Communal State Research Articles

The Pinnacle Impacts Of The Community Policing As A Pillar In Sustaining Global Peace

The community policing is the measures and actions taken by a variety of institutions and groups both formal and non-formal in the society to regulate social relations and practices in order to secure the safety of members of communal state as well as conformity to the norms and values of the society in questions mostly through shaming theory school of thought, the pre-colonial, the colonial period and the post-colonial eras each of which have represented various policing realities in Nigeria. Each of the periods captures the unique contemporaneous social relations and perceived crime reality. The quest to maintain law and order and enforce the rules of the government has led to the emergence of different policing styles in Nigeria. Though the people had their own unique and informal means of maintain value and order embedded in the culture and traditions of various indigenous and ethnic status. To attain global peace community policing needs global in-looks. Community policing will enhance global peace by militating against all odds from the grassroots’ criminal ventures such as rumors/hate speech, wars, kidnapping, physical/sphere assaults, rape, terrorism, insurgent activities, ritualist, bribing/corruption practices, school dropout, civil unrest, erosions, addiction/ substance usage, riots, human trafficking, prostitution, lesbianism, gay marriage, religion bigotry, malpractice of all kinds, fraudsters’, molestation of any such, fake news, environmental pollution, militancy, agitator, banditry, cultism, stealing, assassination, Ponzi scheme, coup junta and units of others contemporary global issues.

VALUATION OF ENERGY INDICATORS FOR NEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN UKRAINE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT SOCIAL ASPECTS

One of the most serious problems of the housing and communal state is the inefficient use of energy resources. The condition of the enclosing structures of buildings does not meet current standards, and internal engineering networks are outdated and in need of modernization. The cost of maintaining the construction fund in Ukraine is several times higher than in European countries. Given Ukraine's energy dependence, increasing the energy efficiency of housing is an extremely important issue. One of the direct reforms in construction is the introduction of new energy efficiency standards in the regulatory framework, as well as the introduction of mandatory energy certification of buildings with the specified energy efficiency class. At the same time, the requirements for the level of housing quality and comfort in buildings are growing. The purpose of the study is to analyze the specific energy consumption of new residential buildings (starting in 2019) and a comparative assessment of energy consumption per capita for different cities in Ukraine and other countries. The study was conducted on the basis of statistical data and data from energy certificates for residential buildings provided in the Unified State System in the field of construction. The class of energy efficiency in the energy certificate is determined by certified energy auditors, taking into account European approaches to the calculation of energy consumption for different needs of buildings. With the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine "On Energy Certification of Buildings", the development of an energy certificate has become mandatory for new buildings, state-owned buildings, local government buildings and in case of attracting public funds for thermal modernization of buildings. The study also examined other social aspects, in particular, the results of assessing the ability of the population of Ukraine to pay for utilities and the level of quality of housing conditions in households.

PUBLIC FINANCES IN CONDITIONS OF CURRENT TRANSFORMATIONS

Modern transformational changes occurring in the socio-economic life of countries are conditioned by the evolution of information and communication technologies, the deployment of globalization, decentralization, the strengthening of the openness policy and the increase of efficiency of use and hence the transition from a bureaucratic model of government to a consensus model, a built model. implementation of entrepreneurial management mechanisms in providing social services to the population actualize the need for rethinking and justification the structure of public finance in the new environment. On the basis of systematic analysis, the theoretical aspects of «public finances» are revealed in the article, their structure is substantiated and the necessity of application in scientific circulation as an important dominant of civil society is proved. It is emphasized that the essential characteristics of this definition are revealed by the existence of financial and economic relations between the population, the state, other public institutions and economic entities regarding the formation, distribution, and use of public funds to meet the public needs of the population. It is shown that the structure of public finances is formed by state and local finances, finances of communal enterprises and state corporations, finances of enterprises and organizations of communal ownership, extrabudgetary trust funds and public funds. Among the dominant features of public finances in the context of modern transformations are transparency and imperative character. It has been argued that the vector of public finance reform must continue to be decentralization, which, in addition to the redistribution of resources and powers, should promote the extension of the financial powers of local governments, increase the transparency of both public and local finances, and raise public accountability. the public sector and improving the quality of life of the population.

