Introduction

The introductory chapter sets forth the book’s central argument that the struggle over inequality has been the underlying force driving the unfolding of all human history. This struggle underlies the other presumed primary drivers of history such as technological advances, demographics, group conflict, war, religion, or great men. Three key supporting claims are briefly explored. First, the ultimate driving force for inequality is found in human biology, the fact that the decisive competition that counts for sexually reproducing animal species is success in mating and thereby sending one’s unique set of genes into future generations. Second, because of sexual selection and because humans are social beings, inequality underlies all politics. Third, although physical violence always remains the trump card in creating, maintaining, or increasing inequality, ideology has always been, day to day, the most important inequality-sustaining political weapon. How the book will unfold is then set forth.

Self-Criticism in Post-Communist Times

This article revisits the category of self-criticism, which, as a speech act, plays a special role in the discourse of the intelligentsia, emerging from the peripheral status of Poland and from the imperative to catch up with the West. In contemporary Poland, self-criticism has revived as a discursive strategy in the context of coming to terms with the democratic transformation. For the right-wing intelligentsia, self-criticism is mainly a postulate that is addressed to political adversaries. For the left-liberal intelligentsia, self-criticism is not only a political weapon but also a strategy of introspective enunciation directed at the post-transformation society. A qualitative discourse analysis of selected acts of self-criticism performed by Polish left-liberal elites between 2013 and 2019 highlights two interconnected conflict-generating fields of debate: (1) reckoning with the neoliberal and pro-Western model of the 1989 democratic transition and (2) retribution on the post-transition intellectual elites that patronized the people and the attribution of responsibility for the Elite-People Division. The distinguished functions of self-criticism point to the political and class conflict as well as to the growing delegitimacy of the dominance of the neoliberal narrative about the Polish model of modernization.

Influence of social media will grow in Madagascar

Significance The situation has exposed several scandals, putting President Andry Rajoelina and his entourage on the political defensive. Social media has become a potent political weapon in the hands of ruling elites as a way to shape political narratives and discredit opponents. Impacts Rajoelina will struggle to hold together his circle of political allies in the run-up to the 2023 elections. Opposition groups will have difficulty capitalising on government divisions due to their own fragmentation. Social media will play an increasingly central role in driving political debate.

Penafsiran Restriktif Atas Pasal 28 Ayat (2) UU ITE

The purpose this paper to interpret the content of a law, namely is the regulation regarding the ethics of delivering criticism through social media as regulated in the ITE Law. Article 28 Paragraph (2) of the UU ITE is considered to limit constitusional rights of opinin and expression. The explanation of Article 28 Paragraph (2) transctional and electronic information law is gives different interpretations as fragments of paragraph “spreading informaton” and “causing a sense of hatred/hostility”. This considered an unclear limitation on the right to freedom opinion and expression on social media. The problem in study is how to interpret the restrictive and application the law solving problem of hate speech on social media. The method used in this study, normative juridical approach, is the carried out based on the main legal material by examining theories, concepts, legal principles and laws regulations. It can be concluded in Indonesia a legal state where every action citizens is regulated in laws, the regulatin of submitting criticism through social media which is regulated in Law no. 11 of 2008 UU ITE. The Article 28 Paragraph (2) transactional and electronic information law, gives rise to the vage normen (blurred norms). It is can be abused silencing freedom of opinion and even becoming a political weapon. In the application of this law, it is indicated that there is duplication of criminal acts which are actually vulnerable to legal uncertainty so that it has the potential to cause turmoil in society.

Liberal Internationalism, Decolonization, and International Accountability at the United Nations: The British Dilemma

Even as policymakers in both the United States and Britain agreed that decolonization should be gradual, the principles and institutions that the Americans advocated undermined the very prospect of the sort of gradual change they claimed to prefer. At the heart of the matter was the notion of political accountability to an international organization. While American policymakers assumed that such accountability would—and should—be established after the Second World War, British policymakers recognized that the mere assent to the principle of international political accountability would lead to the pressure to decolonize more rapidly. American policymakers would constantly reassure their British counterparts that the commitments to international accountability which they had undertaken under American pressure were safely restricted to the moral and legal realm and would therefore not undermine their ability to govern in the colonies. But policymakers in Britain accurately predicted that once admitted in principle, the moral commitment to political accountability to the international community would become a political weapon against the colonial powers. The American conviction—which stemmed from a thoroughgoing liberal internationalism—that the colonial powers could persuade the anti-colonial powers to moderate their stance and sympathize with the dilemmas of decolonization was refuted time and again.

India's tryst with Modi-fare 2014–19: towards a universalistic welfare regime

PurposeThis paper examines India’s tryst with welfare/dis-fare with a specific focus on Modi Sarkar's (2014–2019) dirigiste style reforms. In the welfare regime research, Esping-Andersen (1990) classified advanced economies into three ideal-types of liberal, conservative-corporatist and social-democratic welfare states by government-led welfare provisions and levels of decommodification. The classical typology discussions include countries such as India which is classified as informal-insecurity regime due to a large informal economy with no social security for workers. Based on theoretical standpoints of the political economy of welfare states, comparative historical institutionalism and critical junctures this article examines Modifare has expanded formal welfare to its citizens.Design/methodology/approachThe article uses crisp-set analysis to examine the social policy developments under Modi's regime in India.FindingsThis paper examines if the centre-right Modi government did bring about a radical departure from UPA I and II lacklustre welfare approach to the more strategic use of welfare reforms as a political weapon on a national scale. It concludes that Modi-fare falls short in being transformatory.Originality/valueThe article is an original contribution to the field of comparative welfare regimes.

Anti-Semitism, Denunciation, and the Frankfurt Trial against Rosa Luxemburg

This paper examines the largely overlooked role of denunciation in initiating the Frankfurt trial of Rosa Luxemburg in early 1914 for inciting disobedience among German soldiers, and corrects errors that have entered the scholarly literature on the topic. This is then taken as the starting point for wider reflections on the connections between denunciation, anti-Semitism, and anti-socialism in Germany in the ‘long nineteenth century’. It will be argued that the practice of denunciation, directed both against the political Left and against Jews, long preceded the now well-documented salience of denunciation in the Nazi dictatorship. Denunciation was thus an asymmetrical political weapon – it could be invoked against the political Left by their right-wing and conservative opponents in nineteenth-century Germany, but was not available to the democratic Left, nor would it have been palatable to them. The capacity of German anti-Semites to resort to denunciation of Social Democrats also highlights the extent to which anti-Semites could count on being regarded as among the ‘state-supporting’ parties in Imperial Germany.

Russia seeks regional buy-in for its Syria plans

Significance More conventional statements coming out of Moscow last week warned that Western policies designed to contain Damascus could drive more refugees into Europe and accused the United States of deliberately fostering instability in north-east Syria. Such statements reflect the mix of military engagement and diplomatic leverage that Moscow is using in pursuit of a settlement that keeps President Bashar al-Assad in power. Impacts Russia will do little to mitigate the humanitarian situation in Syria but will use it as a political weapon against the West. Success in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean will bolster regional perceptions of Russia as a great power at the expense of the West. Russia will avoid making the same level of military investment in Libya, the Central African Republic and any other zones.