The major predecessor to Ringen's and my own efforts to measure democratic quality in terms of the purpose of democracy is Robert Dahl's seminal book Polyarchy (1971). Measuring the quality of democracy requires two prior judgments: (1) making sure that, in terms of institutional characteristics, a country is sufficiently democratic, and that, as a minimum, it has universal suffrage, and (2) th...

background & aim: knowledge and attitude of the nurses and midwives towards hiv/aids patients could affect the quality of care provision. thus, this study aimed to determine the relationship between knowledge, attitude, and tendency of nurses and midwives towards caring for hiv/aids patients. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 303 nurses and midwives at healthcare centers, aff...

Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence are advanced to bolster the claim that direct political participation via referenda and initiatives constitutes an advanced form of democracy with beneficial effects on Transition Countries. Direct democracy raises trust and honesty and improves social outcomes. Per capita incomes and subjective well-being are raised. Standard arguments against direc...

nowadays democracy is considered to be one of the most important parameters of development in new era. as a result, the trend toward democratization of a society’s culture is an essential step to achieve a stable development. in that case, identifying the relationship between acceptability of democracy and socialcultural factors is very important. in this study, using the method of survey and q...

Deliberative democracy is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Consulting the public in a thoughtful and representative way can lead to consequential public policy outcomes that might otherwise have been difficult to achieve. However, some recent literature appears to treat deliberative democracy and alternative dispute resolution as rivals.! While there are differences in emphasis and in ...

In recent decades, many countries have adopted, to various degrees, the ideologies of commercial and republican liberalism. One salient aspect of the spread of commercial liberalism in the world has been the growth in international trade. The spread of republican liberalism has manifested itself by the rise in the level of democracy in countries over time. What are the implications of trade and...

The EU represents a new and complex political system which, according to numerous social scholars, suffers from the so-called democratic deficit. The basic argument behind this claim is that citizens lack control of the EU because, within its political system, national parliaments of member states possess only limited powers which have not been adequately compensated through steady empowerment ...

In practice, the most relevant question for direct democracy is not whether it could advantageously replace representative democracy, but whether it can be combined with it to improve political outcomes. We find that, by reallocating some political power to the population, direct democracy significantly affects the incentives, selection, and reelection prospects of politicians. When citizens ca...

This paper argues that energy democracy could manifest in terms of public engagement at the community level, free of state intervention, government fostering, and donor support, even in locations where governments have been in flux from a democracy to a non-democracy. In currently non-democratic Thailand, for example, public engagement on community energy transitions had occurred, were sustaine...