Political Culture Research Articles

The Polish-Lithuanian legacy of Sir Thomas More in the rediscovered plays and playbills of the eighteenth century

The life and execution of Sir Thomas More, humanist writer and Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII Tudor, has captured the imagination of both Elizabethan and Continental playwrights. The article discusses the cultural context as well as the form and structure of a 1736 playbill, Messis immortalium trophaeorum ex triumphalibus palmis, Thomae Mori cancellarii Angliae (Wrocław Ossolineum Library, XVIII – 15241. IV), originally from Zamoyski Academy; and a newly discovered 1765 manuscript play, Morus Angliae Cancellarius tragedia (Vilnius University Library, MS F3-1118), from the Jesuit College in Lwów, both from the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The article argues that specific representations of More’s life and martyrdom in the Jesuit theatre of Poland-Lithuania can be explained and analyzed in the light of the political traditions and multi-denominational religious life of the Commonwealth up to its partitions in the second half of the eighteenth century. They raise interesting questions regarding the balance of spiritual and secular concerns, and creatively link Thomas More’s story with the Commonwealth’s political culture to offer moral and ethical exemplars for the young.

The “bridge character”: Carl Schurz and West German–American rapprochement

In 1952, West Germans and Americans held a joint, year-long observation celebrating the centennial of the arrival of German-born Carl Schurz in the USA. The collaborative, transatlantic celebration served to publicize a historical and cultural relationship between the German and American peoples through the memory of Carl Schurz. State and non-state participants publicly remembered Schurz as the quintessential German–American and a “bridge character” that transcended national borders, occupied an important ideological space, legitimized the Cold War relationship between erstwhile enemies, and perpetuated an on-going process to construct a transnational, cultural identity rooted in Western liberal-democratic political culture. For the US government, the historical character of Carl Schurz also became a means of promoting a liberal heritage in the face of on-going Soviet accusations of American imperialism, warmongering, and poor race relations.

The digital revolution contributed to practical reality according to the stages of its emergence in contemporary history (A model)

The digital revolution has politically affected the actual political reality through the transformation of the relatively free digital public sphere, under official digital censorship systems, and also for major global digital companies. Digitalization has today become a tool for building digital pressure groups that exercise their criticism and demands outside partisan frameworks and outside constitutional and legal systems, and outside The traditional mechanisms of a representative democratic system, including party pluralism, competitions, parliamentary and party elections within each party, municipal elections, referendums, and the formation of governments based on the results of the elections, or presidential elections in presidential systems such as the United States of America, or parliamentary and semi-presidential elections in the French style. Therefore, this study seeks to highlight knowledge of several questions about the possibilities of modifying the system of representative democracy towards introducing some forms of direct democracy, and not waiting for general elections to change the policies of elected governments, according to the political phenomena of digitization and its impact on democratic political culture as part of the processes of liquidity, and transformation in terms of the emergence of some phenomena. Populism, the post-truth world, and fake news in politics.

Book review: Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta

Book review: Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Streets in Motion: The Making of Infrastructure, Property and Political Culture in Twentieth-century Calcutta

The Sword Culture of Southern China in the East Zhou Dynasty

In the East Zhou Dynasty in China, the sword was a practical weapon and an important cultural symbol in the Southern part of China. This article employs the method of literature review, starting from explaining the practical use of the sword and analyzing the cultural message conveyed by the Southern sword in the East Zhou Dynasty in China. The article explores the sword culture from three aspects: sword-making technology, legend and literature stories of swords, and the political and social culture behind swords, providing a cultural picture with multiple aspects. It was found that the southern sword in the East Zhou Dynasty not only reflected the wisdom of metallurgical craftsmen but also became an important element in legend stories and political and social conventions. The Southern sword represents Southern peoples natural worship, morality and prestige of rulers, and the good quality and spirits of humanity. These swords were also the symbol of royal members political power and high status, the identity and capability of aristocracy, and the gratitude or respect between people.

Religious Organizations as Racialized Organizations: Loose Coupling and Symbolic Allyship Between Denominational Racial Justice Statements and Congregational Practice

In the post-Civil Rights era, many predominantly white religious denominations issued statements denouncing racism and challenging their congregations to take organizational action to undo racism, but do these statements translate into actions? New institutionalism theorizes that loose coupling between statements and actions is normative for organizations as they balance signaling support to their external environment while simultaneously maintaining the good faith of internal membership, but Ray contends that because organizations are racialized, this disconnect maintains racial inequality. Building on new institutionalism, I develop the concept of symbolic allyship: symbolic actions that mark the organization as an ally, but these symbolic actions vary in the degree to which they pose organizational risk in maintaining member confidence. Using a nationally representative sample of American congregations within predominantly white denominations that have implored their congregations to act to address racism, I employ latent class analysis to test the prevalence and shape of congregational loose coupling between symbolic statements and symbolic actions. Results suggest that loose coupling between statements and actions is the norm. Further, results provide some evidence that congregations trend toward engaging in symbolic actions that have lower potential costs to the good faith of members. Because these forms of symbolic allyship signal support to the outside world, they may also mask lower levels of organizational change and reinforce racial inequality. Finally, regression analysis illustrates that the ideological mismatch between more progressive denominational statements and more conservative local political and theological cultures helps in understanding this pervasive loose coupling.

