Virtus Romana

Author(s):  
Catalina Balmaceda

The political transformation that took place at the end of the Roman Republic was a particularly rich area for historical analysis. The crisis that saw the end of the Roman Republic and the changes which gave birth to a new political system were narrated by major Roman historians who took the Roman idea of virtus as a way of interpreting and understanding their history. Tracing how virtus informed Roman thought over time, the book explores the concept and its manifestations in the narratives of four successive Latin historians who span the late republic and early principate: Sallust, Livy, Velleius, and Tacitus. Balmaceda demonstrates that the concept of virtus in these historical narratives served as a form of self-definition which fostered and propagated a new model of the ideal Roman more fitting to imperial times. As a crucial moral and political concept, virtus worked as a key idea in the complex system of Roman socio-cultural values and norms which underpinned Roman attitudes about both present and past. This book offers a re-appraisal of the historians as promoters of change and continuity in the political culture of both the Republic and the Empire.

1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (109) ◽  
pp. 591-618
Author(s):  
Michael Brie

The analyses of the post-Soviet political transformation are dominated by a comparison of the actual processes occurring in the East European countries with highly normative and often ahistorical models of democracy. Specific historical legacies, incompetent or pro-Communist actors, and the lack of sufficient help from the West were made responsible for the observed deviations from the ideal. The concept used in this paper is that of a realistic model of urban machines as a specific local political regime which can be found under very divergent circumstances of rapid social change. lt is a regime where a political organization under conditions ofuniversal (at least male) suffrage is able to control the 'input' and 'output' dimensions of a local political system over a longer period of time. Its most important feature is a system of mass patronage which is the key instrument used in forming a winning coalition. This concept is applied to post-Soviel Moscow, analyzing the institutional and cultural environment and the political and economic formations.


Author(s):  
Hannah Cornwell

This book examines the two generations that spanned the collapse of the Republic and the Augustan period to understand how the concept of pax Romana, as a central ideology of Roman imperialism, evolved. The author argues for the integral nature of pax in understanding the changing dynamics of the Roman state through civil war to the creation of a new political system and world-rule. The period of the late Republic to the early Principate involved changes in the notion of imperialism. This is the story of how peace acquired a central role within imperial discourse over the course of the collapse of the Republican framework to become deployed in the legitimization of the Augustan regime. It is an examination of the movement from the debates over the content of the concept, in the dying Republic, to the creation of an authorized version controlled by the princeps, through an examination of a series of conceptions about peace, culminating with the pax augusta as the first crystallization of an imperial concept of peace. Just as there existed not one but a series of ideas concerning Roman imperialism, so too were there numerous different meanings, applications, and contexts within which Romans talked about ‘peace’. Examining these different nuances allows us insight into the ways they understood power dynamics, and how these were contingent on the political structures of the day. Roman discourses on peace were part of the wider discussion on the way in which Rome conceptualized her Empire and ideas of imperialism.


Author(s):  
Kanybek A. Kudayarov ◽  

Kyrgyzstan, like other states of the post-Soviet space, has passed a challenging path in its development since gaining independence. Three de- cades of the republic’s existence in the new geopolitical conditions revealed the peculiarities of its political, socio-economic and cultural evolution, that distinguish the Kyrgyz Republic from the Central Asian neighbours and other republics of Commonwealth of Independent States. Supporting the concept of the history of the Kyrgyz people while preserving certain traditions of the Turkic nomadic civilization has become a fundamental part of the emerging national identity. Another important feature of building the political system in the Kyrgyz Republic is the attempt to create a Western-style democratic state based on its own experience of implementing “nomadic democracy”. The presence of constant zigzag jumps in the evolution of the political system of the republic (i.e., repeated transitions from the presidential form of government to the presidential-parliamentary form and back) can be traced throughout the existence of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, it should be noted that the described processes are due to a special geographical location, which ini- tially affects the formation of the corresponding type of economic management. That in turn, affects the political development of the country.


2020 ◽  
pp. 78-111
Author(s):  
Maya Nadkarni

This chapter argues that the various attempts to distance the past became the condition of Hungary for its return in the form of nostalgia for socialist mass and popular culture. It discusses the remains of socialism from anachronistic monuments and devalued historical narratives to the detritus of an everyday life now on the brink of vanishing, such as candy bars and soda pop. Despite appearances, this nostalgia did not represent a wistful desire to return to the previous era nor simply to the gleeful impulse to laugh at state socialist kitsch found years earlier. The chapter explains the detachment of fond communal memories of certain objects from the political system that produced them. It points out the ironic invocation of the international discourse of cultural heritage that legitimate the trash of the previous era and enabled Hungarians to redefine themselves as both savvy capitalist consumers and cultured democratic citizens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-784
Author(s):  
Branko Smerdel

