Prentice and the Newham North-East Constituency: The Making of Historical Myths

1981 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
North East ◽  
Local Party

This article is an essay in political historiography showing how historical myths are created using the political development of Reg Prentice and his relations with the Newham North-East Constituency Labour Party as a case study. It shows how misapprehension about sources of Labour Party information facilitate myth-making and looks at the three central myths involved—the Activists' story, the Establishment's story, and Prentice's story. It examines the options open to Prentice following upon his rejection by his local party and traces his political development and his relations with his constituency between 1970 and 1979. The myths are exposed by reference to the chronology of events and the salient facts. Prentice is shown to be a ‘rebel for position’; and the left-wing takeover of the Newham Party is established. The tactical thinking behind Prentice's moves is also discussed.

FACTORS OF THE FORMATION OF THE POLITICAL ELITE IN THE ARAB COUNTRIES IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECT

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-285
Author(s):  
A.Sh. Abhari ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Second World

Antagonism with Western civilization in the course of colonial expansion and the subsequent struggle for independence, had a significant impact on the formation of the political elite of the Arab world. At the level of mass public consciousness and perception of historical reality, a transformation of worldview occurs with the active influence of Islam and its spiritual leaders. how the suppression of communist, socialist and other left-wing and reformist political movements in the region after the Second World War influenced and continue to influence the economic and political development of the region.

scholarly journals Quarenteners vs. Cloroquiners: a framework to analyze the effect of political polarization on social distance stances

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régis Ebeling ◽  
Carlos Córdova Sáenz ◽  
Jeferson Campos Nobre ◽  
Karin Becker
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has struck people’s lives overnight. With an alarming contagious rate and no effective treatments or vaccines, it has evoked all sorts of reactions. In this paper, we propose a framework to analyze how political polarization affects groups’ behavior with opposed stances, using the Brazilian COVID polarized scenario as a case study. Two Twitter groups represent the pro/against social isolation stances referred to as Chloroquiners and Quarenteners. The framework encompasses: a) techniques to automatically infer from users political orientation, b) topic modeling to discover the homogeneity of concerns expressed by each group; c) network analysis and community detection to characterize their behavior as a social network group and d) analysis of linguistic characteristics to identify psychological aspects. Our main findings confirm that Cloroquiners are right-wing partisans, whereas Quarenteners are more related to the left-wing. The political polarization of Chloroquiners and Quarenteners influence the arguments of economy and life, and support/opposition to the president. As a group, the network of Chloroquiners is more closed and connected, and Quarenteners have a more diverse political engagement. In terms of psychological aspects, polarized groups come together on cognitive issues and negative emotions.

‘We Were All Very Sick and Very Stupid’

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-47
Author(s):  
Lise Butler
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
John Bowlby ◽  
Child Psychologist ◽  
Social Importance

This chapter discusses the Conference on the Psychological and Sociological Problems of Modern Socialism held at University College Oxford in 1945. This event featured prominent left-wing policy makers, intellectuals, and social scientists, including the MP Evan Durbin, the political theorist G. D. H. Cole, the writer and politician Margaret Cole, the child psychologist John Bowlby, the historian R. H. Tawney, and Michael Young, who was then the Secretary of the Labour Party Research Department. The conference reflected multiple strands of inter-war and mid-twentieth century political thought and social science which emphasized the political and social importance of small groups, notably through guild socialist arguments for pluralistic forms of political organization, and theories about human attachment drawn from child psychology. The views expressed at the conference reflected a sense that active and participatory democracy was not just morally right but psychologically necessary to prevent popular political radicalization, limit the appeal of totalitarianism, and promote peaceful civil society. The chapter concludes by noting that the events of the conference, and the intellectual influences that it represented, would subsequently shape Michael Young’s project to promote social science within the Labour Party during the later years of the Attlee government.

The Development of Political Corruption: A Case Study of Israel

1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 620-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simcha B. Werner
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Embryonic Stage ◽  
The Political ◽  
Three Stages

The paper emphasizes the effects of various societal forces on the development of corruption. The study of these factors contributes to an understanding of how corruption can thrive in countries with high levels of political development. Three stages of the life-cycle of corruption have been identified in Israel, which serves as a case study. The embryonic stage is associated with foreign domination of Palestine. The period after Israel became independent and until 1967 marks the development stage of corruption, when inhibiting and stimulating forces intermingled and produced white corruption, which was rationalized, condoned and allowed to prevail. The period since 1967 evidences the maturation of corruption. In this period, inhibiting forces of corruption are declining, while catalyzing forces of corruption are accentuating. The result is numerous scandals of black corruption that upset the political system.

scholarly journals Political Development

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 191-193
Author(s):  
Tunku Mohar
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
Development Experience ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Conceptual Foundations

