scholarly journals Ana is here: Abjection, class privilege, and the prime minister Ana Brnabic

Sociologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-396
Author(s):  
Bojan Bilic
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Class Privilege ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Political Spectrum

This paper employs the notion of abjection to explore how debates surrounding Ana Brnabic, the first openly lesbian prime minister in Serbia and Eastern Europe, stir affectively lined layers of prejudice across the political spectrum. Drawing upon a range of empirical sources, I argue that the actors engaging in debates about Brnabic?s both private and public life are entangled in a loop of abjection which, while comprising gender, sexuality, ?race?, and the body, reflects strong patriarchal undercurrents as structural features of Serbian politics.

Romania

2019 ◽  
pp. 388-434
Author(s):  
Laurențiu Ștefan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Party System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right

In Romania, a highly segmented and extremely volatile party system has contributed to a predominance of coalition governments. Alternation in power by coalitions led by either left-wing or right-wing parties used to be a major feature of Romanian governments. Thus, until a short-lived grand coalition in 2009, ideologically homogeneous coalitions were the general practice. Since then, parties from the right and left of the political spectrum have learned to work together in government. Given the semi-presidential nature of the political regime and the exclusive power to nominate the prime minister, the Romanian president plays an important role in coalition formation. The president also plays a pivotal role by shadowing the prime minister and therefore influencing the governance of coalitions. She has the power to veto ministerial appointments and therefore she can also shape the cabinet line-up. Pre-election coalitions are a common feature, more than two-thirds of Romanian coalition governments have been predicated on such agreements. Coalition agreements dealt with both policy issues and coalition decision-making bodies and the governance mechanisms that have been in most cases enforced and complied with—until the break-up of the coalition and the downfall of the respective government. One very common decision-making body is the Coalition Committee, which has been backed on the operational level by an inner cabinet made up of the prime minister and the deputy prime ministers, which usually are the heads of the junior coalition parties.

Women’s Digital Activism

2018 ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Annabelle Sreberny
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Digital Activism ◽  
Communications Technologies ◽  
Female Presence ◽  
The Many ◽  
Social Agendas

One of the many transformations that is taking place across the Middle East and North Africa region is women's engagement with new communications technologies and their increasing involvement in public life. Despite the initial enthusiasms of the uprisings of 2011, the region is now in considerable turmoil and digital developments are only slowly rolling out across the region. Using Mouffe's notion of the “political” as what is put into public contention in a society, the chapter explores how women in various countries across the Middle East are using and appropriating these new communication tools, especially social media, finding their voices and setting new social agendas for action, many of which revolve around issues of the body and female presence in public space.

A ‘Mediterranean New Left’? Comparing and Contrasting the French PSU and the Italian PSIUP

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL A. GORDON
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
New Left ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Self Management ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractThis article argues that Gerd-Rainer Horn's model of a ‘Mediterranean New Left’ encompassing both the French Parti socialiste unifié (PSU, 1960–1990) and the Italian Partito socialista italiano di unità proletaria (PSIUP, 1964–1972) needs to be significantly revised. It agrees that, half a century on from the events which gave rise to their foundation, this much misunderstood part of the political spectrum, midway between social democracy and the far left, is worthy of rescue from the ‘enormous condescension of posterity’, but questions how similar the two parties actually were. Major differences emerge, especially in the nature of each party's relationship with communism, with the philosovietism of the PSIUP contrasting with the PSU's evolution towards an anti-Leninist decentralist socialism of self-management. Yet, at the same time, important new evidence is uncovered about the concrete political and personal links that developed between leading intellectuals of the PSIUP and PSU, an example being the friendship of the Italian parliamentarian and theorist Lelio Basso with the journalist Gilles Martinet, later French ambassador to Italy. Other transnational links, both across the Mediterranean and to eastern Europe, are explored. Furthermore, the location of the roots of both parties in the 1940s generation of anti-fascist resistance calls into question prevailing assumptions equating the New Left with the youth of the 1960s, with wider implications for our understanding of the development of the European left across the twentieth century.

