Indirect Militant Democracy
In June 2023, the AfD won the district administration of Sonneberg. Between the first round and the runoff, the AfD’s vote share rose from 46.7 to 52.8 per cent, a gain of 6.1 percentage points. Its CDU opponent went from 35.7 to 47.2 per cent, gaining 11.5 points. The AfD won, but its eleven-point lead almost halved. Requiring it to compete for support beyond its initial electorate made victory harder. The episode recommends a form of indirect militant democracy: electoral rules that make limited appeal beyond a party’s committed supporters a disadvantage. Continue reading >>Facing Up: Impact-Motivated Research Endangers not only Truth, but also Justice
All (but one) responses to my reflections on the ethics of activism as scholars in this blog symposium have been thoughtful, engaged, and charitable. For them, I am very grateful. If my rule-consequentialist worries have any truth to them, we should worry more rather than less about having the relevant motivation I castigate. When the moral stakes are higher (such as in vast areas of the Global South), one has to be even more careful about not making moral mistakes. The debate is not about whether one should be moral (by definition, we should be). It is about what is the most effective means in which the constitutional studies academy can contribute to a more just world.
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