On Community in the Political Theology of Jacob Taubes

The present paper aims to analyse through a systematic approach the notion of “community” encountered in the works of Jacob Taubes. Under a theologico-political scenario, the author discusses the political framework of Saint Paul in his Letter to the Romans. According to Taubes, the Apostle inaugurates a new type of sovereignty — acquired by the grace of God, and not by the divine law. Ultimately, the plan of Paul is to create a new “life” for the community of Christians through spirit (gr. πνεῦμα) and the highest form of love (gr. ἀγάπη). According to the author, the Letter to the Romans perfectly illustrates the transformation of the political, where the idea of hierarchy is replaced with the one of equilibrium; under this equation religion is not authority, but participation in community. From a more practical point of view, the political theology of Jacob Taubes is interested in answering the following dilemma: how is it possible for a community that sees its Lord crucified on the Cross not to create rebellions, but, on the contrary, to generally cultivate an obedient attitude towards state authority? Ultimately, while mapping the author’s understanding of community, the paper also brings into attention what the transformation of the political means for Taubes and why political theology is the scenario that accommodates the revolutionised community.

The Interpretation of Certain Norms of the General Administrative Code of Georgia and Law of Georgia on Police

This article is related to issues of interpretation of certain norms defined under General Administrative Code of Georgia and Law of Georgia on Police. In particular, Article 3 of the General Administrative Code of Georgia regulates the scope of this code. However, pro-vision of the Article 4 does not contain any reference to the administrative offenses committed by the police and other administrative bodies, what in specific cases may lead to ambiguity in regards the scope of this code – as subject required by the General Administrative Code of Georgia and Administrative Offenses Code of Georgia, in both cases is an authorized administrative body (officials). Responding to administrative offenses by police is an important part of the activities carried out by the state authority (police). There- fore, Law of Georgia on Police distinguishes preventive function of the police from function of responding to offense. Also, the Article 5 of the law defines legal grounds for police activities, however this article does not contain specific references to Administrative Offenses Code of Georgia what can be deemed as legislative shortcoming. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned, in order to clarify the law and to achieve objective goal of the legal norm, below listed terms shall be added to 1. General Administrative Code of Georgia Section 4, Article 3, and 2. Law of Georgia on Police, Article 5.

ACQUIRING ELEMENTS OF SOLAR FARM DEVELOPMENT’S APPROVAL CONSIDERATION IN JOHOR

In order to fulfil the increasing energy demand, Malaysia aims to reduce carbon emission by 45 percent by 2030, and becomes fully carbon neutral by 2050. However, promoting this energy has inevitably forced this new industry to face some drawbacks particularly related to land matters, especially solar farm development, which is still new in the country and does not have any proper guidance. As the control of land planning and development is under the responsibility of the State Authority as enshrined in Article 74 of the Federal Constitution, the implementation is different in each state due to different land policy known as the State Land Rules. Thus, selected respondents have been interviewed, and the findings have been acquired regarding the elements of solar farm development’s approval consideration from the perspectives of land administrator, planner, and developer. This leads to a direction to standardize a legal framework of the land approval consideration for solar farm development especially in Johor.

RE-APPRAISING LAND DEVELOPMENT APPROVAL PROCEDURE THROUGH SURRENDER AND RE-ALIENATION MECHANISM IN JOHOR

The surrender and re-alienation or ‘serah balik kurnia semula’ (SBKS) mechanism in Johor has remained essentially significant for the state authority income. On account of the delay issues that impacted processing agencies and related stakeholders particularly state authority, the purpose of this article is to study the process and procedure conducted by Pejabat Tanah Johor Bahru (PTJB) in processing SBKS applications through (i) Identifying issues and challenges of existing processes and procedures that prevent the application of approval to be done in a timely manner; and (ii) To propose recommendation towards simplification and time-saving approval processes and procedures of surrender and re-alienation applications. From the analysis, there were 11 delay issues found to complete the 20 steps of the process. Thus, recommendations of approval were suggested by approval agencies and related stakeholders conducted in several series of Focus Group Discussion (FGD) as efforts to mitigate the delay issues faced by both sectors and hence accelerate the development process and generate state authority income effectively.

