Authoritarian Aspects Research Articles

The Institution of Prime Minister and Government in A Hybrid Regime in Ukraine (1996–2021)

Abstract Hybrid regimes are characterised by a balancing act between democracy and authoritarianism, with neither political regime type being dominant. The balancing of the state between democratic and non-democratic modes of functioning can take the form of a state transforming from authoritarianism to democracy and a form of regression from democracy to authoritarianism, when the democratic system is upset by non-democratic mechanisms. The functioning of the political system in Ukraine during the years 1996–2004 was such that the authoritarian aspects of Ukraine’s hybrid regime overshadowed its democratic elements. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way (2002; 2013) refer to this phenomenon as “competitive authoritarianism”. This term denotes regimes where authoritarian features are more prevalent than democratic ones, according to the concept. Since 2004, the Ukrainian political system has transitioned towards a hybrid regime that places more emphasis on democratic characteristics. In the following twenty years, the Ukrainian hybrid regime was transformed between democratic-authoritarian hybrid regime (as a result of the events of the “Orange Revolution”, and the “Revolution of Dignity”) and authoritarian-democratic hybrid regime (during presidency L. Kuchma and V. Yanukovych). The hybridity of the political regime also translated into the functioning of the chief state bodies. The aim of this study was to find an answer to the question whether and to what extent did the hybridity of Ukraine’s political regime imply on the specificity of the functioning of the institutions of the prime minister and government in the state. The research hypothesis is that the hybridity of the Ukrainian political regime, as a stage of transition from authoritarianism to democracy, partly contributed to changing the traditional order of functioning of the institutions of prime minister and government in the state just formally losing the head of state’s dominant role in the process of government functioning.

A cognitive script perspective on how early caregiving experiences inform adolescent peer relationships and loneliness: A 14-year longitudinal study of Chinese families.

Leveraging data from a longitudinal study of Chinese families (n=364), this research aims to understand the role of secure base script knowledge as a cognitive mechanism by which early caregiving experiences inform adolescents' friendship quality and feelings of loneliness. Results showed that observed maternal sensitivity at 14 and 24 months old was negatively associated with adolescents' self-reported conflicts with close friends (β=-0.17, p=0.044) at 15 years old, and this association was partially mediated by their secure base script knowledge assessed at 10 years old. Further, secure base script knowledge moderated the link between adolescents' friend conflict and feelings of loneliness (β=-0.15, p=0.037). The results support a cognitive script perspective on the association between early caregiving experiences and later socio-emotional adjustment. Furthermore, this study adds to the developmental literature that has previously focused on more stringent and authoritarian aspects of parenting in Chinese families, thereby contributing to our understanding of how sensitive and supportive parenting practices contribute to socio-emotional development outside of Western contexts. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Maternal sensitivity during infancy and toddlerhood has a long-term association with adolescents' friendship quality and adolescents' secure base script partially explains the association. First evidence to demonstrate that the secure base script in attachment relationships mediates the association between early maternal caregiving and socio-emotional development in Chinese adolescents. Adolescents lacking secure base script knowledge are particularly vulnerable to feelings of loneliness when facing high levels of conflict in close friendships.

O Estado brasileiro e as relações étnico-raciais no pensamento de Oliveira Vianna

The article investigates the thoughts of Francisco José de Oliveira Vianna (1883-1951) concerning the ethno-racial relations shaped by the Brazilian state. The study employs a historical analysis of scientific discourses within the field of law, grounded in the methodological foundations of the archaeology of knowledge and power. Vianna constructed a eugenic narrative, disseminated under the title "Evolução do povo brasileiro no Censo de 1920" (Evolution of the Brazilian People in the 1920 Census), reflecting an integrationist indigenous policy and a racist approach that steered the nation toward whitening. Examining Oliveira Vianna's theory remains crucial not only for critically revisiting the foundations of Brazilian political, legal, and social thought in its conservative and authoritarian aspects but also for understanding the normative concept of people or nation as something less naturalized.

