The “Barbaric” Dabke

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-219
Author(s):  
Shayna Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Power Function ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Folk Culture

Abstract This essay analyzes how dance, gender, and state power function together as a significant node of critique in recent cultural production that addresses authoritarianism in Syria. Identifying the symbolic trope of dabke, a popular dance ubiquitous in Syrian life, selected films, literature, and choreography, this essay argues that the discussed works dislodge dabke from its feminized association with authenticity, folk culture, and nationhood to instead represent dabke as a form of hegemonic masculinity that perpetuates sovereignty, patriarchy, and autocracy. Through the rendering of embodied acts of dabke performance, hegemonic and resilient modes of masculinity are equated with spectacles of violence attached to the state, repressive tactics by the police state, and performative complicity with the regime. This essay argues that sovereign and autocratic forms of power are not universal abstractions but are embedded in the gendered structures of the society in which such power is performed.

KEY ASPECTS OF TRANSFORMATION OF THE STATE AUTHORITIES IN THE WORLD AND TO THE MODERN SOVERUM UKRAINE: A JOINT AND PERSONALITY

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
pp. 164-174
Author(s):  
Оlena Fedorіvna Caracasidi
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Human Life ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Power ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The World ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Key Aspects

The article deals with the fundamental, inherent in most of the countries of the world transformation of state power, its formation, functioning and division between the main branches as a result of the decentralization of such power, its subsidiarity. Attention is drawn to the specifics of state power, its func- tional features in the conditions of sovereignty of the states, their interconnec- tion. It is emphasized that the nature of the state power is connected with the nature of the political system of the state, with the form of government and many other aspects of a fundamental nature.It is analyzed that in the middle of national states the questions of legitima- cy, sovereignty of transparency of state power, its formation are acutely raised. Concerning the practical functioning of state power, a deeper study now needs a problem of separation of powers and the distribution of power. The use of this principle, which ensures the real subsidiarity of the authorities, the formation of more effective, responsible democratic relations between state power and civil society, is the first priority of the transformation of state power in the conditions of modern transformations of countries and societies. It is substantiated that the research of these problems will open up much wider opportunities for the provi- sion of state power not as a center authority, but also as a leading political structure but as a power of the people and the community. In the context of global democratization processes, such processes are crucial for a more humanistic and civilized arrangement of human life. It is noted that local self-government, as a specific form of public power, is also characterized by an expressive feature of a special subject of power (territorial community) as a set of large numbers of people; joint communal property; tax system, etc.

Interaction of the State and Business on Indicators of Values and Innovations of Public Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
V.A. Morozov
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
Business Structures

The article analyzes the state of public health on the example of domestic and foreign statistics, as well as prospects for its development and improvement. The state of relations and forms of interaction of budgetary medical institutions (state, municipal) with private clinics, as well as directly private clinics with the structures of municipal and state power are considered. The directions and ways of interaction of power and business structures for improvement of methods and forms of service of patients on the basis of indicators of values and innovations are offered.

Suffering Spectators of Development

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Alternative View

This chapter offers an alternative view of the incidence and duration of insurgencies in the postcolonial world. Insurgencies and civil wars are seen as the primary symptom of state weakness, the inability of the central government to monopolize violence. Challenging extant explanations that identify poverty and low state capacity as the cause of insurgencies, the chapter shows that colonial insurgencies, also occurring in the context of poverty and state weakness, were shorter and ended in regime victories, while contemporary insurgencies are longer and states are less successful at subduing them. The reason for this is the development of exclusive identities—based on ethnicity, religion, tribe—in the colonial period. These identities serve as bases for mobilization to challenge state power and demand services from the state. Either way, such mobilization means that popular demands for services exceed the willingness to disarm and/or pay taxes, that is, to supply the state.

‘Party in the street’: The partisan politics of space

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110338
Author(s):  
David Jenkins ◽  
Lipin Ram
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
State Power ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Public space is often understood as an important ‘node’ of the public sphere. Typically, theorists of public space argue that it is through the trust, civility and openness to others which citizens cultivate within a democracy’s public spaces, that they learn how to relate to one another as fellow members of a shared polity. However, such theorizing fails to articulate how these democratic comportments learned within public spaces relate to the public sphere’s purported role in holding state power to account. In this paper, we examine the ways in which what we call ‘partisan interventions’ into public space can correct for this gap. Using the example of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), we argue that the ways in which CPIM partisans actively cultivate sites of historical regional importance – such as in the village of Kayyur – should be understood as an aspect of the party’s more general concern to present itself to citizens as an agent both capable and worthy of wielding state power. Drawing on histories of supreme partisan contribution and sacrifice, the party influences the ideational background – in competition with other parties – against which it stakes its claims to democratic legitimacy. In contrast to those theorizations of public space that celebrate its separateness from the institutions of formal democratic politics and the state more broadly, the CPIM’s partisan interventions demonstrate how parties’ locations at the intersections of the state and civil society can connect the public sphere to its task of holding state power to account, thereby bringing the explicitly political questions of democratic legitimacy into the everyday spaces of a political community.

