Returning to the Roots

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-165
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Shams

This chapter explores the enduring symbiosis between the village motif, social justice, and populist politics in Iran during the first three decades after the revolution. At first, it briefly highlights the evolution of the allegorical village in classical and contemporary Persian poetry. The focus will later be shifted towards the representation of the village in revolutionary poetry. We will see that it has remained a recurring motif in Persian poetry of the post-revolutionary period, employed by a variety of writers and state institutions for a range of means. As a symbol, it has been a conduit into which any ideology can be poured; the village allegory can be manipulated to both condemn and support the official politics of the state. The chapter examines the key socio-political influences behind the evolution of rural themes, the work of official poets, and the impact of the village on the cultural doctrine of the Islamic Republic.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina El-Sharnouby

With the 2011 Revolution in Egypt, new forms of social mobilization and new possibilities for political interaction surfaced. The manifestation of these events suggested a different understanding of politics among particularly revolutionary youth. How do their values and practices affect political imaginaries? How are those imaginaries different from previous revolutionary struggles? This article highlights the political projects of the 2011 revolutionary youth versus previous revolutionary struggles by looking at youth activists and the case of the leftist Bread and Freedom party. Contrasting the Revolution of 1919 to 2011 in Egypt reveals a renewed call to social justice imagined to be practiced through the state and state institutions while minimizing ideology and a singular leadership in their mobilization strategies. Drawing on fieldwork done in 2014 and 2015, this paper suggests that the 2011 political project from youth’s perspective is about the importance of political practices of social justice over an ideology.


Author(s):  
Anton Sotnikov

The article presents the results of a study conducted by the author on the impact of trust between business and the state on the innovative development of the economy. A brief description of the phenomenon under consideration in the Russian Federation is given, and the main problems in the relationships of these entities are shown using specific examples. The crisis of confidence entails significant risks for the business, which in turn leads to a reduction in business activity and the outflow of capital. Overcoming this crisis is not possible with short-term targeted measures, since it is necessary to apply a long-term programmatic approach that combines various measures and mechanisms, as well as the interaction of the parties. The author, including, based on international experience, shows the mechanisms by which it is possible to structure relations between the government and the business community. According to the author, various measures, both general and specific, contribute to the improvement of the investment climate. The author sees the judicial system independent of the state as the main guarantee. Also, the article discusses issues of legislative guarantees of investments, providing for full compensation for damage when changing state policy in relation to specific types of activities; the introduction of public-private partnership models to address socially significant projects that are not of commercial interest to firms in the absence of state support; creation and functioning of entrepreneurial innovation infrastructure for the development of innovative firms through the combined efforts of state authorities and local self-government; improvement of civil society institutions and public discussion of the activities of state institutions and entrepreneurs.


Author(s):  
Gus Van Harten

In this chapter, the impact of investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) on countries is examined more closely. Examples are given of how governments have changed their decisions to favour investors under ISDS pressure. As knowledge of ISDS continues to grow, state institutions face more pressure to avoid offending those most able to finance claims. Predictably, governments have responded to ISDS by institutionalizing ‘regulatory chill’; that is, by reconfiguring the state apparatus to privilege the ultra-wealthy, creating immeasurable potential losses for those who do not own wealth abroad. It is now reasonable to expect that such chill happens in all countries exposed to ISDS claims by wealthy investors and having at least some institutional capacity to identify and manage the risks.


Tlalocan ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artemisa Echegoyen ◽  
Catalina Voigtlander

Artemisa Echegoyen and Catalina Voigtlander of the Summer Institute of Linguistics were told these two stories in Otomi about the Revolution by Ernesto Pérez Francisco, of San Antonio el Grande Huehuetla in the State of Hidalgo. The narration, which deals with violence among different chieftains and how the people of the village fled to a cave, had been told to Sr. Pérez Francisco by his father.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-796
Author(s):  
Jonathan Endelman

This collection of papers, from very different vantage points, makes the argument that the Ottoman Empire bequeathed significant legacies to the notion and practices of modern political governance in the Middle East. The three essays address the impact Ottoman policies had on territories that had once been part of the empire, focusing most closely on the development of state institutions, nationalism, and the position of the caliphate. By exploring these key issues, the authors hope to call attention to the importance of the Ottoman experience in laying the groundwork for future political life in the region.


