CONTENTS - VOL. 18, NUMBER 1,
June 2008
Citizenship & Participation
JANA PLICHTOVÁ: Introductory: Civil Society, Participation, and Religion
ENZO ROSSI: Liberal Democracy and the Challenge of Ethical Diversity
TIZIANA FAITINI, ALESSANDROANTONIO POVINO: Handling Religious Diversity: The Case of "Holy/Rest Days" in Italy
JANA PLICHTOVÁ, MAGDA PETRJÁNOŠOVÁ: Freedom of Religion, Institution of Conscientious Objection and Political
Practice in Post-communist Slovakia
JUAN CARLOS SIURANA, ISABEL TAMARIT, LIDIA DE TIENDA: Ethical, Religious and Legal Arguments in the Current Debate over Euthanasia in
Spain
DARINA MALOVÁ, BRANISLAV DOLNÝ: The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union: Challenges to Democracy?
MAREK HRUBEC: On Conditions of Participation: The Deficits of Public Reason
EMIL VIŠŇOVSKÝ: Pragmatist Conception of Participatory Democracy
GABRIEL BIANCHI: Introducing Deliberative Democracy: A Goal, A Tool, or Just
Context?
ARTICLES
JURAJ HOCMAN: Behind the Limes: On the Quest for an Eastern Dimension of European Identity
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
National Perceptions and Their Stereotypization
- TIBOR PICHLER
ABSTRACTS
INTRODUCTORY: CIVIL SOCIETY, PARTICIPATION, AND RELIGION
JANA PLICHTOVÁ
E-mail: Jana.Plichtova@savba.sk
plichtova@fphil.uniba.sk
pp.1-9
LIBERAL DEMOCRACY AND THE CHALLENGE OF ETHICAL DIVERSITY
ENZO ROSSI
E-mail: enzo.rossi@newport.ac.uk
Abstract: What do we talk about when we talk about ethical diversity as a
challenge to the normative justifiability of liberal democracy? Many theorists
claim that liberal democracy ought to be reformed or rejected for not being
sufficiently 'inclusive' towards diversity; others argue that, on the contrary,
liberalism is desirable because it accommodates (some level of) diversity.
Moreover, it has been argued that concern for diversity should lead us to favour
(say) neutralistic over perfectionist, universalistic over particularistic,
participative over representative versions of liberal democracy. This paper
provides a conceptual framework to situate those debates, and argues that there
are two fundamental ways in which diversity constitutes a challenge to the
justificatory status of liberal democracy: consistency (whereby diversity causes
clashes between the prescriptions generated by normative political theories),
and adequacy (whereby diversity generates a rift between our experience of what
is considered valuable and what the theory treats as such).
Keywords: liberalism; democracy; diversity; pluralism;
citizenship.
pp. 10-22
HANDLING RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY: THE CASE OF "HOLY/REST DAYS" IN ITALY
TIZIANA FAITINI, ALESSANDROANTONIO POVINO
E-mail: tizianafaitini@yahoo.it
aleworst@yahoo.it
Abstract: The accommodation of a plurality of values within the same
institutional framework is one of the main challenges with which contemporary
democracies have been persistently confronted. This challenge has recently
gained strength even in such traditionally homogeneous countries as Italy, as a
consequence of an increase in the number of residents committed to diverse
religious beliefs. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on the case of
requests for the legal recognition of religion-specific holy/rest days in Italy.
The analysis of such a case will disclose-or so we believe-some valuable
pointers as to how democratic societies could try to accommodate religious
diversity in a way that is both respectful of the specificities of each
religious group and compatible with the typically liberal commitment to the
safeguard of individual freedom.
Keywords: pluralism; religious
freedom; equality; democracy; secularism.
pp. 23-36
FREEDOM OF RELIGION, INSTITUTION OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION AND POLITICAL
PRACTICE IN POST-COMMUNIST SLOVAKIA1
JANA PLICHTOVÁ, MAGDA PETRJÁNOŠOVÁ
E-mail: plichtova@fphil.uniba.sk, petrjanosova@fphil.uniba.sk
Abstract: The example of Slovakia is used to show how one of the
post-socialist countries failed in fulfilling the demanding task of securing
freedom of religious belief (including the right to conscientious objection)
and, at the same time, securing all other human rights. An analysis of the
methods used for changing the policies of pluralism and neutrality of the state
into a policy of discrimination (e.g. concerning the registration duty for
churches) was carried out, followed by an analysis of a mechanism used for
guaranteeing freedom of conscience of the members of the Catholic Church (the
so-called Vatican Treaty). The treaty violates the prohibition of discrimination
against women, because it makes it more difficult for them to have access to
some health care services. Our hypothesis states that the hurriedly introduced
right to conscientious objection is misused in this context as a means of
regulating the politics of reproduction. In general, the re-Catholisation of the
Slovak Republic follows two aims-to help in the fight for votes in the elections
(because 70 % of Slovaks declare their religion to be Catholic), and to improve
demographic development in the Slovak Republic (declared to be catastrophic by
the Catholic Church), through hindering free access to abortions.
Keywords: conscientious objection; freedom of religion; state-church
relationship; Slovakia, concordat.
pp. 37-51
ETHICAL, RELIGIOUS AND LEGAL ARGUMENTS IN THE
CURRENT DEBATE OVER EUTHANASIA IN SPAIN
JUAN CARLOS SIURANA, ISABEL TAMARIT, LIDIA DE TIENDA
E-mail: Juan.C.Siurana@uv.es
Isabel.Tamarit@uv.es
Lydia.Tienda@uv.es
Abstract: In the last ten years, there have been several cases in Spain (Ramón
Sampedro, Leganés, Jorge León that have led to an intense social debate on
euthanasia. The recent case of Inmaculada Echevarría, a woman suffering from a
serious disease that kept her immobilized in bed, has revived the debate on
euthanasia in Spain. On 18 October 2006 she held a press conference and publicly
asked to be disconnected from the ventilator that kept her alive. After a long
ethical, religious, legal, and social debate, the patient was disconnected on 14
March 2007 after being adequately sedated. As a consequence, the patient died.
