Introduction & Coda, Multi-Party Dispute Resolution, Democracy and Decision Making: Vol. II of Complex Dispute Resolution

The Complex Dispute Resolution series collects essays on the development of foundational dispute resolution theory and practice and its application to increasingly more complex settings of conflicts in the world, including multi-party and multi-issue decision making, negotiations in political policy formation and governance, and international conflict resolution. Each volume contains an original introduction by the editor, which explores the key issues in the field. All three volumes feature essays which span an interdisciplinary range of fields, law, political science, game theory, decision science, economics, social and cognitive psychology, sociology and anthropology and consider issues in the uses of informal and private processes, as well as more formal and public processes. The essays question whether the development of universal theoretical insights about conflict resolution is possible with variable numbers of parties and issues and in multi-cultural and multi-jural settings. Each volume also presents a coda, summarizing key issues in the field and suggesting further avenues for research. The second volume (and the introductory essay here) applies the theoretical foundations and practices of primary processes in dispute resolution–negotiation, mediation, arbitration and some hybrid processes in both public and private, informal and formal settings to more complex multi-party and multi issue settings, and asks whether foundational theories must be altered when there are more parties and issues. What difference do larger numbers make in theory and practice of dispute resolution and decision making? Other theoretical and empirical observations of the role of third party neutrals and facilitators in multi-party settings are explored, and applied disciplines such as game theory and decision sciences are applied to complex dispute resolution settings. Illustrations of uses of these processes in different substantive areas, e.g. legal disputes, public policy decision making, politics and governance, environmental matters, institutional relations, and high conflict settings are provided. The volume collects classic articles in multi-party, multi-issue theory and practice while interrogating the issues of how the numbers of parties and issues, different contexts and cultures challenges our efforts to create generalizable theory and practice of human conflict resolution. The review essay also discusses recent efforts to seek correspondences and learning from application of conflict resolution theory and practice to the work on deliberative democracy and political decision making. The coda suggests avenues for future research. Some attention is paid to issues of ethics and political theory, as well as evaluation of efficacy, in the use of third party facilitators in public policy and governance disputes

What is the 'dominant model' of British policymaking? Comparing majoritarian and policy community ideas

The aim of this article is to help identify the fundamental characteristics of the British policymaking system. It highlights an enduring conflict of interpretation within the literature. On the one hand, most contemporary analysts argue that the ‘Westminster model' is outmoded and that it has been replaced by modern understandings based on ‘governance'. On the other, key ideas associated with the Westminster model, regarding majoritarian government and policy imposition, are still in good currency in the academic literature, which holds firm to Lijphart's description of the United Kingdom as a majoritarian democracy. These very different understandings of British government are both commonly cited, but without much recognition that their conclusions may be mutually incompatible. To address this lack of comparison of competing narratives, the article outlines two main approaches to describe and explain the ‘characteristic and durable' ways of doing things in Britain: the ‘policy styles' literature initiated by Richardson in Policy Styles in Western Europe and the Lijphart account found in Democracies and revised in 1999 as Patterns of Democracy. The article encourages scholars to reject an appealing compromise between majoritarian and governance accounts

Culture and democray in Africa: a philosophical inquiry.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.That there is an incessant struggle for the establishment of a viable and meaningful democracy in post-independence Africa is not in doubt. Contemporary Africa is characterized by political instability and abysmally poor governmental performance indicative of lack of consonance and congruence between traditional African political values on the one hand, and the practice of Western democracy on the other. In contradistinction to pre-colonial polity that had highly developed democratic political systems, almost all political regimes in post-colonial Africa have consistently claimed to be democratic and yet their rule has largely been characterized by political authoritarianism, illegitimate seizure of power, massive corruption, political assassinations, escalating insecurity, food crisis et cetera. These challenges are further compounded by the fact that the practice of Western democracy in Africa has created of the African populace a dichotomy, which is diametrically opposed to African humanism. Against this backdrop, the study employs textual and conceptual analysis of philosophical inquiry to appraise the practice of democracy; and investigate the basis of traditional African democratic polity. It also examines whether Western notions of democracy are well-suited for contemporary African polities by asking the following fundamental questions: a) What makes democracy democratic? b) In what ways can traditional African system of government benefit contemporary democratic practice in Africa? In view of the foregoing, the study concludes that: a) The failure of democracy to function properly in post-independence Africa is hinged on illegitimacy and ineffectiveness of Western democracy, which is an illegitimate colonial construct: b) For democracy to be meaningfully and viably established in contemporary Africa, it should be hinged on political communal existence of Africans, which in effect relates to equality within a polity; and, c) There is need for an alternative form of democracy in Africa hinged on African cultural values and practices. In the foregoing respect, the study proposes “Integrated Consensual Democracy” as an alternative form of democracy for contemporary Africa. It is argued that this is a viable form of self rule responsive to the needs and aspirations of Africans as it is premised on their cultural values and practices. The study makes, however, among others, the recommendation that further research should establish why even with communal solidarity, which is so widespread in rural societies of Africa, contemporary Africa is still far from producing modes of governance that the populace can freely accept

