European Elites Research Articles

La violence des clercs méridionaux pendant la première croisade

The Violence of the southern French Clergy during the First Crusade. In the XIth century the movement for church reform provoked a storm of new ideas which forced European elites to make ideological choices. Bishops, as leaders of the faithful, found that from this intellectual ferment holy men could emerge. These new ideas of reform inspired the First Crusade, and during it the tensions between holy men and bishops emerged. Later in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries these tensions gave rise to the great heretical movements.

The Role of Orientalists In Presenting "Arabic" to the World

Almost all Oriental studies agree on the concept that is a scholarly research based on survey and comprehensiveness, undertaken by European elites to comprehensively understand the East and to formulate a discursive image of its conditions. It has been agreed that the Orientalist is a researcher who is interested in the deep knowledge of the religions of the East, its cultures, languages, and literatures. It is certain that Orientalist knowledge does not stop at all; it extends as it accumulates to form different and contrastive contexts, and operates according to specific methods. Under our chosen title we intend to show the different various schools of orientalism and their methods of introspection. We also intend to explore the difference between the two concepts of Orientalism and Occidentalism and the roles they have taken. We will also show how the heritage written in Arabic has been undertaken as the necessary condition for Western institutions to acquire the keys of entering into the East and possessing its grand wealth. It was not possible for the West to succeed in its project had it not began working on possessing Arabic language and the culture in which it is written. That was the first codified step which was seen as the most important factor in learning Arabic and teaching it to future generations of the West, and which perhaps linked the Arabic linguistic lesson with Islam. In this study we will also discuss the most important goals sought by the orientalists as they are doing great services to the West in its discursive progress, as it was strongly shown in their interests in the Holy Quran translations, a phenomenon which is worthy of attention. We studied this matter in comprehensive characterization and analysis. We tried also to find justifications for the Orientalists' interests in modern Arab literary works. Finally, we have reached some notable conclusions in this regard, the most important of which is the mission of the Orientalists. At the same time, we have shown how the Orientalist research has helped spread Arabism outside the geography of the Arab world. Our main goal in all of this is the supplication to Allah the Almighty to extend our nation, language and culture with prosperity and continuity. Keywords: Orientalism, occidentalism, Arabic language DOI : 10.7176/JLLL/52-10

The crisis of democracy in Eastern Europe: (un)successful political integration of new members?

The main hypothesis of this paper is that when it comes to its member states, the European Union does not possess effective legal and political mechanisms to sanction and/or reverse their democratic backsliding. Emphasis is put on the examples of violations of liberal-democratic norms undertaken by governments in Hungary, Poland and Romania, in order to analyse political will, ability, and legitimacy of the European Union to defend basic values stated in the Founding Act. The aim of the author is to examine the impact of questionable political integration of Eastern European countries in regards to the continuation of the enlargement of the Union in the region of the Western Balkans. It is concluded that due to the pragmatic policy of support to the stabilitocracy regimes and, in general, due to the ambivalent attitude towards the future of enlargement, the European Union could face negative consequences in the coming years. Conceding to candidate countries in fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria in exchange for meeting the current geopolitical interests of the European elites (as was the case in some of the earlier EU enlargements) would have following implications for the Union itself: first, internally, casting further doubts on already shaken credibility of the project to build a European identity based on common values; and secondly, externally, the loss of reputation of a normative power that facilitates global relations by spreading its own principles and values.

Death of the Magnate: Life Expectancy of the Magnatery in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Versus the Demography of the Western European Elites in the Early Modern Age

The aim of the article is to present life expectancy calculations for magnates, the elite of the nobility (but not an exact equivalent of European aristocracy) from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th–18th centuries (life tables for women and men). The paper also contains a comparison with the results previously obtained for Western European aristocracy. The author tried to verify if there were differences in life expectancy between men and women from two parts of the Commonwealth: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Because only a small amount of data was collected, 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the sample. The calculations were based on genealogical data collected for 8 families from the Kingdom of Poland and 9 Lithuanian families.

Don’t Mention the War! Second World War Remembrance and Support for European Cooperation

At the core of the European project is the idea that through increased state cooperation and dependency, national divisions can be overcome and peace can be secured on the European continent. National and European elites often make reference to past devastations of the Second World War (WWII) in order to convey the added value of European cooperation among the public. Does WWII remembrance enhance public support for European cooperation? By presenting evidence from a set of novel survey experiments conducted in the six largest member states (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom) in July 2017, this contribution shows that reminding people of the devastations of WWII, increases support for their country’s cooperation within the European Union (EU) today. Yet, only when it comes to providing assistance for other member states in dire economic need. Reminding people of the devastations of WWII does not make people more willing to extend the rights to EU migrants or contribute to the establishment of an European army. These findings are important as they suggest that WWII remembrance triggers a largely transactional response among the public, a willingness to provide financial support combined with an unwillingness to embrace intra-EU migration or security cooperation. This evidence suggests that securing public support for further deepening of free movement of people and European security cooperation through historical rhetoric might be difficult to achieve.

