The concept of karl popper about civic responsibility in democratic society and there are lessons to be learned from that so as to improve the effectiveness of social monitoring and

Based on the study of his conception on the criteria for a democratic society and on the role of citizens in supervising and criticizing the work of government, the author recognizes valuable lessons for enhancing the efficiency of social supervising and criticism.

AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 THE CONCEPT OF KARL POPPER ABOUT CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY AND THERE ARE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THAT SO AS TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MONITORING AND CRITICISM IN VIETNAM TODAY Bui Lan Huong1 Hanoi Pedagogical University Information: Received: 03/08/2018 Accepted: 06/12/2018 Published: 11/2019 Keywords: Karl Popper; democracy; open sociey; social criticism; supervision ABSTRACT Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) was considered one of the most influential philosophers in the twentieth century His socio-political thoughts left us a number of profound lessons for the social construction of today This essay focuses on investigating K Popper's main views on democratic societies Based on the study of his conception on the criteria for a democratic society and on the role of citizens in supervising and criticizing the work of government, the author recognizes valuable lessons for enhancing the efficiency of social supervising and criticism party political system In the current age, social supervision and criticism remains one of the most important issues and requires study, especially in countries striving for democracy including Vietnam INTRODUCTION In today's social life, the use of supervision and criticism is indispensable in organizing a democratic society Social supervision and criticism are not new issues People have been acquainted with these concepts very early and made it an effective tool to establish the democracy, leading to the political development of any advanced countries around the world Vietnam, which is currently in a stage of innovation and integration, should reform under the leadership of the Party to eliminate bureaucracy as well as to overcome irrationalities in the governmental system at all levels In order to so, it is necessary to have effective solutions to arouse and promote democracy, openness and transparency Social supervision and criticism is the most effective way, especially in such a one – Karl Popper (1902 - 1994) is a famous philosopher of the twentieth century who devoted much of his time and effort to studies focus on the building a democratic society Apart from the inherent limitations of his democratic ideology, we can see that the idea of the citizen's responsibility to build an ideal society as a shining gem An objective scientific research on this content, therefore, is necessary to help us gain valuable lessons to improve the effectiveness of social supervision and criticism for all the citizens in our country today 84 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 CONTENT the case of necessity, to deprive people of authority without using violence If there are not any democratic institutions or if these institutions are not well-developed and weak, the only way to monitor and replace the rulers is to bring a different kind of violence against their violence Historically, the establishment of democratic institutions is of course associated with resisting militarilist action From this point, Popper presented the definition of democracy as follows: “I understand democracy is not something indeterminate like the power of the people or the power of the majority, but it is a system of institutions which allows the social supervision towards the rulers and dismiss them at the will of the non-rulers, allowing them to conduct reforms without the use of violence, even against the will of the rulers."(Cornforth.M, 2002, p.496) 2.1 Karl Popper's concept of democracy Democracy is a historical category Over 2000 years ago, the ancient Greek sage Herodôte first introduced the concept of democracy in his work “History” He explained democracy as "the power of the people" Thus, democracy is a concept originating from the slavery period in ancient Greek society, where the first democracy of human society was born –Athenian democracy, deeply influenced the later democratic ideological movements, especially from the Renaissance to the present With a history of more than two thousand years of development, the concept of "democracy" has a very rich connotation, but it is uniform in the basic content of democracy as the power belonging to the people In developing the theory of an open society, Popper came to a definitive conclusion that only a democratic and open society which is willing to receive criticism, to criticize mistakes and to overcome the shortcomings has opportunity to improve itself Therefore Popper also presented his own concept of democracy Different from traditional notions of "democracy", Popper said that "the important political issue is not about who holds the power, but about how to supervise the use of that power The basic political problem is not about to whom the power will be given (because no authority is reliable) but about the most effective way to monitor power through political institutions ”(Cornforth.M, 2002, p.494) Democracy is the best kind of political system because it has gone a long way to solve problems, such as through non-violent measures, in order to get rid of the weak rulers by voting to remove them from their position (William Gorton, kn) While many researchers argue that the principle of plurality is one of the basic characteristics of democratic society, Popper stated that democracy cannot be fully characterized as the rule of the majority, although the regime of general elections is the most important one Because the majority can be ruled in an authoritarian way In a democracy, the power of rulers must be limited and the standard of a democracy, according to him: "the rulers - the government, can be dismissed by the governed without bloodshed Thus, if the rulers not defend the institution in which they guarantee the minority the ability to operate for a peaceful change, then their rule is an authoritarian regime ”(Popper, 1971b) Dictatorialism "consists of polities from which the governed cannot escape in any other way but the path of a successful revolution" (Popper, 1971a) Popper's concept of democracy is not as abstract as the so-called "dominant people" but rather as a combination of regimes The combination of Therefore, refuting the question Who will rule? as a fundamental question of political theory, he proposed a new question: How should we organize political institutions to prevent bad governance from causing too