Legacies of the Cold War in Malaysia: Anything but Communism

ABSTRACT Malaya’s anti-communist Emergency of 1948–1960 demonstrated the lengths to which elites – first British colonial, then local – were prepared to go to combat communism’s advance domestically. But the threat of communism, then the spectre of an all-too-convenient communist bogey, resonated across the polity well beyond the Malayan Communist Party’s defeat. The Cold War left a complex and enduring legacy for Malaysian formal politics and civil society. We can see these legacies in terms of political ideologies, settlement patterns, restrictive legislation and geo-political positioning. Overall, Malaysia did experience a genuine and aggressive communist movement, and its counterinsurgency measures, coupling a hearts-and-minds strategy with military suppression, remain a model for even present-day efforts against extremist mobilisation. But what has left a deeper stain is less the Malayan Communist Party per se than how these battles sculpted the ideological, demographic, legal and security landscape: a largely Chinese, internationally vilified, anti-capitalist movement at a formative period in Malaysian socio-political development helped to delegitimise ideological alternatives and bolster a strong, centralised, specifically communal and capitalist state, nested in a significantly depoliticised society.

Mental based on the historical memory of the Ukrainian people: the political aspect

On the basis of the conducted genetic analysis, it was established that the system-forming features of the political mentality of the Ukrainian people, which are directly reproduced in historical memory, include the introversiveness of higher mental functions in the perception of the surrounding reality, the cordocentrism, the predominance of the emotional-sensory over the intellectually-volitional principle, the anarchist individualism, inferiority as a type of self-esteem. The stage of transformation of political mentality of the Ukrainian people – the period of paganism and christianization of Kievan Rus, the Cossack period, the period of bourgeois transformations, the Soviet period and the modern period. Selfgoverning potentials are key aspects of the political mentality of the Ukrainian people and an integral part of its historical image. The following mental characteristics are highlighted, such as the psychology of the hardworking master, the ability to find various individual and public forms of rational management, the desire for freedom, the free self-action of an independent person, the high degree of socio-political self-organization, people’s legal consciousness, the ability to public and political creativity of the masses, and others. Systemically important factor of political mentality of the Ukrainian people is aetatic guidelines arising under negative attitude to the Ukrainian authorities, which embody their oppressors. This direction today is transformed into a permanent alienation of Ukrainians from political power in general. Determined that the enslaved nation becomes the object of a long political domination of several states or under foreign influence gets some of its territory, the various parts of one ethnic group produce special features of mentality. On this basis, the specificity of the political culture of different national regions is formed, which becomes a serious obstacle to the construction of a communal state. That is, Ukraine in the mental aspect is characterized by considerable variability. Key words: historical memory, political mentality, stages of the transformation of the mentality of the Ukrainian people, selfgoverning aspects of political mentality, deformation of political mentality, aetatic character of political mentality.

Государство-Коммуна: эксперимент рабочей демократии в России 1918 г. и причины его крушения

