Carnivalesque humor, emotional paradoxes, and street protests in Thailand

Diogenes ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 039219212097040
Author(s):  
Janjira Sombatpoonsiri
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Collective Emotion ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Public Audience

Conventional wisdom has it that street protests are typically driven by rage due to grievances perceived to inflict on a group. This emotive atmosphere can shape protest methods to be vandalistic to the point where armed attacks against targeted opponents are justified. This paper suggests that rage-influenced struggle can be counterproductive as it obstructs a movement from building a coalition board enough to challenge the ruling elites it opposes. This paper argues that carnivalization of protests can prevent this setback in two directions. First, it potentially transforms protesters’ collective emotion from rage to cheerfulness. This effect may lessen a possibility where protesters project violent revenge on those thought to represent the ruling elites. Second, while helping protesters to address sources of their grievances, carnivalesque protests create a “friendly” image that may convince a public audience outside the movement to support its cause. In assessing a political process of carnivalesque protests, this paper bases its analysis on an account of protest actions by Thailand’s Red Sunday group emerging after the 2010 crackdown.

A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom About the Informed Public: National Political Information in Ghana

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred M. Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Informed Citizenry ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Different Levels

This study examines the extent, impact and implications of political information in Ghana using survey data. A major interest is to identify and examine variables which influence level of information and to look at the consequences for the political process of different levels of political information. I examine conventional wisdom concerning the ignorance of the masses about national politics and call into question some common assumptions. Many of the differences usually assumed between developed and underdeveloped nations are found either not to exist or to be smaller than hypothesized. The data suggest that in some areas of national political information the masses in non-modernized societies are more politically aware than their counterparts in modernized societies. It is also suggested that there is no necessary link between education (literacy) and political information and that there are a number of functional equivalents to formal education. In the last section of the study several propositions about the informed citizenry are discussed.

Ambivalence, Information, and Electoral Choice

2005 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
SCOTT J. BASINGER ◽  
HOWARD LAVINE
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Economic Voting ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Voter Choice ◽  
Partisan Competition ◽  
Ideological Voting

Conventional wisdom views voter choice in House elections as preordained by party identification, incumbency, and perceptions of national conditions. In an analysis of voter behavior in House elections between 1990 and 2000, we find instead that voters are quite heterogeneous. Voters who hold ambivalent partisan attitudes, who typically constitute 30% of the electorate, reduce their reliance on party identification; this effect is entirely independent of the strength of identification. Individuals holding ambivalent partisan attitudes that both lack political knowledge and are presented with little campaign stimulus are more likely to engage in economic voting. Individuals holding ambivalent partisan attitudes that either are knowledgeable about politics or are presented with stimulating campaigns are more likely to engage in ideological voting. Thus, campaign competition and national partisan competition each play a role in assuring that ordinary voters may participate meaningfully in the political process.

In-Your-Face Politics

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana C. Mutz
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
The Political ◽  
Video Screen ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Modern Media

Americans are disgusted with watching politicians screaming and yelling at one another on television. But does all the noise really make a difference? Drawing on numerous studies, this book provides the first comprehensive look at the consequences of in-your-face politics. The book contradicts the conventional wisdom by documenting both the benefits and the drawbacks of in-your-face media. “In-your-face” politics refers to both the level of incivility and the up-close and personal way that we experience political conflict on television. Just as actual physical closeness intensifies people's emotional reactions to others, the appearance of closeness on a video screen has similar effects. We tend to keep our distance from those with whom we disagree. Modern media, however, puts those we dislike in our faces in a way that intensifies our negative reactions. This book finds that incivility is particularly detrimental to facilitating respect for oppositional political viewpoints and to citizens' levels of trust in politicians and the political process. On the positive side, incivility and close-up camera perspectives contribute to making politics more physiologically arousing and entertaining to viewers. This encourages more attention to political programs, stimulates recall of the content, and encourages people to relay content to others. In the end, this book demonstrates why political incivility is not easily dismissed as a disservice to democracy—it may even be a necessity in an age with so much competition for citizens' attention.

scholarly journals Political Processes in the Republics of post-Soviet Central Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
D. B. MALYSHEVA
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Independent States ◽  
The Government ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The article analyzes contemporary political processes in the newly  independent states of post-Soviet Central Asia. The peculiarities of  functioning of their centralized political systems, as well as the  interaction of the executive (the president and the government) and  the legislative (parliament) branches of power are considered in the  context of the authoritarian type of government that prevails in most  countries of the region. Attention is drawn to the use by the  ruling elites for the purposes of political mobilization of procedures  for electoral democracy (elections, etc.), which is mostly of a formal  nature. The place in the power structures of both officially  recognized political parties and opposition ones is defined, which are  divided mainly into secular and religious (Islamist). Informal political structures that function in a number of cases in the form of regional  communities, territorial or ethnic clans are considered in the article as a specific characteristic of Central Asian societies. Based on the analysis of the political process in the Central Asian countries, it  was concluded that the whole period of post-Soviet transit has come  to an end and that authoritarian but consolidated regimes of a new  type are emerging in the region; they form a sovereign statehood  and an independent foreign policy strategy.

Light Optical Diffraction Studies of Macromolecular Ultrastructure

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 258-259
Author(s):  
Glen B. Haydon
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Diffraction Analysis ◽  
Diffraction Pattern ◽  
Electron Micrographs ◽  
Optical Diffraction ◽  
Electron Micrograph ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Diffraction Patterns

Analysis of light optical diffraction patterns produced by electron micrographs can easily lead to much nonsense. Such diffraction patterns are referred to as optical transforms and are compared with transforms produced by a variety of mathematical manipulations. In the use of light optical diffraction patterns to study periodicities in macromolecular ultrastructures, a number of potential pitfalls have been rediscovered. The limitations apply to the formation of the electron micrograph as well as its analysis.(1) The high resolution electron micrograph is itself a complex diffraction pattern resulting from the specimen, its stain, and its supporting substrate. Cowley and Moodie (Proc. Phys. Soc. B, LXX 497, 1957) demonstrated changing image patterns with changes in focus. Similar defocus images have been subjected to further light optical diffraction analysis.

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