Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

From Plotke’s reflection on contemporary democratic theory we
follow to Maria João Cabrita who offers a Rawlsian approach to global
international democracy in The designs of global international democracy
in the rawlsian realistic utopia.
From these reflections we follow to considerations of democracy
and hope, reflecting Laclau and Mouffe’s work. Thomas Decreus is
the author of Democracy, Hope and Nihilism: On the concept of hope in the
work of Laclau and Mouffe. Marco Walter presents Designing the Public
Realm - a Prerequisite for Democratic Innovation.
The third section of this book is concerned with Democracy in
Context. From the theoretical analysis and conceptual reflection we now
enter the stage where democracy is analyzed from an actual, concrete
and local perspective. Opening this section is Lawrence Hamilton
with a sharp article entitled Freedom, Power and Representation: Group
Freedom and Democracy in South Africa. Heidi Matissonn continues the
discussion of democracy in South Africa looking at the relationship
between democracy and participation in Democratic Compromise or
Compromising Democracy: Rethinking Participation. Gerhard Wolmarans
offers Contrasting understandings of ‘democracy’ in South Africa. A descriptive
and theoretical analysis , and Roseline M. Achieng’ introduces a
more sociological approach to the debate with Young African Women
engage the Public Sphere: a Continued Disregarded Voice.
From South Africa we follow to another type of debate with
Federalism, Direct Democracy and the Quality of Public Deliberation:the
GMO Debate, by José Luis Egío. Joan Martinez presents Democracia
Global, identidad y responsabilidad cívica de la ciudadanía. Diálogos entre
Seyla Benhabib, el liberalismo comunitario y el federalismo integral del siglo
XX while Iurii Mielkov and Anatoliy Tolstoukhov account for the
Development of Today’s Democracy: People, Power, and Human Personality.
We conclude this volume with Emanuele Bottazzi’s original reflection
on State of Exception and Impasse Dynamics.
We hope that this book will offer to the reader a glimpse of the
many dimensions of the democratic debate, its nuances and conceptual
tensions, its dilemmas and practical (im)possibilities, its promises and
actual fulfillments.
As organizer of the event I am grateful to David Plotke and Lawrence
Hamilton for accepting the invitation and challenge to be part of this
9
INTRODUCTION
Marta Nunes da Costa