Suchergebnisse

This contribution focuses on the survival of Afrikaans within the framework of a multilingual South Africa. The first section provides a brief historical reconstruction of the power-political shifts that Afrikaans underwent between 1966 and 2004. In the second section some of the arguments that were used for and against Afrikaans between 1994 and 2004 are presented. In the last section these arguments are shifted to the terrain of contemporary normative political theory, where three aspects are important: the question of addressing language loss in the world; the importance of multicultural citizenship, and the need for a more profound and multilingual understanding of democracy. In short: a democracy is not just characterised by the instrumental counting of votes, but also by the qualitative articulation of different voices.

AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN POLAND, THE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT PROVIDED LEADERSHIP FOR THE POLITICAL TRANSITION. HOWEVER, NOT LONG AFTER SOLIDARITY'S GRAND COALITION CAME TO POWER, IT SUFFERED A SERIES OF DEBILITATING POLITICAL DEFEATS. IN THE 1980'S, SOLIDARITY LEADERS WERE HERALDED AS CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY. IN THE 1990'S, MOST POLES VIEWED THESE SAME INDIVIDUALS AS JUST ANOTHER GROUP OF SHIFTY POLITICIANS. THE DECLINE FROM EXALTED LEADER TO UNTRUSTWORTHY POLITICIAN WAS PARTICULARLY PRONOUNCED FOR LECH WALESA. ORIGINALLY IDOLIZED FOR HIS IDEALISTIC FERVOR, WALESA CAME TO BE VIEWED AS JUST ANOTHER INDIVIDUALISTIC, RUTHLESS, AND CONTROVERSIAL POLITICIAN. WALESA'S DECLINE REVEALS A GREAT DEAL ABOUT THE DIVERSE GROUPS UNITED BY ANTI-COMMUNIST FERVOR DURING THE REVOLUTION, ONLY TO SPLINTER INTO MANY FACTIONS WHEN THE REVOLUTION WAS OVER.

COMPARED TO OTHER COMMUNIST STATES IN EAST-CENTRAL Europe, Romania offers a fascinating case of neo-Stalinist radicalism cloaked in nationalistic language. A hyper-centralized model of leadership, based on clan instead of party dictatorship, an obedient, corrupt and strikingly incompetent political class, a marked preference for coercive rather than persuasive methods of domination, and stubborn opposition to reforms have contributed to the development of a deep and potentially explosive social, political, and economic crisis. But the price for this unabated commitment to the Stalinist model has been a gradual institutional erosion, the growing deterioration of the social fabric, the heightening of economic tensions, and intellectual asphyxiation. The conflict between state and society has been exacerbated by president Nicolae CeauSescu's wilful and increasingly idiosyncratic behaviour.

The efforts of the Italian people to create the basis of a new political life are proceeding amidst the most serious difficulties, but not without well-founded hopes for the future. There is hunger in Italy today—and insecurity, unemployment, lack of transportation and of some of the bare necessities of civilized human life. Worst of all, there is inflation on a fearful scale, with its destruction of economic and moral values, with its sudden impoverishment of whole classes. No wonder that some foreign observers have reported apathy among the people with regard to political problems. It is difficult to imagine any other attitude under conditions which make life a nightmare. Nevertheless, the outlines of things to come are taking shape.

The article is devoted to the study of modern processes of mythological impact on mass consciousness. The expediency of the use of consolidating and mobilizing potential of political myth for progressive social changes is proved.

EXPLAINING VOTING BEHAVIOUR OR EVEN FORECASTING VOTE SHARES IN GENERAL ELECTIONS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAJOR CONCERN OF POLITICAL SCIENTISTS. AT PRESENT, THERE ARE BASICALLY TWO DISTINCT BODIES OF LITERATURE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT: THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY AND THE ECONOMIC THEORY. THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY WAS DEVELOPED DURING WORLD WAR II AND IS GENERALLY ACCEPTED TODAY. LAZARSFELD ET AL. MAY BE REGARDED AS THE PIONEERING WORK IN THIS AREA. THE ECONOMIC THEORY, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAS MORE RECENT ORIGINS. EVEN THOUGH HOTELLING AND SCHUMPETER ALREADY APPLIED ECONOMIC REASONING TO POLITICAL PROBLEMS, THE FOUNDATION OF THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF POLITICS (PUBLIC CHOICE) IS USUALLY CREDITED TO DOWNS. THE SEMINAL EMPIRICAL STUDIES WITHIN THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF VOTING BEHAVIOUR ARE GOODHART AND BHANSALI, MUELLER AND KRAMER. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PAPER IS TO REVIEW AND COMPARE THESE TWO THEORIES IN THE LIGHT OF THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE WHICH CAN BE OBTAINED FROM THE NEW ZEALAND CONTEXT. SINCE THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY IS WELL KNOWN AS FAR AS POLITICAL SCIENTISTS ARE CONCERNED, THE ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE IS STRESSED. THE PAPER IS ORGANIZED AS FOLLOWS. SECTION 1 SETS THE STAGE BY BRIEFLY SUMMARISING THE CONTROVERSY WHICH HAS BEEN CARRIED ON IN THIS JOURNAL, SURROUNDING AN EMPIRICAL VOTE FUNCTION FOR NEW ZEALAND. IN SECTION 2 THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO ECONOMIC REASONING IS PRESENTED AND COMPARED WITH THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH. THE APPLICATION OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC APPROACHPY: 1984