Hybrid Modernity in ‘K-Culture’ : The Non-simultaneous Cultural Politics of the Global Korean Wave and Its Landscapes

Hybrid Modernity in ‘K-Culture’ : The Non-simultaneous Cultural Politics of the Global Korean Wave and Its Landscapes

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS & ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH TEACHERS’ PERFORMANCE: THE APPLICABILITY OF MOA MODEL

The motivation, opportunity and ability model for teachers’ performance is related to the employees' long-term performance and competitiveness. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of teachers about organizational politics by finding out the relationship amid organizational politics, teachers' performance, and motivation, opportunity, and abilities (MOA) model. Quantitative survey research design was employed for this study. The sample was comprised of 15 public & 15 private schools of district Lahore. The data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that school teachers observed a strong culture of organizational politics. Results showed that there is positive relationship amid teachers’ performance and MOA model and thus related to organizational politics. The findings of study will enhance understanding of teachers' performance in MOA model & politics & interrelationship with individual performance. Teacher’s performance can be increased with the use of MOA model in the institutions.

How national political culture shapes international relations: the case of Japan

Political culture presupposes going beyond national borders to the outside world, it implies comparing oneself with other cultures in the mirror of socio-political values (“I am the other for the other”). Japan is a testing ground with an exceptionally rich texture for analyzing the influence of a specific political culture on the country’s foreign policy. The author conducts such an analysis based on the methodological arsenal of comparative political science along the “modernity-postmodernity- neomodernity” axis. The author critically examines the concept of the political analyst Andrey Kortunov who focuses on the transition of a number of countries from the postmodern development track, which, within the framework of globalization, led them to nowhere, to a more distinct neo-modern track with its pragmatic transactionalism and orientation to their original values. According to the author, Japan under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to break the postmodern deadlock, but then a breakdown ensued caused by the indecisive and reactive policies of weak leaders. Japan is ’’astride on the fence” with one foot in the globalist postmodernity, blindly following the lead of the United States, and the other in neo-modernity, trying to rely on national foundations and values. Using concrete examples from the current reality of Japan, the article shows how the constants of political culture transform the trends that determine the key vectors of international relations, including the negotiations with Russian leaders on the highest level.

How national political culture shapes international relations: the case of Japan

Political culture presupposes going beyond national borders to the outside world, it implies comparing oneself with other cultures in the mirror of socio-political values (“I am the other for the other”). Japan is a testing ground with an exceptionally rich texture for analyzing the influence of a specific political culture on the country’s foreign policy. The author conducts such an analysis based on the methodological arsenal of comparative political science along the “modernity-postmodernity- neomodernity” axis. The author critically examines the concept of the political analyst Andrey Kortunov who focuses on the transition of a number of countries from the postmodern development track, which, within the framework of globalization, led them to nowhere, to a more distinct neo-modern track with its pragmatic transactionalism and orientation to their original values. According to the author, Japan under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to break the postmodern deadlock, but then a breakdown ensued caused by the indecisive and reactive policies of weak leaders. Japan is ’’astride on the fence” with one foot in the globalist postmodernity, blindly following the lead of the United States, and the other in neo-modernity, trying to rely on national foundations and values. Using concrete examples from the current reality of Japan, the article shows how the constants of political culture transform the trends that determine the key vectors of international relations, including the negotiations with Russian leaders on the highest level.

Using social networks to study the political culture of modern China

The article systematizes the main approaches adopted by a group of researchers from MGIMO University, HSE University and the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, united within the framework of the ”Moscow Project for the Study of Chinese Political Culture”, to investigate the political culture of modern China through the monitoring of social networks. The authors analyze the existing ideas about political culture in the Chinese academic discourse, identify problems in studying the political views of Chinese citizens by traditional sociological methods (surveys, questionnaires). They further explain the relevance of using social network analysis in modern studies of Chinese society, and also describe the methodology they developed for studying social networks using sentiment analysis. The article lays the theoretical and methodological basis for further research on modern Chinese society based on an array of data from Chinese social networks.

