The Ticket to the Soviet Soul

2018 ◽  
pp. 106-141
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Spiritual Transformation ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
The Political ◽  
Material Base ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Soviet Communism ◽  
The Masses

This chapter examines how the Soviet Communist Party tried to boost the political legitimacy of its ideological project to build Communism and produce an atheist society by addressing the people's spiritual needs. More specifically, it shows how, in the transition from socialism to Communism, the moral and spiritual character of the Soviet people—including their worldview and way of life—gained a new significance. The chapter first considers how the state, after building the material base of Soviet Communism, envisioned ideology as an instrument of spiritual transformation by taking into account Soviet people's worldviews and byt. It then discusses Znanie's various initiatives to bring atheism to the masses and how atheists relied on clubs and lectures to compete with religion. It also explores the clash between the scientific and religious worldviews before concluding with an assessment of the Science and Religion journal's renewed engagement with worldview questions.

When does Truth Matter?

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-42
Author(s):  
Susan James
Keyword(s):  
Gradual Transition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Rational Understanding ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Theology And Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Understanding ◽  
Divine Law

How is our imaginative grasp of what it takes to live together related to our rational understanding of the same issue? Spinoza argues that, while theology draws on imagination to clarify the content of the divine law—‘love your neighbour’—the same recommendation is independently echoed in our philosophical understanding of the value of a cooperative way of life. Some commentators have argued that philosophy, thus conceived, is the preserve of an elite, whereas theology is aimed at the masses. Drawing on Cicero’s analysis of honestum, and Spinoza’s use of it, I challenge this view. A theologically grounded way of life, as Spinoza presents it, creates the political and epistemological conditions for a gradual transition to philosophical understanding, so that theology and philosophy, like imagining and reasoning, are in practice inseparable.

scholarly journals The Political Legitimacy of the Communist Party of China From the Perspective of Constitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Tianyuan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Development Direction ◽  
National Constitution

The Communist Party of China’s political legitimacy is a result which is based on its unique advanced and excellent quality, combines the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of China, and gains the support of Chinese people because of leading Chinese people to overthrow the reactionary rule to establish a new completely people's political regime and putting forward the line and route which conform to the development direction and requirement of Chinese social history. That is to say, this is the objective result of the Chinese people's sincere choice and commitment, and then confirmed in the national Constitution, which condenses the fundamental will and interests of the Chinese people. The process of Chinese Constitution establishment and the Constitution’s ideas and norms, both of them provide sufficient legal basis for the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China. In that way, the continuation of the Communist Party of China’s political legitimacy-leadership and governance-must adhere to the rule of Constitution.

Utopia’s Orphan

2018 ◽  
pp. 228-246
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Communism

This conclusion examines the demise of the Communist project, along with its vision to create an atheist society. Over the course of its history, Soviet atheism developed through direct engagement with religion. These engagements exposed atheism's contradictions, pointing to the deeper crisis within Soviet Communism. The conclusion first considers Mikhail Gorbachev's reintroduction of religion into Soviet public life, highlighted by his meeting with Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov) and the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, before explaining why Soviet Communism never managed to overcome religion or produce an atheist society. It also discusses the political transformations of perestroika and cites the history of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow as an allegory for the fate of religion and atheism under Soviet Communism. Finally, it asks why the Soviet Communist Party orchestrated the divorce between Communism and atheism, and between the party's Communist ideology and political power.

scholarly journals Citizens’ Expectations for Crisis Management and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 186810262110520
Author(s):  
Reza Hasmath ◽  
Timothy Hildebrandt ◽  
Jessica C. Teets ◽  
Jennifer Y. J. Hsu ◽  
Carolyn L. Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Management Function ◽  
The Government

Chinese citizens are relatively happy with the state's management of national disasters and emergencies. However, they are increasingly concluding that the state alone cannot manage them. Leveraging the 2018 and 2020 Civic Participation in China Surveys, we find that more educated citizens conclude that the government has a leading role in crisis management, but there is ample room for civil society organisations (CSOs) to act in a complementary fashion. On a slightly diverging path, volunteers who have meaningfully interacted with CSOs are more skeptical than non-volunteers about CSOs’ organisational ability to fulfill this crisis management function. These findings imply that the political legitimacy of the Communist Party of China is not challenged by allowing CSOs a greater role in crisis management.