much harm to society? Popper said this was a fundamental question of institutional design Popper explained that the greatest preeminence of democracy is that it ensures the ability to establish supervision of the activities of the rulers or those of powerful officials regardless of who they are, as well as in 85 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 regimes is: the people can govern the government, including the electoral regime; rulers’ rights are limited; the governed have the right to change the rulers without bloodshed; the governed can carry out reforms by means of peace and democracy, a regime empowering or dismissing the rulers’ rights Therefore, according to Popper, checking whether the current government institution is a democratic institution means determining whether people have established a regulation so that “those without power can also discuss and examine individuals in power, supervise their way and appoint or dismiss them ”(Cornforth.M, 2002, p.499) how that supervision can be divided between classes in society because he ignored the existence of classes and the ways by which the entire people conduct and protect the interests of their class through institutions, including democratic institutions Arguments in favour of democracy would always be false if we ignore the existence of classes and class struggle According to Marxism - Leninism, democracy is regarded as a form of state that has class nature, so it is impossible to separate the state from the class If democracy as a state regime is directly associated with a certain ruling class based on a dominant productive relation then democracy will always have class nature and will never be purely democratic for all classes The class nature of democracy is reflected in class relations and class struggles to address the question of who democracy is for and who democracy and authoritarianism should be limited to Each class explained democracy, theoretically and practically, by different ways and levels, depending on their positions, views and interests Popper's conception of democracy was built in parallel with his criticism of violent institutions and his differentiation between these two types of institutions According to Popper, the two most fundamental characteristics of democratic institutions compared to the violent ones are, firstly, the development of a mechanism to supervise authorized individuals and to eliminate them if they not complete their mission and secondly, the allowance to achieve reforms without resorting to violence However, Popper was very reluctant to divide all governments into democracy and tyranny There is, of course, a clear difference between the rulers of democracy and those of tyranny But that does not mean that we can divide state institutions clearly into democracy and tyranny simply based on the difference between democratic and tyrannic measures We can only distinguish relatively to a certain extent to determine the role of governments in social progress and political evolution to "democracy and freedom" C Marx stressed that the most important thing in assessing forms of governance is the distinction between governments in terms of which class relations they encourage and which class relations they facilitate In presenting his conception of an ideal society called the “open society”, Popper proposed the method of building that society in a "progressive social work" This work is characterized by the gradual repair and supplement, exploration and advancement at the same time The task of progressive social construction is to reform society step by step According to him, the task of progressive social constructions is to design social structures, as well as to renovate and use existing social structures, like the main task of normal construction is to design, repair and improve machines In order to achieve the goal of this progressive social work, there are two conditions in terms of the realistic basis: Firstly, economic intervention; secondly, political democracy With these two conditions, Popper concentrated on the foundation of building a democratic society Popper's fundamental limitation in the definition of democracy is that he defined it simply as "social supervision of rulers" but did not mention Thus, when building an ideal society - an open society, Popper always attached great importance to political democracy However, the difference in 86 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 his thinking compared to other political researchers is that he did not consider democracy to be the goal of social construction but only one of the two key conditions for building society, in which the responsibility of citizens to participate in building democracy is significantly important elected by the people and responsible to the people - protects the rights of individuals, so that citizens in a democratic society can fulfill their citizens' obligations and responsibilities and contribute to the strengthening of society Citizens must at least be self-aware about the important issues that society is facing in order to participate in discussions and to vote wisely (Popper, 1971b) According to Popper, the meaning of democracy is to allow reform without the use of violence However, if the maintenance of democracy is not considered the first priority in any fight on this battlefield, the potential anti-democratic trends which always exist can cause the breakdown of a democracy A thorough understanding of these principles should necessarily be attained for the prevention of the risk that democracy could face 2.2 Citizens' responsibility in a democratic society from the perspective of Karl Popper Karl Popper's idea of civic responsibility in a democratic society was not systematically presented or reserved by any chapter But when he presented his ideas about an open society, it was the requirements he made to build, according to him, an ideal society and the responsibility of the citizens in supervising state’s power implementation and the criticism towards public policy in an open society that emerged as the most valuable part of his concept of democracy K Popper particularly emphasized the right to choose a leader of the people This concerned his deep skepticism about any type of centralized power Therefore, he accentuated the role of institutions that can minimize the abuse of power and the control of power Popper argued that overconcentrated power will produce degeneration and the purpose of democracy is to prevent overconcentration and abuse of power According to him, a true democracy must be a curb of power, and the supervision of the people to state officials The argument continued that democracy can balance its many powers by supervision, that politics is a matter of regime, a matter of law making, and to ensure democracy it is only possible by relying on the regime to control