Цитирование: Медушевский А.Н. (2019) Государство-Коммуна: эксперимент рабочей демократии в России 1918 г. и причины его крушения // Мир России. Т. 28. № 2. С. 63–83. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-2-63-83
 Утопическая идея государства рабочих, приведенная в действие в России после захвата большевиками власти в 1917 г., породила новые типы социальной мобилизации, адаптации, доминирования и политических институтов. Сердцевину этого эксперимента составляла концепция профсоюзов как формы непосредственной демократии, которая потенциально могла трансформироваться в форму Государства-Коммуны, основанную на самоуправлении, коллективном производстве и распределении собственности, благ, социальной ответственности между широким спектром рабочих союзов. В социологической литературе и огромной интернациональной историографии русской революции этот социальный эксперимент всегда являлся предметом тщательного анализа как редкий, даже уникальный, исторический пример осуществления абстрактной синдикалистской концепции бесклассового общества – нового социального контракта, основанного на кооперации и солидарности, а не на бюрократическом контроле. Эта форма правления интерпретировалась как содержательная историческая альтернатива традиционному буржуазному государству с такими его главными институтами, как парламентаризм, разделение властей и независимая судебная система. В некоторых современных левых теориях этот эксперимент выступает как модельный – успешный, последовательный и эффективный на начальной стадии (в период так называемого военного коммунизма 1918–1920 гг.), но пересмотренный и окончательно отвергнутый в последующий период бюрократического коммунизма – однопартийной гегемонии и сталинской диктатуры. Чтобы оценить научную ценность подобных утверждений, автор провел детальный анализ принципов, исходных форм и результатов рабочего самоуправления в период его непосредственного формирования (1918 г.), основанный на изучении многочисленных и ценных первичных источников – стенограмм и протоколов центральных и местных профсоюзов (старых и новых), представляющих социальную, профессиональную и административную стратификацию русского революционного общества в процессе его формирования. Центральный пункт авторской аргументации состоит в том, что так называемая деградация рабочего самоуправления в Советской России коренилась скорее во внутреннейтрансформации союзов, нежели во внешнем давлении на них или стратегических ошибках. С самого начала революционные профсоюзы не были аналогами регулярных социал-демократических профсоюзов западного типа, они имели иное, более традиционное социальное происхождение, играли другую роль в социальной трансформации. Комбинация внутренних и внешних факторов этой трансформации создала институциональные основы для формирования нового социального неравенства, развития олигархических тенденций в советских профсоюзах и новой трудовой бюрократии. Большевистская партия просто использовала, формализовала и направила этот тренд, но не она его создала. Это означает, что весь эксперимент по конструированию рабочей демократии как новой формы управления изначально оказался фундаментально нереализуем и должен быть отправлен в музей всех утопических проектов человечества.

Három község a Zselic nyugati szélén 1921–27 között. Kadarkút, Bárdudvarnok, Hedrehely népének életkörülményei

This study is based on a nationwide questionnaire of national Faluszövetség (Assotiation of Villages) on the region general conditions conducted in 1921 and 1925, and it compares the public administration, legal, intellectual and communal state of three settlements in the north-Western region of zselic in Somogy County: Kadarkút, Bárdudvar-nok, Hedrehely. it also gives the readers a picture of the region level of farming techniques and the relation to other settlements of the three villages, the local conditions of fai-res and pastures, main agricultural methods. it also examines the farming land and living ground distributions and prices of houses and field. The source is saved in Archiv of the original scrifts in the Hungarian Agricultural Museum as heritage of dr Antal Bodor.

Construyendo utopías concretas: el movimiento comunero en Venezuela

En el transcurso de la historia las utopías han jugado un papel importante en la construcción de alternativas sociales. En este artículo se analiza al mecanismo de autogobierno local venezolano de las comunas como prefiguración utópica o como “utopía concreta”. Se discuten diferentes conceptos marxistas y emancipadores de utopía conectándolos con el pensamiento latinoamericano, para demostrar cómo la prefiguración utópica es de considerar necesaria en los procesos de lucha revolucionaria. Luego de resumir estructura y funcionamiento del autogobierno local sigue el análisis de cómo en las comunas se ensaya una prefiguración utópica. Las comunas tienen sus raíces en tradiciones políticas y sociales latinoamericanas y se conectan con experiencias socialistas y revolucionarias, como también con la historia de resistencia indígena, negra y popular. Su estructura y funcionamiento del autogobierno local muestra que en ellas se ensaya una prefiguración utópica. En el imaginario popular, el Estado comunal sustituirá el Estado burgués.

Utopian disjunctures: Popular democracy and the communal state in urban Venezuela

This article examines the Venezuelan government’s efforts to establish a ‘communal state’ through the eyes of working-class chavista activists in the city of Valencia. It argues that the attempt to incorporate grassroots community organisations into a state-managed model of popular democracy produces a series of ‘utopian disjunctures’ for the actors involved. These disjunctures, the article contends, stem from conflicting political temporalities within the chavista project, as long-term aspirations of radical democracy clash with more short-term demands to obtain state resources and consolidate the government’s power. The case highlights the tensions generated by efforts to reconcile radical democratic experiments with left-nationalist electoral politics.

