Left Ideology Research Articles

The Visual Culture of the Revolutionary Processes of Latin America in the Islamic Revolution of Iran: The Street and the Studio

Abstract This article delves into the artistic production of a group of Iranian painters whose work is considered revolutionary art. It shows how the murals and canvases painted during the early revolution of 1978–1979 in Iran were influenced by the visual culture of the revolutionary movements in Latin America. The study brings to light an overlooked aspect of the Global South revolutions during the Long Global Sixties. It supports the idea that the 1978–1979 “Islamic” revolution was chiefly a revolution against a dictatorship also driven by groups inspired by leftist ideology and iconography. These groups, consisting mainly of younger revolutionaries, were motivated by ideals like solidarity, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, internationalism, and Third World relations.

Chinese technical and vocational education and training, skill formation, and national development: A systematic review of educational policies

Vocational education and training have been widely found to be related to economic development. In China, a country with a collectivist ideology, this relationship is especially significant and is reflected in many vocational education policies. This study analyzed the relationship between national development and Chinese technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in a systematic review. The study screened 33 vocational education policies that depicted the government's expectation of promoting economic development. These policies were screened, coded, categorized, and connected based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis standards. Qualitative methods and the theoretical framework of Ashton and Green were used to analyze the policies. Six themes were generated to detail the Chinese TVET development form and its attempts to promote national development: the modern TVET system, school-based vocational education, the competency-oriented curriculum system, student incentives, employer incentives, and workplace-based skills training.

Individual decisions in a collectivist ideology: Two Czech translations of I. L. Peretz’s short story Bontshe shvayg

Individual decisions in a collectivist ideology: Two Czech translations of I. L. Peretz’s short story Bontshe shvayg

Local preferences for the adoption and modification of climate policy instruments under a radical left government: unveiling the impact and legacy of Barcelona in Common

ABSTRACT This study aims to uncover how shifting towards a radical left ideology affects a city’s climate policy. Using semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and an analysis of local action plans and laws enacted in Barcelona between 1984 and May 2023, we find that the period of local government led by the radical left, embodied by Barcelona in Common, saw a significant increase in the adoption of climate-related policy instruments, with a preference for ‘soft’ over ‘hard’ measures. Likewise, this administration more actively raised the ambition of pre-existing policy instruments, though evidence suggests that this trend is driven by other, non-ideological factors. The results further show that ‘hard’ policy instruments especially were more prone to changes, both in terms of raising or reducing policy ambition. Overall, these findings enhance our understanding of local climate policymaking and how it is affected by partisan politics.

תכנית החירום לייצוב המשק ב=1985: בחינה מחודשת

The Emergency Stabilization Plan is recognized as a turning point in the economic history of Israel. It transformed Israel from an economy characterized by extensive state intervention to a market economy, in which the private sector is much more dominant. Although there is an extensive literature on the long-term impact of the plan, historical research on the plan itself—its formation, implementation, and immediate consequences—is limited. Moreover, the existing research focuses on the domestic factors that allegedly caused the crisis. In this article, I reopen the ‘black box’ of the Stabilization Plan to identify the international factors that contributed to the economic crisis, with the goal of tracing the evolution of the Plan and its implementation based on archival research and reevaluating its successes and failures. The article makes three key arguments: First, I argue that the economic crisis of the 1980s was fundamentally a debt crisis, which was caused by international factors, in contrast to existing research which underlines the role of inflation, which was allegedly caused by the government's careless fiscal policy. Second, I argue that the Stabilization Plan proposed by Michael Bruno and approved by the government was based on neo-mercantilist principles that were designed to address Israel's trade balance deficit and external debt. The policy was grounded on the logic of internal devaluation, according to which the lowering of real wages will encourage Israeli exports and improve the competitiveness of the Israeli economy. This claim challenges the existing literature which emphasizes the neoliberal components of the Plan and the reduction of state involvement in the economy. Thirdly, I argue that the Plan proposed by Bruno and approved by the government in fact failed to achieve two of its declared objectives: lower inflation and an improvement in the balance of payments. It failed due to the very effective protests by workers and the Histadrut (the national labor union) against the government’s intention to freeze wages. I further argue that the policy instrument that eventually stabilized prices was an interest rate hike initiated by the Bank of Israel, with the support of the Minister of Finance. I argue that the involvement of the Bank of Israel was not part of Bruno’s original plan. Although the Bank’s policy led to a reduction of inflation, it did not achieve the Plan’s other objective, that is, to improve Israel’s balance of payments. Based on this interpretation, it appears that the Stabilization Plan was not an ideological transformation from a collectivist ideology to a liberal one, but rather a modification of Israel’s collectivist spirit to better suit the globalized era.

