Beyond the Opposition: Civic Nation versus Ethnic Nation

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 219-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Schnapper
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
The Common ◽  
Theoretical Frame ◽  
Ethnic Nation

The political and scientific debate surrounding the concepts of nation, ethnicity, and nationalism is so deeply loaded with values and passions that it should be the sociologist's highest priority to define those terms as precisely as possible in order to distinguish a new debate from the common discourse and to subject the definitions to scrutiny. It is often acknowledged that a clarification of the terms used in the debates of ethnicity, the State, the nation and nationalism is necessary, but such work is rarely done. It is important to make a distinction between the term ‘nation’ and other terms with which it is often confused — and differently in the different nations — and to clear up the ambiguities that affect the political, ideological, and scientific discourse. In the common discourse and even in the scientific literature, such terms as ‘ethnic’ and ‘national’ are often used indifferently, and the ‘nation’ is subject to contradictory criticisms as it is sometimes understood as referring to the ‘nation’ and sometimes to the ‘ethnic group.’ There is always a connection between the concepts used by a given author and that author's theoretical frame of reference.

Speaking for Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
French Model

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.

scholarly journals Satire in Shrestha’s Ghintang Ghishi Twank

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Man Kumar Rai
Keyword(s):  
Positive Change ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Common People ◽  
The People ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Special Occasion ◽  
The Common

   The objective of this article is to analyze the use of satire in three poems, from Rupesh  Shrestha’s volume of poems Ghintang Ghishi Twank in order to examine use of the suffering of voiceless people. The poems depict absurdities of the society and hypocrisy of the leaders which are the causes of poor people‟s pains. This poems exhibit how follies, vices and absurdities are hurdle in transforming society into prosperous one. The poet has berated them with the aim of bringing positive change in the society and in the lives of the common people. The poet mocks at the political changes which have brought change only in the lives of political leaders, not in the lives of the people who have been ignored by the state for long. Despite many anxieties, they enjoy dancing and playing sticks in their hands on the special occasion of Gaijatra. The poems are collection of sharp words which are used to butt the corrupt politicians. For this, the elements of Juvenalian satire have been used as tools for analysis of the selected poems. This study highlights upon the anxieties of marginalized people; demonstrates the shameful act of politicians; and exposes the absurdities prevailed in the society. It indicates that the political and social absurdities are subject to be poked in order to reform a society.

Speaking for Islam

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Sounaye
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Transformation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
French Model

Unexpectedly, one of the marking features of democratization in Niger has been the rise of a variety of Islamic discourses. They focus on the separation between religion and the state and, more precisely, the way it is manifested through the French model of laïcité, which democratization has adopted in Niger. For many Muslim actors, laïcité amounts to a marginalization of Islamic values and a negation of Islam. This article present three voices: the Collaborators, the Moderates, and the Despisers. Each represents a trend that seeks to influence the state’s political and ideological makeup. Although the ulama in general remain critical vis-à-vis the state’s political and institutional transformation, not all of them reject the principle of the separation between religion and state. The Collaborators suggest cooperation between the religious authority and the political one, the Moderates insist on the necessity for governance to accommodate the people’s will and visions, and the Despisers reject the underpinning liberalism that voids religious authority and demand a total re-Islamization. I argue that what is at stake here is less the separation between state and religion than the modality of this separation and its impact on religious authority. The targets, tones, and justifications of the discourses I explore are evidence of the limitations of a democratization project grounded in laïcité. Thus in place of a secular democratization, they propose a conservative democracy based on Islam and its demands for the realization of the common good.

scholarly journals Educational and cultural-educational work in the Red Army in 1920s-1930s: the Orenburg Region on materials

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-114
Author(s):  
Larisa Vladimirovna Petrich
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Military Training ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Training ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Combat Training ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Subject

The article is sanctified important aspect in eradicating illiteracy in the years of Soviet power - training soldiers and youth of premilitary age. From the state of literacy of the population category to a large extent dependent on the fighting capacity of the Red Army. Having analyzed the historical scientific literature on the subject, the conclusion is made that the topic under consideration was studied to date is not enough. It is noted that in its entirety the problem of improving the combat training of the Red Army stood in 1923, when she moved to a peacetime footing. At the same time it developed a decree the Central Executive Committee and the CPC to bring to mandatory classes in literacy of youth of premilitary age during the passage of pre-conscription military training. The paper revealed that in the late 1920s - early 1930s. work on training soldiers and youth of premilitary age continued during the cultural campaign. It is indicated that the organization of training, considerable attention was paid to the content of educational material related to the political education of soldiers. The peculiarities, difficulties and shortcomings in the organization of work with the staff of the Red Army in Orenburg: low attendance of paragraph literacy, large dropout of them. The article concludes that the system of eradication of illiteracy in the difficult war years, has proven to be extremely vital importance and necessity in the case of direct protection, strengthening and building of the state. This was an important factor in the victory of the Great Patriotic War.