Political Development: An Islamic Perspective is divided into two broad parts: the conceptual foundations of political development and its case stud­ies. Part One contains seven chapters that deal with the conceptual foundations of political development, thereby signifying the importance of clarifying the concept so that an Islamic alternative to political development can be found. Part Two contains three chapters, each a case study of the political development experience in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Sudan.Khurshid Ahmad, a central figure in the London-based Islamic Foundation, provides the much-needed position from which an Islamic perspective on political development should begin. His chapter, "Islamic Approach to Development," outlines the philosophical foundations of an Islamic approach to development and the goals of a development policy.He begins by uncovering the flaws of western thinking on development, which have resulted in what he calls "de-development." The West's var­ious development strategies are actually designed so that the developed countries can exploit the developing countries. Tn terms of development's philosophical foundations, Ahmad empha ­sizes tawhid (God's unity and sovereignty), rububiyah (the divine arrangements for nourishing, sustaining, and directing things toward their perfection), khilafah (human beings' role as God's vicegerent on Earth), and tazkiyah (purification plus growth). Hence, Islam's position takes into account humanity's role vis-a-vis its Creator and fellow human beings. The objectives of development transcend this world, for they also have an eye on the Hereafter ...

Reinventing the Labour Party, 1983–92

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Jobson
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
New Labour ◽  
The Political ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Pivotal Moments ◽  
The Past

This chapter examines the ways in which nostalgia shaped the political development of Neil Kinnock’s Labour Party between 1983 and 1992. It scrutinises claims, often made retrospectively by members of the New Labour project, that the Kinnock era was a period of limited modernisation. Moreover, it argues that Kinnock and his allies successfully negotiated Labour’s nostalgia in a manner that enabled them to reorient the party’s programmatic commitments away from the past. In this regard, the key turning point was the 1985-6 Jobs and Industry Campaign. When viewed through the lens of party nostalgia, other events, including Kinnock’s famous attack on the Militant Tendency at Labour’s annual conference in 1985, do not represent the kind of pivotal moments that academics have previously indicated they were. Furthermore, in 1992, despite significant policy reorientations, the party’s nostalgically imbued identity remained intact and unreformed.

scholarly journals Fighting Thatcher with Comedy: What to Do When There Is No Alternative

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Schaffer
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Alternative Material ◽  
Political Challenge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Weapon ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article offers a history of British alternative comedy as a case study of political challenge and opposition in the 1980s and considers the role of humor in political campaigning more broadly. It explores left-wing thinking on culture as a potential political weapon, and questions how this informed the development and impact of alternative comedy as a genre. The article observes that pioneering alternative comedians went some way to change British comedy values and inform political discussions. However, it also argues that the complex operation of jokes and the tendency of comedians to become “incorporated” within the political and cultural mainstream ensured that the impacts of radical alternative material were limited and ambiguous. It contends that the practice of alternative comedy was undermined by business and political values that were often influenced by Thatcherism, and that alternative comedians mostly failed to capture the imaginations of working-class Britons. These communities retained instead an affection for more traditional, differently rebellious, comedic voices. Ultimately, this article frames alternative comedy within a longer history of radical humor, drawing out broader lessons concerning the revolutionary potential of jokes and the relationship between comedians, their audiences, and politics.

The Labour Party: Three Unnoticed Changes

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-387
Author(s):  
Paul McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Executive Committee ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Reliable Indication ◽  
Value Judgements

Within the last seven years there have been three important, but largely unnoticed, changes affecting the respective powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). Assessment of these changes is not facilitated by the fact that they are central to an inner party dispute between left-wing and right-wing factions. The political rhetoric which has accompanied them is not a reliable indication of their true import and nature. This paper aims to describe and analyse the three changes and to assess them in terms of their impact on constitutional structures and their likely consequences for factional struggle – but not to make any value-judgements upon them or upon the inter-factional disputes.

scholarly journals Italy-2018: The Triumph of Populism and Prospects of Exit from the Political Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-204
Author(s):  
Sergey Biryukov ◽  
Alexander Barsukov
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
The Right

Introduction. The article is devoted to the origins, grounds and possible consequences of the political crisis in modern Italy. The paper shows that the Italian crisis has acquired a scale that challenges the interests of political establishment of the country and the very principles of the EU existence. Methods and materials. The authors seek a combination of General theoretical and special methods, focusing on the historical, socio-cultural and political analysis. They are based on the analysis of periodicals, as well as using articles and materials of researchers on the problems of political development in Italy. Analysis. The source of the crisis is the protest of citizens against the state authority and strategies of the political class of Italy, which is accompanied by the requirement of institutional reforms and socio-economic policy for benefit of the majority, in order to establish new political rules and form a truly legitimate political mechanism. These demands came from various social groups and led to a number of political and legal transformations, culminating in the “populist government”, which came to power as a result of the parliamentary elections of 2018. The “Populist government” intended to revise many previous approaches in domestic and foreign policy. It is the Alliance of the right-wing and left-wing populists that was entrusted by Italian society with necessary reforms. Results. According to the authors, it is political populism as a possible platform for social and political transformations, along with a number of possible risks, that contains a positive potential associated with the possibility of overcoming ideological divisions, corporate selfishness of Italian politicians and parties, as well as alienation in the relations of the power and society. This approach to resolving issues by the “populist government” will contribute to the gradual resolution of the problems that have caused the long-term political crisis in Italy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document