Something important happened in the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main between 1612 and 1616. Nobody doubts that. The Fettmilch Uprising, as it is generally known, involved a complex and turbulent series of events which culminated in the dramatic execution of the ringleader, Vincenz Fettmilch, and six of his comrades. But why exactly were they executed—and what was the uprising all about? This depends on what you read. It is a commonplace, of course, that historical events are subject to different interpretations, but here a much deeper problem of historical perception seems to be at stake. For we come across descriptions of the uprising so different in substance as to make one question whether they even refer to the same event. And the differences between these accounts are generally related to one of the most sensitive and troubling aspects of German history: the status and treatment of the Jews. In fact the Fettmilch Uprising illustrates with disturbing clarity the difficulties that both Germans and Jews have long experienced—and continue to experience—in attempting to understand and give meaning to some important aspects of their common past.

Universities should not be in the political activism business

Native nations, like the Navajo nation, have proven to be remarkably adept at retaining and exercising ever-increasing amounts of self-determination even when faced with powerful external constraints and limited resources. Now in this fourth edition of David E. Wilkins' The Navajo Political Experience, political developments of the last decade are discussed and analyzed comprehensively, and with as much accessibility as thoroughness and detail. The Diné people and their governing leaders have recently experienced a host of events that dramatically affected the shape of the nation—a plethora of effective grassroots organizations that had a profound impact on the structure of the Navajo political system, a dramatic reduction in the size of the legislative branch from eighty-eight to twenty-four members, the introduction of institutional gambling, unresolved battles over water rights, and a tense political crisis that pitted the legislative branch against the judicial branch as the court sought to ensure that the Fundamental Law was to be adhered to by all governing bodies. These and other developments are examined in this new edition, which includes three new appendices which add to the book's value as a classroom tool and a primary source. ; https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1337/thumbnail.jpg

FOR many centuries the pattern of political leadership in India was two-tiered. At the top was "the Government" — what I will call macropolitical leadership — surrounded with pomp and magnificence and all the trappings of wealth and power. Macropolitical leadership changed hands with some frequency, and in modern times was often foreign, first Mughal and then British. In general the macropolitical leadership impinged little on the lives of the ordinary Indian. It was remote from the village and interfered seldom in village affairs, except to raise revenue and maintain a relative law and order. Village India had its own ancient pattern of leadership — what I will call micropolitical leadership. The village was a highly traditional and rigid social and political unit. The higher castes within the village combined social, economic, political, and ritual pre-eminence, and the lower castes tended to be dependent on them to a greater or lesser degree. The Indian village was a complicated network of precedence and relationship, but political authority was concentrated in the leaders of the dominant castes. These men were concerned with settling disputes between communities in the village, protecting the village and its lands from outsiders, and gaining concessions for the village from the macropolitical leadership.

"To foreign observers, the high international reputation of German universities around the turn of the 20th century contrasted sharply with their authoritarian structure and corporate student subculture. This chapter analyzes the Prussian educational statistics, arguing that the 4.5 fold expansion of the student body was fed by an expansion of the secondary system, the inclusion of women and the attraction of foreign students. This made the diversifying philosophical faculty the leading rector, while theology declined whereas law and medicine continued to trade places. Moreover, academic selfrecruitment also decreased, while students from the propertied Bürgertum gained and the new lower middle dass began to assert itself. With increasing numbers of Catholics and Jews, as well as graduates of modern secondary schools, the student body began to reflect more closely the social diversity of Germany. The essay concludes that a good deal of the ideological conflict between liberal and illiberal academics was a consequence of this expansion and diversification of social structures." (author's abstract)