The ulus elite of the Yakuts in the communicative space of the Russian state from the 17th to 19th centuries

The article discusses the incorporation of the elite of the Yakut uluses - traditional potestary institutions - into the Russian state through its communicative space. At the same time, a new interpretation of uluses is given as a special political form of organization of nomadic peoples. In view of their dispersed and mobile lifestyle, communication played an important role among them. With titles such as toyons, kniastsy , and "best people", the taxonomy of the representatives of the Yakut elite finds analogies among other nomadic peoples. The article discusses the genealogical principle of the legitimacy of power and the governance practice of the Russian state in Yakutia. This article breaks new ground by analyzing the routes and forms of political communication through which the influence of the Russian state on the ulus system in general and on the ulus elite in particular was carried out. The activities of the provincial administration in relation to toyons to make them Russian subjects are interpreted as a route for the formation of the communication space in the imperial outskirts. The delegations of the Yakut nobles to the Russian tsars of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the inclusion of Yakut elite representatives into the Russian nobility, expanded this space by increasing the Yakuts confidence in the ruling regime. The article also takes account of local features of this process, which influenced the rate and nature of incorporation. The paper characterizes the communicative practices of embedding the Yakut ulus elite into the district governance system of Yakutia. The author argues that typologically, the ideas of citizenship adopted in the Russian state and in the Yakut ulus elite coincided. The Yakut nobles, apparently, did not differ in this from the related Turkic-Mongol elites of Southern and Western Siberia, but differed, in turn, in the pace of transition to tsarist power, since the former had an alternative in the face of politically strong neighbors, for example, Dzungaria.

Pandemic challenges and models of democracy

This article examines the impact of a pandemic on democratic societies. The central research question is the extent to which a pandemic can alter the trajectory of social and ethical democratic development nationally and internationally. Therefore, the article examines contemporary controversies in democratic society in the aftermath of a pandemic. The leading hypothesis is that the pandemic should reinforce the need for social solidarity, but it is unclear what political form this need will take: populism or deliberative/nonconsensual democracy.

Conclusion

The book comes to four main conclusions. Contrary to an influential theory (Rogers Brubaker), it is, first, not discursive idioms about the nation that primarily determine the inclusive or exclusive character of citizenship. Rather, it was changing politico-social constellations—economic, demographic, and foreign policy interests and conjunctions—that defined the political form and practice of citizenship. Second, contrary to a dominant narrative, the frequently alleged qualitative divide of legal culture from Western to Eastern Europe is called into question. Third, the book’s historical cross-section supports a critical review of the widespread theory of convergence between regimes of citizenship in Europe. It specifies, instead, the historical conditions for expectations of Europeanization through law and thus for European citizenship. Fourth, the history of citizenship in Europe since the nineteenth century cannot be told as an exclusively European one. The politics and colonial practices of affiliation in the European powers’ overseas and continental colonial empires remained in effect well into the postcolonial policies of citizenship and migration, thus also shaping the inheritance of a current policy of citizenship in Europe.

Politics of Harmony, Social Capital, and Tolerant City

The city of Singkawang in the West Kalimantan Province of Indonesia is one of Indonesia's regions, which has a significant level of ethnic heterogeneity. It is very vulnerable to various conflicts. However, in 2018, Singkawang City was designated the most tolerant city in Indonesia through an assessment from the Setara Institute. For this reason, this study was conducted to analyze the political form of harmony and social capital as a Tolerant City in Singkawang City. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative with literature study as a method of data collection. Data analysis was carried out in stages, namely collecting data, summarizing the data, and making conclusions. This study finds that the form of political harmony is the cooperation of state actors, the Forum for Religious Harmony and intense society, communicative interactions, and relationships that complement and provide mutual reinforcement. The people of Singkawang City as the main actors have also seen and understood having a diverse perspective not to discriminate and intolerance. Besides, it was also found a form of social capital created from the relationship between ethnic communities in Singkawang City, namely in general norms and group characteristics. Keywords: Politics of Harmony; Social Capital; Tolerant City

Queer insurgency: Slava Mogutin and the politics of camp

The subject of this article is Russo-American artist Slava Mogutin. A close associate of Gosha Rubchinskiy and Lotta Volkova, Mogutin has been based in New York since 1995. While he originally shot to fame as a poet and novelist, Mogutin is today better known as a performance artist, filmmaker and photographer. The aim of my article is to locate Mogutin, and in particular his fashion photography, within current debates around the representation of masculinity and the construction of masculine subjectivity/-ies. More specifically, using a visual analysis methodology, I analyse the camp aesthetics of Mogutin’s fashion imagery. In a number of ways, Mogutin’s camp aesthetic raises questions about displacement and identity, the clash between individual desires and social norms and – as he puts it – ‘what it means to be a young man in the modern world’. It also constitutes an avowedly political challenge, not just to the state-sponsored homophobia and heteronormativity of Mogutin’s native Russia but also to the identity politics underpinning today’s fashion industry. I conclude by suggesting that Mogutin’s openly political form of camp might pose a challenge to the traditional Sontagian view of camp as apolitical.