The Prospects for Turkish – Chinese Bilateral and Multilateral Security Cooperation

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Lenore G. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Security Relationship

Using a paradigm of five interrelated variables the paper examines the opportunities and challenges for security cooperation between Turkey, a predominantly Muslim society, and China, a society still dominated by the Communist Party. The five variables consist of military capabilities, economic capabilities, essential natural resources, ethnic and religious tolerance, and political legitimacy. The paradigm demonstrates that their interests help to promote security cooperation between Turkey and China, but also lead to strains in their relations along every variable. Both states are concerned about separatist groups but the Turkish public and some politicians are supportive of the Uighurs. Trade is growing but is unbalanced. They compete for energy sources but cooperate on development of alternative energy. Each of the variables in turn affects the political legitimacy of both regimes. Despite these instances of divergence in their national interests, Turkey and China can make policy choices that would strengthen their security relationship.

De-democratization of the Political Constitution

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Michael A. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
The Political ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Trente Glorieuses ◽  
Inter State

<Online Only>This chapter examines how institutional change in post-war Europe reconstituted inter-state, state society, and social relations in such a way as to restrain sovereignty, depoliticize the economy, and deradicalize politics. The constitutionalism that developed in the post-war era, and the transformation in state-society relations that it signalled, had international, European, and domestic dimensions, which were themselves intertwined. Constitutionalism contributed significantly to the process of de-democratization, in combination with a demobilization of the masses and a de-radicalization of parties of the Left. The transformation of political problems into technical or legal issues, along with the decline of parliamentarism as a touchstone of political legitimacy, and the constitutionalization of the European Treaties, would be facilitated by the relatively high levels of economic growth during the Trente Glorieuses, which permitted welfare corporatism to complement the constitution of a passive authoritarian liberalism. The chapter concludes by noting how this set in motion a dynamic that takes a sharper turn in the ‘new neoliberalism’ of the 1980s.</Online Only>

The Socialist Way of Life

2018 ◽  
pp. 194-227
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Spiritual Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soviet Communism

This chapter examines how the Soviet Communist Party sought to cultivate a socialist way of life in order to overcome ideological indifference and develop atheist conviction, especially among the youth. Using the social sciences and the results of sociological research, the Soviet Communist Party identified a particularly worrisome trend: young people's growing indifference to religion and atheism. The chapter first considers how the party shifted the focus of atheist work to the production of the socialist way of life as a spiritual project before discussing the creative intelligentsia's god-seeking. It then explores the ways that the party tried to address Soviet society's growing interest in spiritual culture, the spiritual consumerism and indifference of Soviet youth, and the debate over the role of atheism in the greater project of building Soviet Communism. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the return of religion to public life and its implications.

Nation, Locality and Radical Identity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Petrie
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Left ◽  
National Model ◽  
Selection Of

Concentrating upon the years between the 1924 and 1929 general elections, which separated the first and second minority Labour governments, this chapter traces the rise of a modernised, national vision of Labour politics in Scotland. It considers first the reworking of understandings of sovereignty within the Labour movement, as the autonomy enjoyed by provincial trades councils was circumscribed, and notions of Labour as a confederation of working-class bodies, which could in places include the Communist Party, were replaced by a more hierarchical, national model. The electoral consequences of this shift are then considered, as greater central control was exercised over the selection of parliamentary candidates and the conduct of election campaigns. This chapter presents a study of the changing horizons of the political left in inter-war Scotland, analysing the declining importance of locality in the construction of radical political identities.

PaReSoGo: Dataset on party representation of social groups for 25 countries, 2002–2016

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882110238
Author(s):  
Olga Zelinska ◽  
Joshua K Dubrow
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dissimilarity Index ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Measure Representation ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
The Masses

Whereas social scientists have devised various ways to measure representation gaps between the political elite and the masses across nations and time, few datasets can be used to measure this gap for particular social groups. Minding the gap between what parties social groups vote for and what parties actually attain seats in parliament can reveal the position of social groups in the political power structure. We help to fill this gap with a new publicly available dataset, Party Representation of Social Groups (PaReSoGo), consisting of 25 countries and 150 country-years, and a method for its construction. We used the European Social Survey 2002–2016 and ParlGov data for this time span to create a Dissimilarity Index. To demonstrate the utility and flexibility in the combination of cross-national surveys and administrative data, we chose social groups of gender, age, and education, as well as intersectional groups based on gender and age, and attitudinal groups. We conclude this research note with empirical illustrations of PaReSoGo’s use.

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