scholarly journals Surveillance at the Roots of Everyday Interactions: Japan’s Conspiracy Bill and its Totalitarian Effects

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 477-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Midori Ogasawara
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
State Power ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Past ◽  
Authoritarian Government ◽  
The Government

Japan’s ultra-right wing government, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since 2012, has been enforcing a number of controversial laws, such as the Secrecy Act and Security Act, which have enhanced surveillance and militarism. Without changing the Constitution, these laws allow the government to undermine the constitutional rights for individuals. The Conspiracy Law, Abe’s next attempt, focuses on placing people’s everyday communications under scrutiny. Against the modern principal of criminal justice, this law criminalizes the communications regarding crimes, without any criminal actions. Due to its extensively invasive character, the bill has been cancelled three times in the Diet in the past decade, but Abe insists that it is necessary for a successful running of 2020 Olympic in Tokyo as an anti-terror measure. While the Olympic gives the authoritarian government the best opportunity to incite nationalism and stabilize the rule, as the Nazi performed in 1936, surveillance comes forth to eliminate both public and private communications that question, criticize or counter the legitimacy of state power.

The origins of Canada’s feminist foreign policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Chapnick
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
International Community ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Canadian Foreign Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Minor

In January 2019, a leading Canadian foreign policy blog, OpenCanada.org, declared that “[u]nder the government of Justin Trudeau, Canada has embraced a feminist foreign policy—gradually at first, and with fervor over the past year.” Although critics have debated the policy’s effectiveness, the embrace, if not also the fervor, was indisputable. By 2019, the Trudeau government’s second foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, was proclaiming Canada’s feminist approach to international relations openly and regularly. The international community had also noticed. This article investigates the origins of the new Canadian foreign policy “brand.” It finds that, contrary to popular thinking, the prime minister himself played at most a minor role in the initiation of what became a full-fledged transformation of Canada’s global image.

Israel may be heading for its third election in a year

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Finances ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Significance On October 23, President Reuven Rivlin passed on the task of forming the government to Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White alliance, after incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu failed. Neither the centre-left bloc nor the bloc of religious and right-wing parties (led by Netanyahu's Likud) has a majority without Yisrael Beiteinu, but so far Gantz and Netanyahu have failed to find an acceptable compromise despite pressure from Lieberman and Rivlin to form a unity administration. Meanwhile, Netanyahu himself faces an impending indictment on corruption charges. Impacts Consecutive rounds of elections will create a strain on the public finances. Netanyahu will refuse any power rotation deal where he is not given the premiership first. Another election, especially if coupled with an indictment, will accelerate a trend of public fatigue with Netanyahu.

Letter from Greece—mid‐December 1988

1989 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Clive
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Serious Illness ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government

THE SERIOUS ILLNESS DURING THE LATE SUMMER OF THE PRIME Minister, Andreas Papandreou, who is rising seventy, brought Greece to the start of an unusually long pre-electoral period which, if the government holds to its word, will end on 18 June 1989. Meanwhile, the affairs of state were being overshadowed by affairs of the heart, as detailed press coverage of his progress at Harefield showed him walking hand-in-hand with Dimitra Liani, a buxom former Olympic Airways hostess half his age, who had flown with him to London and with whom he has had a far from discreet liaison for the past year.

I tre presidenti (ma ce n'č un quarto). La Costituzione Repubblicana secondo Schifani, Fini e Berlusconi

2009 ◽  
pp. 12-16
Author(s):  
Sante Cruciani
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Government Action ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Silvio Berlusconi

