CALL FOR PAPERS
Democracy in Question:
Rethinking Democracy and Governance
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to submit your papers to Conflict, Justice, Decolonization – a student-led project that encourages grad students to act as public intellectuals in the spirit of literary communism and the free association of young scholars in Taiwan and from around the world.
In the 2024 Spring Call for Paper, the topic of interest is “Democracy in Question: Rethinking Democracy and Governance”. The 1980s witnessed a historic democratization process in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, and sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the Cold War as well as the viability of numerous Eastern European communist regimes. At the same time, several countries in Latin America experienced a transition of power from military to civilian rule. In Uruguay, the elections held in 1984 and 1985 ended its military regime and Paraguay held its first democratic election in May 1989, after the February coup that ended 35 years of the Stroessner regime. In the Asia-Pacific region, countries such as South Korea and Taiwan also experienced movements towards democratization while the Philippines saw the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 through the People Power Revolution.
However, several countries have experienced setbacks or reversals in their democratization processes after initial progress. According to the Freedom House (2024), democracy is on the decline in every region in the world. From Europe to the Middle East and Africa, war and violent conflicts leave the civil population vulnerable and at risk of further deterioration of their human rights. Alongside armed conflicts, economic insecurity, geopolitical tensions, and socio-political polarization contribute to a potentially dangerous trend – the global rise of populism. In both old and new democracies, social and economic disparities, as well as unanswered demands, fuel people’s dissatisfaction with and resentment towards their governments.
In recent years, more than 130 countries have experienced significant protests (CARNEGIE, 2024). The world has witnessed waves of anti-government protests, some of which were in response to assaults on democracy. For instance, in Georgia, thousands of people took to the streets after the government tried to impose what critics called a Russian-inspired law named ‘Transparency of Foreign Influence’, which it would have used to repress dissent and discredit political opponents. Anti-war protests have also swept across the globe. For example, the widespread marches across the globe demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, notably in well-established democracies like the U.S. and the U.K., which have long prided themselves on their democratic principles, are not only being disregarded but also openly rejected and criticized by their own governments. According to Middle East Eye (2024) and Data for Progress (2024), respectively, 76% and 67% of the public in the U.K. and U.S. are calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Nonetheless, their governments continue to turn a blind eye to the will of the majority of their constituents. These situations, highlighting just some of the most prominent examples at present, raise serious and legitimate questions about the essence of democracy.
With 2024 being the largest electoral year in recorded history and more than 60 countries (including the European Union) heading to the polls, the core principle of democracy – that the will of the people should be the legitimating basis for government decisions – should be questioned more than ever.
Thus, we invite everyone interested in social sciences, political science, peace and conflict studies, cultural studies, and other academic disciplines to submit papers from various (inter)disciplines and theoretical perspectives.
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Submissions are encouraged to cover, but not be limited to, the following themes:
Theories & Concepts of Democracy and Governance
History of Democracy & The Process of Democratization
Reimagining & Reconceptualizing Democracy
Challenges & Threats to Democracy
Populism
Democracy, Conflicts & Human Rights
Technology, Digitalization & Democracy
Electoral Systems, Politics & Manipulation of Elections
Civil Society, Political Participation & the Will of People
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Articles should be 2,000 – 3,000 words if written in English and 3,000 – 4,500 characters if written in Mandarin Chinese. We accept scholarly articles, conference reviews, interviews, photo essays, video essays, and book and film reviews. We welcome both single-authored and co-authored manuscripts.
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How to Apply
Interested contributors are requested to fill out the Application Form.
The abstracts’ length should be 300 – 400 words for English papers and 450 – 600 characters for papers written in Mandarin. The deadline for abstract submission is April 25, 2024.
Please note that a full-text article is not required to complete the application. For a full-text article please read Submission Guidelines available at https://cjdproject.web.nycu.
Selected articles will be published on the CJD website (ISSN: 2709-5479) and in a special issue of our booklet (ISSN: 2709-7943). Authors of selected articles with a Taiwanese post office bank account will be awarded 4,000 NTD per article.
For more information or any questions, please visit https://cjdproject.web.nycu.
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Reference
CARNEGIE, Endowment for International Peace. (2024). Global Protest Tracker. https://carnegieendowment.org/
Data for Progress. (2024). Voters Support the U.S. Calling for Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza and Conditioning Military Aid to Israel. https://www.dataforprogress.
Freedom House. (2024). Freedom in the World 2024: The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict. https://freedomhouse.org/
Middle East Eye. (2023). Israel-Palestine war: UK poll finds 76 percent want an immediate ceasefire. https://www.middleeasteye.net/
MOE-SPROUT 2.0, Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Asia in Transition in the 21st Century
ICCS Director and Principal Investigator: Joyce C.H. Liu