Ideological Positions Research Articles

Публицистика А.И. Солженицына как средство культурфилософской коммуникации

Journalism is traditionally considered as one of the means of effective communication. At the same time, writers often use a journalistic word to broadcast their ideological position regarding socio-cultural phenomena, respectively expressing original judgments of a cultural-philosophical nature. Among such authors is undoubtedly the outstanding Russian writer, thinker, historian, researcher of cultural and philosophical aspects of Russian history, public figure Alexander Solzhenitsyn (11.12.1918–03.08.2009), whose 105 th birthday is celebrated this year. The purpose of this article is to consider what cultural philosophical ideas this writer communicated to contemporaries and future generations in his journalistic works. The methodological basis of the research was made up of general scientific and interdisciplinary methods, as well as cultural analysis and cultural and philosophical tradition. According to the results of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that A. I. Solzhenitsyn actively used his journalistic works for cultural and philosophical communication with readers, which was expressed in philosophical and cultural reflection on such phenomena as, for example, freedom, nation, truth and lies, morality, morality, spirituality.

“Learn from the Classics!”: Conservative Attitudes in Soviet Ideology of the 1930s

The article is devoted to the changes in ideological attitudes in the USSR in the late 1920s – 1930s, when there happened gradual abandonment of the ideas of creating “proletarian culture” and criticism of the cultural heritage of the pre-revolutionary era in favor of its selective adoption in the interests of building a strong state, while the main goal still remained the achievement of communist ideals. A state capable of defending its position on the world stage could not exist without recognizing the important role of statesmen of the past and present. That turn occurred gradually, it found a positive response in the mass consciousness and its scope increased over time, for example, recognition of the signifi cance of literary classics was expressed in a large-scale anniversary campaign. However, the “rehabilitation” of the past was selective and fulfi lled, fi rst of all, the tasks of strengthening the existing socio-political system, which resulted in unifi cation in the cultural sphere, the proclamation of socialist realism as the only possible creative method.

“Putin’s War of Choice”: U.S. Propaganda and the Russia–Ukraine Invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 ignited propaganda efforts from the U.S. executive branch of government and the U.S. media, as the country tried to position itself towards the war not just in the eyes of its citizens but of the entire world as part of its geopolitical power position. A comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis of official U.S. communications and U.S. partisan media coverage in the first week of the invasion aims to uncover how the U.S. government set the agenda and framed the events, and to what extent the media copied or diverged from this agenda-setting and framing. The results suggest a narrow focus and distinct framing on the part of the U.S. government, partly taken over by partisan media. The latter also touched on other topics that fit media logic and provided some counter-frames in line with their ideological positions, yet overall confirmed the dominant framing of the war as unjust, unprovoked and premeditated, as Putin’s choice, and the position of the U.S. as the leader of the free world and defender of democracy.

How Polarised are Citizens? Measuring Ideology from the Ground up

Abstract We investigate whether the ideological polarisation of citizens has increased in Western democracies. We propose a novel methodology to identify individual ideologies by applying latent Dirichlet allocation to political survey data. This approach indicates that questions related to confidence in institutions play a leading role in defining citizen ideologies, in addition to the questions associated with the traditional left-right scale. We decompose the shift in ideological positions across the population over time and measure polarisation. This reveals evidence of a ‘disappearing centre’ in a sub-group of countries with citizens shifting away from centrist ideologies into anti-establishment ‘anarchist’ ideologies. This trend is especially pronounced for the United States.

Policy opinions regarding the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently been positioned as a serious problem requiring urgent policy response among partisan media outlets. Making a case for pressing policy demands, several policy makers have proposed federal, state, and local level legislation and other measures to restrict how race, racism, or American history in general can be taught in K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and state agencies. Anti-CRT rhetoric in media and policy proposals have also propagated the notion of CRT as being divisive as well as ubiquitous in public education. Given this, it is critical to examine whether policy opinions regarding reactionary legislation is based on a real understanding of CRT. We conduct a conceptual and theoretical inquiry into anti-CRT rhetoric relying on the sociological concepts of moral panics and folk devils. Then, we examine familiarity, knowledge, ideology, policy beliefs, and policy opinions regarding CRT in education using nationally representative survey data. The analysis showed that most parents are not familiar with CRT, and the average parent neither opposes nor supports teaching of CRT. The opposition to teaching of CRT is largely driven by political affiliation and related ideological beliefs and positions.

Pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism — current trends of the XXI century: the potential of symbiosis

The object of the study is the movement of pan-Africanism, which arose at the end of the XIX century and the concept of afrocentrism, at the end of the XX century. The first concept, pan-Africanism, turned into a powerful socio-political movement aimed at the national liberation, political struggle of the peoples of Africa against the metropolises, colonialism, as well as other forms of oppression. Afrocentrism was also formed as a tool to combat colonialism, but mentally, spiritually, and culturally. It was created as a tool to support and fight African Americans, the peoples of Africa and representatives of the African diaspora living around the world against the dominance of the Eurocentric model of the world. The subject of the study is the study of the formation of these concepts and the main ideological positions that formed the basis of their ideological foundation. The author examines in detail such aspects as spiritual decolonization, cultural decolonization, and the African personality. Special attention is paid to the study of the semantic core of pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism, the influence of European culture and the position of Africa as an object rather than a subject of history. The purpose of the work is to establish common ideological positions, as well as the possibility of symbiosis to solve the current challenges of the African continent. The methodological basis of the study was the historical approach necessary to restore the picture of past events, which were the basis for the formation of the ideological base of pan-Africanism, Afrocentrism, as well as the emergence of certain provisions. A systematic approach is used to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between ideological trends and determine the main trends in the development of these relations, methods of deduction, induction and synthesis. The novelty of the research lies in considering the concepts of pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism as complementary and mutually reinforcing parts. Both concepts were born almost a hundred years apart, but their similarity and relevance of ideas remain to this day. About 100 years ago, pan-Africanism called for the decolonization of African countries, and today for the eradication of neo-colonialism. Afrocentrism has common roots with pan-Africanism. The main conclusions of the study showed the possibility of a symbiosis of pan-Africanism and afrocentrism. It can become an effective tool for strengthening African society and obtaining the necessary energy to implement national strategies and protect the interests and values of both individual States and the continent as a whole.

Negation and Its Ideological Implications in Inaugural Addresses

The study of ideology in literary and political texts is the concern of any critical study including critical stylistics. The current paper deals with the ideological positioning of Joe Biden’s and Bill Clinton’s inaugural addresses. The researchers adopt one toolkit called negation with its various categories of Critical Stylistics, as suggested by Jeffries (2010) in order to uncover the ideologies that are hidden in the presidents’ inaugural addresses. To explore the ideology in each category of negation, qualitative and quantitative approaches are adopted. The findings reveal that negating steers the text in an effective way, especially in the syntactic category. What is more, since these are inaugural addresses, most of the ideologies are positive such as unity, democracy, and indiscrimination.

The Ideology of Brazilian Parties and Presidents: A Research Note on Coalitional Presidentialism Under Stress

ABSTRACTThis research note contributes updated and extended point estimates of the ideological positions of Brazilian political parties and novel estimates of the positions of all presidents since redemocratization in 1985. Presidents and parties are jointly responsible for the operability of Brazil’s version of coalitional presidentialism. Locating these key political actors in a unidimensional left–right space over time reveals rising challenges to the institutional matrix, particularly since 2013. Ideological polarization among parties has sharply increased, presidents have become more distant from Congress, and the political center has become increasingly vacated. Coalitional presidentialism is being subjected to unprecedented ideological stress as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva begins his third term in office.

Ideological Disagreement and the Rejection of Laws by Italian Heads of State

AbstractHeads of state in parliamentary democracies are usually perceived as neutral and non‐partisan political actors. However, they can make autonomous political choices, sometimes oriented by their own partisan preferences. Focusing on the Italian case, we analyze the propensity of the president of the Republic to publicly express political disagreement by rejecting the promulgation of laws. We contribute to the literature by creating and exploiting a new dataset, based on a content analysis of presidents' investiture speeches and New Year's Eve messages which maps the ideological position of Italian heads of state and their distance from the cabinet over more than 75 years (1946–2022). We show that such ideological distance increases the number of laws rejected by the president. This effect holds when controlling for the size and heterogeneity of the government coalition, as well as the state of the economy and the occurrence of crises.

