Marián Sekerák
Marián Sekerák, Ph.D. (*1989) studied political science at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, and earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Political Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic. He currently serves as the head of the Department of International Relations and Political Science at AMBIS College and a researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Studies, both in Prague, Czechia. Additionally, he collaborates with the Institute for Christian-Democratic Politics. Marián has been a member of the CREATE Expert Group for Catholic Social Teaching, which was established at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
His areas of specialization include political theory, the theory of democracy, Church-State relations, history of political thought, Slovak politics, and higher education research. Over the years, he has undertaken various academic engagements, including being a visiting researcher at Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany in 2016, and a visiting lecturer during the summer term of 2019/2020 at the same institution. He also served as Erasmus+ visiting scholar at Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany, during the summer term of 2021/2022. In June-July 2018, he participated in a traineeship at the European Parliament. In June-July 2023, he conducted a research stay at the University of Leipzig, focusing on research concerning the rule of law and democracy in Central Europe. More recently, in June 2024, Marián has been a visiting fellow at Nicolaus Copernius University in Toruń, Poland, and in November 2024 an Erasmus+ visiting scholar at Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary.
Marián authored two monographs: “Economic Democracy: History, Theory and Practice” (2013, in Slovak) and "Models and Theories of Democracy" (2021, in Czech). His scientific texts have been published in various edited volumes and journals, such as Italian Political Science Review, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Higher Education Policy, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, History of European Ideas, Journal of Academic Ethics, Review of Central and East European Law, Minerva, European Review, Studies in East European Thought, Studia Theologica, Utrecht Law Review, Europe-Asia Studies, and others. His commentaries, columns and analysis regularly appear in various media, including websites, radio stations and TV channels (e.g. Deník N, Aktuality.sk, Denikreferendum.cz, Christnet.eu, Blesk.cz, Katolický týdeník, Radio Lumen, Radio Proglas, Sveriges Radio, Czech Television, Czech Radio, CNN Prima News, TV Prima, TV Nova, TVP World, Radio and Television of Slovakia, Al Jazeera English, Euronews NBC, Visegrad Insight).
Academic reviews: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Forum for Social Economics, Journal of Homosexuality, Studia Theologica, Filozofia, Acta Politologica, Politologická revue/Czech Political Science Review, Politologický časopis/Czech Journal of Political Science, Politické vedy, Caritas et Veritas, Historica Olomucensia, Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review, Regionální rozvoj mezi teorií a praxí, Scientific Papers of the University of Pardubice: Series D - Faculty of Economics and Administration, Auspicia, Filosofický časopis/The Czech Philosophical Journal, Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, and Studia Politica Slovaca.
Address: Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
His areas of specialization include political theory, the theory of democracy, Church-State relations, history of political thought, Slovak politics, and higher education research. Over the years, he has undertaken various academic engagements, including being a visiting researcher at Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany in 2016, and a visiting lecturer during the summer term of 2019/2020 at the same institution. He also served as Erasmus+ visiting scholar at Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany, during the summer term of 2021/2022. In June-July 2018, he participated in a traineeship at the European Parliament. In June-July 2023, he conducted a research stay at the University of Leipzig, focusing on research concerning the rule of law and democracy in Central Europe. More recently, in June 2024, Marián has been a visiting fellow at Nicolaus Copernius University in Toruń, Poland, and in November 2024 an Erasmus+ visiting scholar at Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary.
Marián authored two monographs: “Economic Democracy: History, Theory and Practice” (2013, in Slovak) and "Models and Theories of Democracy" (2021, in Czech). His scientific texts have been published in various edited volumes and journals, such as Italian Political Science Review, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Higher Education Policy, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, History of European Ideas, Journal of Academic Ethics, Review of Central and East European Law, Minerva, European Review, Studies in East European Thought, Studia Theologica, Utrecht Law Review, Europe-Asia Studies, and others. His commentaries, columns and analysis regularly appear in various media, including websites, radio stations and TV channels (e.g. Deník N, Aktuality.sk, Denikreferendum.cz, Christnet.eu, Blesk.cz, Katolický týdeník, Radio Lumen, Radio Proglas, Sveriges Radio, Czech Television, Czech Radio, CNN Prima News, TV Prima, TV Nova, TVP World, Radio and Television of Slovakia, Al Jazeera English, Euronews NBC, Visegrad Insight).
Academic reviews: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Forum for Social Economics, Journal of Homosexuality, Studia Theologica, Filozofia, Acta Politologica, Politologická revue/Czech Political Science Review, Politologický časopis/Czech Journal of Political Science, Politické vedy, Caritas et Veritas, Historica Olomucensia, Sociologický časopis/Czech Sociological Review, Regionální rozvoj mezi teorií a praxí, Scientific Papers of the University of Pardubice: Series D - Faculty of Economics and Administration, Auspicia, Filosofický časopis/The Czech Philosophical Journal, Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, and Studia Politica Slovaca.
