Sparta

Classics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Thommen
Keyword(s):  
Political Stability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Communal Life ◽  
Spartan Mirage ◽  
Mixed Constitution ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Modern Myth

Alongside Athens, Sparta is considered as the second mighty polis in the Greek world and has always attracted admiration as well as criticism, so that its image has undergone many transformations. Sparta was time and again represented as the counterpart of Athens and assigned the role of a backward oligarchy and legally, rigidly regulated military state. In Antiquity (cf. Xenophon and Plato) the political stability and military efficiency of Sparta were declared an ideal and traced back to the system of public education (agoge). In the course of the 4th century bce, Aristotle finally proclaimed Sparta a pattern for a “mixed constitution,” which contains monarchic as well as aristocratic and democratic elements (kings, gerontes, and ephors, or the leaders of the popular assembly). Following this outline, it later became also a model for the Romans (Polybius, Book 6). On the other hand, the “equality” of the Spartans, who termed themselves homoioi (“equals”), has always been fascinating. Connected with this equality was the communal life of Spartan men in the form of a permanent military-style camp. The idea of severe regulation of all facets of life and its orientation toward the state resulted in the early 20th century in the denotation of the Spartan community as a “kosmos,” so that Sparta also became a modern myth. Yet the Spartan “mirage” has been continuously deconstructed since the publication of Ollier 1933–1943 (see Spartan Tradition and Research History, Post-1900). Recently, there has been ongoing debate between researchers who think Sparta was more like other Greek states than sources note, and those who think it was unique.

scholarly journals Consensual democracy And the role of elites in institutionalizing political divisions

2018 ◽  
Vol 224 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-272
Author(s):  
Teacher. Osama AbdAli Khalaf
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Closed Circle ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Political Consensus

    The consensual democracy Considered a form of a ruling , in the Unconsensus in heterogeneous national or sectarian or ideological, which is limited to the core political issues that require political consensus, does not extend to all levels of political action because this democracy may be crippling political stability and lead the leaders of the political forces role pivotal in this aspect, the more these leaders have taken in the national interest supreme value at the expense of ethnic or narrow sectarian interests, whenever consensus and political stability, and the more hardened leaders in their own interests, were introduced in a closed circle of conflict and instability.

scholarly journals An econometric study of the role of the political stability on the relationship between democracy and economic growth

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206
Author(s):  
Nedra Baklouti ◽  
Younes Boujelbene
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Dynamic Panel Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dynamic Panel ◽  
Mena Countries ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the nexus between democracy and economic growth while taking into account the role of political stability, using dynamic panel data model estimated by means of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) over the period 1998 to 2011 for 17 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. Our empirical results showed that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between democracy and economic growth. Moreover, it was found that the effect of democracy on economic growth depends on the political stability. The results also indicated that there is important complementarity between political stability and democracy. In fact, political stability is a key determinant variable of economic growth. Eventually, democracy and political stability, taken together, have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. This finding suggests that, if accompanied by a stable political system, democracy can contribute to the economic growth of countries. Thus, the MENA governments should use policies to promote political stability in the region.

The Political Role of the African Middle Class: The Over-Politicization of an Elusive Category

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Darbon
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Sub Saharan

The African middle class (AMC) is an elusive category with high political significance. In spite of its vagueness and its controversial nature, this so-called social category is consistently used by a number of individual actors and institutions alike, including IO, NGOs, business interests, and political leaders in Africa for political purposes. The words “African middle class” are suggestive enough to produce new images of African social structures and turn the “hopeless continent” into a “miracle,” a new “powerhouse.” They are strong enough to grant new legitimacy to failing political leaders and the well off and to let people and academics alike anticipate the rise of democratic, stable, uncorrupted institutions. However, people “of the middle of the diamond” in Africa do not exist as a social community or a class. They do not share a common political identity. They have no political role of their own. The diversity of social subgroups may occasionally mobilize together, but for a short period of time and on highly different grounds. The political role of the AMC is as elusive as their mere existence. New social groups of limited prosperity are on the rise. However, they are far from making a class and mobilizing for political purposes. The rise of middle classes in emerging countries became a research theme at the beginning of the 2000s. The discussion took root in sub-Saharan African countries in the 2010s without any in-depth debate about its relevance. It was as if the AMC or classes already existed before the examination of a still very confused and heterogeneous set of transformations of the social structure of African societies was conducted. As a result, the AMC concept appears in almost all analyses as elastic, elusive, cobbled together, and uncertain as to its boundaries, its characteristics, its components, or its homogeneity. This confusion does not prevent authors from anticipating the meaning and effects of the AMC for political stability and democratization. Before studying how the people grouped behind this label can affect and be affected by politics and policies, it is necessary to understand how politically loaded this middle-class label is.