Top Level Negotiations in the European Union: The European Council

The European Council, the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the member states of the European Union, has evolved into EU's most influential and powerful decision-making institution. However, the process of deepening (expansion of policy areas) and widening (enlargement) of European integration have forced the European Council to tackle the potential threat of a crisis in European top-level decision making before actual enlargement with ten new members in May 2004. If the current generation of political leaders is not able to reach agreement on necessary reforms, future decision-making in the European Council could eventually turn out to be a mission impossible. Despite a successful record, the European Council seemed to have lost its grip on the integration process, still based on an unchanged negotiation structure since its creation in the 1970's, are needed if the European Council wants to continue its important and guiding role in European integration. Two parallel processes of European Council reform have been initiated or intensified and are to be finalized before actual enlargement next year. The first process deals with the operational settings of the European Council summits. The second process deals with the institutional structure and the balance of power between the EU institutions. The main purpose of this paper is twofold. The first is to present information on the evolution and current functioning of the European Council since the summits are still surrounded by a lot of secrecy and informal decision-making. Secondly, an overview and analysis will be presented on these current reform processes that need to prepare the European Council for the upcoming enlargement. It is argued that the European Council has accurately overcome many of its problems and critics by ensuring a stronger institutional position in the future EU. The European Council will be in the driving seat more than ever before

Democratic Resilience: Citizens' Evaluation of Democratic Performance during the Great Recession

Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales/ Social Sciences por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Mención InternacionalPresidente: Pedro Riera Sagrera.- Secretario: Guillermo Cordero García.- Vocal: Ruth Dassonnevill

The case of the new Tagus bridge controversy

Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia do Ambiente, especialidade em Sistemas SociaisEste trabalho foca-se no uso da informação em processos de decisão pública em contextos multi-actores, multi-objectivos, e sem resposta única. Recorre a um caso de estudo sobre o processo de decisão da localização da nova travessia do Tejo. Muitos viram a escolha governamental como sendo "meramente política", considerando que a informaqb não foi usada na decisão. Talvez seja verdade, mas houve informação substancial e as pessoas usaram-na, em especial depois da controvérsia gerada pela decisão. Uma solução inesperada, que veio a ganhar o apoio de planeadores e ambientalistas preocupados com sustentabilidade, emergiu de um processo interactivo. A pacífica solução inicial entre duas alternativas tornou-se uma decisão controversa com o aparecimento da terceira opção. É então que o debate se desloca da localização da travessia para o modelo de desenvolvimento desejado para a área metropolitana. A informação foi amplamente usada e transformada no processo, e informação nova foi gerada em fóruns. Apesar da falta de coordenação horizontal, o modelo de desenvolvimento desejado para a área metropolitana e a forte rede de relações (networking) desempenharam um papel integrador. A informação assumiu um papel importante, sendo traduzida em imagens de grande significado. 0 uso da informação conduz à acção. Associações de interesse emergiram e as existentes modificaram estratégias e modos de actuação. Aprenderam a trabalhar em conjunto partilhando recursos, a lidar formalmente com instâncias mais elevadas, e a funcionar em contextos alargados. Foi identificada a necessidade de criar novas instituições e de reestruturar as já existentes para um melhor funcionamento dos processos de decisão pública

Incivility in social media as agonistic democracy? : a discourse theory analysis of dislocation and repair in select government texts in Kenya

