The Distinction of Social and Political Elites

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pascal Daloz

AbstractThis article introduces the special issue on “The Distinction of Social and Political Elites.” It aims to provide some analytical reflections about the usefulness and limits of classical models of interpretation when confronted with empirical realities in very different societies. Although the separation between the societal and the political spheres is not always very clear, it is argued that the differentiation between the two corresponding types of elite is often significant from a theoretical point of view. Indeed, the symbolic superiority of political elites is frequently raised in rather specific terms because of the nature of their role as representatives.

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Boatright ◽  
Jeffrey Peterson

This special issue of Business Ethics Quarterly on ethics in finance was planned before the high profile scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Tyco, and Arthur Andersen, among other firms. Although these unfortunate events make this special issue especially timely, the subject matter of finance ethics has long been in need of scholarly attention. It is ironic that business ethics as an academic field owes its existence in part to the insider trading and junk bond scandals of the 1980s, and yet business ethics scholars have devoted comparatively little attention to financial topics. Now that another wave of ethical failures in finance is upon us, it is appropriate to present this collection of the best work on finance ethics.From a theoretical point of view, finance is a unique field for ethical exploration. The central activity of finance is financial contracting, in which parties make agreements with regard to the assets that they control. An individual who rents a home, leases a car, buys an insurance policy, invests in a mutual fund, or saves for retirement is entering into a contract with someone who promises something in return. In making these contracts, individuals are assumed by finance theorists to be entirely self-interested and opportunistic, which is to say that they will renege on their promises if they can do so safely. The response of rational contractors, therefore, is to build in safeguards to ensure compliance with the agreements made.


Author(s):  
Jennifer McCoy ◽  
Murat Somer

This article compares the dynamics of polarization in the eleven case studies analyzed in this special issue to draw conclusions about antecedents of severe political and societal polarization, the characteristics and mechanisms of such polarization, and consequences of severe polarization for democracy. We find that the emergence of pernicious polarization (when a society is split into mutually distrustful “Us vs. Them” camps) is not attributable to any specific underlying social or political cleavage nor any particular institutional make-up. Instead, pernicious polarization arises when political entrepreneurs pursue their political objectives by using polarizing strategies, such as mobilizing voters with divisive, demonizing discourse and exploiting existing grievances, and opposing political elites then reciprocate with similarly polarizing tactics or fail to develop effective nonpolarizing responses. We explain how the political construction of polarization around “formative rifts” (social or political rifts that arise during the fundamental formation/reformation of a nation-state), the relative capacity of opposing political blocs to mobilize voters versus relying on mechanisms such as courts or the military to constrain the executive, and the strategic and ideological aims of the polarizing actors contribute to the emergence of its pernicious form. We analyze the consequences for democracy and conclude with reflections on how to combat pernicious polarization.


Media Trend ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Rifa'i Afin

<p>This paper concerned with the empirical study about tax competition among regions which in a theoretical point of view, tax competition is seen as an economic policy strategy to attract mobile tax bases and firms in order to boost economic development in terms of employment and output growth within the political jurisdiction implementing it. Using a panel of more 400 observed district and municipal inEast Java. It provides empirical evidence on how the local tax as well as the retribution in the neighborhood affect the local tax. The results support the existence of fiscal externalities: an increase in the tax and retribution of local neighbors exerts a positive effect on the local tax which is shown by spatial weighting variable both tax and retribution. Several factors that are hypothesized affect local tax also significant to determine local tax, these factors such as original regional income, and regional domestic product as a proxy of income.</p><p> </p>


1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Trevithick

Three great Durbars, royal assemblages, were staged in Delhi by the Government of British India, in 1877, 1903, and 1911. These are particularly interesting as examples of explicitly political rituals, their purpose being to legitimate and popularize British rule in India. The rituals would therefore exemplify, for many social theorists, a form of political manipulation which employs symbolic action as an adjunct to raw force. Yet, while many anthropologists, at least, would reject, in favor of an analysis which addresses the political aspirations of ritual manipulators, any unreconstructed Durkheimian paradigm that would equate ritual acts with social consensus (Moore and Myerhoff, 1975:9), many would also reject, as Tambiah has, the notion that ritual, by nature, constitutes a ‘diabolical smokescreen.’ The more useful approach, in Tambiah's view, is that ritual is ‘an ideological and aesthetic social construction that is directly and recursively implicated in the expression, realization, and exercise of power.’ (Tambiah, 1979: 153)1 shall be working with a similar theoretical point of view and not, largely, with the opposed view that the ritual form is merely a strategy employed by manipulative agents to perpetuate, in Bloch's words, an ‘institutionalized hierarchy’ or ‘legitimate order of inequality.’ (Bloch, 1977:289)


2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-437
Author(s):  
Gilles Barthe ◽  
Peter Dybjer ◽  
Peter Thiemann

