Constitutional Preambles as Narratives of Peoplehood

ICL Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-181
Author(s):  
Adeno Addis
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Ethnic Origin ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Core ◽  
Historical Biography ◽  
The People ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Religious Membership ◽  
We The People

Abstract Most constitutions start with a preamble. A constitutional preamble is a text designed to introduce the rest of the constitution. Often, it is also meant to give a concise statement of the nature of the system that the constitution establishes. While they may differ in style and length, most preambles seem to perform two primary functions. First, they declare or identify the source of authority for the document. In most preambles, it is ‘we the people’ that is invoked as the legitimate source of authority. Second, most preambles engage in an explicit attempt to project an identity for ‘we the people.’ At times, the people is defined through an extended historical biography. At other times, it is the presumed common ethnic origin or religious membership that is said to establish the bond, whether the people is territorially bound or not. Still at other times, it is the existence of common political and moral principles that is thought to make up the core constitutive elements of who the people are. Whatever the strategy, preambles attempt to imagine a usable political identity for the people, its collective agency. ‘The people’ are viewed with sufficient agency capable of ‘ordaining’ or ‘granting’ the constitutional document to themselves. Of course, in many cases ‘we the people’ are the very creation of the document itself. Under this account, the ‘people’ are simultaneously the author and product of the constitution. In this sense, preambles are performative in nature: they constitute the people as they at the same time declare that the people are their authors. Through a close study of the constitutional preambles of all countries currently in existence, this article explores how preambles narrate a politically serviceable identity for ‘the people’. Whatever else they are meant to do, preambles are narratives of peoplehood. The formal legal status of preambles might be uncertain, but what is not in doubt and what has largely been neglected is the fact that preambles are also means through which a people attempts to imagine and solidify its identity. As Benedict Anderson long ago explained, an imagined identity is neither true nor false—it simply is. This article explores the processes by which this imagining takes place and the purposes for which it is adopted.

scholarly journals We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Ross Allan Sempek
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Constitution ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
We The People

With government machinations, scandals, and conflict bombarding our American consciousness, it’s easy to overlook the core of our country’s identity: the US Constitution. The first three words of this dearly regarded text remind us that we are the constituents who fulfill the ideals of this document. We the People are the progressive catalyst this country needs to realize the lofty ideals of our Constitution.

What’s in a Name? Questions for a New Monument

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margrethe Troensegaard
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People ◽  
Modern Sculpture ◽  
The Social ◽  
We The People

What is the contemporary condition of the monument? In relation to the current issue’s discussion of immersive and discursive exhibition practices, this essay places itself at a slight remove; rather than to analyse and evaluate specific curatorial strategies it seeks to raise questions of relevance to such practices and begins by moving the discourse out of the museum and into the public space. The point of interrogation here is the monument, a form with a particular capacity to tease and expose the triad we find at the core of any curatorial discourse: the relation between institution, artwork and audience. Following an introductory reflection on how to describe and define a ‘monument’, a term so broadly used it all but loses its value, the text proceeds to examine three cases, Monument de la Renaissance Africaine, Dakar (2010), Danh Vo’s WE THE PEOPLE (DETAIL), various locations (2010-13), and Thomas Hirschhorn’s Gramsci Monument, New York (2013). The sequencing of these geographically and culturally diverse works makes way for an interrogatory piece of writing that addresses the question of permanence versus temporariness of the artwork as exhibition (and the exhibition as artwork), and that of the political agency of the artistic form. Probing the social agency of the monument, the text draws lines between the symbolising capacity once held by modern sculpture and the oscillation between immersion and discursiveness as two complimentary modes of communication. The discursive content or function of the monument (i.e. what it commemorates) is activated through the viewer’s personal, immersive encounter with its form, a form that potentially places its viewer as a participant to the construction of its message rather than as a mere receiver.

scholarly journals Salvation and Morality: the Interconnections in African Thought

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (26) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Godson Ahortor
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People

A careful study and analysis of the religio-cultural practices of most tribal groups in Africa reveal that there is usually interconnectedness between the notions of salvation, morality and the conceptualisation of evil. It is thus believed that the ethical values and moral practices of such societies are sustained mainly by this interconnectedness of the concepts of the afterlife, morality and evil. As such, salvation among Africans in general can be said to have been greatly influenced by the ethical value systems of indigenous African societies from the perspective of their conceptualisation of evil. An investigation into the worldviews of the Tongu Mafi people reveals that this interconnectedness is firmly grounded in the beliefs and practices of the people. I contend in this paper therefore that the core indigenous beliefs, worldviews and practices of Africans are resilient and capable of sustaining their soteriological and moral practices. This paper is based on a phenomenological study of the Tongu Mafi people of Ghana mainly through interviews and observation of their religio-cultural practices. It concludes that the intersections of notions of salvation, morality and evil are couched in two moral principles: living a good life and avoiding evil. These two moral principles must be observed simultaneously in life for they constitute the foundations of the soteriological concerns and moral praxis of the Tongu Mafi people.

Making We the People

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaihark Hahm ◽  
Sung Ho Kim
Keyword(s):  
The People ◽  
We The People

We the People

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
The People ◽  
We The People

THE PROFILE OF A LEADER AND HIS LEDERSHIP

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 345-350
Author(s):  
Ali Hajro
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Real Power ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Core ◽  
Behavior Code ◽  
The People ◽  
Study Case ◽  
Personal Skills

The Current and future leaders live in a turbulent and chaotic environment, where the real power of acting derives from the recognition of the concept of change and looking for options. In this type of environment a lot of competence is necessary for the leaders to survive. The aim of this study case was to explore i.e. gain a clearer picture of the position of the leader, their characteristics, functions, levels, the core and the factors affecting the leader and their leadership. To see what type of leader the people want simply to draw conclusions about the characteristics, qualities and techniques of a leader and their leadership. So that in the end, to have empirical proof of the leader. The set goal in this study case is today’s leaders in everyday process, starting from the very beginning of their work, to serve as an example in developing inter-personal skills at the same time as treating people with dignity and respect. In other words, they have to possess leadership skills, characteristics and the necessary actions. This research aims at finding out the real attributes that is the profile of a leader and their leadership running an organization regardless if it is economic, political, and military or some other non-governmental organization. The values are more than a set of rules, they are not only behavior code, and they say what a leader should be every day in every action that they take. The values shade the leaders’ identity and the organization that they run.

scholarly journals Populism, Twitter, and COVID-19: Narrative, Fantasies, and Desires

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
Laura Cervi ◽  
Fernando García ◽  
Carles Marín Lladó
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
The Core ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The People ◽  
Working People ◽  
The Government ◽  
Do So

During a global pandemic, the great impact of populist discourse on the construction of social reality is undeniable. This study analyzes the fantasmatic dimension of political discourse from Donald Trump’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s Twitter accounts between 1 March and 31 May. To do so, it applies a Clause-Based Semantic Text Analysis (CBSTA) methodology that categorizes speech in Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) triplets. The study findings show that in spite of the Coronavirus pandemic, the main beatific and horrific subjects remain the core populist signifiers: the people and the elite. While Bolsonaro’s narrative was predominantly beatific, centered on the government, Trump’s was mostly horrific, centered on the elite. Trump signified the pandemic as a subject and an enemy to be defeated, whereas Bolsonaro portrayed it as a circumstance. Finally, both leaders defined the people as working people, therefore their concerns about the pandemic were focused on the people’s ability to work.

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