In Western democracies, people harbor feelings of disgust or hatred for politics. Populists and technocrats even seemingly question the value of politics. Populists cry that they are not politicians and that politics is necessarily corrupt. From the opposite side, technocrats view politics as a pointless constraint on enacting the obviously right policies. Are Western democracies facing a rejection of politics? And is politics worth defending? This paper offers a vindicatory genealogy of politics, vindicating the need human beings have for this (...) practice and clarifying the extent of its contemporary rejections. To achieve these contributions, the paper connects the literatures on pragmatic genealogy and on political realism, revealing how they can complement each other. Following pragmatic genealogy, the practice of politics is vindicated, because it meets an inevitable functional need for collectively binding decision‐making. However, and importantly, political realism allows us to see that the functional mechanisms through which politics fulfills this need vary contextually and thus require careful empirical scrutiny. The paper thus dispels confusion about seeming rejections of politics by clarifying what is unavoidable, and what is revisable about politics. (shrink)

This article is a product of research about global public policies. In this is proposes an ethical basis of international cooperation as a GPP capable of providing public world goods of the international system. Through an analysis of the recent theoretical framework of IC it is concluded that such theories, even those that do not declare it explicitly, are based on Kantian cosmopolitan ethics. Even those theories that are based on the hobbesian premise of natural anarchy in state of war. (...) In this article also is suggests the urgency of an international governance system with a GPP focused in cooperation and capable to providing the world's supreme public good: The peace with human security. (shrink)

(1996). Local politics and international relations: The case of the relations between Württemberg and Japan. The European Legacy: Vol. 1, Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the study of European Ideas, pp. 778-781.

This article argues for a new interpretation of the realist claim that politics is autonomous from morality and involves specific political values. First, this article defends an original normative source: functional normativity. Second, it advocates a substantive functional standard: political institutions ought to be assessed by their capacity to select and implement collective decisions. Drawing from the ‘etiological account’ in philosophy of biology, I will argue that functions yield normative standards, which are independent from morality. For example, a ‘good heart’ (...) is one that pumps blood well, and a good army is one that it is effective at exerting military force. I then interpret realism’s naturalistic conception of politics as an etiological function of social groups: namely making binding collective decisions under persistent disagreement. I conclude that political institutions should be evaluated realistically by how well they perform this task. Finally, I assess trade-offs between this functional political normativity and other moral values. I conclude that justice, fairness, freedom and equality remain obviously important concerns, but only once the basic political function is secured. (shrink)

Words and phrases must be interpreted within the proper cultural and contemporary political and historical context. In particular, the language of politics is distinguished by the use of specific terms and phrases which often allude to other associated meanings. This means that caution must be exercised when interpreting the terms used not only within the context of the other language, but often also within its own linguistic context. The translator or commentator has to be familiar with the language code used (...) in the given environment and within the cultural biases of that particular society so that meanings are not lost and the often crucial connotations are not misinterpreted. Political rhetoric often employs words and language in a manipulative yet frequently subtle manner. This paper analyzes examples of shifts in language code by looking at a number of cases in Japan and their cultural construction where loss of integrity and backstage practices are at stake. (shrink)

(1996). Democratic systems and disequilibrium. World Futures: Vol. 47, Unity and Diversity in Contemporary Systems Tinking: Systematic Pictures at an Exhibition, pp. 5-14.

This article argues for a new interpretation of the realist claim that politics is autonomous from morality and involves specific political values. First, this article defends an original normative...

In a democratic system it is essential to have a competitive, and a tolerant party system, but Bangladesh has experienced an intolerant and a confrontational party system that has created a deadlock and brought uncertainty to the whole country. Since 1990, except 2014, Bangladesh has witnessed four systematic peaceful free elections, one each--in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2008. On January 5, 2014, however, a controversial election took place in which major opposition political parties did not participate except the ruling alliance (...) parties. The two dominant parties—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League —each won two previous free and fair elections, with the BNP winning in1991, and a BNP-led 4-party coalition in 2001, and the AL in 1996, and an AL-led 14 party alliance in 2008. However, from 2014 Bangladesh is heading towards an authoritarian system. All these are happening due to the lack of good governance. This article intends to emphasize that the political culture emanating from the party politics is retarding good governance in Bangladesh. This article argues that the cultural traits developed in the last four decades in various dimensions,, particularly in more recent years, have worked as an “earth-worm” in the fabrics of democracy in Bangladesh preventing ‘good governance’. (shrink)

Introduction: Is soft power effective? Justice institutions have become a key topic in the international scientific and institutional agendas some decades ago, for different, and still interdependent reasons: the waves of democratizations (Pridham 2000), the increasing power of the judicial branch (Russell and O Brian 2001; Stone Sweet 2002), the transnationalisation of the processes of law making and law enforcement (Allard and Garapon 2005), the increasing demand for justice, dispute resolution, and rights enforcement (Epp 1998; OECD 2014, 2015). Despite the (...) vast literature focusing on these phenomena, very little has been said on the impact that the recent development of the quality of justice mainstream (Fabri et al. 2005; Piana 2010) has on the relationship between the judicial and the executive branch. Notoriously, this relationship is one of the key dimensions for a constitutional democracy. (shrink)