actually meant wealthy men• Not until the Enlightenment (17th/18th Century) do

we have our current notion of democracy: a constitution, election, separation of powers, rights and responsibilities (legal, personal and political), and separation of church and state

Simply put: Democracy is

• the political orientation/philosophy of those who advocate a government by the people or by their elected representatives

• a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them

• majority rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group: The challenge of democracy is its minority.

Of course, it is the worst form of government

• “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

So, democracy is built against

• Monarchy: Government by a single ruler (king/queen, emperor)

• Aristocracy: Government by noblemen (hereditary)• Oligarchy: Government by few persons• Theocracy: "Government by God" (in reality this means

government by religious leaders)• Dictatorship: Government by people, that have seized

power by force (e.g., military dictatorship)

Renascent liberal democracy (John Dewey)

• Classic vs New Liberalism• Classic Liberalism is associated with John

Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and premised on: 1) individual rights are natural rights, 2) individuals need protection from invasion and criminals and from others trying to take away their rights to free speech and to carry arms, 3) securing opportunities to fulfill one’s own potential

Classic Liberalism

• The role of the government or the state is to protect individuals from others and otherwise stay out of their lives and allow them to live as they freely choose.

• One should always be suspicious of the government

Then came Dewey: Renascent Liberalism

• He critiqued the primacy of individualism by introducing the notion of community to it. One is not developed atomistically on her own.

• For Dewey, democracy is a mode of associated living, where we start out as members of communities (and our first community is our family).

Our sense of self

• So, our sense of self begins in-relation-with-others: there is no self without the other.

The government

• The government is seen as a tool to alleviate suffering and help those in need

• Using public funding, the government should pay for public education

Principles of Renascent Liberalism

• 1) Democracy is an ideal always-in-the-making, never to be achieved, and so is community: “Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community” (The Public, 1954, p. 213)

• 2) Ultimately, individuals should have “freed intelligence” - a scientific method of reflective thinking

• 3) Material security is a prerequisite for individual freedom

Principles

• 4) What we believe as individuals is the outcome of association and intercourse. Here, a society is individuals in their connections with one another (and politics is secondary to this)

• 5) So our aim in education should be to initiate our young into communities by teaching them our language and customs

Principles

• 6) We are not going to have democracy until all our institutions are run democratically (mosques, business, schools, family, law, government, etc.)

• 7) Democracy needs free speech, free press, free assembly, and an education system that encourages inquiry - a scientific attitude

Strong Democracy (Benjamin Barber)

• It is built against Liberalism, which for Barber lacks a theory of citizenship since it totally focuses on the individual

• “To be political is to have to choose,” and to have to choose is without reference to grounds that are a priori.

Strong democracy is

• “politics in the participatory mode where conflict is resolved in the absence of an independent ground through a participatory process of ongoing, proximate self-legislation and the creation of a political community capable of transforming dependent, private individuals into free citizens and partial and private interests into public goods” (Strong democracy, 1984, p. 132).

Ultimately ..

• Democracy’s central values are: participation, citizenship, and political activity.

• He wants: direct participation, face-to-face community communication, volunteer programs, rotating lottery system for citizens to take their run in local political system

Deliberative Democracy (Iris Young)

• Democracy CANNOT aim for consensus, harmony, and reconciliation for these lead too easily to domination and oppression of “people not like us.”

• She is calling for TWO things: 1) developing and exercising one’s capacities and expressing one’s experience, and 2) participating in determining one’s action and the conditions of one’s action

What is she calling for?

• She wants an unoppressive city, one with a population large enough that people can find freedom in anonymity. She does not want to know everybody, nor does she want everybody to know her; she wants to be able to come and go unnoticed (unless she chooses otherwise). She wants a city where people can create a coalition around an issue and then dissolve this coalition and reclaim anonymity (differentiated solidarity); a place that offers social differentiation without exclusion.

Radical democracy(Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe)

• It is neither communitarian nor liberal nor Marxist - at the intersection

• First, individual rights shouldn’t be over the common good; here, equality and individual freedom should not tolerate a highly unequal social order

• Second, structural relations of oppression should recognize that oppression and exploitation are deeply rooted in social relations

RD

• Third, capitalism should be critiqued, but class shouldn’t be the center of analysis

• Fourth, not all arguments are equally valid, hence all has to be approached: as contingent, non-essentialist, and hence preserving the plurality of the social

• Fifth, power relation is central

RD

• Sixth: There should be an open confrontation and no victory is final

• Seventh: Democracy is always to come, and can never be.

• So our task is “to envision the creation of a vibrant “agnostic” public sphere of contestation” (On the Political, 2005, p. 3)