Factional Conflict Research Articles

Women as Alternates: A Study on the Mechanism of Village Official Replacement in the Context of Rural Revitalization – A Case Study of Village J in Southeastern Hubei

Abstract The trend of left-behind women serving as village officials and participating in village governance is on the rise. Research in clan-based villages in the general agricultural regions of central and western China reveals that village factional conflicts make it difficult for elderly male village officials to win in village committee elections. Additionally, the emphasis on younger village officials by local governments forces these older men out of their roles. The economic resources available through village governance are limited and fail to meet the material needs of middle-aged and young male village officials, leading to their withdrawal as well. With the departure of men, left-behind women have become significant candidates for village official positions. Because of the increasing “administratization” 行政化 of village governance, village organizations need to mobilize these women to handle the growing administrative tasks in village management. Serving as village officials allows left-behind women to both care for their children and earn a decent income, while fulfilling the local government’s requirements for village officials. Consequently, through a series of training mechanisms, an increasing number of women are becoming the principal cadres within village committees.

Free speech and democracy in Palestinian Universities: A call for parrhesiastic speech

This article examines the factors contributing to the suppression of free speech in Palestine, with a focus on the West Bank. We argue that anti-democratic politics and restricted public discourse in both public and academic spheres are mutually reinforced by the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority. Despite education’s potential as a tool of liberation, the ongoing cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as internal factional conflict, impede free speech within Palestine. Traditional teaching methods based on rote learning continue to dominate, posing a significant challenge to critical thinking and expression. Although education may serve as a pathway to freedom, constraints transform it into a tool for subjugation. Drawing on Foucault’s adaptation of the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, we argue that Palestinian universities require more robust protections for free speech. At the same time, we argue that the struggle for free speech in these universities can be instructive to liberal democracies. Through analysis of the atrocities perpetrated against journalists and other dissenting voices, we shed light on the obstacles to democracy in Palestinian intellectual life.

Chronic causes of school violence at secondary schools in South Africa: Case of King Cetshwayo District

This study examines the chronic causes of school violence at secondary schools in South Africa. The prevalence of violence within South African schools has drawn attention from various stakeholders due to its multifaceted nature. It encompasses forms like bullying, factional conflicts, substance-related incidents, and more. Such violence, whether physical or emotional, inflicts severe harm on both individuals and the educational system. A comprehensive report by the South African Institute of Race Relations highlighted the alarming status of school safety, echoing media coverage that underscored the widespread nature of these issues in schools across the nation. Employing an interpretive paradigm and a case study centered on secondary schools in the King Cetshwayo District sought to explore the causes of violence. The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying causes driving this concerning trend, guided by Social Learning and Social-Ecological Development theories. We used a qualitative method to collect data through semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analyses. To ensure the credibility of findings, data from multiple sources was triangulated. Analysis of the data followed thematic approach, and findings were presented thematically. Both internal and external factors influence the causes of school violence, according to the findings. Given these findings, we recommended a collaborative and integrated approach among all stakeholders to effectively tackle and mitigate the pervasive issue of school violence.

A Multidimensional Analysis of the Discourse Features of the English Translation of Heavy Wings

Ideology and translation go hand in hand. Translation is a rewriting of the source text, reflecting the ideology and poetics of a particular society. This paper establishes a Chinese-English parallel corpus based on two English translations of Heavy Wings, which takes ideology as the object of study, using multidimensional analysis to examine register differences and to compare the represented features in ideological markers between the two translations in the four dimensions, namely nominalization, transitivity, modality and coherence. Based on system functional linguistics, this paper examines the relationship between ideological markers and the process of the event, the participants and the environment. It was found that: (1) There is a great significance in register of two translations, with 31 out of 67 lexico-grammatical features. Gladys Yang’s translation shows a higher degree of abstract information and explicit; (2) Gladys Yang’s translation mainly focus on the reform process and participants, deliberately distancing the two parties from each other, while Goldblatt’s translation tends to attribute the factional conflicts in the reform to various environmental components, opening up more evaluation space for the textual content; (3) The differences in the use of linguistic and ideological markers are affected by both intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, namely source text factors, social context, ideology, translator subjectivity, etc.

