Search results for "Politics"
showing 10 items of 2266 documents
The consolidation of post‐autocratic democracies: A multi‐level model
1998
The mainstream of theoretical and empirical ‘consolidology’ speaks of consolidated and non‐consolidated democracies. This crude dichotomy does not allow for more differentiated judgments about the stage of consolidation of newly democratized political systems. To overcome this shortcoming, a multi‐level model of democratic consolidation is proposed, consisting of four interdependent levels. The particular configuration of each has specific impact on the consolidation of the other levels. The four levels are: constitutional, representative, behavioural, and civic cultural consolidation. This model helps us to understand why new democracies survive or collapse, to identify the degree to which…
The Hidden Counterpoint of Spanish Federalism: Recentralization and Resymmetrization in Spain (1978–2008)
2010
The recent evolution of the Spanish ‘State of Autonomies’ has given rise to numerous political and academic criticisms, which argue that the initial federal logic of the system is giving way to a confederal logic that threatens the cohesion of the state. This article contradicts the negative diagnosis, outlining the main mechanisms that retain and in fact reinforce the powers of federalization in tandem with the fundamental political decentralization process that has taken place since 1978. This paper focuses on three critical areas: the distribution of legislative power, the fiscal system and the dynamics of the political process. In these three areas powerful mechanisms are at work reinfo…
Repeated Multiparty Elections Expand Civil Liberties
2008
Democracy and Elections in Africa. By I. Lindberg Staffan. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 248 pp., $55.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-8018-8332-3), $24.95 paper (ISBN: 0-8018-8333-0). Democracy and multiparty elections are high on the agendas of many international actors, human rights groups, and African governments. Although the possibilities for free association, monitoring the use of power, and electoral competition have increased, electoral fraud and political violence are prevalent in many African countries. As a result, democratization remains a critical area for researchers and practitioners interested in African affairs. It is, therefore, exciting to come across a book that…
FATHERS AND CHILDREN OF IVORIAN INDEPENDENCE: METAPHORS OF KINSHIP AND GENERATION IN THE MAKING OF A NATIONAL TIME
2015
I look at the image of a generation of youth as the vanguard force of an ongoing struggle for independence and a new nation on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Ivorian independence. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of Reinhart Koselleck, I explore the making of national time as layered temporality, with generations not succeeding each other but rather coexisting. My analysis of expressions and performances of ‘doing being youth’ helps in understanding how the label ‘youth’ is used to mark membership in or exclusion from a collective. I examine the process of how ‘youth’ is made into a meaningful marker and how and why political actors engage in performances of ‘being youth’…
Utopianism in the Age of Capitalocene
2021
This article explores the social and political imagination of ‘the Anthropocene’ and the utopian counter images that can be derived from it. From the utopian studies perspective, I argue that the Anthropocene cannot provide sufficient societal alternatives for the current ecological predicament. This is due to the fact that the concept of Anthropocene relies too heavily on the image of abstract humanity to be able to offer real societal alternatives. It cannot name the social system we live in and, therefore, it cannot fundamentally challenge existing social arrangements. Based on utopian social theory, I conceptualize utopia as a counter image of the present motivated by a desire for bette…
Hegel and Hobbes on Institutions and Collective Actions
2004
. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is usually, and rightly, considered the foremost representative of the organistic conception of society. It is only natural to think that his view has nothing in common with the kind of individualistic outlook that dominates our legal and political thinking, and that I myself have tried to defend. I try to show why certain insights of Hegel are potentially important even for individualistic legal and political theories. First, I explicate some of the problems he struggled with, and compare his views with those of Thomas Hobbes. Next, I try to link his views to the modern theories of institutions and of collective action. The antidemocratic ideology expressed…
Diferencias sexuales en prejuicio sexual. El contacto como variable mediadora
2013
El presente artículo analiza la relación entre el sexo y la nacionalidad, y el prejuicio hacia hombres gay y lesbianas, y el rechazo de padres del mismo sexo, en España y Chile. Los participantes fueron estudiantes universitarios (N=491). Los resultados señalan que los hombres son más prejuiciosos que las mujeres, y los participantes chilenos mostraron más prejuicio que los participantes españoles. Además, las diferencias sexuales en actitudes hacia las lesbianas y los hombres gay, y las diferencias por nacionalidad, estuvieron mediadas por la variable contacto. Las diferencias en nacionalidad respecto a las actitudes hacia los padres del mismo sexo (escala de oposición normativa) estuviero…
Świat wartości w śląskich nazwach geograficznych
2015
The objective of the article is an axiological analysis of the Silesian geographical names and the justification of its usefulness in school didactics. Educating pupils by means of proper names integrates linguistic, cultural, historical and political contents. Discussions on names and their justification teach tolerance and patriotism, highlight fundamental values such as family, work, homeland and religion, and emphasize traditions and attachment to one’s “little homeland”. Onomastic aspects can be included in the teaching of the Polish language as well as other subjects, discussed in special interest groups or facultative classes, and used in field games and in mini-biographies of one’s …
“Yo acojo, tú agrupas, ella compensa”: Análisis comparado de la política de integración del alumnado inmigrante en tres Comunidades Autónomas
2015
With the passing of the la Ley Organica de Mejora de la Calidad Educativa [Reform Act of Improvement of Quality in Education] reemerges one of the timeliest educational issues: decision-making in the field of educational policy that takes care of immigrant students. The present moment is an excellent excuse for, from the perspective that Comparative Education offers, the revision of how the collective of immigrant children has been educated through three models of educational management represented by three Autonomous Communities: Valencia, Catalonia and Andalusia. The article focuses on the analysis of the measures taken in these three cases concerning the reception, the welcoming, and the…
Political Advertising on Facebook
2021
Parties have limited opportunities to determine the audiences of their organic communication. However, Facebook offers sophisticated advertising possibilities which enable parties to sponsor their organic messages in order to target them at selected and narrow segments of the electorate. Information on advertising activity was not available in Europe until Facebook has launched its ‘Ad Library’ right before the 2019 European Parliamentary election which provided access to all political ads and its metadata. By drawing on this data, our chapter will advance on the previous country chapters and investigate parties’ advertising activity in the 12 analysed countries with a specific focus on spo…