The Desire for Images

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Heal
Keyword(s):  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 3 examines in detail the impact of Calvinist reform on Lutheran attitudes towards images in the two territories that form the main focus of this study: Electoral Saxony and Brandenburg. It shows that images served as confessional markers not only for Lutheran theologians but also for laypeople. In Saxony, where Elector Christian I introduced short-lived Calvinist reforms in 1586–91, members of the political elite expressed their loyalty to Lutheranism through the epitaphs and altarpieces that they commissioned. In Brandenburg, where Elector Johann Sigismund attempted to introduce a fully fledged Calvinist Reformation in 1615, there was widespread resistance to iconoclasm. In April 1615, Berlin’s Lutheran inhabitants rioted, in part in response to the stripping of the city’s main church. The chapter analyzes accounts of this riot and considers its legacy, arguing that during this period conflict served to embed images even more firmly in Lutheran confessional consciousness.

Flight and fortitude: the decline of the middle class in Zimbabwe

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-547
Author(s):  
Roger Southall
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
National Union ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article focuses on the impact of the policies of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government on Zimbabwe's black middle class. It does so by exploring three propositions emerging from the academic literature. The first is that during the early years of independence, the middle class transformed into a party-aligned bourgeoisie. The second is that, to the extent that the middle class has not left the country as a result of the economic plunge from the 1990s, it played a formative role in opposition to ZANU-PF and the political elite. The third is that, in the face of ZANU-PF's authoritarianism and economic hardship, the middle class has largely withdrawn from the political arena.

Why Ukraine Is Not Russia

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 813-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yitzhak M. Brudny ◽  
Evgeny Finkel
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Impact

The article discusses the impact of national identity on democratization and market reforms in Russia and Ukraine. We develop a concept of hegemonic national identity and demonstrate its role in Russian and Ukrainian post-communist political development. The article argues that Russia’s slide toward authoritarianism was to an important degree an outcome of the notions of national identity adopted by the main political players and society at large. In Ukraine, on the other hand, a hegemonic identity failed to emerge and the public discussion of issues of national identity led to the adoption of much more liberal and democratic notions of identity by a considerable part of the political elite. Adoption of this more liberal identity, in turn, was one of the main reasons for the Orange Revolution. The main theoretical implications of this argument are as follows: (a) choices of national identity profoundly affect the prospects for democracy in the newly democratizing states; (b) institutions do shape identities; (c) elites’ preference for (or opposition to) liberal democracy is not simply a consequence of their understanding of their self-interest in gaining and preserving power but also is dependent to a significant extent on their choices of political identity.

scholarly journals Development and implementation of technologies for cultural enlightenment in the context of state cultural policy: semantic guidelines and priority areas

Communicology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
V. V. Stetsenko
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Impact

The article represents the topical trends in contemporary Russian political discourse. The author proceeds from the thesis about the strengthening of the importance of the cultural component of state policy in relation to the education of young people, the reproduction of the political elite, as well as the building of communicative influences between the elite and the people. The article provides an overview of the legal framework of sources within the framework of the research area under consideration. In particular, the article analyzes changes in the field of constitutional legislation, as well as new law-making initiatives in the context of the discussion and adoption of the Laws on Culture and Youth Policy. Significant research platforms are highlighted that accentuate the problems of cultural policy, in the aspects of forming the foundations of the traditional cultural and civilizational identity of youth, as well as the reproduction and improvement of the quality of human capital in the field of training management personnel. Within the framework of the article, the phenomenon of cultural enlightenment is positioned as a promising direction of cultural policy, which is very relevant from the point of view of solving the problems being analyzed. The concept of «cultural imperative» is put forward, designed to become one of the «catalysts» of the process of value-semantic formation of the political elite. The methodological basis of the study was interpretive and empirical methods of studying the impact of state cultural policy, including cultural enlightenment, on the political outlook and socialization of young people, as well as the study of youth as a subject of political relations, its place and role in the political processes of the Russian state, development strategies civic and patriotic activity of young people in a modern society subject to globalization and informatization. In our research, we turned to an interdisciplinary method, in particular, we use the research techniques of sociology in the framework of monitoring on key research issues. As the results of the research, the author proposes projects of optional courses and retraining courses aimed at enriching the system of training the future political elite with value-semantic content through the tools of cultural enlightenment.

