Structural Constraints in Ukrainian Politics

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D'Anieri
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Common

The 2010 Ukrainian presidential election points to a certain consistency in Ukrainian electoral politics, especially in regional dynamics. These enduring constraints limit the options of political leaders and channel outcomes into a narrower range than would be expected from a focus on the personal preferences of leaders or the political views of the forces they represent. This article seeks to identify these constraints and the prospects that the current government or a future one might escape them. Starting with the common assumption that all leaders (even in democracies) seek to retain office as long as possible, the article examines what has made consolidation of power more difficult in Ukraine than other post-Soviet societies. Important factors include regional divisions, the absence of a natural-resource-based economy, and the relative weakness of the post-communist security services. It then considers factors that favor the consolidation of political power and the erosion of meaningful competition, such as weak institutions, weak norms, and increasing facility with the methods used elsewhere in the region to weaken competitors. The article concludes by proposing that both authoritarian consolidation and democratic consolidation present challenges in Ukraine and that we need to focus more on the barriers to the concentration of power in new democracies.

scholarly journals Satire in Shrestha’s Ghintang Ghishi Twank

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Man Kumar Rai
Keyword(s):  
Positive Change ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Common People ◽  
The People ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Special Occasion ◽  
The Common

   The objective of this article is to analyze the use of satire in three poems, from Rupesh  Shrestha’s volume of poems Ghintang Ghishi Twank in order to examine use of the suffering of voiceless people. The poems depict absurdities of the society and hypocrisy of the leaders which are the causes of poor people‟s pains. This poems exhibit how follies, vices and absurdities are hurdle in transforming society into prosperous one. The poet has berated them with the aim of bringing positive change in the society and in the lives of the common people. The poet mocks at the political changes which have brought change only in the lives of political leaders, not in the lives of the people who have been ignored by the state for long. Despite many anxieties, they enjoy dancing and playing sticks in their hands on the special occasion of Gaijatra. The poems are collection of sharp words which are used to butt the corrupt politicians. For this, the elements of Juvenalian satire have been used as tools for analysis of the selected poems. This study highlights upon the anxieties of marginalized people; demonstrates the shameful act of politicians; and exposes the absurdities prevailed in the society. It indicates that the political and social absurdities are subject to be poked in order to reform a society.

Principals and Agents: From the Convention’s Proposal to the Constitutional Treaty

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas König ◽  
Daniel Finke
Keyword(s):  
Final Outcome ◽  
The Political ◽  
Principal Agent ◽  
Constitutional Treaty ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Voting Rules ◽  
Common View ◽  
Treaty Of Lisbon ◽  
First Order ◽  
The Common

This chapter examines the transformation of the Convention's proposal on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe to the Lisbon Treaty in the aftermath of the two negative referendums from a principal-agent perspective. It shows that the common view of unitary member states, in which principals and agents share interests in the revision of treaties, can only partially—if not wrongly—explain the Treaty of Lisbon. The principal-agent analysis reveals that the political leaders delegated power to negotiating agents who worked out compromise solutions by partially revising the initial interests of their first order principals, the political leaders. Governmental agents from smaller countries were able to focus the negotiations on a few central reform issues, such as the number of Commissioners and the voting rules of the Council, and they also successfully influenced the final outcome of these issues. A major reason for their success was their credibility, which they could increase by pointing to integration-skeptic voters—particularly in countries that had announced a referendum. Hence, governmental agents increased their bargaining efficiency by referring to voters as their second-order principals.

Collective Identity in National Anthems

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Hesham Mesbah
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political System ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
National Symbols ◽  
The Common

This chapter explores how national anthems of African and non-African Arab nations reflect a collective national identity. The national anthems of 22 Arab countries were analyzed using the textual thematic analysis to identify the common attributes of national identity in these anthems and the variance in referring to political entities, national symbols, and natural artifacts according to the political system (republic vs. monarchy) in the country. The analysis shows five thematic components of the national identity presented by those anthems, with an emphasis on the themes of religion and local political leaders in the anthems of monarchies. On the other hand, republics base their identity on religion, history, and nation-related natural and national artifacts. The anthems of the republics show a higher level of complexity (thematic richness) and more tendency to use emotionally charged, forceful language, in contrast to the anthems of the monarchies.

scholarly journals Lesia Ukrainka and Mykhailo Hrushevskyi: creative connections and sociopolitical views

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-65
Author(s):  
O. Tur ◽  
V. Krot  ◽  
V. Shabunina
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Communication ◽  
Western World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
One Stage ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Common ◽  
Dominant Direction

The article is devoted to the study of little-known pages of Ukrainian journalism, in particular, the critical socio-historical and epistolary heritage of Lesya Ukrainka and M. Hrushevsky as iconic figures of Ukrainian culture. It is pointed out that the insufficient study of creative contacts between the writer Lesya Ukrainka and the political and public figure, the historian, the publicist M. Hrushevsky, is caused by ideological factors, which in Soviet times led to the withdrawal of information about the contacts of these figures from scientific communication. It was emphasized that the dominant direction of the "Great Ukrainian" and "Daughter of Prometheus", as evidenced not only by their literary-critical, journalistic works but also their correspondence, was the departure from the traditional Little Russian type of thinking, formation of European spiritual landmarks and values, reflection on Ukrainian "Historical" fate. The use of the historical method revealed the common socio-political views of Lesya Ukrainka and M. Hrushevsky on the role of the Ukrainian intellectuals, the development of Ukrainian culture, the formation of the European vector of development, bridging the gap and returning to a one-stage life with the Western world.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHRUTI KAPILA
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bhagavad Gita ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Political Modernity ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Violence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Bhagavad Gītā