Supply and Demand: Drivers of Women Non-Combat Participation in Rebel Groups

Including women into their ranks offers non-state armed groups advantages in terms of mobilisation, intelligence gathering, and establishing ties with civilians. However, especially in conservative societies, this inclusion of could also cause backlash from group members and supporters. While several previous studies analyse why rebels choose to recruit female combatants, limited attention has been paid to women in non-combat roles. I address this gap by studying the drivers of women’s inclusion into rebel groups as non-fighting members, hence contributing to wider efforts to bring gender-sensitive approaches to research on security and violence. Specifically, I conduct a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 118 groups in the period 1989–2015. The results indicate that a conjunction of supply-side factors (female unemployment, gender inequality) and demand-side factors (leftist ideology, territorial control, military strength) drive female non-combat participation in rebel groups. The causal impact of women’s marginalisation is highly context-dependent: Leftist rebels’ calls for gender equality are appealing to (particularly poor and excluded) women. Yet, rebels with high demand for skilled labour prefer to recruit non-marginalised women that received at least some job training.

Public Ceremony: The Construction of Nationalism Through Mobile Film Screening Under Jiang Kai-shek’s CNP Government

The Chinese Nationalist government initiated the first national network of mobile film screenings, which subsequently had a great influence on political propaganda in Chinese cinema. Based on corpus data from Chinese archives, diaries, newspapers, periodicals, and literature archived from 1931 to 1945, this study investigates the goals, effects, and shortcomings of mobile film exhibition under Jiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP) government in China, focusing on the Second Sino-Japanese War. I contend that the Nationalist government regarded films as propaganda to promote cultural identity, the social state, and collectivist ideology. To some extent, such films contributed to the development of democracy and national morality before the war, persuasion during the war, and consolation after the war. However, the mobile film industry in the Jiang era also suffered from some practical problems, such as the lack of planning, inefficient management, obscure content, and chaotic viewing settings. Hence, mobile projection remained a form of public ceremony whose impact deviated from its original intent.

Study of Youth Education Ideas in Lenin's Tasks of the Youth League

The Tasks of the Youth League was published in the transition period of Soviet Russia from wartime communism to the new economic policy, when people's livelihoods were poor, young people's motivation for learning was low, theoretical learning was detached from practice, and extreme leftist ideology prevailed in the country. At this critical time, Lenin emphasised the importance of learning to young people in "Tasks of the Youth League", advocating that young people should strive to learn all the knowledge of mankind, insist on the combination of theory and practice in the process of learning, and abide by communist morality. Combined with the goal and current situation of youth ideological education in the new era, The Tasks of the Youth League has an important revelation for the youth education work in China.

Bringing Down the Scaremongers: Venezuelan Diaspora as a Dog Whistle in Colombia's 2022 Presidential Election

This article examines how the Venezuelan diaspora has been portrayed in the media during the Colombian presidential election of 2022 and how it has influenced voters' preferences there. It examines presidential debates and conversations on X (formerly Twitter), as well as traditional legacy media and digital natives' media material. The authors used a population‐based sample of 17,372 articles on the 2022 elections to analyse data from a stratified sample. Our findings point to a potential socio‐political turning point away from the social imaginary that had been equating Venezuelan realities with leftist ideologies in Colombia and other parts of Latin America.

