Czechoslovakia’s Discreet Behavioral Revolution in the 1960s

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 196-212
Author(s):  
Martin Štefek
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Political ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Prague Spring ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Behavioral Reasoning

This article deals with the thus far unnoticed “intellectual origin” of the so-called Prague Spring. It summarizes tenets of behavioral revolution in the field of social sciences and documents its considerable influence on Czechoslovak scholars. From the mid-1960s, behavioral reasoning coexisted with other (mutually conflicting) perspectives. Literature on Czechoslovak reform has given evidence of the impact of Marxian revisionism, the Frankfurt school, and theories of industrial societies. This article stresses the significance of behavioral meta-theory not only in academia but also in the political arena. However, the process of normalization after 1968/1969 signified the inevitable end for this paradigm.

Popular Representation and Political Dissatisfaction in Chile's New Democracy

1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. Posner
Keyword(s):  
Structural Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
Political Dissatisfaction ◽  
Dominant Parties ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

The constraints imposed on Chile’s democratic transition by the military regime, plus the impact of structural reform and the political renovation of the dominant parties of the center and left, have made the traditional party allies of the popular sectors unable or unwiIIing to represent those constituents in the political arena. This argument is substantiated through an overview of pacted democratic transitions, an analysis of the evolution of party-base relations in Chile, and a consideration of the institutional impediments to further democratic reform.

Flight and fortitude: the decline of the middle class in Zimbabwe

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-547
Author(s):  
Roger Southall
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
National Union ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article focuses on the impact of the policies of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) government on Zimbabwe's black middle class. It does so by exploring three propositions emerging from the academic literature. The first is that during the early years of independence, the middle class transformed into a party-aligned bourgeoisie. The second is that, to the extent that the middle class has not left the country as a result of the economic plunge from the 1990s, it played a formative role in opposition to ZANU-PF and the political elite. The third is that, in the face of ZANU-PF's authoritarianism and economic hardship, the middle class has largely withdrawn from the political arena.

Individuals and Aggregates

1980 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-250
Author(s):  
Paul F. Bourke ◽  
Donald A. DeBats
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social History ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Vexing Question

After more than a decade's impressive achievement in the “new” social history and the “new” political history, two distinct though related problems require us to reconsider the data appropriate to these inquiries. First, recent commentators (Foner, 1974; Formi-sano, 1976) have pointed to the relative failure of research in these areas to converge, a failure made more obvious in the light of the programmatic optimism of the 1960s which held out the prospect of an integrated approach to the social basis of politics and to the political implications of social structure. Second, there has been in recent years some acknowledgment by historians (see below) of the vexing question of inferences across levels of data, a matter central to other social sciences and particularly pressing for historians of electoral behavior.

scholarly journals Changes in reindeer population numbers in Russia: an effect of the political context or of climate?

Rangifer ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-App) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin B. Klokov
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation Patterns ◽  
The North ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
Political Events ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Reindeer Population ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact

This paper analyses trends in domesticated reindeer numbers at the federal, regional, and local levels based on official statistics and interviews with herders in different northern districts across Russia. During the second half of the last century, the domesticated reindeer population in Russia shifted dramatically from a maximum of 2.5 million head to a minimum of 1.2. The most important trends were connected to changes in social and economic conditions linked to government directives. Post-Soviet reforms in the 1990s resulted in a nearly 50% reduction in the total number of domesticated reindeer. However in some regions, these political events had the opposite effect. The contrast was due to the abilities of herders to adapt to the new conditions. A detailed analysis of these adaptations reveals an important difference between reindeer-holding enterprises with common ownership (i.e. kolkhozes, sovkhozes, municipal enterprises, etc.) and households with family owned reindeer. The paper concludes that the effect the political context is so large as to conceal the impact of other natural factors on reindeer populations such as climate change. However, a gradual increase of reindeer populations in the north-eastern part of Russia in the 1960s can be associated with changes in atmospheric circulation patterns.

scholarly journals Regionaal Particularisme en Staatsvorming in Afrika: De Diola van Zuid Senegal in hun Relatie Met Dakar.

