Political Contradictions Research Articles

Transnational blackface, neo-minstrelsy and the ‘French Eddie Murphy’ in Intouchables

The 2011 French film Intouchables is an interracial buddy film about a black caregiver from the suburbs and a quadriplegic white aristocrat. Éric Tolédano and Olivier Nakache’s film broke box office records in France and abroad, becoming the second highest grossing French film of all time in domestic release and the most successful non-English film on the export market. However, the film’s critical reception was mixed; some celebrated the film’s social conscience while others denounced its racism. In this article, the author analyses the film’s treatment of race, specifically the ways in which Tolédano and Nakache draw on tropes of American blackface, neo-minstrelsy and 1980s Hollywood interracial buddy comedies starring Eddie Murphy to visualise racial inequality and discrimination in contemporary France. The author tracks the ways in which these American tropes align and do not align with representations of cultural diversity and the banlieues in France, and he ultimately argues that the film’s financial success and ambivalent reception track with the contradictory politics of American tropes for representing blackness.

The Harmonic Utopia of Spanish Republicanism (1840–1873)

ABSTRACT Ever since they first appeared in the public sphere, around 1840, and until the First Republic was proclaimed in 1873, Spanish republican activists never ceased to spread in newspapers and political pamphlets the idea that a republic would entail a “supreme synthesis of the political contradictions of our century” and “the conciliation of all hatred and all rivalry, the harmony of all interests.” This article sets out to study what may be dubbed the “utopian dimension” of the collective imagination of Spanish republicanism (the aspiration to total political and social unity) and its consequences for the political culture and practice of Spanish republicans.

How social democrats may become reluctant radicals: Thomas Piketty's Capital and Wolfgang Streeck's Buying Time

The continuing ramifications of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 have forced social scientists to raise fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism, democracy and inequality. In particular, Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Wolfgang Streeck’s Buying Time focus on, respectively, the economic and the political contradictions of capitalistic societies. Piketty argues that capitalism naturally tends towards the exacerbation of rent-based wealth inequality, whereas Streeck suggests that capitalism and democracy are ultimately incompatible. A striking feature of these two contributions is that their authors are social democrats, not Marxists or radical anti-capitalist thinkers. In this review article, I illustrate how the combination of social democratic convictions and the acknowledgment that capitalism cannot be tamed generates interesting tensions between the diagnosis offered by the two monographs and the solutions that are proposed. I end the piece by raising two remarks on the implications that this tension might have for normative political theory. On the one hand, it is time for theory to do more work on political action and agency. On the other, liberal egalitarian theorists might have to acknowledge that they are in the same predicament as Piketty and Streeck: social democracy is their ideal, yet it is perhaps unattainable. If this is the case, liberal egalitarians might be committed to adopt a more confrontational attitude towards capitalism: they might have to become reluctant radicals.

Legitimation Crisis? On the Political Contradictions of Financialized Capitalism

AbstractFacade democracy. Post-democracy. Zombie democracy. De-democratization. In proliferating such terms, many observers posit that we are living through a “crisis of democracy.” But what exactly is in crisis here? I argue that democracy’s present travails are best understood as expressions, under historically specific contemporary conditions, of a general tendency to political crisis that is intrinsic to capitalist societies. I elaborate this thesis in three steps. First, I propose a general account of “the political contradiction of capitalism” as such, without reference to any particular historical form. Then, I reconstruct Jurgen Habermas’s 1973 book, Legitimation Crisis, as an account of the form this political contradiction assumed in one specific phase of capitalist society, namely, the state-managed capitalism of the post–World War II era. Finally, I sketch an account of democracy’s current ills as expressions of capitalism’s political contradiction in its present, financialized phase.

Beyond the Politics of Identity: The Left and the Politics of Caste and Identity in Tamil Nadu, 1920–63

Wedged uncomfortably between the gathering pan-Indian nationalist movement and the locally resonant and divisive anti-Brahman, Tamil ethno-nationalist movement, Left leaders in the Tamil region in India were faced with a difficult and complex set of political choices and challenges in the early twentieth century. These political challenges brought to the fore the social and political contradictions between an anti-colonial Indian nationalism led mostly by upper-caste liberal–bourgeois leaders and an equally entrenched and locally resonant ethno-nationalist movement which, despite its social reformist and anti-Brahman platform, was led by dominant non-Brahman caste leaders committed to the continuation of British rule. In this paper, we will be looking at two of the most prominent Tamil Left leaders who attempted to work with and bridge these contradictory movements in Tamil society. M. Singaravelu (1860–1946) and P. Jeevanandam (1907–63) were prominent Left leaders and intellectuals in the Tamil region and were well known for their close engagement with and sensitivity to issues of social reform, caste and linguistic and cultural hegemony. Both joined various political movements including the Indian National Congress, the Dravidian movement and the Indian communist party in different phases of their careers. It is their participation and engagement with such diverse and contradictory movements that make their intellectual interventions unique and a close study of their work valuable for providing a window into how the Left attempted to deal with such thorny issues as the politics of caste and language in India.

