What the Ancient Greeks Can Tell Us About Democracy

Ober, Josiah

doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.112006.143750

Cited by 37 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…This was particularly so, since the Arnstein ladder surveys of staff showed their ideal participation rung was also partnership. 7 The staff interviews noted participant competence, though they highlighted the difficult path for both staff and participants to communicate better to achieve mutual understanding. As an infrastructure staff member mused;…”

Section: Qualitative Results: Partnership Relationships Between Citizmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We believe this was avoided because the interviews were used for explanatory purposes and did not require interviewees to strongly reflect on the participation aspects. 7 Although not described here, Arnstein data was gathered for the citizen/government relationship preferences for the staff of the CGG. The results closely mirrored those found in the United States including the presence of a 'professional conceit'a slightly higher estimation of the current level of participation when compared to citizens.…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is general consensus that democracy, at its heart, is a system of government that requires participation from its citizens in the process of planning and executing governance [6]. The degree and nature of this participation varies in different democracies, from voting for representatives, to direct referendums, and in past centuries, the random selection of citizens to government positions [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

Weymouth

Hartz-Karp

2019

Sustain Earth

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Background: Making and implementing decisions to improve long term sustainability, particularly in democratic countries, is a significant challenge. This is exacerbated when citizens' expectations of their relationship with government is significantly at odds with what they experience, since this is likely to further reduce their already low trust in government and its decision-making. Research in the USA has demonstrated a clear gap between citizens' expectations of their participation in government and their satisfaction with that participation. This finding inspired a research project in regional Western Australia to determine if a similar gap existed between citizens' expectations and experience of their relationship with government. Additionally, a public participation intervention was devised to determine whether the gap between citizens' expectations of, and experience with, governance could be reduced and whether the decisions made from such an intervention would be more implementable. To better reflect the partnership relationship citizens expected from government, 'deliberative democracy' initiatives were implemented to resolve the local government's budgeting challenges. Results: The results demonstrated that a similar gap to that in the USA was present in Western Australia community and the sample populations used in the partnership interventions. Further, the citizens' experience of deliberative democracy substantially reduced the gap between their expectations and experience of government participation. These case studies also revealed the existence and details of the nature of this partnership relationship between citizens and government as well as between the citizens themselves. Moreover, the tough budgetary decisions they made were implemented without public outcry. Conclusions: These case studies show a promising route to close the gap between citizen expectations and satisfaction with participation in government, as well as having the potential to increase the trust in government so necessary for advances in sustainability. Future research directions have been outlined to improve understanding of how these results could impact on sustainability efforts.

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Section: Qualitative Results: Partnership Relationships Between Citizmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

Weymouth

Hartz-Karp

2019

Sustain Earth

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“…Private resources and goods were possessed and exclusively managed by individual households. Public resources and goods encompassed public land, space and money, agricultural yields, other material goods, religious, recreational, educational and other civic activities, values, political powers (rights and responsibilities) and public service (Wolff 1991;Ober 2008Ober , 2009. They were non-zero sum goods (Smith 1999), the common (collective) possession of the demos, 7,8 shared and managed communally and transparently by means of collective, bottom up rules, public deliberation, 9 consultation, organization of knowledge and cooperation (Habermas 1991;Smith 1999;Ober 2009).…”

Section: Within Aristotle's Mind: Commons Emotions Virtuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Catharsis of the Commons

Briassoulis

2019

International Journal of the Commons

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Using Aristotle's definition of the tragedy as a metaphor, the essay interprets the tragedy of the commons to highlight the critical role and socio-political importance of the emotions of fear and pity for its resolution and for furthering personal and collective eudaimonia (good life) of and in the commons. Synthesizing the Aristotelian scholarship with pertinent contemporary literature, it presents Aristotle's engagement with the commons, emotions and virtues, discusses the key notions of the tragedy and offers an Aristotelian rendering of the tragedy of the commons applying a dramaturgical-interpretivist approach. The emotions-driven learning process of catharsis clarifies the causality of the tragedy, motivates action, forms virtuous citizens, 'cleans'/relieves/purifies the commons of their ills, thus, engendering their catharsis. The comparison of the Aristotelian-inspired with the contemporary institutionalist, moral and phronetic approaches reveals their commonalities and differences. The analysis suggests that emotions should be integrated into current approaches or they might be synthesized into an emotions-centered institutionalist-phronetic approach to the study and governance of the commons. Education of and in the emotions to influence the perception of commons dilemmas, values and morals, coupled with institutional arrangements grounded on phronesis and sufficiency, emerge as contemporary policy priorities. Future interdisciplinary research directions conclude the essay.

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“…With specific reference to the classical Athens, scholars (e.g. Ober 1989Ober , 1993Ober , 2000Ober , 2008bBitros and Karayiannis 2008;Karayiannis and Hatzis 2012) acknowledge that, since the beginning of the fifth century, ordinary citizens had developed a fairly cohesive and engrained democratic public identity 12 capable of aligning individual behaviour and eliminating many of the collective action problems associated with individuals seeking their own interest. This identity was based on the values of 'freedom', 'equality', 'security' and 'loyalty'.…”

Section: The Underpinnings Of Direct Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Essays in Contemporary Economics

Bitros¹,

Kyriazis²

2015

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What the Ancient Greeks Can Tell Us About Democracy

Cited by 37 publications

References 121 publications

Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

The Catharsis of the Commons

Essays in Contemporary Economics

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