Factional Conflicts in the Social Popular Party and Failure of the Political United Front

Factional Conflicts in the Social Popular Party and Failure of the Political United Front

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS THE SERVICES OF THE KOPRULU FAMILY TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

The koprulu era (1656- 1703) was a period in which the Ottoman Empire’s politics were frequently dominated by a series of grand viziers from the koprulu family. The koprulu era is sometimes more narrowly defined as the period from 1653- 1683, as it was during those years that members of the family held the office of grand vizier uninterruptedly, while for the remainder of the period they occupied it only sporadically. The koprulu household, the most powerful vizierial household in the seventieth century, this article sheds light on the efficiency of the koprulu households. Thanks to their long-lasting incumbency. The koprulu grand viziers managed to establish a large network stretching from the provinces to the central bureaucracy. The koprulu were generally skilled administrators, and are credited with reviving the empire’s fortunes after a period of military defeat and economic instability. Numerous reforms were instituted under their rule, which enabled the empire to resolve its budget crises and stamp out factional conflict in the empire.

Sir Thomas More and the Tragedy of Citizenship

Abstract: This essay explores the historical and generic basis for a tragic reading of The Book of Sir Thomas More . The early modern period’s dominant forms of tragedy (such as revenge tragedy and historical tragedy) typically focus on the dynastic-imperial struggles of aristocratic powers against the backdrop of centralization and state-building. Sir Thomas More inverts this representational hierarchy by leaving the monarch un-represented, relegating to the background the well-known factional conflicts that undergirded the Henrician Reformation. Instead, the play dramatizes the history of Tudor consolidation from the perspective of London’s citizenry, who are made to grapple with the meaning of their own freedom in an age of mass migration. The result, I suggest, is a charter myth not of the nation-state but of London and its civic institutions: a tragic meditation on the place of the city and its citizens in the world.

Religious and Political Identity and Activity of the “Shirazist” Movement

With the increasing politicization of the Middle East in general and shiites in particular, it is very relevant to study the religious and political features of one of the most influential movements in Shiite Islam — the movement of “Shirazists”. Unfortunately, little attention is paid to this transnational movement in comparison with other Shiite Islamist organizations and movements. This paper examines the origins of this transnational movement, its evolution and features. Special attention is paid to the evolution of the ideology of the “Shirazists” movement. The religious and political identity of this movement was the result of factional conflicts within Shiism, in particular the long-standing rivalry between the religious schools of Najaf and Karbala. The specifics of this movement are determined, as well as its differences and similarities with another transnational Shiite organization — Daava. The article also analyzes the activities of the movement in the Persian Gulf countries and the problems of the relationships between “Shirazists” and official authorities of Iran.

Reflections on the Republican Party: (Prompted by Recollections of Encounters at 15 Janpath)

Towards the end of the 1960s, the Ambedkarite Republican Party of India was facing a serious crisis. Its plight intensified with the death of the leader Dadasaheb Gaikwad at the end of 1971. This article takes the long view of the predicament of the party and asks why it had suffered such frequent and lasting instability. Drawing on interviews conducted at that time, including those conducted at the party New Delhi headquarters on Janpath, more recent discussions and a close examination of documentary records, the article examines the volatility and factional conflict exhibited by the party. In contrast to approaches that seek to find the roots of factionalism in personal rivalries and individual animosities, the article searches for more structural causes. It concludes that the inability of the party to broker differences about political cooperation and electoral alliances was a major cause of dissent. Particularly intense differences and division were generated by the issue of cooperation with the Congress party. Ultimately, it was the absence of any institutional procedures for settling disputes that caused the party to decline and eventually collapse into rival factional organizations.

Partisanismo y populismo: el Comando de Organización en la provincia del Chaco(1973-1976)

Studies about Peronism at subnational levels as well as research addressing the political violence in the sixties and seventies are consolidated fields in Argentinian historiography. Furthermore, articles on Peronist groups that opposed the sector led by Montoneros have been published in the last fifteen years. In that line of inquiry, various investigations have considered provincial and local settings where intense factional conflicts arose inside the Peronist party. At the intersection of those historiographical questions, this research centers on the case of the Comando de Organizacion (CO) in the Province of Chaco during the period 1973-1976 and focuses on two conceptual issues. The first one, in line with some key theoretical principles provided by Carl Schmitt’s Theory of the Partisan, poses a description of the type of political violence inflicted by this organization. The second issue refers to the discussion about the use of the term right-wing Peronism to define diverse anti-Montoneros actors. To this end, the ideological propositions of the CO in Chaco are compared with the ideas traditionally held by the Peronist populism.