Introduction

Read back from the 1990s, the scenario of a Greater Serbian agenda based in Belgrade and using Yugoslavia as a means to that end continues to tempt Western scholarship. Serbian exceptionalism thereby doomed both Yugoslavias. This special issue of East Central Europe addresses connections between Belgrade, Serbia, and Yugoslavia promoting contradictions that belie this simple scenario. Focusing on the first Yugoslavia, these six articles by younger Belgrade historians critically examine a series of disjunctures between the capital city and the rest of Serbia as well as Yugoslavia that undercut the neglected pre-1914 promise of Belgrade’s Yugoslavism. First came the failure of the city’s political and intellectual elite the First World War was ending to persevere with that promise. Most could not separate themselves from a conservative rather than nationalist reliance on the Serbian-led ministries in Belgrade to deal with the problems of governing a new state that now included many non-Serbs. From Serbian political divisions and a growing parliamentary paralysis to the Belgrade ministries’ failure to support the Serb colonists in Kosovo, problems mounted. They opened the way for King Aleksandar’s dictatorship in 1929, with initial Serbian support. But as the royal regime imposed an integral Yugoslavism on what had been the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and punished disloyalty to the Crown in particular Serbs were punished as well as non-Serbs. Their locally organized associations were also placed under royal authority, whose ministries were however no more successful in uniform administration than their predecessors. At the same time, however, Belgrade’s growing connections to European popular culture skipped over the rest of the country, Serbia included, to establish a distinctive urban identity. After the Second World War, what was now a Western identity would grow and spread from Belgrade after the Tito-Stalin split, despite reservations and resistance from the Communist regime. This cultural connection now promoted the wider Yugoslav integration that was missing in the interwar period. It still failed, as amply demonstrated in Western and Serbian scholarship, to overcome the political contradictions that burdened both Yugoslavias.

A Mediterranean Heterotopia: Gabriele Salvatores and the Poetics of “Fleeing”

ABSTRACT This article discusses the film Mediterraneo, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, in order to problematize and renegotiate its apparent political and historical inconsistencies and contradictions. The film presents a narration of certain events that characterized the role of the Italian nation-state and the fascist regime in the conflict against Greece during World War II. But Salvatores avoids a linear, official, or objective representation of those historical events, and proposes instead a fragmented, subjective, and potentially subversive (re)reading of that period. The deterritorialized spatiality of a Mediterranean island becomes therefore, in this film, an emblematic space of autonomy where a newly formed community temporarily removes itself from the simplistic notions established by the logic of armed conflict. Salvatores thus questions and subverts the implications of a hegemonic, belligerent discourse perpetrated by the nation-states at war against each other.

Canada's Foreign Policy on Nuclear Technology Development and Proliferation

Canada has followed an ambiguous path with respect to its policy on nuclear weapons as a result of maintaining a Nuclear Division within its Foreign Affairs Department – which promotes disarmament and non-proliferation – while simultaneously, selling nuclear technology, such as that produced by Candu Energy Inc., that might be used for weapons production. There is a need to understand the rationale for this approach to Canada’s foreign policy on disarmament and non-proliferation and for why Canada continues to support the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This major research paper analyzes whether a contradiction between policy and action exists, and what approach best explains the presence or absence of a contradiction. The central argument is that Canada’s foreign policy framework is based in a realist position, wherein Canada’s successive leaders have recognized the inherent risk in being geographically situated next to a hegemon. No political contradiction between Canada’s economic interests and the country’s ongoing support for the NPT was observed, predominantly due to its requirements to meet its own economic obligations in a changing world, and to ensure that its foreign policies are aligned with those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). A unique Canadian strategic vision was identified, in that, the country is able to subsume its own identity in order to support the identities of other nations as the government of Canada has seen fit. Presently, it serves Canada well to maintain its staunch position on disarmament and non-proliferation, as it can and does rely heavily on the deterrence factor of the American armament.

Contesting the Monopoly of Interpretation: The Uneasy Relationship between Ulama and Sunni Parties in Yemen

Most studies on Sunni Islamism either neglect ulama or portray them as basically diverging from the Islamist movement. Unlike their Islamist counterparts who are contenders for political power in incumbent regimes, the ulama are depicted as loyal quietists. As such, this article problematizes this dichotomy. As is shown by the case of Yemen, the ulama form an integral part of the Islamist Islah party, yet since the position of ulama within the party is crucially dependent on their monopoly over interpretation, and as the lay Muslim Brothers have increasingly digressed from the rulings of the ulama, they have sought alliances with their peers outside the party and attempted to undermine the politics of the Brotherhood by means of ulama associations and founding Salafi parties. By focusing on these developments, the article proposes an alternative reading to the allegedly contradictory politics of Islah which might be valid to other Islamist parties too.

