‘Rebellious Slaves’ and ‘Great Citizen’

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
Boris Ivanovich Kolonitskii
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
The People ◽  
Personality Cult ◽  
The Press

The article treats one of A. F. Kerenskii’s most important speeches, the speech of 29 April 1917, known to historians for its reference to ‘rebellious slaves.’ It examines the speech’s political significance by reconstructing its reception and political currency and by analyzing its effect on the revolution’s political culture. The article compares variants of the speech as reported in the political press, resolutions and collective letters printed in the press, and also Kerenskii’s personal documents bearing on the speech. The article demonstrates that Kerenskii’s speech was a part of his tactical effort to create a coalition government on conditions favorable to him. The speech had a major impact on the political rhetoric of the revolutionary epoch, with various participants in the political arena manipulating Kerenskii’s reference to ‘rebellious slaves’ for their own purposes. The address contributed to the formation of a personality cult, built on Kerenskii’s image as ‘leader of the people.’

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

scholarly journals Political Theory of Populism

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Urbinati
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Democratic Principles

Populism is the name of a global phenomenon whose definitional precariousness is proverbial. It resists generalizations and makes scholars of politics comparativist by necessity, as its language and content are imbued with the political culture of the society in which it arises. A rich body of socio-historical analyses allows us to situate populism within the global phenomenon called democracy, as its ideological core is nourished by the two main entities—the nation and the people—that have fleshed out popular sovereignty in the age of democratization. Populism consists in a transmutation of the democratic principles of the majority and the people in a way that is meant to celebrate one subset of the people as opposed to another, through a leader embodying it and an audience legitimizing it. This may make populism collide with constitutional democracy, even if its main tenets are embedded in the democratic universe of meanings and language. In this article, I illustrate the context-based character of populism and how its cyclical appearances reflect the forms of representative government. I review the main contemporary interpretations of the concept and argue that some basic agreement now exists on populism's rhetorical character and its strategy for achieving power in democratic societies. Finally, I sketch the main characteristics of populism in power and explain how it tends to transform the fundamentals of democracy: the people and the majority, elections, and representation.

The Political Culture and Political Rhetoric of County Feasts and Feast Sermons, 1654–1714

1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Newton E. Key
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Public Lecture

In December 1655, four stewards for the Worcestershire feast wrote to the eminent divine Richard Baxter regarding possible worthy charities for money collected at their recent London feast. Baxter, elated by their offer, suggested that they set up a public lecture in a dark corner of their native county. He later recalled how well the charitable concerns of this first Worcestershire feast tied in with his concurrent actions to establish a clerical association in the county. Almost thirty years later, in 1682, Roger L'Estrange noted the same phenomenon of annual county feasts in London. Like Baxter, L'Estrange defended what he termed the “innocent county feasts,” and hisObservatoradvertised both tickets and published sermons for more than a dozen county or city feasts during its brief run between 1681 and 1687. Such common cause between Baxter and L'Estrange is remarkable. Moreover, the “innocent” county feasts, which flourished for fifty years from the late 1650s, were often controversial and were the setting for feast sermons which often heaped vitriol on “parties,” whether religious or political. This article examines the rise of the county feasts in the 1650s and their peak in the 1680s in order to assess their significance in the development of late Stuart society, culture, and politics.The county feast was in fact an urban phenomenon: natives of a county met annually, usually in London, for a sermon, dinner, and a subscription to a charity. The phenomenon has long been noted, though rarely analyzed.

scholarly journals Come Fly With Me: Analyzing The F-35 Aircraft Acquisition Discourse to Study Incivility in Question Period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
The People ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
The Government

The main objective behind the parliamentary practice of Question Period is to ensure that the government is held accountable to the people. Rather than being a political accountability tool and a showcase of public discourse, these deliberations are most often displays of vitriolic political rhetoric. I will be focusing my research on the ways in which incivil political discourse permeates the political mediascape with respect to one instance in Canadian politics - the acquisition of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. I believe that incivility in the political discourse of Question Period must be understood within the mechanics of the contemporary public sphere. By interrogating the complexities of how political discourse is being mediatized, produced and consumed within the prevailing ideological paradigms, I identify some of the contemporary social, cultural and political practices that produce incivility in parliamentary discourse.

