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Dodging the silver bullet: Sortition instead of populism
Get PDFI propose a new political system – sortition – to curtail populism and its negative effects of (a) exclusion, (b) alienation, and (c) tyranny. For this undertaking, it will be argued that populism is leadingto (a), (b), and (c). The argument shows that populism has a charged relationship with electoral democracies. On one hand democratic values cause populism and on the other hand they disallowbanning it. To solve this dilemma, this paper introduces the system of sortition or lottery democracy. The conclusion of this inquiry is that lottery democracy is a viable alternative to electoral democracyas it is highly democratic, while at the same time nullifying populism and its harmful effects
(De)Legitimizing Surveillance Revelations through the Media Lenses: Critical Discourse Analysis of the British Newspapers on the 2013 NSA Disclosures
Get PDFThis research interprets and explains how and why the British newspapers such as The Guardian, the Daily Mail, and The Independent, have (de)legitimized the NSA Snowden revelations of 2013. The study uses critical discourse analysis to understand what media framing techniques are used by the media sources and how can they be explained by looking at the core ideologies and news values of the newspapers. The corpus used for the analysis includes ninety articles in total, consisting of thirty per newspaper. The frames are identified using Entman’s (1993; 2005) definitions of media framing. They are then explained using the (de)legitimisation techniques by Van Leuuwen and Wodak (1999) in a comparative manner. The analysis reveals that The Guardian focuses on deligitimising surveillance and justifying their decision to cooperate with Edward Snowden on the basis of legality, public interest, morality, and power abuse. The Daily Mail legitimises surveillance using arguments concerning security, counterterrorism, and citizen protection while concentrating on Snowden’s personal life, love, lifestyle and character. The Independent follows an informative narrative to raise awareness about the scandal through a politically autonomous stance. It allows the readership to shape their opinion on the subject by presenting them with contra and pro surveillance arguments.  
Introduction
Get PDFThis introduction sets out the purpose of the volume as well as its societal relevance and summarizes the different approaches used by the authors. 
Let the People Decide! Assessing the Democratic Legitimacy of the Brexit Referendum
Get PDFWhile the decision to organise a Brexit has been the subject of seemingly endless debate, the legitimacy of this decision is generally accepted by those on both sides of the fence. The notion that a Brexit must happen, whatever the costs, as “the people have spoken”, has cemented itself in the public debate as some form of objective truth. However, in order to safeguard British democracy, it is in fact necessary to take a more critical approach to this perceived “legitimacy”. In order to provide such an approach, this paper challenges the Brexit’s democratic legitimacy on two levels. First, using Canovan’s “redemptive” and “pragmatic” faces of democracy, it argues that the “will of the people” has been unable to legitimise the decision to leave the EU. Second, focusing in on the conduct of the referendum, it argues that due to procedural errors, the referendum has additionally been unable to translate “the will of the people” in the first place. By taking this two-step approach to the Brexit’s legitimacy question, this paper exposes the general fragile nature of referenda and highlights how the Brexit referendum has failed to communicate the “will of the people” and subsequently strengthen the UK’s democratic process
Making sense of the anger of the Gilets Jaunes
Get PDFWhile most experts attempt to understand the Gilets Jaunes by establishing the causes of their anger, this paper studies this unprecedented mobilisation by focusing on the anger the protesters express. Their anger is examined by analysing four discursive examples of this feeling through the conceptual framework developed by Koenis. This framework makes a distinction between two types of anger: the anger expressed by the man of ressentiment and the rebel, respectively depicted by Dostoyevsky and Camus. The academic relevance of this paper not only lies in its attempt to bring emotions back into the study of protest but also to reconsider these two ideal frames of anger. The societal relevance, on the other hand, lies in that it depicts the anger of the Gilets Jaunes as being a complex combination of the two frames. This new perspective enables to understand the nuances of anger which drives the protesters rather than just reducing the GJ’s mobilisation as a bare manifestation of this feeling
Nudging people out of poverty: Using behavioral economics to improve welfare policies
Get PDFNew insights within the field of behavioural economics have led to the discovery of irrational behaviour of economic agents. The concept of ‘nudging’ is one approach to tackle this irrationality. Weillustrate that behavioural economics could be especially helpful for tackling poverty, as the lives of the poor make them very vulnerable to income shocks. Also, the poor constantly deplete their mentalresources. Moreover, we discuss ethical regulations for policies based on behavioural economics, centered around the idea of transparency. Finally, we present ideas scholars have put forward thatcould be used to tackle poverty by using behavioural economics and evaluate them from our own perspective
International Differences in Prison Architecture: What the United States Can Learn from Germany
Get PDFThis paper examines the differences between the architecture of prisons in Germany and the United States (US). While in Germany, prison design is employed to maximize the privacy of the inmates as well as their freedom of movement, in the US, the close surveillance of the prisoner is regarded as a necessary component of his strict punishment. Several American politicians, academics, activists and journalists regard the German approach towards incarceration as a model that could potentially contribute to an improvement of the prison system in the US. A major obstacle on the way towards betterment are, however, the owners of numerous private American prisons, who employ their inmates under inhumane working conditions that are comparable to slavery. Within the context of this debate, I have interviewed three architects, Edgar Muth, Michael Eschwe and Michael Wächter, who all have either been or currently still are involved in the structural design of German prisons. Their descriptions of generously equipped cells, common residential groups and modernly designed showers draw an image of a prison system the United States could have one day, if the country would be willing to learn some lessons from the German example
The Dynamics of Google within the Frame of a Large Technical System: An LTS analysis of Google
Get PDFThe Large Technical System approach was introduced by the influential historian of technology, Thomas P. Hughes, in the 1970’s and is one of the most prominent theoretical frameworks within the Science and Technology Studies. However, it has found little attention in relation to the digital realm. This research applies the LTS framework onto the US-American company Google and seeks to bring a conceptual understanding to the company’s exponential growth. Thus, it describes the emergence and evolution of Google as a complex system – an alignment of components of technical and non-technical nature – and assigns patterns and concepts to its development. This research provides an answer to how Google not only gained a system structure but also reached the notion of momentum. Yet, suggesting a social constructivist path, this paper secludes by elucidating the influencing power of the LTS’s user – an important factor which was widely disregarded in the initial works of Hughes
