scholarly journals E-Bandits in Global Activism: WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and the Politics of No One

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1015-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy H. Wong ◽  
Peter A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Political Protest ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Technology Changes ◽  
Iconic Images ◽  
Global Activism ◽  
The Way

In recent years, WikiLeaks and Anonymous have made headlines distributing confidential information, defacing websites, and generating protest around political issues. Although many have dismissed these actors as terrorists, criminals, and troublemakers, we argue that such actors are emblematic of a new kind of political actor: extraordinary bandits (e-bandits) that engage in the politics of no one via anonymizing Internet technologies. Building on Hobsbawm's idea of the social bandit, we show how these actors fundamentally change the terms of global activism. First, as political actors, e-bandits are akin to Robin Hood, resisting the powers that be who threaten the desire to keep the Internet free, not through lobbying legislators, but by “taking” what has been deemed off limits. Second, e-banditry forces us to think about how technology changes “ordinary” transnational activism. Iconic images of street protests and massive marches often underlie the way we as scholars think about social movements and citizen action; they are ordinary ways we expect non-state actors to behave when they demand political change. E-bandits force us to understand political protest as virtual missives and actions, activity that leaves no physical traces but that has real-world consequences, as when home phone numbers and addresses of public officials are released. Finally, e-banditry is relatively open in terms of who participates, which contributes to the growing sense that activism has outgrown organizations as the way by which individuals connect. We illustrate our theory with the actions of two e-bandits, Anonymous and WikiLeaks.

scholarly journals København - Cairo tur/retur: Om transnational politisk aktivisme under karikaturkrisen og det ‘arabiske forår’

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Lasse Lindekilde
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Transnational Activism ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Boomerang Effect ◽  
The Media ◽  
Transnational Activities ◽  
The Arab Spring

Recent scholarly work on political protest has often highlighted the potential of new social media in gathering transnational support and driving political reforms, not least in authoritarian regimes. This idea seems to have won even more credence after the ‘online revolutions’ of the ‘Arab spring’ in early 2011. However, as this article demonstrates, attempts at creating transnational exposure of national political issues through various forms of transnational political activism may also, under certain circumstances, be linked to significant costs. The article delivers an empirical analysis of the effects of Danish Muslims’ transnational activities during the Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005/06 on subsequent Muslim claims-making. The article argues that the envisioned ‘boomerang effect’ of the transnational activities – the attempt to put pressure on Danish authorities by contacting political and religious authorities in the Middle East – backfired on Danish Muslims. The transnational move was successfully ‘securitized’ by elements of the media and the political elite, inviting soft forms of repression against especially the Muslim actors involved in the delegations of primarily religious authorities that travelled to Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria in December 2005. These actors were forced into a more defensive mode of claims-making soon after their return to Denmark through processes of name-calling and stigmatization. Building on this case study, the article concludes by suggesting some theoretical modifications/specifications of the boomerang model of transnational activism.

Corruption and Political Order

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Gray
Keyword(s):  
Public Finance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Capital Flight ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Settlement ◽  
The Way

This chapter contrasts the way that the political settlement in both countries shaped the pattern of redistribution, reform, and corruption within public finance and the implications that this had for economic transformation. Differences in the impact of corruption on economic transformation can be explained by the way that their political settlements generated distinct patterns of competition and collaboration between economic and political actors. In Vietnam corrupt activities led to investments that were frequently not productive; however, the greater financial discipline imposed by lower-level organizations led to a higher degree of investment overall in Vietnam that supported a more rapid economic transformation under liberalization than in Tanzania. Individuals or small factional networks within the VCP at the local level were, therefore, probably less able to engage in forms of corruption that simply led to capital flight as happened in Tanzania, where local level organizations were significantly weaker.

Skiing all the way to the polls: Exploring the popularity of personalized posts on political Instagram accounts

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1096-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Olof Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Way

While research has gauged the degree to which political actors focus on their personal rather than their more public sides in their communication efforts, few studies have assessed the extent to which personalized content succeeds in gaining traction among online followers. The current study does just that, focusing on the Instagram accounts operated by Norwegian parties and party leaders. Results indicate that party leaders emerge as more successful than parties in gaining attention through ‘likes’ and comments and that they offer personalized content to higher degrees than the parties they represent. While personalized content might lead to increased political engagement among citizens, the fact that personalization ‘works’ in terms of gaining attention might also skew political PR and marketing towards excessive use of such themes.

Building Up Belonging: Diasporic “Homecomers”, the Ghanaian Government and Traditional Rulers: A Case of Return

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaia Delpino
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Dynamic Relation ◽  
Atlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Southern Ghana ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis essay analyzes the political dynamics involved in the construction of belonging in the case of African Americans’ “return” from the diaspora generated by the Atlantic slave trade to a town in Southern Ghana. Given the articulated belief of common ancestral origins, such arrival was initially welcomed by all the three groups of actors involved: thereturnees, the local authorities, divided by a chieftaincy dispute, and the Ghanaian government that was supporting homecoming policies. The concepts of origins and kinship and the way to validate them, though, were differently conceived by the various political actors; furthermore each of them held dissimilar reasons and had different expectations behind this return. All these differences created a mutual, mutable and dynamic relation between the actors who were involved in the arrival and aimed to assert their authority.

scholarly journals Judicial Institutionalization and Judicial Activism of the Post-Communist Constitutional Courts

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill M. Bumin
Keyword(s):  
Executive Power ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
Decision Making Behavior

In applying constitutional review, post-communist constitutional courts are affected by the existing political and institutional environments, as well as by their own institutional capabilities. However, our understanding of the activity of the post-communist constitutional courts remains incomplete because the existing research fails to consider how the institutional changes on these courts affect their decision-making behavior. In this study, I examine the activity of nineteen post-communist constitutional courts during the 1992-2006 period. I use an aggregate, time-series measure of judicial institutionalization to show that higher levels of institutionalization enhance these constitutional courts’ ability to pursue their policy goals and influence the degree to which they invalidate policy choices of other major political actors, while lower levels of institutionalization limit the courts’ impact on legal and political issues. The findings of this analysis thus provide the first empirical confirmation of the importance of judicial institutionalization to the policy outputs of the post-communist constitutional courts. I also illustrate how various institutional and contextual influences, such as executive power, legislative fragmentation, economic conditions, EU accession process, the identity of the litigants, and the nature of the litigated issues, influence the activity of post-communist constitutional courts. 