Hollywood and the Left Ideology

Hollywood and the Left Ideology

ALEVİ SİYASALLAŞMASI VE DIŞ POLİTİKA: ALEVİ SİYASİ PARTİLERİNDE KİMLİK-ULUSLARARASI POLİTİKA BAĞLANTISI

The foreign policy and international relations perceptions of sub-state groups have recently begun to be discussed in the literature. The central role of the state is eroding and non- and sub-state actors are emerging as influential factors in international politics. Identity is the most dominant factor in the foreign policy perspectives of these actors. This study examines Alevi politicization in Turkey in relation to foreign policy and identity. The politicization of Alevism in Turkey has accelerated since the 1950s with the urbanization of Alevis and their rapprochement with leftist ideologies. The tension between Alevism and the state since the Ottoman period has also fed this process. As a result of this politicization, the Unity Party (1966-1980) and the Peace Party (1996-1999) were established as Alevi parties. The relationship that both parties established with their Alevi base, their perception of domestic politics and their interpretation of international developments influenced their identities. This study examines the relationship between Alevi identity and foreign policy based on the parties' programs. The study aims to contribute to the literature by making three claims. The first is that sub-state entities can also make foreign policy. Sub-state identities formulate their own foreign policy concepts independently of governments and successfully integrate domestic and international developments into their political programs. Second, domestic and international developments have a transformative impact on the politicization of Alevis. The birth of the Alevi political movement following urbanization and its subsequent ideological transformation with leftist politics illustrates this. As a result, there has been a rupture between the Alevi political movement and its traditions and institutions. Third, Alevi politicization in the 1960s and 1990s followed different paths. The first was the process of individual Alevi politicization in the bipolar order of the Cold War conditions, which shrouded micro debates, while the second was the emergence of an Alevi political movement as a result of the increased emphasis on identity after the end of the Cold War.

Civilizational identity of contemporary Russia: In search for research tools

The failed catch-up development of Russia, which implied joining the ranks of developed, modernized countries, again raised the question of how much civilizational type determines either Western or one’s own path of development, and for Russia the latter means the values of collectivism and strong power. Under the confrontation between these two paths, the issues of identity (as a field of political aspirations of the elites and masses) become especially important and relevant for most post-Soviet countries which show a complex interaction of group interests and identities due to the spread of individualistic, market, predominantly rational (mostly materially interpreted) meanings of life. For Russia, this interaction has become a challenge - to continue development according to the Western model or to find one’s own path, which means a return to traditional values and collectivist ideology and a rejection of liberal ideology. The article considers the features of the Russian civilizational identity and the possibilities of studying them based on the empirical data. The author emphasizes the civilizational heterogeneity of the Russian society as deeply differentiated by most economic, social and cultural criteria, which divides society into groups with specific lifestyles and value systems. Russian civilization is a heterogeneous, not fully formed and still developing multi-subject entity united by the state preserving cultural, national, religious and linguistic diversity. The article is based on the results of the representative all-Russian sociological survey conducted in 2023 and regional surveys in frontier regions - in the Northwestern, Southern and North Caucasus Federal Districts. This data helps to identify the civilizational vector of the country’s development, proving the complementarity of the ideas of the elites and the rest of society, age and settlement cohorts, residents of central and frontier, mononational and multiethnic regions.

The Italian left at a critical juncture: disanchoring the past, embracing the present