Judicial Power in a Political World

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Crowe
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Judicial Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Federal Judiciary ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Relationship

This concluding chapter synthesizes the book's main findings about the architectonic politics of judicial institution building and contextualizes them within contemporary debates. It also reflects upon the lessons of the more than 200-year historical lineage of the institutional judiciary for our understanding of judicial power in America. More specifically, it considers the place of the federal judiciary in America's past and future in empirical and normative terms, respectively. It argues that both political rhetoric and academic exegesis about the Supreme Court embody a fundamentally incorrect presumption about the judiciary being external to politics, and that such presumption leads to a series of misconceptions about the relationship between judicial power and democratic politics. The chapter offers a conception that not only locates the judicial branch squarely within the political arena but also places substantially greater emphasis on its cooperation rather than conflict with other actors and institutions in that arena.

The People

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The People ◽  
Chinese Political Culture

This chapter explores the reasons for the recurrence of large-scale popular uprisings throughout imperial history. It considers how the idea of rebellion correlates with fundamental principles of Chinese political culture, such as monarchism and intellectual elitism. Moreover, the chapter looks at why the rebellions serve to support rather than disrupt the empire's longevity. These issues are then related to the broader issue of the political role of the “people,” here referring primarily, although not exclusively, to the lower strata, in the Chinese imperial enterprise. In answering these questions, this chapter focuses on ideological and social factors that both legitimated rebellions and also enabled their accommodation within the imperial enterprise.

Tensions between populist and feminist politics: The case of the Spanish left populist party Podemos

2020 ◽  
pp. 019251212093120
Author(s):  
Paloma Caravantes
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
The People ◽  
Feminist Interpretation ◽  
Populist Party

This paper analyzes the interplay of left populist and feminist politics through a case study of Podemos (‘we can’), a Spanish left populist party that reproduces a dominant gendered logic of politics despite its feminist interpretation of democratic renewal. I argue that this is the result of fundamental contradictions between the feminist and populist projects of political transformation that coexist in the party. Even if left populism offers a more productive terrain for gender equality than right populism, central tenets of populism disrupt feminist commitments and goals. Chief among these are the oversimplification of the political field based on a limited diagnosis, the exclusionary appeals to the homeland and to a homogenizing collectivity of the people, the dominant masculine and personalistic logics of charismatic leaders, the prioritization of electoral success over other forms of political transformation, and the resulting gendered political culture that marginalizes empowerment, inclusion, and participatory democratic practices.

The Political Culture and the Press of Canada

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thelma McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
The Press ◽  
Primary Obstacle ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
Free Flow Of Information ◽  
Flow Of Information

AbstractThe 1981 Kent commission report on newspapers is discussed and contrasted with the MacBride (UNESCO) report. The former assumes that competition is the major safeguard of diversity; the latter, written from the perspective of Third World countries, regards social inequality as the primary obstacle to the free flow of information. Together they reflect contemporary controversies about modernization. Trends toward rationalization, professionalization and autonomy are examined. Neither approach, Kent or MacBride, provides a satisfactory interpretation of Quebec's francophone press. An alternative model based on access is, we suggest, closer to the realities of Canada's changing political culture and class structure.

‘Blair's Children’: Young Women as ‘Aspirational Subjects’ in the Psychic Landscape of Class

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Allen
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Further Education ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Maternal Expectations

This paper engages with the subjective experience of ‘doing’ aspiration, teasing out the psychic and social costs that accompany this as a classed process. It draws on a qualitative study of young women located in further education and contemplating their futures under New Labour, locating how the political rhetoric of aspiration gets institutionalized within school practices; how it intersects with maternal expectations and practices of involvement; and how these are lived and managed by subjects located in different positions in class-inflected social space. In attending to the tangled web of institutional, intergenerational and affective practices which shape young women's aspirations, the paper seeks to interrupt the celebratory and simplistic rhetoric of aspiration that characterizes the contemporary socio-political register of neoliberalism. As these ideals become further entrenched by the current Coalition government, there is an even greater urgency for such sociological enquiries.

Performing and Politicizing “Ladyhood”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Treva B. Lindsey
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
New Negro ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Road ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Aesthetic Politics

This chapter explores the suffrage activism of black women in Washington. As one of the most pressing political issues of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the fight for universal suffrage was an important part of black women’s political activism throughout the New Negro era. The road to suffrage ended in Washington and black women suffragists in the nation’s capital were keenly aware the unique role they could play in advocating for universal suffrage. To understand the political culture of black women’s suffrage activism in Washington, the chapter centers on the March 1913 suffrage march in the nation’s capital to uncover the various dynamics of the suffrage movement and to specifically engage how black women thought about and enacted distinct political identities. For black suffragists, performative and aesthetic politics were resistive strategies for contesting their subordinate status in the political arena.

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