John Wallach claims that we need to move beyond the liberal /communitarian debate because neither form of discourse is really 'political theory.' Counters Wallach's claim, in part using presuppositions that he himself provides, and makes suggestions concerning a more consistent foundation for conceptualizing what he calls 'the task of political theory.' (Abstract amended)
Abstract: Political Culture in the Baltic States. Between National and European IntegrationEglė Kesylytė-Alliks (researcher at Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University) reviews Political Culture in the Baltic States. Between National and European Integration written by Kjetil Duvold, Sten Berglund and Joakim Ekman.
AMONG RECENT AMERICAN HISTORIANS, FEW TOPICS HAVE PROVOKED MORE CONTROVERSY THAN THE CHARACTER OF THE CONFEDERATION PERIOD. ON ONE SIDE, SCHOLARS LIKE FORREST MCDONALD HAVE CONTENDED THAT THE ERA FROM THE END OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE CREATION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WAS A TIME OF ECONOMIC CONFUSION AND POLITICAL CHAOS, A "CRITICAL PERIOD" IN WHICH POPULAR PROTEST BECAME VIOLENT ENOUGH TO THREATEN CIVIL WAR. ON THE OTHER SIDE, CRITICS OF THIS VIEW LED BY MERRILL JENSEN HAVE ARGUED THAT THE PERIOD WAS IN FACT PROSPEROUS AND RELATIVELY STABLE, THAT POLITICAL PROTESTS WERE FEW AND MOSTLY WELL BEHAVED, AND THAT, IN SHORT, THE "CRITICAL PERIOD" WAS REALLY NOT VERY CRITICAL AT ALL.1 THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT ENTER INTO THIS DEBATE. INSTEAD, IT WORKS FROM THE PROMISE THAT EVENTS ARE OFTEN LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE PERCEPTION OF EVENTS. THAT IS, ACTUAL CONDITIONS ASIDE, IT CONSIDERS HOW AMERICANS OF THE DAY PERCEIVED THESE CONDITIONS. IN PARTICULAR, IT DESCRIBES HOW THE VIEWED THEIR POLITICS THROUGH THE FILTER OF THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY.
What is degrowth and what are its implications for political economy? Divided in three parts, this dissertation explores the why, what, and how of degrowth. The first part (Of growth and limits) studies the nature, causes, and consequences of economic growth. Chapter 1: Understanding economic growth answers a series of questions about the nature of economic growth: What is it exactly that grows? By how much does it grow? When and where does it grow? How does it grow? And why should it grow? The three following chapters develop a triple objection to economic growth as no longer possible (Chapter 2: Biophysical limits to growth), plausible (Chapter 3: Socioeconomic limits to growth), and desirable (Chapter 4: Social limits of growth). The second part (Elements of degrowth) is about the idea of degrowth, especially its history, theoretical foundations, and controversies. Chapter 5: Origins and definitions traces the history of the concept from 1968 to 2018. Chapter 6: Theoretical foundations presents a normative theory of degrowth as de-economisation, that is a reduction in importance of economic thoughts and practices. Chapter 7: Controversies reviews the attacks the concept has received. Whereas the first part diagnosed economic growth as the problem, this part offers a solution. The take-home message is that degrowth is not only a critique but also a fully-fledged alternative to the growth society. The third part (Recipes for degrowth) is about the transition from a growth economy to a degrowth society. It opens with an inventory of the policies that have been mobilised by degrowthers until today (Chapter 8: Strategies for change). The three following chapters on property (Chapter 9: Transforming property), work (Chapter 10: Transforming work), and money (Chapter 11: Transforming money) go from theory to practice and translate the values and principles of degrowth into operational transition strategies. Chapter 12: Transition strategy presents a method to study the interactions between degrowth policies in order ...