Afrika Focus ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-223
Author(s):  
John Eichelsheim
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact

Regional Particularism and State Formation in Africa: The Diola in Southern Senegal and Their Relationship with Dakar In the French daily newspaper “Libération” of 819 september 1990 I read : “Reveil de la guerilla en Casamance. Two clashes occurred between the Senegalese army and MFDC guerillas on the 22th of august and the 4th of september; 16 soldiers and 24 guerillas were killed”. A morbid déjà vu. At the end of 1983, as I did my practical training in the town of Ziguinchor, in the south of Senegal, I witnessed some fierce clashes between the same participants, causing the death of some 200 people. How could this be happening in one of the most democratic states of Africa? Didn’t the political arena of some 16 different parties give enough room for oppositional currents? The answer must be negative, in some cases. In this paper I want to show the reader that the articulation of local organizational structures and development policies of a modem state can cause many problems. In this case the typical dynamics of the Diola society in southern Senegal and the specific way of state formation in Senegal after Independence form an explosive mixture. In the first part of the paper a description is given of the dynamics of the Diola society by portraying the organizational structures in Diola villages before the colonial period. Then, in the colonial period, due to new influences as a result of the contacts with foreigners, some local organizational structures are politicized. Among the Diola this process of politicizing took place on a very low level because the Diola society has all the characteristics of a segmentary society. Each village formed an autonomous unit headed by elders. The use of power lays in the hands of a group rather than in the hands of an individual. For this reason the Diola never fully participated in the political arena, not even after Independence. After Independence in 196O the regimes in Dakar tried to impose their authority in all parts of the new state. First Leopold Senghor and then Abdou Diouf strived to form an omnipotent political party. A party in which all regional, ethnic and professional currants would be represented. This became the Parti Socialiste (PS). In the traditionally hierarchically organized societies in the North and the East of the state this was done by encapsulating powerful individuals. Once they joined the party they would bring along many followers or dependants as new members. But in the segmentary Diola society those political leaders did not exist. Therefore some individuals were dropped in the region by the PS to represent the inhabitants. These strangers were given a lot of power in the region. But it should be clear that these “representatives” were not accepted by local people who had the feeling of being colonized for the second time. This time by fellow countrymen from the North For the Dakar regimes, a way to impose their hegemony was connected to the say over land ownership. Since the adaption of the National Lands Act on the 17th of june 1964, all transactions concerning the control over land must be regulated via the local governments. One of the main consequences of this reform is that the state becomes the sole landlord of all the land. This implies that local, mostly ancient, land tenure systems have formally ceased to exist. With the case of the explosive growth of the city of Ziguinchor I show the impact of this reform on the surrounding Diola society. As control over local land is the crux of the organizational structures of Diola society, this new intrusion of the state caused an emotional reaction. Moreover because it was mostly done at random by politicians who had only eyes for their own goals. This being the result of the specific way the state strived for hegemony and attempted to graft new forms of organization on the segmentary Diola society. With explosively results!

The Transition from a Mythopoeic to a Populist Aesthetic in Selected Political Plays of Wole Soyinka

Matatu ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
ADEBAYO MOSOBALAJE
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The Political ◽  
Wole Soyinka ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Personal Involvement ◽  
Reading Technique ◽  
Nigerian Civil War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact

The study examines the movement of Wole Soyinka from mythopoeic dramatic strategies to a realistic populist aesthetic in selected political plays. It also examines the cause(s) of the movement, analyses the formal pattern engendered by it, and discusses the portrayal of the military in governance in the political plays, with a view to establishing the impact of the metamorphosis on the revolutionary tenor of the plays. Three of Soyinka’s political plays are selected for analysis. The first, A Dance of the Forests, represents Soyinka’s experimentation with the mythic imagination among the pre-Civil War works from the 1960s to the early 1970s; the second, Madmen and Specialists, a Civil-War play, constitutes the watershed and middle ground in the dramaturgic metamorphosis of the playwright; and the third, Opera Wọ́nyọ̀sí, a post-Civil-War political satire, begins the history-informed plays of the mid-1970s and onwards. Using a close-reading technique, the essay argues that the personal involvement of Soyinka in the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–70, coupled with the effects of the war, his consequent incarceration, and the demands made on him by Marxist critics to employ a populist aesthetic, led the playwright to the realization that the political comprador did not heed the warnings in the mythinfused political plays of the early phase of his career, most probably because of the relative inaccessibility of their hieratic idiom. There arose a strong need to communicate in simple, accessible language addressing contemporary history. This dramaturgic movement has a positive impact on the revolutionary tenor of the plays.

