Course description. Democracy between Crisis and Transformation: Normative and Institutional Perspectives

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1 Central European University CEU Political Science Department MA Program Academic year 2018/2019 Winter semester Course description Democracy between Crisis and Transformation: Normative and Institutional Perspectives Lecturers: Nenad Dimitrijevic and Tamas Meszerics Contact: Meeting times: to be announced Office hours: to be announced Nenad Dimitrijevic: Tamas Meszerics: Type of course and number of credits: MA elective, 4 credits (8 ECTS) Teaching format: a lecture and seminar cover each topic Course overview The course departs from the insight that democracy is in crisis. The core aim of the course is twofold. First, we propose to explore the sources and different dimensions of the crisis. Second, we intend to examine whether the dynamics of the crisis contains the seeds of transformation. The crisis of democracy can be approached in many ways, by using different methodologies, theoretical frameworks, studying different subjects, or different dimensions of the same subject. This course concentrates on the relationship between the state-centered liberal democracy and processes of globalization. The approach is problem-focused: we will be identifying and exploring the focal points of change that the globalization brings to our standard understanding of democracy and statehood. We will ask what has happened with the normative foundations, legal order, institutional set up, political and social processes, and actors of modern democracies in this new constellation.

2 We will analyze different dimensions of the crisis. In normative terms, democracies appear incapable of affirming the core principles of political legitimacy. Institutionally, we can still identify equal citizens, democratic institutions, political organizations, and legal rules that shape politics. However, the formal quality of institutional architecture is becoming increasingly formalistic. Democracies fail ever more in performing their constitutionally defined tasks. Political actors look simultaneously all-powerful and powerless. Formal institutions, strong enough to ignore their citizens, are defenseless against intrusion of the social power. New stateless sources of law and power, established by poorly visible global actors, have been imposing their authority at the expense of both the state supremacy and international law. A parallel structure of invisible and uncontainable power has been formed behind the façade of official (domestic and international) politics. We will try to elucidate this process and its consequences. Methodologically, addressing these and related questions requires obtaining empirical knowledge, employing analytical approaches, and engaging with normative contestations. Description, analysis, and evaluation will be handled as parts of a complex methodical whole. This also implies that we will explore and assess our questions not simply by pointing to how things are - we will be critically reading different theoretical approaches that deal with our topics. The course consists of three parts. This structure is offered for analytical purposes only: it does not point to the separateness of the topics. Part one deals with basic conceptual clarifications, concentrating on the notions of democracy, crisis, and globalization. We first specify the working concept of democracy: its normative core, institutional setup, site, actors, and processes. We open the question of the relationship between political and social. Next, we summarize the general idea of crisis, and the concept of political crisis. Third, we identify multiple meanings of the term globalization, and settle for a conceptualization that will be used throughout the course. In the second part of the course, we turn to transformations. The withering away of supremacy of the modern state requires to revisit the question of where democracy is heading. Again, the question concerns normative underpinnings, institutional architecture, and social and political processes. We explore different theories and different practices, focusing on agents (individual and collective actors, both those in authority, and those who question the existing authoritative relations). Part three proceeds by exploring frameworks of transformation. We first turn to the EU, with the specific goal of examining the challenges to the core democratic concept of political representation. We proceed by analyzing the idea of global governance, and the approaches that support the idea of the return to the nation state. Finally, we return to the ideas of transformation of democracy, to see about the normative rightness and feasibility of some of the offered frameworks of change. Expected outcomes By the end of the course students will acquire an understanding of the key normative and institutional controversies surrounding contemporary democracy. They will also master the basic methods and concepts applied in discussions about these controversies. Approaches they will

