Petitioning and Demonstrating

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Miller
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Geographic Mapping ◽  
Mapping Techniques ◽  
Accessible Form

Despite being the most popular and accessible form of political activity among ordinary people, petitioning has received remarkably little attention from modern British historians. This chapter focuses on what gains in understanding such attention might yield. First, the historical study of petitions and demonstrations underlines the fact that popular politics was not always coterminous with party or electoral politics. Second, petitions provide a way to break down the barriers between high and low or elite and popular politics and offer a lens through which to study the transnational and imperial dimension of British political culture. Finally, the chapter looks to future directions and argues that quantitative and geographic mapping techniques offer the potential to inject a new, and long overdue, quantitative rigour into the study of modern British political history.

scholarly journals Putting Democracy Under An Ethnographic-lens: Understanding of 'Democracy' and Popular Politics of JHU in Sri Lanka

PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Premakumara De Silva
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Moment

My main premise is that for anthropologists of post-colonial societies (but not only), 'democracy' should be regarded as one of many traditional ethnographic topics (such as kinship, religion, Caste, etc.) which ethnographers study to unpack the socio-cultural institutions and practices of the societies under investigation. The hypothesis behind this approach is that the moment democracy enters a particular historical and socio-cultural setting it becomes what Michelutti calls "vernacularized", and through vernacularisation it produces new social relations and values which in turn shape political rhetoric and political culture (2007). The process of vernacularisation of democratic politics, she means the ways in which values and practices of democracy become embedded in particular cultural and social practices, and in the process become entrenched in the consciousness of ordinary people (2007: 639-40). Democratic practices associated with popular politics often base their strength and legitimacy on the principle of popular sovereignty versus the more conventional notions of liberal democracy. These popular forms of political participation are often accompanied by a polarisation of opinions and political practices between the so-called 'ordinary people' and the elites. Looking at democratisation processes through the prism of vernacularisation will therefore help to understand how and why democracy grounds itself in everyday life and becomes part of conceptual worlds that are often far removed from theories of liberal democracy.

scholarly journals THE PROTECTION OF THE RICH AGAINST THE POOR: THE POLITICS OF ADAM SMITH’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractMy point of departure in this essay is Smith’s definition of government. “Civil government,” he writes, “so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” First I unpack Smith’s definition of government as the protection of the rich against the poor. I argue that, on Smith’s view, this is always part of what government is for. I then turn to the question of what, according to Smith, our governors can do to protect the wealth of the rich from the resentment of the poor. I consider, and reject, the idea that Smith might conceive of education as a means of alleviating the resentment of the poor at their poverty. I then describe how, in his lectures on jurisprudence, Smith refines and develops Hume’s taxonomy of the opinions upon which all government rests. The sense of allegiance to government, according to Smith, is shaped by instinctive deference to natural forms of authority as well as by rational, Whiggish considerations of utility. I argue that it is the principle of authority that provides the feelings of loyalty upon which government chiefly rests. It follows, I suggest, that to the extent that Smith looked to government to protect the property of the rich against the poor, and thereby to maintain the peace and stability of society at large, he cannot have sought to lessen the hold on ordinary people of natural sentiments of deference. In addition, I consider the implications of Smith’s theory of government for the question of his general attitude toward poverty. I argue against the view that Smith has recognizably “liberal,” progressive views of how the poor should be treated. Instead, I locate Smith in the political culture of the Whiggism of his day.

Popular Politics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Chase
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium

Though part of what might be termed historians’ ‘mental furniture’, popular politics is an elastic term that evades close definition. This chapter suggests some defining principles and characteristics of popular political activity. It then takes a broadly chronological form and identifies in the first half of the nineteenth century a diminishing resort to violence and the growing importance of memory and commemoration (notably in Scotland and Wales, less so in England). It goes on to examine the content of popular liberalism and the apparent ‘taming’ of popular politics in the twentieth century. It ends by suggesting that the forms popular politics had increasingly taken by the turn of the millennium seem to indicate a revival of older modes of contesting power.

