Search results for "POLITICS"
showing 10 items of 2266 documents
Two Cases from Central America: Attitudes of Political Elites in Panama and Guatemala
2020
Panama and Guatemala represent two very different political experiences in the Central American region. Also their political elites show different patterns. The disparities in their recent histories, their economies, and their formal and informal institutions have impacted on their representation and composition of their elites. Both countries are characterized by the influence of economy on politics. However, while in Panama the wealth of the canal has contributed to political stability, in Guatemala the old oligarchies have preserved its power by preventing the strengthening of institutions. Nonetheless, in spite of the issues that affect each country, there may be some similarities. One …
Saying the Saffu and Beating the Law: The Changing Role of Sacred Sites in the Oromo Politico-Juridical System
2013
This chapter presents a semiotic analysis of the role of sacred sites and other physical features and objects in key political/religious rituals of the Oromo people living in the Horn of Africa. Theoretically, it builds on Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of the concept of ‘archive’ as an intersection of the topological and the nomological of the place and the law. For Derrida, the place of the archive is not a locatable place, but a topos, the marking of a discourse. In contrast to the European tradition based primarily on archives inscribed in writing and summarised in a codified law, for the traditional Oromo society, laws were part of the oral tradition – a mixture of religion, law and …
Tourism, Poverty Reduction and the Political Economy: Egyptian Perspectives on Tourism's Economic Benefits in a Semi-RentierState
2006
Abstract Tourism's potential as a tool for poverty reduction in developing countries is still part of an endless controversy. This paper argues that one of the main problems of the debate is rooted in a missing nexus between micro- and macro-perspectives. The result is a lack of an adequate consideration of local socio-political power structures and their influence on development issues. Macro-perspective paradigms – like dependency or neoclassic theory – tend to argue from a Euro-centric perspective and largely ignore local political conditions. On the other hand, micro-perspectives – like the alternative development paradigm – emphasize local conditions, but tend to underestimate superior…
Does Non-Domination Imply Freedom? A Discussion of the Neorepublican Conception of Freedom
2018
Conceptual discussion is an often underrated but important matter: Concepts provide the vantage point from which we identify and sort relevant aspects of reality (Ladwig 2009: 20-21). For political theorists – and political scientists more generally – “power” and “freedom” are especially important concepts for making sense of political phenomena. One important contribution to the debate regarding these concepts is Ruth Zimmerling’s book Influence and Power (2005).
The discoursive research orientation and its marxist inspiration
2014
Questions about the specifics of bulding of socio-political sphere phenomenon, lied at the dawn of countless attempts of systematization of knowledge over this subject, and of constructing the axioms, responding to efforts to enucleate of algorithm, ruling the dynamics of this sphere. One of such examples is discoursive research orientation. It was an effect of series of transformations inside social sciences during XXth century. Nonetheless, its program was not completely utilized by researchers achivements. I would like to express the conviction that primary catalogue of inspirations derives from rich achivements of Marxist thought. As node points of those considerations I take four inspi…
The Lord’s Resistance Army and the arms that brought the Lord
2019
This article develops the notion of polyphonic silence as a means for thinking through the ethical and political ramifications of ethnographically encountering and writing about silenced violent pasts. To do so, it analyses and contrasts the silence surrounding two periods of extreme violence in northern Uganda: 1) the northern Ugandan war (1986–2006), which is contemporarily often shrouded by silence, and 2) the early decades of colonial and missionary expansion, which the Catholic church silences in its commemoration of the death of two Acholi catechists in 1918. Employing the notion of polyphony, the article describes how neither of these silences is a mere absence of narration. Instead,…
Intellectual Power in Europe
2018
In this chapter, the author argues that the increasing complexity of European societies accentuates the need for a discourse that unites specialists—mathematicians, engineers, humanists—and the public. European societies are constantly haunted by the fragmentation of knowledge relating to political and social life. This can be seen in the decline in political participation as well as the discontent with globalization and resistance to social reforms. These phenomena are related to the status of intellectuals as producers of public discourse. The author concentrates on two socio-cultural aspects that influence the transformation of the role of intellectuals, a substantial aspect, the questio…
'The Franco Dictatorship: A Proposal for Analysis in Terms of Political Cultures'.
2019
This chapter proposes the study of the Franco dictatorship through the prism of the analytical tool of political culture. The main argument is that the aforementioned approach enables us to pose new questions and direct our analytical focus from different angles. Mainly, it allows us to go beyond a confirmation of the internal heterogeneity of the regime to examine the extent to which this was not exclusively an instance of a hybrid structure, but of a political force made up of diverse components—fascists and reactionary nationalists—whose various movements and specific actions all eventually gave shape to the regime. Consequently, the attention is directed to both, the fascistized nature …
Algunas reflexiones sobre el significado de Hernán Cortés a finales del Antiguo Régimen: Discursos de poder, identidad y usos de la historia
2016
This article aims to reflect on the construction of identities about the conqueror Hernan Cortes in the Late Eighteenth Century. It deals with the different channels which were used to transmit his image and to build the myth of Cortes. This approach allows us to pay attention to the connections and relationships between the individual and the collective scopes. It focuses on how the interests of different historical actors (peninsular Spaniards) were projected on Cortes as a symbol of the modern subject. The political uses of Cortes and his historical uniqueness allow us to establish connections between the national question, colonialism, the production of discourses of power and the trans…
Cel uświęca środki? O współczesnym wymiarze politycznego makiawelizmu na przykładzie wyborów samorządowych w 2010 roku w województwie opolskim
2012
The paper is an attempt to analyze the marketing activities of selected candidates running for office in the local authorities of the Opolskie Region in 2010. A large proportion of these candidates implemented the Machiavellian principle that the end justifies the means, and they tried to win power, almost trampling over corpses, using all available methods to succeed. Niccol ò Machiavelli, the author of The Prince argued five centuries earlier that the good of state justifies ruses, cruelty and violence. The present face of political Machiavellianism is different, as many people value power itself rather than the good of the state or region. As a result, voters observe a political farce un…