Alicia Campi and Ragchaa Baasan, The Impact of China and Russia on United States-Mongolian Political Relations in the Twentieth Century, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York, 2009. 628pp. ISBN10: 0-7734-4753-9 (pbk), ISBN13: 978-0-7734-4753-0(hbk)
We test the hypothesis that COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy is attributable to distrustful complacency—an interactive combination of low concern and low trust. Across two studies, 9,695 respondents from different parts of Britain reported their level of concern about COVID‐19, trust in the UK government, and intention to accept or refuse the vaccine. Multilevel regression analysis, controlling for geographic area and relevant demographics, confirmed the predicted interactive effect of concern and trust. Across studies, respondents with both low trust and low concern were 10%–22% more vaccine hesitant than respondents with either high trust or high concern, and 26%–29% more hesitant than respondents with both high trust and high concern. Results hold equally among White, Black, and Muslim respondents, consistent with the view that regardless of mean‐level differences, a common process underlies vaccine hesitancy, underlining the importance of tackling distrustful complacency both generally and specifically among unvaccinated individuals and populations.
AbstractPension reforms undertaken by affluent OECD countries in recent decades have resulted in substantial changes in the balance of public and private pension provision, characterised as a growing privatisation of old‐age incomes. However, research on the political determinants of this trend remains limited. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the political determinants of pension privatisation, and to bring partisan politics back into the theoretical framework of pension reforms. The focus is on left government strength, and a distinction is made between left government historical legacy and contemporary left government strength. Time‐series cross‐sectional regressions of pension privatisation on left government strength are performed, analysing 17 OECD countries during the period 1980–2017. The results show that partisan politics matter for pension privatisation, despite structural constraints imposed by demographic and economic factors. Left government historical legacy is associated with less privatisation compared to right and/or centre government historical legacy. Left government legacy also shapes the role of contemporary politics, as contemporary left parties in government tend to privatise less in the context of historically strong left parties in government.
AbstractWith respect to the relationship between the state and democracy, the scholarly research thus far has mainly oscillated between two perspectives: 'no state, no democracy' versus 'no democracy, no state'. Using the example of former Yugoslav republics and based on Mill's method of difference that is complemented with process tracing, we offer an alternative approach. We posit that a democracy can emerge within the context of unresolved matters of state and nation but it is unlikely that it will flourish. Furthermore, we argue that stateness problem creates conditions that facilitate democratic backsliding even if a country achieves a considerable level of democratic development: a fertile ground for ethno‐political entrepreneurship and national identity‐based political divisions that promote polarization. Accordingly, besides facilitating democratization, a resolved stateness problem should be regarded as a condition that fosters democratic resilience as well. The article contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between the state and democracy and reveals the mechanisms that are behind a successful subversion of democracy in the name of the nation.
This study examines the extent and the correlates of the increased entry of persons with alleged or proven criminal backgrounds into Indian electoral and representative politics, as "tainted" candidates and elected national legislators. It confirms the previously perceived trend of an increase in the number and share of tainted national-level politicians active in the country from 2004 onward. A state-level analysis of information about candidates, legislators, as well as the regional social and political contexts shows that larger shares of tainted national MPs elected from particular federal states are in part a function of larger shares of tainted candidates running in the respective states' electoral districts, and of the average level of competitiveness of the electoral contests in those states. These are themselves strongly correlated with the shares of state-level legislators (MLAs) with criminal backgrounds. Non-national political parties and smaller national parties are more likely to count tainted legislators among their MPs, although both the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have over the years consistently produced large numbers of tainted national legislators themselves.
Representation of Arab Muslims pervades today's American political rhetoric. With the increasing focus on the Muslim world in general, and Arab Muslims in particular after the September 11 terror attacks it is necessary to determine how Arab Muslims, their beliefs, roles, responsibilities and aspirations are portrayed. Based on the analysis of John Updike's novel Terrorist ( 2006 ), the study exposes the consequence of 9/11 rhetorics on the representation of Arab Muslims and Islam in the American fictional narrative. The study utilizes works by Donald Pease and Amy Kaplan as a ground for analyzing political rhetoric and fictional narrative. It investigates the dynamics by which Arab Muslims are radically represented in the post-9/11 American narratives. This anti-Arab backlash has affected even Arab-American Christians who find themselves obliged to prove loyalty to the United States on a regular basis. The study facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of American fiction narrative on the Middle East in general, its recent trends, and possible futures and supplies groundwork for future research on issues related to Arab communities in the United States.
