The Virtuous,the Critical and the Trustworthy: Citizen Ideals and Forms of Democratic Participation

A vibrant democratic society requires continuous innovation to actualize and encourage democratic ideals through participation, but no universal answers exist as to which kinds of participation are best suited to achieve this. This article demonstrates that different types of participation correlate with different citizen ideals, implying that the remedies to democratic deficits depend on which ideals need to be strengthened. Citizen survey data is used to examine the relationships between two types of citizen participation – in voluntary associations and workplaces – and three empirical citizen ideals: the virtuous citizen, the critical citizen and the trustworthy citizen. The results suggest that voluntary associations make space for all three ideals, while workplace participation tends to be characterized specifically by the critical citizen's ideal of reason‐giving and critical reflection. The article ends by discussing the implications of these results: new democratic designs should be more effective if tailored to address context‐dependent weaknesses in democratic practices.     

‘Austria First’ revisited: a diachronic cross-sectional analysis of the gender and body politics of the extreme right

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Rheindorf and Wodak provide a discourse-historical analysis of extreme-right cultural politics in Austria, ranging from the blatant racism in the speeches of Vienna’s former Deputy Mayor Johann Gudenus (now MP in the Austrian parliament) to the construction of an idealized national body in the election campaigns of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), its programmatic agenda in handbooks and pamphlets, and the performances of far-right pop singer Andreas Gabalier. Rheindorf and Wodak argue that such cultural politics use a wide spectrum of discursive strategies both inside and outside established party politics and that the accompanying production of an ideal extreme-right subject is informed by nativist ideology. The cross-sectional analysis demonstrates that the cultural politics of the Austrian extreme right ranges from appropriated national symbols to coded National Socialist iconography. These politics pervasively construct a gendered and racialized national body, policed by a ‘strict father’ and nurtured by a ‘self-sacrificing mother’, vis-à-vis an apocalyptic threat scenario identified with migration, intellectual and political elites, cosmopolitanism and progressive gender politics.     

Ein kritischer Blick auf die aktuellen Entwicklungen in der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik unter Einbeziehung der neu geschaffenen regionalen Fischereibeiräte

Die europ?ische Fischerei muss sich zur Zeit einer Vielzahl von Problemen wie sinkenden Fangmengen, abnehmenden Ums?tzen sowie einem stetigen Besch?ftigungsabbau stellen. Einer der Hauptgründe für diese Entwicklung ist die bis zum heutigen Tage nicht nachhaltig betriebene Fischerei. Mit einer grundlegenden Reform der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik (GFP) im Jahre 2002 und der Abl?sung der alten FischereigrundVO von 1993 sollten diese dr?ngenden Probleme angegangen werden. Darüber hinaus wurde mit den Regionalbeir?ten (RACs) ein gemeinsames Forum für den Fischereisektor sowie Umweltund Verbraucherschützer geschaffen, welches die EU-Kommission in Fischereifragen beraten soll. Leider stimmen die ersten Jahre der neuen GFP wenig zuversichtlich. Eine Erholung der bedrohten Fischbest?nde ist vorerst nicht in Sicht, insbesondere weil die wissenschaftlichen Empfehlungen der Fischereiexperten weiterhin ignoriert werden. Ob die neu geschaffenen RACs mit ihrer Beratungst?tigkeit und ihrem internen Diskurs wichtige Anregungen hin zu einer nachhaltigeren Fischerei leisten k?nnen, ist zweifelhaft.     

Theoretical Perspectives on European Governance

Abstract: The paper reviews some theories of social science which could contribute to the development of a concept of European governance going beyond traditional notions, such as federal states' or 'international organisation'. The theoretical argument is based on the culturalist version of neo-institutionalism, which stresses the role of ideas in the functioning and transformation of a political order. It is claimed that both globalisation and functional differentiation transform existing nation-states and shape the emerging European polity. European governance is characterised as poly-centric and non-hierarchical. Finally, different approaches to the legitimation of such a polity are discussed. The paper comes to the conclusion that the emergence of a European political order is part of a process which could require a rethinking of basic social scientific concepts.