Digital Stigmata as a Tool of Manipulating Mass Consciousness in the Conditions of Modern State and Society

It can be argued that the late seventeenth century marks the transition of the Ottoman entity into an early modern state, with one of its main features identified as the distinction between the ruler and the state apparatus. The paper aims to explore whether, when and how such a process reflected in contemporary political thought. It analyzes the ways Ottoman elite authors represented society vis-à-vis the sultan; also, the development of the notion of “state” in the same authors and how it came to be considered different from that of the “ruler”.

Download Full-text

Serial Murder in Tehran: Crime, Science, and the Formation of Modern State and Society in Interwar Iran

Comparative Studies in Society and History ◽

10.1017/s001041750500037x ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 836-862 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Cyrus Schayegh

Keyword(s):

Sexual Intercourse ◽

Serial Murder ◽

Modern State ◽

Adolescent Boys ◽

Crime Science ◽

State And Society ◽

Mental Diseases ◽

Sexually Abuse

Tehran, 1934. Introducing his newest book, Mental Diseases, Dr. Muhammad-עAli Tutiyā hits a raw nerve. Iran's capital is abuzz with news about עAli Asghar Borujerdi. Earlier on that year, the man soon dubbed Asghar Qātel (the murderer) confessed to having had sexual intercourse and subsequently killed thirty-three adolescent boys. Born in 1893 in the Western Iranian town of Borujerd, at the age of eight he left with his mother and siblings for Karbalā, Iraq. Six years later, he moved on to Baghdad, and began to sexually abuse adolescents. Eventually, he began to murder them, according to his initial testimony in order to trick the police that were observing him. In 1933, after having taken twenty-five lives, he only escaped Baghdad and arrest by the skin of his teeth. Arriving in Tehran, he worked as porter and vegetable-seller, and took up residence in Bāgh-e Ferdous, a neighborhood in Tehran's poor popular south. He carried on with his deeds, killing eight boys, most of them homeless vagrants. The first bodies, heads severed, were found on 31 December 1933. Borujerdi was arrested once and released for lack of evidence, but in early March of 1934, the police detained him again, and this time he confessed. He was tried, convicted, and, after an unsuccessful appeal, was hung in front of an immense crowd in Tehran's Sepah Square on 26 June.

Download Full-text

DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN SERBIA

10.51738/kpolisa2021.18.3r.2.05 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 157-168

Author(s):

GORAN IVANČEVIĆ

Keyword(s):

Citizen Participation ◽

Local Community ◽

Public Affairs ◽

State System ◽

Modern State ◽

State And Society ◽

Historical Role ◽

State Organization ◽

National Significance

Local self government, as a phenomenon, was established before the emergence of a modern state. Its role and significance has remained unsurpassed in nowadays world generally, and especially in modern states. The position that self-government has today is derived from the functions that this institution has in a modern state system. Namely, local self-government represents the basis of the state system in a narrower functional sense because it performs tasks that are important for the local community. However, it has a broader political and organizational significance, because, without that level of state organization, it would be almost impossible to reach numerous democratic achievements such as: citizen participation in public affairs, sharing power, decentralization (i.e. devolution of power), the exercise of certain rights and freedom, activities of civil society, etc. The importance of local self-government in Serbia is reflected in its historical role, inherited from tradition, which has outgrown and taken on a certain state-building, institutional and national character. It should also be emphasized that Serbian historiography, as well as other social sciences, to which this topic is related, has not paid enough attention to local self-government as a phenomenon in the context of its significance for the modern Serbian state and society as a whole. Therefore, it would be extremely important to look at this topic in a multidisciplinary manner and to offer scientific answers and facts about the historical, legal, political, and sociological role of local self-government. This work will try to synthesize its historical, political, institutional and national significance, by analyzing the emergence of self-government, that is, its development, which makes it one of the pillars of the Serbian state.

Download Full-text

Anglo-Afghan Wars and State Building in Afghanistan

Afghanistan ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691145686.003.0004 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Barfield

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Foreign Relations ◽

Central Government ◽

State Building ◽

Modern State ◽

British Raj ◽

State And Society ◽

New Models ◽

Traditional Elite

This chapter examines the erosion of traditional elite authority and new models of modern state building in the nineteenth century. The Anglo-Afghan wars were the crucibles that transformed the Afghan state and society. Here, the focus is less on the wars themselves than the consequences they had for Afghanistan. In terms of foreign relations, the rulers of Afghanistan found themselves in the paradoxical state of becoming ever more dependent on the subsidies from the British raj even as they pushed the Afghan people to become more antiforeign. Domestically successive rulers sought to make the central government more powerful, but did not succeed until Amir Abdur Rahman took the throne in 1880. Understanding what he did and at what cost remains significant for Afghanistan today.

Download Full-text