scholarly journals Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies

2018 ◽  
Vol 681 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McCoy ◽  
Murat Somer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Military ◽  
Eleven Case ◽  
Relative Capacity

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.

scholarly journals Mapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafa Shanneik ◽  
Chris Heinhold ◽  
Zahra Ali
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
First Time

AbstractThis article provides an introduction to the special issue onMapping Shia Muslim Communities in Europe.1 With six empirically rich case studies on Shia Muslim communities in various European countries, this issue intends: first, to illustrate the historical developments and emergence of the Shia presence in Europe; second, to highlight the local particularities of the various Shia communities within each nation state and demonstrate their transnational links; and third, to provide for the first time an empirical comparative study on the increasingly visible presence of Shia communities in Europe that fills an important gap in research on Muslims in Europe.

scholarly journals The Nation-State and the Origins of Secondary Education in Argentina: The Case of the Colegio Nacional (National School)

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicitas Acosta
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Key Words ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National School ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Political Unification

This article focuses on the origins of secondary education in Argentina. Inparticular, it explores the possible relations between the modelling of educationalinstitutions intended for the formation of political elites and the fabrication of thenation-state. In Argentina, the creation of free, compulsory elementary educationwas preceded by the development of secondary education through the setting up ofthe colegio nacional. These schools were formed during the political unification ofthe national territory after domestic post-independence wars. Note the name givento these institutions: national schools. How did the nation and the state appear inthe organization of national schools? The article explores this question analyzingschool curricula and rectors’ reports during the configuration of the colegio nacionalbetween 1863 and 1890.Key words: curricula; configuration; national; territory; secondary schools.

The Distinction of Social and Political Elites

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pascal Daloz
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Classical Models

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.

The Legislatures in the First and Second Republics

2018 ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Joseph Olayinka Fashagba
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Politics ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
First Republic ◽  
Presidential System ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
The Military

This study examines the Nigerian democratic experience and governance in the First and the Second Republics. The First Republic began in 1960 with a parliamentary constitution bequeathed to the country by Britain. Despite the euphoria of independence, the inability of the political elites to manage the inherited system and maintain inter- and intraparty harmony as well as interethnic understanding led to the democratic reversal of 1966. The military and the political elites reached a consensus between 1976 and 1979 on the need to adopt a presidential system which they considered to have the elements to achieve stability. However, the Second Republic which began with the presidential constitution of 1979 collapsed in 1983. This chapter discusses the legislative politics, executive-legislative relations, and the reasons for the collapse of the republics. It argues that the adversarial politics of the ruling elites undermined both the parliamentary and presidential constitutions of the republics respectively.

scholarly journals Re-Theorizing Politics in Water Governance

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole J. Wilson ◽  
Leila M. Harris ◽  
Joanne Nelson ◽  
Sameer H. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Desalination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Emergent Technologies ◽  
Participatory Politics

This Special Issue on water governance features a series of articles that highlight recent and emerging concepts, approaches, and case studies to re-center and re-theorize “the political” in relation to decision-making, use, and management—collectively, the governance of water. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance. Further reflected is a focus on diverse ontologies, epistemologies, meanings and values of water, related contestations concerning its use, and water’s importance for livelihoods, identity, and place-making. Taken together, the articles in this Special Issue challenge the ways that water governance remains too often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning. By re-centering the political, and by developing analytics that enable and support this endeavor, the contributions throughout highlight the varied, contested, and important ways that water governance needs to be recalibrated and enlivened with keen attention to politics—broadly understood.

Selective history and hegemony-making: The case of Singapore

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walid Jumblatt Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Religious Nature

This article attempts to analyze the process of selective history and hegemony-making in Singapore, and makes the following arguments. Firstly, the birth of the nation-state led the political elites to rely on several hegemonic ideologies as founding myths, chief of which is the idea of ‘survival’. Secondly, to create and sustain these ideologies, two things needed to be done concurrently: de-emphasize the Malay-ness of the nation’s past; and accentuate the racial/religious nature of sources to instability. Finally, the article makes the claim that these ideologies have been successfully perpetuated, and outlines the contours of this success. In making these arguments, the article hopes to argue against Singapore ‘exceptionalism’ in studies on democratization, and further contends that the link between ideas, history and authoritarianism needs to be considered more seriously.

