Suchergebnisse

"Die Tagung 'Feminisms Reloaded: Umkämpfte Terrains in Zeiten von Antifeminismus, Rassismus und Austerität' beschäftigte sich mit Debatten um Austeritätspolitiken und jüngsten rassistischen und antifeministischen Entwicklungen im europäischen Raum. Die international besetzten Panels und die anschließenden Diskussionen bezogen dabei insbesondere die Rolle von Akteur_innen aus Politik, Medien und Wissenschaft mit ein und zogen sowohl nationale Fallbeispiele als auch europäische Perspektiven heran. Die Referierenden und Teilnehmenden gingen den Fragen nach, wie aktuelle Denk- und Argumentationsmuster aussehen, die in rassistischen und/oder antifeministischen Bezügen verankert sind, und wie sich diese Positionen aus feministischer und antirassistischer Perspektive analytisch fassen lassen können." (Autorenreferat)

There have been almost 40 years after the restoration of democracy in Greece and a peculiar prosperity, which was consciously cultivated by the leaders of political and economic elites, was promoted before the onset of the financial crisis. However, from the beginning of the financial recession, the temporal illusions have been revealed and the need of a complete transformation of the financial policies has been expressed, while a significant transformation of the entire political culture has started. Parties such as SYRIZA, Independent Greeks(ANEL) and Golden Dawn took advantage of the growing social discontent by propagating their selves as exponents of ordinary people and of their concerns or their fears, as the expression of resistance against an avoidable sellout of public values. However, crisis has exposed a number of successive truths which were elaborately hiding in the underbelly of the detaining political and socioeconomic system. These truths were exteriorized once it became clear that the foundations on which the Greek society was based after the restoration of democracy, were weak and insufficient to guide the country's way towards a modern future.

The guidelines to which directed the criminal law shown as main features: (i) a strong inclination tightening the existing penalties, (ii) the growth in the criminalization of social behaviors aff ect legal abstract and / or groups, and (iii) expansion to social issues and confl icts that may well settled without involving the right criminal. Clearly some phenomena have contributed to the deconstruction of criminal law to speak today of a criminal law categorized into fi rst, second and third gear. As core of these new scenarios are technological advances paradoxically have been crucial to the confi guration of a criminal law that aims to control the dynamics of society legitimizing their actions in a new model called risk society. ; Las orientaciones hacia las que se ha dirigido el Derecho Penal, muestran como características principales: (i) una fuerte inclinación por el endurecimiento de los castigos existentes; (ii) la proliferación en la criminalización de conductas sociales que afectan bienes jurídicos abstractos y/o colectivos, y (iii) la expansión a hechos y confl ictos sociales que bien pueden solucionarse sin la intervención del Derecho Penal. Es evidente que algunos fenómenos han contribuido a la deconstrucción del Derecho Penal para hablar hoy día de un Derecho Penal categorizado en primera, segunda y tercera velocidad. Como núcleo esencial de estos nuevos escenarios aparecen los avances tecnológicos, paradójicamente determinantes para la confi guración de un Derecho Penal que pretende controlar las dinámicas propias de la sociedad, legitimando su actuar en un nuevo modelo de sociedad denominada del riesgo.

The record of the last twenty years shows that most of the hopes put in the Second republic have been betrayed. Rather than a two party system reproducing the Westminster model, Italy has nurtured two highly fragmented coalitions, which have, in the latest national elections, been outplayed by a third pole, the protest movement of Beppe Grillo. The result is a tri-polar system, where a parliamentary majority can only be obtained by pulling together two bitterly antagonistic parties, with very little, if any, governmental stability. This article explains why the Second Republic failed to meet the expectations of the reform movement which strived to set Italian politics on a better track. It outlines how the main features of the emerging regime -the so-called Third republic- reflect, as it is often the case, the legacies of the previous one.