Planning and the communal state: interpreting community participation in Caracas

ABSTRACTThe paper adopts an interpretive institutionalist framework [Hay (2011), “Interpreting Interpretivism Interpreting Interpretations: The New Hermeneutics of Public Administration.” Martin (2015), “‘Ahora tienen que escucharnos’ [now they have to listen to us]: Actors’ Understandings and Meanings of Planning Practices in Venezuela’s ‘Participatory Democracy.” PhD Thesis, Cardiff University, to unpack participants’ involvement in communal councils (CCs) and a commune, two Venezuelan reforms seeking to incorporate citizens into planning processes. The paper focuses on how participants in La Silsa, an informal neighbourhood in Caracas, understood and enacted upon community planning opportunities provided by these new councils. Municipal and national government staff and finance heavily supported La Silsa’s emerging commune and CCs. Despite the national government’s rhetoric of ‘constructing a new socialist, communal state’, the article identifies several challenges need to be overcome to successfully shift from existing representative institutional/governmental arrangements towards more participatory repertoires. The article’s findings mirror those of other empirical studies of Latin America’s democratic innovations: citizen participation strengthens representative governmental arrangements, rather than replace them with normative alternatives.

Experiencias de participación y Estado Comunal (1999-2015). Hacia la configuración de políticas públicas locales

This research is part of a more complex study dedicated to investigate the relationship between families, ancestral knowledge and local public policies. It is analyzing experiences of participation and communal state for the purpose of understanding the links between this community participation process, the transformation of the State during the period 1999-2015 to the emergence of local public policies in Venezuela, glimpsing four significant historical moments namely: a) the urgency of a tragedy the community power, b) organization in the struggle for urban land, c) the momentum of the Missions with community participation d) Community Councils and Communes in the creation of popular power. As a result, these experiences indicate the transformation of rigid structures of representative cutting new participatory structures established on the basis of constitutional provisions; the building of a new territorial geometry, which appears linked to geopolitical place and space; and devolution of public power to people power in the formulation of public policy. As a final thought, major changes are needed if we want to move towards managing public policy role of communities.

Del pensamiento filosófico sobre las libertades a la coacción y condicionamiento de las libertades y derechos políticos: caso Venezuela

El catálogo de derechos sociales, civiles y políticos en Venezuela ha estado signado por la progresividad, desde las disposiciones losócas planteadas en el Supremo Congreso de Venezuela del año 1811. Con base en el pensamiento filosófico sobre las libertades se analizan los antecedentes de la Asamblea Nacional Constituyente de 1999 y los principios losócos, sociales e históricos que determinaron la “Democracia participativa y protagónica” y “Estado social de derecho y justicia” presentes en la Constitución, que bajo la premisa de derechos, la libertad, la igualdad, la propiedad, la seguridad y la justicia, permite a todos los ciudadanos, en teoría, el goce de los derechos y libertades. La Constitución vigente dene al sistema democrático como “Estado social de derecho y Justicia”, el cual supone como fundamento la igualdad entre los ciudadanos para ejercer sus deberes y derechos políticos. Del análisis de los elementos que integran la democracia participativa y de los derechos se concluye el advenimiento postconstitucional de un estado paralelo denominado “estado comunal” tras la promulgación de leyes orientadas a sectorizar la participación ciudadana bajo la ideología del sector ocial y el desconocimiento de los derechos humanos ante las sentencias emitidas por la Corte Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos

Fields of networked mind: Ritual consciousness and the factor of communitas in networked rites of compassion