Legal Aspects of the authoritarian regime in Latin America

The purpose of the article was to study the legal aspects of the authoritarian regime in some Latin American countries. The research methodology included the use of general and special scientific methods of knowledge, such as: dialectic, historical-legal, formal-logical, hermeneutics, generalization and comparison. It should be pointed out that the results of the research identified four Latin American countries with authoritarian regimes (El Salvador, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela). The legal aspects of the authoritarian regime of each selected country were considered. In addition, different areas of analysis were covered and characterized in the course of the work: (government, protection of human rights, freedom of expression, legislation and prisoners’ rights). It was concluded that each of these countries has common legal aspects of authoritarianism, including the concentration of power in the hands of the president or government, control of the judiciary and legislature, within the framework of dynamics of corruption and systematic violations of human rights.

The Occupied Marginal Space and Rebuilding Memory in the North Moroccan Novels

This article aims to explore the patterns marking the occupied marginal space in Mohamed Ankar’s novel “Barrio Málaga” from an aesthetic and artistic perspective that tracks the role of memory in shaping the occupied marginal space and reveals its realistic connotations and its sociological and ideological dimensions without digging deep into the historical aspects of the Spanish colonial period in the North of Morocco. Furthermore, the article seeks to highlight the historical dimensions of the novel from an interpretive perspective that considers the novel as a mirror reflecting another untold history, which is the history of the margin and its people as shaped in the memory, which is a mechanism for storing and rereading perspectives and attitudes according to a perceptual process that goes beyond the obsession of laying emphasis on the colonizer and the forms of resistance to its occupation and aims at highlighting the roles of this space in exposing the aspects of authoritarianism, oppression and injustice of the colonizer. Accordingly, the research findings reaffirm that both identifying the aspects of the marginal space in this novel and highlighting its working mechanisms and role in providing an imaginary portrayal of this space are likely to contribute to rebuilding the memory and identifying the aspects of correlation between the realistic and the imaginary to identify the symbolic and cultural connotations behind taking the margin as a framework for building an indicative process based on the space, which is not separate from the other narrative elements marking the narrative discourse.

The issue of the hybrid regime genesis in Venezuela (1999–2013)

The article gives the author’s interpretation of the genesis of Venezuela political system during the presidency of Hugo Chavez (1999–2013). In the article , when considering the hybrid regime proposed by Guillermo O’Donnell , an attempt was made to analyze the transformation of the political system with the advent of democracy in Venezuela , in which the author highlights the features and democratic or authoritarian aspects inherent in the government from democracy in Venezuela in 1958. The constitutional orders of 1961 and the new Constitution of 1999 constitute the fundamental legal foundations of the entire democratic process that has existed from 1958 to the present , which , obviously , in a historical perspective , points to the trinity of law , power and force , manifested in such historical moments , like overthrowing Perez Jimenez . On the basis of the conducted historical and documentary research , the author of the article concludes that the hybrid regime established by H. Chavez in the first five years of his reign became more and more authoritarian over time . According to the author of the article , the peculiarity of the Chavez administration is that not only legal , regulatory and informal instruments aimed at restricting freedom of expression and assembly , hindering the emergence of democratic pluralism , but also repressive measures .

The End of Adaptive Authoritarianism in Belarus?

In the 2000s the Belarusian regime appeared adept at developing appropriate methods for countering external democratisation efforts and was even a model for other post-Soviet autocracies. To cope with ever-changing internal and external environments, the regime honed the methods of adaptive authoritarianism. However, this article shows that the Belarusian system is fragile and failing by using a framework that analyses various aspects of adaptive authoritarianism, including performance legitimacy, personalist rule, neopatrimonialism, managed pluralism and coercive capacity.

Identités blessées et souffrances narcissiques-identitaires : à propos de La dictature des identités de Laurent Dubreuil

ContextIn La dictature des identités (The Dictatorship of Identity, untranslated), Laurent Dubreuil, professor of comparative literature at Cornell University, offers an overview of the principles of identity politics as it has evolved in the United States since the late 1970s. He describes in particular some of the authoritarian aspects associated with identity politics and their extension in contemporary Western societies. ObjectiveIn this article, we first propose a summary of Laurent Dubreuil's argumentation before developing a more psychological analysis of identity politics through the prism of narcissistic-identitary suffering. Our objective is to better understand the context in which these new forms of subjectivity emerge. MethodThe methodology is mainly a theoretical and conceptual analysis of the notions of identity and narcissistic-identitary suffering. A few clinical elements illustrate the conceptual analysis. ResultsIdentity withdrawal is considered as one of the possible solutions to narcissistic-identitary suffering. Certain aspects of identity politics would seem to express a narcissistic wound from the past reenacted in the present on the social scene. This wound would be expressed essentially according to logics of narcissistic regression, masochism, and passive-active reversal. ConclusionIdentity politics risk reproducing, and extending, the pathogenic effects of traumatic experiences treated according to a logic of alienation – and this in opposition to its initial project of liberation.