Non-Electoral Executive Turnover and Low-Capacity Democracy in Southern Africa

What do non-electoral turnovers tell us about the relationship between elections, executive turnover, and democratisation? Can they contribute to democratisation? To gain insight into these questions, we consider the experiences of Southern Africa. While transfers of executive authority have become commonplace in Southern Africa, they do not necessarily coincide with elections and rarely involve partisan turnover. Neither the mode nor the form of executive turnover corresponds clearly with prior assessments of democracy. This study examines recent non-electoral turnovers in Zimbabwe (November 2017), South Africa (February 2018), and Botswana (April 2018). This research finds that non-electoral transfers of presidential authority in Southern Africa represent efforts by dominant parties to manage factional conflicts and enhance their ability to benefit from incumbency in competitive elections. While non-electoral turnover in executive authority might promote democracy under some conditions, they do more to sustain dominant party rule and a stagnate level of low-capacity democracy.

Disability and Identity Transformation in Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It

This paper examines the significance of disability in Arab British novelist Selma Dabbagh’s Out of It (2011). It underscores how disability engenders an identity transformation that Sabri Mujahed undergoes in the novel. The study highlights how disability triggers resistance strategies to the oppressive socio-political norms and occupying powers. The paper also draws attention to the psychological and socio-cultural impacts of disability on the life of Sabri Mujahed. Sabri turns his skills toward a great mission of writing the history of Palestinian resistance and exposing aggressive Israeli policies. The process of writing itself has a therapeutic effect that helps Sabri overcome his disability and channel his mental powers to a greater cause. Taking into consideration disability studies’ tendency to provide a fresh approach to understand a disabled character’s inner world, this paper employs disability studies as a theoretical and critical framework in light of which the novel is analyzed. The paper also foregrounds the socio-political, cultural and historical conditions and circumstances that Palestinians in Gaza experience and undergo. In this context, continuous Israeli military attacks, a stifling blockade and internal factional conflicts are some of the challenges that people in Gaza, including disabled Sabri, have to cope with on daily basis.

Factional Conflict and Independent Expenditures in the 2018 Democratic House Primaries

The 2018 House of Representatives elections were a historic victory for the Democratic Party. As has been the case in past “wave” elections, however, this victory has posed the risk of factionalism within the party. In this paper we draw upon data on primary competition and independent spending to assess claims that Democratic primaries showed signs of emerging factional conflict within the party, and we compare Democratic primary competition to competition that emerged within the Republican Party during the early 2010s. We show that, despite arguments from progressive activists about reshaping the party, there was relatively little money spent in 2018 for primary challengers or for other primary candidates who ran against the party establishment. Most consequentially, the money that was spent came from groups with narrow issue concerns or with concerns about descriptive representation, not from insurgent ideological groups. Democrats, then, might develop a “primary problem” that resembles the one faced by Republicans in prior election cycles, but there is little evidence that the 2018 primaries were the beginning of such a development.

Ritual, Law, and Faction at the Early Stuart Court: Chapman’s Memorable Maske and the Palatine Wedding

The court wedding festivities for the marriage of Frederick, the Elector Palatine, and Princess Elizabeth Stuart in 1613 included the performance of ‘Memorable Masque’ by George Chapman. Chapman’s masque provides a window into the factional ideological conflicts of the early Jacobean court and particularly the contested nature of James’s ‘absolute’ authority in relation to the law. While Chapman’s presentation superficially appeared to support the King’s assertion that royal authority is above the law, the pliability of the masque form allowed for him to endorse a militant foreign policy position at odds with the King’s and even more subtly critique James’s absolutist view of royal authority. More broadly, this performance demonstrates some of the ways court ceremonial and festive occasions could be manipulated for political and ideological purposes.