A internacionalização da pintura vanguardista, de Courbet a Picasso

Pergunta-se muitas vezes como as várias vanguardas históricas foram capazes de persistir em seu vanguardismo e obter reconhecimento, quando o apoio do mercado de arte era-lhes negado de antemão. Do Realismo da década de 1850 até as variedades virulentas do vanguardismo na década de 1910, a inovação artística tornou-se possível graças ao desvio, tanto físico como simbólico, da pintura de vanguarda para o exterior. Esse desvio permitiu que os artistas permanecessem de vanguarda dentro do campo em Paris e, ao mesmo tempo, exportassem um tipo mais vendável de pintura. No nível simbólico, especialmente, essa foi a base para a legitimidade das reivindicações da vanguarda sobre a internacionalização de suas carreiras, agitando as culpadas consciências nacionais das elites europeias. Essa internacionalização tornou-se possível pela grande variedade de divisões culturais entre os diferentes países. Podia-se, portanto, trabalhar para adaptar as exposições de vanguarda no exterior. A partir do período realista em diante, os próprios artistas, e em seguida, seus negociantes, críticos e colecionadores, assumiram o comando desse vasto movimento de transferência cultural, mas sob o risco de estabelecer muitos compromissos.

Perspektywy Członkowstwa Turcji w Unii Europejskiej

The paper, entitled The prospects of Turkish membership in EU, presents an international debate that has continued for many years, concerning the subject of Turkish EU candidature. The debate is an expression of European elites’ anxiety about the future shape of the organization. The study deals with such issues as a common European identity and Turkey’s Europeanization process, from Atatürk’s reforms up to the integration with European structures. This paper is based on the assumption that, in line with the rival opinions of supporters and opponents of Turkish admission to EU, two models of Europe can be identified: the exclusive model and the multicultural (open) model.

Political genderphobia in Europe: accounting for right-wing political-religious alliances against gender-sensitive education reforms since 2012

This paper is concerned with the formation of alliances between religious and political right-wing actors against gender-sensitive policy reforms, specifically within the last five years. Given the Catholic origin of a discourse that considers the notion of gender, as a socio-cultural element of identity, a dangerous and totalitarian ideology, this paper elaborates the concept of political genderphobia in order to explain why these actors ally themselves to campaign against “gender”. Political genderphobia takes a supply-side approach that emphasises the relevance of ideological and strategic tenets shared by religious (here Christian) and political leaders—namely, their shared understanding of gender hierarchy, social inequality and cultural homogeneity, as well as their appropriation of certain populist strategies aimed at politicising the term “gender” as an elite invention and mobilising it as a fundamental threat to “the people”. In order to understand why political genderphobia has become a salient concept just within the past decade and accompanies the rise of the radical right, three demand-side factors are also discussed: the Europeanisation of anti-discrimination policies in the arena of education, individual risk perception fostered by the transformation of patriarchal structures, and the alleged or real alienation of liberal European elites from those who are not able or willing to share the egalitarian and freedom-based principles of the liberal project. This paper contributes to a question currently under discussion in various areas of research—anti-gender research, research on religion and morality politics, as well as research on the radical right—concerning the relevance of “gender” for illiberal politics.

The Significance of the Northern Territory in the Formulation of ‘White Australia’ Policies, 1880–1901

Economic motivations for the formulation of Australia’s ‘White Australia’ policies were expressed by contemporaries and have been discussed by scholars. What is worthy of further attention is the significance of the Northern Territory (‘the Territory’) in the formulation of these policies. Attitudes of European elites in the Territory towards the Chinese coincided with and contributed to national debates. European elites in the Territory who initially supported Chinese migration to the Territory then stressed the Territory’s vulnerability to Chinese economic domination to campaign for national legislation. The same faction later protested the government’s unjust application of this legislation to Chinese.