Service User Experiences of How Flexible Assertive Community Treatment May Support or Inhibit Citizenship: A Qualitative Study.

The aim of this study was to explore and describe service user experiences of how receiving services from a Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) team may support or inhibit citizenship. Within a participatory design, individual interviews with 32 service users from five Norwegian FACT teams were analyzed using thematic, cross-sectional analysis. The findings showed that FACT may support citizenship by relating to service users as whole people, facilitating empowerment and involvement, and providing practical and accessible help. Experiences of coercion, limited involvement and authoritarian aspects of the system surrounding FACT had inhibited citizenship for participants in this study.

The Emergence of Islamist Official and Unofficial Laws in the Erdoganist Turkey: The Case of Child Marriages

Religion in the hands of authoritarian governments can prove to be an effective political instrument to further their agenda. This paper attempts to explore this aspect of authoritarianism with the case of Turkish family laws under Erdoganist Islamist legal pluralism. The paper analyzes the AKP’s government’s attempts at pro-Islamist legislation, fatwas produced by Diyanet (Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs) and by pro-government right-wing religious scholars to explore the changes that have occurred, both formally and informally, in the largely secular family laws of the Republic of Turkey in the last decade. By focusing on the age of marriage, this paper tries to understand the impact of Islamist legal pluralism and unofficial Islamist laws on the formal legal system as well as the social implications of this plural socio-legal reality, particularly for vulnerable groups such as the poor, refugees, children, and women. The trends demonstrate the informal system’s skew towards Islamism, patriarchy and disregard for fundamental rights. This Islamist legal plurality almost always operates against the women and underage girls, which creates profound individual and social problems. The paper concludes by pointing out the critical issues emerging in the domain of family law due to the link between the growing power of Islamist legal pluralism and its political instrumentalization by the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

O lugar da negritude nas políticas do Estado brasileiro: faces persistentes de uma presente ausência

This article reviews notes on the Brazilian social formation with regard to the relationship between the State and black people, taking into consideration the aspects of heteronomy, authoritarianism and systematic violence imputed / conferred to this segment in Brazil. It shows how this is reissued in the country as a sine qua non condition for the dependence and subordination relationship to the big world capital. It highlights the functionality of the myth of racial democracy that distorts the condition of citizenship of this part of society through non-access to public rights and policies. It discusses the permanencies and the search for ruptures that allow tensioning of the State towards overcoming racism, its challenges and limits in the overcoming of class society.

The Expansion of Prevent: On The Politics of Legibility, Opacity And Decolonial Critique

It is argued here that the liberal state has authoritarian aspects that are irreducible to the authoritarian aspects of neoliberalism. The argument draws on James Scott's work on modern state ruling through bureaucratic 'legibility', and the decolonial work of S. Sayyid on how a form of political Islam he calls 'Islamism' challenges the west's construction of modernity as an intrinsically western project. The state's need for legibility undermines democracy by seeking to shape political debate and political activity to fit its bureaucratic channels for engagement, and Islamophobia caused by the UK state's reaction to Islamism, shapes how the UK state seeks control via legibility. Prevent expanded in 2011 from focusing on 'violent extremism' to 'extremism', with extremism defined in terms of normative commitments the state takes to be in tension with its conception of 'British values'. The state defined the Muslim population as opaque because they were taken to not be socially integrated. This was used to justify a repressive ubiquitous surveillance based on what is termed here a 'legibility of symptoms'. This was presented, after 2015, as paternalistic 'safeguarding', when workers in public sector bureaucracies became legally obligated to carry out Prevent surveillance. Left-wing and environmental organisations engaged in extra-parliamentary protest are now as defined as potentially extremist. With the expansion of Prevent in 2011, the state created a 'pre-crime' space in civil society that is taken to justify repressive surveillance, presented as paternalistic safeguarding to save individuals 'at risk' of 'radicalisation' from going on to commit criminal acts.

