Religious Authority and Sectarianism in Lebanon

2018 ◽  
pp. 283-302
Author(s):  
Alexander D.M. Henley
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Political System ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Personal Status ◽  
Religious Sects ◽  
Worship Education ◽  
The Way

Lebanese religious leaders are often treated as authentic representatives of their sects and are given broad powers over religious affairs. However, their leadership is not organic, nor are they necessarily popular, as these individuals are trained and selected by elite institutions. Lebanon’s political system institutionalizes the representation of various religious sects and grants their leaders broad powers over religious affairs, including personal-status courts, wealthy endowments, places of worship, education, and the centralized employment of clerics. Lebanese religious leaders do not incite sectarian hatred. They are invested in coexisting within and preserving the political system that confers their power. In some respects, religious representatives are well-placed to defuse sectarian tension. They tend to publically oppose the politicization of sectarian divisions, and can be instrumental in deradicalization. But the way Lebanon recognizes and empowers exclusivist religious leaders also exacerbates the country’s difficulty in faithfully representing its religious diversity. These leaders promote narrow orthodoxies that marginalize and at times radicalize nonconformists such as Islamists or secularists. Religious leaders help perpetuate a sectarian system that inhibits social integration and has suppressed the representation of diversity rather than improved it. Their monopoly over religious affairs maintains divisions between citizens and confines them to communally bound lives.

scholarly journals The Authority of Ulama and the Problem of Anti-State Militancy in Pakistan

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 584-601
Author(s):  
Muhammad Akram
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
Legal Opinions ◽  
The Way

Pakistan’s religious leaders, ulama, have been put under significant strain in relation to how deal with questions about the political tensions and violence over the past decade flowing from the Taliban’s role in conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The effects of this fraught environment on religious authority can be seen through the way that religious leaders have issued contradictory and opaque fatwa (non-binding, but highly influential, legal opinions). This article particularly considers the way that different fatwa-giving religious groups, such as Deobandis, Brevalis, and Ahl-i-Hadith, have dealt with these problems. The violence, which has struck the heart of Pakistan civil society, has led to a confusing array of fatwa from these religious elites. These opinions have sought to categorize violence as either legitimate or to be condemned. This article therefore shows how these fatwa and the conflicting positions they taken have compromised religious authority in contemporary Pakistan.

scholarly journals Swedish interventions in the tragedy of the Jews of Slovakia

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-39
Author(s):  
Denisa Nestakova ◽  
Eduard Nižňanský
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Way

This article describes a largely unknown Swedish effort to intervene in deportations of Jews of Slovakia between 1942 and 1944. Swedish officials and religious leaders used their diplomatic correspondence with the Slovak government to extract some Jewish individuals and later on the whole Jewish community of Slovakia from deportations by their government and eventually by German officials. Despite the efforts of the Swedish Royal Consulate in Bratislava, the Swedish arch­bishop, Erling Eidem, and the Slovak consul, Bohumil Pissko, in Stockholm, and despite the acts taken by some Slovak ministries, the Slovak officials, including the president of the Slovak Republic, Jozef Tiso, revoked further negotiations in the autumn of 1944. However, the negotiations between Slovakia and Sweden created a scope for actions to protect some Jewish individuals which were doomed­ to failure because of the political situation. Nevertheless, this plan and the previous diplomatic interventions are significant for a description of the almost unknown Swedish and Slovak efforts to save the Jews of Slovakia. Repeated Swedish offers to take in Jewish individuals and later the whole community could well have prepared the way for larger rescues. These never occurred, given the Slovak interest in deporting their own Jewish citizens and later the German occupation of Slovakia. 

The Monuments to the War Dead in Classical Athens: Form, Contexts, Meanings

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
POLLY LOW
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Physical Location ◽  
War Dead ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

This chapter discusses one of the best-known instances of classical commemoration: the public funeral and collective burial and commemoration of the Athenian war dead. Its particular aim is to explore the various contexts in which Athenian practice might be understood. How do these monuments fit into the wider picture of Athenian burial and commemoration, in terms of both form and physical location? How do they relate to the political system and ideology of the city that created them? And how might these contexts shape the way in which the monuments were used and understood by contemporary and later viewers?

Citizenship, Migration, and Confessional Democracy in Lebanon

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibaut Jaulin
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Citizenship Regime ◽  
The Way

No major citizenship reform has been adopted in Lebanon since the creation of the Lebanese citizenship in 1924. Moreover, access to citizenship for foreign residents does not depend on established administrative rules and processes, but instead on ad hoc political decisions. The Lebanese citizenship regime is thus characterized by immobilism and discretion. This paper looks at the relationship between citizenship regime and confessional democracy, defined as a system of power sharing between different religious groups. It argues that confessional democracy hinders citizenship reform and paves the way to arbitrary naturalization practices, and that, in turn, the citizenship regime contributes to the resilience of the political system. In other words, the citizenship regime and the political system are mutually reinforcing.

