67,903 research outputs found

    The European Constitution Project from the Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy

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    Three topics of a European constitution are discussed. First, basic arguments from constitutional political economy that aim at restricting representatives’ potential misuse of powers in a European Union with extended competencies are summarized. Since a European demos does not yet exist, an extension of competencies of the European Parliament is not sufficient in order to legitimate political decisions at the EU level. The introduction of elements of direct democracy in the European constitution would shape the creation of such a demos and lead to a stronger control of the European legislature and executive. Second, the introduction of direct democracy in the European constitution is proposed in order to reduce the European democratic deficit. Third, the creation of a European federation requires a more transparent assignment of competencies and rules to resolve conflicts between different centers of power. A European federation should be organized according to the principles of competitive federalism.European Constitutional Convention, Bill of Rights, Separation of Powers, Competitive Federalism, Referendums, European demos.

    Political participation from a citizenship perspective

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    Conventional academic studies on political participation mostly focus on electoral politics including electoral systems, political party structures and their interaction with other governmental processes. These studies adopt an approach that presumes the existence of a pre-defined people (demos). Hence, existing literature on electoral politics and government structures take for granted a pre-defined demos and then survey participatory practices. Yet, there is another way to study political participation. It can be studied from the angle of citizenship. This involves an approach that does not rely on an ex post facto interest in the activities of a pre-defined demos but one that unravels the factors that go into its definition. Study of political participation from a citizenship perspective contains an effort to problematize the very notion of demos. Decoupling of national identity and participation empowers a vision of citizenship not as membership in a nation-state but as a set of rights that include multi-cultural rights. It is the contention of this article that European Union processes have the potential to contribute to the deepening of democratization by promoting diversity through introduction of denationalization of citizenship as well as processes of deliberation in member and candidate countries

    Bayesian stochastic blockmodeling

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    This chapter provides a self-contained introduction to the use of Bayesian inference to extract large-scale modular structures from network data, based on the stochastic blockmodel (SBM), as well as its degree-corrected and overlapping generalizations. We focus on nonparametric formulations that allow their inference in a manner that prevents overfitting, and enables model selection. We discuss aspects of the choice of priors, in particular how to avoid underfitting via increased Bayesian hierarchies, and we contrast the task of sampling network partitions from the posterior distribution with finding the single point estimate that maximizes it, while describing efficient algorithms to perform either one. We also show how inferring the SBM can be used to predict missing and spurious links, and shed light on the fundamental limitations of the detectability of modular structures in networks.Comment: 44 pages, 16 figures. Code is freely available as part of graph-tool at https://graph-tool.skewed.de . See also the HOWTO at https://graph-tool.skewed.de/static/doc/demos/inference/inference.htm

    The Art and Politics of Ecology in India

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    This roundtable discussion with artist and activist Ravi Agarwal and film-maker and photographer Sanjay Kak, moderated by T J Demos, explores the politics of ecology in the Indian context. The conversation considers, among other works, Kak's film Words on Water (2002), which looks at the issue of big dams and their negative social-economic effects in the Narmada valley; and Agarwal's photographic installation Extinction, which examines the disappearance of vultures on the subcontinent owing to the development of animal pharmaceuticals used to maximize milk production. The conversation critically examines the introduction of neoliberalism in the Indian economy and political context, and the anti-democratic activity of multinational corporations, in relation to the destruction of the natural environment, the growth of economic inequality, and the dispossession of tribal peoples via the governmental-corporate development of mega-dams and industrial mining projects. The discussion revolves around the aesthetic approaches artists have used in addressing such ecological emergencies

    Theorika in Fifth-Century Athens

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    A re-assessment of the state funding for attending dramatic festivals in fifth-century Athens. The introduction of the "Theoric Fund" is correctly dated to the middle of the fourth century, but this fact has obscured the existence of earlier theoric distributions. A careful reconsideration of the evidence of Plutarch and Philochorus in light of Athenian public finance suggests that distributions of public funds approved by the demos for attendance at festivals (ΞΔωρÎčÎșÎŹ) existed as ad hoc payments in the fifth century, but these were not part of the Theoric Fund that came into existence later in the fourth century. While Old Comedy does not explicitly refer to theoric payments, its references to the economics of the theater (e.g. entrance costs, theater-leasing) can nonetheless contribute to our understanding of the distributions of state funds for attending festivals in the fifth century and help to sort out some of the confusing and contradictory information on other distributions of state funds preserved in ancient sources. While theoric payments were available to all citizens, they did facilitate theater attendance for poor citizens

    The Role of Direct Democracy in the European Union

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    In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future European Constitution as well as future changes of it should be decided by the European citizens. After a discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European Constitution. In addition, we propose a constitutional initiative, a statutory and a general initiative as well as a fiscal referendum for financially important projects.democracy, referenda, initiatives

    The Role of Direct Democracy in the European Union

    Get PDF
    In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future European Constitution as well as future changes of it should be decided by the European citizens. After a discussion of the pros and cons of direct democracy, the ability of direct democracy to help creating a European demos is discussed. Consequently, we propose a mandatory (required and binding) referendum on total and partial revisions of the European Constitution. In addition, we propose a constitutional initiative, a statutory and a general initiative as well as a fiscal referendum for financially important projects.Direct Democracy, Referenda, Initiatives.

    The European Public(s) and its Problems

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    I present three versions –Grimm, Offe and Streeck—of a general argument that is often used to establish that the EU-institutions meets a legitimacy-disabling condition, the so called “no demos” argument (II), embedding them in the context of the notorious “democratic deficit” suspicions against the legal system and practice of the EU (I). After examining the logical structure behind the no-demos intuition considered as an argument (III), I present principled reasons by Möllers and Habermas that show why the “no demos” argument fails to have bite in discussions of the legitimacy and status of the supranational level in the multi-level EU-architecture. These are complemented by another principled reason arising from John Dewey’s conception of the “public” as a clearer alternative for the “popular” requirement of democratic legitimation (IV). I conclude that all three conceptions together suggest that the hunt after pre-politically existing peoples as foundations of democratic legitimacy expresses no more than methodological nationalism without any footing in the material and conceptual requirements of democratic legitimation. Given the absence of a principled problem with the legitimacy of the priority and interference of supranational EU-law in the national legal and political orders, there are thus also no principled reasons to abandon or discredit the European project in the absence of a European nation or society

    A silicon backplane technology for microdisplays

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    A silicon backplane technology is described for the fabrication of high-resolution microdisplays. The technology is embedded in a 0.7 mum CMOS technology, and comprises DEMOS devices for enabling voltage spans of 12 V, and a special back-end processing module for planarizing the wafer and light shielding. This technology is used to develop a GXGA (2560times2048 pixels) microdisplay with 15 mum pixels on which the first results are reported
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