1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben W. Fallaw

The Caste War that devastated Yucatán in the middle of the nineteenth century cast a long shadow across ethnic relations and politics in the state decades after its effective end. During the Mexican Revolution and the subsequent period of national reconstruction, revolutionary politicians invoked the Caste War as a precursor to the Revolution and as justification for post-Revolutionary projects, in particular indigenismo. The state’s indigenist policy advocated, in the words of Alan Knight, the “emancipation and integration of Mexico’s exploited Indian groups.” To this end, it offered indigenous people education, legal support, even land; however, these “modernizing” policies also destroyed or appropriated much of their culture and subordinated them to the state. The legacy of the Caste War shaped such indigenist projects in Yucatán from the Revolution to (at least) the 1930s, but its influence was strongest during Cardenas’ visit to Yucatán in August of 1937. The president not only reinterpreted the Caste War to justify land reform and a broad indigenist project; he attempted to mobilize the Yucatecan peasantry along class and ethnic lines and threatened recalcitrant landlords with another caste war should they oppose him. Once armed, however, peasant soldiers turned their rifles not against the landowners but against each other. This essays explores how the Caste War’s legacy shaped the development and deployment of indigenist projects in Yucatán from the Revolution to the late 1930s, focusing on Cárdenas’ aborted mobilization. Along the way, it will consider the impact and efficacy of state-sponsored indigenismo. Above all, it seeks to understand why state efforts to champion the cause of the Maya failed to unify the rural poor of Yucatán under the banner of Cardenismo.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Sead Bandžović ◽  

With the overthrow of the regime of Reza Pahlavi in 1979, the Iranian revolution ended the existence of the 2,500-year-old Persian Empire and built the Islamic Republic of Iran on its foundations. The revolution was the product of three independent social structures that merged at one point. One was the structure of constitutionalism that grew out of a century-long struggle for democracy supported by modernists; the second was Islamism as a movement to set Sharia law as the primary law supported by rural elements in society in response to Western urban elites and accepted by merchants; and the third is the nationalist structure, driven by rage fueled by Iran's long subordination to European powers. The basic principle of the Islamic Republic of Iran, proclaimed by the new constitution from 1979, is the positioning of God as the supreme bearer of people's sovereignty and people who are only marginal representatives of his power on Earth. Ayatollah Homenini, the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution and the Iranian state, in this regard created a thesis about the Islamic State as a political representation, created on the basis of the people's will, in order to enforce God's laws. In practice, such system meant setting up Sharia (religious) laws as the only source of law in regulating social, legal and other relations within the community. A dichotomy has been created in the management of the state, so there are two groups of authorities. The first, the conciliar, consists of the Supreme leader, the Council of Guardians (Shora-ye Negahban-e Qanun-e assassi), the Council of Experts (Majles-e Khobragan Rahbari) and the Judgment Council. The task of these councils is to oversee the activities of all levels of government in order to preserve the unity, sovereignty and integrity of the Iranian political system. The conciliar government supervises and advises the republican part of the government, ie. its legislative, executive and judicial aspects. In addition to conciliar government, there is a republican government that creates laws and political decisions in accordance with religious teachings and under the supervision of theocratic political institutions. All laws and court decisions must be based on the principles of the Qur'an, and their proper interpretation requires an understanding of religious principles. On the basis of the constitution, a special High Judicial Council was established, which amended the pre-revolutionary laws (criminal, commercial, civil and procedural), thus creating the so-called “Transitional law”. The biggest changes affected the area of criminal law, where the principle of talion revenge was introduced (“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”) and the strict punishment of extramarital relations and same-sex relationships. In the domain of marital and family law, a man is given a number of rights, thus putting the woman, as a marital partner, in a more unequal position. Husbands were facilitated in divorce, temporary marriages with more than one woman were allowed, while on the other hand women were allowed the right to divorce only if it was explicitly allowed by her husband during the marriage. The revolution also introduced new sources in the regulation of legal relations. Thus, by an order of the Supreme Judicial Council of 23 August 1982, judges were ordered to use direct authoritative Islamic texts or sources on which to base their judgments in resolving disputes. Judges are required by this Order to address the Council of Guardians of the Constitution if they cannot determine with certainty whether a regulation is in accordance with Sharia law or not. If the judge does not know which law to apply, he must contact the Office of Ayatollah Khomeini for further instructions. In addition to the internal one, the revolution caused radical changes in the foreign policy field, positioning Iran as an important participant in numerous international processes at the regional and global level.


2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen L. Fowler

This article presents resources and strategies for the infusion of diversity and social justice themes into an undergraduate death and dying course. The intent is not to replace or dismiss existing thanatological insights and debates, but rather to widen the cultural perspective to bring these insights and debates into conversation with multiple ways of perceiving and understanding. The article covers definitions, goals and rationales, challenges in identifying and developing appropriate resources, and overall course design. It also explores readings, audiovisual materials, class activities, and pedagogical approaches to foster: student engagement with diverse world-views and experiences; understanding of “cultural competence” in various fields; awareness of the impact of race, class, gender, etc., on access to resources and care; commitment to activism for social justice; and exposure to many forms of resilience, meaning-making, and creative healing. … whenever there was a death in the village, she was the first to be sent for—the priest came second. For it was she who understood the wholeness of things—the significance of directions and colors. Prayers to appease the hungry ghosts. Elixirs for grief (Watanabe, 1992, p. 603). … the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where the edges meet. I like shorelines, weather fronts, international borders. There are interesting frictions and incongruities in these places and often, if you stand at the point of tangency, you can see both sides better … (Fadiman,1997, p. viii). The only really happy people I have ever met are those of us who work against these deaths with all the energy of our living, recognizing the deep and fundamental unhappiness with which we are surrounded, at the same time as we fight to keep from being submerged by it (Lorde, 1980, p. 77).


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