Democracy and Pluralism

America, Ecuador and Bolivia have been considered as two perfect examples of the implementation of institutional multiculturalism during the 2000 decade. The recent constitutions have recognized the plurinational State and improved some institutional, political and social aspects in the relations between the Indian People and the " mestizos " (Mixed people). These constitutions have also enhanced participative democracy with different mechanisms and levels of political participation and social control on the government and local powers. The relation between the plurinational State and participative democracy is the object of our analysis. We will examine the real impact of multiculturalism on the integration of Indians in the political community and their access to citizenship. This communication, thus, presents an evaluation of the political changes in both countries, nearly five years after the adoption of new constitutions. This will enable us to understand a paradox: there is an increasing distance between Indian movements and the current governments, although these governments have recognized the most important Indian claims. This might result from the priority given by current governments to the reestablishment of State control over natural resources, especially energy resources, and their promotion of what has been referred to as an " extractive model " , at the expense of indigenous collective rights.

From the back cover:

This book argues that contemporary liberal democracy is reaching a crisis. Brendan Sweetman contends that this crisis arises from a contentious pluralism involving the rise of incommensurable worldviews that emerge out of the absolutizing of freedom over time in a democratic setting. This clash of worldviews is further complicated by a loss of confidence in reason and by the practical failure of public discourse.  A contributory factor is the growing worldview of secularism which needs to be distinguished from both the process of secularization and the concept of the secular state.  After describing the crisis, and exploring these themes, and also rejecting proposed solutions from recent liberal political theory, Sweetman develops an approach to pluralist disagreement which requires a re-envisioning of the relationship between religion, secularism and politics, and which allows a limited place for all worldviews in the state, including religious worldviews. Engaging with the work of Philip Kitcher, Robert Audi, John Rawls, A.C. Grayling, Martin Luther King, Cécile Laborde, John Stuart Mill, John Locke, and Plato, Sweetman's approach is a formidable innovation in the quest to maintain a free and fair society.

More information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-78382-2

100% FOREIGN? (100% FREMMED?) is an art project consisting of 250 life stories of individuals who were granted asylum in Denmark between 1956 and 2019. Thus, it can be said to form a collective portrait that inserts citizens of refugee backgrounds into the narrative of the nation, thereby expanding the idea of national identity and culture. 100% FOREIGN? allows us to think of participatory art as a privileged site for the exploration of intersubjective relations and the question of how to “represent” citizens with refugee experience as well as the history and practice of asylum. The conflicting aims and perceptions involved in such representations are many, as suggested by the opening sentence of Hannah Arendt’s 1943 essay “We, Refugees”: “In the first place, we don’t like to be called ‘refugees’”. Using 100% FOREIGN? as an analytical reference point, this article discusses some of the ethical and political implications of representing former refugees. It briefly considers recent Danish immigration and asylum policies to situate the project in its regional European context and argues that, similarly to its neighbouring countries, Denmark can be described as a “postmigrant society” (Foroutan). To frame 100% FOREIGN? theoretically, this article draws on Arendt’s essay, Trinh T. Minh-ha’s concept of speaking nearby, as well as the feminist concept of transversal politics (Meskimmon, Yuval-Davis). It is hoped that this approach will lead to a deeper understanding of what participatory art can bring to the ethical politics of representing refugee experience.