Jajasan “Pembaruan”: Propaganda discourse through its printed products

The purpose of this paper is to describe Jajasan “Pembaruan” as a publisher that produced printed materials in the form of magazines and books in Indonesia (1950-1966). This study might be categorized in the history of communication as a political frame. This article examines particularly on how Jajasan “Pembaruan” as a political agent carried out propaganda with printed material productions in the form of book and magazine publications. As an agent of trans-nationalism, through the content in the publication, Jajasan “Pembaruan” as well as being a medium in shaping the concept of identity politically and culturally through discourse politics. This research shows that the publications by Jajasan “Pembaruan” were agents of political propaganda pioneered by several young people (political activists and leftist thinkers), the Indonesian Communist Party. Thus, the productions by Jajasan “Pembaruan” were at the same time a strong foundation in providing theory, politics, and practices regarding the idea of a “new way”, especially among the cadres of the Indonesian Communist Party about Indonesian political identity. Propaganda spread through books or magazines published by Jajasan “Pembaruan” was one of the discourse efforts of “decolonialization” in spreading various communist political views. Production or printed materials by Jajasan “Pembaruan” received support in a fluid communication network between countries in the context of the cold war.

Democracy against Popular Sovereignty? (Faces of Power of the People: Theoretic Reconstruction)

In the article, on the basis of the classical political philosophers, the author distinguishes between three ideal-typical modi of political superiority of the people: “democracy”, “popular sovereignty” and “the natural right of the people to vindicate the supreme power”. Differen ces between them are drawn according to the criteria of (a) the distance between the holder of the supreme power and the holder of power that allows the routine management of the state, and (b) the degree to which the former controls the latter. The theoretic reconstruction of the modi of the political superiority of the people is based on identifying three ways to assert political superiority, expressed in the concepts of κράτος, sovereignty and vindication. This approach makes it possible to trace the specifics of each of the identified modi: “democracy” in its original (ancient Greek) sense is the power of the people, based on the obvious superiority (over the nobility) in their strength, in their excess of power, thanks to which the people are able to effectively implement their will in the public sphere; “popular sovereignty” makes the people a key political agent not by referring to their excess of power, but by securing their legal position as a source of laws and any public power; finally, “the natural right of the people to vindicate the supreme power” asserts the moral and teleological primacy of the people’s good over that of the rulers. According to the author’s conclusion, the three modi of the political superiority of the people differ from each other primarily in the extent to which the people are involved in the political process. Under “democracy” this extent is maximal, in the case of the “natural right to vindication” it is minimal, while “popular sovereignty” finds itself in the middle between these two extremes: both threats of the decisive “alienation” of the people from power and its usurpation by the “trustees” and tyranny of the people are absent. The author thinks that this middle ground of the “popular sovereignty” represents one of the reasons why it is this modus that symbolizes the architectonics of the modern democracy.

De 德 Ethics in the Four Books

Through a detailed analysis of de德 as used in the Four Books (Sishu 四書), this article is intended to examine the unity between two kinds of virtue manifested respectively through cultivating an admirable character in one’s self (moral agent) and enabling aretaic activities in the public sphere (political agent). By investigating how early Confucian masters integrate internal goodness and virtuous governance as the moral reasons for the common good and the flourishing of human community, we seek to reconstruct the ethics in the Four Books that is focused on de as the gravity center. This leads in turn to an account of a particular kind of “virtue ethics” or better, de ethics, which has underpinned all Confucian discourses on personal character and political practices.

What Was It? (Preliminary Reflection on Khabarovsk Rallies)

The Khabarovsk protest has been going on for months: first, it suddenly made headlines of the world media and then it was pushed to the periphery of the information space. The predictions about the protest fading away stubbornly refuse to come true. Maybe not tens of thousands as it was earlier, but thousands of city residents still take to the streets. Moreover, tension, uncertainty, and discontent persist in the air. Dozens of articles and many reports have been written about Khabarovsk, and even a full-length docu mentary has been released. Nevertheless, the question remains: why did the population of the city, who for decades preferred to distance themselves from any government’s initiatives, all of a sudden switched to a strategy of protest? What part of this situation is unique to Khabarovsk, and where do we observe more general patterns? This article is devoted to finding answers to these questions. Having examined the main facets of the events unfolding in Khabarovsk, L.Bliakher and A.Kovalevsky come to the conclusion that these events are about the most important political phenomenon — formation of the political agency of the population that for many years has been reduced to the position of an object. In the case of Khabarovsk, residents started to perceive themselves as a political agent after the 2018 protest voting. In this situation, people began to view the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk region not so much as a good — or not very good — leader, but rather as a symbol of acquiring political agency, which became a key element of regional identification, formation of the local community. That is why his arrest was perceived by the residents of the region as a personal insult. And it is their identity that they defend on the streets of Khabarovsk.

