scholarly journals Ethno-confessional immigrant ghettos as a national security problem in Denmark’s social and political discourse

Baltic Region ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
E.Yu. Talalaeva ◽  
T.S. Pronina

The ghettoisation of immigrant areas in Denmark is a lengthy and objective process of the emergence of ethno-religious ‘parallel societies’ in the state. Cultural and religious principles that are often at odds with the democratic values of Danish society guide the actions of ghetto residents. Danish social and political discourse pictures this ideological difference between the host society and Muslim immigrant minorities as a potential threat to Denmark’s national security caused by a combination of political, social, and economic factors. The ensuing social disunity and violation of the country’s territorial integrity take the problem to a regional and international level. Through analysing public speeches of Danish social and political actors, this article reconstructs key stages in the development of parallel societies in Denmark. Another focus is official government strategies to prevent isolated immigrant areas from turning into ghettoes: the Government’s Strategy against Ghettoisation (2004), Return of the Ghetto to Society: Confronting Parallel Societies in Denmark (2010), and One Denmark without Parallel Societies: No Ghettos in 2030 (2018). The escalation of the social conflict calls for the Danish authorities to take decisive action against the enclavisation of segregated immigrant communities. This study employs discourse analysis to evaluate the efficiency and identify the shortcomings of government action to integrate ethno-confessional minorities into society. Particular attention is paid to analysing public reaction to the criteria for identifying ghettoes as well as to annual publications of official ghetto lists.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Devi Rahma Fatmala ◽  
Amanda Amelia ◽  
Fitri Agustina Trianingsih

Today’s political discourse can’t be disattached from the usage of social media. There are plenty of political actors using it to campaign their issues and attack their political rival in order to influence public opinion. One of the instruments used by the political actor in using the social media is bot accounts. Bot accounts are an automated online account where all or substantially all of the actions or posts of that account are not the result of a person. The usage of bot accounts are viewed as harmful for democracy by many experts on law and democracy. However, a lot of states have no regulation regarding the usage of bot accounts, including Indonesia. This article is intended to bring legal review on the usage of bot accounts to influence public opinion in Indonesia. Using deliberative democratic theory, this article views that the usage of bot accounts could prevent the objective achievement of democracy based on UUD 1945. The authors recommend the regulation of bot accounts through the revision of UU No. 19 Tahun 2019 about Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik with bringing up various important argumentations regarding the law implementation. Keywords : Bot Accounts; Social Media; Public Opinion; Democracy; Legal Review.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-242
Author(s):  
Ugochukwu Ezeh

This article seeks to conceptualise anti-corruption legalism as a symptom of a broader phenomenon: the securitisation of corruption. Securitisation refers to the complex social processes through which political actors frame corruption as an existential threat to valued referent objects; construct it as a security problem; and, in turn, acquire broad mandates to tackle it by recourse to emergency measures. By building on case studies from contemporary Nigerian legal history, this article argues that the securitisation of corruption is mediated, to a considerable extent, by anti-corruption legalism - defined as a repertoire of legalistic rules, discourses, and practices that perform a regulatory crackdown on corruption. As a constitutive element of the securitisation of corruption, anti-corruption legalism excises corruption from legal and other normative frameworks applicable to other crimes with a view to tackling it through a repressive national security paradigm. Securitisation, in turn, catalyses the decline of the rule of law through its corrosive effects on judicial power, judicial independence, and human rights. Taken together, securitisation and anti-corruption legalism are counterproductive approaches insofar as they undermine the evolution of democratic values, political accountability mechanisms, and independent constitutional institutions that form the bedrock of meaningful and sustainable anti-corruption strategies.


Author(s):  
O. B. Berezovska-Chmil

  In this article theoretical and еmpirical analysis of social security are conducted. Ways of the optimization social security are argumented. The author notes that significant transformation processes are taking place in the country. They affect the state of security. It is noted that with the development of scientific and technological progress the number of threats and dangers does not decrease. At the same time, the essence of the phenomenon of "danger" is revealed. Empirical studies have been carried out on the basis of an analysis of problems related to ensuring the necessary safety of people. It is established that in recent times organized crime, including cybercrime, has spread widely in Ukraine. It has a negative impact on ensuring national security and sustainable development. A number of factors have been singled out. They are a potential threat to national security. Groups of possible dangers are determined. Summarizing the opinions of scientists, the essence of the concept of "social security" is characterized. It is emphasized that its state is influenced by the level of economic development, the effectiveness of social policy of the state and state regulation of social development. The authors have grounded the formation of national and social security, have proved that sustainable development is connected with the observance of social standards; have considered the development and implementation of a balanced social and environmental and economic policy. This policy would involve active use of the latest production technologies, minimizing the amount of harmful emissions to the environment, strengthening the role of the state in solving social and economic problems and sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
Yu.Yu. IERUSALIMSKY ◽  
◽  
A.B. RUDAKOV ◽  

The article is devoted to the study of such an important aspect of the activities of the World Russian People's Council (until 1995 it was called the World Russian Council) in the 90-s of the 20-th century as a discussion of national security issues and nuclear disarmament. At that time, a number of political and public figures actively called for the nuclear disarmament of Russia. Founded in 1993, the World Russian Council called for the Russian Federation to maintain a reasonable balance between reducing the arms race and fighting for the resumption of detente in international relations, on the one hand, and maintaining a powerful nuclear component of the armed forces of the country, on the other. The resolutions of the World Russian Council and the World Russian People's Council on the problems of the new concepts formation of foreign policy and national security of Russia in the context of NATO's eastward movement are analyzed in the article. It also shows the relationship between the provisions of the WRNS on security and nuclear weapons issues with Chapter VIII of the «Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church».


