Upper Germany in the Reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg, c. 1410–37

Author(s):  
Duncan Hardy

The second case study shows how associative political culture shaped Upper Germany during the reign of King/Emperor Sigismund (r. 1410/11–37). What marked out these decades from earlier and later cycles of alliance-making, feuding, and mediation was the unusually prominent role played by the monarch himself, who was present in the southern Empire for most of the 1410s and 1430s. Sigismund judiciously cultivated relationships with key princely allies and tried to encourage leagues of towns and knightly societies to coalesce into peace-keeping coalitions that he could direct. The monarch proved the value of harnessing associative dynamics to his agenda in a war against his rival Duke Friedrich IV of Austria-Tyrol, who was overwhelmed and dispossessed by a network of Upper Rhenish and Swabian alliances which then turned against each other. Imperial efforts against the Hussites in the 1420s also depended upon associative coalitions, including a grand alliance of the prince-electors.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Scott Travanion Connors

Abstract This article explores the emergence of reformist sentiment and political culture in Madras in the mid-nineteenth century. Moreover, it contributes to, and expands upon, the growing body of literature on colonial petitioning through a case-study of a mass petition demanding education reform. Signed in 1839 by 70,000 subjects from across the Madras presidency, the petition demanded the creation of a university that would qualify western-educated Indians to gain employment in the high public offices of the East India Company. Through an analysis of the lifecycle of this education petition, from its creation to its reception and the subsequent adoption of its demands by the Company government at Fort St George, this article charts the process by which an emergent, politicized public engaged with, and critiqued, the colonial state. Finally, it examines the transformative effect that the practice of mass petitioning had on established modes of political activism and communication between an authoritarian colonial state and the society it governed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 019251212093120
Author(s):  
Paloma Caravantes

This paper analyzes the interplay of left populist and feminist politics through a case study of Podemos (‘we can’), a Spanish left populist party that reproduces a dominant gendered logic of politics despite its feminist interpretation of democratic renewal. I argue that this is the result of fundamental contradictions between the feminist and populist projects of political transformation that coexist in the party. Even if left populism offers a more productive terrain for gender equality than right populism, central tenets of populism disrupt feminist commitments and goals. Chief among these are the oversimplification of the political field based on a limited diagnosis, the exclusionary appeals to the homeland and to a homogenizing collectivity of the people, the dominant masculine and personalistic logics of charismatic leaders, the prioritization of electoral success over other forms of political transformation, and the resulting gendered political culture that marginalizes empowerment, inclusion, and participatory democratic practices.


1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Richardson

It is not uncommon for the case-study approach to the study of policy making to be criticized for failing to produce broad generalizations or concepts applicable to systems as a whole. For example, in discussing policy making and political culture in Sweden, Anton argues that case-studies of decision making do not offer an adequate or realistic view of the process. In doing so he suggests that we should shift our focus of concern ‘from the single decision (whatever it is), to the structure of relationships between participants and the norms which serve to maintain or change those relationships through time. The focus shifts, in other words, from decisions to systems of decision-making’. Whilst not disputing the need for studying the general properties of decision making in a given political system (or indeed the need for the comparative study of policy making in different systems), this article will suggest the value of studying individual policy areas – in this case, transport – as opposed to both individual decisions and entire political systems, as a means of testing broader propositions such as those formulated by Anton.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-298
Author(s):  
Lars Nord ◽  
Marie Grusell

Televised political advertising appears in very different national political communication contexts. Sweden is an interesting case study. For many years, political ads on TV were not allowed at all. However, with the transition from analog to digital terrestrial television the public service obligations of the “hybrid” channel TV4 were dismantled. In the 2010 national election campaign, all Swedish parliamentary parties bought advertising time on TV4. This article intends to shed new light on political TV ads as a new campaign feature in a rapidly transforming political communication environment. The study relates to the concept of hybridization of election campaigns and intends to increase knowledge about hybridization processes by focusing on a critical case where one of the most adopted campaign practices worldwide is finally implemented within a specific national context and deviating political culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 91-123
Author(s):  
Mayte Green-Mercado

Abstract This article presents a case study of a rebellion conspiracy organized by a group of Moriscos—Spanish Muslims forcibly converted to Catholicism—in the early seventeenth century. In order to carry out their plans, these Moriscos sought assistance from the French king Henry iv (r. 1589-1610). Analyzing a Morisco letter remitted to Henry iv and multiple archival sources, this article argues that prophecy served as a diplomatic language through which Moriscos communicated with the most powerful Mediterranean rulers of their time. A ‘connected histories’ approach to the study of Morisco political activity underscores the ubiquity of prophecies and apocalyptic expectations in the social life and political culture of the early modern Mediterranean. As a language of diplomacy, apocalyptic discourse allowed for minor actors such as the Moriscos to engage in politics in a language that was deemed mutually intelligible, and thus capable of transcending confessional boundaries.


Author(s):  
Lily Geismer

This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While METCO offered a rare example of interracial and urban–suburban cooperation, its focus on collective benefits rather than collective responsibility had wide-ranging consequences. Tracing the development of METCO offers an important case study of the trade-offs that suburban liberal activists made in their quests to achieve social justice. The organizers' pragmatic approach ensured the acceptance of the program in the suburbs and paved the way for later support of diversity claims about the value of affirmative action. This strategy, nevertheless, fortified the consumer-based and individualist dimensions of the Route 128 political culture. It ultimately made community members more resistant to grappling with the systemic and historical circumstances that necessitated programs like METCO and affirmative action in the first place.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Laurens E. Tacoma

Traditionally, historians regard the demise of the Roman Republic as the end of politics. If politics is regarded as decision making that affects society as a whole, something certainly changed with the advent of single rule. Yet the traditional political institutions of senate and city council continued to exist for a remarkably long period of sixth centuries afterwards. It is argued that their role became social rather than political and that they became self-referential, offering the elite a platform to define and negotiate its own position and enact and negotiate major tensions and ambiguities of elite life. The behaviour of their members is best analysed under the heading of political culture, here defined as ‘a style of doing politics’. Such an approach focuses on the social meaning of the form of the behaviour rather than on the content of the decisions. The approach is underpinned by the theory of bounded rationality, which assumes that participants are bound by language and conventions. It is argued that a case study approach, focusing on specific texts or clusters of texts, offers the best way to proceed. It presents seven cases that will be studied in successive chapters, each representing a major tension or ambiguity inherent in Roman political culture.


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