The concept of identity: movement from the abstract to the concrete

The subject of the article is an overview of identitarian research results in Russia reflected in the cycle of the 2010-2023 fundamental scientific publications. The main result is the formation of an original Russian scientific school of identity studies and the establishment of this scientific area as an autonomous subdiscipline of political science. Two substantive dimensions of identitarian studies are identified - analytical-conceptual and substantive-political. Within the framework of the first one, the author analysesthe key theoretical parameters of identity studies, including the substantive evolution of the identity concept, theoretical and methodological context and semantic explications of identity studies. A number of identity theoretical articulations are considered: identity modus operandi (positive, negative), identity crises, development, complex society, political space and political time, social justice, social solidarity, civilisational and geopolitical identity, memory and culture wars, cancellation culture, cultural security and cultural sovereignty, and others. An overview of prospective identity studies is presented, including the synthesis of micro- and macro-level identity analyses; the development of the middle-level theories as the way to bridge the gap between empirical analysis and “big theory” in understanding the changes taking place in different regions of the world, taking into account the historical past, political culture, emotional structure and worldview; the relationship between macro-political identities and ideologies; the correlation between civic and ethnic identities; and the relationship between identity and ideology. The political significance of identity research reflects the need to reorient the contemporary way of thinking as predominantly consumerist to the responsible development imperatives, which is supported by a positive identity.

Democracy as Religion in the Context of the Global Governance System

Introduction. The article examines the modern understanding of democracy as a religious belief system. New technologies and globalization open up opportunities to influence all spheres of society, which makes it possible to impose ethical standards and moral ideals through political technologies and propaganda. Understanding democracy as a new kind of religion allows us to get a full-fledged view of all key elements of the current culture of the modern world, which determines the main semantic content of global revolutionary transformations. Its consideration in the spiritual dimension is an additional vector for the study of social and political processes of globalization. Taking into account the increasing of tensions in the global political arena and the deepening interdependence of all international actors, such an approach can play an important role in their analysis and forecasting. The object of study is democracy; the subject of the study is the specifics of the modern vision of democracy, democratic values and ideals as a special form of religious cult. The purpose of the study is to identify the role of democracy, its new moral values and guidelines in the context of global revolutionary transformations.Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was following general scientific and special methods: method of system analysis; historical-genetic method; phenomenological method; analytical method; historical method; contextual analysis and formal logical research methods.Research results. The authors analyzed the specifics of the dominant interpretation of democratic values and goals in the context of Western political culture. The main elements of the new system of beliefs, their relationship, evolution and place in the modern world are revealed. The results obtained allow us to conclude that democracy is being transformed into a special form of cult, which has the characteristic features of religious teaching.Discussion and conclusion. The ideology of people's rule has lost its original meaning, turning into a special cult that serves as an instrument of social management, without taking into account traditional cultures, the diversity of societies and states, and the national identities of peoples. Democracy as a religion without God has become an instrument of the world information agenda, exploiting faith to build a new world order.

Research on the Development, Influencing Factors and Influencing Effects of Industrial Agglomeration in China

Since the rapid development of Chinese society and economy, industrial agglomeration has become an important trend of structural change. In order to help enterprises see the advantages and disadvantages of industrial agglomeration, it is very important to study the causes and effects of industrial agglomeration. Therefore, this paper organizes and proposes the reasons for the agglomeration of the four major industries as well as its positive and negative effects. The research results show that political factors, environmental factors, enterprise advantages and culture, talents and consumption level are the main causes of industrial agglomeration. Moreover, the positive benefits of industrial agglomeration are the sharing of infrastructure, resources and markets and the acceleration of knowledge dissemination and technology exchange. The negative impacts are that they increase the economic risk of the agglomeration area and lead to duplication of construction and waste of resources. For these reasons, the Chinese government should weigh the positive and negative benefits of promoting industrial agglomeration. This paper proposes to explore the causes and effects of industrial agglomeration from a macroscopic perspective, which improves the lack of macroscopic analysis in this field.

This is how we .win! Capital-building and media manipulation practices on The_Donald

ABSTRACT Scholars have grown increasingly interested in the ways media and communication technologies facilitate the spread of problematic information as well as how their affordances manifest in practice. While we have learned much about the structure and use of popular social media platforms, we have more to learn about less mainstream platforms, and about the ways their usage helps actors amass and wield media power. Accordingly, this paper examines networked political actors’ use of alternative media to generate capital and facilitate the spread of problematic information. Drawing data from two years of research on the pro-Trump internet forum The_Donald following its ban from Reddit, the analysis considers how users develop, debate, and deploy media-related practices, and what role those practices play in shaping the broader political culture in which they exist. In addition to gleaning insights from sustained participant-observation in the forums, a content analysis of activist meta-discourse examines the technological structure and affordances of The_Donald as well as the most salient themes and broader discursive patterns, focusing specifically on those aspects of the forum that pertain to practices of manipulation and expressions of media power. This analysis shows how the structure and culture of the forum enable and encourage manipulative media practices. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the unique combination of affordances and political opportunities available to actors allowed them to generate and wield novel forms of networked media capital.

