Critical Reading: Conceptualizing Democracy

Collectives, decision-making, exercise of power

Exercise of formal state power

Top-down

<p>Substantive justice claims relating to social, economic, and cultural goods</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Heidi Brooks, Trevor Ngwane, Carin Runciman</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Study of social change from below</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Socially just and democratic societies</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Healthcare, education, housing, water, clean air</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Just, sustainable, democratic, and free</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They are vastly more difficult to achieve and sustain than other systems like capitalism combined with liberalism, plutocracy, or authoritarianism.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The deliberate construction of a democratic culture alongside laws and institutions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Because it has never come naturally.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Certain substantive concerns</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Political will and economic modeling</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Deliberate construction of a democratic culture alongside laws and institutions</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Their achievement and sustainability are vastly more difficult than other systems like capitalism combined with liberalism, plutocracy, or authoritarianism.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Examines conceptions of democracy in post-apartheid South Africa from perspective of ordinary people and how these conceptions are influenced by grassroots mobilization in community protests.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>There exists a crisis of meaning and content as far as democracy is concerned.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>By seeking to 'de-centre' normative understandings of democracy often constructed on the basis of Western histories.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It is important to relate understandings of democracy to lived experiences of struggle for democracy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They are influenced in community protests.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Tensions between grassroots understandings and visions of democracy and those of elites, particularly the governing African National Congress (ANC).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A substantive crisis of democracy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Alternative imaginations of democracy 'from below'.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Democracy is conceptualized as related to civil and political rights, socioeconomic freedoms, and collective decision-making.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Freedom is described as a reclaimed and decolonized meaning, in contrast to the post-apartheid neoliberal reality.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The ongoing fight is against inequality and for the attainment of socio-economic goods and rights.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Democracy from below represents a reclaimed and decolonized meaning of freedom, while post-apartheid neoliberal reality is described as a thin form of freedom.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The individual feels that democracy has not benefited them, as they are still struggling for basic needs like decent housing, sanitation, and education.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The individual mentions better housing, elimination of the bucket system, improved infrastructure like roads, and access to quality education as goods that should be available in a democracy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The individual describes living with their family in two rooms, despite the struggle for better conditions in a democratic society.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The individual expresses skepticism and disbelief in the existence of democracy, highlighting the persistent struggles faced despite the notion of democracy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Continuous engagement in shaping our shared life together</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Political equality</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>By pursuing a balance between global and local concerns</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Each required element must be intentionally crafted, supported, protected, and renewed</p> Signup and view all the answers