http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/authors/2590/shaun-docherty Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:06:12 -0400 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:06:12 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1356/defeating-apathy-and-alienation-in-scotland-true-victors-of-the-scottish-referendum By Shaun Docherty - The seeds of this rebellion were initially sewn during the 1980s when the incumbent Conservative Government began to impose its newly embraced neoliberal ideology in the UK, creating a legacy of mass unemployment and social upheaval still experienced today. These events were particularly poignant in Scotland, demonstrating to the nation how they were the victims of a democratic deficit: where although the unpopular Conservative Party were a minority in Scotland, they still possessed a mandate from Westminster to impose a new devastating political economic doctrine which few north of the border... Wed, 17 Feb 2016 02:26 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1356/defeating-apathy-and-alienation-in-scotland-true-victors-of-the-scottish-referendum http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1315/globalization-inequality-and-the-concentration-of-wealth-in-the-uk By Shaun Docherty - Stories like these, exposing the avarice of capitalism, are becoming an almost daily feature of British broadsheets and are testimony to the fact that extreme wealth polarisation and inequality are now major issues for poverty campaigners and economists alike. These trends are both morally repugnant and a reflection of major flaws in the assumptions that underpin free-market economic theory. The free-market is both a mechanism that has facilitated unprecedented growth and development in human history and a wrecking-ball with no morals and the potential to tear societies apart. As inequality spirals... Mon, 30 Nov 2015 09:32 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1315/globalization-inequality-and-the-concentration-of-wealth-in-the-uk http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1051/media-discourse-during-the-financial-crisis-an-inquiry-into-the-nature-of-the-contemporary-fourth-estate By Shaun Docherty - The concept of a “fourth estate” was first articulated by John Declare, editor of The Times in an article published in 1853. He believed the press had a crucial role to play in British society’s transformation into a representative liberal democracy by holding the state to account and by “seek[ing] out the truth, above all things.”[2] This basic premise has been developed by liberal democracy theorists like Noberto Bobbio who have defined the modern media’s pivotal role in a functioning, inclusive democracy. Today, the media’s role in a democratic society... Fri, 19 Jun 2015 09:26 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1051/media-discourse-during-the-financial-crisis-an-inquiry-into-the-nature-of-the-contemporary-fourth-estate http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1033/the-source-and-nature-of-power-comparing-noumenal-and-structural-power-according-to-forst-and-strange By Shaun Docherty - Their protest challenged the paradigm of power as it existed at the time, specifically by revealing the limitations of the state's ability to exercise its will even in a situation where the state wielded seemingly absolute authority.[1] Power, as Rainer Forst argues, is "noumenal" and as such it can only exist when recognized by the subject.[2] The hunger strikers' symbolic act of defiance against the British state demonstrates how it is the subject who is empowered by their choice of whether or not to recognize the sovereignty of an outside authority. Even while imprisoned and in solitary confinement... Fri, 15 May 2015 09:35 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1033/the-source-and-nature-of-power-comparing-noumenal-and-structural-power-according-to-forst-and-strange http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1000/the-contemporary-global-public-sphere-as-reincarnation-of-habermas-bourgeois-society By Shaun Docherty - Our contemporary global public sphere is made up of a tiny proportion of the world’s population. Affluent, exclusive, and concerned only with perpetuating its own economic advancement, this contemporary global public sphere is an anachronism that possesses all the constituent elements of the early eighteenth century bourgeois public sphere identified by Jürgen Habermas in his seminal work, “The Structural Transformation of the Global Sphere.” This is a particularly bold statement considering Habermas was heavily criticised for his theory, was believed to have been unhappy... Mon, 16 Feb 2015 11:40 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1000/the-contemporary-global-public-sphere-as-reincarnation-of-habermas-bourgeois-society