L’art et la guérison—Des impératifs éthiques dans <i>Jardin secret</i> de Julien Kilanga Musinde

This article sets out to analyse a trend in literary (re)positioning in the context of socio-political confrontation. In keeping with the literary approach adopted by Julien Kilanga Musinde in the novel Jardin secret (2010), the article will focus on defining the ultimate objective (s) of literary writing in a context where the novel genre is perceived as a depiction of the author’s worldview. Given the socio-political contradictions and widespread dehumanisation that characterise present-day Africa, it is important to note that Musinde’s novel is one of the answers to the political contradictions that impel postcolonial Africa into a situation of endless crisis. In this philosophical novel, the author endeavours to address the misuse of political power. He is equally at pains to decry the unethical use of scientific knowledge. Much as politics is at the core of the narrative, it is important to note that the political vein is nothing more than a pretext used by the author to broach deeper philosophical issues, which are expressed through ethical imperatives. Keywords : African intellectual, altruism, ethical imperatives, liberation war, non-violence, renaissance.

Experience of European Integration in the Former Soviet Union: Political and Legal Aspects

The article is devoted to the political and legal analysis of integration processes in the post-Soviet states – Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. It reviews the activities of the Customs Union and its economic and political expediency, as well as the creation and functioning of the Eurasian Economic Union. The author has revealed the reasons for the ineffectiveness of the EAEC activities and proposed a number of legal, political and economic measures to improve it. The paper provides examples of internal economic and political contradictions of the Eurasian Economic Union and offers a legal mechanism to resolve them, and further regulation on the basis of creating a single legal space.

The Impact of the Current Military Conflict on Migration and Mobility in Ukraine

In seeking to investigate the recent changes in migration matters in Ukraine since EuroMaidan, annexation of Crimea and hostilities in Donbass, this paper explores the situation on the ground using the available data (including official statistics, figures of the international organizations, media reports and public surveys) as well as expert voices from different disciplines. It covers the period from winter 2013/14, when the first individual circular movements started, to autumn 2014, marked with intense mass displacement which has been rapidly growing since then. It is indicated that the observed conflict was triggered out by externally orchestrated factors and agents and would not have been caused by internal economic, political or cultural contradictions alone. Given the unprecedented challenge that Ukraine, being in the middle of the conflict, is currently facing, it also addresses the potential for a policy and the institutional framework to deal with migration since the crisis.

Maternal Autobiography as a Site of Feminist Negotiation and Resistance

How can I use my writing to tackle my conflicting experiences as a writer, a mother, a feminist activist in Israeli academia? How can words combine the routine exhausting work and pleasures of motherhood; my struggles against injustice done to the Arab minority in my country, torn by unrelenting conflict; and the need to turn my back on all these obligations and efforts to write? As the normative expectation of mothers is to identify with the maternal role, activism which involves resistance and thus social and political hazards may be considered a threat to maternal work. But whereas one could argue that activism is, in fact, a social and communal extension of motherhood, writing is over and over again perceived as a neglect of maternal duties. In this article, I introduce feminist autobiography as a literary form which has enabled me as mother-writer-activist to create a space where social, cultural, political, and psychological conflicts and contradictions can intermingle, creating an alternative maternal subjectivity and voice.

Ontario's infrastructure boom: a socioecological fix for air pollution, congestion, jobs, and profits

Infrastructure projects provide a spatial fix by increasing the scale and rate of capital accumulation, and because infrastructure projects themselves absorb massive amounts of productive and finance capital. I seek to explain the timing, character, and consequences of a Can $85 billion infrastructure boom in Canada's largest province, Ontario, between 2003 until 2013. I focus on the expansion and privatization of environmentally oriented infrastructure in Ontario via three policies: the conversion of public coal power plants to private natural gas and nuclear facilities; the Green Energy Act (a renewable energy feed-in tariffs programme); and The Big Move (a Can $50 billion dollar rapid transit plan using a public–private partnership model). I employ a Polanyian– O'Connor approach to emphasize the role of labour, environmental groups, and other social movement groups in bringing these investments about. I argue that infrastructure investments are not only a spatial fix aimed at finding capital a safe long-term investment and addressing class struggles around job creation. In Ontario these infrastructure investments have also provided the state with a broader socioecological fix for the economic and political contradictions stemming from air pollution and congestion. Social movements have pressured the government to address what James O'Connor refers to as the underproduction of the conditions of production: that is, degraded human health and quality of life; a deteriorating environment; and inadequate public infrastructure. Throughout the paper I emphasize how the socioecological fix in Ontario is being accomplished by advancing the neoliberal governance of public infrastructure. I point to how these neoliberal socioecological fixes are simply displacing socioecological crises to new spatial and temporal scales.