Why is it considered more European to vote in the affirmative of the Euro than it is to vote against it? Why is not possible to be a populist and a ?Good European? at the same time? What makes an illegal immigrant different from a tourist? These questions all concern the limits of what it means to be, act and think as Europeans in Europe. In the political process of bringing the nations and peoples of Europe together, Europe is imagined as a distinct community. The aim of this study is to analyse contemporary articulations of what makes Europe ?Europe? in the context of the political project of the EU. Elaborating on the correlation between articulations of a certain European identity and the politics of European integration, this thesis combines theories and perspectives of identity construction with theories that, more explicitly, deal with mechanisms of power and repression as immanent in any societal formation (i.e. discourse theory). By bringing Europe down to earth, the author highlights contradictions and tensions that are inherent in our perceptions of what makes Europe ?Europe?. In a first step, the study emphasises how knowledge of what makes Europe ?Europe? is reproduced in a ?constitutive split? between the positions of ?Europe? and ?the nation?. The analysis suggests that this relationship of mutual dependency further constrains the possibility of articulating alternative positions. Bringing Europe down to earth, in this perspective, means to underline the continuity between past attempts to imagine nation-states and current endeavours to articulate a certain European identity that knit together Europeans with a distinct notion of a European community. In a second step, the author focuses on contemporary labelling processes that separate ?us? (the Europeans) from them ?them?, the ?not-Europeans?. This dissertation includes analyses of domestic referenda on EU-related issues, the transformation of the EU into an area of freedom, security and justice and finally also the relation between Brussels and populism. The identity-making enterprise that takes place in the name of Europe is not merely about the making of spatial demarcations of where Europe ends or who is to become a European citizen and who is not. The question of what makes Europe ?Europe? is expressed also inside the territorial borders of the enlarged Union as manifest in a series of constitutive splits that separate between ?Good Europeans? and ?Bad Europeans?; between ?Good strangers? and ?Bad strangers?; between friends and foes. In his analysis of EU-elite rhetoric, the author infers that the European integration process is attached with a certain logic of irrevocability that trigger the development further, despite a lack of popular support. The project of bringing Europe down to earth encourages us to remove the question of Europe from the realm of historic necessity to the sphere of politics.

In Colombia, around sixteen draft legislative act have been submitted to modify article 34 of the Constitution, thus eliminating the prohibition of life sentences; the most recent has been the project of Legislative Act 001 of 2019, whose content enshrined that the penalty, would only be reviewable, after thirty years of effective deprivation of liberty. The publication aims to trace the attempts made by the legislator so far to incorporate this sanction, and review the arguments used to justify it. The aim is to demonstrate the precarious rationality incorporated in the motives expositions, the legislative debates in committee and in the plenary, the lacking empirical sustention, its weak justification, and the use in its replacement, of an already common punitive populism, with which it contravenes besides the Constitution, the Rules of the Congress and the pronouncements of the Constitutional Court on reflective legislation. ; En Colombia se han presentado alrededor de dieciséis proyectos de acto legislativo para modificar el artículo 34 de la Constitución, y así suprimir la prohibición de penas perpetuas; el más reciente ha sido el proyecto de Acto Legislativo 001 de 2019, cuyo contenido consagra que la pena, solamente será revisable, pasados treinta años de privación efectiva de la libertad. La publicación pretende rastrear los intentos realizados por el legislador, para incorporar dicha sanción, y revisar los argumentos usados para justificarla. Así mismo demostrar la precaria racionalidad incorporada a las exposiciones de motivos, a los debates legislativos en comisión y plenaria, el carente sustento empírico, su débil justificación, y el uso en su remplazo, de un ya común populismo punitivo, con el que se contraviene además de la Constitución, el Reglamento del Congreso y los pronunciamientos de la Corte Constitucional sobre legislación reflexiva.

Der politische Diskurs verroht, in den sozialen Medien toben Trolle und grenzüberschreitende Witze haben Hochkonjunktur. Rechtspopulist*innen und fragwürdige Influencer*innen nutzen bewusst sprachliche Unschärfen und ironische Zwischentöne, um das Gesagte im Nachhinein relativieren zu können. Der Autor untersucht die besondere Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie und die Konnektivität des Likens und Teilens der sozialen Medien, die die Ausbreitung von politischem und kulturellem Zynismus anfachen. Mit dem Konzept des konnektiven Zynismus zeigt er auf, wie aus randständigem Humor Profit geschlagen und mit antidemokratischen Diskursstrategien Politik gemacht wird.

Die ersten Dresdner »Spaziergänge« von PEGIDA haben seit Oktober 2014 einen regen politischen und medialen Diskurs zur Bedeutung und zum Umgang mit dieser Bewegung provoziert. Seither wurden vielfältige sozialwissenschaftliche Anstrengungen unternommen, dieses in seiner Dimension unerwartete und dynamische soziale Phänomen zu beschreiben und zu verstehen. Nach zweijähriger Präsenz von PEGIDA und einer Vielzahl von Einzelpublikationen gibt dieser Sammelband als Beitrag zu einer Public Sociology erstmals einen umfassenden und pointierten Überblick über die Vielzahl der aktuellen Untersuchungen und Deutungen.Mit Beiträgen u.a. von Heinz Bude, Klaus Dörre, Joachim Fischer, Lars Geiges, Hans-Joachim Maaz, Werner J. Patzelt, Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Karl-Heinz Reuband, Hartmut Rosa, Dieter Rucht, Britta Schellenberg, Ingo Schulze und Hans Vorländer.