scholarly journals The Conservation and Management of the Cultural Heritage of Thailand: The Drafting of the Charter

MANUSYA ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-102
Author(s):  
Weeraphan Shinawatra
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
The State ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Cultural Heritage Conservation ◽  
Conservation And Management

This paper is an attempt to explain problems of cultural heritage conservation and management in Thailand due to the neglect of the State and the weakness of the society in understanding and protecting their cultural heritage especially the “folk culture” against globalization. The paper also points out that the impending Thailand Charter for cultural heritage conservation and management is the key solution to counterbalance today’s threats. Non-government organizations should take the lead in drafting the Charter with full public participation. Meanwhile local cultural heritage organizations which are at risk should immediately respond, with all stakeholders involved, before it is too late.

State Power in Mozambique

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
James H. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Socialist Economy ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
Essential Factor ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Vexing Question

After winning a war of national liberation, FRELIMO faces the vexing question of whether socialism now can be established. With respect to Guinea-Bissau, Amilcar Cabral emphasized: ‘This depends on the instruments used to effect the transition to socialism; the essential factor is the nature of the state....“ No doubt his statement was premised on the belief that socialism begins with the conquest of the state by the producing classes. They must seize the state apparatus to defeat the ruling class whose power is concentrated there. Both the means of coercion and the forces that reproduce the system itself are part of this domain. It is only by gaining control of state power, which is a political act, that the working classes can subsequently organize a socialist economy.

The Politics and Symbolism of the #ThisFlag in Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Mawere
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Discursive Analysis ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
National Flag ◽  
Cultural Tools

In the context of the hashtag movement #ThisFlag, this paper examines the sensual affects drawn from flag symbolism and why the Zimbabwean flag is policed by the state. It uses the symbolism and politics of the hashtag movements by focusing on Evan Mawarire’s national lament and the Zimbabwean flag. It employs a literary and discursive analysis of Mawarire’s lament using desktop research on the contestations surrounding the flag. It shows that in dominant nationalist discourses, the flag is imaged as the land/nation and feminised to warrant it utmost respect, protection, sanctity and re/productive capacity. On the other hand, the #ThisFlag has made use of the flag to resist and subvert grand and naturalised dominant discourses of nationalism and citizenship to foster new imagi/nations of the nation. The use of the flag by the movement provoked ZANU-PF’s ownership of the national flag, which is quite similar to and has been drawn from the flag of the party, hence the movement was challenging the identity of the party, its ownership and its relevance. The paper shows the fluidity of symbols and symbolic meanings and why #ThisFlag had symbolic radical power and the possibilities of using the state’s and ZANU-PF’s cultural tools to challenge ZANU-PF’s hold on national knowledge and power. It contributes to our understanding of both state-power retention and how subaltern voices can uncover the agency of subjects within the very instruments of control incessantly used by dominant regimes.

Illegal Construction in Hanoi and Hanoi's Wards

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Koh
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Boundaries ◽  
Urban Administration ◽  
Ability And Willingness

AbstractIn the drama of negotiation of state boundaries, the role of local administrators as mediators is indispensable. They mediate between state demands for more discipline and societal demands for more liberties. Their ability and willingness to enforce determines the extent of state power. They are a particular type of elites chosen by the state to administer; yet often they have an irrational and morally corrupt relationship with their subjects. The questions that arise then are: When do the local administrators decide to or not to enforce the rules? What considerations do they hold in the face of contradicting demands for their loyalties? This paper seeks answers to the above questions by examining state enforcement of its construction rules in Hanoi after 1975, in which the ward, a level of local administrators in the urban administration landscape, plays an important role in holding up (or letting down) the fences. I will examine the irrationality of the housing regime that led to widespread offences against construction rules, and then show why and how local administrators may or may not enforce rules. This paper comprises two parts. The first part outlines the nature and history of the housing regime in Vietnam and the situation of state provision of housing to the people. These provide the context in which illegal construction arises. Part Two looks at illegal construction in Hanoi chronologically, and focuses on important episodes. The theme that runs through this paper is the role of local administrators in the reality of illegal construction.

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