power Popper proposed two situations where violence can be used to ensure democracy First, only under the domination of violence that it can be used to fight against violence itself Second, after achieving democracy, if a democracy is attacked by domestic or foreign forces, citizens have the duty to protest and even use violence Popper did not object to the use of violence in constitution and protection of democracy and freedom The most fundamental difference between "open society" and "closed society" is the ability of individuals to rationally respond to the problems they encounter Members of a closed society are forced to act in accordance with orders which are considered as divinely commanded The signature characteristic of a closed society is the belief in the existence of some certain mysterious taboos or restrictions The system of these restrictions is similar to social laws and similar to the laws of nature that people must strictly obey and absolutely must not violate In contrast, citizens in an open society must have a critical attitude towards these restrictions and make their decisions on the basis of mutual discussion, based on human intellectual capacity The presence of rational criticism principles gives citizens the ability to consciously guide social development, and manage the "gradual social transformation technology", creating state institutions suitable with the actual needs of citizens For that to be achieved, citizens must not be passively but proactive, as the success or failure of the government lies in their responsibility The democratic government 87 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 According to Popper, all issues in an open society are not predetermined by history, history itself has no purpose or meaning The so-called purpose and meaning of history is created by people He insisted that although history itself has no purpose, we can rely on our own condition to assign certain purposes to history, “the truth also does not have meaning, it is our decision to make a truth is meaningful” (Ly Quoc Tu 2005, p.106) From such a view, he required us to be the most responsible for our words and actions, and the effects of our actions to history This concept of Popper, according to him, is fundamentally different from the point of view of historicalism Historicalism proposed that the movement of history is in accordance with the law of nature, without the interference of decisions and choices of individuals and people just need to follow the footsteps of history In contrast, Popper argued that decision makers should be solely responsible, and not to blame the abstract history for their decisions With that responsibility, people should nourish their logical reasoning and conscience so, the supervision established is considered defected from a democratic perspective In that sense of equality, universal suffrage and representative ruling regime are really the measure of supervising democratic equality Every member of a democratic society has the equal rights to participate in the elections and to choose their delegates to position into the legislature It means that no class is excluded from the democratic supervision process It also means that in order to be passed by the legislature, the laws must have equal relations with every citizen, so that everyone has the right to be legally protected and should be equally punished for violation of the laws From the above analysis, Popper emphasized the relationship between freedom and responsibility in his socio-political philosophy According to Popper, an open society is the society that brings the most freedom It extends the ability to look for differences, the possibility for self-consciousness and personal development This broad freedom of action is associated with responsibility for one's own decisions, as well as the responsibility of the state on the basis of the idea of participation in democratic institutions Only through the implementation of such responsibility can the development and maintenance of an open society be possible Responsibility here is not limited to one person's responsibility for their own political community, but also for global responsibility and accountability for the future Therefore, in the perspective of K Popper of this subject, we can find universal and intergenerational ideas to enrich the debate about justice Thus, for Popper, citizens in a democracy have not only rights, but also responsibilities to participate in the political system In turn, the political system protects their rights and freedoms Citizens in democratic society have the freedom to exercise their rights within the framework of the law under the condition that their expression of their freedoms does not harm other citizens In that sense, "the freedom to move his fists is limited by the position of the nose of the person next to him" (Cornforth.M, 2002, p.566) Like the defenders of democracy, Popper also puts democracy in line with equality According to Popper, equality is created by democratic institutions so in the absence of equality, democracy will disappear Real democracy associates with equality because in democratic principles implementing measures to establish the supervision of those in power from those in ruling, those who are ruled must have equal rights in participating in such supervision and if it is not 2.3 Lessons learned from Karl Popper’s concept of civic responsibility in democratic society to improve the effectiveness of social supervision and criticism in Vietnam today Supervision of government activities means monitoration, detection, consideration, evaluation and recommendations for the performance of official duties by individuals, agencies and organizations working in the government 88 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 apparatus “Social criticism is criticism in general, but wider in scale and force, of society, people and scientists about the content, directions and policies, solutions for the development of the economy, science - technology, education, social development of the whole society, the State and associated organizations” (Ngô Văn Dụ, Hồng Trà, Trần Xuân Giá, 2011, p.182) Thus, the object of social criticism is the directions and policies promulgated by the Party and the State, and the implementation of those policies The scope of social criticism ranges from the directions and policies on economy, politics, culture, ideology to domestic and foreign affairs; therefore it is necessary to gather the synergy of the whole society for social criticism to be effectively performed the executive, judicial, and at all levels of government Each citizen must be responsible for the ballot in their hand to choose people’s representatives who truly deserve, to take on the responsibility that people entrusted with their own future by voting Every citizen must be responsible