‘The people – the real governors of today’ the Irish Catholic Church and Democracy, c. 1825–1923

‘The people – the real governors of today’: the Irish Catholic Church and Democracy, c. 1825–19231 Oliver P Rafferty SJ The title of this paper in part comes from a letter written by Fr Robert Whitty SJ, theological adviser to David Moriarty, the bishop of Kerry, at the First Vatican Council. Writing to Moriarty in the months before the council met in Rome in December 1869, Whitty remarked that, in the past, councils of the church, such as Trent, faced difficulties from kings and governors. Now ‘the obstacles might easily come from the people, the real governors of today’. He was also concerned to stress that the effect of the French Revolution had been to bring about immense change in peoples’ thinking and in society in general.2 The problem was, as Whitty identified, that Catholicism had not as yet processed those changes. In fact, in some ways it had tried to nullify them. Even before the restoration of the Papal States by the Congress of Vienna, the Pope, Pius VII, had restored the Jesuit order in 1814, which, despite its reputation for liberalism, now became one of the most reactionary forces within Catholicism. This transformation came about, in part, because of the order’s eighteenthcentury experience. Under pressure from European elites, the Jesuits had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. The newly restored society became firmly attached to the papacy as an institution in its political and religious dimensions. By 1819, when Joseph de Maistre had penned his twovolume work Du Pape, which laid the foundation for neo-ultramontanism, the Jesuits were unquestionably ‘pope’s men’. In Ireland, before the arrival of Paul Cullen in the country as papal legate and archbishop, we can say that in general the mores of Irish Catholicism were imbued with a mild Gallicanism.3 What Cullen facilitated from 1850 on, precisely because he was a product of the high papalist school, and therefore implicitly trusted by Rome, was the emergence of an ultramontanism married to liberalism and hence, in principle, to the forces of democracy. Oliver P Rafferty SJ Studies • volume 107 • number 427 346 Those forces had been at work in Ireland for a generation before 1850 and it is to the activity of Daniel O’Connell that we must attribute the birth of Irish democracy. A democratic process emerged that would in time be influenced to some extent by Fenianism, by the Home Rule Movement and then by the Land League, the latter described by Donal McCartney as one of the most powerful democratic movements in Irish history. 4 At the centenary celebrations in Australia of O’Connell’s birth in 1875, Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane could remark that no part of O’Connell’s hard task was more delicate or required more judgement, integrity and power than to conciliate and gain the approval and confidence of the bishops.5 This was, indeed, no easy task. In the early decades of the nineteenth century many of the Irish clergy had had to be trained in France, under the conditions of the ancien regime. Their instincts were of deference to the social authorities in the shape of the landlords. Now O’Connell wanted to utilise the clergy, and the church generally, to resist landlord influence. He presented churchmen with an alternative model of their role in society. Using the Catholic clergy, he fashioned the first mass democratic movement in Europe. In doing this, he thrust the church to the forefront of the popular movement and gained for Irish Catholic priests a reputation for being the most politically liberal in Europe. In that process he created what one might term Catholic democracy. It is however important to stress that it was O’Connell’s political activity, more than any other factor, which forced the Irish hierarchy into secular politics, and it was he who largely determined the role they were to play.6 The idea of Catholic democracy in its Irish form was to have enormous influence on Catholicism in both Europe and the United States. O’Connell was well aware that his successful mobilisation of hitherto unrepresented Irish citizens and peasants, with the church at their head, was studied...

European elites and the narrative of the Greek crisis: A discursive institutionalist analysis

AbstractThis article examines elite European discourses during the Greek financial crisis from its pre‐history in September 2008 up to the arrival of the SYRIZA government in January 2015. The article employs the conceptual literature on Discursive Institutionalism (DI) and Historical Institutionalism (HI). Having coded 1,153 unique quotes drawn from a dataset of 15,354 news wires from Reuters, the authors argue that the communicative discourse of 63 senior European (and IMF) officials on the Greek crisis during that period demonstrates significant volatility. Four distinct narrative frames are identified: ‘neglect’, ‘suspicious cooperation’, ‘blame’ and ‘reluctant redemption’, punctuated by three discursive junctures in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which reflect the content of the changing communicative discourse of the Greek crisis. The article's contribution is twofold: empirically, it is the first to provide a systematic analysis of the protagonists’ communication of the Greek crisis; and theoretically, it combines DI and HI in an effort to conceptualise an important part of our understanding of ‘bail‐out politics’ throughout the Eurozone crisis.

Armageddon: Political Elites and Their Visions of a General European War before 1914

Expectations of a general European war before 1914 remain a contentious area of historiographical debate. This article discusses how one particular group, political and diplomatic elites, imagined a future war before 1914. In contrast to the ‘short-war myth’, this article argues that political elites understood that war would bring in its wake revolution, chaos, and impoverishment. This article analyses the varieties of understandings of catastrophe among European political elites before 1914, the sources of their knowledge about the consequences of war, and the implications these visions of catastrophic warfare had for the conduct of international politics.

