26. What are the major threats to democracy in modern society?

Threats to Democracy

If there is one overriding truth about democracy, it is that it is precious but vulnerable. The twentieth century shows that the enemies of democracy are as numerous as they are threatening. The greatest threat to democracy does not always come from the barrel of a gun, but from the collected effects of poverty, apathy, and economic insecurity. Another obstacle to democracy is that the value of its name often exceeds the principles of its practice. The past century demonstrated that the banner of democracy was used to sustain just about any system. Democracy does not include oppression, corruption, division, segregation, terror and murder. A genuinely democratic nation thrives on diversity and difference, through which it builds on its collective wisdom and strengths. We must now forge a new trail in the twenty-first century where the merits of democracy are not in its name alone, but in its non-negotiable, irrefutable truths.

27. Why has feminism grown in significance? Does it have the potential to displace conventional political creeds?

Feminism

Though feminist aspirations have been expressed for a long time, dating back to ancient China, they have not been developed into a precise political theory until the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft‟s A Vindication of the Rights of Women ([1759-1797]). Feminists ideas reached a wider audience after the emergence of the women‟s suffrage (the right to vote or the freedom to exercise that right) movement in the 1840s and 1850s. This was the period called the “First Wave” Feminism. In the 1960s a new radical women‟s movement emerged. This is the period called “Second Wave Feminism” spearheaded by the Women‟s Liberation Movement (WLM). It was both radical and revolutionary. Though feminist theories are diverse, the unifying feature or common denominator is a common desire to enhance, through whatever means, the social role of women. This is premised on the understanding that;

 Society is characterized by sexual or gender inequality

 The structure of male power and dominance can and should be overturned.

There are three contrasting feminist traditions; o Liberal feminists (Wollstonecraft and Betty Friedan) understand female subordination in terms of unequal distribution of rights and opportunities in society. This “equal rights feminism” is essentially reformist agitating for the reform of the public sphere, enhancing the legal and political status of women, improving their education and career prospects, but less concerned with the reordering of “private” or domestic life.o Socialist feminists highlight the links between female subordination and the capitalist mode of production. That women are confined to a family or domestic life where they relieve male workers of the burden of domestic labour, rear and help educate the next generation of capitalist workers, and act as a reserve army of labour.

28. Essence and subject of Politics.

In modern literature there are several approaches to explaining the nature and purpose of the policy. We distinguish basic.

Prescriptive approach. The essence of politics is seen in power relations, which are treated as a relationship of domination - of subordination between the governors and the governed (control impose their will controlled). Policy is understood as a relationship over the government, organization, distribution, as activity on the management and administration of public processes through mechanisms of power. Weber, a proponent of such an understanding, thought: who is engaged in politics, one way or another, striving for power.

This approach, which reduces the policy only to relations over state power - is narrow. Authority has not only the state, but also the party, the media, etc. In addition, it disappears social sense, social policy purpose.

The functional approach. The essence of politics is reduced to the technology of political interactions. The emphasis is on who and how to make political decisions, as the activities to manage the company. Yet Plato suggested that the rule should be wise. Today, policy-makers are the political elite and the political leaders who have expertise for policy-making, implementation of regulatory and integrative functions. When the elite incompetent politician loses its function of cohesion and public administration. This approach, of course, contains a rational point in identifying the essential in politics, but it also may not be comprehensive.

The communicative approach. Includes two directions. In the first policy is understood as a social ethics, the purpose of which - not the good of the individual and the common good (the people of the state). The main purpose of the policy is seen in the provision of social cohesion through the coordination, harmonization of interests. Basics such an understanding of politics as the sphere of integration of society laid by Aristotle. The current policy indicates that it is more related to the scope of the must desired in politics than to actual political reality. The second, called Conflict Management, directions of policy is understood as the sphere of struggle, the sphere of domination and subordination of one group by others. The tradition of this interpretation comes from Machiavelli, but it is most clearly represented in the Marxist doctrine, where politics is seen as the scope of the class struggle. Today conflictological direction in interpreting the policy develop an American sociologist Neil Smelser, a German political scientist Ralf Dahrendorf, etc.

Thus, the essence of the policy may be disclosed in three inter-related and complementary definitions.

Politics - an activity aimed primarily at achieving, retention, development and implementation of the government.

Politics - the art of governance, the activities of the elites and leaders on leadership and management processes of social development with the help of government institutions.

Policy - a way of organizing social life, based on the integration of diverse interests, not excluding the conflict, and assuming their skilful resolution.

Policies can not be imagined without its subjects and objects. Subject of politics (from the Latin. Subjectum - subject) - the person or collegial body who are involved in political activities, and acts freely and independently. Political scientists identify several types of political actors: a) direct political actors: the state, parties, social organizations and movements, leaders, and b) a large social groups and communities: class, class, interclass and intraclass groups, c) group, concentrating in their hands power base, its leverage: the political elite and bureaucracy - the intermediary between the elite and the rest of society. Policy object (from the Latin. Objectum - subject) - what the activity is directed subject: political power, political system, structure and functioning of the state, the political process, political decisions, and so on. Subject and object of policy exist independently, but must be seen as one. They - the phenomenon and the relative roles may change when the direction of impact: the subject becomes an object, the object becomes the subject. For example, the state may be subject and object of policy. Similarly - and social groups, and people in general.

Depending on the degree of consciousness there are three types of political participation of subjects:

- Spontaneous participation (unconscious) - the subject is not free in his actions, he can only take effect from the side, not excluding coercion,

- Semi-conscious participation - the subject of partially understands the political action, and yet not entirely independent in its choice - conscious participation - the subject is free, understands his position and role, competently participate in political activities.