3 learn include normative, institutional and empirical analyses, and their interplay. The concepts include democracy, crisis, globalization, political legitimacy, agonism, legal pluralism, global constitutionalism, and the like. The concepts, institutions, and processes will be studied at societal, legal, and political levels, with the goal of promoting the importance and understanding of interdisciplinarity. Special attention will be paid to the study of actors and their interplay with institutional frameworks. Course requirements and evaluation Each topic will be covered by a lecture and a seminar. One of you will be asked to prepare a short presentation for each seminar class, as the basis for a more concentrated discussion. Your presentation will take approx. 20 minutes, and it will be based on a short position paper (4-5 pages), that you will distribute electronically to all class participants and to us before 4 pm, on the day preceding the seminar class. Your presentation should contain a short critical evaluation of the topic and of the way it is presented in the assigned readings, as well as questions that you think need to be raised in the seminar discussion. Each class participant will contribute to the seminar preparation by sending 2-3 questions or comments. The same deadline applies. Classes are mandatory. In case of absence, you will need to provide written documentation of legitimate circumstances that prevented you from attending class. Legitimate circumstances include illness, serious family emergencies, and participation in activities sponsored by CEU. The same documentation is required in case you fail to submit your written assignment on time. Should you fail to provide required documentation, you will not receive credits for the course. You are expected to be familiar with the CEU policies on scholarly dishonesty. Questions and comments during lectures are welcome. Active participation in seminars is required. You are expected to come prepared for in-depth discussion of the topics and the required readings. The readings classified as optional are for your further consideration and reference you may find them particularly useful when preparing your presentation or final paper. The use of electronic devices (laptops, tablets, e-readers, phones, etc.) is not allowed. You should write an approx pages long (Times New Roman 12, double-spaced) final essay. The topic should be chosen - upon our approval - by March 10, We will discuss your proposals in closing class meeting. The final paper should be submitted by April 10, Grading will depend on the above presented features, in the following way: - 25% presentation - 15% questions and class participation - 15% review of optional readings on a topic different from that of the presentation - 45% final paper

4 Topics and literature [All the required readings will be available at the CEU e-learning site. For the suggested readings, please consult CEU library, electronic databases, or turn to the course lecturers.] Week 1 Concepts I: Democracy Mandatory reading One: Concepts and Diagnosis Tom Christiano, "Democracy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), at Joshua Cohen, Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy, in Philosophy and Democracy, ed. T. Christiano, (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002) Charles Beitz, Political Equality: An Essay on Democratic Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), Ch. 1 Gerry Mackie, Democracy Defended (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Ch Jon Elster, The Market and the Forum: Three Varieties of Political Theory, in Philosophy and Democracy, ed. T. Christiano, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (New York: Harper and Row 1956) Week 2 Concepts II: Crisis of democratic legitimacy Mandatory reading Brian Millstein, Thinking Politically about Crisis: A Pragmatist Perspective, European Journal of Political Theory, Vol. 14, No. 2, Claus Offe, Political Disaffection as an Outcome of Institutional Practices? Some Post-Tocquevillean Speculations, in Torcal, M. and J. R. Montero, Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democracies. Social Capital, Institutions, and Politics (London: Routledge, 2006) Poul Kjaer, The Function of Justification in Transnational Governance, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Discussion Paper, SP IV Wolfgang Streck, Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (Brooklyn: Verso, 2014)

