From political philosophy to messy empirical reality

Zala, Miklos; Rippon, Simon; Theuns, Tom; Maagt, Sem de; Brink, Bert van den

doi:10.4337/9781839108488.00010

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…van Oorschot et al, 2017). While ‘public opinion’ does not determine whether a particular situation is ‘right’, ‘fair’ or ‘just’ (Zala et al, 2020), it is likely to determine policy responses to that situation. After all, ‘social problems’ do not exist independently as a set of objective social conditions that have intrinsically harmful effects but are ‘products of a process of collective definition’ (Blumer, 1971: 300; Hilgartner and Bosk, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Less-standard claims to justice through the lens of media debates on minority education

Lepianka

2021

Theory and Research in Education

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The coexistence, not always peaceful, of multiple and often rival, conceptions of justice in education policy and practice is well recognized and problematized in the academic literature. Relatively little is known, however, about what kind of justice-related considerations occupy the ‘public mind’ and/or inform what Nancy Fraser calls ‘folk paradigms of justice’. The current article seeks to shed light on the public construction of the ‘what’ of justice in the realm of education by analysing selected debates on minority education politics that occur in news and social media in five European countries. Fraser’s tripartite model of justice as redistribution, recognition and representation constituted the starting point of the investigation. The results of a qualitative analysis of selected media content show that while Fraser’s framework resonates well with the popular understandings of justice, the tripartite typology is not exhaustive in accounting for all justice claims evoked in the public domain. In the light of the debates analysed, three types of ‘alternative’ claims seem particularly relevant for theorizing justice in education and/or seeking legitimacy for education policy: claims that appeal to civil rights and liberties, claims that appeal to procedural justice and claims that appeal to epistemic justice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Less-standard claims to justice through the lens of media debates on minority education

Lepianka

2021

Theory and Research in Education

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“…We use it here to denote a normativity focused on addressing historical injustices incrementally rather than theorizing a utopian end-state. For an overview and discussion of 'non-ideal' versus 'ideal' normative theorizing seeZala et al (2020).4 This demand of political equality ought not be confused with what one might call an 'equal value claim'-the idea that different and contrasting political and ideological views have, as a matter of normative fact, equal value. 5 Specifically, political projects for whom there is a broad consensus.…”

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confidence: 99%

‘Democracy without Politics’ in the European Commission's Response to Democratic Backsliding: From Technocratic Legalism to Democratic Pluralism

Oleart

Theuns

2022

J of Common Market Studies

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The debate on EU responses to democratic backsliding in EU member states has mostly been anchored on technocratic appeals to the rule of law and judicial independence, and on Poland and Hungary. In this article, we ask: What understandings of democracy have shaped the European Commission's response to democratic backsliding in recent years? After developing an understanding of pluralist democracy, we uncover the way in which the European Commission conceives of democracy through a discourse analysis of European Commissioners' speeches (2018-21) and a normative-theoretical analysis. We identify the Commission's conception as a form of 'democracy without politics', and argue that it matches the EU's policy choices in regard to democratic backsliding. We argue that a fuller, healthier and normatively more attractive conception of democracy encompasses more attention to political pluralism, agonistic contestation and the vibrancy of civil society.

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The Need for an EU Expulsion Mechanism: Democratic Backsliding and the Failure of Article 7

Theuns

2022

Res Publica

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What should the EU do about the fact that some Member States are backsliding on their commitments to democracy, supposedly a fundamental value of the EU? The Treaty provisions under Article 7 TEU are widely criticized for being ineffective in preventing such developments. Are they legitimate? I argue that the ultimate sanction of Article 7 TEU falls into a performative contradiction, which undermines its ability to coherently defend fundamental values. Instead, expulsion from the EU is the appropriate, coherent and legitimate final political sanction for democratic and rule of law backsliding by a Member State. The argument has the following steps: In Part 1, I argue that the current Article 7 framework for responding to democratic and rule of law backsliding in the EU is normatively problematic, in that the mechanism currently in the Treaty undermines the values it purports to defend; in other words, it falls into a performative contradiction. It is undemocratic to deprive Member States of their right to vote in the Council while holding them subject to Council decisions. However, Part 2 studies relevant philosophical arguments from an adjacent literature on criminal disenfranchisement, concluding that allowing backsliding Member States to keep their voting rights in the Council also taints the democratic character of Council decision-making. In Part 3, I consider the resulting paradox in light of the literature on militant democracy. Could militant democracy justify Article 7? I argue not; even if we accept the hypothetical justifiability of militant measures, they are not legitimate here since a democratically acceptable alternative exists that would safeguard the democratic character and legitimacy of Council decision-making: expulsion from the Union. I also address a central objection to an expulsion mechanism—that it would require treaty change and is therefore practically impossible.

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From political philosophy to messy empirical reality

Cited by 3 publications

References 12 publications

Less-standard claims to justice through the lens of media debates on minority education

Less-standard claims to justice through the lens of media debates on minority education

‘Democracy without Politics’ in the European Commission's Response to Democratic Backsliding: From Technocratic Legalism to Democratic Pluralism

The Need for an EU Expulsion Mechanism: Democratic Backsliding and the Failure of Article 7

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