scholarly journals RULE-MAKING POLICY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA IN THE CONDITIONS OF CHANGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL CYCLES

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-101
Author(s):  
Ilya V Bondarchuk
Keyword(s):  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Critical Threshold ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Constitutional Regime ◽  
The Impact

This paper draws on new comparative data from these three cycles of Crimean constitutional process (1992-1994, 1995-1998 and 2014-2018) to provide evidence for a novel approach to changes in political and legal systems - an approach that explains both the impact of constitutional crises as well as the robustness of the systems themselves to a more serious destabilization. Our analyses suggest that the political and legal systems have an inbuilt mechanism that saves them from overheating in times of crisis. The mechanism operates simultaneously on the level of law enforcement and at the level of lawmaking. It is based on the assumption that the political elites are risk-averse. While they react to constitutional crises by looking for new solutions, they mostly do so in “restrained” forms of legal regulation where the consequences of change are easily comprehensible. In political and legal systems that are already relatively complex internal structure, however, the political elite shy away from experimentation and rather rely on tested strategies. Constitutional crises therefore tend to stabilize unstable systems and to destabilize stable ones. They rarely push complex systems over a critical threshold of no return. Based on a positive and contrasting comparison of the three different phases of Crimean constitutional process the period 1992-1994 considered as a transformative constitutional regime in statu nascendi (in the formation stage) with signs of restrained independence in rulemaking. Content analysis of the Crimean constitutions in times of Ukraine (1992, 1995, 1998), fundamental amendments to them and changes in the current legislation, revealed the so-called "negative integration" of the autonomous region into Ukraine (1995-1998). As a result, the legal space of post-2014 was characterized by the presence of both new, not yet tested, and the former, several modified institutions, on the basis of which the current Constitution of the Republic of Crimea 2014 was created. The article presents quantitative data and qualitative "illustrations" of various indicators of the legislation of the Republic of Crimea as a normative component of the legal system using a functional research method.

scholarly journals Political Culture and Tourism Development: A Case Study of Tamil Nadu State

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
S. Fazal Daoud Firdausi
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
Tamil Nadu State ◽  
The Impact

Tourism development in any region is influenced by political culture and processes. It is inherently linked to the policies, agenda, decisions, outcomes and the type of government responsible for shaping policies related to tourism. The paper tries to find out the impact of political culture on tourism development. It also aims to assess the role of political culture in influencing tourist motivation through the data collected from urban tourist centres of the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Mixed method, consisting qualitative interpretation as well as descriptive and inferential statistics has been used to draw conclusions. It has come out from the study that the political culture of Tamil Nadu state may be characterized as a mix of subject and participant culture, where latter dominates the former. It can be concluded that the people of the state have always participated in political process through voting and changing the regime from time to time. The study also indicates that most of the people of the state are aware of their political obligations and actively participate in social campaigns and civic life. It can be concluded that the existing political culture in the state has compelled the political elite to think and work for the development of the state, including tourism development.

scholarly journals National Elections and Political Apathy: A Comparative Study of Voter Turnout in the 2019 General Elections of Nigeria and South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Nweke ◽  
Eunice Etido-Inyang
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Apathy ◽  
The Impact