Tearing Down the Self, or Transforming It? <em>Est</em> as Uncertain Gestalt

Abstract Continuing the historical trajectory traced previously (Fisher 2019), this article maps the beginning of a critical period of controversy that enveloped est (Erhard Seminar Training) and its founder after 1973. As the est training gained popularity and attracted mainstream media attention, skeptics homed in on its cultish and authoritarian aspects, while defenders argued that Erhard had created an excellent method for transforming the self and unlocking human potential. This dynamic replayed an earlier debate that had centered on Fritz Perls, Esalen, and Gestalt therapy during the 1960s (see Fisher 2017). Yet, est was at the heart of controversy in part because it stood as the symbol and test case for the human potential movement's enduring value, which remains uncertain today.

الممارسات التسلطیة فی التربیة المصریة ( دراسة تحلیلیة نقدیة )

يهدف هذا البحث إلى تحليل ونقد الممارسات التسلطية في التربية المصرية ، وذلک من خلال تعرف النظريات المفسرة لمفهوم التسلطية والمفاهيم المرتبطة بها ، بالإضافة إلى توضيح مظاهر التسلطية في التربية سواء في الأسرة أو المدرسة . ويعتمد هذا البحث على المنهج التحليلي النقدي ، بما يشتمل عليه هذا المنهج من خطوات علمية ومنهجية ، تنطلق من مجموعة مقولات أساسية تعتبر بمثابة الضوابط الحاکمة لعملية التحليل والنقد لجوانب الظاهرة المختلفة ، للخروج بنتائج حول أبعاد الظاهرة لتنمية الوعي بها ومحاولة إحداث تغيير ذلک الواقع . وقد توصل هذا البحث إلى عدد من النتائج أهمها أن الأسرة المصرية تعمل على تخليد التسلط الإجتماعي من خلال تنشئة الأفراد على الخضوع والتبعية وتربيتهم على أساليب قمعية وتعسفية ،بحيث ينقل إلى الطفل وينمى فيه الشخصية التسلطية التي تتميز بخضوعها للسلطة ،وفي الوقت نفسه بعدوانها على من يخالفونها وبنزعتها المحافظة. وفي حين تزرع بذور هذه الشخصية ضمن العائلة تنمى صفاتها في کل المراحل اللاحقة التي يمر بها الفرد . وتتابع المدرسة عملية القهر التي بدأت في الأسرة من خلال نمط التنظيم الاجتماعي البيروقراطي داخل المدرسة، وطرق التدريس القائمة على التلقين وثقافة الصمت ،والمناهج الدراسية الغير قابلة للنقد التي تشيئت فيها المعرفة وبدت کحقائق مقدسة ، ونظم تقويمية تغرس الرهبة والخوف في نفوس الطلاب ، فضلا عن التسليع التربوي الذي حول التربية من رسالة سامية إلى سلعة تجارية يستطيع البعض الحصول عليها بينما يعجز البعض الأخر عن ذلک . وفي ظلال هذه البنية التسلطية يفقد الفرد قدرته على التفکير النقدي وينمى في شخصيته الإذعان والخضوع . ولا يمکن أن تنتج هذه البنية إلا التسلط والقهر وثقافة الصمت والاغتراب. فالتربية التي تقوم على التسلط هي أقصر الطرق لتحطيم الفرد وتدمير المجتمع . وتکون المحصلة ترسيخا للطاعة العمياء والامتثال المطلق الذي يخلق شخصيات سلبية استسلامية This research has aimed at analysing and criticising the authoritarian practices in Egyptian education through defining the theories explaining the concept of authoritarianism and its related concepts as well as clarifying the aspects of authoritarianism in education whether in the family or the school . It has relied on the critical analytical approach, including the method of scientific and methodological steps, based on a set of basic statements that are the controls governing the process of analysis and criticism of different aspects of the phenomenon, to reach results about the dimensions of this phenomenon so as to develop awareness about it . In addition, it has reached a number of results ; the most important one is that the Egyptian family perpetuates social authoritarianism through rearing individuals on submission and subordination besides raising them in coercive and arbitrary methods. Therefore , the authoritarian personality , that is characterized by conservatism as well as submission to power and at the same time by aggression against people who violate the conventional values ,is transferred and developed in the youth . While the seeds of this character are planted within the family , its traits are developed in all the subsequent stages experienced by the individual . Furthermore , the school follows the process of oppression that has begun in the family through the pattern of the bureaucratic social organization within the school ,teaching methods based on indoctrination and the culture of silence , the non-critical curricula in which knowledge appeared as scared facts ,and the systems of evaluation which instill fears in the hearts of students ,as well as the educational commodification which has transferred education from a lofty message into a commercial commodity that some can obtain while others can’t . In the shadows of this authoritarian structure, the individual develops in his personality the traits of submission and subjugation and starts to lose his ability to think critically. This structure can only produce authoritarianism, oppression, culture of silence and alienation. Thus, education based on authoritarianism is the shortest way to destroy the individual and the society since the result is a consolidation of blind and absolute obedience which creates passive personalities

