Search results

When Nigeria got her independence in 1960 there were high hopes that she would become one of the greatest nations in the nearest future. Those who made this prediction were not wrong because Nigeria has what it takes to become great. In terms of population, it is not just the most populous but also one of the most talented in the continent. In natural resources, very few countries in Africa can boast of the resources the country parades. However, when these endowments are placed side by side with development in the country, the result becomes discouraging. Currently, one may assert that Nigeria is or at the point of becoming the poverty capital of the world looking at the rate her citizens are fleeing to other countries in search of greener pastures. Using the method of documentation and conceptual analysis, this study examines why Nigeria has not been able to translate its potentials into development indexes. The investigation centres around two research questions: 1) what is the relationship between the lack of development in Nigeria and electoral malpractice and 2) is Nigeria's inability to translate its potentials to development caused by executive abuse of powers. The paper discovered that moral decadence in the form of electoral malpractice and executive recklessness are the root causes of Nigeria's political and economic backwardness. It recommended the formation of an enlightened populace who will not only reject but also fight these two ills through civil resistance as the philosopher's stone that will save Nigeria

Bangladesh is performing better in the growth of GDP and experiencing remarkable progress in development indicators such as poverty alleviation, maternal mortality, infant mortality and enrollment in primary education. However, despite the restoration parliamentary democracy in 1990s, political governance is decaying in the country. The present study, taking dynamics of Bangladeshi politics into consideration, seeks to explore the interplay between business and politics and its impact on governance with supplementary evidence from public transportation sector as case example. Among others, the principal question of the paper is how business interest creates crisis in governance? It reveals that business elites are involved in all decision-making process in the government institutions and they make pro-business policy undermining people's interest that leads to a confrontation between government institution and business elites which ultimately generates crisis in governance in almost all other section of the nation like transportation sector.

Članak razmatra uspon, oblike i posledice protesta u nedemokratskim režimima, oslanjajući se na noviju literaturu iz uporedne analize političkih režima i društvenih pokreta. Oblik režima značajno oblikuje izglede za izbijanje protesta, kao i njegove oblike i posledice. Protesti često proizvode bitne promene u personalnom sastavu i politici vlasti, koje značajno utiču na strukturu i delovanje nedemokratskih režima, i ponekad vode promeni režima. Primeri su navedeni iz kasnog komunističkog autoritarizma u Poljskoj i Jugoslaviji, u kojima su dugotrajni protesti doprineli padu režima i države, i postkomunistički autoritarni režimi u Srbiji i Ukrajini koji su više puta uzdrmani a zatim i dokrajčeni "pritiskom odozdo". ; The paper explores the politics of protest in non-democratic regimes using insights from comparative regime analysis and social movement theory. A regime type strongly shapes factors that trigger popular mobilization, the repertories of collective action and their implications. Protest politics may produce a considerable political change, such as policy and personality change in the political establishment, as well as important shifts in the structure and operation of non-democratic regimes, even regime change. The paper provides evidence from the late communist authoritarian Poland and Yugoslavia, in which sustained protests contributed to the collapse of regime and state, and the post-communist competitive authoritarian Serbia and Ukraine, which experience repeated protest waves and were brought down by protest politics.