Rethinking the ambition gap: gender and candidate emergence in comparative perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Piscopo ◽  
Meryl Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Candidate Emergence ◽  
Political World

The gender gap in political ambition is often presented as an immutable fact about the political world. This special issue interrogates this fact, drawing on case studies from across the globe. Taken together, the contributions move the research agenda away from explaining why (or whether) women have less ambition than men, and towards understanding the gendered dynamics of candidate emergence. These gendered dynamics include individual, institutional and contextual factors, thus shifting the emphasis away from gender gaps and towards gendered explanations. This analysis further underscores how exhorting women to ‘lean in’ to candidacy cannot solve the problem of men’s over-representation in politics.

The Rise and Retreat of the Armed Forces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orlando J. Pérez ◽  
Randy Pestana
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Central America ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Military ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
Modern Nation State

The armed forces of Central America predate the development of the modern nation-state. It is difficult to understand the political and social history of the region without examining the role of the military. Strong men leading local armed militias emerged out of the ashes of the Spanish Empire to rule the newly independent nations. As military institutions developed, an alliance between the armed forces and powerful economic elites sought to govern the nation-states by suppressing and exploiting popular sectors often through brutal repression. Authoritarianism and economic underdevelopment led to multiple uprisings which helped shape the nature of politics and democratic governance in contemporary Central America. In explaining this we explore the evolution of the armed forces, focusing particular attention on the political influence of the military in the development of the modern nation-state, and on the process of democratization in the late twentieth century. We then examine the role the United States has played in promoting and sustaining military rule. Finally, we analyze the consequences of late-twentieth-century peace processes on the retreat of military power and on the building of democracy.

Conclusions

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. S. Miles
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
West African ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Secular Institutions ◽  
Islamist Movements

West African Islam is evolving politically and fast: This much these four rich case studies on Niger, Gambia, Nigeria, and Senegal assure us. How quaint now seems the early postcolonial notion that meaningful separation of mosque and state would remain a bedrock of the independent nation-state in a region of Africa marked by such a strong Muslim presence. Significant inroads into the superimposed European ideal of governance through secular institutions alone had already been made before the events of 9/11 recalibrated our focus on Islam in West Africa. As Mahmud and Villalón show us, partisan democratizing pressures in Nigeria and Senegal had put Shari'a and anti-Mouride Reformism on the the political table well before Osmana bin Laden became a household name. Similarly, the emergence of civil society associations in Niger and Wahhabi proselytizing in Gambia, according to Charlick and Darboe, elevated Islamist movements there prior to the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon. After 9/11, the significance of Islamism in West Africa is of course inescapable: Mahmud's mere reference to a “Nigerian Taliban” inevitably whets curiosity. This response, however, is disproportionate to the group's real impact. It is crucial, in other words, that scholars of West African Islam not fall into the reductio ad al-Qaedum trap of neophyte Africanist students and intelligence analysts.

scholarly journals Political Elite as Key Resource of Military Security in Contemporary Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
M. A. Amurov
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Military Organization ◽  
Political Resource ◽  
Military Security ◽  
The Military

Justification of the political elite as the key socio-political resource of military security is the purpose of this article. The method of research is structural and functional analysis of mili tary security through the prism of activating its socio-political resource. As a result of the research, a new approach to classifying the functions of modern political elites as a key resource of military security has been proposed. The article concludes that military security today should be understood as all actions of power structures of the military organization, authorities at all levels of government, as well as public organizations, which are aimed at preventing and neutralizing real and possible threats and dangers of military nature. The problem of military security is one of the central issues for any modern state, since, along with the process of universal globalization, the authorities continue to be the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of their people. Military security is considered to be actions of power structures of the military organization, authorities at all levels of government, as well as public organizations. These institutions and structures aim at preventing and neutralizing any possible threat that is military in nature. Military security and its effectiveness depends on the activities and ideology of political elites in identifying, preventing, eliminating or minimizing of threats. Decision-making on military security takes place with the participation of the entire military and political leadership of the country, which is part of the political elite, and with direct or indirect influence of the wider political elites. The article substantiates the main functions of modern political elites. They include geopolitical function (formation and reproduction of geographic and political-communication borders); normalization function (interpretation of the “normality” of the state in the context of war/world); communication function (ability to understand social interests, values and demands). The author comes to the conclusion that the basis of modern domestic political effectiveness is the stable character of the formation and functioning of the elite, i. e. overcoming its internal fragmentation and fragmentation.

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