Economic Attitudes, Social Attitudes and Their Psychological Underpinnings - A Study of the Finnish Political Elite.

We investigated the relation between economic and social attitudes and the psychological underpinnings of these attitudes in candidates (N = 9515) in the Finnish 2017 municipal elections. In this politically elite sample, right-wing economic attitudes and social conservatism were positively correlated (r = 0.41), and this correlation was predominantly driven by those on the economic left being socially liberal, and vice versa. In terms of underlying psychological processes, consistent with dual process models of political ideology, the anti-egalitarian aspect of social dominance orientation was more strongly associated with right-wing economic attitudes, and the conventionalism and aggression aspects of right-wing authoritarianism with social conservatism. Our results show that even in a non-United States context in which the masses organize their political attitudes on two independent dimensions, these dimensions are moderately aligned among certain parts of the political elite, and that the political attitudes of the political elite can be traced to underlying psychological motivations. We argue that equality concerns could play a role in explaining why the left-right and liberal-conservative dimensions are more strongly aligned among those on the left and those more liberal.

Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar ed. by Andrew Harding

Reviewed by: Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar ed. by Andrew Harding Elliott Prasse-Freeman Andrew Harding, ed. with the assistance of Khin Khin Oo. 2017. Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar. Oxford and Portland: Hart, 312 pages; ISBN 1849467900 For nearly thirty years, since Burma's military regime nullified the 1990 election results and commenced a decades-long Constitution-drafting process that produced the country's current central charter in 2008, the "constitutional question" has dominated the country's political discourse. While debate rages over the Constitution's affordances—as those condemning it as pre-empting true democracy contest those who insist that it can be navigated to positive ends—the sheer glut of discussion makes the dearth of scholarly legal analysis noteworthy. Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar addresses this gap, providing the first book "in English on constitutional law or constitutionalism in Myanmar since" 1961 (Harding, v). More importantly, each of the volume's thirteen chapters tackles the central question of affordances: what can be done within the legal architecture manufactured by a military-drafted Constitution? While acknowledging that Burma's constitution is profoundly flawed, the authors argue that it should be engaged not as a "final product. . . but rather as a basis for further development" (Harding, vii). But development in what direction? Such is both the enabling factor of this volume and the quandary that lurks implicit within it: can Burma's Constitution be a tool that leads an unraveling of its own authoritarian aspects? Or will it, conversely, capture those trying to use it, undermining democracy through its fundamental limitations? [End Page 150] An Exceptional Constitution In addressing this issue, many of the volume's essays feature scholars wrestling with the legal, and ultimately philosophical, concept of the exception: exceptions inscribed in the Constitution's fabric, extrajudicial exceptions to those exceptions, and finally the exceptions the authors see as necessary to undermine such "exceptional" aspects. The most obvious exception is, as Myint Zan puts it, the way the Constitution "authoriz[es] a formal, constitutional takeover by the military" (Myint Zan, 31). Renshaw adds associated corollaries, in which "applications to the Supreme Court may be suspended in times of war, foreign invasion or insurrection,"and that the military is made immune from prosecution (Renshaw, 221, 231). Renshaw also points out that rights, such that they are, are only constitutionally guaranteed for citizens, meaning that those denied citizenship—such as the Rohingya—are ineligible for protections. While much has been made of the constitutional exceptions, Crouch identifies a different one, arguing that "the more immediate, everyday threat" to society lurks in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which includes an emergency exception that "gives a magistrate the power to issue an order for stability and social control" (Crouch, 161). Crouch demonstrates that while "the text characterizes this power as judicial. . . [and] temporary," she shows that the executive has appropriated it, amounting to martial law that "no longer respects temporal bounds" (Crouch, 167). In other words, those in power have even arrogated the power to execute multiple exceptions to the exception. This "double exception" is also illustrated by Nardi and Khin Khin Oo's respective articles on the 2012 Constitutional Tribunal impeachment debacle, in which 301 MPs dismissed all nine members of the Tribunal for having voted to restrict parliament's ability to form committees. This action not only undermined a critical "check and balance" mechanism but was also blatantly unconstitutional: [End Page 151] decisions made by the Tribunal are meant to be final and not subject to appeal. Nardi argues that this exception was made because "relatively few civilian politicians had a stake in the 2008 Constitution as it was written, much less in a mechanism that would enforce it" (Nardi, 188). Eliminating Exceptions to Exceptions with Exceptions? However, eliminating such exceptions—by amending the Constitution—appears virtually impossible, given the military's retention of an effective veto (amendments require greater than 75% ratification and it preserves 25% of the seats). In his chapter, Harding points out that the Constitution's key parts are even more difficult to amend than the common 25%/75% gloss conveys: some command a referendum, which "requires organizing the equivalent of a general...

