Projects / Programmes
The role of knowledge about the Ancient democracy in the development of the citizens' awareness of direct democracy on the lower level of political activities of the citizens - community, associations, neighbourhood/street, house.
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.06.00 |
Humanities |
Culturology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H210 |
Humanities |
Ancient history |
| S270 |
Social sciences |
Pedagogy and didactics |
Ancient democracy, direct democracy, citizen's identity, election by sort
Researchers (2)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
14323 |
PhD Svetlana Slapšak |
Humanities |
Head |
2004 - 2007 |
806 |
| 2. |
25042 |
PhD Maja Sunčič |
Anthropology |
Researcher |
2005 - 2007 |
220 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Some forms of Ancient democracy, for instance choice by sort for a limited time (usually one year) in Ancient Athens (local level for all citizens) and in Ancient Rome (among candidates of the same rank) are not enough known in the contemporary humanities or social sciences, and present an object of research only in their own, specific subfields in the disciplines of Ancient studies, or anthropology of Ancient worlds. The interdisciplinary linking of the social sciences and the anthropology of Ancient worlds opens a possibility to widen up the cooperation at the intersection of the disciplines, especially of the anthropology of Ancient worlds and paedagogy in view of common research and applying its results in the practices of democracy and the role of knowledge in these practices. With the planned reserach we want to show how new knowledge of possibilities of direct democracy in the past can change citizens' concepts and notions on the right of vote, represential (indirect) democracy, and the possibilites of the citizens who are not polititians, to cooperate in forming a social and political environment for themselves. The principle of the arbitrary election (election by sort) changes, for instance, the stereotype on "quality" of the acting polititians ("electing the best"), and puts the responisiblity of the individual-citizen toward the collective or part of the collective that elected him/her for a certain function to the focus. The knowledge of the pitfalls of the Ancient democracy (like the exclusion of women, slaves and foreigners) introduces an additional critical insight. The European democratic tradition, which continuously evokes the "ideals" of the Ancient democracy, also shows some traces of direct democracy in specific historic contexts: one of the goals of our research is to reevaluate these traces and to place them comparatively into the models of democratic discourse today. The Slovenian history too is familiar with some forms of practices of direct democracy. The aim of the research is certainly not to construct a historic continuity of the direct democracy, but to map realistic dimensions of the notion of direct democracy, the relation between the knowledge and the prevailing, often stereotyped concepts of democracy. Researches of the public opinion in Slovenia have shown that the majority of citizens do not share common and accessible to all concepts of democracy, and are not convinced that the democracy is the best way to solve their problems and life's difficulties. Therefore the planned research on the relation of the spreading of knowledge with direct democracy and commonly recognized concepts of democracy should strive to analyze models of generation of concepts (origins, versions, translations, reception) and at the same time to orient toward the forming of new concepts and new discourses on democracy. This kind of research should stimulate new practices of direct democracy. Part of the project demands for a re-conceptualization of the popularization of sciences, especially of the humanities and social sciences, and stumulates creation of new forms of direct democracy. Direct democracy is certainly an object of research today, but the linking of the Ancient democracy and the modern democracies' possibilities of direct deciding and acting is not; this is an immediate consequence of a marginalized position of the disciplines which deal with Ancient worlds as well as of the idealization of the Ancient democracy in the political discourse of the EU. Therefore, one of the aims of this research will be to change the existing maps of the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, especially anthropology of Ancient world and paedagogy; and their re-actualization in the analysis of the contemporqry discourses on democracy.