Extraordinary Partisanship

This chapter addresses the question of what kind of a political agent could bring about a supranational separation of constituent and constituted powers in the EU. Given that an endogenous process of change seems unlikely, it asks which exogenous forces could trigger the establishment of a higher-level constituent power. In particular, the chapter engages with the idea that transnational partisanship could function as a vehicle for constituent power in the EU. It argues that the model of networked constituent power, according to which cross-border deliberation between members of like-minded parties should initiate and guide intergovernmental treaty making at the EU level, is unconvincing because it relies on establishes parties, which must be regarded as quasi-constituted powers. By means of a rational reconstruction of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, the chapter then develops an alternative model of extraordinary partisanship. An extraordinary partisan association ‘co-opts’ regular parliamentary elections to acquire a mandate for a project of constitutional change. Such an organization could enable citizens from various member states to promote an opening up of the EU polity for the exercise of constituent power.

Youth-led climate strikes: fresh opportunities and enduring challenges for youth research - commentary to Bowman

In this commentary I respond to Benjamin Bowman’s Fennia paper by extending upon his central thesis that argues that the prevailing methodological tools and framings used to research youth political participation perpetuate unhelpful and inadequate dichotomies about youth. Advancing upon this, I suggest that the youth climate strikes in 2019 highlight three prevalent discourses in youth research relating to climate change: (i) the tendency to view youth as isolated individuals, neglecting the role of adults and communities; (ii) the tendency to focus on individual behavioural change rather than recognise the need for systemic and societal responses to climate change, and (iii) the tendency to overlook structural characteristics of youth such as race, gender and social class. The resulting discourses of youth autonomy, individualism and homogeneity lead to a distorted picture of young activists and perpetuate harmful narratives which lead to stigma, despair and cynicism. The paper concludes by advocating for greater care in the research methodologies and critical frameworks we use to report on youth at public events, such as climate strikes, in order to allow for the complexity of the young political agent, the ambiguity of some of their actions and for opportunities that enable young people themselves to articulate their own participation.

Youth-led climate strikes: fresh opportunities and enduring challenges for youth research - commentary to Bowman

In this commentary I respond to Benjamin Bowman’s Fennia paper by extending upon his central thesis that argues that the prevailing methodological tools and framings used to research youth political participation perpetuate unhelpful and inadequate dichotomies about youth. Advancing upon this, I suggest that the youth climate strikes in 2019 highlight three prevalent discourses in youth research relating to climate change: (i) the tendency to view youth as isolated individuals, neglecting the role of adults and communities; (ii) the tendency to focus on individual behavioural change rather than recognise the need for systemic and societal responses to climate change, and (iii) the tendency to overlook structural characteristics of youth such as race, gender and social class. The resulting discourses of youth autonomy, individualism and homogeneity lead to a distorted picture of young activists and perpetuate harmful narratives which lead to stigma, despair and cynicism. The paper concludes by advocating for greater care in the research methodologies and critical frameworks we use to report on youth at public events, such as climate strikes, in order to allow for the complexity of the young political agent, the ambiguity of some of their actions and for opportunities that enable young people themselves to articulate their own participation.

Youth-led climate strikes: fresh opportunities and enduring challenges for youth research - commentary to Bowman

In this commentary I respond to Benjamin Bowman’s Fennia paper by extending upon his central thesis that argues that the prevailing methodological tools and framings used to research youth political participation perpetuate unhelpful and inadequate dichotomies about youth. Advancing upon this, I suggest that the youth climate strikes in 2019 highlight three prevalent discourses in youth research relating to climate change: (i) the tendency to view youth as isolated individuals, neglecting the role of adults and communities; (ii) the tendency to focus on individual behavioural change rather than recognise the need for systemic and societal responses to climate change, and (iii) the tendency to overlook structural characteristics of youth such as race, gender and social class. The resulting discourses of youth autonomy, individualism and homogeneity lead to a distorted picture of young activists and perpetuate harmful narratives which lead to stigma, despair and cynicism. The paper concludes by advocating for greater care in the research methodologies and critical frameworks we use to report on youth at public events, such as climate strikes, in order to allow for the complexity of the young political agent, the ambiguity of some of their actions and for opportunities that enable young people themselves to articulate their own participation.