High Stakes in the High North: Alternative Models for Greenland’s Ongoing Constitutional and Political Transformation

Given the widespread attention and curiosity that accompanied the critical response to former President Trump’s 2019 Greenland purchase initiative, even in the absence of forward movement on the plan, the White House’s renewed (and continuing under the new Biden administration) interest in the Arctic and its increasing commitment to engagement and forward presence in the High North Atlantic region, has nonetheless been positively reinforced in the many months since – and this surely has not escaped the attention of America’s principal rivals in Beijing and Moscow, nor of its friends in Greenland, Iceland and across the lightly-settled and strategically salient North Atlantic. As Greenland continues its transformation from colony to autonomy and beyond toward a more formally independent sovereign status, several models are examined in this thought essay that Greenland could potentially pursue as it evolves from its current constitutional and political form. Because of the dynamic uncertainties of the polar thaw, and the return of Westphalian state competition to the Arctic region in recent years, the potential independence of Greenland becomes instead a strategic wildcard needing to be closely studied and pro-actively engaged to ensure a future sovereign Greenland maintains the close, collaborative and friendly relationship with the United States and the West, optimally as part of NATO, that it currently pursues as a constituent component of Denmark.

Politics of Harmony, Social Capital and Tolerant Cities

Objective - Singkawang City, which is located in the Province of West Kalimantan-Indonesia, is a city with a significant level of ethnic heterogeneity, making it very vulnerable to various conflicts. However, in 2018, Singkawang City was named the most tolerant city in Indonesia through an assessment from the Setara Institute. For this reason, this study was conducted to analyze the political form of harmony and social capital, E-government as a Tolerant City in Singkawang City. Methodology – The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with literature study as a data collection method. Data analysis was carried out in stages, namely collecting data, summarizing data, and making conclusions. This study finds that the form of political harmony is the intense collaboration be-tween state actors, the Religious Harmony Forum, and the community. Findings – Interaction and commu-nicative relationships complement and strengthen each other. As the main actor, the people of Singkawang City have also seen and understood that they have diverse perspectives to avoid discrimination and intolerance. In addition, there are also forms of social capital created from the relationship between ethnic communities in Singkawang City, namely in the form of general norms and group characteristics.Therefore, it is concluded that the success of the Singkawang City government in making its area the most tolerant city in Indonesia from the Setara Institute in 2018 cannot be separated from the social capital owned by each tribe to live side by side in harmony with high values. spirit of tolerance. Novelty – In addition, e-government and knowledge management are also important points in the formation of a tolerant society in Singkawang City which has people from various backgrounds. Type of Paper - Review Keywords: political harmony; social capital; tolerant city; e-government JEL Classification: G32, H79. URI: http://gatrenterprise.com/GATRJournals/JFBR/vol6.1_2.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/jfbr.2021.6.1(2) Pages 51 – 61

The Spirit of Democracy

How does one revitalize democracy in times of crisis? Democracy is today challenged by populism and elitism, as well as by the resurgence of new forms of authoritarianism. The Spirit of Democracy: Corruption, Disintegration, Renewal shows that while we have good reasons to worry about the corruption of democratic practices and ideals, these worries are often attributable to questionable assumptions about what democracy is. Drawing on Montesquieu’s classical work on the spirit of laws, the book sets out to reconceive the ways in which we understand and conceptualize modern democracy: from sovereignty to spirit. According to Montesquieu, different political forms are animated and sustained by different spirits: a republic by virtue, a monarchy by honor, and a despotic form by fear. This book argues that modern democracy is a sui generis political form animated and sustained by a spirit of emancipation. The removal of divine, natural, and historical authorities in political affairs unleashes a fundamental uncertainty about the purpose and direction of society. In a democracy, we respond to that uncertainty by sharing and dividing it equally. It emancipates us from a state of self-incurred tutelage. Based on this argument, the book develops a new theoretical framework for studying the corruption, disintegration, and renewal of democracy: what it is, how it begins, and where in society it plays out.

The #MeeToo Movement as an e-Discourse: Social and Legal Effects

In this article, the #MeToo movement, as a socio-political form of e-discourse (discourse enacted on social media platforms and other types of online channels), will be examined in terms of the effectiveness of its discursive forms and the kinds of effects these have had on social consciousness generally with regard to sexual misconduct in the workplace, and in terms of the cases it has made famous against individuals via “trial-by-social-media,” and their outcomes in people’s lives. The specific cases discussed in this paper are those concerning well-known Swedish and American media personalities, which are assessed within a broad discourse and legal framework. Overall, we conclude that, while movement has had a profound effect on social consciousness, so far it has not impugned the validity of legal systems in countries such as Sweden and the United States. Keywords:#MeToo, e-discourse, social media trials, legal systems, sexual misconduct, sexual assault, sexual abuse