In an era when adversarial politics is condemned for either being archaic or right-wing extremism, proposing that incivility can be used to counter existing hegemonies, despite its potential to incite violence, is proposing an unorthodox project. By rejecting foundationalist approaches to the current incivility crisis, this study sees an opportunity for it to act as a populist rapture that defies simple binary categorisation and deconstructs incivility, at an ontological level, to reveal the deep meanings and concealed causes that contrast the grand narrative of hate speech. After an overview in chapter one, the study continues with a theoretical review of literature on incivility, guided by the works of radical democracy theorists who universalise what seems particular to Kenya. This review is followed by the description of Bakhtin’s concept of carnivalesque as utani, a joking relationship common in East Africa. For its theoretical perspective, the study is guided by Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy and a research method developed by transforming Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) work in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic, into a method for Discourse Analysis. Various concepts from Laclau and Mouffe’s work are used to innovate an explanation of how political practices in social media, both linguistic and material texts, enhance incivility and the struggle to fix a regime’s preferred meaning. Guided by Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Analysis, the study describes how the government is using linguistic tools and physical technologies to repair the dislocation caused by incivility in social media in its attempts to re-create hegemonic practices. Without engaging in naïve reversal of the polarities between acceptable and unacceptable speech, and considering that at the ontological level politics is a friend—enemy relation, the study argues that incivility in social media is part of the return of politics in a post-political era, rather than simple unacceptable speech. While remaining aware of the dangers of extreme speech, but without reinforcing the anti-political rational consensus narrative, incivility is seen as having disruptive counterhegemonic potential, that is, if we consider the powerplay inherent in democracy. It means that binary opposition is blind to the way power produces, and is countered through unacceptable speech.Communication ScienceD. Litt. et Phil. (Communication Science

The news media and democracy in Ghana (1992-2000)

The study critically examines the role played by the news media in a modern African democracy. The issues of democracy and the theories that drive them are mostly either Euro-centric or Anglo-American. The perspective offered by this thesis showed that Africa has a unique system which calls for a hybridised approach to the study of media and democracy. The functioning of a state-owned media, insulated from governmental control by the 1992 Ghana Constitution alongside privately-owned media is a phenomenon worth the undertaking. What the study has done was an engagement with normative theories of media and democracy to determine whether or not the news media and more particularly, the newspaper media contribute to democratic development of Ghana. In this context, a comparative analytical study of the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Chronicle, state and private entities respectively, underpinned the enquiry into the possible influences on elections, checks on democratic accountability and promotion of multiparty politics. Crucially, Ghana's return to the path of multiparty constitutional democracy since 1992, has potentially equipped the news media with muscles to engage the statemanagers inways that may significantly reduce the incidence of power abuse. With some degree of democratic consolidation, the focus of the news media, and even political activists, has significantly shifted towards the ensuring of democratic accountability and responsibility, and administrative transparency. Undoubtedly, the newspaper media as the `Fourth Estate' has a constitutional mandate in Ghana, for ensuring that political power-wielders operate within the standards required for `good governance'. An insight into how the exploits of the newspaper press acts as a catalyst for debate, deliberation and argumentation leading to opinion formation, in the political and democratic sphere in Ghana has been undertaken. This arguably has had an influence more widely in the continent of Africa. Within the framework of unearthing the dynamics of the newspaper press role in the democratic process for the period 1992.2000, a combination of methods were employed to analyse the research data. Importantly, the findings arising from the investigation, informed by the methodological strategy of triangulation, has assisted in addressing most of the research questions using the critical comparative framework. The effectiveness of the Ghanaian media in the democratic process is circumscribed by deep partisanships that wash over the political landscape. However, the bifurcation in the newspaper press offered by private/state ownership and control has arguably been a major contribution to the development of democracy as it allows for pluralism and diversity. This therefore defies the Western-held view that state-owned newspapers are an anathema to democratic development and progress. A major finding emerging from this study has been the combination of two different models of news media ownership contributing to the building of democracy in an African country. The emergence of findings in relation to the role of the state/private dichotomy in newspapers all promoting multiparty democracy in Ghana in particular constituted modest contributions to this field of study and may open the door into wider channels of enquiry into the news media and democracy paradox