Regionalisation under occupation: Western Saharan parliamentary elites and the Moroccan regionalisation strategy (2011–16)

ABSTRACT This article explores the role played by the Members of Parliament elected from the constituencies of Western Sahara in 2011 in the occupation strategies employed by the Moroccan state in this territory. The analysis begins at a time when territorial power was being redefined in Morocco, after the Moroccan proposal for an Advanced Autonomy Plan (2007) as a form of conflict resolution and the subsequent creation of institutions to address regionalisation (2010–11) and covers the entire parliamentary process. The paper examines three analytical dimensions – elections, political culture and parliamentary activity – in order to explain the development of identification processes.

Влияние явки избирателей на легитимность президентских выборов в мире

This paper reveals the impact of voter turnout on the legitimacy of presidential elections based on the materials of 20 largest states holding such elections in terms of the number of voters. In March 2024, presidential elections were held in Russia and in November elections are scheduled in the United States, the outcome of which will have an impact on the domestic and foreign policies of these states. The author has tested the hypothesis that in most cases, for the existing political regime in countries where subject and patriarchal political cultures are widespread, high voter turnout acts as a donor of legitimacy, therefore, the authorities seek to involve the maximum number of voters in conventional political participation in presidential elections and ensure victory for the person holding the office of president (incumbent). In countries where the political culture of participation has become more widespread, the competition of strong candidates is a source of legitimacy for political regimes that do not seek to mobilize all voters to participate in presidential elections and are most often unable to ensure the re-election of the incumbent. Based on the analysis of electoral statistics of presidential elections in the studied states, it was concluded that high electoral activity in countries with a predominance of national and patriarchal political cultures, even if there is no real competition between candidates, but with broad public recognition of the existing political regime, ensures the legitimacy of elections. In countries where political culture of participation has become more widespread, high turnout is a consequence of interest in elections, and not the result of the mobilization of the electorate by the political regime. Examples are Turkey and France, where the last presidential elections were held with high turnout and competition between the two most popular candidates; low electoral activity in the presidential elections is a prerequisite for the subsequent political crisis and dismantling of the political regime (Afghanistan, Nigeria). Acceptable level of voter turnout in the presidential elections, which can act as an indicator of their legitimacy, is about 60–66%.

The cultural politics of emotion and mothers’ responsibility for school choice

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on school choice within the public school system in Queensland, Australia. While school choice has typically been framed as a logic of economic rationalism (for middle-class families), in this paper we use Ahmed’s concept of the cultural politics of emotion to describe a more complex dimension of choice through gendered community. We argue that mothers become responsibilized for school choice, and in the process become emotionally invested in school choosing. In managing their soft bodily desires and hard cognitive rationalities, they are responding to the emotional histories that stick to schools. The problem we frame through our empirical case is that there is a clash of cultures between the type of school mothers desire, and the reality of what schools are, and could ever be. This is the double-bind or ‘cruel optimism’ of mothering school-aged children.

Politics and Political Culture in Ireland from Restoration to Union, 1660–1800: Essays in Honour of Jacqueline R. Hill, ed. Raymond Gillespie, James Kelly and Mary Ann Lyons

<i>Politics and Political Culture in Ireland from Restoration to Union, 1660–1800: Essays in Honour of Jacqueline R. Hill</i>, ed. Raymond Gillespie, James Kelly and Mary Ann Lyons

Reasserting Local Politics: The East Riding ‘War Ag’ during the Second World War

The success of the County War Agricultural Executive Committees (CWAEC), known colloquially as ‘War Ags’, during World War Two has been well documented, but how they were affected by local political culture has received little attention. This study examines the East Riding’s ‘War Ag’ and demonstrates that by using the county’s existing political mechanisms, implementation of the government’s war time agricultural strategy was both rapid and efficient. At the outbreak of war, the landed classes and experienced farmers held significant power within the East Riding County Council, a position which was different from many other authorities where such power was in decline. Upon formation the majority of those assigned to the ‘War Ag’ were from this cohort, including its chairman. Crucially their established power base, coupled with their professional credibility, allowed them to commence implementation quickly. Their success was not a given, because at the outbreak of war the morale of the county’s farmers was low, and their relationship with government strained and distrusting. However, they quickly adapted to the nation’s needs, adopting modern practices which resulted in increased efficiencies and profitability, both of which continued into the post war era.