Russkii Obraz and the politics of “managed nationalism”

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Horvath
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Youth Organizations ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Death Squad ◽  
Privileged Access ◽  
Political Spectrum

This article examines the rise of Russkii Obraz, a Russian ultranationalist organization whose leaders cultivated a neo-fascist ideology and collaborated with skinhead gangs. Despite its extremism, Russkii Obraz played an important role in the Kremlin's “managed nationalism,” a set of measures to manipulate the nationalist sector of the political arena. During 2008–2009, Russkii Obraz collaborated closely with pro-Kremlin youth organizations and enjoyed privileged access to Russia's tightly controlled public sphere. This article argues that the key to Russkii Obraz's brief ascendancy was its duality, its capacity to project moderation in public and extremism in private. For several years, this duality enabled Russkii Obraz to participate in public life while building a support base in the skinhead subculture. But the two projects collided when the security organs exposed Russkii Obraz's links to an ultranationalist death-squad. Nevertheless, official indulgence of Russkii Obraz cannot be attributed merely to ignorance of its violent potential. This indulgence also reflected the fact that it was precisely those at the neo-fascist limits of the political spectrum who were most willing to collaborate in the regime's efforts to suppress demands for democratization.

Women’s Organisations and Communities of Interest: Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria DiCenzo
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Previous Part ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Women's Politics

THE INTERWAR PERIOD saw the proliferation of women’s organisations – voluntary, popular, non-political, party- and faith-based – some of which engaged with feminist discourses and others that deliberately avoided these associations, defining and generating a new array of women-defined collective identities.1 The work of feminist historians in recent decades has been instrumental in redefining the parameters of the women’s movement to include the efforts of non-feminist organisations as advocates for women’s rights. Maggie Andrews captures this tendency in the phrase ‘the acceptable face of feminism’ in her groundbreaking study of the Women’s Institute as a social movement, challenging the ‘jam and Jerusalem’ image so often attributed to these forms of women’s associational culture (1997). Recently Karen Hunt and June Hannam have argued for ‘a new archeology of “women’s politics”’ as a way to reframe and arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the participation and role of women in various areas of public life (2013). While many of the periodicals showcased in this section were not overtly feminist, they certainly engaged in women’s politics and forms of advocacy in this broader sense, and they did so across the political spectrum. It is important to recognise why it might have been more appealing and even more practical for organisations to distance themselves from feminism, particularly in a climate of hostile reaction. As DiCenzo and Eustance note in the previous Part, the ‘demise’ school of interwar history has not always fully recognised the adversarial conditions women faced and the resistance with which their demands were met....

Reform Efforts and Thoughts on the Electoral College

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-198
Author(s):  
Robert M. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Proportional Representation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Vote ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Near Future

This chapter evaluates how the Electoral College performs relative to norms associated with representation. While Electoral College practices have changed considerably, many arguments applied to the body rely on original expectations of the institution. This study reveals that the Electoral College performs poorly along many dimensions associated with norms of representation. Not surprisingly, many reforms have been proposed to the body. These include making electoral votes automatic, adopting some form of proportional representation to award electoral votes, and abolishing the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote. These reforms are discussed and evaluated relative to the criteria associated with norms of representation. Although the institution often fails to perform in many of the ways its proponents suggest, it has been resistant to change. Absent pressure from large numbers of citizens from across the political spectrum, wholesale change to the institution is unlikely to occur in the near future.

‘Standing with My Brother’: Hizbullah, Palestinians, and the Limits of Solidarity

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laleh Khalili
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Authority ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Israeli Soldiers ◽  
Main Factor