A QUALIDADE DA GESTÃO NO SERVIÇO HOSPITALAR PÚBLICO

The privatization of the management of public health centers and ideological positions have taken the place of scientific analysis by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of management. Despite having tried different formulas for two decades. Studies conducted do not show evidence that private management is more efficient than public management in the case of health services. The lack of information on the models of management experienced shows that there is a long way to advance in the rules of good governance within the health systems, thus indicating the precariousness of the health system in force, and deficiency in the qualification of the professionals to manage the services of health.

Medieval and Renaissance understanding of “body” and “corporeality”

BACKGROUND: The article analyzes the idea that such a concept as “body” is an interesting and complex phenomenon, an integral part of human life, which philosophers, thinkers and theologians have reflected on throughout human history, describing its significance and role depending on ideological attitudes prevailing at one time or another.
 AIM: Studying the features of the presentation and reflection of the “dualistic” and “holistic” attitude towards the human body in the works of scientists and thinkers of different eras.
 RESULTS: The explanation of the essence of the first approach is based on an analysis of the features of church doctrine, which saw in the body only a “shell” of the soul and considered it worthy of contempt and death, and to understand the essence of the second approach, the author turns to the ideological attitudes of the Late Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the early Modern Times, which “rehabilitated” the body in the context of a return to the Roman and Greek classics of philosophical thought. Consequently, on the one hand, the medieval religious and political ideal of universalism and ways of “healing” (improving) the body as a social unity (“the body of society”) are analyzed, and, on the other hand, the author reflects on ways to free man from the yoke of church authority that regulates every aspect human life, related to the body, and also describes the history of the emergence of a new understanding of the human body — both as a symbol of beauty (in the understanding of kalokagathia by the Greeks), and as a machine working according to certain laws.
 CONCLUSION: Understanding how “body” and “corporality” became the guidelines of medieval corporatism in its secular and ecclesiastical (papal) versions (taking into account the duality of the monarch’s body) requires a comprehensive study — not only from a philosophical, psychological, sociological, but also from a medical point of view. Changing approaches to understanding the body as a physical, cultural, social phenomenon allows us to more deeply understand the characteristics of society and people’s attitude towards life and death, suffering of body and soul, as well as the role of public discourse in shaping the population’s attitude towards these phenomena.

Facework in translating and re-narrating vulgar language: The case of Macron's harsh statement against the unvaccinated in English language and Greek mainstream and alternative media

The present paper investigates, from a comparative and cross-cultural perspective, how ‘journalators’ in English-language and Greek media rendered a controversial statement by French President E. Macron against the non-vaccinated, with the use of the slang verb emmerder. The paper examines how journalators sought to render the verb and re-narrate that particular discursive instance, largely judged as vulgar, divisive and improper for a head of state, in order to save or aggravate the French president's face through selective appropriation and reframing. It draws on narrative theory of translation as developed by Mona Baker (2005, 2006, 2010), and explores the concept of facework (Goffmann, 1967; Brown and Levinson, 1978, 1987; Bull and Fetzer, 2010) and the notion of ethos (Mainguenau, 2002, 2014) to analyze from a critical discourse analytic perspective a corpus of press articles in English and Greek. The results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that there is an array of lexical choices and strategies to intensify or attenuate vulgarity and offensiveness and save or aggravate Macron's image. The study has also confirmed the role of ideology and ideological positioning in the choice not only of lexical choices but also what is selected or deselected to be translated.