British vs English: The Pro-Gandhian Attitude of European Elites in the Civil Disobedience Movement in Tamil Nadu 1930 1932

Gandhian strategy has influenced not only the people of India but also the Europeans too. Gandhi studied the psychology of the Indians by making an extensive tour covering the whole nation from 1915 to 1927 and also again between 1933 and 1934. Thereby he came to know their minds that they were systematically admitted their sub-conscious mind to support his nationalist venture. Irked by this, the British launched invariably a variety of preventive measures to sideline the Gandhian strategy to get freedom to the nation from them. But Gandhi and his fellow congressmen’ never minded about the dragoneous attitude of the British and extended their full support to each and every anti-British activity of Gandhi in a virulent manner. Gandhi's non-violent satyagraha had impressed the European elites who voluntarily came forward to join with him. Mirabhen and Reginald Reynolds were the pioneers of pro-Gandhian European elites. The English speaking elites like Margarita E. Cousins, Mrs. Hidawood, Annie Besant and others were actively involved the Home Rule Movement and also in the non co-operation movement of Gandhi. They organised an association for inviting women of India to join in these movements. The Women Indian Association, and All India Women Conference were the two organisation founded by the English Women to support Gandhian endeavors. Further, they started 'Youth India Club' and 'Madras Swadesi League' to train the youth and women folk of South India. Dr. E.F. Paton of Scottland also took the lead in favour of Gandhian Movement in1930-1932 in North Arcot. He led the Civil Disobedience movement in 1930 in Vellore and Madras. A hundred of christians of his ashramate participated in the movements. The British took a etern measures against Dr. Paton in Madras when he participated the foreign cloths shops in Madras. In August 1932, a India League Delegation visited Madras to see the English political prisoners in India, It was led by Ms.Wilkinson and Monica Whately Leonard matters of Labour party of British parliment. The delegation submitted their report to the British government. Hence, the present paper is an attempt to study the role of European Elites in the Gandhian movements in India from 1930 to 1932. Their participation in the Gandhian movement is so far recorded in historical research.

O intelectual, o artista e as massas na cultura portuguesa finissecular

Durante o século XIX, as elites cultas europeias participaram amplamente das querelas e debates fomentados na e pela imprensa, não sendo possível fazer uma história da cultura contemporânea sem a pensar à luz da evolução do espaço público ao longo desse século e na sua transição para o século xx. Contudo, esta aliança entre o homem de letras e a imprensa – expediente característico da esfera pública oitocentista que, aliás, deu origem à designação de «publicista» na segunda metade do século, correspondendo a uma metamorfose do estatuto do «escritor público» do romantismo clássico – rapidamente começou a dar sintomas de rutura, à medida que aquela esfera sofria a influência da industrialização e massificação dos objetos culturais, processo iniciado nos Estados Unidos na segunda metade do século e cujo eco em França foi acompanhado de perto pela evolução histórica em Portugal.Foi neste contexto conjugado, a partir do último quartel do século xix português, de alteração do mercado dos bens culturais, de emergência de uma cultura urbana de massas e de crise das elites cultas, em especial no campo literário, que lentamente surgiu a figura do «artista» como alternativa à figura difusa do «homem de letras», espoletada na última década de oitocentos. Numa leitura de Fradique Mendes − meio personagem, meio autor, proto-heterónimo na ficção queirosiana − e sobre o fradiquismo como ideologia, destaca-se o seu valor simbólico, como derradeira tentativa de superação da morte do intelectual oitocentista através da afirmação do papel do artista. Dito de outro modo, Fradique Mendes constitui-se, num contexto de massificação emergente, como metáfora da crise do velho paradigma de intelectual do século xix que, perseguindo uma «aura perdida da cultura», oscila entre o silêncio de uma desistência, afinal pugnada pelo próprio Eça de Queirós que assim se revia como uma espécie de «cenobita», e a hipótese da figura do artista construir uma nova expressão da elite culta.

Polska dla Polaków, nie żaden kurwa Ahmed – analiza narracji islamofobicznych w polskim rapie