Modern programming languages rely on advanced type systems that detect errors at compile-time. While the benefits of type systems have long been recognized, there are some areas where the standard systems in programming languages are not expressive enough. Language designers usually trade expressiveness for decidability of the type system. Some interesting programs will always be rejected (despite their semantical soundness) or be assigned uninformative types.There are several remedies to this situation. Dependent type systems, which allow the formation of types that explicitly depend on other types or values, are one of the most promising approaches. These systems are well-investigated from a theoretical point of view by logicians and type theorists. For example, dependent types are used in proof assistants to implement various logics and there are sophisticated proof editors for developing programs in a dependently typed language.To the present day, the impact of these developments on practical programming has been small, partially because of the level of sophistication of these systems and of their type checkers. Only recently, there have been efforts to integrate dependent systems into intermediate languages in compilers and programming languages. Additional uses have been identified in high-profile applications such as mobile code security, where terms of a dependently typed lambda calculus to encode safety proofs.A special issue of the Journal of Functional Programming will be devoted to the interplay between dependent type theory and programming practice. We welcome technical contributions in the field, as well as position papers that:[bull ] make researchers in programming languages aware of new developments and research directions on the theory side;[bull ] point out to theorists practical uses of advanced type systems and urge them to address theoretical problems arising in emerging applications.Authors who are concerned about the appropriateness of a topic are welcome to contact the guest editors. Manuscripts should be unpublished works and not submitted elsewhere. Revised and enhanced versions of papers published in conference proceedings that have not appeared in archival journals are eligible for submission. All submissions will be reviewed according to the usual standards of scholarship and originality.Submissions should be sent to Gilles Barthe ([email protected]), with a copy to Nasreen Ahmad ([email protected]). Submitted articles should be sent in postscript format, preferably gzipped and uuencoded. In addition, please send, as plain text, title, abstract and contact information.The submission deadline is December 1st, 2001.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
Gigi Roggero

For many years, the concept of cognitive capitalism has been an important subject for elaboration, discussions, and polemics. In this essay, we will not summarize the various theoretical details of the debate; instead, we will try to clarify the political nature of the concept and examine what is at stake from a theoretical point of view. Then, we will give some provisional and explorative answers to some of the central questions on cognitive capitalism: What does it mean? In what sense is it useful as a tool for the struggles? What kinds of class composition and antagonist subjectivity are embodied in this concept? First, we will explain why cognitive labour does not identify a particular sector of the class composition. We will use the term ’cognitivization’ (becoming cognitive of labour) to elaborate on the process of redetermination of the whole class composition. Secondly, we will summarize a genealogy of cognitive capitalism and its peculiarities. Based on our readings, it is not a stage of development, but the site of a new battlefield in the ongoing class struggle. Thirdly, we will point out the tension underlying cognitive capitalism, i.e., the tension between cooperation and capture, autonomy and subordination. Finally, we will point out the problem of re-thinking a central category from operaismo: the class composition. Following this pathway, we can underline the main theoretical and political question: What are the points of rupture in cognitive capitalism?


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 399-407
Author(s):  
David Gindis ◽  
Jeroen Veldman ◽  
Hugh Willmott

This Special Issue revisits the classic question of comparative corporate governance research, namely whether national corporate governance systems are converging. More specifically, it focuses on several ‘convergence vectors’ which comprise the political, legal, economic and social arrangements that influence or drive the international trajectories of governance systems towards a common denominator. Taken together, the contributors to this Special Issue invite us to think critically about the functional explanations commonly mobilized in favour of convergence and consider instead the convergence debate from a broader and more interdisciplinary point of view.


Author(s):  
Eugenio Salvati

Abstract In recent years, the relationship between Italy and the European Union (EU) has worsened due to the emergence of an increasingly negative attitude towards the question of European integration. The growth in citizens' disaffection with, and hostility towards, the political elites is part of a more general trend witnessed throughout the EU. From this point of view, an understanding of whether, and in what way, the role of Prime Minister (PM) has been affected by this change of perspective, especially following the various crises affecting the EU in the last 10 years, would be worthwhile we believe. This article examines the political positions of all PM during the so-called Second Republic (1994–now), by means of a longitudinal content analysis. This analysis reveals that after 2008, and for the first time in the history of the Italy–EU relationship, PMs' speeches have included sharp criticism of the EU. In particular, two PMs (Renzi and Conte) have clearly rejected those conditionality mechanisms implied by the EU. The results of this study confirm the start of a phase of strong conflict/politicization in regard to the EU and its institutional functioning. This article contributes to the broader literature concerning the study of the relationship between political elites and the EU, by focusing for the first time not simply on party leaders but on one of the most important institutional roles in the Italian political system (the Presidenza del Consiglio).


2007 ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
A. Manakov

The article provides theoretical analysis and evaluation of the timber auctions reforms in Russia. The author shows that the mechanism of the "combined auctions", which functioned until recently, is more appropriate from the theoretical point of view (and from the point of view of the Russian practice) as compared to the officially approved format of the English auction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
MARIETA EPREMYAN ◽  

The article examines the epistemological roots of conservative ideology, development trends and further prospects in political reform not only in modern Russia, but also in other countries. The author focuses on the “world” and Russian conservatism. In the course of the study, the author illustrates what opportunities and limitations a conservative ideology can have in political reform not only in modern Russia, but also in the world. In conclusion, it is concluded that the prospect of a conservative trend in the world is wide enough. To avoid immigration and to control the development of technology in society, it is necessary to adhere to a conservative policy. Conservatism is a consolidating ideology. It is no coincidence that the author cites as an example the understanding of conservative ideology by the French due to the fact that Russia has its own vision of the ideology of conservatism. If we say that conservatism seeks to preserve something and respects tradition, we must bear in mind that traditions in different societies, which form some kind of moral imperatives, cannot be a single phenomenon due to different historical destinies and differing religious views. Considered from the point of view of religion, Muslim and Christian conservatism will be somewhat confrontational on some issues. The purpose of the work was to consider issues related to the role, evolution and prospects of conservative ideology in the political reform of modern countries. The author focuses on Russia and France. To achieve this goal, the method of in-depth interviews with experts on how they understand conservatism was chosen. Already today, conservatism is quite diverse. It is quite possible that in the future it will transform even more and acquire new reflections.


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