scholarly journals Theoretical considerations of post communist political elite; on focus Albania

Author(s):  
Merlinda Andoni

This article provides literature and empirical studies review on post-communist political elite. The most debatable question is if old nomeklatura has reproduced itself and is transformed in new elite, or circulation of new blood occurs. Although post communist political elite typology is different among post communist countries, some common theoretical considerations for analyzing it are noticed. This article aims to point out that legacy of the past and accumulation of political capital coupled with the political economic marketization of post communist political elite and civil society and intelligentsia are beneficiary for a thorough understanding of the topic

World Affairs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 183 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-89
Author(s):  
Andreas Umland

Over the last few years, intergovernmental affairs and the roles of individual countries within the West have started to shift. In response, Kyiv (Kiev) should reorder the priorities and emphases of its foreign political, economic, and cultural policies. The central focus of this re-orientation should be more resolute than the hitherto deepening of Ukrainian relations has been, not only with the German government but also with the broader political elite, industrial companies, and the civil society of the Federal Republic. A recent systematic study of German perceptions of Ukraine can help develop new approaches, initiatives, and policies to reach a new level of German–Ukrainian partnership.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Catá Backer

Abstract China’s new Charity Law represents the culmination of over a decade of planning for the appropriate development of the productive forces of the charity sector in aid of socialist modernization. Together with the related Foreign ngo Management Law, it represents an important advance in the organization of the civil society sector within emerging structures of Socialist Rule of Law principles. While both Charity and Foreign ngo Management Laws could profitably be considered as parts of a whole, each merits discussion for its own unique contribution to national development. Moreover, while analysis tends to focus on legal conformity of the Charity Law to the state constitution, little work has been done to analyze the relationship of the Charity Law to the political constitution of China. This essay seeks to fill that gap by considering the role of the Charity Law through the lens of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China. More specifically, the essay examines the extent to which the provisions of the Charity Law, and its underlying policies, contribute to the implementation and realization of the Chinese Communist Party (ccp) Basic Line and in the context of the overall political policy of “socialist modernization which has served as the core of the political line of the ccp since the last decades of the 20th century. The essay is organized as follows: Section ii considers the specific provisions of the Charity Law, with some reference to changes between the first draft and the final version of the Charity Law. Section iii then considers some of the more theoretical considerations that suggest a framework for understanding the great contribution of the Charity Law as well as the challenges that remain for the development of the productive forces of the civil society sector at this historical stage of China’s development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1(50)) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Mosyakov ◽  

The article is devoted to criticism of the concept of the so-called “non-Western political process”. Author expresses the opinion that this concept, formulated back in the mid-50s of the 20th century, is outdated today. The fact is that after the active phase of the globalization process and huge changes in the political, economic and social structure of Eastern societies over the past 60 years, the differences between how politics is done in the West and the East have virtually disappeared. The article provides evidence that now we can see a certain universal mechanism of power, which is equally intensively used in both Western and Eastern societies and states.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-215
Author(s):  
Hamza Salih

This paper examines the political writings of the Moroccan nationalist Allal Al-Fassi (1910-1974). It argues that there exists a considerable political tendency in these writings with excessive utilisation of jargon related to liberalism and political theory. In his intellectual and political project, Al-Fassi theorises about the possibility of creating a modern state on solid democratic and liberal foundations. Yet, however legitimate and seemingly liberal his theorisation might seem, the paper argues that the formation of a liberal state and a democratic society appears to be a mere dream given the fact that Al-Fassi grounds his conceptions within the Salafist and revivalist intellectual systems. Reading between the lines of his political works, nevertheless, reveals the dominance of Salafist intellections which deem the past and Islam as restorative in attaining a modern renaissance, at the political, economic, and cultural levels.  This work, thus, problematizes three central points: the political tendency of Al-Fassi’s project, his religious and Salafist remnants and conceptions, and finally the possible ideological implications and interests that Al-Fassi seems to defend.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-747
Author(s):  
Joseph Daher

AbstractHezbollah, like other Islamic fundamentalist movements in the region, professes an “Islamic way of life” as an objective to achieve and implement in society, but its actual practices can best be understood as harmonious with—and reflective of—the nature of the capitalist environment in which it operates, despite discourses appealing to the popular classes of society. Religious fundamentalist movements should indeed not been considered as fossilized elements from the past. While they may employ symbols and narratives from earlier periods, fundamentalisms are alive, dynamic, and representative of major contemporary trends. Their emergence must thus be fully situated in the political, economic, and social context of the contemporary period. In this perspective, the article analyzes the political economy of Hezbollah and its support for neoliberal policies.