Examining the German case in the wider Western European context for the period 1996-2017, the chapter investigates the role of supply and demand factors for vote switching in general and switching to right-wing populist parties in particular. Combining survey data from the CSES with party data from the Manifesto Project, the chapter shows that the growing success of right-wing populist parties, in Germany just as in other Western European countries, was a response to programmatic moves of mainstream center-left and center-right parties to the left. In general, voters' movements between parties did not follow a symmetric pattern. Changes to parties further left came about as responses to increasing voter-party distances on the socio-economic dimension. In the more recent past, switches to parties further right and, in particular, right-wing populist parties like the German AfD became more frequent, and they were associated with increasing distances on the socio-cultural dimension.

The conjucture of the first few decades of the twenty-first century witnessed Alex Callinicos usefully mapping the contours of imperialism as set out in his pivotal book Imperialism and Global Political Economy. As somewhat of a successor text, this is now accompanied by The New Age of Catastrophe that seeks to address today's conjuncture of the multidimensional crisis (or polycrisis), the conditions of which are situated as immanent to capitalism as a totality. The creativity of Imperialism and Global Political Economy flowed from Callinicos offering an innovative reading of Nikolai Bukharin to propose a theory of imperialism at the intersection of two logics of power: capitalistic and territorial, or two forms of competition, economic and geopolitical. The book bears repeated revisiting. Indeed, I have done so recently in an article for the pages of International Affairs (see 'Mainstreaming Marxism', International Affairs 99: 3, 2023). There I demonstrate how unique Marxist approaches to both the structural theory of anarchy (drawing from Nikolai Bukharin) and racial capitalism (drawing from C.L.R. James) have been silenced by mainstream imitators (namely, Kenneth Waltz and E.H. Carr). There is also much wider engagement with Callinicos' theorising on capitalism and the state-system in Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 2018), co-authored with Andreas Bieler.

As an 'antechamber' to the present, the Introduction and Chapter 1 of The New Age of Catastrophe offers a theoretical framing of the argument by recovering and reasserting a discussion of totality as a category in order to overcome the atomisation and isolation-effect of capitalism. Drawing from Lukács and others the method of totality is legitimised in order to constitute capitalism as a comprehensive system of multiple mediations rather than as a set of separate, independent, isolated categories and facts. As Callinicos wonderfully puts it, 'even the best mainstream scholarship tends to fragment the totality' (p. 8). This reader was left wanting more on the methodological standard of totality as emblematic of a dialectical critique of the slicing-up and fragmentation of knowledge by mainstream perspectives.
In The New Age of Catastrophe Callinicos endeavours to engage with the developing totality of the crisis of capitalism through a set of conjunctural moments that encompass the destruction of the biosphere (concentrating on the metabolic rift with nature); economic stagnation (converging in the tendency for the rate of profit to fall); geopolitical conflict (focusing on inter-imperialist rivalry); political reaction (addressing contemporary right-wing populism); and ideological contestation (questioning gender and race as intersecting or interweaving forms of agency with class antagonisms). The book offers individual chapters on each of these five moments in the present conjuncture of the multidimensional crisis of capitalism.
The main theme to pick up on for the rest of this review is the recognition of the conjuncture as a fusion of different moments of crisis within the totality of capitalism and how contemporary right-wing populism and far-right politics is treated in the book. Throughout The New Age of Catastrophe the long-term trend of neoliberal authoritarianism is addressed, whether it be through some of the earlier work on authoritarian [...]
The post The new age of catastrophe appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Hello friends! Welcome to another episode of Fully Automated!



Our guest for this episode is none other than James A. Smith, co-host with David Slavick of The Popular Show. Smith is also the author of Other People's Politics: Populism to Corbynism (Zer0 Books, 2019) and coauthor with Mareile Pfannebecker of Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the end of Capitalism (Bloomsbury, 2020).







Smith is a defender of the idea that the 2016-2020 "Bernie moment" was a real opportunity to advance the cause of socialism. While it can be tempting today to look back and think that it was doomed from the start, Smith argues that the failure was largely self-inflicted. This means there are lessons that can be learned from the failure. However, he notes, the left today "seems worryingly uncurious about the regressive influence earlier defeated lefts have sometimes inadvertently had."