ABSTRACT On September 25, 2022, the Italian left faced a significant electoral setback as the centre-right coalition, led by Giorgia Meloni, secured a remarkable electoral win. Historically, the left had been represented by major parties like the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) and the Italian Socialist Party (P.S.I.). Their demise in the 1990s, for various reasons, gave rise to new left-leaning ‘umbrella’ entities such as the Ulivo and the Democratic Party (P.D.). Despite some electoral successes by these newer groups, left-wing parties and coalitions have failed to dominate the Italian political scene in recent years. A decline in the definitive meaning of ‘left’ in Italian politics has led to a more fragmented left-wing. As traditional leftist ideologies have waned, some of the emerging left-leaning parties have faced criticism for prioritizing civil rights over socioeconomic issues. Articles in this special issue delve into different facets of the Italian left. Pasquino highlights the stagnation in the left’s political culture since the cold war’s conclusion, while Newell critiques the weakness of the P.D.’s party organization and ideology. Ventura analyses both the P.D.’s organizational challenges and its leadership decisions, whereas Musella emphasizes the P.D.’s shortcomings in updating communication strategies. Pasini, Fasano, and Cerruti dive into the evolving preferences of left-wing voters, while del Palacio touches upon the radical left’s challenges. Mulè and Toso offer insights into the left’s efforts in poverty alleviation. In summary, this special issue underlines the pressing need for the Italian left to refresh its ideologies and strategies to stay relevant and present a competitive alternative to conservative agendas in Italy’s shifting political scene.

Red Star over Seoul: Facts and the Myths of the Ninety-Day-Long Communist Rule over the South Korean Capital in 1950

During its long history, the city of Seoul has suffered three major sieges and occupations. The first happened in 1592, the second occupation of the capital was in 1636, and the third occasion when the city was besieged and occupied by an enemy army was during the first phase of the Korean War. The main goal of this study is to describe facts and myths about the ninety-day-long communist rule over the South Korean capital in 1950. During my research, I compared all available documentary sources with recollections and memoirs to ascertain how the city and its citizens survived that difficult period. I collected impressions about the North Korean invaders to examine everyday life in the occupied city. I also attempted to determine if there is any truth to the myth that the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung visited occupied Seoul. The main primary sources used here are the contemporary newspapers of the DPRK: the Rodong Sinmun, which published several news items about occupied Seoul, and the Haebang Ilbo (Liberation Daily), which was published in Seoul during the North Korean occupation. The documentation about the ninety-day-long occupation of Seoul began right after the liberation of the capital in fall 1950. The first book, which collected the experiences of some elite members of South Korean society, was published by the Soodo Munhwasa company, under the title Konan ŭi 90 il (90 days of suffering).1 The reminiscences of the authors—university professor Yu Chin-oh, poet Mo Yun-suk, lawyer-scholar Yi Geon-ho, and news reporter Ku Chul-hoi—were published in English soon after the Korean version. The Reds Take a City was the first non-Korean book that collected available pieces of infor- mation about the occupation.2 In the second year of the Korean War, another important collection titled Chok Hwa Sam Sak Kuinjip (赤禍三朔九人集, Three Months under the Reds) was published.3 The book contained nine recollections from those who experienced communist rule and were forced to collaborate with the North Koreans regarding minor matters. Its publisher was the anti-communist Podo yŏnmaeng (보도연맹, Podo League) organization, which was established before the Korean War to “erase” citizens’ leftist ideologies.4 Some other important sources of the ninety-day-long occupation of Seoul are the personal recollections, written by well-known South Korean intellectuals. Park Wan-suh’s popular novel Ku manhtŏn shinga nun nuga ta mŏgŏssŭlkka? (그 많던 싱아는 누가 다 먹었을까? Who Ate up all the Shinga?) and Kim Seong-chil’s famous diary, Yŏksa ap’ eso (역 사 앞에서 In Front of History), included important observations about that period. Kim Won-Il’s reminiscences, which are particularly meaningful because his father had been involved in the developments, also provide useful information.5 To add more North Korean elements to the puzzle of the ninety-day-long occupation, one important source is the novel 50 nyŏn yŏrŭm (50년 여름, Summer of the year 50), which contains details about Kim Il Sung’s alleged trip to Seoul at that time.6 In my capacity as the Ambassador for Hungary to the DPRK, I also studied the local publications available in Pyongyang. Often, Central and Eastern European sources proved to be most beneficial as the archives of these former communist states proved to be far more accessible than North Korean archives, which are very restricted. At that time, the party organs of the Soviet bloc countries published daily about the developments, and their journalists reported personally from the battlefield of Korea. These include archive diplomatic reports from the Hungarian legation in Pyongyang, which are available now in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Directory at the National Archives of Hungary.