Address: Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic
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Papers by Marián Sekerák
democracy was mostly published in the 1990s. In his writings, he focused primarily
on legal philosophy from a positivist perspective. However, there are also significant
overlaps with the field of political theory as Weinberger examined the conditions for
the functioning of contemporary democracies. In this paper, some of the main features
of his conception of the so-called “structured democracy” are clarified. The conception opposed several other democratic theories, especially the elitist (Schumpeterian),
the majoritarian, but also the discursive one, as represented by Jürgen Habermas, with
whom Weinberger fundamentally disagreed. The paper focuses on several key elements of his theory, such as the leading ideas, the role of institutions, open society,
and his critique of marketing methods in politics.
democracy was mostly published in the 1990s. In his writings, he focused primarily
on legal philosophy from a positivist perspective. However, there are also significant
overlaps with the field of political theory as Weinberger examined the conditions for
the functioning of contemporary democracies. In this paper, some of the main features
of his conception of the so-called “structured democracy” are clarified. The conception opposed several other democratic theories, especially the elitist (Schumpeterian),
the majoritarian, but also the discursive one, as represented by Jürgen Habermas, with
whom Weinberger fundamentally disagreed. The paper focuses on several key elements of his theory, such as the leading ideas, the role of institutions, open society,
and his critique of marketing methods in politics.
nedostatky.
The first theory introduced in dissertation's theoretical part is participatory democracy, which is heavily neglected in the Slovak academia. It is presented especially through the prism of Carole Pateman’s, C.B. Macpherson’s and Benjamin Barber’s writings. Their ideas on civic engagement in public life appear to be noteworthy again, especially in the light of the changing conditions of democratic citizenship – particularly in regards to the EU-wide decline in voter turnout, increasing income inequality, downgrade of social solidarity and cooperation, growing intolerance or dissatisfaction with representative democracy.
This theory has been verified on the example of the European Citizens' Initiatives (ECI), which are deemed to be one of most promising political tools adjusting EU's democratic deficit. Although the ECIs have been largely analysed from a theoretical point of view, I present an empirical snapshot of this participatory instrument viewed from the Slovak and Czech perspective. Using a series of research interviews with Czech and Slovak engaged civic activists, I explain its strengths and weaknesses, as well as a possible path to move on in order to achieve more democratic, responsive and citizen-friendly Union.
One of the main starting points and information sources for the analysis were EU legislation standards for ECIs, as well as previously conducted theoretical and empirical research published in form of scientific papers and chapters. The reason for choosing European citizens' initiatives to verify the applicability of participatory democracy in practice lies not only in the attractiveness of European themes (Europeanisation) in modern political science research, but also in the uniqueness of the idea offering about 507 million people out of 28 member states to participate in EU policy. Moreover, such an instrument has been increasingly growing in popularity and attractiveness.
The second currently dominant theory, i.e. the theory of deliberative democracy, was analysed from a different angle. Public deliberation has been applied in practice especially at the micro level in forms of deliberative polling, citizens' juries or mini-publics. In my dissertation, by using the method of abstraction, democratic deliberation is being transposed and applied at the global level. The inspiration was drawn of the idea of a global political/public authority taken from Catholic social teaching.
Catholic social teaching is viewed as one of the most eminent social concepts. A global governance as a more or less new idea of the teaching seems to be appealing and provocative. Therefore, I aim to examine its plausibility in the light of the current debates on democratic innovations. It seems that the idea of global governance, as offered by this teaching, is focused mainly on pure institutional boosting and seeking the most appropriate “global political authority,” which observes “consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (and) seeks to establish the common good,” as written by Benedict XVI. I suggest that a viable type of global democracy should make room for active peoples’ engagement. Viewed from this perspective, I propose to introduce some elements of public deliberation into the global democratic network. Such an improvement could help to reach more credible global governance and achieve an expected level of its efficacy.
A more or less rigid institutionalism presupposed by the doctrine has been replaced by a much more flexible and free global network of civic deliberation on issues and topics of common interest, such as environmental and health protection, global nuclear disarmament, access to drinking water, equality and welfare, integral human development, peaceful conflict and dispute resolution, interreligious dialogue, protection of human life, or international solidarity. As a result, the existing multilevel governance at the global level (nation-states vs. global political institutions like the UN) can be transformed into a transnational deliberative body comprising of the globally deliberating citizenship, the so-called global demos.
Chantal Mouffe's agonistic democracy (agonistic pluralism) has developed as a direct response to both the deliberative democracy and Rawlsian political liberalism. Through a discourse analysis I examined the public discourse on homosexuality and same-sex registered partnerships, which took place in Slovakia and culminated in the years 2013–2015, while the last of the mentioned years was the year of the referendum on the protection of the traditional family and directed against the right of sexual minorities. The objectives pursued in a part on the application of agonistic democracy were to offer a specific case study, as the existing debate on agonism seems to be quite abstract, and to test the theory in practice. The main reason to choose this social event was not arbitrary, since it was this issue that heavily polarized Slovak society and exasperated heated discussion, emotions, conflicts and passions that agonism considers to be an essence and sine qua non of healthy and viable (liberal) democracy.
The results of the research of the discursive practices have proved that the debate on civil unions of homosexuals does not entirely fit the assumptions and expectations of the theory of agonistic democracy. Moreover, it seems obvious that in some cases the debate is even much closer to Carl Schmitt’s political theory of “decisionism”. The application of his theory has shown that the legitimacy is based: a) on the appeal to the amount of people or historical tradition (in case of the Slovak opponents of civil unions, i.e. neoconservatives), or b) on the full application of human and civil rights and state’s neutrality towards the individual conceptions of the good (as it was in case of the Slovak advocates of civil unions, i.e. political liberals). This kind of legitimacy, then, surpasses the legality which is represented by liberal-democratic institutions.