Search results for "POLITICAL ECONOMY"

Māwardī and Machiavelli : Reflections on Power in their Mirrors for Princes

2018

Abstract Despite their apparently contradictory views on religion’s role in statecraft, and despite being separated by both history and geography, Al-Mawardi and Machiavelli approach the question of political power in an unapologetically direct fashion. This paper interrogates their philosophies and the way in which their highly unstable social settings and their rather more stable religious traditions intersect in two of their key texts, The Ordinances of Government and The Prince, respectively. These texts demonstrate that even early Muslim tradition had a theory of impersonal governance, whereas 500 years later Europeans had by no means given up on narratives of personified power.

Foreign policy and de-Europeanization under the M5S–League government: exploring the Italian behavior in the UN General Assembly

2021

This article explores the first declaredly populist and Eurosceptical Italian government’s role as a potential driver of de-Europeanization dynamics in Italian foreign policy. After describing the M5S–League government’s discursive de-Europeanization on core substantive EU values, the article focuses on multilateralism, a critical pillar of Italian foreign policy and a substantive norm of the European Union, and investigates the actual foreign policy conduct in the UN General Assembly. By analyzing the voting and sponsoring behavior of the M5S-League government, the article systematically assesses variations in de-Europeanization’s critical dimensions (culture of cooperation, repudiation of…

Decentralization, the State and Conflicts over Local Boundaries in Northern Ghana

2006

Decentralization projects, such as that initiated by the Rawlings government in Ghana at the end of the 1980s, create a political space in which the relations between local political communities and the state are re-negotiated. In many cases, the devolution of power intensifies special-interest politics and political mobilization aiming at securing a ‘larger share of the national cake’, that is, more state funds, infrastructure and posts for the locality. To legitimate their claims vis-a-vis the state, civic associations (‘hometown’ unions), traditional rulers and other non-state institutions often invoke some form of ‘natural’ solidarity, and decentralization projects thus become arenas of…

Mobilities and Globalization in the Aftermath of COVID-19

2021

Will COVID-19 kill tourism? This was a big question that came to trouble everyone dependent upon tourism, especially in the early days of it being declared a pandemic. Before it became a pandemic, experts opined that Chinese tourists and tourism businesses would be cut off from it; certain political groups in the US considered this to be a blessing in disguise. Covertly and overtly, many even celebrated how COVID-19 would dent the Chinese economy. Then, it was declared as a global pandemic, and panic ensued. The US and Europe found they no longer had the upper hand over China in containing it; rather, to the surprise of many, the Chinese government proved it could weather a pandemic much be…

The Origins of Social Ventures

2021

This chapter addresses the social venture as a form of organization that has a role in the current society. In an economy based on markets, the intervention of multiple actors by itself—like governments, social movements, charity, and social ventures—cannot ensure the mechanisms necessary to the proper working of the system. In this way, markets present a set of failures and externalities that government action tries to solve. However, government action is limited due to a set of circumstances. Social movements and charity emerge to overcome the government’s limitations. Social entrepreneurship, as the last organization analyzed in this chapter, arises when social movements and charities fa…

Final Reflections: Global Challenges from Innovation and Connectivity

2020

Lattemann et al. summarize the discussions in the edited book on Huawei goes Global—with Vol. I examining the major global threads caused by the rise of tech-giant Huawei. They recap the debate about the tensions between China and the Western world about global leadership, geopolitical power, national security, ideological, and economic threats, global connectivity, and about the shape of the upcoming technological world order. The culminating point is the question about the link between Huawei and the Chinese Government. The 5G standard, pushed by Huawei, has the power to change the world. The closeness of the ties between Huawei and the Chinese Government will decide if the world will end…

[NO TITLE AVAILABLE]

2006

An Overview of Attitude Towards Selected Aspects of Electoral Programs of Polish Political Groups Taking Part in the 2014 Elections to the European P…

2017

Elections to the European Parliament (EP), because of its role in establishing the legal order in member states of the European Union (EU), should become increasingly crucial among all the direct elections in which Poles participate in our country’s political system.  But the results of analyses carried out by various research institutions indicate that, in Polish public opinion, the elections to the EP are the least important in terms of the meaning they have for Poles. Since the start of their organization, these elections have consistently come second (in terms of significance) to domestic elections – Presidential, Parliamentary, and local. Yet these elections, for many reasons, were act…

Squaring the welfare circle and government ideology: Greece and Spain in the 1990s

1999

This article examines the “squaring the welfare circle” thesis and its usefulness to our understanding of welfare developments in Greece and Spain in the 1990s. The welfare state in both Greece and Spain was expanded considerably in the early 1980s by the newly elected socialist governments, only to hit the buffers of diminishing resources and rising demands in the late 1980s as well as the hostile neo-liberal welfare ideology. The process of welfare expansion was halted in the 1990s, labour market deregulation was encouraged and containment of welfare expenditure became the dominant aim of government policies. This article concentrates on the actual policies of governments in the 1990s rat…

Sports Cars, Sleaze and Gamma Rays: Rhineland-Palatinate Elects its First Red-Green Government

2012

The 2011 election in Rhineland-Palatinate was a political earthquake: Following a string of political scandals, the SPD lost almost ten percentage points of their support, while the CDU could hardly improve on their disastrous 2006 result. The FDP is no longer represented in the state parliament. The Greens more than tripled their last result, allowing them to enter a coalition with the SPD for the first time. Analyses at the municipal level show that the party improved most in their urban strongholds while still showing a (relatively) weak performance in rural areas. This will make it difficult to sustain the momentum of their victory. Moreover, the SPD is battered and bruised and needs to…