Smith believes that the left needs to rethink its approach to political freedom. Following up on our recent episode with Efraim Carlebach on the 10-year anniversary of Mark Fisher's famous essay, "Exiting the Vampire Castle," we chat with Smith about his recent Sublation essay, "Capitalist Realism All Over Again" (3.17.2023).



As he puts it, the left has "struggled to apply the book's insights," all too often succumbing to political correctness and "anti-political moralism." Meanwhile, as evidenced in the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, capitalist elites are claiming that crises that are "too important to be hazarded to democratic oversight or protest." When the left abandons this fight, the right will try to fill in the gap, claiming that only it can stop the power grab.



We also ask Smith about some of his recent episodes, including his interview with Matt Taibbi, one of the main journalists behind The Twitter Files. Like Taibbi, Smith believes that capitalist elites today are leveraging state powers to censor social media activity, essentially constituting a strategy of "revenge against both left and right populism."



We also discuss a number of foreign policy matters, from the west's war for NATO expansion in Ukraine to the iconoclastic left's bankrupt analysis of Israel's war in Gaza. Concerning the latter, many otherwise insightful critics have suggested that Hamas is essentially a bonapartist organization, seeking to create an islamic state. How does Smith respond to these critics? Moreover, given the difficulty of imagining the construction of a working class party in Gaza today, what should be the left position on this terrible war?



Smith can be followed on Twitter/X @thepopularpod. Curious listeners can also follow up on Smith's work on Jacobin, where he has published numerous articles on the state of the British left:




"The Labour Party Is Ignoring Britain's Muslims. A Judge-Led Inquiry Won't Change That" (12.12.2023)



"Labour's Left Needs to Regain the Insurgent Spirit That Made Jeremy Corbyn Leader" (07.31.2023)



"The Labour Left's Fatal Contradictions Are Still Unresolved" (11.04.2021)




NOTE: This is a re-post of Episode 13 of Class Transmissions, which was posted on Feb 4, 2024. I want to thank Class Unity for letting me share this work with listeners of Fully Automated.



Please check out Class Unity's website: here



Class Unity can be followed on Twitter/X here: @Class_Unity

En Europe, la démocratie a un avenir radieux. Aucun mécanisme démocratique, même direct, ne peut garantir la démocratie directe. Par conséquent, la théorie du populisme du théoricien Carl Schmitt est analysée «Réflexions sur Schmitt contre Schmitt: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde». En outre, le mythe démocratique est discuté et son idéologie. L'état de droit de la démocratie moderne et les deux visages de la démocratie moderne sont analysés. La nécessité de participer à la société civile au contrôle administratif est soulignée. La relation de tension entre démocratie et Etat de droit est observée. La nécessité de considérer le concept de considérer la démocratie moderne en relation avec la notion d'état de droit, les démocraties dans les conditions de la politique moderne sur la base desquelles Böckenförde, se référant à Hegel, appelle le problème "division" sont soulignés. C'est précisément à partir de ce problème que Böckenförde montre que la démocratie moderne ne peut être que représentative. La représentation est un principe fondamental de l'état de droit, tandis que la représentation signifie un système de formation nécessaire pour exprimer la volonté politique du peuple. Chaque formation du processus collectif implique l'introduction de normes de procédure, de garanties importantes et de conditions de forme de ce processus. ; U Europi demokracija ima svijetlu budućnost. Nijedan demokratski mehanizam, koliko god bio izravan, ne može jamčiti izravnu demokraciju. Stoga se teorija populizma teoretičara Carla Schmitta analizira «misli o Schmittu protiv Schmitta: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde». Nadalje, raspravlja se o demokratskom mitu i njegovoj ideologiji. Analizira se stanje vladavine prava moderne demokracije i dva lica suvremene demokracije. Naglašena je potreba sudjelovanja u civilnom društvu u upravnoj kontroli. Promatra se odnos napetosti između demokracije i vladavine prava. Naglašena je potreba razmatranja koncepta promišljanja moderne demokracije u odnosu na ideju vladavine prava, demokracija u uvjetima moderne politike na temelju kojih Böckenförde, pozivajući se na Hegela, naziva problem "podjele". Upravo iz tog problema Böckenförde pokazuje da moderna demokracija može biti samo reprezentativna. Zastupanje je temeljno načelo vladavine prava, dok reprezentacija znači sustav formiranja potreban za izražavanje političke volje ljudi. Svako formiranje kolektivnog procesa znači uvođenje proceduralnih standarda, značajna jamstva i formalne uvjete tog procesa. ; In Europe, democracy has a bright future. Not one democratic mechanism, however direct, cannot guarantee direct democracy. Therefore, the theory of populism by theoretician Carl Schmitt is analyzed « thoughts on Schmitt against Schmitt : Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde". Furthermore, the democratic myth is discussed and its ideology. The state of rule of law of modern democracy and the two faces of modern democracy are analyzed. The need to participate in civil society in administrative control is stressed. The relation of the tension between democracy and rule of law is observed. The need to consider the concept of considering modern democracy in relation to the idea of rule of law, democracies under conditions of modern politics on the basis of which Böckenförde, referring to Hegel, calls the problem "division "are emphasized. It is precisely from this problem that Böckenförde shows that modern democracy can only be representative. Representation is a fundamental principle of the rule of law while representation means a system of formation necessary for expressing the political will of the people. Every formation of the collective process means the introduction of standards of procedure, significant guarantees and formal conditions of this process.