Measuring Internet Meme engagement and individual differences: a novel scale and its correlates

Introduction & BackgroundInternet Memes (IMs) are social, digital artefacts that act as information vectors on social networking sites. Memetic scholarly literature has mainly focused on analysing IMs content with mixed methods. However, little scholarly attention has been devoted to exploring the relationships between IMs and users through survey methodologies.
 Users engage with IMs in many ways, but scholarly literature lacks studies on Individual Differences (ID) that might make users more or less prone to engage with them. The results suggest that certain psychological factors may affect IM engagement.
 Objectives & ApproachThis study examines how individual determinants relate to general and political internet meme engagement. An exploratory survey design is employed on an online sample of 472 participants.
 To measure meme engagement, we develop a novel scale by asking participants how likely (1-7) they are to exhibit certain behaviours (liking, commenting, sharing on account, tagging or sending privately to someone) on general memes and politically-centred ones. The novel scales’ feasibility is tested, achieving good internal reliability (α>0.7) and a good fit in confirmatory factor analysis.
 The survey included validated measures of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), Conspiracy Belief (CB), personality traits (Big-5), Bullshit Receptivity (BR), Critical Reflection Test (CRT) and an adaptation of Social Network Intensity (SNI). All the measures employed achieved good internal consistency (α>0.7)The study thematically groups the measures related to IMs (engagement, familiarity and attitude), social media (FOMO, SNI), cognitive style (CRT, BR, CB), personality (Big-5) and socio-demographics (age, gender, education, ethnicity, nationality, ideology).
 Relevance to Digital FootprintsWith increasing interest and research being done on computational analysis of social media and its phenomena, there is a need for survey research to explore connections between IDs and user behaviour through using a mix of validated and novel ad-hoc measures.
 User interaction with internet memes creates a data trail that can be used to infer several individual determinants through machine learning techniques. However, further psychological research is needed to assess and underpin the linkages between IDs and IM engagement before inferring IDs on large datasets.
 ResultsBivariate correlations reveal that young age, extraversion, neuroticism, SNI, FOMO, BR and CB are positively associated with internet meme engagement regardless of content. Further, t-tests of dependent correlations show that age, FOMO and ideology differ significantly in their correlations between general vs political meme engagement.
 Engagement with political IMs is slightly higher in people with left-leaning ideology and lower levels of conscientiousness. A positive attitude towards IMs correlates with a marginally higher openness to experience and left ideology while strongly correlating with younger age.
 Interestingly, traditional measures of cognitive style do not correlate with IM engagement, while lower education weakly correlates with self-assessed IM familiarity. Only BR positively correlates with IM engagement, suggesting that gullibility plays a role in engagement.
 In hierarchical regressions, thematic groupings predict differences in variance shares in IM engagement. More overall variance (+10%) is explained in the general IM engagement scale compared to political IM engagement; socio-demo and cognitive account for less variance in political IMs. In comparison, personality accounts for slightly more variance in political IM engagement. This analysis further supports different relational structures of IDs when looking at general vs political IM engagement.
 Conclusions & ImplicationsStudy results suggest a difference in the pattern of engagement depending on the content of IMs and participants’ IDs.
 This exploratory study shows early signs that IDs play a role in IM engagement, opening avenues for further survey research and identifying which specific IDs might be interesting to investigate when performing this type of research.
 This study’s findings help researchers and users better understand the heterogeneous world of IM topical engagement by highlighting what IDs might make users more prone to engage with these social, digital artefacts.

