This article examines how online political groups are co-opting internet technology from commercial interests to amplify various cooperative processes. After formulating a framework for praxis-based democratic theories of technology, I select four internet-based groups as institutional exemplars for analysis: Democratic Underground, Free Republic, Indymedia, and Move On.These groups implement d...

Eleven new species of Cheiracanthium, C. boendense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo), C. falcis sp. nov. (Gabon), C. foordi sp. nov. (South Africa), C. ghanaense sp. nov. (Ghana), C. kabalense sp. nov. (Uganda), C. kakamega sp. nov. (Kenya), C. kakumense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana), C. lukiense sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of Congo), C. mayombense sp. nov....

Structurally orientated sociologists tend to neglect the dynamical aspects of social systems, whereas theorists of social systems emphasize systems dynamics but only rarely analyze structural features of their domains. The aim of this paper is to integrate dynamical and structural approaches by means of the analysis of particular artificial systems, namely logical or Boolean networks, and their...

Abstract The main aim of the paper is to analyse T. G Masaryk’s ideas about importance education in democratic systems. In particular, study analyses that Masaryk associates directly or indirectly with nature democracy improvement system through changes system. first part traces basic aspects systems his work immediately condition and role second reproduction national values, arts humanities fo...

ples includes the right to a state of their own. However, the foundation of a state does not increase the freedom of a people. The system of the United Nations that is based on nation-states has remained inefficient. Meanwhile, nation-states have become serious obstacles for any social development. Democratic confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people. Democratic confeder...

1 Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, 2 University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 3 Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals & University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 4 Programme National de Lutte contre la Trypanosomiase Humaine Africaine, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 Médecins Sans Frontières Access...

This study investigates the effects of electoral systems on ethnic fractionalization in democratic states. The paper addresses the following two questions: (1) does a country’s electoral system have an effect on its level of ethnic fractionalization; and (2) if there is such a relationship, is this effect uniform across all electoral systems or do certain electoral systems effect levels of ethn...

In every society in many arenas, the reality of collective decision making falls far short of the democratic ideal in countless ways. These shortfalls include disenfranchisement, unequal influence operating through formal and informal mechanisms, political apathy and alienation, misinformation, and misperception. Part of the solutions to these challenges lies in a sound democratic constitution....

I BEGIN WITH A QUANDARY that is very familiar to Martin Ostwald: Classical Athens saw the invention of both democracy and political theory, yet while we have a number of examples of criticism of democracy, no systematic defense of democracy-no democratic theory-survives from an Athenian pen. I propose that the conundrum is best explained by assuming that from the late fifth through the late fou...

Discussion of the democratic strengths or, more usually, weaknesses of the EU tends to focus on the degree of democracy that is available or possible at the EU level. Such thinking reflects a certain neo-functionalist logic that has governed much scholarly writing about the relationship between EU integration and democracy. It assumes that enhanced competences for EU institutions potentially cr...