5 Wendy Brown, We Are All Democrats Now, in A. Allen (ed.), Democracy in What State? New Directions in Critical Theory (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011) Reiner Forst and Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (eds.), Political Legitimacy and Democracy in Transnational Perspective (Oslo: Arena, 2011), available at Renate Mayntz, Legitimacy and Compliance in Transnational Governance, Max- Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln, Working Paper, No. 5, 2010 Reinhart Koselleck, Crisis, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 67, No. 2, 2006 Luigi Ferrajoli, The Crisis of Democracy in the Era of Globalization, Annales de la Catedra Francisco Suarez, 39, 2005 Jürgen Habermas, What Does a Crisis Mean Today? Legitimation Problems in Late Capitalism, Social Research, Vol. 40, No. 4, 1973 Week 3 Concepts III: State Democracy and Globalization Jan Aart Scholte, Globalization. A Critical Introduction, Chapter 2: Defining Globalization (Palgrave: Houndmills, 2005), Paul James and Manfred Steger, A Genealogy of Globalization : The Career of a Concept, Globalizations, Vol. 11, No. 4, Martti Koskenniemi, What Use for Sovereignty Today?, Asian Journal of International Law, No. 1, 2011 Petra Dobner, More Law, Less Democracy? Democracy and Transnational Constitutionalism, in P. Dobner and M. Loughlin (eds.), The Twilight of Constitutionalism? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp Paul Hirst et al, Globalization in Question (Cambridge: Polity, 2009) Ino Rossi (ed.), Frontiers of Globalization Research: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches (Springer: New York, 2007) Saskia Sassen, A Sociology of Globalization (W. W. Norton: New York, 2007) Gunther Teubner, The Anonymous Matrix. Human Rights Violations by Private Transnational Actors, The Modern Law Review, Vol. 69, No. 3, 2006 David Held et al, Debating Globalization (Cambridge: Polity, 2005) Roger King and David Kendall, The State, Democracy and Globalization (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2004) David Held, The Changing Contours of Political Community: Rethinking Democracy in the Context of Globalization, in B. Holden (ed.), Global Democracy. Key Debates (Routledge: London, 2000)

6 Ulrich Beck, What is Globalization? (Cambridge: Polity, 2000) Week 4 Case study of crisis and change: participation, membership, citizenship John S. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies Political Theory, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2005, pp Aletta J. Norval, Pictures of Democratic Engagement: Claim-Making, Citizenization and the Ethos of Democracy in On Global Citizenship: Dialogue with James Tully (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014) pp Sidney Verba, Democratic Participation, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 373, Social Goals and Indicators for American Society, Vol. 2, 1967, pp Melissa S. Williams and Stephen Macedo (eds.) Political Exclusion and Domination, Nomos XLVI (New York: NYU Press. 2005) Two: Agents and theories of transformation Week 5 Social Movements Charles Tilly, Afterword: Agendas for Students of Social Movements, in Jack Goldstone (ed.), States, Parties and Social Movements (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), Simon Fadaee and Seth Schindler, The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Vulnerability, Globalizations, Vol. 11, No. 6, Costas Douzinas, Radical Philosophy Encounters the Uprisings, in R. Celikates et al, (eds.), Transformations of Democracy: Crisis, Protest and Legitimation (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), pp Andrew Conio (ed.), Occupy. A People yet to Come (London: Open Humanity Press, 2015) Maria Rosaria Marella, The Constituent Assembly of the Commons, 2014, at Ugo Mattei, Protecting the Commons: Water, Culture, and Nature: The Commons Movement in the Italian Struggle against Neoliberal Governance, The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 112, no. 1, 2013

7 Teatro Valle occupato. English Version, at Donatella della Porta, Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, Deliberation and Social Movements (Cambridge: Polity, 2013) Emilio Castaneda, The Indignados of Spain: A Precedent to Occupy Wall Street, Social Movement Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3-4, 2012 Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, Declaration, 2012, p. 13, at Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011) Charles Tilly, Social Movements and (All Sorts of) Other Political Interactions Local, National, and International Including Identities, Theory and Society, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1998 Week 6 Critical theories: Agonism Yamamoto, K. (2011) Beyond the Dichotomy of Agonism and Deliberation: The Impasse of Contemporary Democratic Theory, article downloaded from u.ac.jp/tagen/tagenbunka/vol11/13.pdf Chantal Mouffe, Agonistic Democracy and Radical Politics Pavilion, 29 December ( Mark Wenman, Agonistic Democracy: Constituent Power in the Era of Globalisation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015) Chantal Mouffe, Society Is always Divided (Interview) Digital Development Debates, Issue 14, March ( -introduction--society-is-always-divided.html) Chantal Mouffe, Agonistics: Thinking The World Politically (London New York: Verso, 2013) Morton Schoolman, A Pluralist Mind: Agonistic Respect and the Problem of Violence Toward Difference, in The New Pluralism: William Connolly and the Contemporary Global Condition (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008) James Tully, The Agonic of Freedom, Economy and Society, Vol.28, No.2, Week 7 Global constitutionalism vs. societal constitutionalism