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Ghani Imad

The problematic addressed in this article is the challenge initiated by the Arab revolutions to reform the Arab political system in such a way as to facilitate the incorporation of ‘democracy’ at the core of its structure. Given the profound repercussions, this issue has become the most serious matter facing the forces of change in the Arab world today; meanwhile, it forms the most prominent challenge and the most difficult test confronting Islamists. The Islamist phenomenon is not an alien implant that descended upon us from another planet beyond the social context or manifestations of history. Thus it cannot but be an expression of political, cultural, and social needs and crises. Over the years this phenomenon has presented, through its discourse, an ideological logic that falls within the context of ‘advocacy’; however, today Islamists find themselves in office, and in a new context that requires them to produce a new type of discourse that pertains to the context of a ‘state’. Political participation ‘tames’ ideology and pushes political actors to rationalize their discourse in the face of daily political realities and the necessity of achievement. The logic of advocacy differs from that of the state: in the case of advocacy, ideology represents an enriching asset, whereas in the case of the state, it constitutes a heavy burden. This is one reason why so much discourse exists within religious jurisprudence related to interest or necessity or balancing outcomes. This article forms an epilogue to the series of articles on religion and the state published in previous issues of this journal. It adopts the methodologies of ‘discourse analysis’ and ‘case studies’ in an attempt to examine the arguments presented by Islamists under pressure from the opposition. It analyses the experiences, and the constraints, that inhibit the production of a ‘model’, and monitors the development of the discourse, its structure, and transformations between advocacy, revolution and the state.


2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-338
Author(s):  
Justice Richard Kwabena Owusu Kyei ◽  
Lidewyde H. Berckmoes

Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds on individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with political vigilante group members in Kumasi and Tamale in 2019. Findings show that political vigilante “youth” appeared to refer primarily to the social position attributed to non-elite groups in the political field. Political vigilante groups are multi-faceted in their organisational structures, membership, and activities both during electoral campaigns and during governing periods. While some groups revert to violence occasionally, the study concludes that political vigilante groups, in enabling different voices to be heard, are also contributing to democratic governance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
M’Balia Thomas

In the wake of ‘Black Lives Matter’, this paper examines the concept of testimonial injustice and the prejudicial stances held towards victims that diminishes the credibility of their claims and the social support they receive from the public. To explore this concept, the following work revisits the widely parodied U.S. originating broadcast news report, The Bed Intruder. In the broadcast, victims of a home invasion and attempted rape deliver a public call that outlines the conditions of their victimhood and the potential threat to the community. A rhetorical stylistic analysis of the victims’ testimonial discourse and a thematic analysis of a sample of YouTube videos that reappropriate and parody their discourse are conducted. The analyses highlight the memetic elements of the video parodies that acknowledge the victimisation and yet strategically misconstrue events in ways that 1) render the victims and their claims less credible and 2) fail to provide them with the moral concern such an acknowledgement deserves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohar Kampf ◽  
Roni Danziger

Abstract Communicating admiration and appreciation in public discourse are two important tasks for political actors who wish to secure relationships and advance models for civic behavior. Our goal in this study is to understand how political actors signal their desire to please addressees and advance political sociability by way of manifesting positive judgment towards others. On the basis of 241 utterances praising and complimenting others’ words and deeds, we identify the topics, patterns, and functions of these speech acts and the processes and struggles they evoke in Israeli public discourse. We conclude by discussing the role of positive evaluations in demarcating the boundaries of proper conduct in political communities and the ways the distinctive logic of politics is integrated with specific cultural speaking styles in influencing how members of the Israeli political community signal their appreciation and affect for other members’ skills, performances, and personalities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-181
Author(s):  
Andrey Borisovich Larin

The paper attempts to interpret the problem of Russian-British relations in Qajar Iran as a problem of mutual misunderstanding. It is postulated that the development of Russian-British relations in the 19th century (as well as their interpretation) took place in a situation of confrontation, which directly influenced the prospects for their improvement after the conclusion of the 1907 agreement. The both parties own languages of discussion and interpretation of Russian-British relations in Persia, developed over the decades of the Great Game, hindered the building of a productive constructive dialogue, driving political actors into the trap of already formed meanings and ideologemes. Thus, the concept of the Russian mission in Persia, which was significant for the Russian socio-political discourse, presupposed the legitimacy and justification of the widest Russian intervention in (Northern) Iran, the use of a wide variety of means of conducting its own policy. However, in the British society such approaches and interpretations did not find understanding, the language developed for discussing the Persian issue and Russian policy was invective in relation to Russia and did not allow adopting the meanings, organic for the latter. The understanding of this problem by the key actors did not lead to a fundamental change in the situation.


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