Shouting down the Dead

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-158
Author(s):  
Laurens E. Tacoma
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Real Power ◽  
Historia Augusta ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fait Accompli ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Power And Influence

This chapter analyses the fourth characteristic of Roman political culture, the ambiguities that could occur in those situations where members of political institutions tried to exercise real power and influence decisions. As their power was nominal rather than real, strategies arose that could be used to force decisions regardless. The tensions surrounding imperial successions are fully visible in a report preserved in the Historia Augusta of the senate meeting that was held directly after Commodus’ death in AD 192. In the face of the impossibility of conducting proper debates about the most important issues, political institutions would increasingly resort to a strategy that was commonly employed by large theatre audiences: that of shouting collectively. As shouts expressed the collective consensus, they supposedly showed true feeling. Acclamations were therefore difficult to ignore. In the crisis-like atmosphere that surrounded imperial successions, the use of acclamations helped the senate to reclaim lost territory, frame issues in a way that buttressed its own position, and thus regain the initiative. It cornered the ruler to whom the acclamations were directed: he was placed in a position in which he could hardly ignore what was asked of him. Despite appearances, however, the acclamations constituted a dialogue rather than presenting the ruler with a fait accompli. Given the actual power relations, the ruler still had room to make his own decisions, no matter how great was the pressure that would be exerted.

Classical Greek Oligarchy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Simonton
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Majority Population ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Face ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Client Relations

This book thoroughly reassesses an important but neglected form of government in ancient Greece, the “rule of the few.” The book challenges scholarly orthodoxy by showing that oligarchy was not the default mode of politics from time immemorial, but instead emerged alongside, and in reaction to, democracy. It establishes how oligarchies maintained power in the face of potential citizen resistance. It argues that oligarchs designed distinctive political institutions—such as intra-oligarchic power sharing, targeted repression, and rewards for informants—to prevent collective action among the majority population while sustaining cooperation within their own ranks. To clarify the workings of oligarchic institutions, the book draws on recent social science research on authoritarianism. Like modern authoritarian regimes, ancient Greek oligarchies had to balance coercion with co-optation in order to keep their subjects disorganized and powerless. The book investigates topics such as control of public space, the manipulation of information, and the establishment of patron–client relations, frequently citing parallels with contemporary nondemocratic regimes. It also traces changes over time in antiquity, revealing the processes through which oligarchy lost the ideological battle with democracy for legitimacy. This book represents a major new development in the study of ancient politics. It fills a longstanding gap in our knowledge of nondemocratic government while greatly improving our understanding of forms of power that continue to affect us today.

Witches and Succubi: Male Sexual Fantasies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serinity Young
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Intercourse ◽  
Sexual Fantasies ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Face ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Demonic

Witches, women believed to have supernatural powers, have been with us since ancient times. Often they were beautiful, highly sexual women whom men bedded at their own risk. They had magical powers (including that of flight), communed with the dead, and did not conform to patriarchal ideas of womanhood. Their sexuality led them to be classified as succubi, or female spirits who visited men at night and had sexual intercourse with them while they slept. In medieval Christian Europe, witches were refigured as ugly over time, and they became the face of evil. They were believed to fly to their unholy Sabbaths, where they participated in orgies with Satan and sacrificed babies. In truth, most people who were accused of being witches were women caught up in the changing mores and beliefs of the medieval Church, which began to view women as more susceptible to the demonic than men, a Church that needed evidence of their unholy activities, even if extracted by torture.

scholarly journals Varro, the Name-Givers, and the Lawgivers: The Case of the Consuls

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 588-609
Author(s):  
Valentina Arena
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Philosophical Framework ◽  
The Republic

Abstract This essay aims at identifying a tradition of lawgivers in the political culture of the late Republic. It focuses on the antiquarian tradition of the second half of the first century BC, which, it argues, should be considered part of the wider quest for legal normativism that takes place towards the end of the Republic. By reconstructing the intellectual debates on the nature of the consulship, which at the time was carried out through the means of etymological research, this essay shows that, when set within its proper philosophical framework, ancient etymological studies acted as a search for philosophical truth and, in the case of Varro, identify the early kings as the first Roman lawgivers. In turn, the language of political institutions and its etymologies, conceived along philosophical lines, could become a weapon in the constitutional battles of the late Republic.

Initiatives, Referenda and Socialism in Switzerland

1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Libbey
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
British Labour

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN DEMOCRATIC STATES HAVE USUALLY COME into existence as the manifestation of a principle of political philosophy or as the result of a compromise among forces with different aspirations for the polity. Often both factors have been involved. Certainly the consequences for political behaviour of introducing any particular structure have been of concern to its architects, but many of these consequences are unforeseeable and the actual impact of an institutional change or the character of a formal role may in time become quite different from that intended.For a political actor, such as an individual, an interest group or a party, formal structures are given attributes of the political environment. Along with the more diffuse qualities of the political culture, they constitute the framework within which political actors must compete for influence over public policy. This framework, both formal and informal, is uneven in its effects on the fortunes of the various political forces. It favours some approaches and some groups more and in different ways than it favours others. The British Labour Party, with its concentrated voting strength, is disadvantaged by the single-member district/plurality electoral system, while its counterpart in Germany is able to maximize its strength in a system of proportional representation.