Expansion of Russia – Hamas Relations: Sources and Implications

Expansion of Russia – Hamas Relations: Sources and Implications Elaheh Koolaee; Hamidreza Azizi, PhD Abstract Russia’s relations with Hamas is of a great importance because from one hand, this organization has been listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe and from the other, Moscow’s relations with this Palestinian organization includes many political contradictions for the both sides. Hamas, at least verbally, has always supported Islamic movements throughout the world, which includes the Chechens in the North Caucasus. Putin’s government made an apparent effort to enhance relations with the Middle Eastern countries – pro-US and anti-US, Arab and non- Arab. It is noteworthy that in this process, it established close relations with both major Palestinian Organizations – Fatah and Hamas – and also with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The question of this paper is why Moscow, despite all the mentioned differences, has continued to expand its relations with Hamas? The author surveys the development in Russia’s Middle East policy, then its impact on the relations of Russia with Palestinian groups, like Hamas. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jppg.v3n2a3

Haphazard Archive: The Epistemological, Aesthetic, and Political Contradictions of Television

Haphazard Archive: The Epistemological, Aesthetic, and Political Contradictions of Television

Rola regionalnych organizacji międzynarodowych w realizacji koncepcji zrównoważonego rozwoju w Azji Wschodniej

The goal of the study is to analyze the non‑Western interpretations of sustainable development concept and the role of international organizations and international public goods in their potential realization. Numerous political and economic contradictions generated by the experiences of colonization and decolonization of the region make Western and regional understanding of the concept substantially different. While from the global perspective it is perceived as an imperative, locally it may be interpreted as a veiled form of neocolonialism. The differences result in wide range of problems, from minor misunderstandings to open resentment. The goal of the article is to prove that regional international organizations and international public goods have the potential to become a key to develop mutually acceptable form of sustainable development concept and practice.

Gregory Gershuni and ideology formation of political terrorism in the Russian Empire in the early XX century

The article analyzes the role of the famous leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party G.A. Gershuni in organizing and carrying out terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Empire in the early XX century. The article had been suggested that the ideology of political terrorism of radical leftist groups reflected not only the profound socio-economic and political contradictions of late Russian imperial autocracy, but was the result of an exacerbation of the Jewish problem in the country, the crisis of national identity of representatives of Russian-Jewish intellectuals.

Democrazia in catene: civilizzazione, schiavismo e guerra negli scritti sull'america di John Stuart Mill e Karl Marx

Both living in London for more than twenty years (1849- 1873), Karl Marx and J.S. Mill commented extensively on the features and contradictions of American society and politics. In particular, the two thinkers devoted a substantial number of letters, articles and systematic writings to the issue of slavery and to the events of the Civil War at the beginning of the 1860s. The literature has never compared their philosophical-political questionings of post-Tocquevillian America, nor has it investigated the continuities in and ruptures between their analyses of the slavery-based American economy and society. Consequently, the author focuses specifically on their American writings in an attempt to cast light on some significant similarities between the two philosophers when addressing their European readers on the American Civil War and the central issue of slavery. Although embedded within different moral and political languages, their understandings of slavery pursued a twin goal: to reveal how relevant the categories of race and class vis-a-vis State sovereignty and the development of modern democracy had become since Tocqueville, and to point out the very close linkage between the American events and the fate of Europe as far as labour movements were concerned. From such a perspective, in the author’s view, they urged their European readers to go beyond the military facade of the Civil War and develop a broader theoretical perspective on what was really at stake on the other side of the Atlantic.

Memory for flip-flopping: Detection and recollection of political contradictions

During political campaigns, candidates often change their positions on controversial issues. Does changing positions create confusion and impair memory for a politician's current position? In 3 experiments, two political candidates held positions on controversial issues in two debates. Across the debates, their positions were repeated, changed, or held only in the second debate (control). Relative to the control condition, recall of the most recent position on issues was enhanced when change was detected and recollected, whereas recall was impaired when change was not recollected. Furthermore, examining the errors revealed that subjects were more likely to intrude a Debate 1 response than to recall a blend of the two positions, and that recollecting change decreased Debate 1 intrusions. We argue that detecting change produces a recursive representation that embeds the original position in memory along with the more recent position. Recollecting change then enhances memory for the politician's positions and their order of occurrence by accessing the recursive trace.