The Conservative Republican

Documents in chapter three introduce readers to the intricacies and challenges of the first phase of Martin Delany’s entry into the politics of Reconstruction in South Carolina. They elucidate his political philosophy and visions; his advice to blacks on how best to maximize the benefits of their newly acquired citizenship rights; his ambivalent views on black political rights; his controversial stand on social equality; his scathing rebuke of black political aspirations and demands; and insistence that blacks attained some pre-qualification before aspiring for certain political positions. The documents also underscore the conflicting reactions of contemporaries to Delany’s controversial and at times provocative critiques of Radical Reconstruction. Ultimately, his advocacy of compromise, accommodation and racial reconciliation alienated him from the ruling radical Republican Party, prompting his decision to switch party allegiance and join the Democratic Party. The documents represent the conflicts Delany’s ideas provoked and the essential pragmatism of his thoughts.

This chapter sheds further lights on the dynamics of Delany’s controversial views on social equality and racial reconciliation; his prescriptions and strategies for attaining justice and equality; his views on the shortcomings of Radical Reconstruction; his persistent critique of the Black-Radical Republican Party alliance, his growing alienation from the party; and reactions of ideological opponents and former associates to his controversial and provocative political ideas. The documents expound on the circumstances leading to Delany’s brief alliance with South Carolina State Conservatives, Independents and Ex-Confederates. The alliance symbolized the utilitarian and conflicted nature of his political thought. The documents highlight as well Delany’s political and social conservatism and rationale for the decision to switch to the conservative Democratic Party. They attest to his commitment to racial cooperation, compromise and belief that severing ties with the Radical Republicans, deemphasizing social equality, and embracing the Democratic Party would advance the interests of blacks.


2003 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Robert P. Steed ◽  
Laurence W. Moreland

Paralleling developments in other southern states over the past three to four decades, South Carolina’s political system has undergone dramatic change. One of the more significant components of this change has been the partisan realignment from a one-party system dominated by the Democrats to a competitive two-party system in which Republicans have come to hold the upper hand. This increased electoral competitiveness has been accompanied by an increased organizational effort by both parties in the state. An examination of local party activists in 2001 points to a continuation of this pattern over the past ten years. In comparison with data from the 1991 Southern Grassroots Party Activists Survey, the 2001 data show the following: (1) the Republican Party has sustained its electoral and organizational gains of recent years; (2) the parties continue to attract activists who differ across party lines on a number of important demographic and socioeconomic variables; (3) there has been a continued sorting of political orientations and cues marked by sharply different inter-party ideological and issue positions; (4) the Democratic Party has become more ideologically homogeneous and more in line with the national party than previously; and (5) since 1991 perceptions of factionalism have declined in both parties, but still remain higher among Democrats than among Republicans.


Author(s):  
Kiyoteru Tsutsui

This chapter examines the complicated history of Zainichi, Korean residents in Japan, who came to Japan during the colonial era. After 1945, Zainichi lost all citizenship rights and had to fight for many rights, but the division in the Korean peninsula cast a shadow over Zainichi communities, hampering effective activism for more rights in Japan. Focusing on the issue of fingerprinting—the most salient example of rights violations against Zainichi—the chapter demonstrates how, since the late 1970s, global human rights principles have enabled Zainichi to recast their movement as claims for universal rights regardless of citizenship and to use international forums to pressure the Japanese government, leading to the abolition of the fingerprinting practice. Zainichi achieved similar successes in other areas of rights except for political rights, where international norms do not clearly support suffrage for noncitizens. Zainichi also contributed to global human rights by advancing rights for noncitizen minorities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Strate ◽  
Timothy Kiska ◽  
Marvin Zalman

At the November 1998 general election, Michigan citizens were given the opportunity to vote on Proposal B, an initiative that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide (PAS). PAS initiatives also have been held in Washington State, California, Oregon, and Maine, with only Oregon's passing. We use exit poll data to analyze the vote on Proposal B. Attributes associated with social liberalism—Democratic Party identification, less frequent church attendance, more education, and greater household income—led to increased odds of a “yes” vote. Attributes associated with social conservatism—Republican Party identification and frequent church attendance—led to decreased odds of a “yes” vote. Similar to the abortion issue, PAS's supporters strongly value personal autonomy, whereas its opponents strongly value the sanctity of life. Voter alignments like those in Michigan will likely appear in other states with the initiative process if PAS reaches their ballots.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1031-1047
Author(s):  
Neil A. O’Brian