In our paper we defend the need for a radical and intercultural democracy and
present the main ethical, religious and legal arguments on euthanasia that are
being posed in Spain and in Europe as a debate that should help to build a
radical and intercultural democracy at a European level.
Keywords: radical democracy; euthanasia; ethical arguments; religious
arguments; legal arguments; Spain; Europe.
pp. 52-66
THE EASTERN ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION: CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY?
DARINA MALOVÁ, BRANISLAV DOLNÝ
E-mail: malova@fphil.uniba.sk
Abstract: Recent scholarship assesses the impact of the European Union's
conditionality on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe in a contradictory way.
On one hand, the EU is perceived as a key agent of successful democratic
consolidation and on other hand, the return of nationalist and populist politics
in new member states has been explored in the context of the negative
consequences of the hasty accession that undermined government accountability
and constrained public debate over policy alternatives. This article explains
this puzzle of the ambiguous effects of the EU's politics of conditionality,
which promoted institutions stabilizing the horizontal division of powers, rule
of law, human and minority rights protection, but which neglected norms and
rules of participatory and/or popular democracy.
Keywords: democracy; democratic consolidation; EU conditionality; accession
process; horizontal and vertical accountability.
pp. 67-80
ON CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION: THE DEFICITS OF PUBLIC REASON
MAREK HRUBEC
E-mail: hrubec@praha1.ff.cuni.cz
Abstract: The paper analyzes the conditions of civic participation that are
elucidated by criticism of the deficits of public reason. The interpretation
proceeds in three steps. First, the idea of public reason and discourse is
analyzed, followed by an explanation of democratic deficit and of the social
deficit in the second and third steps, respectively. These deficits are analyzed
as an essential limit to political and social conditions of the participation of
citizens. The analysis focuses thereby on the theory of public reason by one of
the most influential political philosophers of the last decades, John Rawls. The
paper identifies two main pitfalls in his theory: first, the deficit following
from an inadequate integration of an individual into society, which, in this
case, represents democratic deficit, second, the deficit linked with underrating
the socio-distributive dimension of justice, which means a social deficit.
Keywords: participation; public reason; liberalism; John
Rawls; critical.
pp. 81-91
PRAGMATIST CONCEPTION OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY
EMIL VIŠŇOVSKÝ
E-mail: ksbkemvi@savba.sk
Abstract: The paper considers the issue of participatory democracy which has
recently got high in the European integration agenda. In the history of ideas,
however, it has been a controversial as well as neglected idea associated mostly
with Rousseauian and Leftist models of democracy. The autor points to the key
features of participatory democracy such as the idea of self-mastery. The
philosophical idea of participation lies at the heart of the pragmatist
conception of democracy as developed by J. Dewey. Its functioning may be
illustrated by the concept of "democratic normative community". This
conception of participatory democracy
as a broad social rather than a narow political phenomenon provides the
framework that makes it both a vital ideal and a creative task for current
global as well as local efforts to bring about the sociopolitical change.
Keywords: pragmatism; participatory democracy; participation; Dewey; democratic
normative community.
pp. 92-99
INTRODUCING DELIBERATIVE
DEMOCRACY: A GOAL, A TOOL, OR JUST A CONTEXT?
GABRIEL BIANCHI
E-mail: bianchi@savba.sk
Abstract: The concept of deliberative democracy is presented within a wide
spectrum of a variety of its operationalizations. Since the applicability of the
principle of deliberation to the functioning of human society is of the author's
primary interest, dilemmas of deliberative democracy related to different
problems associated with deliberation in practice are described in more detail.
The key questions raised aiming at elucidating the "ontology" of
deliberativeness are as follows: is it only a tool for solving the problems of
society and politics; is it a context within which other processes decide on the
running of society; or does it embody a (ideal, referential) goal of democracy?
Keywords: deliberation, deliberative democracy, discursive democracy, Socratic
democracy, values, moral attitudes.
pp. 100-106
ARTICLES
BEHIND THE LIMES: ON THE QUEST FOR AN EASTERN DIMENSION OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY
JURAJ HOCMAN
E-mail: jhocm044@uottawa.ca
Abstract: Although the integration processes in Western Europe have been
studied for decades, the idea of European identity as a specific area of
scholarship is relatively new. This interest coincides with fundamental changes
that have occurred in Europe since 1989 and that may impact the internal
coherence of the enlarged European Union. Over the past decades, the East-West
dichotomy has been magnified due to the impact of Communism in the East, which
exacerbated an already existent sense in the West of Eastern Europe's primordial
otherness. Since four decades of Communism in East Central and Southern Europe
produced only two, or at most, three generations that were raised and lived
under a totalitarian regime, a long-term historical perspective is essential for
a better understanding of the mutual estrangement. The paper examines the
origins and key moments in the alienation of Eastern and Western Europe as
reflected in ancient, medieval and modern history. It focuses on the present
stage of perception of East Central Europe in the West. In the final part, it
identifies societal values that may re-generate socio-cultural cohesiveness
aimed at filling the gap between the two parts of Europe.
Keywords: East-West dichotomy; East-Central Europe; European Union; history;
identity; societal values.
pp. 107-114