Iroquois Food Diplomacy in the Revolutionary North

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-64
Author(s):  
Rachel B. Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The State ◽  
The Face ◽  
State Of Power ◽  
American Army

This chapter details how Indians used hunger to fight back. During the summer of 1779, the rebel American army mounted a devastating victual-warfare campaign, known today as the Sullivan Campaign, against Britain's Iroquois allies. Two major related changes occurred after the expedition. First, British descriptions of Iroquois hunger by the 1780s allowed most officials to envision Indians as useful mouths who could overlook hunger while also requiring more provisions. This altered perception of Iroquois hunger created a second change: a reworking of Iroquoian food diplomacy into something more violent than its previous iterations. Iroquoian food diplomacy in the American Revolution was constituted, in part, by mutual fasting—a policy the Indians sometimes had to enforce through the use of aggression. This diplomacy took Indian requests for certain types of provisions into account, obliging non-Natives to go out of their way to accommodate Native tastes. The American Revolution ravaged Indian communities, including Iroquois ones, but, during the war, changing British perceptions of hungry Indians allowed the Iroquois to challenge the state of power relations at a time when contemporaries assumed they were powerless in the face of crop destruction and land losses. Iroquois abilities to ignore and endure hunger made it impossible for their British allies to think of them as useless mouths.

Romanticism and Modernity

2018 ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Craig Browne ◽  
Andrew P. Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Instrumental Rationality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
The Face ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Holistic Conception

This chapter explores the implications of Taylor’s analysis of romanticism’s influence on modernity and the tension, in his opinion, between modernity’s dominant emphasis on instrumental rationality and romanticism’s ideals, like expression, creativity and community. Taylor wants to show, we argue, the extent to which the strains of modern society derive from this tension and how romanticism’s ideals have influenced modern political movements, particularly nationalism. In particular, Taylor’s own critical diagnoses of the ‘malaise of modernity’ are influenced by romanticism, as is evident from his observations on the fragility of social bonds in the face of industrial and technological advancement, as well as in his comments on contemporary culture’s potential loss of meaning and significance. These experiences of alienation are the other side, so to speak, of the modern ethic of authenticity, which has resulted in the widespread concern with self-realisation. Taylor argues that romantic authors, especially Humboldt and Herder, developed an expressivist theory of language, a holistic conception of liberal freedoms, and were among the first to appreciate the importance of a community’s political culture to modern freedoms. Taylor is shown to be able to claim on this basis that the debate between liberalism and communitarians has been at cross-purposes.

The Sunningdale Agreement, 1973

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-105
Author(s):  
John Coakley ◽  
Jennifer Todd
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Republic Of Ireland ◽  
Northern Ireland Conflict ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Republic ◽  
New Institutions

In an early ambitious attempt to resolve the Northern Ireland conflict in 1973–4, there emerged two key proposals that would radically change the form of Northern Ireland political institutions: power-sharing (rather than majority rule), and institutionalized links with the Republic of Ireland (rather than a ‘hard’ border). This chapter, centred on a witness seminar where several of those involved recorded their memories and interpretations, explores the thinking of officials—especially on the Irish side—as it evolved in the early 1970s. It also documents their changing views as they attempted to reach new new modes of accommodation with their British counterparts. It examines the process by which an innovative package was agreed in Sunningdale, England, in December 1973, and follows the challenging process of implementation of this package. This initiative was ultimately unsuccessful, as the new institutions collapsed in the face of determined unionist opposition in May 1974.

Changing (?) Gender Roles Within Conservative Communities: An Analysis of Group Interview Narratives of Bedouin Women

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-509
Author(s):  
Ayelet Harel-Shalev ◽  
Rebecca Kook ◽  
Feniar Elkrenawe
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Group Interview ◽  
Women's Agency ◽  
Multiple Modes ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Face ◽  
Women’S Agency ◽  
Group Interviews

Abstract This article focuses on the creative and innovative modes of negotiation that women in severely patriarchal societies often exhibit in their attempts to actively pursue their own goals in the face of risk. Based on group interviews with Bedouin women in southern Israel about their everyday lives, the research explores both the risks and the ways in which the women deal with them. The research expands on discussions about the nature of women’s agency in the context of the power relations prevalent in specific communities, paying attention to the multiple modes of subordination experienced by the women of such communities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document