for the election of the country's leader More importantly, after selecting a worthy representative, citizens should continue to carry out their responsibilities as supervisors of the performance of such delegates and how effective they are in completing the tasks given by the Party and the people It is important to elect competent delegates into the government apparatus, but it is even more important to monitor their performance to prevent bureaucracy, corrupted manifestations in order to maintaining the transparency of cadres in the Party and in government In past years, anticorruption effects have been carried out very aggressively by the Party and the State, many degenerated party members have been punished properly, corruption cases have been tried publicly and transparently under the close monitoring of the people, making the people's faith in the Party in the government to be increasingly strengthened and improved This is the result of the effectiveness of social criticism Supervision is to answer the questions of how the policies and laws are implemented, what affects the implementation can have on the socioeconomy and whether the rights of people are guaranteed Meanwhile, social criticism is to answer whether that the proposed directions and drafted policies, guidelines are suitable, whether they meet the requirement the ever need of innovation of the country, the international integration and the expectation of the people By understanding the basic views of K Popper’s perspective on democratic society and from examining his concepts of the standard of a democratic society and the responsibility of citizens in building a social society, we can draw significant lessons for the implementation of monitoring and social criticism in Vietnam today as follows Second, the role of citizens in monitoring government activities through the implementation of social criticism should be determined correctly Through the feedback of the people should the party committees and authorities be aware of the extent of social consensus and adjust accordingly Guidelines and policies are products created by people, thus, they can be subjective Without social feedback, it is difficult to realize the extent of social consensus; and when a policy is issued without any feedback, it does not mean that the policy is appropriate Non-feedback can either be the presentation of agreement or objection Therefore, if social criticism is not pushed to become a normal socio-political activity, it is First, citizens must be responsible for their own votes in electing qualified representatives to participate in the government apparatus Voting is the process of choosing individuals to hold official duties in the government based on people’s decisions This is the common mechanism that democracies currently use to allocate positions in state apparatus, especially in 89 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 84 – 90 unlikely that there will be feedback from people even when a policy is considered unsuitable The good news is that in recent years, there has been lively discussions in the society whenever the Party or the State issued a certain policy that the majority of people found inappropriate Nevertheless, we need to be more aware of the important role of monitoring and social criticism to implement it seriously and systematically to achieve the highest degree of efficiency affection needs to be legally and vigilantly expressed CONCLUSION Karl Popper’s ideology on the responsibilities of citizens in a democratic society has various levels of content but in the scope of this article, the author decided to focus on exploiting the content of citizens' responsibility in monitoring the power implementation of the State and social criticism of the policies issued by the State to achieve valuable lessons for the application of Vietnam to contribute to improving the effectiveness of social supervision and criticism, and therefore, to build a socialist rule-of-law state “of the people, by the people, for the people” Third, citizens should be mobilized to actively learn and thoroughly understand the Party’s directions and guidelines, the State’s policies, and to maintain political stances when participating in social supervision and criticism Currently in Vietnam, social supervision and criticism is the basic function of the Vietnam Fatherland Front The supervision of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations is the monitoration, review, detection, evaluation and recommendations of agencies, organizations, officials and party members, elected representatives, civil servants, and public officials on the implementation of the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's policies and laws The social criticism of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations is the review, evaluation, proposal of political opinions and recommendations for draft guidelines and policies of the Party, policies and laws of the State REFERENCES Cornforth.M (2002) Open philosophy and open society (Do Minh Hop, translated) Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House (The original book was published in 1968) Ly Quoc Tu (2005) Karl Raimund Popper (Quang Lam, translated) East-West Linguistic Culture Center: Thuan Hoa Publishing House Ngo Van Du, Hong Tra and Tran Xuan Gia (2011) Learning some terms in the muniment of 10th Congress of Vietnam Communist Party Hanoi: National Political Publishing House Popper.K.R (1971) The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol.1 London: Princeton University Press, In order for social supervision and criticism to be truly in-depth and effective, citizens need to improve their understanding and to actively explore social issues of the country Citizens also need to maintain their objectiveness, political stance and trust in the Communist Party in order to prevent hostile forces from taking advantage of social supervision and criticism to incite people in joining protests against the State We love our country and want the country to develop but that Popper.K.R (1971) The Open Society and Its Enemies Vol.2 London: Princeton University Press, London William Gorton (k.n) Karl Popper: Political Philosophy Accessed from http://www.iep.utm.edu/popp-pol/ 90 ... the close monitoring of the people, making the people's faith in the Party in the government to be increasingly strengthened and improved This is the result of the effectiveness of social criticism... integration and the expectation of the people By understanding the basic views of K Popper s perspective on democratic society and from examining his concepts of the standard of a democratic society and. .. content of democracy as the power belonging to the people In developing the theory of an open society, Popper came to a definitive conclusion that only a democratic and open society which is willing