Medicine Murder in Basutoland: Colonial Rule and Moral Crisis

Africa ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-78
Author(s):  
Colin Murray ◽  
Peter Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
The People ◽  
Moral Crisis

AbstractThis article analyses an acute moral crisis in the colonial administration of Basutoland in the late 1940s. It was provoked by a contagious rash of what became known as ‘medicine murders’, apparently perpetrated by senior chiefs. Two particular murders of this kind are examined in detail, as a result of which, in 1949, two very senior chiefs and some of their followers were hanged. This harshly dramatic episode brought into stark question the meaning of generations of the ‘civilising mission’, the fitness of the chiefs as leaders of the people, the moral integrity of the Basotho nation and the legitimacy both of colonial rule in general and of certain specific practices of the police. The political context of the murders is outlined, and the judicial process is dissected with special reference to the question of the validity of accomplice evidence.

One Step Forward or One Step Back? Explaining the Performance Paradox in the Civil Service of Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Asif M Asif M Shahan
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Rules ◽  
The People ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
Bureaucratic Responsiveness ◽  
One Step

In Bangladesh, two contrasting scenarios regarding the responsiveness of the bureaucrats working at the field level are present. Whereas some bureaucrats reach out to the people and respond to their demands, others remain unresponsive and unapproachable. So, why do the bureaucrats working at the grassroots, while performing under the same rules, same institutional context and reality, perform in two different ways while interacting with citizens? How can these two contradictory sets of understanding regarding bureaucratic responsiveness coexist in Bangladesh? This article attempts to unpack this puzzle by relying on a slightly modified version of historical institutionalism. Building on Bell’s model of ‘agent-centric institutional change’ and by using a modified version of Mahoney & Thelen’s framework of institutional change, it argues that dialectical interaction between agents (bureaucrats) and institutions (i.e., rules- both formal and informal, norms that affect the behavior of the agents) within the broader political setting can best explain the variation in behavioral pattern of the bureaucrats. The political context allows agents to exercise discretion in a specific manner in executing their roles and functions while being constrained by institutional rules and norms. The dialectical interaction between structure (political context), agent, and institution determines the current administrative reality, which has allowed the contradiction to emerge and sustain.

scholarly journals OD DEMOKRACJI PRZEDSTAWICIELSKIEJ DO DEMOKRACJI PRAWNICZEJ: KONSTYTUCJA STANÓW ZJEDNOCZONYCH A EWOLUCJA USTROJOWA PAŃSTWA

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Lewicki
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The People ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
The U.S

FROM REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY TO JUDICIAL DEMOCRACY: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM Summary The article discusses the process in which the judiciary branch has claimed and maintains its supremacy over the other two branches by practicing the extra-constitutional process of judicial review. Prior precedences under the British or colonial rule can hardly be claimed as they were established in a markedly different system in which the tripartite division of power was not as pronounced as it is under the U.S. Constitution. The real culprit is the U.S. Congress which refrains from making clear rules in controversial matters, such as abortion. The Supreme Court swiftly moved into the void to the point where the beliefs of nine nominated Justices outweigh the views of over five hundred elected representatives of the people, to wit: the flag burning controversy. While the learned opinions of nine learned and respected specialists should not be dismissed lightly, it is a far cry from the Founding Fathers’ intention if one person’s preferences can sway the nation’s political system, as is the case when the Court is divided between four liberals and four conservatives. However, lawyers are unlikely to give up the power they have usurped over time.

scholarly journals Japan’s political solution in Vietnam from March 1945 to August 1945

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
Ca Van Phan
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Standing Position ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

After the coup d'etat of the French colonial administration in Indochina ending the period of Japan-France co-governing, the Japanese government publicized its policy to support the foundation of Vietnam’s “independence”. However, the overall view of the political context of the time, the establishment of the Bao Dai-Tran Trong Kim government is a Japanese solution to Vietnam’s situation in the post-coup d'etat period. This solution stemmed from the plans of the Japanese ruling authorities and the specific historical context in Vietnam at that time. For Japan, the ultimate goal which needed to be reached after the coup was not to affect the effort of the war. For France, not only they lost colonies but also their standing position was underestimated in the eyes of the colonists. For the relationship between Japan and Vietnam, the nature and its motive would change in the way as it should have been.

scholarly journals Biopolitical Foundation of The Theory of M.M. Bakhtin's Carnival

2021 ◽  
Vol V (2) ◽  
pp. 98-122
Author(s):  
German Koraev
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sovereign Power ◽  
Cultural Consciousness ◽  
The People ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Interpretation

