Constitutions Éphémères, Structures Sociales Durables? A Propos D'un Paradoxe Français

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
H.S. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
French History ◽  
French Paradox

Constitutional Transience and Social Stability? Perspectives on the French Paradox This article argues – against a widespread interpretation – that constitutions have been more than merely superstructural phenomena in modern French history. First, if constitutional texts have often been short-lived, the same is not true of the constitution more broadly understood. Secondly, even the texts reveal much more continuity than we usually imagine. Thirdly, constitutional texts have often stood at the heart of political conflict because of the historical baggage attached to them. In the nineteenth century it was, typically, liberals who tried to shift the political agenda away from an obsession with constitutional texts: it was a culture of civility that France lacked, they argued.

Party Elites, Voters and Political Attitudes: Testing Three Explanations for Mass-Elite Differences

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McAllister
Keyword(s):  
Political Conflict ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal Election ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Mass Publics ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
Political Differences

AbstractThe extent of differences in mass-elite political opinion and their theoretical implications have long been a source of interest to democratic theorists. Early classical democratic theorists saw education as the solution to mass-elite political differences, with an educated mass public displaying the same support for democratic institutions as their elite counterparts. By contrast, the later democratic elitists saw little that would reduce mass-elite differences. More recently, modern elite theorists have argued that elites are more polarized on political issues than mass publics, and that political conflict can be moderated by the ability of elites to downplay potentially divisive issues. Using Australia as a case study, these three approaches to mass-elite political differences are analyzed using a matched survey of voters and candidates conducted at the Australia 1987 federal election. The results show little support for education as a factor reducing mass-elite differences and point to the democratic elitists' argument that mass-elite political differences are fixed and enduring. In line with modern elite theories, the results also confirm the existence of more intense issue polarization among elites than among voters, and elites' ability to control the issues that reach the political agenda.

Bosom Friends

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Balcerski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Manifest Destiny ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
James Buchanan ◽  
The Many ◽  
Male Friendships ◽  
American Nation

The friendship of the bachelor politicians James Buchanan (1791–1868) of Pennsylvania and William Rufus King (1786–1853) of Alabama has excited much speculation through the years. Why did neither one ever marry? Might they have been gay, or was their relationship a nineteenth-century version of the modern-day “bromance”? Then, as now, they have intrigued by the many mysteries surrounding them. In Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Thomas Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse. They developed a friendship that blossomed into a significant political partnership. Before the Civil War, each man was elected to high executive office: William Rufus King as vice president in 1852, and James Buchanan as the nation’s fifteenth president in 1856. This book recounts the story of their bosom friendship through a dual biography of Buchanan and King. Special attention is given to their early lives, the circumstances of their boardinghouse friendship, and the political gossip that has circulated about them ever since. In addition, the author traces their many contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the debates over slavery, while finding their style of politics to have been disastrous for the American nation. Ultimately, Bosom Friends demonstrates that intimate male friendships among politicians were, and continue to be, an important part of success in the clubby world of American politics.

The ‘Big Society’ and concentrated neighbourhood problems

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Power
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
David Cameron ◽  
Community Politics ◽  
Big Society ◽  
Set Up

This chapter examines the notion of the ‘Big Society’, introduced by David Cameron in 2009, which empowers citizens to deal with local issues that are not high on the political agenda. It traces the origins of community politics in the co-operative institutions that people set up to manage the pressures and problems of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century industrialisation. The chapter argues that the Big Society is not an alternative to government but that, to be effective, the two must operate within a framework of mutual support.

