One of the major conflicts between the principles of democratic politics and the practical reality of expertise in public decision making takes place in connection with responsibility. The basic principles of democracy include some notion of political responsibility, usually understood to take a bi-directional form, in which the relation between ruler and ruled takes the form of representation ...

One of the common features of Persian Gulf countries is the same historical destiny, which comes from colonization, religion, tradition and the common culture, which have influenced the political structures of these countries. To this end, in the recent decades, lack of democracy in this region is highly considered by the thinkers. With development of international communications, some of these...

This comparative study of young adults in an established democracy (America) and transitional democracy (Hong Kong) analyzed the impact of political efficacy on the relationship between Internet/Facebook use on political and civic participation. Regression analyses in both samples showed that Facebook use consistently predicted both types of participation. Moreover, there were significant negat...

This paper is about the notion of conflict in the work of John Dewey. Special attention is given to Democracy and Education (1916) because of its centennial and its acclaimed status of “magnum opus”. After depicting “conflicts as gadflies” that stir thinking—reflection and ingenuity—and relating it to Socrates, in particular, we present a definition of conflict that guides our research. From th...

Democracy originated in Greece and has been an ideal way of citizenry coexistence for centuries. History tellers say that Athens, the world’s first democracy, was an extremely high performing organization due to the high level of commitment and engagement of the people. The three pillars of democracy (representation, participation, and deliberation) were then feasible. When a population grows i...

Violent political conflicts dominate in the global mass media sending almost every day. It is a matter of the new terrorist related conflicts that have become so conspicuous in the 21st century. How are we to understand the new pattern of political conflicts involving the massive and indiscriminate employment of terrorist attacks? To reply to this question, one may contrast the new pattern of f...

The ancient Greek world was much troubled and influenced by politics. While other peoples settled to a single form of government, the Greeks were strungling between monarchy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny; and while other peoples were forming empires, the Greek cities usually preferred independence, in the form of a polis, a city-state, and other times preferred to (or were forced to) join s...

My dissertation lies primarily in the area of normative political philosophy, yet draws from sources as diverse as economics (the desiderata of social choice), moral philosophy (fairness in choosing between groups of people), and ancient history (use of lotteries in Athenian democracy) to challenge the widespread acceptance of majority rule. I argue that democracy is legitimate as a solution to...