This research examines the impact of political apathy on electoral participation in Nigeria and South Africa in the 2019 general elections. The paper determined the causes of political apathy, its impact on the electoral process as well as its trend (voter turnout) in the general elections of 2019 in Nigeria and South. This research was borne out of the need to address the increasing rate of political apathy, especially voter turnout in both democratic nations. The research argued that the causes of political apathy, particularly poor voter turnout in the two countries are attributable to political marginalisation, corruption, lack of trust in the electoral process, political violence and militarisation of the electoral system. The research further found that there is no significant difference in the nature and trend of the political apathy (voter turnout) in both countries. The Rational Choice Theory (Downs, 1957) and the Democratic Deprivation Theory (Ebenezer, 2017) were used to theoretically justify the potentials of political apathy in undermining democratic participation. This study used descriptive research design to determine the impact of political apathy on the 2019 national elections in both countries. Trends and nature of political apathy, particularly voter turnout in the two countries were ascertained using secondary data and the analysis was based on content analysis in view of the historical trends and nature of the research. The research concluded that there is an obvious decline in political participation in both countries due to lack of trust in the electoral process, among others, which has largely undermined the interest of the electorate in the political systems of both countries. This research, therefore, recommends that political elite in both countries should be transparent, honest, responsible and responsive in order to encourage voter turnout in both countries at future national elections. A free, fair and credible electoral process, the study also recommended, would help rebuild citizens’ confidence in both countries’ electoral processes.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Ukrainian Factor Over the Political Elite and the Civil Society of Transdniestria

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 532-549
Author(s):  
A. K. Skovikov ◽  
O. V. Leonteva ◽  
V. V. Yastrebchak
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Impact

Social change and markets for urban credit: political elites as investors in urban annuities in sixteenth-century Ghent

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-367
Author(s):  
Jelten Y. P. Baguet
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Debt Management ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Investment Behaviour

Financial historians have devoted considerable attention to the investment behaviour of urban politicians in the market for public debt in the Low Countries. They have focused not only on how many urban officials invested in annuities, but also why they did so. On the one hand, it has been suggested that political elites often had political and economic motivations for investing in urban annuities. By contrast, historians from the institutional school defend the thesis that inclusive governance led to broader participation in the market for urban credit. A variable that has gone largely unnoticed in explaining investments by the political elite is the impact of the changing composition and social profile of the ruling elites on their investment behaviour. In this article, I examine the case of sixteenth-century Ghent to argue that changes in the city's power structure resulted in profound changes in attitudes towards public debt management. While the old political elite in the early sixteenth century prioritised selling annuities to individuals who belonged to the political networks of their time, the group of political newcomers that dominated urban politics at the end of the sixteenth century had much more of a market-oriented attitude, giving priority to non-political investors in the free market.

The economics and politics of reform in Hungary

1986 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 421-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Comisso ◽  
Paul Marer
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Collective Leadership ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Mutual Economic Assistance ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Economics And Politics

Reform of the domestic economic system is the distinctive element of Hungary's foreign economic strategy in the 1980s. The need for systemic economic reform stems from Hungary's status as a small country, heavily dependent on foreign trade, many of whose imports can no longer be met within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance alone. The many obstacles to economic reform lie in a heritage of policy choices that responded to domestic and CMEA supply constraints rather than to principles of comparative advantage. Such policies undercut the initial economic reform in 1968 and contributed to a major economic crisis in 1979–82. The subsequent changes in policy priorities and institutional mechanisms prompted by this crisis aimed to reduce Hungary's insulation from the larger international economy and make the economy more efficient. Politically, economic reform is possible in Hungary largely because of the impact of the 1956 revolt on both the subsequent composition of the political elite and the norms and features of collective leadership that guided its decision making afterwards. Nevertheless, the political and economic structures on which collective leadership rests weaken reform advocates and obstruct consistent implementation of their policy preferences. Yet Hungary's economic situation in the late 1970s altered the political balance offerees in favor of reformists, permitting them to alter both economic structures and policies.

Transformation of the welfare state in Lithuania: Towards globalization and Europeanization

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Aidukaite
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
Social Security Reforms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The International Monetary Fund ◽  
The Welfare State

This paper is designed to shed some light on possible impacts of globalization and Europeanization on social security reforms in one of the new EU member state - Lithuania. The paper is based on 67 expert interviews conducted with the political elite, academics, journalists, senior civil servants, interest group representatives and the economic elite. The paper highlights the higher influence of globalization through the activities of such supranational agencies as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund compared to the impact of cognitive Europeanization on social security reforms.

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