What is degrowth and what are its implications for political economy? Divided in three parts, this dissertation explores the why, what, and how of degrowth. The first part (Of growth and limits) studies the nature, causes, and consequences of economic growth. Chapter 1: Understanding economic growth answers a series of questions about the nature of economic growth: What is it exactly that grows? By how much does it grow? When and where does it grow? How does it grow? And why should it grow? The three following chapters develop a triple objection to economic growth as no longer possible (Chapter 2: Biophysical limits to growth), plausible (Chapter 3: Socioeconomic limits to growth), and desirable (Chapter 4: Social limits of growth). The second part (Elements of degrowth) is about the idea of degrowth, especially its history, theoretical foundations, and controversies. Chapter 5: Origins and definitions traces the history of the concept from 1968 to 2018. Chapter 6: Theoretical foundations presents a normative theory of degrowth as de-economisation, that is a reduction in importance of economic thoughts and practices. Chapter 7: Controversies reviews the attacks the concept has received. Whereas the first part diagnosed economic growth as the problem, this part offers a solution. The take-home message is that degrowth is not only a critique but also a fully-fledged alternative to the growth society. The third part (Recipes for degrowth) is about the transition from a growth economy to a degrowth society. It opens with an inventory of the policies that have been mobilised by degrowthers until today (Chapter 8: Strategies for change). The three following chapters on property (Chapter 9: Transforming property), work (Chapter 10: Transforming work), and money (Chapter 11: Transforming money) go from theory to practice and translate the values and principles of degrowth into operational transition strategies. Chapter 12: Transition strategy presents a method to study the interactions between degrowth policies in order ...
Diaspora strategies have been at the forefront of new studies of thepolitical geographies of state-led transnationalism, contributing important insights into the widespread socio-economic impacts of initiatives used to engage émigrés in extra-territorial nation-building. The conceptualization of the ' sending state' as a central territorialized bureaucratic form has however contributed to binary framings of diasporic space by failing to capture the range of interplays in and between multiple scales and spaces that characterises the formulation of a states' diaspora strategies, their evolution over time, and their variegated material outcomes. Alternative conceptualizations of the ' sending state' as a multi-sited network of governing entities disrupts binary readings of diaspora space, but it is argued here that such an approach reproduces top-down views of political agency. The review concludes by suggesting that scholars of diaspora strategies would benefit from exploring assemblage thinking, where a sustained engagement with spatial emergence and distributed socio-material agencies has the potential to reveal the dynamic topological connections through which diasporic spatio-political formations emerge, endure and may be disrupted. This has implications for understanding the impacts of diaspora strategies on individual diasporic subjectivities and ideas of common citizenship.
With the rise of video sharing giants like Youtube and Google Video, coupled with increased broadband connectivity and improved sharing functionality across social networking sites, the role of the viral video has been cemented in many IMC strategies. While most agree about the importance of better understanding viral marketing, there is less agreement about what makes content become viral. While some content gets viewed by millions of people, others struggle to gain viral traction. Content specific, intrapersonal and interpersonal reasons have been proposed for viral marketing success. This paper' focuses on the intrapersonal reasons for content going viral in the context of political satire. More specifically, the role of emotion in the spread of content online, is investigated. Political satire focuses on gaining entertainment from politics. Satire, and specifically political satire, forms part of using humour in advertising and has been influential in shifting public opinion since ancient Greece. This study compares success and unsuccessful viral campaigns that used political satire, by first analysing the online comments that viewers made about the video. Following these findings, an experiment is conducted and the influence of intensity, creativity, humour and utility on virality is modelled, controlling for valence and previous exposure. The findings suggest that, when using political satire in viral campaigns, creativity and the intensity of the emotions felt are key influencing factors in whether videos get "shared" or "liked". Therefore, while many authors contend that particular emotions or positive content has a greater likelihood to become viral, this paper shows that it is not the particular emotion, but the intensity with which that emotion was felt that drives viral success. ; QC 20140317
