Selección aleatoria, autogobierno republicano y democracia deliberativa

¿Cuáles han sido las funciones de la utilización política del sorteo en la República de Flo­rencia y qué tipo de relación tiene con la deliberación? ¿Por qué este mecanismo vuelve a aparecer, en las últimas décadas, en muchos dispositivos de deliberación? La invención del representante muestra una diferencia decisiva entre el uso antiguo y moderno de la selec­ción al azar. Manteniendo una función de imparcialidad, su lógico pasado de autogobierno republicano, donde cada ciudadano era gobernante y gobernado a la vez, a la democracia deliberativa, donde un mini-público representativo habla por el pueblo. A través de esta comparación histórica, se puede comprender mejor los experimentos reales de deliberación y destacar los diversos desafíos que hay que encarar.What have been the functions of the political use of sortition in the Florentine Republic, with what kind of relation with deliberation? Why has this device come back in the last decades, in many deliberative devices? The invention of the representative sample makes a decisive difference between Ancient and Modern use of random selection. While keeping a function of impartiality, its logic passed from Republican self-government, where each citizen is governing and governed in turn, to deliberative democracy, where a counter­factual mini-public is given a voice. Through this historical comparison, one can better understand the actual deliberative experiments and underline several challenges they have to face

Saberes dos cidadãos e saber político

Nos processos participativos contemporâneos, expressões como “saber do cidadão”, “saber comum” ou “saber do utilizador” são, hoje em dia, excessivamente utilizadas. Este artigo esclarece o âmbito destas expressões, ao analisar, sucessivamente, três conjuntos epistémicos aplicáveis às dinâmicas de participação: a razão comum, a expertise do cidadão e o saber político. O artigo discute os desafios políticos deste apoio reivindicado nessas formas específicas de saber e contribui para renovar a oposição clássica entre teorias elitistas e teorias participativas da democracia. Embora a redução do saber dos profissionais da política a um saber político mais geral seja improvável, será que a dependência dos saberes dos cidadãos não é susceptível de contribuir para a revitalização da política no seu todo?In current-day participatory processes, expressions like “citizen knowledge”, “user knowledge” or “ordinary knowledge” are overused. This article clarifies these expressions by analysing three epistemic sets that are applicable to the dynamics of participation: ordinary reason, citizen expertise and political knowledge. It explores the political implications of the investment in these specific forms of knowledge and contributes to the renewal of the classic opposition between elitist and “participatory” theories of democracy. Although the reduction of the knowledge of professional politicians to a more generic political knowledge is improbable, isn’t the dependence on citizen knowledge likely to help revitalize politics as a whole.Dans les démarches participatives contemporaines, des expressions comme “savoir citoyen”, “savoir ordinaire” ou “savoir d’usage” sont utilisées de façon inflationniste. L’article clarifie analytiquement ce que recouvrent ces expressions en étudiant successivement trios ensembles épistémiques mobilisables dans les dynamiques de participation: la raison ordinaires, l’expertise citoyenne et le savoir politique. Il interroge les enjeux politiques de cet appui revendiqué sur ces formes spécifiques de savoir des professionnels de la politique dans un savoir politique plus générique est improbable, l’appui sur les savoirs citoyens n’est-il pas susceptible de contribuer à redynamiser la politique dans son ensemble

Defining Women’s Representation: Debates around Gender Quotas in India and France

In 1999, after a heated debate on gender parity in political representation, the French constitution was amended to include the principle of “equal representation” of both sexes. This paved the way for the introduction of gender quotas. In the same period, a bill providing reservations for women at the national level provoked a political crisis in India. The objective of this article is to compare both debates, looking in particular at the way women’s representation was framed. In France, the main argument against quotas was that republican representation should be unitary and transcend social differences, but at the end of the 1990s, women in mainstream politics were seen as one element of the dual nature of human kind, different from other categories such as class or race. In India, the specific representation of certain groups (Dalits, lower castes, tribal groups) had been the traditional framework for political representation since independence in 1947. But when the bill proposed to extend reservations to women, opponents of the project claimed that women did not constitute a category in themselves, and that sex should be intersected with caste and religion for the attribution of quotas. Looking at parliamentary debates, articles, and tribunes supporting or opposing quotas in both countries, we show that the arguments mobilized reveal different conceptions of the political representation of gender difference, which are partly transversal and partly specific to each country

Introduction

Un diagnostic du temps présent met en évidence un paradoxe : le mot de démocratie est devenu internationalement un synonyme de « bon régime », et le modèle du gouvernement représentatif fondé sur l’élection libre et la compétition des partis n’a jamais été aussi répandu dans la planète. Cependant, la légitimité des représentants élus tend à décroître dans les « vieilles » démocraties tandis que dans les pays qui instaurent une démocratie libérale après la chute d’un régime autoritaire ou d’un..

Introduction

Un diagnostic du temps présent met en évidence un paradoxe : le mot de démocratie est devenu internationalement un synonyme de « bon régime », et le modèle du gouvernement représentatif fondé sur l’élection libre et la compétition des partis n’a jamais été aussi répandu dans la planète. Cependant, la légitimité des représentants élus tend à décroître dans les « vieilles » démocraties tandis que dans les pays qui instaurent une démocratie libérale après la chute d’un régime autoritaire ou d’un..

Presentación. Desafíos metodológicos en la investigación de la participación

Participation is a well-established subject in the social sciences. Individual participation, non-governmental organizations, interest groups, and social movements have all been important fields of research for years, at least among sociologists and political scientists. Each of these areas has also developed its own methodological traditions and debates, permitting new researchers entering the field to have a clear idea of the choices offered them if they want to study the identities of participants in social movements or the new forms of online participation