A co-original approach towards law-making in the internet age

There is an increasing interest in incorporating significant citizen participation into the law-making process by developing the use of the internet in the public sphere. However, no well-accepted e-participation model has prevailed. This article points out that, to be successful, we need critical reflection of legal theory and we also need further institutional construction based on the theoretical reflection. Contemporary dominant legal theories demonstrate too strong an internal legal point of view to empower the informal, social normative development on the internet. Regardless of whether we see the law as a body of rules or principles, the social aspect is always part of people’s background and attracts little attention. In this article, it is advocated that the procedural legal paradigm advanced by Jürgen Habermas represents an important breakthrough in this regard. Further, Habermas’s co-originality thesis reveals a neglected internal relationship between public autonomy and private autonomy. I believe the co-originality theory provides the essential basis on which a connecting infrastructure between the legal and the social could be developed. In terms of the development of the internet to include the public sphere, co-originality can also help us direct the emphasis on the formation of public opinion away from the national legislative level towards the local level; that is, the network of governance.1 This article is divided into two sections. The focus of Part One is to reconstruct the co-originality thesis (section 2, 3). This paper uses the application of discourse in the adjudication theory of Habermas as an example. It argues that Habermas would be more coherent, in terms of his insistence on real communication in his discourse theory, if he allowed his judges to initiate improved interaction with the society. This change is essential if the internal connection between public autonomy and private autonomy in the sense of court adjudication is to be truly enabled. In order to demonstrate such improved co-original relationships, the empowering character of the state-made law is instrumental in initiating the mobilization of legal intermediaries, both individual and institutional. A mutually enhanced relationship is thus formed; between the formal, official organization and its governance counterpart aided by its associated ‘local’ public sphere. Referring to Susan Sturm, the Harris v Forklift Systems Inc. (1930) decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the field of sexual harassment is used as an example. Using only one institutional example to illustrate how the co-originality thesis can be improved is not sufficient to rebuild the thesis but this is as much as can be achieved in this article. In Part Two, the paper examines, still at the institutional level, how Sturm develops an overlooked sense of impartiality, especially in the derivation of social norms; i.e. multi-partiality instead of neutral detachment (section 4). These two ideas should be combined as the criterion for impartiality to evaluate the legitimacy of the joint decision-making processes of both the formal official organization and ‘local’ public sphere. Sturm’s emphasis on the deployment of intermediaries, both institutional and individual, can also enlighten the discourse theory. Intermediaries are essential for connecting the disassociated social networks, especially when a breakdown of communication occurs due to a lack of data, information, knowledge, or disparity of value orientation, all of which can affect social networks. If intermediaries are used, further communication will not be blocked as a result of the lack of critical data, information, knowledge or misunderstandings due to disparity of value orientation or other causes. The institutional impact of the newly constructed co-originality thesis is also discussed in Part Two. Landwehr’s work on institutional design and assessment for deliberative interaction is first discussed. This article concludes with an indication of how the ‘local’ public sphere, through e-rulemaking or online dispute resolution, for example, can be constructed in light of the discussion of this article

The Habermas/Foucault debate: Implications for rhetoric and composition

This thesis sheds light on (1) the extent to which composition has fallen short in its efforts to examine Habermasian discourse in the public sphere/politicized classroom; and (2) whether, through a careful and explicit exploration of the Habermas/Foucault debate and the competing concepts of discourse contained therein, we might make use of those concepts in the politicized classroom to inform student writing in the public sphere