- After the Popolo della Libertŕ's win at the 13th and 14th of April 2008 elections, most of the Newscasts on both public and private television welcomed the inaugural speeches made by the President of the Senate Schifani, the President of the Chamber Fini and the Prime Minister Berlusconi as the confirmation of the Italian right wing tradition of government. Looking closer, apart from the formal tributes towards President Napolitano, the three inaugural speeches introduce a substantial breach as regards republican democracy, the balance of popular sovereignty, parliamentary representation and government action, the recognition of the plurality of creeds and religious confessions, of cultural and political pluralism, and the synthesis of the rights of freedom and equality resolutely pursued by the Constituent Assembly. The entire system of the equilibrium of powers between the State bodies and a central part of the bill of rights of the republican Constitution is brought into discussion: with the predominance of the principle of freedom over the principle of equality, the democratic game is bereft of the fundamental dialectics between freedom and equality perceived by Norberto Bobbio as the inseparable nucleus of modern constitutionalism. Thus, it has to be the historian's task to try and re-establish a virtuous circle between politics, culture and the ability to intervene in the most delicate topics concerning the quality of Italian democracy today. Key words: Republican Constitution, Freedom/Equality, Renato Schifani, Gianfranco Fini, Silvio Berlusconi, Norberto Bobbio, Gustavo Zagrebelski, Politics/Culture, Italian Democracy.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Alice Beban
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
State Power ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Politics Of Fear ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter demonstrates how uncertainty over land relations is productive for state power. It explores the multiple understandings of state, land, and power that play out in men's and women's everyday lives in rural Cambodia. It also elaborates the key roles land plays in the enduring rule of Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, the world's longest-serving prime minister. The chapter describes Cambodia's uplands as a frontier for rapacious capital with the government allocating massive logging and economic land concessions to investors, which resulted in the widespread displacement of rural people, the loss of ancestral lands, and a pillaging of the nation's forests. It argues that Cambodia's hierarchical and extractive political economic system is maintained through a politics of fear, violence, and uncertainty.

The Occupied Territories, Gaza, and Israel’s Recent Slide to Authoritarianism

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-292
Author(s):  
Menachem Mautner
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Press ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Fascist Regime ◽  
The Government ◽  
Israel Defense Forces

AbstractIn recent years there have been numerous warnings in the press and in the social networks that Israel is about to convert its liberal democracy into a fascist regime. This Article argues that the occupation of the West Bank stands at the root of the most important processes that have been taking place in Israel in the past five decades. One of those processes is the erosion of Israel’s liberalism. I claim that the prolongation of the occupation is the central, lasting threat to Israel’s liberalism. In essence, the occupation breeds denunciations of and protests against the government and the Israel Defense Forces, and these, in turn, bring about measures on the part of the government and right-wing civil society organizations that undermine or threaten Israel’s liberalism. In addition, the full-scale wars between Israel and Gaza, and the continuation of violence between the parties in the periods between the wars, undermine or threaten Israel’s liberalism.

scholarly journals A Tensão entre Constitucionalismo e Exceção: a Ordem Estatal sobreposta aos Direitos Fundamentais / The Tension between Constitutionalism and Exception: when the State Order Prevails over Fundamental Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Smidt Simon
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Political Life ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Brazilian State ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legal Strategies

Resumo: Cada vez mais o poder público limita direitos e aumenta a repressão, sem corrigir as falhas que levam ao conflito. Isso indica o uso do direito como garantidor de ordem, não de liberdade. O intento deste artigo é mostrar, discutindo as noções de estado e constituição, o conflito entre liberdade e ordem e como o direito serve para proteger a primeira. Assim, relaciona-se a legalidade no estado contemporâneo com a limitação do poder. Faz-se, então, a relação com a ideia de nação e a prevalência da vontade do estado. Após, trabalha-se o estado de exceção e como a ordem e a coerção estatal são postas acima dos direitos e garantias constitucionais. A prevalência da ordem sobre a proteção constitucional pode ser vista nas manifestações de junho de 2013; nos rolezinhos e na situação do presídio de Pedrinhas, exemplos da lógica do estado de exceção incorporada à vida política brasileira, o que responde à discussão teórica que os antecede. Ademais, o estado brasileiro aumenta seu poder de repressão com estratégias jurídicas que diminuem seus limites ou seu controle. O texto defende a necessidade de retomar as lógicas da legalidade e do constitucionalismo para combater a naturalização do estado de exceção. Abstract: Nowadays is getting usual for the government to limit rights and expand its capacity of repression without correcting the flaws that cause conflicts. This indicates the use of the law as a way to grant order, not liberty. The aim of this article is to show, discussing the ideas of state and constitution, the tension between liberty and order and how the law should work to protect the former. Thus, the contemporaneous state is related to legality, understood as a mean to limit the state power. Then, the concept of state of exception is presented and is shown as the state order and coercion overlap constitutional rights. This overlapping can be seen in the “June 2013” protests; in the flash mob situations and in the case of “Pedrinhas” Prison. Those are examples of the logic of the state of exception embodied to the Brazilian political life. Furthermore, Brazilian state increases its repression power by using legal strategies that decrease its means of being restrained. The text asserts the need to rethink legality and constitutionalism as a way to fight the naturalization of the state of exception.