Democracies are at risk to be strangled by the populist demagogues, posturing as the only and true leaders of 'the people', while disregarding constitutional "structure of liberty", meaning that, the parliamentary supremacy, judicial review and, above all, the constitutional limits to the very direct decision making by the voters' constituencies. Referenda are being used ever more, often to push certain decision, which could not pass the parliament. The claim is that there must not be any limits to the power of the people. That phenomenon the most esteemed liberal magazine "The Economist" nicknamed coining the word "referendumania", apparently combining 'a mania' with 'referenda'. It has been received with a lot of sympathy by the general public, in circumstances when the television and the Internet shows all the misery of the numerous assemblies, not only in a new but also in the mature democracies. After the referendum on the Brexit has been used as an instrument of the political struggle in the mother of parliaments, Great Britain, which lead to the ongoing "melting down" of the highly valued British political system, it seems that the worst of prophecies are realized by advancing populist forces in a number of Euroepan states. Republic of Croatia has been for a long time exposed to such treats, by the political groups extremely opposed to governmental policies, first by the Catholic conservatives and most recently by the trade unionists. Due to the very inadequate regulation of the referenda on civil initiatives, whereas the decision is to be made by a majority of those who vote, without any quorum being provided, the posibilites of manipulation are enormous. In the lasting confusion, a number of politicians has already proclaimed their intention, if elected the president of the Republic, to use such a referendum in order to remove all the checks and balances between the chief of state and "the people". Taking such treats very seriously in the existing crisis of democracy, the author emphasizes hi plead for an interparty agreement which would enable the referendum to be properly regulated and thus incorporated into the system of a democratic constitutional democracy.


Author(s):  
Tri Samnuzulsari ◽  
Edison Edison ◽  
Wayu Eko Yudiatmaja

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the political transformation of the coffee shops in Kepulauan Riau before local leaders election. It is drived by the empirical facts that many coffee shops have transformed to be supporter of one of the candidates of local head government. By using grounded theory and thematic analysis, this study answers the critical questions of why the coffee shops change and what the factors affecting the transformation. A series of interview were conducted on a dozen of informants, consisted of political parties, campaign and success teams of the candidates, Local General Elections Commission (KPUD), Local Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), the owners and the visitors of the coffee shop. Evidence of this study points out that the transformation of the coffee shops is the consequences of both political system and political structure in Indonesia. The empirical findings of this study are not only worthwile to the study of public sphere in the context of Indonesian local political setting but also to the practicioners in designing the truthful and fair local general election.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (57) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Stanisław Bożyk

The purpose of this article is to evaluate or to determine the constitutional status of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland in the light of the basic principles of the political system. The position of the lower chamber of the Polish parliament is presented in turn against the backdrop of four principles: the sovereignty of the Nation, political representation, political pluralism, and the separation and balancing of powers. In the context of the latter principle, the relationship between the Sejm and the executive is also presented.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venera Nauryzova ◽  
Umit Kairova

The article examines the history of the development of the Constitution and the status of constitutional values, the rule of law. The foundations of the constitutional reform have been determined. The political system of the state is clearly spelled out in our constitution. At the same time, this law for the first time describes the core of the political system - the presidential system. Today we can say that our Constitution and laws allow us to stimulate creativity and entrepreneurship. This norm defines the main purpose, the scope of public relations to be regulated by constitutional laws, laws, Presidential Decrees, regulations of government agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Attention should be paid to the role, meaning and features of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the main document of the country. In addition, it tells about the adoption of our Constitution, its achievements, measures to prove that Kazakhstan is a legal state. As soon as the draft of the new Constitution was published in the media for public discussion, it can be said that in fact the whole country began its work. It is said that the Constitution of the Republic is the initiator of a new stage of constitutional development, which has a high legal force and stability, strengthens and regulates the basic social relations in the field of legal status of citizens, civil society institutions, state organizations and government agencies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Karyono

<p>Building democracy is not something easy, democracy as a political system has become the choice of our founding fathers. Democracy to this day is still considered to be the best political system of the political system that has ever existed. As the best political system, democracy must be cared for and fostered in order to thrive in our country, the Republic of Indonesia. However, at present, there are many efforts that distort democracy. SARA politics developed by certain groups for example. Besides the hoax news that is repeatedly spread so that it is considered a truth. This ultimately made people including millennials confused. This paper aims to explore more deeply how to build a democratic democracy and the dynamics of the 2019 presidential election. In this paper the literature research method is used. In the discussion it can be concluded that the challenge of the 2019 general election is: how to deal with challenges ahead of the 2019 general election in Indonesia to implement an effective political constellation to build political stability.</p>


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