“They Don't Represent Us!”: From the Crisis of the Organic Intellectuals of 1978 to the Exhumation of Buried Imaginaries

boundary 2 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-113
Author(s):  
David Becerra Mayor ◽  
Lauren Mushro
Keyword(s):  
Empty Space ◽  
The Political ◽  
Genealogical Tree ◽  
Alain Badiou ◽  
Second Moment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
New Situation ◽  
The Revolution ◽  
Regime Of Truth

Based on the notion of événement (event), elaborated by the French philosopher Alain Badiou, this essay aims to offer a definition of the 15M movement as an event. According to Badiou, the event has the capacity to perforate established knowledge and to transform the codes of communication. The event destabilizes the regime of truth to the extent that what was assumed to be obvious now appears as unstable, and, consequently, the need arises to explore and construct other discourses capable of naming the new situation. In this essay, I locate two moments of the event: the political moment and the theoretical moment; the first is the time of the revolution, while the second is devoted to the study and theorization of this revolution. I argue that the radical effects of the event can be registered in the second moment. In the theoretical moment, there is a crisis of the organic intellectuals of the Regime of ’78, and the empty space they leave behind may begin to be occupied by other voices that were previously barely heard. In the same way, during the theoretical moment, the revolution without a genealogical tree that was the 15M, which was not inscribed in a revolutionary continuity, begins to seek its roots in discourses of the past that were silenced or forgotten, or that simply did not have a framework that would give them back their conditions of legibility.

The Revolution Under Raúl

2019 ◽  
pp. 151-164
Author(s):  
Anna Clayfield
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Importance ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter investigates the on-going legacy of the guerrilla struggle between 2006 and 2018, the period of Raúl Castro’s tenure as Cuban President. It argues that, while many foreign commentators viewed the political, social, and economic change of these years as evidence that the Revolution and its socialist model were on the way out, the discursive phenomenon of guerrillerismo still very much anchored it in the past. Such an anchor remained of high importance to the leadership at a time of not only domestic upheaval but also shifting relations with its long-standing enemy to the north: the United States.

To Make the Past Public

2020 ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Colin Foss
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Second Empire ◽  
Book Publishing Industry ◽  
The Past ◽  
Revolutionary Politics ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter deals with the kind of revolution France was undergoing during the Siege, and particularly how the book publishing industry—which created more lasting, less ephemeral literature than other sites of production—conceptualized this revolutionary moment. Publishers tended to look towards the past, rather than the future, to find their way out of the political instability of the Siege. Incarnated in the revival of the eighteenth-century libelle, the fixation on the perceived crimes of previous governments created an artificial revolution in print, one in which future change seemed unnecessary. This was a decidedly anti-revolutionary politics that attempted to build complacency rather than incite action. To make a break with the past, to turn public opinion against the politics of the Second Empire that had just fallen, Parisian publishers turned to the etymological definition of publication: to make matters public. The Siege saw the publication of hundreds of books that claimed to expose secrets and shed light on lies. The accusatory publications of the Siege exposed the crimes, both real and imagined, of the Second Empire.

The Politics of Slavery

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Brace
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Definition Of

This book asks what it means to describe someone as a slave and explores the political dimensions of that question. It argues against the search for a transhistorical and timeless definition of slavery, and offers a critical interrogation of the dominant liberal discourse on slavery from the Enlightenment to the present. It pays particular attention to the meanings of the slavery / freedom binary and to the connections between the past and the present in understanding ‘old’ and ‘new’ slavery. The book is about what it means to think about slavery as a historical process and as a political relation, both in the history of political thought and in present debates about trafficking and incarceration. It argues that we need to bring the concept of slavery back into our understandings of freedom, labour and belonging, and unravel the assumptions behind the meanings we ascribe to personhood, sub-personhood and humanity. From Aristotle and the idea of natural slavery, through Locke’s conception of civil society, Hegel’s master-slave dialectic and J.S. Mill’s analogy of slavery and marriage to the discourse of modern abolition and the idea of trafficking as slavery, the book interrogates what it means to think about the idea of freedom as the opposite of slavery, and draws attention to the significance of the tensions, ambiguities and silences that surround that conception.

