Search results for "Polity"
showing 10 items of 577 documents
An Absolute Majority for the SPD as an Unintended Consequence? The Land Election in Rhineland-Palatinate 2006
2007
The state election of 2006 in Rheinland-Pfalz resulted in a (bare) majority of seats for the SPD, which allows the party to govern alone for the first time in the history of the state. The CDU, on the other hand, received slightly less than one-third of the vote, an all-time low in its former stronghold. This result was by and large determined by factors at the state level. Yet it had a considerable impact at the federal level: it signalled the end of a string of devastating losses for the SPD, enhanced the standing of minister president Kurt Beck (now the SPD's chairman), and brought to an end the last coalition between the SPD and the FDP. These repercussions notwithstanding, there is no …
Local Powers and a Distant State in Rural Central African Republic
1997
‘The State Stops at PK 12’ – i.e. 12 kilometres from the capital, Bangui.The situation described by this statement, often heard in the Central African Republic, seems to conform to the objectives of the currently fashionable policies of decentralisation and structural adjustment – for example, to end ‘too much state’. However, the absence of the state in the rural areas of the CAR is so striking that the position in certain respects has almost reached the level of caricature. It also reflects the more general situation in other parts of the continent where the excesses of a centralised, over-staffed post-colonial regime can coexist perfectly with the pronounced absence in the rural areas of…
Four aspects of politics in Max Weber’s Politik als Beruf
2019
The article offers a rereading of Weber’s Politik als Beruf as a conceptualisation of politics contingent and controversial activity in terms of the four aspects of politics: politicisation, polity, politicking and policy. Weber discusses politics as a concept abstracted from its content. All four aspects can be found in his exposition of the concept. Weber mentions first policy as the direction of politics and demarcates his focus on the state-type polities. Then, he presents the formula on politics as striving for power, consisting of chances to politicise its distinct shares, and discusses historical types of professional politicians and their styles of politicking. Weber illustrates th…
Promoting neoliberal ideology in Finnish rural community development : the creation of new moral actors
2019
Today’s political ambitions are based on the neoliberal aspiration to diminish the state’s role and responsibilities, and to transfer those responsibilities to local communities and individuals in ways that idealise those communities, promising to ‘give power to the people’. Instead of highlighting individualism, neoliberalism now celebrates communities and participation. This article deals with the effects of this ideology with regard to Finnish rural policy objectives. Drawing on Finnish village action programmes as data, we argue that these ideological views aim to transform individuals and create new moral actors. Our research indicates that Finland’s rural policy objectives invoke acto…
Through the Looking Glass: The Attitudes of Polish Political Parties towards the EU before and after Accession
2009
Abstract The objective of this paper is a comparison of the attitudes of parliamentary parties towards the European Union in terms of Poland's accession to the European Union. Therefore the parliamentary parties' attitudes after the elections in 2001 and 2005 have been analyzed and compared. Another significant aim of this paper is the identification of factors conditioning these attitudes as well as changes in them. The change from a candidate to a member of the EU forced the political parties to redefine their attitudes towards Europe since the character of the European issue itself also changed. This especially applies to those parties which strongly opposed Poland's accession to the EU.…
Thomas Hobbes on fear,mimesis,aisthesisand politics
2011
Hobbes's theory of fear has two major implications for his political theory. One implication is how men's mutual fear is the source of a commonwealth by institution. The second implication is that sovereign power is the source of fear, and that sovereign power also uses that fear to govern people. These two implications have not been analyzed fully in past studies. In a way, a sovereign captures mutual fear reigning in a multitude and transforming it into a political tool designed for government of the subjects. Possessing the right and power to cause death, a sovereign takes the place of God on earth. A sovereign has certain expectations of citizens: they should obey and honour the soverei…
The bureaucratic making of national culture in North-Western Ghana
2014
In this article I explore the making of national culture through bureaucratic routines in the Centre for National Culture in Wa, North-Western Ghana. I focus on an aspect of bureaucracy that is usually left aside: the productivity and creativity of bureaucratic routines. State, nation and culture are not fixed entities, but have to be constantly produced through processes of negotiation and meaning-making and through the continual reproduction of their boundaries and the categories that determine what is to be promoted or preserved. Bureaucratic routines and administrative processes are analysed as practices objectifying and nationalising culture and naturalising the boundaries and categori…
Review of Agent-Based Models of Social Conflict and Civil Violence
2017
This chapter contains a review of the state of the art on agent-based models for simulation of large-scale social conflict and violence. It is structured in four parts. The first contains a summary of general definitions and concepts. The second contains the presentation and discussion of Epstein’s agent-based model, which is a landmark model of civil and ethnic violence due to its simplicity, soundness, and explanatory power. The third part contains a review of extensions of Epstein’s model that have been proposed by several authors. The chapter ends with some remarks on the limitations of existing ABM and on possibilities for their improvement.
The idea of mission in Finnish clerical Lutheranism during the Continuation War 1941-1944
2014
On 25 June 1941 Finland embarked on a war against the Soviet Union, as part of Germany's Operation Barbarossa. The war that was about to begin could be considered acceptable and even advantageous politically. However, theologically this was not necessarily the case. The topic of the article is how the war between the states of Finland and the Soviet Union could be justified publicly in relation to a religion whose core message is not to kill, to turn the other cheek to – and even love – the enemy. Due to the close and long-lasting relationship between the state, the army and the established church, Lutheran priests had a significant role in the war effort. The analysis shows that the answer…
Celebrations, Commemorative Dates and Related Rituals: Soviet Experience, its Transformation and Contemporary Victory Day Celebrations in Russia and …
2011
The list of state and professional celebrations and dates when the military is celebrated and commemorated in the Russian Federation is quite long, with more than 100 events in all. Their historical origins differ. There are celebrations that were established during the Soviet era, while others even date back to the Russian Empire. There are days when the Soviet Union’s military achievements and units are celebrated. There is a day to commemorate the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, and there are a few dates for grief and commemoration of the war dead. Russia’s official calendar of national holidays lists eight celebrations – the New Year (January 1-5), Orthodox Christmas (January 7),…