Civility gUG
Civility-Theoretical Research and Analysis
Civility Policy
What follows from the end of the Brandmauer?
Friedrich Merz:
Legitimate demand for removal from office?
Civility Policy
... aims to preserve and promote civility as effectively as possible. It is based on analysis, orientation and self-regulation in a complex environment (civility navigation), but can also deliberately influence other actors and framework conditions.
What is völkisch thinking,
what is populism?
Learn!
Political Journalism - Political Education - Social Science
A controversial dialogue
Gates–Xi Dialogue Initiative
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has gone public with his initiative to talk with Chinese President Xi. What is it about, and how can this initiative be understood?
AI as a subject of civility analysis
AI is currently regarded as function-specific and supervised (weak AI); however, isolated AI “breakouts” are met with alarm. Set against this are more or less inflated fears and expectations of a technological transition to Artificial General Intelligence (strong AI) or even AI superintelligence.
What do these forms of AI mean from the perspective of civility? Here you can find the text from 2018, “The Governance Challenge of Artificial Intelligence” (Theory of the Civil Modern Age, pp. 286–393), as well as a current dialogue about AI actors.
In what ways is China’s economy superior? And why?
A complexity-theoretical and civility-theoretical analysis
Rail problems due to migration?
Leisurely cycling – UN policy
New aspects of civility navigation
The catastrophe paradox and civility theory
What does the catastrophe paradox tell us? How are capacity theory (the catastrophe paradox) and civility theory connected?
Here you’ll find a substantial AI dialogue on the subject (Gemini)
Citizenship Based on Functional Criteria?
People continue to acquire citizenship by being born in a country; however, other criteria can also become decisive, including functional criteria such as a person’s potential contribution to a country. This creates competition between nation-states...
Do we live under capitalism?
Sure, you might think. But we believe it’s worth thinking about. See the accompanying texts (buttons in the middle): an AI dialogue on the topic, a critique by Peter Behnen/Die Linke Freiburg and a response by Volker von Prittwitz, followed by a dialogue on “Capitalism in the variable space of civility theory.”
Vague terms fuel populism and extremism
Anyone who describes our society as “capitalist,” “socialist,” or “democratic” is using vague terms, because these do not provide a sufficiently precise and comprehensive understanding of society. Instead, more or less crude slogans take their place, often charged with an us-versus-them logic that blocks analytical thinking and thereby fuels populism and extremism.
Popper - Luhmann - Huizinga - Watzlawick - Scharpf
How Civility Theory Emerged and What It Contributes in Comparison with Other Theories
New: General Theory of Civility (GTC) in Twelve Keywords
Gender and intergenerational justice
Civil Disobedience
Tensions between established and evolving civility
Civility Theory continues to develop, including in the form of a precarious course of action: civil disobedience
Germany and Poland
Theory-building!
The spectacular rise of algorithmic AI is countered by decades of aversion to theory in the social sciences, political education, and science administration. This deprives the social sciences of their most important source of learning and innovation: knowledge-oriented theory-building. In contrast, research follows a logic oriented toward knowledge and innovation—a logic from which we can learn a great deal from the philosopher of science Karl Popper.
More recent analyses and discussions
- What is populism? A dialogue ...
- Can good policies reduce support for the AfD?
- What does civility-strategic campaign management involve?
- Mamdani – A Political Assessment
- Are the concepts of intergenerational justice and aging with dignity connected?
- State neutrality as a consequential concept
- How can conversations be analyzed using civility criteria?
Civility-Oriented Foreign Policy ...
... includes the requirements of military security, but strives for respectful coexistence.
Other AI Dialogues
Civility theory analysis:
From the Basic Model to a Global Raw Materials Order
Realism – liberalism – civility theory
How does civility theory differ from realism and neo-institutionalism (liberalism)? To what extent does it go beyond them?
Pretendians
Pretendians falsely claim an Indigenous identity in Canada and the United States. How can this phenomenon be understood through the lens of civility theory?
Concept of Law
An initially laborious, then creative dialogue on the civility-theoretical concept of law....
Global Diversity
Traditionally, diversity refers to openness to migrants at the regional or national level. But it can also be understood globally, in terms of the diversity of people and cultures across the world’s regions. Both perspectives have civic elements, since diversity always requires mutual respect and shared responsibility.
Secure borders -
a global value
The existence of every state depends on secure borders—a reason to support strengthening and reforming the United Nations.
Shift to power politics
When fields such as business or science can organize themselves according to their own logics, it is worth making every effort operationally, and general welfare increases. This constellation, also known as complex interdependence (Keohane/Nye 1977), fundamentally undermines and attacks the populist power-based thinking and actions of Trump, Putin & Co—with the result of global welfare losses...
USA:
From Democracy to Kleptocracy
Donald Trump thinks and acts unilaterally, guided by the motto “Trump’s America First”: Raising tariffs makes global economic exchange more difficult and reduces overall economic productivity. Moreover, economic unilateralism promotes unilateralism in general politics and military affairs, increasing the potential for violence. Finally, Trump and his clique enrich themselves without restraint at the public’s expense: thieves in power (kleptocracy).
Trump’s kleptocracy should be openly addressed not only in the United States but also at the United Nations.
Equality
through quotas?
It is not only in the women’s movement that the idea prevails that equality can be achieved only through set shares (quotas) of power or positions—an approach that can be justified as a counterweight to a calcified power structure. However, quotas privilege the group they apply to, and especially those who represent it.
Equality exists when all those involved have equal rights and can exercise them effectively—for example, when voting rights are equally guaranteed to all, both the right to vote and the right to stand for election, with equal voting power and a guaranteed opportunity to participate freely. See the discussion from 2018 in the book Theory of Civil Modernity (button below).