Swift and Bolingbroke on Faction

1970 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
The Political ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Political Thinker ◽  
The Revolution

The text for this essay comes from Sir Lewis Namier. “One has to steep oneself in the political life of a period,” so the decree reads, “before one can safely speak, or be sure of understanding, its language.” This article is an attempt to supply, not a complete grammar of Augustan politics, but a minor lexicographical entry. Historians sometimes talk as though the most urgent need were for an advanced glossary. The assumption behind this essay is that a more elementary gradus is required. The two key words under review, “party” and “faction,” have always occupied neighbouring berths in the British synonymy. Unfortunately, in the eighteenth-century vocabulary of politics, they became overlapping concepts. Or rather — this is the trouble — they sometimes merged, partially or completely; sometimes they did not; and sometimes they were even employed as antonymous terms. Examples of all these contrary applications are found in the work of Swift and Bolingbroke. As with other lexicographical enquiries, then, usage and abusage must be considered, as well as the simple dictionary definition of these terms.IEdmund Burke is still, in some quarters, valued more highly as a prophet than as a political thinker. His forecasts of the likely course of the Revolution have brought him a reputation for the occult among those who hold his moral views in little esteem, even though he may be regarded, most unfairly, as a sorcerer's apprentice who was engulfed by his own charmed vision.

The relationship between religion and the state: the institution of ‘Commandment of the Faithful’ in Morocco†

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-81
Author(s):  
Ahmed Al Khamlichi
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

The term ‘Amir al-Mou'mineen’ (Commander of the Faithful) and ‘caliph’ were first bestowed on Omar Bin al-Khattab who became the successor of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) two-and-a-half years after he passed away. By virtue of the political and religious connotations of the term, the title conveyed overarching political authority – a kind of absolute power. The notion of Commander of the Faithful facilitated oppression of those who held different views, directly or indirectly, through employing fatawa, that is religious interpretations and edicts, in addition to mobilizing religious followers and devotees. This excess of political power is based on the definition of Imarat al-Mu'mineen (Commandment of the Faithful) or the Caliphate common in religious jurisprudence. This definition was coined by Ibn Khaldoun, and may be translated as: ‘making people abide by the view of Shar (the Law of God in Islam) regarding their temporal and afterlife interests’. Morocco has been no different from the rest of the Islamic world over the centuries, and now two distinct phenomena are apparent. First, the emergence of different groups, each with its own ideology and claims to be defending religion and pursuing its implementation. Such groups consider all other ways of thinking as apostasy that must be eliminated; while juxtaposed to them, there exist intellectual currents calling for the continued separation of religion and the state and its laws. During the past two decades this phenomenon has led to tragic situations in a considerable number of Islamic states, whose prospects now seem very gloomy. Second, a tight regulation of state institutions, together with constitutional guarantees of individual rights and freedoms, can prevent the manipulation of the state in the name of religion, and its use for tyranny and the oppression of individuals and minorities, be it in the name of Commandment of the Faithful or any other term. It seems that Morocco is aware of the power of these two phenomena, especially after it faced social unrest in 1992 and 2001, which almost destroyed its stability.

scholarly journals After Khomeini

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-114
Author(s):  
Afshin Hojati
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Revolutionary Violence ◽  
The Revolution

Drawing on the sociology of revolution, Arjomand’s book is set onexplaining the political developments of Iran and its rollercoaster-likedomestic and foreign policy realities during the past two decades. Accordingto the author, the greatest misconception about post-revolutionary Iran isthe notion that the revolution ended with the establishment of a “Brintonian”Thermidor through the rise to power of the pragmatist presidentHashemi-Rafsanjani (1989-97) and/or the reformist president Khatami(1997-2005). In contrast, “this book argues that the Islamic revolution didnot end with Khomeini’s death and that there was no return to ‘normalcy’the day after. Massive revolutionary violence abated while the revolutioncontinued” (p. 5) ...

scholarly journals Securitization and the Political: contributions from Hannah Arendt