Народные волнения XVII века и русское крестьянство

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Денис Александрович Ляпин
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Soviet Ideology ◽  
Modern Russian

In the essay the author considers Russian peasants’ participation in public tumults during the seventeenth century. According to his findings, Russian peasants did not seem to display much political activity and the theory about peasant wars in Russia appears to be the myth of Soviet ideology. The author comes to the conclusion that peasant unrest was usually minor, taking the form of robbery and plundering. That phenomenon was a reflection of the specific political culture of early modern Russian society.

Pyramids of Trust: Social Embeddedness and Political Culture in Two Italian Gold Jewelry Districts

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Gaggio
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Economic Action ◽  
Vertical Disintegration ◽  
Gold Jewelry ◽  
The Creation

This article demonstrates the usefulness of the notion of embeddedness to the historical study of Italian industrial districts of small firms and of local economic change more generally. The development of gold jewelry production in two Italian towns, Valenza Po and Arezzo, shows that vertical disintegration was enabled by the creation of networks of heterogeneous social relations. In both towns, social and political ties led to the creation of institutions of collective governance, which in turn produced a workable level of trust between economic actors. The production of trust, however, never ceased to be a contentious process, endowed with multiple and often contradictory meanings embedded in specific networks and contexts, ranging from collective projects of modernization in Valenza Po to the cementing of a secretive informal economy in Arezzo. The embeddedness approach to economic action is superior both to the communitarian arguments of much of the literature on the Italian industrial districts and to transaction-cost theories, which tend to view institutions in instrumental and functionalist ways.

Morisco Prophecies at the French Court (1602-1607)

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 91-123
Author(s):  
Mayte Green-Mercado
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
French Court

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.

scholarly journals Millennial’s Political Activism

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
Sam Talman
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Active Generation ◽  
The U.S

Political activity is a telling behavior about a generation, influencing how policy makers in the U.S. do their jobs and how budgets are set. A generation without any political activity risks missing out on benefits from activity, while an active generation may help shape the institutions and traditions in a political culture. There are significant challenges to measuring individual political activity, and the question isn’t simply “how politically active are you?” A tool traditionally used to address this challenge is a seven- point scale based on the correlation between an individual’s party identification and political activism. This measurement allows polltakers to label themselves as strong or weak for either major party, independent leaning Republican/Democrat or truly independent. For a deeper look, scholars can gauge political activism by examining a number of sub-levels of activism, rather than relying simply on a seven-point scale. Social identity has become an important way to measure levels of partisanship and interest amongst the citizenry. 

scholarly journals BUDAYA POLITIK DALAM MASYARAKAT PRAGMATIS

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Sumartono Sumartono
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Class Society ◽  
Trade Politics ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
High Level

General elections and regional head elections in Indonesia are conducted directly. The pattern of community participation is changed. The emergence of pragmatism or political pragmatism in society becomes an interesting political culture to study. Practically, pragmatism means a condition that encourages people to get benefits instantly. As a result, people take any actions to make it happen. In reality, pragmatism not only affects the upper classes (those with a high level of education) but also ordinary people (lower class society or those with low levels of political education). The development of money politics, cow trade politics, the sale of votes, or the existence of political dowry is a sign that there has been a political transaction becoming one of the indicators of pragmatism reality in society

The Police and the Public

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Churchill
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Public ◽  
Intellectual Content ◽  
Public Expectations

This chapter reassesses the quality of police–public relations in the nineteenth century. In contrast to existing accounts, which focus on the gradual dilution of conflict as the century progressed, the chapter argues that conflict and suspicion remained central to public perceptions of the police. It highlights the evidential shortcomings of claims concerning the rise of policing by consent in this period, and uncovers substantial evidence of conflict with the police—from serious violence to indignant complaint—from across urban society. Furthermore, it examines the intellectual content of hostile attitudes towards the police, and thus identifies their roots in popular politics (particularly radical and Chartist politics) and popular culture. Ordinary people displayed considerable respect for the rule of law, yet the police were largely unable to associate themselves with this ideal. Instead, the police struggled to meet public demand for their services, and hence sought to manage public expectations of law enforcement.

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