Page 134 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

However, given the discreditation of the political system in many countries, it is not surprising that

citizens distanced themselves from political life.

Therefore, new forms of more direct democracy (e.g., rational democratic deliberation) are

welcome, but should always be in balance with the representation through the activities of the
represented parties to guarantee adequate governability.

Increasing participation through referendums is a prerogative of modern and civilized countries.

These are legitimate methods that reveal the maturity of people (very common, e.g., in
Switzerland). Rational democratic deliberation is an alternative to the decision-making process.

Deliberative democracy was originally proposed by Joseph M.

Bessette in 1980, who suggested that authentic deliberation (a mix of majority rule and decision

by consensus) is a source of legitimacy when it comes from a direct process of decision-making by

the citizens, which is a form of direct democracy (Bessette 1981).

Another form is participatory democracy.

In any case, this increased participation of citizens in collective endeavors is inevitable, especially

in extreme situations in which elected political power not only is legitimized to make decisions but
also seeks to avoid accountability for specific decisions (Arendt 1995; Habermas 1997).

The transition from a traditional bureaucratic state to a regulatory state is partly because in

depend entre gula tory agencies (IRA) are used to implement unsympathetic measures to supplant

politicians’ inability to undertake such measures (Malone 1997).

Indeed, it may seem a paradox that unelected agencies make hard social and economic choices.

However, this paradox is only apparent because IRAs are directly accountable to the people

through new modalities of accountability and responsiveness (Nunes et al. 2011).

123 Academic Year 2025/2026