Wasta as Social Capital and Legitimate Conservative Order

The article examines the relationship between the traditional group relations (intrafamily, clan, etc.) in the Arab society, which provide access to the political rent, and the processes of socio-political modernization and the building of civil institutions. The Arab governments usually explain the inefficiency or “deviations” in the work of such institutions by national characteristics, adherence to the idea of nation-building, etc., but never by the desire to preserve power and assets of the traditional elites that are based on group loyalty. One of the most common ways of accessing power in order to acquire and redistribute tangible and intangible benefits in the Arab world is Wasta, or a system of connections, based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships. Loyalty to one’s group that almost everyone belongs to by birth or due to certain life circumstances ensures the interests of the individual in the broadest sense. Wasta’s network and group ties, based on the principles that are at odds with those that the civil society is built upon, impede the development and modernization of social and political institutions. While researchers have studied Wasta relations as such rather structurally, both at the micro-level (from the social network point of view) and at the macro-level (from the institutional point of view), the attempts to build a holistic model that considers Wasta simultaneously from both viewpoints have not yet been crowned with success. The article proposes the conceptualization of Wasta as social capital, which makes it possible to represent this type of relationship as one actor’s “investment” and the other actor’s “loan”. One can also use this holistic model in the analysis of other informal ties inherent in other cultures but also based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships and provide fertile soil for maintaining conservative order.

Whose Minority? The Resistant Identity of the Moldavian Csangos

The article is based on my fieldwork in 2002 in a village in Eastern Romania with a multi-confessional population made up mostly of Roman Catholics/Csangos and Orthodox Christians. The core premise of the analysis is that the collective identity manifested here transcends ethnic and confessional divides. The field data about the village’s cross-cultural life fall into the following categories: the oral history of the village, the performing of rituals, and the local history of modernization. These topics inform a single collective identity that is grounded in an expressive culture (Fredrik Barth) and as such requires critical reflection on the cultural complexity of collective identities as the Csangos, which have been formed within multiple and overlapping social and historical contexts. The subject is the different temporalities that emerge during political modernization. In conclusion, in the Csangos’ case, the constructivist concept of ethnicity should be revisited and complemented with an acknowledgment of Csangos’ benign self-identification, which sheds light on their discrete or hidden identity.

Religious modernism and fundamentalism within the national model of political modernization

Being a social religious institution, the church influences the formation of basic national values and specific features of national culture. In the process of modernization, there is a process of politicization of religion through the interaction of religious and political institutions. Due to the difference in the dynamics of modernization transformations and the adaptation of religion to new historical conditions, religious and political institutions acquire unique forms of interaction. This process is accompanied by the emergence of political parties on a religious basis, the formation of new religious and public organizations under the auspices of religious institutions, and the transformation of religious teachings themselves, which has an influence on the formation of a national model of modernization.

Political change: a conceptual approach and explanatory factors

The research discusses a conceptual approach and explanatory factors for political change, as political change, especially in the Arab case, is a concept that is still shrouded in a lot of ambiguity, through a descriptive and analytical methodology for this concept, due to its overlap with many concepts at the level of understanding and practice. In terms of the transformations that the political structures in society may undergo, or the nature of political processes and interactions between political forces, with a desire for partial change (reform), or comprehensive change of the whole system, So that the power and influence are redistributed within the state, and the transition from an authoritarian situation to a democratic one, where the concept of political change is determined based on the characteristic of this change, and this concept has also been linked to synonymous concepts such as political modernization and reform. Moreover, political change requires a set of foundations, rules and factors that the forces of change seek, in addition to employing change approaches that often come as a natural product of the thinking and principles of the forces seeking change, strategies for change, and the nature of the conditions of the stage in managing this process, that the intellectual awareness that forms the basis of the process Change at the level of the existing reality, and the alternative reality towards changing political structures in a way that will affect the centers of power in society, which requires harmony with the heritage background and cultural structure of the society, which necessitates the formation of a unified identity for the majority of citizens, meaning reaching a common vision that includes the largest possible number of supporters within the society.