This is a dissertation about lawyers, judges, international NGOs and legal action in an authoritarian state. The state is contemporary China. The type of legal action is civil environmental lawsuits, as when herdsmen from Inner Mongolia sue a local paper factory over poisoned groundwater and dead livestock or a Shandong villager demands compensation from a nearby factory for the noise that allegedly killed 26 foxes on his farm. Empirically, this is a close-to-the-ground account of everyday justice and the factors that shape it. Drawing on fifteen months of field research in China, along with in-depth exploration of four cases, legal documents, government reports, newspaper articles and blog archives, this dissertation unpacks how law as litigation works: how judges make decisions, why lawyers take cases and how international influence matters. Conceptually, civil environmental lawsuits illustrate one pathway between litigation and social change in China and, by implication, possibly other illiberal states. With the exception of the first chapter, each chapter introduces a new actor's perspective on the interaction between state signals and legal professionals' response. The key theme, which cuts across chapters on the state, judges, lawyers and international NGOs, is what I call political ambivalence: conflicting official (or quasi-official) signals regarding the desirability of certain types of citizen action. Simultaneous impulses to promote law but control courts, to protect the environment and yet pursue economic growth, generate a medley of statements, cases and regulations that do not necessarily concord. For legal professionals on the ground, these mixed messages translate into a degree of opportunity. Without official sanction or intent, conflicting signals crack open enough political space to allow limited judicial innovation (chapter 3), legal activism (chapter 4), sustained international encouragement (chapter 5) and policy promotion (chapter 6). Even on tough terrain, political ambivalence over law can provide a limited opportunity to probe new roles and, in so doing, gently push the limitations of political tolerance.
Improving health in populations in which health is poor is a complex process. This book argues that the traditional government approach of exhorting individuals to live healthier lifestyles is not enough - action to promote public health needs to take place not just through public agencies, but also by engaging community assets and resources in their broadest sense. The book reports lessons from the experience of planning, establishing and delivering such action by the five-year Sustainable Health Action Research Programme (SHARP) in Wales. It critically examines the experience of SHARP in relation to current literature on policy; community health and health inequalities; and action research. The authors make clear how this regional development has produced opportunities for developing general concepts and theory about community-based policy developments that are relevant across national boundaries and show that complex and sustained community action, and effective local partnership, are fundamental components of the mix of factors required to address health inequalities successfully. The book concludes by indicating the connections between SHARP and earlier traditions of community-based action, and by arguing that we need to be bolder in our approaches to community-based health improvement and more flexible in our understanding of the ways in which knowledge and inform developments in health policy. The book will be of interest to practitioners and activists working in community-based projects; students in community development, health studies and medical sociology; professionals working in health promotion, community nursing and allied areas; and policy makers working at local, regional and national levels.
From the 1980s onwards, a tide of democratization swept across the Asian region, as the political strongmen who had led since the end of World War II began to fall. Although it is generally assumed that once authoritarian leaders no longer hold power, the political landscape will drastically change and the democratic transition will simply be a matter of time, this book shows that the move towards democracy in Asia has by no means been linear process, and there have been a number of different outcomes that reflect the vastly divergent paths towards liberalization the Asian nations have followe
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AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1990S, FRANCE WAS ONE OF THE FEW ELECTORAL SUCCESS STORIES FOR GREEN PARTIES. HOWEVER, BY 1995, THE GREEN VOTE HAD COLLAPSED AND THE TWO GREEN PARTIES WERE CONSUMED BY FRATICIDAL INTERNAL SCHISMS. THIS ARTICLE NOTES THAT GREEN IDEAS HAVE BECOME MORE ACCEPTABLE IN FRENCH POLITICS, BUT AS POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS, THE ECOLOGISTS HAVE FALLEN BACK TO THE POSITION OF THE EARLY 1980S. IT ARGUES THAT THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY MOVEMENT TO FALL BACK UPON, POLITICAL ECOLOGY HAS BECOME SYNOMOUS WITH ELECTORAL ORGANIZATIONS AND SO ELECTORAL FAILURE POSES A SEVERE CHALLENGE TO THE CREDIBILITY OF GREEN POLITICS.