Occupations and Prisons: Writing, Thought and Affected Spaces Apropos Patricia Heras, Marina Garcés and Mireia Sallarès

Starting from texts by poet and activist Patricia Heras, philosopher Marina Garcés, and artist Mireia Sallarès, this article will focus on the affective value of spaces in the public sphere. Heras, Garcés and Sallarès converge in an emotional appropriation of shared spaces that generates new forms of commitment to the community. Their works also constitute synergic affective atmospheres that confer value on anonymous or stigmatised subjects. Space and emotion are thus united in emotopes that, starting from individual experiences, transcend them to become incipient symbols of the transformation of a city, the resistance to the state authority or the survival of a country wounded by wars.

Chad’s northern protests point to fragile peripheries

Significance Demonstrations had started in mid-November, when the governor decided to confiscate vehicles that did not conform to regulations in an effort to crack down on criminality. However, the severity of the protests reflects deep-seated economic and security-related grievances among youth that extend beyond one administrator. Impacts Further disturbances in Faya-Largeau would cast an unwelcome shadow over the inclusive national dialogue with rebel groups. The weakness of state authority in the north will be a challenge for election administration in 2022. Unrest in Faya-Largeau and the north more broadly may embolden rebels, who attempted major assaults on Chad in 2019 and 2021.

COVID’s Effect on India’s Health Services: A Commentary

Using a comprehensive framework (the state’s will to deliver, its institutional strength and its legitimacy), this article assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public sector healthcare services in India. The power to deliver was explicit when the interventions were harsh, increasing the burden of death and disease on health services. But when it came to healthcare by the public sector we find a worsening of achievements of non-COVID ailments during the pandemic and an inability to tackle the second wave due to gaps in the nation's infrastructure, a centralised control undermining state authority; and visible results of a flawed policy that pushed further the agenda of making healthcare a profitable business.

The Hungarian-Jewish Social Contract, its Rupture, and Jewish Death Rituals

This article explores the supposedly reciprocal social contract between “Greater Hungary” and its Jewish population from the “Golden Age” of the Dual Monarchy to its rupture in the Holocaust. The afterlife of this broken contract will be addressed through the upkeep and neglect of cemeteries in Subcarpathia and Hungary proper. Along the way, I present memoiristic vignettes that illustrate the challenge of loyalty to state / military authority and death rituals in the time of the 1918-1919 Hungarian-Romanian War, Jewish mourning in the context of Czechoslovakia’s loss of Subcarpathia, and the disjuncture between the normal praxis of death ritual and the spectre of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as the ritual contrast to Hungarian Jews who were deported, but not to Auschwitz. I also turn to the historical research of Tim Cole and Daniel Rosenthal, in conjunction with Hungarian (especially North-Transylvanian) Holocaust memoirs, to reflect on Holocaust-era suicide as a mode of victims’ resistance to their brutalization by Hungarian gendarmes -- the pinnacle of the betrayal of the erstwhile contract between Hungarian state authority and its Jewish population.

Scenario-based Planning of State Material Reserves: Case Study of Latvia

The article deals with the issue of identifying required material reserves, also referred to as strategic or emergency reserves. These reserves are managed by state authority as part of national crisis preparedness. The article explores how scenarios can be used as a method for planning, i.e. determining adequate, realistic, and affordable material reserves. A scenario-based analysis, well proven in the defence planning domain, is identified as a method offering a high degree of analytical rigor and traceability of resulting requirements. Selected planning scenarios clearly must reflect national threat/hazard and risk assessments. They also have to reflect other important national policies, such as those governing economy, industry, health care, or environment. The illustrative conduct of the initial steps of the proposed method is demonstrated using Latvia’s security policy circumstances.

Subversive Archaism

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals and communities living at the margins of the modern nation-state use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state authority under both democratic and authoritarian governments. Through close attention to the claims and experiences of mountain shepherds in Greece and urban slum dwellers in Thailand, Herzfeld shows how these subversive archaists draw on national histories and past polities to claim legitimacy for their defiance of bureaucratic authority. Although vilified by government authorities as remote, primitive, or dangerous—often as preemptive justification for violent repression—these groups are not revolutionaries and do not reject national identity, but they do question the equation of state and nation. Herzfeld explores the political strengths and vulnerabilities of their deployment of heritage and the weaknesses they expose in the bureaucratic and ethnonational state in an era of accelerated globalization.