Suchergebnisse

In the digital age, the Internet is an important factor in the emergence and success of political parties and social movements. Despite growing evidence that extremists of all stripes use the virtual world for their purposes, research on this topic still lacks a wide array of empirical data, case studies, and theoretical background. In particular, Facebook, as the most important social networking site, is a new tool for political parties and movements to mobilize followers. The article explores how the extreme-right party Jobbik uses this tool more successfully than other Hungarian parties or Western European extreme-right parties. Comparing the growth in followers highlights this success, and a look at how it generates likes helps to explain it. The article argues that Jobbik uses Facebook in a sophisticated way and suggests that this "likable" attitude helps to attract young and first-time voters.

The main claim of the present article is that a Shia theological seminary, contrary to the common depiction presented, is a multivocal institution. The tradition of multivocality does not appertain only to ʿulamāʾ. Young clergy and seminaries also have very different ideas concerning religious thought. Evidence of this can be found in the present article in the form of examples of the dramatic discrepancy between ʿulamāʾ in essential theological beliefs, political theology, juridical methodology, issuing fatwas, and historical events relating to Shia identity. Moreover, the multivocality of young seminary students was empirically tested in Howzah ʿlmiyyah of Qom in Iran. The findings of this survey demonstrate the existence of four distinct schools of religious thought in the Shia seminary. At the end of the article, the educational, political and technological factors which have led to the formation of different intellectual trends within the contemporary Shia clergy institution are discussed.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, southern Brazil received numerous migratory contingents, attracted by the Imperial State or by provincial governments. However, the main difference with colonisation organised by private companies was that it aimed primarily at the commercialisation of farmland and the establishment of trade in agricultural and artisanal products. The private colonisation companies were often run by groups, families or individuals who were also immigrants. This process was fraught with conflict. With great visibility in Brazilian society, these entrepreneurs took advantage of commercial openings by exploiting farmers and workers without political rights and with little knowledge of the country of settlement. The same system however did hide political and economic disputes between local and immigrant elites. To discuss the role of immigrant entrepreneurs, this article presents some results of research on the trajectory of the Rheingantz family.

This article discusses the spatial and political dimensions of an unrecognized Arab village in Israel, which is a subject of houses demolition during the last decade, taking part in parallel to a legal struggle for recognition. This case is part of a wide political act in Israel, where Palestinians are rendered 'criminal' and their spaces illegitimate. We will suggest that the unrecognized villages cannot be seen solely as a product of planning policies, but are essential to the understanding of the ways in which Israeli sovereignty is embodied. We will discuss the case using legal documents regarding the latest petition made to the High Court of Justice. Through those documents, we will try to analyse the ways in which Israeli sovereignty is being embodied using theoretical tools by Carl Schmitt and his debate with Hans Kelsen. At the conclusions, we will suggest some thoughts regarding the possibilities of resistance.

This article seeks to stimulate a fresh and inter-disciplinary debate which revolves around the need to move from a 'senseless democracy' that is insufficiently attuned to the dilemmas and challenges of fostering meaningful political engagement to a more 'sensory democracy'. It achieves this by first exploring and dissecting recent works within democratic theory that emphasise the role of 'watching' and 'listening' within sociopolitical relationships. It then goes on to develop a set of constructive criticisms by applying insights drawn from the fields of practical aesthetics and applied theatre. Not only does this exercise allow us to take the analytical lens far beyond the focus on voice-based forms of expression that have hitherto dominated political analysis, it demonstrates the value of inter-disciplinary scholarship in exposing sensory-subtleties that raise distinctive questions for both politics 'as theory' and politics 'as practice'.

While the questions of how parties seek to address (or not) pressing issues are critically important, scholars have generally paid little attention to where issues are addressed within the political system, and the consequences for party competition of that choice. The fact that issues can be addressed within several institutional (i.e. functional) domains and levels – general elections, parliament, referenda, courts, local government, etc. – implies that political parties may address an issue, and thereby interact with one another, in consequentially different ways depending on the institutional arena or level of government wherein they seek resolution. This article describes how Ireland's parties addressed the electorally volatile issue of abortion via referendum campaigns. The article draws upon multiple sources of evidence to support its findings, including original data based on results from the author's two parliamentary surveys following the 2007 and 2011 election campaigns.

Abstract
Our paper takes as its starting point the premise that elections are central moments in the life of polities: these are the times when individual citizens demonstrate support or otherwise of political institutions and regimes, assess their accountability and set agendas for the next government. In short, elections allow us to observe whether and how political regimes live up to society's expectations. This issue has particular resonance in deeply divided societies that have experienced ethnic conflict in the past. In the deeply divided society of Kosovo, local and national elections in 2013 and 2014 presented an opportunity to analyze voter choices and elite agendas, with the presence of ethnopolitical issues under scrutiny. Our paper concludes that the normalization of electoral politics, within the context of European aspirations, has not yet taken place in Kosovo, and that the options available to the electorate continue to be dominated by identity politicking.