The New Elites. Questions about Political, Social, and Cultural Reconstruction after the Terror

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Chappey
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common People ◽  
Cultural Reconstruction ◽  
Nineteenth Century France ◽  
The Common ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
The French Revolution

Was the French Revolution the victory of an all-conquering bourgeoisie that made up the foundation of the nineteenth-century France of the ‘notables’? How far did the older elites of the ancien régime succeed in taking part in the political, social and cultural reordering of the first decades of the new century? This chapter examines the significance of these questions in relation to the construction and legitimation of elite power after the fall of Robespierre. Exploring both political and intellectual developments, it reveals the dynamics which account for the major rupture between the dominance of a republican elite under the Directory, and the foundations of the power of the Empire’s so-called ‘Granite masses’. Study of the various components of elite domination involves not merely scrutiny of the role played by the state, but also of changing attitudes towards the common people, against whom the evolving position of the elite was constructed.

California Proposition 63: Language Attitudes Reflected in the Public Debate

1990 ◽  
Vol 508 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNAH D.A. MacKAYE
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideology ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
The Common

In the November 1988 elections, three states—Colorado, Arizona, and Florida—passed measures making English the official language of those states. These victories were foreshadowed by the passage, in 1986, of Position 63 in California. Proposition 63 amended the state constitution to declare English the official language of California and charged the legislature and state officials with the preservation and enhancement of English as the common language of the state. The appearance of Proposition 63 on the political horizon brought language into public parlance, allowing us the opportunity to explore American language ideology. Preelection editorials and letters to the editor in California newspapers speculating on the need for and effects of Proposition 63 reveal the language attitudes of the writers. Certain themes that regularly appeared on both sides of the issue may be taken as elements of current American ideology.

Orthodox Churches and the ‘Othering’ of Islam and Muslims in Today’s Balkans

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-401
Author(s):  
Egdūnas Račius
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Church

Abstract The article focuses on the relation between the socio-legal status of national Orthodox Churches and their role in the legal, institutional and social ‘othering’ of Islam and ethnic groups of Muslims in three Balkans countries, namely, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia. The research reveals that the state-pursued construction of national identity and politics of belonging are expressly permeated by ethno-confessional nationalism, which is at the core of the deep-running tensions between the dominant ethnic group and the marginalized Muslims. There is an alliance between the political and the Church elites to keep ethnic groups of Muslim background either altogether outside the ‘national Us’ or at least at its outer margins.

Concluding Note

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Gamberini
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Common Thread ◽  
The Common ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
Obedience To Authority

This chapter summarizes all the main points and issues addressed in previous chapters (both in Part I and in Part II), with the aim of highlighting the common thread that runs through the entire work. The result is a new reading of the state-building process at the end of the Middle Ages. The limitations of attempts by governors to present the political principles that inspired their acts as shared and universally recognized are revealed by a historical analysis firmly intent on investigating the existence, in particular territorial or social ambits, of other political cultures which based obedience to authority on different, and frequently original, ideals.

The Ends of Government

1944 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Merriam
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Political Society ◽  
General Welfare ◽  
The Common ◽  
Broad Framework ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
Internal Order

The ends of government may be stated as follows: (1) external security, (2) internal order, (3) justice, (4) general welfare, and (5) freedom.To the state, which is the name usually applied to independent political associations, these ends are accorded on the basis of observation and reflection. They may be summed up under the term the “common weal,” or the common good. This assumes that there is a community, made up of human personalities, that there are purposes, values, and interests in common, that there is a commonly accepted organization for carrying out these common purposes.It cannot be said that these functions are the property or responsibility of the state alone. They are shared by other agencies of human society, and without their coöperation the political society can do little. The state provides a broad framework within which other societies and persons may operate more effectively, and undertakes common functions which it can more conveniently carry on, than other associations.

A Minority became a Majority in the Punjab

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-92
Author(s):  
Sukhjit Kaur
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
The Common ◽  
Self Immolation ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
First Time

The Punjabi Suba came into being after various sacrifices and struggles. The Indian Government appointed ‘Shah Commission’ to demarcate the boundaries of Punjab and Haryana. The reorganization bill was passed on the basis of recommendations of this committee only. Punjab was divided into two states; Punjabi Suba and Haryana under Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966. Certain areas of undivided Punjab were given to Himachal Pradesh. However, Haryana was raised as a rival to the state of Punjabi language (which was to be made for Punjab). Common links had been made for Punjab and Haryana. Haryana was the area of Hindi-speakers. It could have been easily amalgamated with neighboring Hindi states of Rajasthan and U.P. But, the state of Punjab, which was demanding the areas of Punjabi –speakers, was crippled and made lame as well. Such seeds were sown for its future of economic growth that would not let it move forward. Haryana welcomed the Act of reorganization. But, it was opposed by the Akalis. Sant Fateh Singh threatened to go on `fast unto death` and resort to self-immolation as a protest against it. As a result, the common forums were removed for Haryana and Punjab and Sant Fateh Singh and the Akali Dal welcomed this decision. There was a considerable impact on the political, economic and social conditions of Punjab after the formation of Punjabi Suba. Punjab became a Sikh-majority area. If at all the Punjabi language had been implemented then its entire credit goes to the speakers of Punjabi for the first time.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document