The Deferential English: A Comparative Critique

1971 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Kavanagh
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Cultures ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
The Status ◽  
English Politics ◽  
The Way

ALL POLITICAL CULTURES ARE MIXED AND CHANGING. WHAT IS interesting in the English case, however, is the way in which a veritable army of scholars has seized on the deferential component. Other features in the overall cultural pattern have been neglected. This paper is devoted to an examination of the concept of deference as it is applied to English politics. In particular it will focus on the different meanings that the concept has assumed in the literature describing and analysing the popular political attitudes, and those aspects of the political system, including stability, which it has been used to explain. My concluding argument is that deference, as the concept is frequently applied to English political culture, has attained the status of a stereotype and that it is applied to such variegated and sometimes conflicting data that it has outlived its usefulness as a term in academic currency.

scholarly journals Federal System and Direct Democracy in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Matyja
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal System ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Unique System ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

The main aim of this work is to present and analyze the structure and the way of operating of the Swiss instruments of direct democracy, as well as its significance for the country’s development. The Swiss example is the best case of functioning democracy in the world. Throughout the centuries, the Swiss political system has evolved into a mature and efficient democracy. The process of its improvement is still going on. Today, the political system of Switzerland can be described as parliamentary-cantonal. In 1848, the country adopted the Federal Constitution and a system based on referenda, while local issues, such as taxes, judiciary, schooling, police, and welfare were left to the cantons. In 1874, the document was amended and the optional referendum was introduced. In 1891, another amendment cemented the unique system by rooting in strongly in direct democracy. The current constitution of Switzerland was adopted by the majority of voter through a referendum that took place in 1999.

scholarly journals Social integration as security and dynamic stability factor of the European political system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Rosca ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Dynamic Stability ◽  
Political System ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Stability Factor ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Communication Capacity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Integration Of Immigrants

In the article, the looks into different possibilities of social integration of people, social groups, pointing to the cause of marginalization – the low level of culture, communication capacity, selfknowledge. Regardless of the social status of the person: poor, employed, unemployed or immigrant, social inclusion is stimulated by the individual’s interest in knowing, acting, and manifesting himself. Social integration can and must be stimulated by state institutions, as well. Otherwise, dissatisfaction among the marginalized will lead to destabilization of the political system and social conflicts. The social integration of immigrants is a way of mitigating the social crisis that has occurred in European countries. The key objectives of the investigation are: to analyze the challenges to the security and instability of the political system of the European States; to define social integration and inclusion as a factor of the dynamic stability of the political system; to interpret marginalization as a destabilizing factor; to analyze the social integration of immigrants through knowledge and communication.

New Media in Kenya

2011 ◽  
pp. 40-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin C. Njoroge ◽  
Purity Kimani ◽  
Bernard J. Kikech
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Ethnic Differences ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Way

The way the media processes, frames, and passes on information either to the government or to the people affects the function of the political system. This chapter discusses the interaction between new media and ethnicity in Kenya, Africa. The chapter investigates ways in which the new media reinforced issues relating to ethnicity prior to Kenya’s 2007 presidential election. In demonstrating the nexus between new media and ethnicity, the chapter argues that the upsurge of ethnic animosity was chiefly instigated by new media’s influence. Prior to the election, politicians had mobilized their supporters along ethnic lines, and created a tinderbox situation. Thus, there is need for the new media in Kenya to help the citizens to redefine the status of ethnic relationships through the recognition of ethnic differences and the re-discovery of equitable ways to accommodate them; after all, there is more strength than weaknesses in these differences.

Is the Way of the Humane Authority a Good Thing?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Shaoguang
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
The People ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Moral Philosophers ◽  
The Way

This chapter criticizes the emphasis on privatization, the destruction of the Maoist-style emphasis on social welfare, and the growing gap between rich and poor. It argues that more needs to be done to combat the inequalities generated by capitalist modernization in China. Political legitimacy is not something to be defined by moral philosophers in total abstraction from the political reality. Rather, it is a matter of whether or not a political system faces a crisis of legitimacy depends on whether the people who live there doubt the rightness of its power, and whether they consider it the appropriate system for their country. The chapter ultimately endorses a definition of legitimacy as the legitimacy of the popular will.

The Brazilian Political System: Trends and Perspectives

1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celso Lafer
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political System ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Change ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Way

IN 1964 THE BRAZILIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM UNDERWENT A basic change. The populist republic (1946–64), which had paved the way for both a formal and an informal extension of political and economic franchises, after the success of Kubitschek's administration (1956–61) and Quadros's resignation (1961), collapsed as a result of decisional paralysis. The economic challen e of accumulation and the political challenge of social justice led, in the early 1960s during the Goulart administration, both to a fragmentation of power and to radicalization. The more demands multiplied, the more the government hesitated, feeding the anxiety of different political grou s in society. The result was a growing distrust of the politicafsystem. Distrust in turn not only prevented a coalition in support of a consistent governmental programme but also brought about an intensification of conflictual demands. This self-sustaining mechanism of decisional paralysis was interrupted by the emergence of what has been called by Juan Linz and Guuermo O'Donnell ‘a bureaucratic-authoritarian regime’.

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