Niger: Armed Force Politics and Counterterrorism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Baudais
Keyword(s):  
Security Policy ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Since the independence of Niger in 1960, Nigerien armed forces have played a prominent role in the country’s history, either because of their recurrent “nonpolitical” interventions in the political arena or based on their involvement in the stabilization process of the Sahel and the fight against terrorism. Nigeriens have lived under civil, military, and authoritarian regimes, experienced four coups d’état (1974, 1996, 1999, and 2010), four political transitions, nine presidents, and have voted on seven constitutions. The Nigerien population lived under military rule for 23 out of 60 years following independence. Thus, Nigerien contemporary politics cannot be analyzed without a sound understanding of the Nigerien Army, how the institution became an “entrepreneur politique,” and how institutional, economic, and social factors may encourage the intervention of a nonpolitical institution in the political arena. Politics and the military are definitely connected in Niger. Each coup has had a different motive. The 1974 military coup is one of the many successful military seizures of power that occurred in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. This first “praetorian” intervention resulted from intramilitary and domestic factors and lasted 17 years under the rule of Seyni Kountché and his successor Ali Saibou. The second intervention in politics occurred in 1996 and also resulted from institutional factors and the inability of the newly elected authorities to overcome their divisions. The 1996 coup d’état was a classic case: a time-limited military intervention using violence to convert itself into a civilian regime. In 1999 the army overthrew a military regime, whereas in 2010 militaries put an end to the democratically elected president’s shift toward authoritarianism. In 2010, the shift in the security situation in the Sahel marked the armed forces’ return to strictly military functions, such as national defense and security and providing support for external operations. Consequently, the security situation in the Sahel strip deteriorated and the major economic and social challenges of the poorest country in the world were neglected. This has led to recurrent political and social tensions that reinforce the fact that addressing the basic needs of the people is as, important as Niger’s security policy.

7. The impact of Methodism

2019 ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Successful Schools ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Temperance Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

‘The impact of Methodism’ considers Methodism’s impact on and contribution to social movements, politics, education, and healthcare. Social movements that were deeply influenced by Methodism include the abolition of slavery in the 19th century and the Temperance Movement in the 20th century. The Methodist tradition has always encouraged diversity of judgement in the political arena and Methodists can be found on both the conservative and progressive wings of politics. One of the most important expressions of social holiness in Methodism shows up in its role in education. Methodists founded numerous successful schools and universities around the world. Methodism has also had an impact on popular and high culture.

The Impact of Race on Political Behaviour in Britain

1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Welch ◽  
Donley T. Studlar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multivariate Methods ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
The Impact

In contrast to the United States, where analyses of the political behaviour of blacks number in the hundreds, if not more, substantial studies of the political attitudes and behaviour of Britain's non-white minority are fairly scarce. As non-whites have become more visible in the political arena, however, attention by academics has increased. But as yet there have been few countrywide, empirical, and systematic investigations of the political behaviour and attitudes of this population. Our Note uses multivariate methods to investigate the extent of political participation of Britain's non-white minorities in the 1979 election. We focus on a wide variety of political activities and a few selected issue concerns. We attempt to place our findings in the context of some theories of ethnic politics that have developed to explain black political behaviour in Britain and in the United States.

scholarly journals Befogadók vagy jogvédők?

Educatio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-349
Author(s):  
Katalin Forray R. ◽  
Tamás Kozma
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The 1960S

Összefoglaló. A befogadás (inklúzió) eredetileg a szegénypolitika (szociálpolitika) szakkifejezése volt. Onnan terjedt át a társadalompolitikába és a pedagógiába (gyógypedagógia). A Lisszaboni Egyezmény (2000) óta az Európai Unió hivatalos állásfoglalásaiban visszatérően szerepel mint törekvés a „társadalmi kohézió” erősítésére. A jogvédelem eredete visszanyúlik az 1960-as évtized amerikai polgárjogi mozgalmára. Két eset ismertetésével a szerzők bemutatják a kétféle mozgalom hasonlóságait és különbségeit; összekapcsolva őket a roma/cigány oktatáspolitika dilemmáival. A roma/cigány szegénység még mindig szükségessé teszi a befogadás politikáját. Ugyanakkor a szegénységből kiemelkedő roma/cigány középosztály köreiben erősödik a politizálás szándéka és a jogvédelem igénye. Summary. “Inclusion” has initially been a social policy term. Its use spread from there to policies of welfare, healthcare and education (special education). Inclusion has repeatedly mentioned since the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) in European Union resolutions as an effort to strengthen “social cohesion”. “Legal protection”, on the other hand, goes back to the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. By describing two Hungarian cases, the authors present the similarities and differences between the two policies; linking them to the dilemmas of Roma education policy. Inclusion as a social policy is still necessary because of existing Roma poverties. At the same time, the intention to politicize and the need for legal protection is growing among the new Roma middle class, which emerges out of poverty and steps into the political arena.

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