| 1. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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A Dogma of Democratic Theory and Globalization: Why Politics Need not Include Everyone it Affects
- 2006
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Ingår i: European Journal of International Relations. - : SAGE Publications. - 1354-0661 .- 1460-3713. ; 12:3, s. 433-458
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines and questions a principle in democratic theory which has become particularly fashionable in analyses of globalization and European integration, namely that everyone affected by a decision should be able to participate in making it. It is found that this principle is too strong to fit with the meaning of democracy, leads to tautological arguments, is indeterminate in politically important cases and, if its indeterminacy is rectified, fails to support ideas of political equality and accountability. Removing this principle from the concept of democracy implies, among other things, that empirical analysis becomes more significant, indeed necessary, for assessment of effects of globalization on democracy. Parallel to the development of critical arguments is the defence of a theoretical alternative according to which the delimitation of democratic communities should be decided on the grounds of what effect it produces in terms of autonomy for everyone, those included as well as those excluded.
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| 2. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptive Democracy in Times of Crisis : Lessons From Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Democracy under Pressure. - Cham : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9783031091223 - 9783031091230 ; , s. 343-365
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter traces democracy in Sweden during the past decade and looks at factors that might conceivably make this democracy more vulnerable in the future. It assesses stability and change in Swedish democracy at the level of central institutions and the party system in view of the emergence of the right-wing anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party and the challenges this poses for Swedish political parties in general. In particular, the challenge of remaining representative in the face of competition by parties considered to be anti-democratic and developing workable interaction by crafting new political alliances. The chapter then goes on to assess Swedish democracy in the wider context of globalisation, digitalisation, increasing global inequality and the individualisation of political cultures, factors commonly explaining the backsliding of democracy by asking why Sweden, despite being highly sometimes uniquely exposed to these processes, does not show signs of weakening of its democracy.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Democracy beyond the state in the age of cities : explaining crisis dynamics in national democracy
- 2023
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Ingår i: The Crisis of Democracy in the Age of Cities. - Cheltenham/Northampton : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781803923048 - 9781803923055 ; , s. 246-266
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The age of cities is an unexplored factor in democratic research. What may it reveal about democracy that we did not know before? What new approaches to explain or manage crises of democracy may it suggest? This chapter argues that explanations of democracy in an age of cities should take into consideration how democracy extends beyond individual states. Democracy beyond the state refers to a democracy constituted by the people of more than one state, e.g. all human beings, or by people whose politics is significantly independent of their individual state for other reasons, e.g. because they inhabit a powerful city. Originally constructed to explain outcomes of international politics, the concept of democracy beyond the state holds a unique capacity to register how democracy is transformed in the age of cities. Both concepts describe structures at a global level of analysis, including all humans in single descriptions of their political rule (varying levels of democracy) and their life place (spread variously across cities and the country). This chapter thus offers a conceptualization of democracy that supports a full engagement with the age of cities in democratic research. As a preliminary proof of concept, the chapter also provides an original and parsimonious explanation of today’s crisis of democracy, as observable in democratic backsliding within many countries across the world.
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| 5. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Democracy Reconsidered : Britain, France, Sweden, and the EU
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether some positions in democratic theory should be adjusted or abandoned in view of internationalisation; and if adjusted, how. More specifically it pursues three different aims: to evaluate various attempts to explain levels of democracy as consequences of internationalisation; to investigate whether the taking into account of internationalisation reveals any reason to reconsider what democracy is or means; and to suggest normative interpretations that cohere with the adjustments of conceptual and explanatory democratic theory made in the course of meeting the other two aims.When empirical methods are used, the scope of the study is restricted to West European parliamentary democracies and their international affairs. More particularly, the focus is on the making of budget policy in Britain, France, and Sweden after the Second World War, and recent budget policy in the European Union. The aspects of democracy empirically analysed are political autonomy, participation, and deliberation. The material considered includes parliamentary debates, official statistics, economic forecasts, elections manifestos, shadow budgets, general election turnouts, regulations of budget decision-making, and staff numbers in government and parliament budgetary divisions. The study reaches the following conclusions among others. (i) The fact that internationalisation increases the divergence between those who make and those who are affected by decisions is not by itself a democratic problem that calls for political reform. (ii) That international organisations may have authorities delegated to them from democratic states is not sufficient to justify them democratically. Democratisation still needs to be undertaken. (iii) The fear that internationalisation dissolves a social trust necessary for political deliberation within nations seems to be unwarranted. If anything, views argued by others in domestic budgetary debate are taken increasingly serious during internationalisation. (iv) The major difficulty with deliberation seems to be its inability to transcend national boundaries. International deliberation at state level has not evolved in response to internationalisation and it is undeveloped in international institutions. (v) Democratic political autonomy diminishes during internationalisation with regard to income redistribution and policy areas taken over by international organisations, but it seems to increase in public spending. (vi) In the area of budget policy-making there are no signs that governments gain power at the expense of parliaments during internationalisation. (vii) To identify crucial democratic issues in a time of internationalisation and to make room for theoretical virtues like general applicability and normative fruitfulness, democracy may be defined as a kind of politics where as many as possible decide as much as possible.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Democratism : Towards an explanatory approach to international politics
- 2018
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Ingår i: Review of International Studies. - 0260-2105 .- 1469-9044. ; 44:3, s. 547-569
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- International politics has often been viewed as a brutal place where might trumps right and where, as a consequence, questions of democracy are irrelevant to ask. In the last decades, however, scholars and political leaders have increasingly suggested that elements of democracy exist in governance beyond individual states. If this is so, how does democracy beyond the state shape international politics? This article suggests conceptual preliminaries for theorising consequences of democracy beyond the state in general and their implications for problems of peace and conflict in particular. The purpose is twofold: first, to begin reconstructing existing normative democratic theory into an explanatory perspective sensitive to international politics; second, to indicate how this new perspective is able to explain empirical observations pertaining to conflict and cooperation among states; international institutions; foreign policies; human rights protection; and the violence of transnational terrorist networks.
