Political participation from a citizenship perspective

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

The Art and Politics of Ecology in India

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

The European Constitution Project from the Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy

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.

Still in Deficit: Rights, Regulation, and Democracy in the European Union

Critics of the EU's democratic deficit standardly attribute the problem to either sociocultural reasons, principally the lack of a demos and public sphere, or institutional factors, notably the lack of electoral accountability because of the limited ability of the European Parliament to legislate and control the executive powers of the Commission and the Council of Ministers. Recently two groups of theorists have argued neither deficit need prove problematic. The first group adopts a rights-based view of democracy and claims that a European consensus on rights, as represented by the Charter of Fundamental European Rights, can offer the basis of citizen allegiance to EU wide democracy, thereby overcoming the demos deficit. The second group adopts a public-interest view of democracy and argues that so long as delegated authorities enact policies that are ‘for’ the people, then the absence of institutional forms that facilitate democracy ‘by’ the people are likewise unnecessary—indeed, in certain areas they may be positively harmful. This article argues that both views are normatively and empirically flawed. This is because there is no consensus on rights or the public interest apart from the majority view of a demos secured through parliamentary institutions. To the extent that these remain absent at the EU level, a democratic deficit continues to exist

The European Public(s) and its Problems

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

Eastward enlargement of the European Union and the identity of Europe

The constitution of a European demos with a collective identity is one of the preconditions for adjusting the legitimacy problem of the European Union (EU). The analysis attempts to clarify empirically whether there is sufficient commonality regarding Europeans' political value orientations to substantiate a collective identity. Particularly in view of the European Union's eastward enlargement, the question arises whether widespread cultural heterogeneity in Europe allows the formation of a European demos at all. In Europe we can identify a West-East axis of political value orientations. Democratic attitudes decrease the further to the East while at the same time there is an increase in etatist orientations. Thresholds can be observed which distinguish western European countries on the one hand and central and eastern European countries on the other. Within the group of central and eastern Europe a further distinction can be made between the three Slavic republics of the former Soviet Union and the rest of the countries. These findings support Huntington's theory of civilizations. -- Die Herausbildung eines europäischen Demos mit einer kollektiven Identität ist eine der Voraussetzungen zur Behebung des Legitimitätsproblems der Europäischen Union (EU). In der Analyse wird empirisch zu klären versucht, ob es hinreichende Gemeinsamkeiten in den politischen Wertorientierungen der Europäer gibt, die eine kollektive Identität begründen können. Vor allem angesichts der Osterweiterung der EU stellt sich die Frage, ob die kulturelle Heterogenität in Europa nicht zu groß ist, um einen Europäischen Demos zu ermöglichen. Hinsichtlich der politischen Wertorientierungen der Bürger in den europäischen Ländern lässt sich eine West-Ost-Achse identifizieren. Das Ausmaß demokratischer Einstellungen nimmt nach Osten hin ab, und zugleich nimmt das Ausmaß etatistischer Orientierungen zu. Relative Schwellenwerte innerhalb dieser Achse lassen sich zwischen Westeuropa einerseits und Mittel- und Osteuropa andererseits feststellen und innerhalb Mittel- und Osteuropas zu den slawischen Nachfolgestaaten der Sowjetunion. Diese Befunde entsprechen teilweise der Theorie der Zivilisationskreise von Huntington.

Bias Correction of ML and QML Estimators in the EGARCH(1,1) Model

n this paper we derive the bias approximations of the Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Quasi-Maximum Likelihood (QML) Estimators of the EGARCH(1,1) parameters and we check our theoretical results through simulations. With the approximate bias expressions up to O(1/T), we are then able to correct the bias of all estimators. To this end, a Monte Carlo exercise is conducted and the results are presented and discussed. We conclude that, for given sets of parameters values, the bias correction works satisfactory for all parameters. The results for the bias expressions can be used in order to formulate the approximate Edgeworth distribution of the estimators.

Edgeworth and Moment Approximations: The Case of MM and QML Estimators for the MA(1) Models

Extending the results in Sargan (1976) and Tanaka (1984), we derive the asymptotic expansions, of the Edgeworth and Nagar type, of the MM and QML estimators of the 1^{st} order autocorrelation and the MA parameter for the MA(1) model. It turns out that the asymptotic properties of the estimators depend on whether the mean of the process is known or estimated. A comparison of the Nagar expansions, either in terms of bias or MSE, reveals that there is not uniform superiority of neither of the estimators, when the mean of the process is estimated. This is also confirmed by simulations. In the zero-mean case, and on theoretical grounds, the QMLEs are superior to the MM ones in both bias and MSE terms. The results presented here are important for deciding on the estimation method we choose, as well as for bias reduction and increasing the efficiency of the estimators.Edgeworth expansion, moving average process, method of moments, Quasi Maximum Likelihood, autocorrelation, asymptotic properties.

World polity: anatomy of and arguments for regional and global integration

This article is inspired by taking sort of a medical view on the international political world2. A medical view here means that first we need to understand the anatomy of the organism that we observe, i.e. the world. Secondly, we need to make some diagnoses and prognoses about possible threats to the functioning of this organism as well as how to restore health. In Political Science terms this means identifying threats to security, peace, survival and wellbeing of states, nations, and individuals, as well as the whole, and to identify possible political solutions to these threats. The first part of this article will present the history of global integration and why it is necessary to prevent war and to facilitate peace at the example of Europe. Europe is here regarded a greenhouse for global integration. This part describes the attempts at integration before the major wars in Europe in the last centuries, the reasons for these wars as the failures or lack of integration, and the way it was overcome. The second part of this article will present an ideal type global political anatomy. This will be illustrated with graphics, which are thought to make the global political system better understood by visualising key aspects of it. The third part of this paper will discuss the nature of reality, which is important to understand conflicts in today’s world, as ‘virtual’, material, social and cultural. It will present a challenge to Alexander Wendt’s recent idea of reality as a hologram and discuss how civilizational conflicts, as described by Samuel Huntington, can possibly be resolved by creating a global demos (polity) by establishing a global parliament. As the basis for the latter argument, finally, this paper will present and analyse the results from the survey on global citizenship. Global demos here refer to the idea of a global polity, or identification of the global population with the global, or to say it alternatively: as global citizens. It is argued that, if we would have a global demos, this would facilitate global integration, which is necessary for peace. For example, further global integration towards a world state with a world parliament, is thought to be only possible and sensible if there is a reasonable global demos to build this entity on.For this reason, this article presents results from a survey run at the University of Hull in 2016 intended to measure global citizenship