Confronting Domestic Violence in Turkey

In this paper, I discuss how Turkish feminists have approached the phenomenon of male violence in Turkey as a political problem by following the feminist precept that the private is public. In the last twenty years, feminist activists in media have made male violence increasingly visible, by criticizing the framing of femicides as fatalities of jealousy and love. I argue that Turkish feminists do not consider male violence as just a “situation” or a structure of “oppression.” They problematize it as systematic political violence, which calls for a critique of the anti-feminist state policies that restitute masculine supremacy by the promotion of patriarchal values. The political consolidation of masculinity by the rejection of gender equality is a key aspect of authoritarianism. Turkish government does not frame domestic violence as a women’s problem but as a family problem. In contrast, feminist arguments invite the government to confront domestic violence as male violence. I suggest that the male violence that women experience in Turkey can be seen as a manifestation of bio-power at the age of the crisis of neo-liberalism.

The Contemporary Novel and Postdemocratic Form

Abstract Neoliberalism and authoritarianism: it is clear that aspects of both of these concepts are explanatory of our current moment, one in which neoliberal policies have continued to expand even as certain sociopolitical features of authoritarianism have been on the rise. How to account for the convergence of these two seemingly opposed political logics? This essay argues that contemporary discussions of literary form can help us define the precise aspects of both neoliberalism and authoritarianism that make this convergence possible. Contemporary literary criticism, it argues, is dominated by a skepticism toward the ideologically laden polarizations that once prevailed in the twentieth century. This skepticism, a critical attitude the author calls “compromise aesthetics,” reflects how the political imperative to grapple with the effects of different forms of authority—a grappling that is necessary for democracy—has, in neoliberal politics and aesthetics alike, been largely jettisoned in favor of expediency and the fantasy of total individual freedom. Turning to a reading of Rachel Kushner's novel The Flamethrowers, the essay finds that Kushner plays with the functions of author and narrator, revealing the degree to which an authoritative figure—the author—lies behind an apparent lack of ideological interest or direction, figured in the novel through its development of a radically passive narrator. The novel therefore demonstrates formally how political authority seizes upon the vacuum left behind by the abdication of politics, or, in other words, how authoritarian tendencies can arise out of the depoliticization of neoliberalism.

How a terror attack affects right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and their relationship to torture attitudes.