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| 8. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Democratism : Explaining International Politics with Democracy Beyond the State
- 2022
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- This insightful and timely book introduces an explanatory theory for surveying global and international politics. Describing the nature and effects of democracy beyond the state, Hans Agné explores peace andconflict, migration politics, resource distribution, regime effectiveness, foreign policy and posthuman politics throughthe lens of democratism to both supplement and challenge established research paradigms.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Disagreement between humans and AI : A political approach to existential risk
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper introduces and elaborates on a distinctively political approach to study and manage existential risks with artificial intelligence (AI). In contrast to research in ethics, economics, and computer science, a political approach to interactions between AI and humans emphasizes the possibility and effects of persisting disagreements. The paper introduces issues of how humans and AI exercise power while neither side is able to control, or enslave, the other (1); how persisting disagreements between humans and AI may induce either mutual learning and value-creation, or destructive conflicts and large-scale violence (2); how knowledge of political dynamics between states, classes and sexes/genders applies to imagine models for safe co-existence between humans and AI at present as well as in a post-singularity future with super-human AI (3); how human/AI relations should be constructed to reap the opportunities of AI while minimizing existential risks for humans (4).
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| 13. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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European Union Conditionality : Coercion or Voluntary adaptation?
- 2009
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Ingår i: Alternatives. - 1303-5525. ; 8:1, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on the enlargement conditionality of the European Union sustains opposite positions on the question of whether it represents a means of coercion or an invitation to voluntary adaptation. However, it reveals no dialogue between advocates of these opposed views. In an attempt to replace this gap in communication with a research agenda, this article undertakes a theoretical investigation of the main arguments for regarding compliance with conditionality either as an effect of coercion or as a voluntary choice. It is found that both of these views are worth taking seriously but also that they are premature and in need of further theoretical and in particular empirical clarification. It is suggested, moreover, that coercion and voluntary adaptation are best viewed as complementary rather than competing descriptions of complying with conditionality.Since the end of the Cold War the European Union has made use of conditionality in an increasing number of policy areas. Lending programs, trade agreements, foreign aid, and the Eastern enlargements have been promulgated through processes in which countries are required to meet certain conditions. Conditionality is also part of an established practice in global governance, featuring most notoriously in the development programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And although trends like China’s economic engagement in Africa and the repayments of foreign debts in South America might limit the impact of Western conditionality, its scope and political significance remain incontestable. Indeed, in Angola, Belarus, Cuba, Indonesia, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and many other places, people continue to be subject to conditions set for them by international powers.
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Fiskal union för en starkare demokrati?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Överlever EMU utan fiskal union?<em> </em>. - Stockholm : Santérus Förlag. - 9789173590440 ; , s. 247-273
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Legitimacy in global governance research : How normative or sociological should it be?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Legitimacy in Global Governance<em> </em>. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780198826873 - 9780191865817 ; , s. 1-22
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a prelude to the three themes in the volume, this chapterexplores more generally the turn towards legitimacy in globalgovernance research. The chapter suggests that this turn ispartly explained by shortcomings in normative research onglobal democracy, and the potential of research on legitimacyto overcome those problems. The chapter discusses the meritsand demerits of alternative conceptualizations of legitimacy inserving these purposes. The chapter concludes in favor of anormative-sociological understanding of legitimacy that issensitive to beliefs among members of relevant audiencesabout the normative qualities of political institutions that areultimately specified by analysts
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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PhD students supervised collectively rather than individually are quicker to complete their theses
- 2018
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Given the choice, most PhD students would prefer to receive individual supervision rather than be supervised alongside their peers as part of a collective. This is understandable, given the undivided attention and precise, directly relevant advice one would receive. However, Hans Agné and Ulf Mörkenstam have compared the experiences of individually and collectively supervised students on the same doctoral programme and found that collective supervision, during the first year at least, is correlated with significantly shorter times to thesis completion compared to individual supervision.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-
(författare)
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Popular power in the European Union : Delegated or Alienated?