The “invented” Muslim-migrants became contemporary “folk devils”. They are portrayed by the media – which play a crucial role in this process – as deviants, who pose a threat to the social order, national culture and values shared by all the Polish people. Thus, refugees, perceived en masse as Islamic fundamentalists, became an object of media symbolization. This mechanism allows for a mobilization against those who would like to welcome refugees to Poland – various traitors of the fatherland, lefties, liberals, post-communists or opposition politicians, who “collaborate” with the European Union and the Venice Commission. Paradoxically, the hunt for “Muslim witches” does not intend to eliminate them, but rather discursively construct them through moral panic. The Islamophobic rap demonstrates the relationship between the Polish and the followers of Islam through binary oppositions. The Muslims and the Polish are presented as two antagonistic civilizations, although the positive connotations of this notion are rather reserved for the Polish Catholics, the sole guardians of the Christian Europe. Within this narrative the category of “Muslim” (Islamist, Arab, refugee, etc.) is essentialized, as well as the category of the “true” Polish (patriot, Catholic, heterosexual man, etc.). Anti-Muslim rappers firmly announce that if Poland decided to accept any refugees, the Polish would become a minority in their own country, stripped of their culture and faith, possibly even persecuted. They seek evidence for such extraordinary claims in the alleged transformations that other European states underwent. These radical changes are the result of an array of criminal policies introduced by the European elites, who consciously unleashed an ideological war, instrumentally utilizing Muslims as a weapon.

(Re)considering sovereignty in the European integration process

The World War II (WWII) as a great shock significantly weakened the European nation-state paradigm and gave the European elites a chance to achieve a ‘paradigm shift’ from ‘the nation-state paradigm’ to a ‘federalist paradigm’. However, the nation-state’s strong institutionalization did not allow a paradigm shift and the WWII actually created a ‘paradigm duplication’ in the European integration process. In this two-layered atmosphere, ‘democracy’ was conceptualized under the influence of ‘federalist intellectual paradigm’ but its implementation had to be achieved in the nation-state paradigm. Therefore, this anomaly has played a significant role in the recent stalemate the European integration process has faced. For example, the literature clearly shows the relationship between the sensitivity of European nations towards their national sovereignty and the rise of Euroscepticism in the European integration process. Moreover, the institutional and legitimate strength of the nation-state gives the nation-state paradigm a gravitational power, which gradually weakens the feasibility of the ideas originating from the federalist paradigm. As a result, this article argues that a more symbiotic institutionalization of democracy and sovereignty is necessary to make the European integration more attractive again.

Uticaj odnosa između Sjedinjenih Američkih Država i Ruske Federacije na pristupanje Srbije i EU

Economic crisis, financial deficit, problems with the energy policy, Greek crisis, the referendum in the UK, a common foreign and security policy and its own deficiencies, the migrant crisis, and the fact that Europe faces terrorism on its territory are just some of the issues that take a lot of political attention and energy of political elites in Europe. All these issues have reached their peak in Serbia. Moreover, Serbia finds itself in the middle of the foreign policy competition between the great powers, such as the United States of America and the Russian Federation. Exhausted by economic and internal political issues, Serbia is to create and focus on its own foreign policy goal and stay on its path until the final destination - complete economic and social recovery of the country.

European Elites and Ideas of Empire, 1917–1957 by Dina Gusejnova

European Elites and Ideas of Empire, 1917–1957 by Dina Gusejnova

Hindu Rate to Hindutva Growth: Large Inheritances and Top Indian Wealth Shares 1966-2017

Between 1953 and 1985 India implemented various progressive taxes on personal wealth. I use estate tax returns to compute top wealth shares (top 1%, top 0.1% and top 0.01%) over 1966- 1985; a period marked explicitly by a dirigiste policy environment. These new series suggest that wealth concentration in India reduced substantially during the 1970s. Although the decline affected the entire top 1%, the losses faced by the top 0.01% were especially large. Combined with identical trends in top income shares, it appears that the 1950-80 expropriations of India’s rich had similarities to institutional transitions and shocks faced by European elites in the early to mid twentieth century.

Evropska finansijska mreža islamističkog terorizma

In this paper the author analyses one of the most important aspects of global Islamist terrorism on the territory of Europe - the terrorism financing network. Although Europe has become on of the main targets of Islamist terrorists in recent years, its answer to the rising terrorism threat has, to this day, proven to be mild and ineffective. The same can be said regarding the European security officials' fight against the financial networks of terrorist organisations. While the US, after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, established the 'Patriot Act', Europe did not follow through, which made it a perfect location for terrorists who were forced to withdraw their funds from America. The absence of a global and homogenous legislation comparable to the American 'Patriot Act' can be partially explained by the fact that Europe does not possess the equivalent of a federal legislation because the degree of the political integration of the European Union members is much weaker than that of the American states. The lack of homogeneity of the European structures has allowed members of terrorist organisations to take advantage of gaps that exist in the local legislation of every country. Apart from the fact that the EU does not have a common set of anti-terrorism laws, its problem also lays in the fact that liberal- democratic European political elites place too much emphasis on the notion of human rights, which is, in fact, crippling their security forces and making it very hard for them to properly investigate individuals and organisations suspected of financing terrorist activities.