Practical Materialism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliyahu Stern
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Primary Target ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Russian Jews ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
The Way

The discovery of Karl Marx’s writings by Russian Jews in the mid-1870s changed the way they viewed their situation and provided a framework for them to become political actors. The chapter provides a careful reading of Jewish philosophical texts and propaganda literature from the late 1870s. It suggests that Jews who were drawn to Marx viewed Marx in conjunction with, not in opposition to, the Hebrew Bible and the Kabbalah. The early Jewish Marxists’ primary target was the Russian state, not their Jewish parents. The Jewish materialists teased out the messianic universal aspirations and nationalist assumptions that they saw behind Marx’s theories of revolution.

scholarly journals The Funny Side of Globalization: Humour and Humanity in Zapatista Framing

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Olesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subcomandante Marcos ◽  
The Way

This article argues that the literature on social movements and globalization has not paid sufficient attention to the way in which political actors who act globally try to overcome the social, cultural, and political distances that separate them. It introduces the concept of global framing to give focus to the discursive processes central to such “distance bridging”. In particular, it emphasizes how symbols and emotions are crucial in the framing of distance. Empirically, it discusses how the considerable global resonance created by the Zapatistas in Mexico is facilitated by a framing strategy, carried out mainly by the movement's spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, in which humour, imperfection, and symbols play a decisive role.

Demokrasi bangsa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
REGINA ANINDYA PUTRI
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Governance ◽  
General Election ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
The Way

The meaning and understanding of democracy along the histories of Indonesian government give specific meaning for the development of democracy in Indonesia. There are a lot of democracy paradox or democracy irony that happened in the orde lama era, orde baru era and reformasi era. The process and the development of democracy, finally face to face with the interest of power in the contexts of political trap that is true undemocratic. General election 2004 and Directly Regional Head Election 2005 are being momentum in the implementation of democratic governance, also challenge for political actors and community to raise cultural and structural democracy. By the way, Indonesian democracy still left some questions, that is, whether we prepare and capable to develop democracy without any irony or paradox. Kata kunci : paradox demokrasi, pilkada, membangun

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Sarah Sobieraj
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Substantive Issue ◽  
Women's Voice ◽  
The Way

Women who participate in public discussions about social and political issues are often confronted with a barrage of vicious digital attacks. The abuse is a form of patterned resistance to women’s voice and visibility, as evinced by the way gender is weaponized as the central grounds for condemnation. Attacks are riddled with gendered epithets and stereotypes, and they perseverate on women’s physical appearance and presumed sexual behavior; also, the generic nature of the abuse features nearly interchangeable misogyny rather than taking substantive issue with any particular woman. Women who challenge social hierarchies face the most intense pushback, particularly those speaking in or about male-dominated fields, those perceived as feminist or otherwise noncompliant to gender norms, and those with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., women of color, LBTQ women, etc.). This often-unrecognized form of gender inequality constrains women’s use of digital public spaces, much in the way the pervasive threat of sexual intimidation and violence constrains women’s use of physical public spaces.

The EU's Use of the Internet

2011 ◽  
pp. 774-783
Author(s):  
J. Shahin
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
European Level ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The European Union (EU) has been one of the leading lights concerning Internet use in dealing with other public administrations and citizens. This article will argue that e-government has meant that the European Commission has been able to promote a virtual arena for pan-European activity, which has promoted action at the national and local levels in the EU. In the first instance, this article will deal with how the European Commission uses the Internet to attempt to improve its own relationship with both national public administrations and citizens in terms of the European policy-making process. Although the Internet is perceived as aiding public administrations in information and service provision, which helps to deliver better governance from an institutional governance perspective, a focus on this would only tell one half of the story. Increasing democratic participation and regaining trust in the political system at large is also an important issue for public bodies such as the European Commission to address, and this is not merely a technical process. These technical (efficiency, etc.) and democratic stages are two key parts in the process of developing an information and communication technology (ICT)-based governance agenda in the EU. In order to outline the process, this article deals with four different aspects of the European Commission’s e-policies. It makes reference to the following: 1. The Commission’s information provision, through the EU’s Europa (II) Web server; 2. The way in which the Commission has tried to interact with citizens, using interactive policy making (IPM); 3. The e Commission initiative; and 4. The way in which the Commission links member-state public administrations together, through the IDA(BC) programme. This article reveals the increasing coherence of the European Commission’s approach to using the Internet in institutional affairs. Although the Commission’s approach to using the Internet for governance was initially unstable and ad hoc, by the turn of the century, all efforts had converged around the political issues of institutional reform and better governance. This has been further enhanced by the application of the open method of coordination as one of the tools of EU governance, which has enabled the Commission to take a more informal role in implementing e-government strategies at the pan-European level. This article does not attempt to define e-government at the European level nor does it go into policy areas concerning e-government (such as research, socioeconomic inclusion, improving competitiveness, or specific e-government policy developed by the European Commission), but will contribute to a greater understanding of how the EU itself has used the Internet to promote an e-government agenda that is affecting all public administrations.

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