- 2015
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Ingår i: The European Union. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780198716273 ; , s. 46-62
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The important role played by national governments in the creation of European institutions and policies is often invoked to reinforce the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. As long as leaders of all states constitutive of the EU are democratically elected, the EU has a reasonable claim to democratic legitimacy for itself, regardless of how it creates policies and institutions on an everyday basis. The powers of the EU are delegated by, and not alienated from, national democracies. Notwithstanding the importance in political practice of this attempt at defending the democratic legitimacy of the EU, this chapter suggests that it fails on theoretical grounds alone and that the normative problem indicated by this failure is aggravated as a consequence of the euro crisis. The chapter identifies more promising avenues toward a legitimate EU by examining democracy defined as a particular form of constituent power.
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Should first-year doctoral students be supervised collectively or individually? Effects on thesis completion and time to completion
- 2018
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Ingår i: Higher Education Research and Development. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0729-4360 .- 1469-8366. ; 37:4, s. 669-682
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Whether supervision of doctoral students is best pursued individually or collectively is a recurring but unresolved question in debates on higher education. The rarity of longitudinal data and the common usage of qualitative methods to analyse a limited number of cases have left the effectiveness of either model largely untested. To assist with overcoming these problems, this paper reports on a study of 145 individuals admitted to a specific doctoral programme between 1991 and 2014. It analyses the effects of either individual or collective supervision during the first year of the programme on the probability of thesis completion and the time to thesis completion. Group means, Cox regressions, Kaplan–Meir curves and Ordinary Least Square regressions are calculated on the basis of the number of months spent by each doctoral student in the programme without defending a thesis. Studied in these ways, it appears that collective supervision in the first year significantly increases the probability of thesis completion and decreases the time to thesis completion. Collective supervision may have this effect as it enhances peer learning, creates a wider academic learning context, allows doctoral students to gradually acquire the values and behaviours of a research practice community and reduces the risk of premature selection of permanent supervisors.
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| 28. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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The Costs of Legitimacy for Political Institutions
- 2022
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Ingår i: Global Studies Quarterly. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2634-3797. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Can political institutions be too legitimate for their own good? The standard view of legitimacy treats it purely as a resource—political institutions that enjoy legitimacy can draw on voluntary cooperation among their subjects to reach their aims, which is believed to make them more effective than institutions that lack legitimacy and must instead use coercion or bribery to reach aims. We challenge this conventional wisdom by advancing a more general theory that is sensitive also to the costs of legitimacy. High levels of legitimacy, we suggest, can make political actors complacent about the status quo and cause them to pay insufficient attention to problems related to implementation. In contrast, low levels of legitimacy—or legitimacy crises—can serve as a wake-up call and motivate actors to work harder to reach their original or wider goals. We illustrate this theory through a case study of the African Union, assessing when and how legitimacy serves as a cost or as a resource for political institutions, with implications for decision-making, implementation, and effectiveness.
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| 30. |
- Agné, Hans, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Tiggarna en ödesfråga för EU
- 2014
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Ingår i: Göteborgsposten. - : Göteborgsposten. - 1103-9345. ; :23 maj
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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| 34. |
- Sommerer, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Global legitimacy crises : Decline and Revival in Multilateral Governance
- 2022
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- This book addresses the consequences of legitimacy in global governance, in particular asking: when and how do legitimacy crises affect international organizations (IOs) and their capacity to rule. The book starts with a new conceptualization of legitimacy crisis that looks at public challenges from a variety of actors. Based on this conceptualization, it applies a mixed-methods approach to identify and examine legitimacy crises, starting with a quantitative analysis of mass media data on challenges of a sample of 32 IOs. It shows that some, but not all organizations have experienced legitimacy crises, spread over several decades from 1985 to 2020. Following this, the book presents a qualitative study to further examine legitimacy crises of two selected case studies: the WTO and the UNFCCC. Whereas earlier research assumed that legitimacy crises have negative consequences, the book introduces a theoretical framework that privileges the activation inherent in a legitimacy crisis. It holds that this activation may not only harm an IO, but could also strengthen it, in terms of its material, institutional, and decision-making capacity. The following statistical analysis shows that whether a crisis has predominantly negative or positive effects depends on a variety of factors. These include the specific audience whose challenges define a certain crisis, and several institutional properties of the targeted organization. The ensuing in-depth analysis of the WTO and the UNFCCC further reveals how legitimacy crises and both positive and negative consequences are interlinked, and that effects of crises are sometimes even visible beyond the organizational borders.
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