The Growth of Political Stability Reconsidered

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Orthodox Interpretation ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Past ◽  
John Owen

It has been twenty-seven years since Professor Plumb, now Sir John Plumb, delivered the Ford lectures at Oxford University. In a prose that was elegant, spirited, at times colloquial, always luminous, he offered a persuasive explanation for the growth of political stability in eighteenth-century England. Later published as The Growth of Political Stability in England, these lectures were widely read and the explanation offered in them widely accepted. Professor Plumb's thesis became and remains the orthodox interpretation of the political stability that England enjoyed in the eighteenth century.During the past twenty-seven years, however, a considerable literature has appeared concerning the growth of political stability, some of it occasioned by Professor Plumb's own fertile suggestions. Historians such as J. V. Beckett, Lloyd Bonfield, Christopher Clay, Linda Colley, Norma Landau, John Owen, John Phillips, and Nicholas Rogers have studied the rise of the great estates, the decline of party, the role of patronage, and the politics of deference. The appearance of this literature offers a useful occasion for looking once again at the growth of political stability. In particular, it offers an opportunity to ask how valid is the Plumb thesis, and, if found not to be valid, what alternative explanation can be given for the growth of political stability in eighteenth-century England.

THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF STATE SYSTEMS OF POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (XX) ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Wiktor Hołubko
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Mixed Form ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The Face

After the collapse of the USSR in August 1991 and the emergence of new sovereign states on its territory, they all formed the office of the president within a few years. It became very attractive to them for a number of reasons: it was able to guarantee political stability in the face of radical transformations of their systems, to facilitate the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, and to legitimize the political and legal status of the former Soviet ruling elites. During the years of independence, the presidency has taken various forms. A large part of post-Soviet states chose the presidential form of government in some places with signs of authoritarianism, which was reflected in the desire to constantly strengthen the role of this office. Few states have chosen a mixed form of government in which the office of the president is largely influenced by the balance of domestic political forces. The phenomenon of its excessive personification plays an important role in determining the influence of the president on the functioning of public authorities in post-Soviet countries. The least popular is the parliamentary form of government, in which the office of the president is left with very limited powers.

scholarly journals Greek Political Thought in Ancient History

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Political Stability ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Political Commentary ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
The Many ◽  
Mixed Constitution ◽  
Political Vocabulary

Greek historians of the fifth and fourth centuries bce also intended their works to be political commentaries. This paper concentrates on the work of Thucydides, and his interest in fifth-century ideas of constitutionalism. Honing in on the political ‘opposites’, democracy and oligarchy, this paper argues that Thucydides collapses these categories, to show not only that they are unstable, but that, built upon the same political vocabulary, they naturally lead towards his new idea of the measured blending of the few and the many in a mixed constitution, which creates political stability and a positive political experience for the community. In this sense, Thucydides’ text, which uses historical narrative as a vehicle for political commentary, needs to be understood within the framework of historical contextualism, but also as a ‘possession for all time’.

Karl Renner and Austria in 1945

1965 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 122-149
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Houston
Keyword(s):  
Political Skill ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Trojan Horse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Conflicting Interests

That Austria escaped permanent sovietization and achieved political stability in 1945 was the result of many factors, but none was more important than the political skill of the man whom the Red Army picked to play the role of Trojan horse, Dr. Karl Renner. By a combination of adroit political opportunism and stubborn adherence to a single goal, that of Austrian independence, Renner outmaneuvered his Soviet benefactors and acted as midwife to the birth of a new Austria which was independent, neutral, and politically viable. In order to achieve this goal, Renner had to harmonize the often conflicting interests of the Russians, the Austrian politicians, and the Western Allies.

scholarly journals A Tale of Two Cities: Whole of Life Prison Sentences in Strasbourg and Westminster

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299
Author(s):  
Mark Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Government ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Court ◽  
Legal Principle ◽  
Two Cities

The recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Hutchinson v United Kingdom (2015) is the latest twist in the political legal struggle between Westminster and Strasbourg. Whilst the British government has made several successions to the ECtHR regarding the role of the executive in the imprisonment of lifers, the thorny issue of the whole of life tariff, and prospect of prisoner release under that tariff, has been an ongoing debate. Whilst the ECtHR appeared to directly challenge domestic policy in the preceding decision in Vinter and Others v United Kingdom this latest decision, the seeming retreat from Vinter, by the Fourth Section of the court, appears to be more of a response to hard line domestic politics than a continuation of holistic legal principle which the ECtHR has outwardly supported in the past.

Prohibition, Racism and Class Politics in the Post-Reconstruction South

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise A. Herd
Keyword(s):  
Jim Crow ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Racist Ideology

The virulent racism associated with the southern prohibition movement in the late 19th and early 20th century is practially invisible in literature on the history of alcohol reform movements. This paper explores the rise of racist ideology in the anti-liquor movement and its particular relationship to political factionalism and class conflict in the Post-Reconstruction South. The analysis suggests that the strong role of the anti-liquor movements in campaigns for black disfranchisement and Jim Crow legislation was tied into broader struggles for economic control and political power in an era of socio-economic crisis. In the wake of a prolonged period of radical reform and labor protests, the prohibition movement played an increasingly important role in the political and economic repression of both blacks and lower class whites.

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