RESUMO O estudo visa a penetração da ideologia marxista nas Universidades brasileiras nos anos 50 e 60 e, depois do golpe de 64, sobretudo nos Departamentos de Ciências Sociais. Causas apontadas, o populismo e Esquerdismo dos Governos, os movimentos e entidades estudantis, as teologias da libertação, e a adesão de professores e estudantes a várias formas de idealismo dialético. Pontos de referência, a criação do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros (ISEB), o papel da União Nacional dos Estudantes (UNE) e da Ação Popular (AP). Discute a estrutura formal da Universidade, suas fraquezas institucionais e organizacionais, a contribuição de professores nacionais e estrangeiros à politização geral. A crise do Marxismo na Europa não parece ter causado retrocesso, apenas modificação, nesse pendor ideológico; sobrevive em organizações partidárias movimentos, livros-textos, teses e dissertações e, num ensino que não parece à altura das necessidades da pesquisa científica, da mudança social e dos imperativos de reforma universitária. ABSTRACT Routes and misroutes of an ideology: marxism in Brazilian University. v. 27, n. 2, p. 285-361, jul./dez. 1999. Studies the invasion of Marxist ideology in Brazilian Universities in the fifties'and sixties' and, after the 64 coup, mostly in the Department of Social Sciences. Factors quoted include rampant populism, leftist in Governments, students' movements and associations, the upsurge of theologies of liberation, as well as the expansion of dialect idealism among teachers and students. Points of reference are given, such as the foundation of the Institute of Brazilian Studies (ISEB) (1954), the important role of the Students National Association (UNE) and Popular Action (AP). The formal structure of the University itself, its institutional and organizational weakness are discussed as well as the personal contribution of some outstanding teachers, foreign and national to the politization of Academic Crisis of Marxism in Europa does not seem to bring a decline in the ideology. It survives in slogans and protests as well as in academic papers, thesis, dissertations, in the teaching in general which does not seem to cope up either with scientific research, or social change and the needs for reform. RÉSUMÉ Vérités et erreurs d'une idéologie: le Marxisme dans l'Université. v. 27, n. 2, p. 285-361, jul./dez. 1999. Cette étude se propose de montrer la pénétration de l'idéologie marxiste dans les Universités brésiliennes au cours des années 50 et 60 et, après le coup d'état de 64, surtout dans le domaine des Sciences Sociales. Les causes alléguées: le populisme et le gauchisme des gouvernements, les mouvements et les organisations d'étudiants, les théologies de la libération, l'adhésion de professeurs et d'étudiants à diverses formes d'idéalisme dialectique. Points de référence: la création de l'Institut d'Etudes Brésiliennes (ISEB), le rôle de l' "Union Nationale des Etudiants" (UNE) et de l' "Action Populaire" (AP). Il analyse la structure précise de l'Université, ses faiblesses institutionnelles et d'organisation, la contribution des professeurs brésiliens et étrangers à la politisation générale. La crise du Marxisme en Europe ne semble pas avoir causé de recul, à peine des modifications à cette tendance idéologique; elle survit dans des organisations partisanes, des mouvements, des thèses et des dissertations et, dans un enseignement qui n'apparaît pas à la hauteur des nécessités de la recherche scientifique, du changement social et des impératifs de la réforme universitaire.