Са политичким преокретом 2000. године у Србији отпочео је истовемено и процес идеолошког преобликовања јавних простора. Међу најпроминентнијим видовима оваквог деловања је именовање или преименовање урбаног простора, првенствено улица и тргова, те бављење постојећим споменицима и меморијалима, као и градња и планирање нових. Овакви су случајеви посебно били уочљиви у Београду. Њима су се у неколико наврата супротставиле одређене политичке партије, те неполитичке групе које су организовале уличне акције 'против-именовања' београдских улица, те кампање против новопланираних јавних споменика. Односи моћи и идентитетске политике у овим случајевима биће коментарисани у овом раду. Пропратиће се праксе неколико уметничких и политичких скупина које су спровеле акције и перформансе незваничног преименовања улица, или су пак дискутовале и противиле се подизању новопредложених споменика. (Пре)именовањем одређених градских простора, хегемонске политичке коалиције покушавају да конституишу сигнификантна симболичка места, док, са друге стране, опозиционе противакције покушавају да преузму та иста места и да их реинтерпретирају. У овом ће се раду покушати да прикажу и анализирају поједине идеолошке политике и званични дискурси сећања, те поједине уметничке и политичке контраполитике и опозиционе праксе алтернативне комеморације ; With the onset of political overturn in Serbia in 2000, the process of the ideological reconfiguration of public places was simultaneously being put in motion. One of the most promi- nent means of this endeavor was naming and renaming of urban space, primarily of streets and squares, but also treatment of existing memorial sites and monuments and commissioning and erection of new ones. These undertakings were especially prominent in Serbia's capital Belgrade. Such processes were opposed several times by certain political parties and groups which organized street-actions of counter-naming of Belgrade's thoroughfares and campaigns against newly designated public monuments, and power-play and identity politics of such proceedings will be commented on here. This paper will discuss practices of several artistic and political groups which carried out unofficial street-renaming actions and performances, or discussed and opposed proposed new memorials. By (re)naming certain urban spaces, hegemonic political coalitions are trying to construct significant symbolic places, while oppositional counter-actions are seeking to overtake those same places and reinterpret them. This paper will attempt to sum up and inquire into the ideological politics of official memory discourses and artistic and political counter-politics and actions of opposition or alternative commemoration.

Demokratski optimizam devedestih godina prošlog veka zamenjuje osobita forma javnog razočarenja u demokratiju. Kriza demokratije praćena institucionalnim deficitima, konfuzijom, niskim stepenom upravljačke sposobnosti da se rešavaju pitanja siromaštva, nezaposlenosti, imigracije, korupcije, simptomi su ovoga stanja. Globalni val populizma najizoštreniji je izraz ove političke patologije. Početak novoga veka rađa uzlet otvorenog neprijateljstva prema demokratiji. Deskriptivni pristupi oslonjeni na proceduralnu dimenziju režima moći ("hibridni režimi", "ograničena demokratija" "iliberalna demokratija", "kompetitivni autoritarizam" ) pokazuju se nedostatnim. U ovome radu autor se vraća klasičnom konceptu "despotizma" i pokazuje normative i teorisjke prednosti ovoga koncepta ("novi despotizam") u analizi novoga režima moći koji izrasta na pretpostvkama sve šireg nepoverenja u demokratske instituciije. ; The democratic optimism of the 1990s has been replaced by a particular form of public disillusionment with democracy. The crisis of democracy, accompanied by institutional deficits, confusion, low levels of management capacity to tackle poverty, unemployment, immigration, corruption, are symptoms of this condition. The global wave of populism is the sharpest expression of this political pathology. The beginning of the new century has given birth to an open hostility to democracy. Descriptive approaches based on the procedural dimension of the regime of power ("hybrid regimes", "limited democracy", "liberal democracy", "competitive authoritarianism") are proving insufficient to capture the new political system. In this paper, the author returns to the classical concept of "despotism" and shows the normative and theoretical advantages of this concept ("new despotism") in the analysis of a new regime of power that grows on the premise of growing distrust of democratic institutions.

The author explores how the internet and the new media are changing the way that we communicate, act and think, individually and collectively, through the example of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The author claims that The Occupy Movement, as a post-narrative project conceived in a digital environment, is less of a political activity, and more a new way of behavior for its members and for the society at large. Its focus on consensus building and its modus operandi are reflecting the principles of the Internet, web-organization and cooperation. Therefore, its success is not about achieving any particular political aim, or winning an election, but about the general acceptance of these values and their becoming part of a wider political agenda. ; Autor istražuje kako internet i novi mediji menjaju način na koji komuniciramo, delujemo i mislimo, pojedinačno ali i kolektivno, na primeru pokreta "Okupirajmo Volstrit". Autor tvrdi da "Okupacija Volstrita", kao postnarativni pokret nastao u digitalnom okruženju, manje predstavlja političku aktivnost a više novi normativni način ponašanja za svoje članove, ali i čitavo društvo. Njegova usmerenost ka izgradnji konsenzusa, kao i sam modus funkcionisanja, odražavaju principe interneta, mrežne organizacije i kolaboracije. Zato je njegov uspeh manje povezan sa ostvarivanjem nekog pojedinačnog cilja ili osvajanja vlasti na izborima, a više sa razmerom u kojoj će ove rednosti biti opšteusvojene i postati deo ukupne političke agende.