The documentary film Prisoners of Hope (1995) is a heart-rending account of 1 250 former political prisoners in the notorious Robben Island prison in South Africa. The aim of this article is to explore the narratives of Prisoners of Hope and in the process capture its celebratory mood and reveal the contribution that the prisoners made towards the realisation of a free South Africa. The documentary features interviews with Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and other former inmates as they recall and recount the atrocities perpetrated by defenders of the apartheid system and debate the future of South Africa with its 'new' political dispensation led by blacks. A textual analysis of Prisoners of Hope will enable one to explore the human capacity to resist, commit oneself to a single goal and live beyond the horrors and traumas of an oppressive and dehumanising system.

This article introduces the reader to the so called 'digital labor debate' in the context of the political economy of (new) media and (digital) communication. The political economy of social media is best qualified as surveillance-driven production of culture and as an interplay between distinct modes of production (commons based peer production and commodity production). The latter gives rise to the problem of how to understand the interplay between these modes. The article discusses contributions from different theoretical angels, such as the materialist theory of communication, the theory of cognitive capitalism, the theory of prosumption, and the theory of rent in the informational age. The discussion is organized by three topics: Does the use of social media qualify as work? Are users subsumed to capital control? Are users exploited? The article marks theoretical challenges for a critical theory of informational capitalism.

How can we understand German-Russian relations since German
reunification? Both the geopolitical positions of the two states and the political
and economic ties between them have been transformed over the past twentyfive
years. This paper will argue, however, that the role of the two countries'
leaders in shaping these relations has been surprisingly important. Building on
the tradition of "first image" analysis in international relations, this paper
shows that, along with larger political and economic trends, personal relations
between these leaders have helped to set the tenor of bilateral ties. When the
leaders were able to build trust and personal friendships, relations improved.
Yet more recently, since 2012, relations have soured sharply. While there are
obviously larger reasons for this, more negative personal ties between leaders
have also played an important role. In short, just as issues of trust and friendship
matter in personal ties, they also matter in International Relations.

The purpose of this article is to explore and analyze Iran's "Republican Moment" of 16‒19 August 1953, arguably the last concerted effort to abolish the monarchy and establish a republican order in the county prior to the Revolution of 1978‒79. By drawing on a broad range of primary source materials that have thus far remained relatively understudied by existing scholarship, such as the political press of those crucial days, the essay will attempt to shed light on a number of significant domestic developments which impacted the outcome of the actual coup of 19 August 1953. A further attempt will be made to explain the importance of calls in favor of the Republic and the premier Mohammad Mosaddeq's refusal to take heed of them. The paper will also explore the diverse origins of the Republican platform and its impact on both the urban crowd and the political elite.

This study widens the historical perspectives of how a firm coordinates its activities to simultaneously achieve financial and political ends while using regional efforts to enact a national strategy. It examines how AT&T organized Bell Telephone Securities (BTS), a transitional subsidiary during the period 1921–1935, to broaden ownership of corporate shares and to develop political and cultural identities with Bell among small investors, particularly in the South and West. Equally significant was BTS's maintenance of liquidity of the Bell shares in the stock market, particularly in support of periodic rights offerings and debt conversions that were primary channels for increasing corporate equity. The subsidiary was eventually disbanded when its defining financial policies became unsustainable because of the radical socioeconomic and regulatory changes brought on by the Great Depression, but by this time many of its original objectives had been realized.

The Arab Spring and the short-lived political ascendancy of Islamist movements reignited the debate about what greater popular participation in foreign policy decision-making would entail for the prospects of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Building on the developing body of individual-level investigations into the Democratic Peace thesis and contributing to the wider debate about the relationship between peace and democracy in the Middle East, this paper utilizes 2010–2011 Arab Barometer data to establish the determinants of public support for a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict across the Arab world. The results reveal that emancipative political values such as support for gender equality and secularism help predict greater support for peace with Israel. These findings demonstrate that contrary to the claims of skeptics, democratization and peace can reinforce each other in the Arab world.

SummaryThis article addresses the rise of design thinking and its problematics in the social policy sphere. In particular, it argues that studies of social policy design, like all design work in policymaking, must differentiate more carefully between technical and political considerations in public policymaking and examine the implications each process has for the content of social policy design, its implementation, and its prospects of success or failure. The article develops a model of social policy formulation spaces based on the extent to which policies are intended to address technical or political problems and a government's capacity to engage in policy analysis and alternative assessment. This model is applied in the articles in this special issue to help understand the patterns of policy content and outcome success and failure found in this sector across multiple jurisdictions and issue areas. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AbstractWhat, if anything, can transnational advocacy networks (TANs) contribute to the democratization of public spheres outside Westphalian frameworks? On the one hand, TANs excel at turning international public campaigns into political influence – connecting people and power across borders. On the other hand, the increasingly policy‐orientated nature of TANs raises questions about their legitimacy in speaking on behalf of multiple publics. In this article, I suggest that a TAN's success in ensuring the political efficacy of public spheres, while at the same time undermining their normative legitimacy, reflects two sides of the same coin. This is a consequence of the recent internal professionalization of advocacy networks. Framing professionalization as a particular form of communicative distortion within TAN decision‐making, I suggest that networks should incorporate internal deliberative mechanisms, adapted from international social forums, to enhance the normative legitimacy of democratic public spheres.