This essay revises the common assumption that non-violence has been central to political modernity in India. The “extremist” nationalist B. G. Tilak, through a foundational philosophical reinterpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, created a modern theology of the Indian “political”. Tilak did so by directly confronting the question of the possibility of the “event” of war and the ethics of the conversion of kinsmen into enemies. Writing in the aftermath of the Swadeshi movement and from a prison cell in Rangoon, Tilak interpreted action as sacrificial duty that created a vocabulary of violence in which killing was naturalized. Violence, whether conceptual or otherwise, was not directed towards the “outsider” but was of meaning only when directed against the intimate. Unlike the distinction between friend and foe that has been taken as central to the understanding of the political in the twentieth century, it was instead the fraternal–enmity issue that framed the modern political in India. Tilak foregrounded the idea of a de-historicized political subject, whose existence was entirely dependent upon the event of violence itself. This helps to explain both the unprecedented violence that accompanied freedom and partition in 1947 and also the fact that it has remained unmemorialized to the present day.

Terrorism and Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
Graham Holderness
Keyword(s):  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Islamic Terrorism ◽  
The Common

This article addresses the question ‘can literature help us with terrorism?’ by interrogating the common assumption that terrorism always ‘has an agenda’ that needs to be understood and addressed. The article offers a critique of Robert Applebaum’s argument that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represents a denial of the political agenda of the Gunpowder Plot, and argues that terrorism – especially contemporary Islamic terrorism – is nihilistic, merely destructive and offers (in Derrida’s words) ‘nothing good to be hoped for’. The achievement of Macbeth is to expose the ‘mystery of iniquity’ (2 Thess. 2.7) that lies behind all terrorism.

Justice Promised or Just a Promise?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanie du Toit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Reconciliation Process

This chapter evaluates the reconciliation process in terms of its inherent promise of social inclusion and fairness in South Africa. It first asks whether the constitutional process could be judged to have been inclusive and fair to all. Then it asks whether the TRC failed to address social justice and thereby constituted a setback to the reconciliation agenda. Finally, the chapter asks about the measure of inclusivity and fairness that have been achieved after some twenty years. The discussion concludes that inclusivity and fairness were not sacrificed at the time when reconciliation shaped the political transition but were compromised more recently, to the extent that inclusion across social divides failed to materialize and political leaders deviated from serving the common good. Just as early reconciliation efforts initially flourished through leadership, so in later years, reconciliation has floundered in its absence.

Davenant

2020 ◽  
pp. 26-56
Author(s):  
Niall Allsopp
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
The Political ◽  
Andrew Marvell ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Common

Chapter 1 traces the political views recorded in Davenant’s Preface to Gondibert (1650) and Gondibert (1651). At this time, Davenant loosened his ties with royalism, and imagined a more flexible and artificial form of sovereignty. This view was informed by Tacitism, especially by Lipsius, but the chapter particularly maps out the common ground between Davenant and Hobbes, who both attest to reading each others’ work at this time. The chapter notes Davenant’s views on religion (described by John Aubrey as ‘ingeniose Quakerisme’), on vainglory and the psychological causes of conflict, and on sovereignty, which Davenant founded on force (an argument current in the Engagement controversy), and on the power of poetry to constrain the imagination. Although Gondibert itself peters out inconclusively, the chapter concludes by highlighting its imaginative afterlife among satirists, including John Denham and Andrew Marvell.

What is a Complex? Freudian Resistances

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Morgan Wortham
Keyword(s):  
Value Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
The Common ◽  
Post War

This chapter evaluates the question of the ‘complex’ in a range of scientific, political and psychoanalytic contexts, asking not only where lines of connection and demarcation occur among specific distributions of meaning, value, theory and practice; but also probing the psychoanalytic corpus, notably Freud’s writings on the notion of a ‘complex’, in order to reframe various implications of the idea that this term tends to resist its own utilisation as both an object and form of analysis. This section establishes connections between three sets of theoretical questions: the common practice of describing modernity and its wake in terms of a drive towards increasing complexity; the meaning and cultural legacy of phrases such as ‘military-industrial complex’ and sundry derivations in the political sphere; and the intricacies and ambiguities subtending the term ‘complex’ within psychoanalytic theory. As a concept that Freud both utilised and repudiated, the provocative power of the term ‘complex’ is linked to the way it thwarts various attempts at systemization (providing nonetheless an apparatus of sorts through which contemporary science, Slavoj Žižek, Noam Chomsky, Freud, Eisenhower, and post-war politics can be articulated to one another).

Palestinian Diaspora Communities in Latin America and Palestinian Statehood

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
Yousef M. Aljamal ◽  
Philipp O. Amour
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
South America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Right

There are some 700,000 Latin Americans of Palestinian origin, living in fourteen countries of South America. In particular, Palestinian diaspora communities have a considerable presence in Chile, Honduras, and El Salvador. Many members of these communities belong to the professional middle classes, a situation which enables them to play a prominent role in the political and economic life of their countries. The article explores the evolving attitudes of Latin American Palestinians towards the issue of Palestinian statehood. It shows the growing involvement of these communities in Palestinian affairs and their contribution in recent years towards the wide recognition of Palestinian rights — including the right to self-determination and statehood — in Latin America. But the political views of members of these communities also differ considerably about the form and substance of a Palestinian statehood and on the issue of a two-states versus one-state solution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document