Volume 35, 1998 Speaker and Gavel

Complete digitized volume (volume 35, 1998) of Speaker & Gavel

System and Lifeworld in Habermas\u27s Theory of Law

Jürgen Habermas\u27s recent work on law and democracy divides into two parts. With his discourse theory of law and democracy, Habermas seeks to explain the conditions under which modern constitutional legal and political orders may claim legitimacy. Here Habermas\u27s method is primarily philosophical and legal-theoretical. The second part of the project – the part on which this article focuses – develops what Habermas calls his communication theory of society. Here Habermas seeks to translate the normative conclusions of his discourse theory into a substantive social-theoretical model. The idea is to determine whether the ambitious normative theory of democracy is plausible under contemporary conditions of social complexity. Habermas\u27s presentation of the communication theory of society is difficult to understand, partly because he invokes, without much explanation, the two-level theory of society that he developed in his work of the 1970s and 1980s. I return to that work to excavate the basic concepts of communicative action, system, and lifeworld. I discuss the model of society developed in that earlier body of work – a model of interchange between the normatively rich lifeworld and the money- and power-driven economic and administrative systems. My account is critical. Each distinction on which Habermas relies to construct the interchange model is drawn too sharply, and the resulting model makes the normative ideal Habermas consistently has defended – radical democracy – literally inconceivable. The more recent work on law professes continued loyalty to the system/lifeworld conception of society. But at the same time, it develops a different model – the model of the circulation of power – that is designed to show the possibilities for, and resistances, to radical democracy. I argue that the new model is irreconcilable with Habermas\u27s earlier and unretracted conceptions of system and system/lifeworld interchange. The unacknowledged amendments are significant improvements, I argue, but one effect is to leave the notion of social systems unclearly theorized. I suggest in the final part of the article that Habermas could shore up his system conception by selectively and critically appropriating insights from a more recent version of social systems theory – the autopoietic theory of Habermas\u27s longtime theoretical sparring partner, Niklas Luhmann

Rationality Building in Internal Audit Practice as Domination Exemption of Internal Auditor Role

This study purpose is to develop rationalization to exempt internal auditor role domination. This study uses a qualitative paradigm with a critical approach. analysis tool used is Habermas rationalization thinking that has been criticized. Study results show that dominant cause of internal audit role is rationalization to build internal audit practice. Rationalization building of internal auditors have a tendency to money and power. Therefore, authors build a form of rationalization that can be used by internal auditors that free from interest. Keywords: auditor’s role, domination, emancipatory communicatio

Rhetoric Situation of Political Parties in Social Media

The purpose of this study is to give the reader a description of the situation rhetoric of political parties in social media. To get a description, the researcher uses the situation theory rhetoric of Bitzer, communicative action Habermas, and Toulmin model of argumentation. The results showed rhetoric situation led to the construction of the rhetoric message produced in social media. The rhetoric message was the subject of conversation in social media, which is produced intentionally to persuade others. In order to persuade others, the political parties made a number of claims that political parties have been working for the interests of the people, by using a number of data, such as photos of activities, growth chart, statement, and so forth. Based on the claim, the political parties are trying to influence netcitizens to give voice support to political parties. Thus, an agreement together was made to win the candidate of a particular political party

The production and communication of regional space in the North East of England: a conceptual analysis of a regional assembly and regional development agency

This thesis examines Lefebvre's theory of the 'production of space' and Habermas's theory of 'communicative action' in relation to the interactions of two regional governmental organisations in the North East of England, the regional development agency One North East and the North East Assembly. In a conceptually-driven approach, these theories are developed and integrated into a framework which is used to analyse the spatial narratives and discourses that are promoted by the organisations in attempting to legitimate their respective claims to regional space. Informed by a three year work placement at the North East Assembly, the thesis provides insights into the production and communication of regional space via an heuristic application of the theoretical framework to three case studies which investigate the 'storylines' behind the 2005 draft regional economic and spatial strategies and two North East Assembly scrutiny investigations into Regional Leadership and Evidence and Regional Policy. There were significant communicative distortions and power imbalances in the interactions of One North East and the North East Assembly, which resulted partly from the nature of their working relationship but also from the effects of wider governance processes and cultures. This is seen to have created particular conditions of 'communicative meta-governmentality' that contributed to the production of a dominant economic and administrative spatial discourse, hindering the Assembly in establishing its claims to regional space. In light of this, it is argued that the Assembly created 'illusionary spaces of participation and representation' that failed to give it genuine integrity or credibility in and beyond the region. The thesis finishes with a look towards future regional arrangements following significant recent policy developments and suggests that there might be potential for positive change through the development of 'arenas of hope' based upon 'lived' and 'popular' spaces