PROCEDURE AS POLITICS IN THE CAPE COLONY: THE CAREER OF ANDREW GONTSHI, 1880–1904

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-427
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Thornberry
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Black Intellectuals ◽  
Cape Of Good Hope ◽  
Law And Politics

AbstractIn 1881, Andrew Gontshi became the first black law agent in the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope and thus South Africa's first black lawyer. Records of court cases argued by Gontshi and his fellow black law agents provide a rich new archive for understanding the political sensibilities of the nineteenth-century Eastern Cape, where Gontshi practiced law and participated in the development of new forms of political organization, as well as the meaning of law to black intellectuals. In both law and politics, Andrew Gontshi employed procedural tactics to hold the state accountable to its own formalities. In Gontshi's world, law provided not a source of justice but a set of tools that could be used to advance a political agenda. Gontshi's story thus prompts a reconsideration of law's place in the intellectual tradition of South Africa's liberation struggle.

scholarly journals Tábor v Letech jako „neexistující pseudokoncentrák“: analýza proměny letských narativů

2021 ◽  
pp. 76-103
Author(s):  
Tereza Vaňáčová ◽  
Vladimír Naxera
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Time ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
The Past

Interpreting and staging the past is an integral part of politics in its different forms. Selected historical events that are attached greater importance have often been contested politically. In the last two decades or so, clashes over the past have escalated in most consolidated democracies and have become more closely linked with other dimensions of political conflict. In the already consolidated Czech democracy, disputes have reopened over both the Communist regime and a much older past, with history fully entering the political agenda. These conflicts have been centred on both the historical subjects and fundamental points of collective memory, and on locations related to that memory and history. In a specific time and space, those places represent a certain tale, a certain interpretation of historical events, and at the same time allow for the development of other tales, often updated and in some cases politically contested. The forms and nature of the physical places of collective memory may vary. Firstly, these may be places “where bodies lie or have lain” – mass graves, destroyed communities or other places of collective suffering. This paper tackles this issue and analyses the narratives constructed by leading Czech politicians of the WWII Roma concentration camp in Lety. It presents the main arguments of the competing narratives and their changes throughout the post-Communist period.

Kämpfe um Bergbau und die Möglichkeiten demokratischer Transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (189) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.

Capital californiano, necesidad presupuestal y cambio político: Juan Temple y el arrendamiento de la Casa de Moneda de México, 1827–1857

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-351
Author(s):  
Omar Velasco Herrera
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Las Casas ◽  
Siglo Xix ◽  
The Government

Durante la primera mitad del siglo xix, las necesidades presupuestales del erario mexicano obligaron al gobierno a recurrir al endeudamiento y al arrendamiento de algunas de las casas de moneda más importantes del país. Este artículo examina las condiciones políticas y económicas que hicieron posible el relevo del capital británico por el estadounidense—en estricto sentido, californiano—como arrendatario de la Casa de Moneda de México en 1857. Asimismo, explora el desarrollo empresarial de Juan Temple para explicar la coyuntura política que hizo posible su llegada, y la de sus descendientes, a la administración de la ceca de la capital mexicana. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the budgetary needs of the Mexican treasury forced the government to resort to borrowing and leasing some of the most important mints in the country. This article examines the political and economic conditions that allowed for the replacement of British capital by United States capital—specifically, Californian—as the lessee of the Mexican National Mint in 1857. It also explores the development of Juan Temple’s entrepreneurship to explain the political circumstances that facilitated his admission, and that of his descendants, into the administration of the National Mint in Mexico City.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn Apropos of Russia’s Future: Specific Outlook Features Depending on Different Historical Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 327-334
Author(s):  
Inga V. Zheltikova ◽  
Elena I. Khokhlova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Future ◽  
Pessimistic Attitude ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Church

The article considers the dependence of the images of future on the socio-cultural context of their formation. Comparison of the images of the future found in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works of various years reveals his generally pessimistic attitude to the future in the situation of social stability and moderate optimism in times of society destabilization. At the same time, the author's images of the future both in the seventies and the nineties of the last century demonstrate the mismatch of social expectations and reality that was generally typical for the images of the future. According to the authors of the present article, Solzhenitsyn’s ideas that the revival of spirituality could serve as the basis for the development of economy, that the influence of the Church on the process of socio-economic development would grow, and that the political situation strongly depends on the personal qualities of the leader, are unjustified. Nevertheless, such ideas are still present in many images of the future of Russia, including contemporary ones.

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