scholarly journals Constitution-making in a stifled democracy: A case study of self-censorship perpetuating propaganda in Fiji

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mosmi Bhim
Keyword(s):  
International Community ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
General Elections ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military ◽  
Constitution Making

Fiji is preparing for general elections in 2014 by when the country will have been under military rule for eight years. A process of constitution-making began in mid-2012 and a new Constitution should be available by 2013. Citizens and the media continue to practise self-censorship and the military regime continues to remind citizens that they would crack down harshly on ‘trouble-makers’. In the same breath, the regime has promised the international community that the process for constitution-making will be free, fair, participatory and transparent. This article, through analysis of media reporting, will examine whether current self-censorship by media is aiding the constitution-making process, and if indeed, self-censorship is promoting peace? Through an analysis of the work of the Constitution Commission, the article will analyse the extent of participation of citizens in the context of a stifled democracy.

scholarly journals The General, His Fandom, and a Participatory Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Angelina Ilieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Fan Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Military Medical Academy ◽  
Medical Academy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Military

In February 2020, the Bulgarian government established the National Operational Headquarters for Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bulgaria. General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, a military doctor, professor at the Military Medical Academy in Sofia, was appointed as its chairman. This paper presents a case study on the public image of Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, its readings and interpretations by the audience, and the specific fan culture that emerged around his media persona during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria. Placed in the spotlight of the media at the very beginning of the crisis, Mutafchiyski became extremely popular as the public figure most strongly associated with the fight against the spread of the disease in the country. Around his media persona, shaped in the public imagination as a wartime leader, a fan culture has grown with all its characteristic features and dimensions: fans and anti-fans, affirmative and transformative fandom. As a fictional character, Mutafchiyski has appeared in numerous forms of vernacular creativity: poems, songs, material objects, jokes, fake news, conspiracy theories, and memes. In this way, the General has become the main character of Bulgarian pandemic folklore and the focal point of a participatory pandemic.

Indonesia: The Military’s Transformation From Praetorian Ruler to Presidential Coalition Partner

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Mietzner
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Sufficient Power ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
The Military ◽  
Power Arrangements

Indonesia is a highly revealing case study for pinpointing both the conditions under which militaries in postcolonial societies intervened in political affairs and the patterns that led to their subsequent marginalization from politics. It also demonstrates how militaries could defend some of their political interests even after they were removed from the highest echelons of power. Emboldened by the war for independence (1945–1949), the Indonesian military used divisions, conflicts, and instabilities in the early postindependence polity to push for an institutionalized role in political institutions. While it was granted such a role in 1959, it used a further deterioration in civilian politics in the early 1960s to take power in 1965. Military intervention in politics in Indonesia, then, has been as much the result of civilian weaknesses as of military ambitions, confirming Finer’s theory on the civilian role in military power quests. Military rule in Indonesia weakened first as a consequence of the personalization of the polity built by the leader of the 1965 takeover, General Suharto. After a decade in power, Suharto turned the praetorian regime into a personal autocracy, transforming the military from a political actor into an agent. When Suharto’s regime collapsed in 1998 after being hit by the Asian financial crisis, the military was discredited—allowing civilian rulers to dismantle some of its privileges. But continued divisions among civilian forces mitigated the push for the military’s full depoliticization—once again proving Finer’s paradigm. As post-Suharto presidents settled into the new power arrangements, they concluded that the military was a crucial counterweight against the possible disloyalty of their coalition partners. Thus, under the paradigm of coalitional presidentialism, rulers integrated the military into their regimes and granted it concessions in return. In short, while the post-1998 military is much diminished from its role in predemocratic regimes, it retains sufficient power to protect its core ideological and material interests.

scholarly journals Democratic Dawn? Civil Society and Elections in Myanmar 2010-2012

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lidauer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
International Community ◽  
National Election ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Observation ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government

While the general elections in Myanmar in November 2010 were widely condemned, both national and international actors approached the by-elections of April 2012 as a political rite-de-passage to improve relations between the government and the opposition inside, and between the former pariah state and the international community outside the country. An undercurrent of the government-led transition process from an authoritarian to a formally more democratic regime was the development of a politically oriented civil society that found ways to engage in the electoral process. This article describes the emerging spaces of election-related civil society activism in the forms of civic and voter education, national election observation, and election-related agency in the media. Noting that, in particular, election observation helps connect civil society to regional and international debates, the paper draws preliminary conclusions about further developments ahead of the general elections in Myanmar expected to take place in 2015.

A Satirical Magazine in Its Own Way”: Politicisation and Dissent in Gırgır (1972-1983)

DIYÂR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-348
Author(s):  
Valentina Marcella
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Political Cartoons ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
The Military

The satirical weekly Gırgır, founded by Oğuz Aral in 1972, has been Turkey’s best-selling satirical magazine of all times. Characterized by a multitude of genres and styles, its contents ranged from written jokes to comics and political cartoons. Such diversity has prompted scholars to present this magazine in different, often contrasting ways, especially with reference to the nature and strength of its satire. This study intends to contribute to solving the ambiguity concerning whether Gırgır’s caricatures and cartoons may be deemed political or not. For this purpose, it focuses on its satirical repertoire from its early days up to the end of the military regime of 1980 to 1983, the most challenging time in terms of freedom of expression and dissent. This article argues that satire in Gırgır became increasingly political parallel to the growing politicisation of society in the 1970s and that the magazine did not bow to political pressure under the military rule. Especially its reactions to the repressive climate of the regime allow us to define its satire as political.