Self-reported level of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), the two facets of social dominance orientation (SDO-Dominance and SDO-Egalitarianism) and pro-torture attitudes were measured both in the immediate aftermath (terror salience, N = 152) of the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels and when terrorism was not salient (non-salience, N = 140). Results showed that RWA and pro-torture attitudes, but not SDO-Dominance and SDO-Egalitarianism, were significantly higher immediately after. Furthermore, RWA and SDO both predicted pro-torture attitudes more strongly under terror salience. We argue that the reason why RWA is higher under terror salience is a response to external threat, and that SDO-Dominance may be more clearly related to acceptance of torture and other human-rights violations, across context. Future research on the effects of terror-related events on sociopolitical and pro-torture attitudes should focus on person-situation interactions and also attempt to discriminate between trait and state aspects of authoritarianism.

Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest by Jason Weems

Reviewed by: Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest by Jason Weems Marcel LaFlamme Jason Weems, Barnstorming the Prairies: How Aerial Vision Shaped the Midwest. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015. 368 pp. $35. In 1936, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration embarked on an ambitious aerial survey of farmland in the United States. New production controls and soil conservation measures demanded accurate measurements of individual farm fields, and aerial photography would allow the agency to collect these measurements on a scale that made ground-based surveying impractical. Agency representatives spread the photographs out on their desks to interpret them, but they also carried the images out on farm visits and pored over them alongside farmers planning the next year’s crops. Public responses to this technique for visualizing the countryside were varied: critics grumbled about government “sky snoops,” even as the agency was beset by requests for additional copies of the photographs. Beyond their usefulness as technical artifacts, these aerial views became charged with sentiment as landowners proudly framed and displayed them as keepsakes. In Barnstorming the Prairies, Jason Weems highlights the ways in which the view from above enables and yet exceeds panoptic fantasies of control. He’s read the strand of scholarship that emphasizes “the authoritarian aspects of aerial imagery, and specifically, its role in fueling modernist aspirations to synoptic vision, rational planning, and spatial order” (xi). But it’s his attunement to homespun details like the black-and-white photograph hung in the sitting room that allows him to tell a more nuanced story. This story, for Weems, is a distinctively midwestern one: he argues that elevated views, real and imagined, helped the region’s inhabitants to make sense of an open and seemingly featureless landscape. Learning to live on this land meant learning to see anew, as a nineteenth-century English traveler quoted by Weems poetically observed: “There are no organs of perception, no faculties as yet prepared in this country” (6). Of course, such faculties had been cultivated by Native peoples living in what we today call the American Midwest before settlers started arriving en masse in the early nineteenth century. Barnstorming the Prairies has little to say about this history of encounter; while Weems offers a detailed discussion of the Land Ordinance survey that carved the region into a grid and gave rise to early overhead views like plat maps, it is as though he takes the project of westward expansion and the settler colonial society that grew out of it for granted. The Jeffersonian yeoman farmer, who appears throughout the book as a foil to the modernizing farmer of the 1920s and 30s, is never [End Page 108] placed in dialogue with the hunters and horticulturalists whose displacement made his presence on the land possible. This prevents Weems from seeing, in the framed aerial photograph, a naturalized history of dispossession. Yet it opens the visual archive that Weems has gathered to a rereading that would effect, in the words of literary scholar Mark Rifkin, “a sensuous realignment of perception in which settler personhood and placemaking might come into critical focus.”1 As an art historian, Weems is at his best when interpreting particular images: the chapter he devotes to the Iowa-born painter Grant Wood is a tour de force. Weems persuasively shows how Wood’s early paintings pay homage to nineteenth-century genres of elevated looking like the atlas and the bird’s-eye view. With the help of the full-color plates at the book’s center, Weems offers strikingly original readings of works like Death on Ridge Road (1935), in which an aerial view of an impending collision dramatizes anxieties about changing rural lifeways. Even familiar images like The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa (1931) take on new meaning, as an oblique perspective on the future president’s boyhood home comes to evoke the airplane that might have afforded it. This eminently teachable chapter models an approach to visual culture that takes the social significance of technology seriously, and it traces a hitherto unacknowledged throughline in the work of an important midwestern artist. Other chapters feel more diffuse: one on what Weems calls “Jeffersonian urbanism” gets off...