Finding the bird’s wings: Dimensions of factional conflict on Twitter

Intra-party politics has long been neglected due to lacking data sources. While we have a good understanding of the dynamics of ideological competition between parties, we know less about how individuals or groups inside parties influence policy, leadership selection and coalition bargaining. These questions can only be answered if we can place individual politicians and sub-party groups like factions on the same dimensions as in inter-party competition. This task has been notoriously difficult, as most existing measures either work on the party level, or are in other ways determined by the party agenda. Social media is a new data source that allows analyzing positions of individual politicians in party-centered systems, as it is subject to limited party control. I apply canonical correspondence analysis to account for hierarchical data structures and estimate multidimensional positions of the Twitter accounts of 498 Members of the German Bundestag based on more than 800,000 tweets since 2017. To test the effect of intra-party actors on their relative ideological placement, I coded the faction membership of 247 Twitter users in the Bundestag. I show that Twitter text reproduces party positions and dimensions. Members of factions are more likely to represent their faction’s positions, both on the cultural and the economic dimension.

Changing Patterns of Factionalism in Indonesia: From Principle to Patronage

Party politics in Indonesia’s current democratic regime takes place within the parameters of a heavily fragmented multi-party system. Factionalism exists in most parties, but the influence of factions on internal party dynamics is only weak to moderate. Where factions exist, they are usually driven by clientelism and patronage rather than the representation of social cleavages, ideological differences, or regional affiliations, although traces of programmatically infused factionalism do persist in some parties. The intensity of factional conflicts in Indonesia’s young democracy has varied significantly over time and across different parties. While temporal variations are mostly related to changing institutional incentive structures, disparities between individual parties can be attributed to different organisational histories and structures as well as divergent levels of rootedness in social cleavage structures. It is noteworthy that several Indonesian parties have relatively deep roots in society and, in some cases, close links to long-established civil society organisations that preceded party formation. Given these constraints on more severe factionalism, damaging effects on governance have been fairly limited. The most debilitating effects of factionalism have been felt within the parties themselves, whereas government effectiveness and coalition formation has, ironically, sometimes benefitted from factional disputes.

Conflict and revolt in the name of unity: Florentine factions in the Consulte e Pratiche on the cusp of the Ciompi Revolt

We analyze public-policy speeches in the Florentine Consulte e Pratiche, immediately prior to the Ciompi Revolt, for signs of elite factional conflict, in the context of self-proclaimed unity. We employ three statistical analyses of these speeches in Latin: namely, scatterplots of word frequencies, Wordfish scaling, and regressions on speech-similarities. Plus we employ two qualitative analyses: a case study of the speeches of Lapo da Castiglionchio, leader of the Parte Guelfa faction, and a close examination of the rhetoric of unity in three important sets of meetings.Our main finding is this: The runup to the Ciompi Revolt was crystalization of “unity of citizens” in the room of the Consulte e Pratiche and, among the same actors, crystallization of “unity of Guelfs” in the room of the Parte Guelfa, with a lack of recognition in the multivocal speeches in the former of the obvious contradiction with actions in the latter. In our opinion, the tragedy of “the valiant failure of republicanism” in Florence was that intense wishful yearning for unity in speech induced, under background conditions of deep social-class contestation about “Who is Florence?,” an intensification in action of the very revolutionary forces that it most desperately wanted to suppress.

Uttar Pradesh local elections 2015: money, muscle and manipulation in a village

ABSTRACTThis article attempts to demonstrate the potentiality of electoral politics and suggests that an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which different caste groups engage with elections is useful for understanding the violent and manipulative side of electoral processes in rural western Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in village, this article shows the role of alcohol, money and manipulative strategies in local elections. Elections are also closely linked with regional and wider politics. Regional and local histories of caste and factional conflict and intra-and inter-party competition are both causes and effects of electoral violence and manipulations.

The Founding and Fracturing of the Mosquito Confederation: Zambos, Tawiras, and New Archival Evidence, 1711–1791

Abstract The purpose of this article is to assess the political, diplomatic, and ethnic dynamics of the Mosquito Kingdom, an Afro-indigenous alliance based along Central America's Caribbean coast, during the eighteenth century. Drawing from new archival sources—most notably those of the National Archives of Costa Rica—this essay first examines the political organization of the Mosquitos, demonstrating that early leaders consolidated their authority by unifying different factions into a powerful confederation with expansionist tendencies. This essay then presents new evidence against the hypothesis that ethnic rivalry was a major source of factional conflict within the kingdom and thereby calls for a reexamination of the causes of the confederation's descent into civil war in 1791.

Data for: “The politics of polarization: Governance and party system change in Latin America, 1990-2010”

Data for: “The politics of polarization: Governance and party system change in Latin America, 1990-2010”