What explains the alignment of antiabortion positions within the Republican party? I explore this development among voters, activists, and elites before 1980. By 1970, antiabortion attitudes among ordinary voters correlated with conservative views on a range of noneconomic issues including civil rights, Vietnam, feminism and, by 1972, with Republican presidential vote choice. These attitudes predated the parties taking divergent abortion positions. I argue that because racial conservatives and military hawks entered the Republican coalition before abortion became politically activated, issue overlap among ordinary voters incentivized Republicans to oppose abortion rights once the issue gained salience. Likewise, because proabortion voters generally supported civil rights, once the GOP adopted a Southern strategy, this predisposed pro-choice groups to align with the Democratic party. A core argument is that preexisting public opinion enabled activist leaders to embed the anti (pro) abortion movement in a web of conservative (liberal) causes. A key finding is that the white evangelical laity’s support for conservative abortion policies preceded the political mobilization of evangelical leaders into the pro-life movement. I contend the pro-life movement’s alignment with conservatism and the Republican party was less contingent on elite bargaining, and more rooted in the mass public, than existing scholarship suggests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (105) ◽  
pp. 78-86
Author(s):  
EKATERINA A. NIKONOVA

The article deals with the analysis of the balance of opinion in the newspaper, which is originally realized through editorial and op-ed genres. We analyzed 20 articles from “The Wall Street Journal” and “The New York Times” in the genres of editorial and op-ed about events in Afghanistan in August 2021, which were interpreted differently in mass media due to the role of the White House. The findings prove that in the context of new digital reality the op-ed has lost its original function of conveying alternative positions to the ones stated in the editorial; at the same time newspapers tend to advocate the positions shared by the political parties they have historically developed close relations with: “The Wall Street Journal” - with the Republican Party, “The New York Times” - the Democratic Party.


Author(s):  
Sheri Berman

The decline of the centre-left over the past years is one of the most alarming trends in Western politics. During the latter part of the 20th century such parties either ran the government or led the loyal Opposition in virtually every Western democracy. Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), once the most powerful party of the left in continental Europe, currently polls in high 20s or 30s. The French Socialist Party was eviscerated in the 2017 elections, as was the Dutch Labour Party. Even the vaunted Scandinavian social democratic parties are struggling, reduced to vote shares in the 30 per cent range. The British Labour Party and the US Democrats have been protected from challengers by their country’s first-past-the-post electoral systems, but the former has recently taken a sharp turn to the hard-left under Jeremy Corbyn, while the latter, although still competitive at the national level, is a minority party at the state and local levels, where a hard-right Republican Party dominates the scene....


1986 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor L. Turk

Punctually at 8:00 A.M. on 26 November 1895, teams of police officers in Berlin began to search the homes of nearly eighty members of the Social Democratic Party, and the city offices of their organizations. These surprise raids, over by 10:00 a.m., were ordered by the Prussian Minister of Interior, Ernst Köller, to obtain evidence that the Socialist organizations had been working with one another to promote their political goals. In 1895 it was illegal in Prussia, and in most of the other states of the German Empire, for political associations of any kind to work together. Yet the evidence so efficiently confiscated on that gray November morning ultimately put not only the Socialists on trial, but government policy and the fundamental political rights of German citizens as well. Neither the national constitution nor the federal law codes provided protection for the rights of association or assembly at that time. In the absence of such guarantees, the political organizations had to cope with the particularities of the various state laws.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (SE) ◽  
pp. 309-326
Author(s):  
Ehsan Madmalil ◽  
Fereydoun Akbarzadeh

The concept of citizenship is one of the old key concepts in political philosophy that has been reproduced in various forms since the formation of classical political philosophy up to modern times within the theory set forth in this type of theoretical philosophy. So, pre-modern theory, modern theory and postmodern theory can be noted. The concept of citizenship is an idea which governs the right of modern human and was emerged in the Western Europe and is a product of modern politics. Accepting Legal and political rights and duties is raised by citizenship status, its main foundation and the basic idea of the concept. In the contemporary world, citizenship has been interested more than other societies. The question that comes to mind here is that how is the situation of civil rights in the era of theoretical terms in globalization? In response to the question hypothesis is that with globalization, citizenship in its modern form that was enclosed in the geography of the national government has lost its sense and civil rights embodied in the discourses that are outside the reach of state law. This study aimed to investigate the impact of globalization on the civil right and conceptual evolution theoretically, as contemporary theorists have theorized it. Research findings indicate the "global citizenship" as a concept is emerging in the era of globalization as the result of rethinking of citizenship in the modern age. The methodology of study is analysis - descriptive, this means that the concept of civil right is described and then the theoretical changes in the era of globalization will be analyzed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Damay Rahmawati ◽  
Ramadhani Ardianto Karsa Sunaryono ◽  
Mira Utami

This study aims to see racism in the novel Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee as state of exception; a political philosophy of Agamben. Agamben's idea of ​​state of exception is used in this study as the theoretical framework. This research specifically reveals how racism becomes part of state of exception in American society around 1960s when the novel was written. The analysis focuses on issues of racism in American society as depicted in the novel. The issue of racism is taken with the aim of analyzing state of exception in USA, in dealing with racial discrimination. After analyzing the issues of racism and state of exception in the novel, this study reveals that racism in American society is politically structured. The finding of this study is the discrimination experienced by lower class citizens who are dominated by black people, as the impact of state of exception which affects their citizenship rights.


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