In the contemporary world, education is recognized as a fundamental tool for fostering active, responsible, and capable citizens who require processes that strengthen participation, mutual understanding, and rational dialogue. The present study aims to examine the application of Rousseau’s participatory democracy and Habermas’ communicative action in the teaching of spatial sciences, with a particular focus on geography. The research adopts an action research design with an applied orientation. The study population consisted of 24 undergraduate geography students enrolled in the course Urban Geography of Iran. Data were collected and analyzed across 14 instructional sessions through observation, evaluation, and the interpretation of lived experiences within an interpretive framework. The research process followed a cyclical pattern, including problem identification, theoretical review, formation of focus groups, and dialogue-oriented consensus building. Findings indicate that democratic, participatory, and communicative approaches to spatial education emerge gradually and require a process-oriented foundation. Accordingly, the integration of Rousseau’s participatory democracy with Habermas’ communicative action demands active facilitation by instructors and the reinforcement of intra- and inter-group interactions. The results further reveal that combining these two approaches in geography education—particularly in spatially oriented courses—creates a pathway for transitioning from teacher-centered learning to participatory–discursive learning. This shift enhances skills of spatial analysis, critique, collaboration, and debate, thereby deepening learning and understanding of spatial concepts. Ultimately, the study proposes a practical framework for democratic, interactive, and active education, serving as an illustrative example of implementing these philosophical approaches in higher education.

Participatory democracy is considered as one of the democratic models of developed countries applicable to small local administrative contexts such as cities through the instrument of local or municipal referendum. In the Italian legal system these processes and tools exist, and the study of scientific foundations, rules and practices of all kinds of local and municipal referendums can be a good example for the scientific community and the developing legal system of Iran, which has so far been deprived of this instrument. The importance of the research is due to the possibility that the correct description of participatory democracy and municipal referendums in Italy can be an example for the Iranian system, given that the answer to these questionsn that can municipal referendums raise popular participation about governance and can they help to stabilize democracy and decentralization or not, it’ s a help to discuss methods for strengthen democracy in Iran. Exactly for this reason, in the various parts of this article we will analyze firstly the scientific basis of the concept of participatory democracy, also in relation to other types of democracy, like the deliberative one. Subsequently, starting from the constitution and from the ordinary laws we will limit the research field to the local communities and to the municipalities, i. e. to the administrative units of the Italian legal system. Describing the various types of municipal referendums mentioned by national and local regulations and laws, we will propose some examples of referendums performed in last years in Italian cities and thanks to the study of the judgments of the ordinary and administrative judiciary we will try to describe the features of these referendums, not only in theory, but also in practice. Finally, it will be demonstrated that participatory democracy, and in particular municipal referendums, will in some way guarantee legal development, popular participation, consolidation of the democratic system and decentralization in Italy, and developing countries such as Iran, providing strengths and weaknesses points are recognized, can benefit from this model and can promote their governance components.

Although people's participation in the management of public affairs has existed in various forms throughout the world for the past few centuries, in the last decade, another type of democracy has been implemented in many academic circles, which is participatory democracy. In participatory democracy, there is a great emphasis on citizen activism, transforming citizens from voters into active activists. In this type of democracy, the people do not simply elect the rulers, but rather directly supervise their performance and, alongside them, manage the public affairs of society in all three branches. Participatory democracy is a new type of democracy that allows citizens to play an active role in public decision-making. It is the opposite of representative democracy and allows citizens to participate directly in the political and social affairs of society on an ongoing basis. Participatory democracy seeks to improve relations between rulers and citizens through intermediary institutions such as civil society or non-governmental organizations. Participatory democracy is a type of direct democracy because citizens have the right to participate in public decision-making, and voters implement the public decisions. In this system of governance, citizens influence public decisions and determine public priorities and demands, and it includes participation in the implementation of public decisions and monitoring their implementation...

This article deals with the relationship between the culture of modern participatory democracy and the use of social networks within the teachers' community of the Iranian central city of Isfahan. New participatory democracy is an innovative system for using new media to deepen democratic governance by facilitating more direct participation of the people in political decision-making. The formation of a political culture of participation based on the new environment of communication is important among all different groups of society, but the formation of this culture among teachers is twice important because of their key role in the process of political socialization. The purpose of this study is to answer the question of what is the culture of modern participatory democracy of the teaching community, based on the use of social networks. For this purpose, the variables of using social networks and the culture of modern participatory democracy in the teachers' community of Isfahan, in 2017-18 academic year, have been measured by survey method. The results indicate that the relationship between the culture of participatory democracy and the use of social networks, in the sample under study, despite the constraint of "trust in social networks", is a significant and consistent relationship. In other words, the use of social networks does not necessarily lead to the creation or enhancement of the culture of participatory democracy, but when referring to social networks, as a source of news and political information, is accompanied by trust in this medium, ith as been effective in promoting the culture of participatory democracy of the respondents.

In This Essay Is Trying to Study The Relation Between Islam and Democracy In Model of Deep Democracy and Committed Democracy. Thus, I Study This Relation in on Seven Factors of Concepts of Democracy (Political or Philosophical), Awareness From outside, Multi Approach to Democracy, Community nd Self Interaction, Communication, Situated Self and Pluralism, That Are Beyond of Current Liberal Democracy in The West, and Criticize It. This Factors Are Basis of Deep Democracy. And, Because Committed Democracy Is Taking From Shariati, s Thought, Then This Democracy Relyed on Shariati, s Thought. Finally, Is Resulted That, Shariati, s Reading on Islam, in This Sight, Is Democratic.

There are two general views on the impact of technology on democracy: a (technology is a threat to democracy, b) technology provides proper grounds for democracy.The aim of this article is to study the consequences of the influence of technology on democracy. Taking technologistic and cultural approaches, this paper studies the influence of technology on the four components of democracy as a government system- decision making policy, human beings as decision makers, community as consisting of individuals, and procedures of determining destiny-and argues that technology is an integral part of democracy in modern technological era to the extent that it entails making the new term as «technological democracy. This term overshadows the question of whether technology is a threat or opportunity to democracy. The question would be significant, when its purpose is to reconcile democracy and technology.

Religious democracy model possesses significant critical capacity in comparison to other theoretical patterns of political system. Inspired by the teachings of new critical theory and explaining critical capacity of the model of deliberative democracy order as a product of new critical theory, the author explains theoretical proximity and coordination found between deliberative democracy order and religious democracy model. Then he argues for the critical capacity of religious democracy and its higher capacity as compared to deliberative democracy order. This paper is mainly intended to shed a light on the idea of necessity of religious democracy for Muslim nations in the existing conditions of the Muslim World.

In recent modernity era, especially between big war and the annihilation of communism, the most important political division in democratic countries has been the duality of Right/Left. Often the two biggest rival parties, apart from their different names, have been representing two tendencies, the social democracy and the liberal democracy. The main difference between these two positions has been about functionality and ethicality of welfare state. Our question in this article is the following: From the point view of social and economic mechanism, the intersection of democratic countries is closer to system of preferences of social democracy or liberal democracy? It is to corroboration that, somewhat contrary to the twentieth century, a scientific-experimental and realistic approach to the social planning makes these two positions convergent in a pragmatist framework, and, despite of a propagandist atmosphere of challenge, their theoretical and ideological differences are leaving their seriousness and functionality. The conflict of Tax versus services is transferring from an ideological and ethical principle to a subject for a limited and temporary examination among a group of experts. The existence of welfare state is no more a problem, it is its ranges and limitations which is a subject of discussion and decision. Even the domain of disagreement here is to reduce.