On 30 January 2004, after months of negotiations between Hizbullah and the state of Israel via German mediators, a major exchange of bodies and prisoners was completed. In return for a kidnapped Israeli citizen—alleged to belong to Israeli intelligence services—and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers captured three years previously, Israel released twenty-nine Lebanese and other Arab prisoners, the remains of fifty-nine Lebanese citizens, and, astonishingly, 400 Palestinian prisoners. The prisoner release was something of a coup for Hizbullah and its success led Hizbullah on 12 July 2006 to emulate the same capture operation hoping to precipitate the release of the last remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons. In 2004, many from across the political spectrum in Lebanon and Palestine praised Hizbullah's achievement. In Beirut, the welcoming ceremonies for the released Palestinian prisoners were awash in both Palestinian and Lebanese flags. Among the celebrants were tens of thousands of Palestinians. The superior effectiveness of Hizbullah in comparison with then Palestinian leadership was not lost on observers. After all, in its most successful negotiations with the Israeli state the previous August, then Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen had been able to secure the release of only 338 Palestinian prisoners of Israel, most of whom had reached the end of their terms anyway. In his welcoming speech to his Palestinian and Lebanese audience, Hizbullah Secretary General, Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, further took a swipe at the Fatah-dominated Palestinian National Authority (PNA) by insisting that “We should not fall under any illusions and let ourselves believe that peaceful negotiations are an alternative to military resistance. Effective [military] resistance was the main factor behind our success” (Daily Star, 30 Jan. 2004, my emphases). One Lebanese analyst claimed that the Hizbullah success could not possibly be “a popular deal with Palestinian leadership” (Daily Star, 26 Jan. 2004), because it showed the relative effectiveness of Hizbullah compared to the Fatah-dominated PNA.

Conflict and Compromise over Tradeoffs in Universal Health Insurance Plans

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark V. Pauly
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
The Political ◽  
Universal Health Insurance ◽  
Public Insurance ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Universal Health

Despite a consensus across the political spectrum that the problem of the chronically uninsured is in dire need of solution, little progress has heen made. Public spending goes to topping up coverage for the elderly, already heavily subsidized under Medicare, or helping people temporarily without insurance because of international trade dislocations, so that it is clear that something is lacking in the case for significantly reducing the number of uninsured persons. In this paper I suggest that there have been two missing ingredients: a strategy for breaking the political deadlock around this issue, and information about the benefits of coverage sufficient to persuade kindly but skeptical taxpayers that they should be willing to pay to help solve this problem.This article begins with a discussion of these two problems. It then outlines a strategy based on income-related or conditioned refundable tax credits for private and public insurance, coupled with a plan to assemble persuasive information that may move things forward.

Mass Dance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Warden
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Position ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Years ◽  
The Political ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Political Spectrum

The early years of the twentieth century saw a proliferation of mass spectacles and events on a grand scale with thousands of participants, which frequently included non-professional performers. These spectacles often re-enacted historical events (Paterson Strike Pageant, The Storming of the Winter Palace) or celebrated technological innovations or national achievements (18BL, Olympic Youth). Performances crossed both geographical and political borders, were encouraged by parties from across the political spectrum, and took place in a range of countries including Germany, Italy, Russia and the US. The aim of these mass spectacles was to unite a crowd, which could number in the thousands, behind a particular historical, political or social position or idea. By attempting to unite a majority, these performances often ignored, isolated or marginalized others. Dance and movement techniques were at the very forefront of this genre of performance. The body became a central motif, functioning as an emblem of political emancipation, ethnic superiority, nostalgic tradition and/or a mechanized symbol of modernity.

scholarly journals Kempen “Kepimpinan melalui Teladan”semasa Era Pemerintahan Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad di Malaysia

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muniroh Abdul rohman ◽  
Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani Ahmad Sabri
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leadership Studies ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Document Review

This study on leadership examines the purposes of the Leadership by Example Campaign during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as Prime Minister of Malaysia. Leadership studies are interested in people from all walks of life because the struggles of the brave and wise leaders have become the source of legends and myths.Therefore, the issue of leadership is an important agenda for both the private and public sectors ineither developed countries or developing countries. The issue becomes more acute due to a constantly changing environment.In fact, every change that happens in the environment becomes a constant challenge for leaders in all sectors.In the context of the political leadership in Malaysia, the position and interests of UMNO and Barisan Nasional led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quite evident because it was the leadership that had led the country for a long period of time to the extent that it was considered as a bridge connecting two generations of UMNO. However, people who were born in the 1980s only recognised one Prime Minister and four Deputy Prime Ministers until the day of his retirement. Thus, the study found that the Leadership by Example Campaign introduced by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that aimed for instilling and cultivating effective leadership was emulated, appreciated and practised by all levels of society.In general, this study used a qualitative approach. While, this data was gathered through document review and analysis of the content to obtain the results. The Leadership by Example Campaign was a noble effort from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to foster a spirit of discipline and establish the identity of every Malaysian to be able to stand tall together with other nations. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document