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Motta ◽  
Cauê Pimentel
Keyword(s):  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Political Contributions ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Definition Of

In the past few years, many scholars keen to the Copenhagen School (CS) turned to the works of the German political scientist Carl Schmitt in order to strengthen the philosophical foundations of the theory, especially the disputed concept of exception. Schmitt is a singular and important contribution to the debate, however his definition of the political makes securitization concept more conservative and a more unilateral event as politics would only be explicit in the exception spectrum. Our idea in this brief paper is to present a contribution to this discussion coming from a less considered perspective: the works and writings of Hannah Arendt. We will examine how her ideas towards politics and the exception can shed a light on the same issues that Schmitt seems to blur even further. We believe that bringing Hannah Arendt to the debate offers a different understanding of the foundational problems of the securitization concept and enhances the normative appeal of the theory towards a broader and more sophisticated base, opening new paths for research and discussion under the framework of the Copenhagen School.

scholarly journals Branding specificities of the Armenian “Velvet Revolution”

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-227
Author(s):  
Elina Asriyan ◽  
Nvard Melkonyan
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Velvet Revolution ◽  
The Revolution

The so-called modern-day “colored revolutions” implemented in varous parts of the globe have their specificities. The development of social communication and its changes in quality have in fact influenced the implementation of “colored revolutions”, as well as its technologies. In the process of branding the Armenian velvet revolution, several important tasks were set: to make actions of disobedience and protests recognizable as revolutionary actions, to present the velvet revolution as a continuation and result of protest actions that were taking place in the country over the past ten years, and the last task concerned the need to unite different social segments around a common idea. The success and desire of a velvet revolution as a brand was conditioned by the following: considering the psychological peculiarities of perception of a person, presenting the revolution as the only opportunity for addressing the political problems in the country and pointing out succeeded key messages, conformity with the target audience’s desires, social needs, expectations, and ideas about future; effective and balanced communication mechanisms with the target audience.

MODERN STAGE OF RUSSIAN MUNICIPAL REFORM: CONTENTS AND EFFECTS

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Слатинов ◽  
Vladimir Slatinov ◽  
Меркулова ◽  
Kseniya Merkulova
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
The Political ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
Municipal Reform ◽  
The People ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Regional Authorities

The dominant trend of Russian home policy currently is strengthening the political control of presidential power over lower levels of public authority hierarchy. At the same time in relation to the regions the strategy of partial decentralization of powers and increasing of responsibilities of state bodies of the Federation for the quality of economic policy and the implementation of social obligations to the population by the Federal Centre is implemented. This strategy involves the empowerment of regional authorities on the formation of institutional design and definition of the scope of the powers of local self-government within the selective choice established by the federal legislator. Using new opportunities regional authorities introduce management models in the municipalities, in which the heads of executive bodies are elected by the representative bodies on the contest. Application of these models reinforces the dependence of municipalities on authorities of the bodies of the Federation, creating opportunities for professionalization of management of executive structures of municipalities and reducing the direct accountability to the people of the past.

Chinese Nationalism and the Anti-Christian Campaigns of the 1920s

1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie G. Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Western Civilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Chinese Tradition ◽  
Chinese Nationalism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chinese Perceptions ◽  
Great Tradition ◽  
Definition Of

The definition of China as a nation has often been contrasted with the definition of China as a culture. The modern Chinese state, it is said, has to displace the Middle Kingdom concept of the Great Tradition. The culturalism of dynastic China had to be transmuted into nationalism as China accepted the challenge of modernization. Truly, China has experienced revolution in the twentieth century; the political and cultural definition of China in the 1970s does differ from that of the 1870s. But perhaps our concentration on Chinese tradition as a deterrent to modernization has obscured the continuities of Chinese history. Though certain aspects of the Great Tradition hindered change in China, others contributed to it. The Chinese heritage provided the framework and orientation as Chinese selected elements from Western civilization, and while transforming their own tradition they also translated and transformed those importations designed to bring wealth and power. Reinterpretations of the importations were informed by Chinese perceptions of the past as well as of the present.

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