Abstract Ritual consciousness is an altered state of consciousness that transpires beyond the boundaries of the known and gives rise to a duration referred to as time out of time. This extraordinary duration encompasses three interrelated factors: digital as opposed to analogue conduct of time, tempo and communitas. Under specific formal conditions, these factors may emerge in the context of networked rituals and outside their traditional and earthbound religious or spiritual settings. In this article, the three factors are analysed in relation to the author’s networked rites on the Waterwheel platform. The rites are designed to explore ritual consciousness and produce prototype morphic fields of compassion, which are aimed at counteracting the prevalent narrative of violence. There is an emphasis on communitas, a liminal and nonhierarchical communal state of oneness that could generate compassion. Based on researches in anthropology, biogenetic structuralism, cognitive neuroscience and morphic resonance, communitas is metaphorically envisioned as the communion of non-local brains within a networked mind and morphic field. The article postulates that the virtual and organic hybridity of the rites involve the participants’ body, brain and fields of the mind in the explorations of ritual consciousness.

Missionary Discipleship as the Innovation of the Church in Pope Francis’Evangelii Gaudium

Abstract Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium talks about discipleship in a framework of mission and evangelization. Rather than concentrating on the discipleship as such, it uses as a lens the spiritual commitment of conversion to discipleship, challenging all Christians and the whole Church, including institutional structures, to this conversion. In common with the World Coundl of Churches' document Together towards Life, Evangelii Gaudium emphasizes a need for Christians to focus on the heart of the Gospel, the love of the trinitarian God, in order to find trusful, dynamic, and transformative mission for the changing landscapes of today's global and local phenomena. This article deals with the concept of disdpleship in Evangelii Gaudium. To this end it discusses discipleship and its underlying structure of continual conversion as it is represented in both Evangelii Gaudium and the WCC's mission document Together towards Life. Evangelii Gaudium and Missionary Discipleship Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis' 2013 apostolic exhortation, emphasizes the missionary that enlivens the community of (2) Rather than talking about discipleship alone, however, Evangelii Gaudium concentrates on the concept of discipleship (3) which is seen as the fundamental essence and task of all Christians in the light of contemporary global and local phenomena: particularly the rapid changes of this epochal period which, while producing great advances, are also escalating inequality by decreasing human dignity. (4) It is as a result of this insight that Pope Francis emphasizes the need for conversion to discipleship, a model that could challenge conditions in the contemporary world. In order to understand what is meant by the concept in Evangelii Gaudium, the following sections present a brief summary of some of its underlying elements. Missionary discipleship as a communal state of being Evangelii Gaudium advocates discipleship as a personal state of being for all Christians, one that is not reliant on one's position in the Church, nor personal ambitions or gifts, nor even the measure of one's faith. Rather, it derives from the sacrament of baptism: In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the People of God have become (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God's saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are disciples and missionaries, but rather that we are always missionary disciples. (5) As this extract makes very clear, discipleship calls for personal involvement through which the joy of the Gospel may spread from person to person in the form of goodness moving respectfully and gently from heart to heart. (6) The document emphasizes that every single Christian is an agent, a concept which embraces active and subjective commitment. (7) However, discipleship, which clearly includes personal commitment, is not an individual state of being. Rather, it assumes engagement with others: Genuine spiritual accompaniment always begins and flourishes in the context of service to the mission of evangelization. [...] This is clearly distinct from every kind of intrusive accompaniment or isolated self-realization. …

Chávez and the Communal State: On the Transition to Socialism in Venezuela

On October 20, 2012, less than two weeks after being reelected to his fourth term as Venezuelan president and only months before his death, Hugo Chavez delivered his crucial El Golpe de Timon (Strike at Helm) speech to first meeting of his ministers in new revolutionary cycle. Chavez surprised even some of his strongest supporters by his insistence on need for changes at top in order to promote an immediate leap forward in creation of what is referred to as the communal state. This was to accelerate shift of power to population that had begun with formation of communal councils (groupings of families involved in self-governance projects—in densely populated urban areas, 200–400 families; in rural areas, 50–100 families). The main aim in new revolutionary cycle, he insisted, was to speed up registration of communes, key structure of communal state.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at Monthly Review website.