Craxi’s Italy

1985 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Guizzi
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Christian Democratic Party ◽  
The Government

IT IS NOT EASY TO EXPLAIN THE REASONS THAT LED TO THE appointment of Bettino Craxi as Prime Minister. First of all, there was certainly the political fatigue of the Christian Democratic Party which had held the premiership for 35 years. AIdo Moro, a great man and leader, had tried to mediate between the various currents within the party, as well as between the party and other allied parties (the Republicans, the Social Democrats, the Socialists). But what Moro really dreamt of was a possible alliance with the Communist Party to solve at least the most serious issues, such as terrorism and economic decline. He thought of repeating with the Communists the experience the DC had had in the early 1960s with the Socialists: widening the democratic area with the view of transforming the PCI into a social democratic trend. In order to obtain this he even considered letting the PCI take part in the majority at least if not in the government itself. His disappearance had serious repercussions, especially in the Christian Democratic Party where internal friction grew even stronger than in the past. This resulted in a great drop in the party's power and ability to manage the country politically even if, at least in part, it regained in the 1979 and 1983 elections the votes lost in the 1976 elections.

scholarly journals Dyplomacja Francji: ewolucja relacji na osi władzy Elysee-Matignon w układzie koabitacji

2018 ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Anna Kuczyńska
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government

The paper analyzes the decision-making process with respect to foreign policy and defense in the French Fifth Republic. The author discusses the constitutional rights of the President, Prime Minister and Parliament to emphasize that the notion of the exclusive domain (domaine réservé) of the head of the state has no legal grounds. In particular, she stresses the variations in the practice of exercising power in these terms under two distinct political situations: when the president and government are from the same political option, and when they are not. She notes that given the political homogeneity of the President and the majority in the National Assembly, the President, as the actual head of the unified party, becomes the focal point in the creation and implementation of the policies for ‘his’ France, in particular of the country’s foreign policy. This defies the stipulations of Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution, by virtue of which the government, headed by the Prime Minister, “determines and conducts the policy of the nation.” The paper devotes considerable space to an analysis of the political influence of cohabitation, i.e. the coexistence of a President of the Republic and a majority in the National Assembly who represent different political orientations. This characterized the political system of France for nine years (1986–1988, 1993–1995, 1997–2002) during the evolution of the actual dependency on the Presidential and Prime Ministerial power axis (or the Elysée–Matignon axis, as these state organs are commonly referred to) in the process of shaping and conducting the international and European policy of the state. The role of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is taken into account regarding the outcome of these changeable relations.

scholarly journals A Study on Disharmony/Conflicts in the Executive Branch of the Government

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (0) ◽  
pp. 201-231
Author(s):  
Kyo-Sun Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Political ◽  
Korean Government ◽  
The Past ◽  
Look Back ◽  
The Government ◽  
Responsibility System

The form of the Korean government has been a presidential responsibility system with certain aspects of the parliamentary cabinet system in terms of power structure. The position of the Prime Minister came as a result of a compromise between the presidential responsibility system and the parliamentary cabinet system. Despite the existence of the prime Ministership, more emphasis has been placed on the presidential responsibility system than the parliamentary cabinet system. The emphasis has been placed on the presidential responsibility system on the ground that it would contribute toward the political stability of the country. To look back at the past of the evolution of the Korean Constitution, it is easily found that a fundamental mistake was committed when the Constitution and the Administration Organization Law were made.

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