Ways of Political Modernization of Russia and Traditions of Political Culture

Introduction. The article analyzes the phenomenon of reproducing authoritarian scenario of social and political modernization of Russia in the XX century. It is noted that the stability of political tradition of authoritarian governance can be explained by the mechanisms of action of the constants of Russian political culture, the presence of a certain modernization potential in authoritarian political institutions, as well as by geopolitical and geoeconomic conditions. Methods. Using the general scientific principle of complementarity, the author compares sociocultural, institutional and civilizational (technological) approaches to the analysis of Russian political culture. Causal explanations in combination with the analog method make it possible to reveal the relationship between the constants of political culture and various non-political practices of social life. The systemic and sociocultural approach is used to consider homogeneity and heterogeneity in the political culture of Russia, as well as the role of values in its impact on the process of modernization. Analysis. The author substantiates the conclusion that explanations of the content of Russian political culture, as well as the mechanisms and stability of its impact on the political process, are to be sought in the foundations of social organization and management of Russian society, the peculiarities of maintaining its social discipline and resolving conflicts, as well as in political experience of actors. It is argued that the depth of the split in the political culture of Russia and the strength of its impact on society and the political process are exaggerated. The manifestations of the unity of value orientations and political attitudes of the elite and wide strata of the population are considered. A variant of the periodization of Russian modernization is presented, demonstrating the historical logic of solving the problems of modernization, the objective conditionality of a gradual transition from an authoritarian to a democratic way of its implementation. The article shows the possibility of using integrating values of Russian political culture to substantiate the democratic version of its development.

THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL SECURITY ASSURANCE ON THE SOCIO-POLITICAL MODERNIZATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Global security, as a concept, has developed on the basis of international legislation on the national security of states, but also on international humanitarian law, which focus on the protection of global harmony and sustainable development. The national and international political system, in the phase of overcoming crises, in correlation with the challenges and threats to global security, acquires new valences and functions, given that international bodies, supported by national state structures, are forced to face the intensification of evolution. alignment of the world balance. As current threats of a global nature, but manifested locally and in connection with the national security of the Republic of Moldova were identified as: poverty, economic underdevelopment and energy dependence, transnistrian conflict, tensions in the area and foreign military presence, external coercion, the criminogenic factor, corruption, the demographic problem and the exacerbation of the migration phenomenon, population health, natural disasters, environmental pollution, technogenic accidents, information insecurity, instability of the financial-banking system.

Political Modernization in the Developing Countries: Challenges and Prospects

This paper is all about the political modernization of the developing world. The political party, Bureaucrats, Law enforcement forces have been a source of political modernization in the traditional as well as transitional democracies. But the primary duty of the political party serves as the main tool of running the state. Bureaucrats implemented the policy of government and Law enforcement force established the rule of law. Political parties, Bureaucrats, and Law enforcement forces are closely involved in bringing political modernization. Unfortunately, it is impossible to ensure political modernization without any one agent. The first part of this article is an attempt to discuss on meaning and conditions of political modernization. The second part of this study explained serious stumbling blocks in the implementation of political modernization in developing countries. The final part of the study highlights the prospects of political modernization based on different agencies like Political parties, Bureaucrats, and Law enforcement forces and makes a concluding remark on the overall concept.

Conclusion

Interpreting the US Constitution as an instrument of federal union has important implications in terms of understanding of the American founding. The Constitution mattered much more to the international than to the domestic history of the United States. Its importance to the latter was dwarfed by the role of state constitutions and state legislation. The Constitution provided the institutional basis on which the nation would grow in territory, population, and riches in the nineteenth century. But if the federal government was active in foreign policy, so-called Indian diplomacy, and the management of the national domain, it played only a limited role in domestic developments. To understand the processes of economic and political modernization that characterized the United States in the nineteenth century, that is, the transition to a market economy and to liberal democracy, it is necessary to study the actions and inactions of the American state governments.