Notes from the Editors, April 2015

buy this issueThe Review of the Month in this issue ("Chávez and the Communal State" by John Bellamy Foster) focuses on the revolutionary political strategy introduced by Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian movement in Venezuela. In the process it addresses how István Mészáros's Beyond Capital played a key, strategic role in the development of Chávez's thinking. Beyond Capital is a daunting philosophical work of around a thousand pages, while many of his other writings are nearly as challenging. MR readers will therefore be pleased to learn that we have just published a new book by Mészáros, The Necessity of Social Control…, expressly designed, as Foster writes in the book's "Foreword," as "an easily accessible work," providing "a way into his thinking for the uninitiated" (9).… Yet, Mészáros's new book is much more than that.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Building the Commune: Insurgent Government, Communal State

When Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez died in March 2013, he left behind an unfulfilled dream that was never his alone: that of the “communal state.” Amid the complicated maneuvering of the post-Chávez era, this aspiration—which would see the expansion and unification of nascent communal councils, alongside a proliferation of other directly democratic political and productive organs—has pressed forward. This article situates this communal state at the intersection of two tensions. I first “decolonize” the idea of the Venezuelan commune, excavating the broad contours of its history as a subterraneous process oriented toward self-government, not in an effort to romanticize indigenous and maroon communism, but to underline the tense relationship between the Venezuelan commune and nineteenth-century liberation struggles. Second, through the theories of former guerrilla comandante Kléber Ramírez Rojas, I show how this history of the commune enters into tension with the state itself and how the contemporary construction of the commune from above is but one side of a seeming paradox gestating under the sign of the communal state, the tense unity of government from above and insurgency from below.

Guilt beyond accusations, or memories of the Holocaust in Lithuanian shtetls

This article is an attempt to show the difference between guilt as a reaction to accusations and guilt as a positive impulse for social change. These attitudes are not related and cannot be derived from each other. Accusation abolishes the positive power of guilt, i.e., excludes this communal attitude from the processes of social creativity. New understandings and behaviors in a community are produced by this kind of communal guilt which gradually emerges from experiences of social shock when confronting acts of radical violence, and from an understanding of the links between previous mental attitudes and the cruel events. Memories of the Holocaust in Lithuanian shtetls (small towns that previously were predominantly Jewish) express exactly this fully active and communally necessary kind of guilt consciousness which is not for show. This guilt is not an experience felt solely by the direct perpetrators; it is a communal state, expressed more in a lack of narrativization and verbalization (or in unconscious rejection of previous conceptual ground) than in concrete texts or statements. This is more social metanoia in which new criteria for historical truth are able to appear. Therefore this kind of guilt consciousness is possible only beyond accusations in the live communicative memory of a community: it rather forms criteria for historical truth instead of just reacting to the given historical data.

The Crossroads of Democracy in Venezuela: the Emergence of the Popular Power

The paper analyzes one of the main political instruments of the current regime of President Chávez in Venezuela: the Popular Power, as a new conception of democracy within socialist model. We studied the origins of such instrument and its current legal framework, in order to demonstrate how Popular Power constitutes a violation of constitutional concept of democracy, due to its lack of freedom and pluralism. The Popular Power is articulated in the Laws promulgated in 2010, as an organization that acts under the political control of the National Government, with the sole purpose of the consolidation of the socialism and the construction of a “new” State, the “Communal State”. According to the Laws of the Popular Power, socialism is not only the political doctrine of the Government’s party, but also the political doctrine of the State, that excludes any form of political participation different to the ones executed through the organizations of the Popular Power and for the promotion of socialism. In the end, the emergence of the Popular Power in Venezuela demonstrates the risk of the manipulation of the language of democracy for political purposes that are the antithesis of democracy.

The Communal State: Communal Councils, Communes, and Workplace Democracy

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsDario AzzelliniDario Azzellini is a visiting fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center and works at the Johannes Kepler University (Linz, Austria). He has published several books and journal articles about popular movements, workers control, local self administration, and privatization of military services, with a regional focus on Latin