The article presents the main principles of the French doctrine of the political representation. This doctrine refers to the concept of transference. According to her one entity transfers its rights and obligations to another entity. Transmission entity is represented (voter), while the entity for which the transfer is made is representative (member of parliament). Representation means so that the member of parliament speaks on behalf of the nation. The focal point of this concept is the belief of the fictional nation as a sovereign. As a result, the traditional doctrine of the French was of the view that the nation as something fictional can exist only in the parliament and can be expressed only by the parliamentarian. This position concluding cry that no nation outside of the representatives of the nation. The second element of the French approach was the assumption of a community dimension representation. Evidence of this was the representative mandate to exclude instructions, orders and command will vote. These two assumptions to this day is the essence of the French project of political representation. ; Artykuł nie zawiera abstraktu w języku polskim
Based on the open animated movie Elephants Dream and the Free Universal Construction Kit project, I delineate and critically examine open source cultural production as a specific practice of the contemporary post-medium condition (Krauss, Manovich). I explore how the open source model of the commons is translated into aesthetic strategies when the open source concept is applied to cultural production. Furthermore, I suggest a model for the cultural object in the post-medium condition, grounded in the way in which this practice affirms its source material. Through this model, I propose categories for the articulation of specificity in practices of the post-medium condition. These categories are further analyzed amid the tensions of commodity market. The discussion proceeds to relate open source cultural practice to issues relevant to the tradition of materialist aesthetics. In particular, the open source artwork is read against the grain of modernist political aesthetics, critically comparing the new media condition of open source production with the political imperative of accessing the mode of production (Benjamin). In conclusion, I outline the politico-aesthetic function ascribed by this practice to digital cultural commons.
Los significados de algunos conceptos fundamentales de la política moderna no se fijaron en el imaginario colectivo exclusivamente a través de los distintos tipos de texto y los discursos. Las imágenes desempeñaron un papel esencial en la forma en la que se representaron los conceptos y fueron utilizadas estratégicamente en las luchas políticas por connotar y resignificar esos conceptos. Una tipología de imágenes que adquirió especial relevancia en ese proceso histórico en el que se conformaron las iconografías políticas de los conceptos fundamentales del discurso moderno fueron las caricaturas. Esta tipología de imágenes fue difundiéndose especialmente a través de la prensa, que enriquecida con ilustraciones tuvo una creciente popularidad en su combinación del humor gráfico con la sátira política. Este proceso de construcción histórica de los significados de los conceptos a partir de una narrativa visual, que conjugaba las ideas y sus símbolos, se ejemplifica con un estudio de caso: democracia. Concretamente, se reconstruye el uso de las imágenes de la democracia desde sus primeras alegorías modernas en los tratados de iconología del siglo xvii hasta la II Guerra Mundial, prestando especial atención a varios momentos históricos en los que la concepción de la democracia y su significado experimentaron cambios cruciales. ; The meanings of some modern political key concepts were set in the social imaginary not only by means of different kinds of texts and of speeches. Images also played a key role in the representation of concepts and were strategically used in the political fights aiming to connote and resignify them. Cartoons are a sort of pictures which became especially important during the historical process when the political iconography of key modern concepts was shaped. Cartoons were widely widespread through the illustrated press that combining graphic humor and political satires had an increasing popularity. The historical making of the meanings of the concepts from a visual narrative that blended ideas ...
In Cuba, there are no efficient mechanisms for civil society to influence legal norms and thus promote legality with justice. In higher education, the process of formulating standards of conduct has not escaped this reality. ; En Cuba no existen mecanismos eficientes para que la sociedad civil incida en las normas jurídicas y así propender por una legalidad con justicia. En la educación superior el proceso de formulación de normas de conducta no ha escapado a esta realidad.