Populism in Times of a Pandemic

Abstract This article provides an analysis of the COVID-19 discourse within six European populist parties from Spain, Germany, and France, with the aim of shedding light on the diverse interpretations and presentations of the pandemic by these parties. While most studies focus on right-wing or far-right populism, this study looks at both right and left ideologies paired with populism. By applying the discourse-historical approach of critical discourse studies, we highlight similarities and differences across the right-left political spectrum, as well as variations within and between different countries. The study contributes thus to the existing literature on populism and extends our understanding of the relationship between populist parties and the pandemic beyond right-wing populist parties only. Results, consistent with previous research, show that the host ideology decisively shapes parties’ discourses about COVID-19 and the need to consider alternative perspectives in populism research.

Pakistan’s Ethnic Parties’ Religious Narratives and Practices

Based on the secondary sources, this paper examines the link between ethnic political parties and religion in Pakistan, focusing on case studies of BNP-M in Balochistan, ANP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and QAT in Sindh provinces. ANP aimed for freedom from Punjabi political dominance without challenging religious sentiments. However, they faced opposition from Pashtun Taliban, perceiving ANP as a threat to religious narratives. ANP's liberal stance was seen as a threat to religious practices and contributed to their loss in the 2018 general elections. BNP-M has appeared neutral on the state's religious narrative and seeking inspiration from leftist transnational political parties in neighboring countries. BNP-M avoided affecting religious sentiments and focused on common social, political, economic, and human rights issues related to the local people. QAT openly adopted a liberal and leftist ideology, taunting religious groups, which negatively impacted local sentiments and hindered their popularity.

From ideology to inequality: Examining the socialist effect on South Africa's pandemic politics

The BRICS grouping represents an inter-state association of five major emerging national economies whose political influence is mobilized to encourage economic development and inclusivity. However, without an internalized commitment to domestic socio-economic vulnerabilities, the platform lacks the legitimacy needed to compel buy-in from a larger audience. It is a fruitless endeavor to labor under the assumption that socio-economic inequality is abnormal. Even so, there is an amicable, yet unrealistic tendency to assume that all imbalances can and must be corrected by the government. Currently, the global health crisis spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic presents the opportune moment to examine the ideological impact of socialism on disparate social and economic policy outcomes. Because of the complexity of our social contexts, it remains necessary to consult and test the validity of ideological claims before establishing them as uncontested truth. This study makes the case that socio-economic inequality can be traced to policy issues where ideological assumptions have been esteemed over empirical evidence. Using a qualitative approach, the case of South Africa will be used to assess the relationship between ideology and socio-economic policymaking by examining the effect of social justice remedies as the answer to inequality. To change economic behavior and outcomes, one must endeavor to understand the dominant thinking and belief system as promulgated by far left ideologies such as socialism. The findings indicate the centrality of redistribution as the unanimous victor able to ensure roughly equal economic outcomes for all social groups. An assumption with disastrous and even counterproductive consequences. Since ideologies are largely closed systems of thought, they conceal socio-economic realities which can only be addressed when policy preferences are revisited and re-evaluated.
 

What is democratic socialism in America? left ideology in the age of populism

ABSTRACT This article examines the political ideology of the contemporary US democratic socialist movement. The argument advanced is that this represents a specific form of socialism, which incorporates key features of the ‘populist turn’ recently taken by many left-leaning political movements, while also moving beyond it in significant respects. The result is a constellation of ‘partially decontested’ concepts, holding together a loose constituency through a series of questions, rather than answers, under conditions of high social fragmentation. These ‘partially decontested’ concepts are: socialism, democracy, class, and revolution. In each case, I examine the broad areas of agreement that exist over these concepts’ meanings, as well as the ongoing disagreements they generate. To be a democratic socialist in the USA today, I suggest, is to be involved in these disagreements, without necessarily assuming they can be resolved, either at the individual level, or that of the movement as a whole.

The Left’s Denigration of Free Speech

This article was one of SCSS President Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared in The Wanderer in 2022. It talks about how American liberalism in a substantial way has turned aside from its strong support of free speech decades ago to a readiness—even an eagerness—to act to suppress speech that supports positions in disagreement with leftist ideology. This article is reprinted with permission.