Author(s):  
Yu. V. Kobets ◽  
T. B. Madryha

During the period of complexity of systemic reforms in modern Ukraine, the big importance of the qualities and actions of the political elite become on the first hand. Еhe ability to fulfill urgent tasks of democratic arrangement of different spheres of social life depends on these qualities and actions of the political elite. The article analyzes the problem of the quality of the political elite in Ukraine. The article proves the importance of forming a professional, effective, active, qualitative elite in the conditions of state building. The basic ideas of the founders of elitology are described, the content of the concepts "elite", "establishment", "political class" is revealed. The conclusions about the main stages of formation of political elites in Ukraine are made. It is proved that the process of forming a truly leading elite group is underway, which can unite the political, economic and cultural revival of our state.


Author(s):  
Mason W. Moseley

The fifth chapter introduces the case of Argentina, a country where protest has taken root as a common characteristic of everyday political life over the past two decades. The chapter begins by analyzing the history of protest from Carlos Menem’s election in 1989 to the current Fernández de Kirchner government, arguing that it has indeed crystallized as a routine form of political participation in this regime. I attribute this trend to the weakness of political institutions and strength of Argentine civil society: the two pillars of the protest state. I then proceed to utilize survey data and protest events count data to support this argument, demonstrating that not only has protest become more common over the past two decades, but that it has consolidated as a common mode of political voice for Argentine citizens across demographic groups and the political spectrum.


2020 ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
Nadia Bou Ali

The chapter discusses Butrus al-Bustani’s Nafır Surriya (The Clarion of Syria) pamphlets and his translation of DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Throughout these pamphlets, and using Crusoe’s story as an allegory for civil society in a post-war temporality, Bustani formulated a form of liberal nationalism in defence of  the ‘true religion’ (diyana haqiqiya), Protestant in spirit and corresponding with a political economic logic that ties it to the history of capitalism. This wedding of religion and political economy is most strikingly evident in the way the concepts of guilt and debt were used to separate out a universalistic conception of religion from sectarian political identities. The political theology that underlies Bustani’s liberal logic, and which is the focus of the analysis throughout this chapter, raises the question of the nature of the rule of law in relation to violence; in other words, it exposes the fine line between law-making violence and law-preserving violence. Furthermore, Bustani’s worldview provides us with an understanding of the kinds of symbolic investiture that iterate the performative nature of rites of initiation into community in fin de siècle Beirut, ones that restrict the potentialities of politics from within a ‘psycho-theological’ framework.


Author(s):  
Laura Brace

This book asks what it means to describe someone as a slave and explores the political dimensions of that question. It argues against the search for a transhistorical and timeless definition of slavery, and offers a critical interrogation of the dominant liberal discourse on slavery from the Enlightenment to the present. It pays particular attention to the meanings of the slavery / freedom binary and to the connections between the past and the present in understanding ‘old’ and ‘new’ slavery. The book is about what it means to think about slavery as a historical process and as a political relation, both in the history of political thought and in present debates about trafficking and incarceration. It argues that we need to bring the concept of slavery back into our understandings of freedom, labour and belonging, and unravel the assumptions behind the meanings we ascribe to personhood, sub-personhood and humanity. From Aristotle and the idea of natural slavery, through Locke’s conception of civil society, Hegel’s master-slave dialectic and J.S. Mill’s analogy of slavery and marriage to the discourse of modern abolition and the idea of trafficking as slavery, the book interrogates what it means to think about the idea of freedom as the opposite of slavery, and draws attention to the significance of the tensions, ambiguities and silences that surround that conception.


2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-196
Author(s):  
Ann M. Lesch

Yezid Sayigh's encylopedic history focuses on the role that the idea of armed struggle played in the Palestinian national movement as it evolved over the past half-century. His central thesis is that “armed struggle provided the political impulse and organisational dynamic in the evolution of Palestinian national identity and in the formation of parastatal institutions and a bureaucratic elite, the nucleus of government” (p. vii). The concept of armed struggle reforged Palestinian national identity, mobilized Palestinians, provided political legitimization to the Palestinian movement, made the Palestinians a distinct political actor in relation to the Arab states, helped to create institutions that could form the basis of a government, and established a well-defined political elite. Thus, even though Palestinian leaders never transformed the armed struggle into a people's war along the lines of Algeria or Vietnam, and never liberated any part of Palestine by force, armed struggle served other important, statist functions.


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