Bakhtin is an ambiguous thinker, who manifests himself as well in the political interpretation of his ideas. The political context of Bakhtin's thought is mostly considered based on the work “Rabelais and His World”. The article aims to identify the meaning structures of Bakhtin's work on Rabelais, which determine the political interpretation of his concept. The highlighted meaning structures are interconnected. They represent a series of Bakhtin's theses on the classificatory character of the division of cultural consciousness, on the decline of the laughter principle, etc. These theses form a coherent narrative that can be interpreted in completely different ways. Bakhtin's concept may be presented by interpreters in liberal or leftist way, as well as deeply conservative. These interpretations are based on different understandings of the status of carnivalization, which is essentially identical to the phenomenon of transgression. Accordingly, the second aim of the article is to show how Bakhtin understood transgression. To contextualize Bakhtin's concept of carnivalization, some of his points, which are similar to the ones made by the theorists of the ambivalent sacred (J. Bataille and R. Caillois) are considered. But a fact remains that requires explanation: Bakhtin's thought does not fit well into the framework of one or another political interpretation. As an explanation, a hypothesis of the biopolitical basis of Bakhtin's concept is put forward. The Agamben's figure of naked life constituted by sovereign power is contrasted with the Bakhtin's figure of material-bodily bottom, as the idea of the collective immortality of the people.

The assumption of intellectual-moral superiority

2018 ◽  
pp. 199-231
Author(s):  
Cristina E. Parau
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Network Community ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The People ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
Moral Superiority ◽  
Constitutional Meaning

This chapter evidences that the Network Community assume judges (viz., themselves) to be morally superior to all other actors in a political context because of their sole reliance on intellect. The political ramifications of this assumption are analysed: the practically limitless power to expand the scope of legal texts through ‘activist’ interpretation (the ‘living constitution’); the power to superintend democracy; the power to silence all other voices asserting constitutional meaning, even the people themselves. The end goal is the power to reconstruct society in the Network Community’s own image, according to its presumptively superior norms and values. It is inferred that the hegemonic power of the intellectual-moral superiority assumption constitutes a (possibly the) major cause of judicial power over the nation-states of Europe, and the normative basis of the judicialization of politics.

Appropriation and Its Consequences: Archaeology under Colonial Rule in Egypt and India

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Shereen Ratnagar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Indian Identity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Abstract The beginnings of archaeology in Egypt and in India are the subject of this paper. In both countries, antiquities were carried away by the powerful. Moreover, the hubris of the colonial powers ruling both countries made it inevitable that not only antiquities, but knowledge about the past, were appropriated in different ways. For modern Egyptians, the Pharaonic past was remote in culture and distant in time. The people themselves were until fairly recently prevented from learning the Pharaonic writing, once it was deciphered, by various ways and means. In contrast, in India the colonial administration relied on Indian scholars to teach British personnel the ancient languages, texts, and religion. In neither country was the history of the ancient period taught in schools until the foreign rulers had left. But Indian archaeology became involved in Indian identity and in the framing of the nation as Hindu, and thereby acquired an ugly twist. Self-identification in Egypt in the earlier twentieth century, on the other hand, was possibly more with the Arab world than with the pyramid builders.

scholarly journals Strong Demands and Weak Institutions: The Origins and Evolution of the Democratic Deficit in the Philippines

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Hutchcroft ◽  
Joel Rocamora
Keyword(s):  
Urban Poor ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
The People ◽  
The One

No country in Asia has more experience with democratic institutions than the Philippines. Over more than a century—from the representational structures of the Malolos republic of 1898 to the political tutelage of American colonial rule, from thecaciquedemocracy of the postwar republic to the restoration of democracy in the People Power uprising of 1986—Filipinos know both the promise of democracy and the problems of making democratic structures work for the benefit of all. Some 100 years after the introduction of national-level democratic institutions to the Philippines, the sense of frustration over the character of the country's democracy is arguably more apparent than ever before. On the one hand, the downfall of President Joseph Estrada in January 2001 revealed the capacity of many elements of civil society to demand accountability and fairness from their leaders; on the other hand, the popular uprisings of April and May 2001—involving thousands of urban poor supporters of Estrada—highlighted the continuing failure of democratic structures to respond to the needs of the poor and excluded. Philippine democracy is, indeed, in a state of crisis.

On the Will of the People: Notes on the Political “Theory” of Populism

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Offe
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
National People ◽  
The Will

The “will of the (national) people” is the ubiquitously invoked reference unit of populist politics. The essay tries to demystify the notion that such will can be conceived of as a unique and unified substance deriving from collective ethnic identity. Arguably, all political theory is concerned with arguing for ways by which citizens can make e pluribus unum—for example, by coming to agree on procedures and institutions by which conflicts of interest and ideas can be settled according to standards of fairness. It is argued that populists in their political rhetoric and practice typically try to circumvent the burden of such argument and proof. Instead, they appeal to the notion of some preexisting existential unity of the people’s will, which they can redeem only through practices of repression and exclusion.

Leisurely Islam

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Deeb ◽  
Mona Harb
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
Political Economic

South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, this book provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? This book highlights tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The book elucidates the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examines leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, the book offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document