8 Jan-Werner Müller, Three Constitutionalist Responses to Globalization, in J. Tulis and S. Macedo (eds.), The Limits of Constitutional Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), pp Gunther Teubner, Constitutionalizing Polycontexturality, Social and Legal Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2, Gunther Teubner, Constitutional Fragments, Societal Constitutionalism and Globalization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) Poul Kjaer, Constitutionalism in the Global Realm. A Sociological Approach (London: Routledge, 2014) Michel Rosenfeld, Is Global Constitutionalism Meaningful or Desirable?, The European Journal of International Law, Vol. 25 no. 1, 2014 Martin Loughlin, Constitutional Pluralism: An Oxymoron?, Global Constitutionalism, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2014 Mattias Kumm, The Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Between Constitutional Triumphalism and Nostalgia, in P. Dobner and M. Loughlin (eds.), The Twilight of Constitutionalism? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp Martti Koskenniemi, Constitutionalism as Mindset: Reflections on Kantian Themes about International Law and Globalization, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2006 Week 8 Global governance Mandatory reading Three: Frameworks of Transformation Jan Aart Scholte, Global Governance, Accountability and Civil Society, in J. A Scholte (ed.), Building Global Democracy? Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), David Held, Elements of a Theory of Global Governance, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 42, No. 9, 2016 Robert Keohane, Nominal Democracy? Prospects for Democratic Global Governance, ICON S Working Paper Conference Proceedings Series 1, no. 4/2015. Magdalena Bexell, Global Governance, Legitimacy and (De)Legitimation, Globalizations, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2014 Graine de Burca et al, New Modes of Pluralist Global Governance, IILJ Working Paper 2013/1, Global Administrative Law Series

9 Jürgen Habermas, Spectacle of a Capitalistic World Society Fragmented Along National Lines at Arthur Benz and Yannis Papadopoulos (eds.), Governance and Democracy. Comparing National, European and International Experiences (London: Routledge, 2006) David Held, Global Covenant. The Social Democratic Alternative to the Washington Consensus (Cambridge: Polity, 2004) Week 9 The case study of the EU: Political Representation John Erik Fossum, The Structure of EU Representation and the Crisis in Sandra Kröger (ed.) Political Representation in the European Union (London and New York: Routledge, 2014), pp Daniel Naurin, Representation in the Councils of the EU in Sandra Kröger (ed.) Political Representation in the European Union (London and New York: Routledge, 2014), pp David Judge David Earnshow, The European Parliament (Second revised ed.) (Basingstoke. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2008), Ch Jürgen Habermas, The Crisis of the European Union A Response (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012) Michael Saward, The Representative Claim (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) Hanna F. Pitkin, The Concept of Representation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967) Week 10 Back to the nation state? Mandatory reading Paul Hirst, Grahame Thompson and Simon Bromley, Globalization, Governance, and the Nation-State, Ch. 8 of Globalization in Question (Cambridge: Polity, 2009), pp William Scheuerman, Postnational Democracies Without Postnational States? Some Skeptical Reflections, in Rainer Forst and Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (eds), Political Legitimacy and Democracy in Transnational Perspective (Oslo: Arena, 2011), available at Mathias Risse, What to Say About the State?, Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2006

10 Saskia Sassen, Losing Control? Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995) Week 11 An Agenda for a Different Democracy Mandatory reading Jan Aart Scholte, Reconstructing Contemporary Democracy, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2008 Philippe Schmitter, Crisis and Transition, But not Decline, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015 Alessandro Ferrara, Judging Democracy in the 21st Century: Crisis or Transformation?, NoFo, 10/2013, at Colin Crouch, Post-Democracy (Cambridge: Polity, 2004) Week 12 Discussing final paper proposals