Legitimacy and Governance: One More Year of Military Rule in Nigeria

1985 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Patrick Utomi
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
The Military

When the phenomenon of military rule in Africa first attracted the attention of researchers, the thrust of inquiry was the explanation of the apparent anomaly of the coup d’etat. After years of effort, epitomized by Samuel Decalo’s work on Coups and Army Rule in Africa, a consensus seemed to have emerged that a general theory explaining military intervention could not be found. Scholarship thus turned its focus to the military as policymakers. This essay shall seek to do both — explain military intervention; and evaluate the performance of the military as policymakers. Nigeria, which is into its second epoch of military rule, provides an appropriate case study.

Governing through Informal Mechanisms

Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Saif Ur Rahman ◽  
Zhao Shurong
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Informal Institutions ◽  
Functional Constraints ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Transitional Democracies ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Power Centers ◽  
The Military

In their post-authoritarian period, civilian governments in transitional democracies have often been battered by unelected power centers. Where do these unelected forces derive their power? This article addresses this question through a case study of Pakistan. Since the 2018 elections, a decade after leaving formal political office, the Pakistani military has asserted greater control over civilian government. Using the concept of informal institutions of political participation as an analytical framework, we argue that when formal forms of control become untenable due to legitimacy and/or functional constraints, the military turns into a Janus-faced institution, visibly acting as a formal state organ while invisibly protecting its institutional interests through what we call “informal mechanisms.” The article explains how Pakistan’s pre-2018 political situation dictated a quasi-military regime more suited to the military’s interests than direct military rule.

Democracy and the Church in Venezuela

1976 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel H. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Military Regime ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Traditional Attitude ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church

Democracy has been better to the Venezuelan Church than many of its leaders or militants thought possible as they witnessed its rebirth in the early days of 1958. Despite the hierarchy's role in stimulating and legitimating opposition to the Pérez Jiménez regime, and its effusive praise of democracy as a system (Conferencia Episcopal Venezolana, 1958), private fears were great. After all, the years of military rule had been good times for the Church—Catholic institutions (particularly in education) had prospered, and their leaders responded with broad support for the military regime until shortly before the end (Colmenares Diaz, 1961).The Church's traditional attitude towards democracy had been a mix of suspicion of majoritarian principles of rule and specific rejection of what it saw as democracy's embodiment in Venezuela in Acción Democrática (Levine, 1973: 38-42, 62-93). This party's policies were seen as secularizing, socialistic, and anti-Catholic, and bitter memories of clashes with Acción Democrática governments in the late 1940s remained vivid.

The evitability of autonomous robot warfare

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (886) ◽  
pp. 787-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noel E. Sharkey
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Autonomous Robots ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military ◽  
Free Ranging

AbstractThis is a call for the prohibition of autonomous lethal targeting by free-ranging robots. This article will first point out the three main international humanitarian law (IHL)/ethical issues with armed autonomous robots and then move on to discuss a major stumbling block to their evitability: misunderstandings about the limitations of robotic systems and artificial intelligence. This is partly due to a mythical narrative from science fiction and the media, but the real danger is in the language being used by military researchers and others to describe robots and what they can do. The article will look at some anthropomorphic ways that robots have been discussed by the military and then go on to provide a robotics case study in which the language used obfuscates the IHL issues. Finally, the article will look at problems with some of the current legal instruments and suggest a way forward to prohibition.

scholarly journals Othering the minority: Comparative Study of Papua Ethnic in Indonesia and Rohingnya Ethnic In Myanmar During Military Rule

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Insan Praditya Anugrah
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
New Order ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Military Junta ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Military

The paper examines the comparative study of subaltern between Papua in Indonesia’s New Order era and Rohingya in Myanmar during military rule. In Indonesia, the Papuan case is an example of how the centralistic military regime treats Papuan ethnic as an object and treats them as “the others” rather than considers them as a part of the “Indonesian entity” as the subject itself. Meanwhile, in Myanmar, Rohingya case is an example of how the centralistic military junta regime treats Rohingya ethnic as “the others” and considers them as foreigners in Myanmar. This paper found a significant difference between the treatment of the Indonesian military regime towards Papuan ethnic and the treatment of the Myanmar military junta regime towards Rohingya ethnic. In Indonesia, the military regime acknowledges Papuan as a citizen of Indonesia. However, the regime considers Papuan as the “different other” nonetheless. Their different race and ethnicity from Java and Malay ethnic as the majority ethnic are not the subjects of the cause, yet it is caused by Papuan traditional behavior which is regarded as “backward” as by the central regime. Meanwhile in Myanmar, since the enforcement of citizenship law in 1982, the military regime clearly does not acknowledge Rohingya from state citizenship because of their identities, such as religion and Rohingya's historical background.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document