Revisiting the establishment of the legal system in Dagestan in 1920–30s

The Relevance of the research topic. Contradictory and diverse problems of the national-state structure in a federal state, involving consideration of national characteristics and cultural experience of the peoples included in it, make it relevant to study the historical experience of the formation of the Soviet legal system in Dagestan in 1920–30s.Problem statement. With the establishment of the Soviet power, the Dagestanis were offered a new model of social development. The transformation of the political, economic and social structure was accompanied by changes in the system of values, ideological attitudes, beliefs and norms that the majority of society had to share. Since the «outdated» value-normative system, regulating family, social, economic, and political relations, was focused on maintaining the existing development model, the approval of the new paradigm was difficult and contradictory.The Research objectives. To highlight the process of approval of the Soviet legal system in Dagestan in 1920-30s using reliable documentary material and accumulated historiographical experience.The Research methods. To solve the tasks set, the following methods were used: objectivism, historicism, historical-systemic and historical-typological.The Results and key conclusions. The legitimization of the Soviet legal system in the first years after the establishment of Soviet power required the preservation of the traditional elements of law for the Dagestanis – Muslim (Sharia) and customary (Adat) law. Since the late 1920s, the time of the «forced» construction of socialism in the country, the traditional legal structures in the Republic have been liquidated. Under the control of party bodies by the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1937, the legal system of Dagestan acquires all-Russian structural and functional features. The establishment of a new legal system and a socialist sense of justice was promoted by the policy of indigenization (korenization) and promotion, which in Dagestan had its own specific features, due to the multinational nature of the republic.

Alexander Pushkin and His Literary Heritage in the Soviet Union in 1917–1937: from Criticism to Veneration

The article takes the process of changing attitudes to the creative heritage of Alexander Pushkin in the Soviet state as the subject of research. The goal of the research is to reveal the role played by the heritage of Alexander Pushkin in the policy of the so‑called “cultural revolution” and to what extent it contributed to the revolution’s success. Within the framework of this goal, the following tasks were set: to identify which political circumstances influenced the process under review, how strong was the overestimation of the significance of Pushkin’s creative heritage, what role it played against the background of ideological education. The task was also to consider specific events and, first of all, the 100th anniversary of the poet’s death as the moment of the final consolidation of Pushkin’s top position in the pantheon of Russian classics. The novelty of the research consists in considering changes in the attitude towards Pushkin and his creative heritage in conjunction with changes in theoretical objectives that determined the cultural development of the country. In the course of the research, the following conclusions were successfully reached. Despite the paramount importance of the theory of “two cultures” and the ideological attitudes of the Soviet government in its early years, in terms of which Pushkin as a representative of the exploiter class had to be criticized, there was no complete denial of his creative work even among the representatives of the Proletkult (the Proletarian Culture movement). At the time the cultural uniformity was established through the use of the only possible artistic method — socialist realism with highly valued ideologic content, simplicity and concreteness — models for inspiration were actively looked for. Eventually, the simplicity and national spirit of Pushkin’s characters managed to satisfy the demands in the best way possible. Despite the fact that the preparation and celebration of the Pushkin jubilee in 1937 were held according to the rules set by ideological campaigns, it had a tremendous positive effect and introduced Pushkin’s works to the broad masses of people. Pushkin’s creativity captivated millions of people. From there, we can say that the cultural development of the Soviet Union cannot be perceived one‑sidedly.

Diplomacy of Non-State Armed Actors: A New Reality in International Relations?

ABSTRACT The current international system finds itself in a phase where foreign relations are shaped not only by the official governments of individual states but also by other, often diverse, actors. In particular and far more than ever, non-state actors have begun to establish foreign contacts through the same foreign policy tools and activities to increase their political, military, economic and ideological positions. However, despite this trend, the academic field lacks conceptualisation and research into the international activities of non-state armed actors in the current academic field. Hence, this study has the ambition to present a new conceptual approach to the ‘diplomacy’ of non-state armed actors; and initiate a debate in the field of International Relations in the context of the research question of whether we can consider the international activities of non-state armed actors as a new branch of diplomacy.

Admonitory and utopian: the algorithmic interpretation of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s historical narratives

ABSTRACT Bar’s study examines and analyses the historical narratives and use of Jewish history put forward by Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932–1990), one of the most extreme far-right radicals ever to hold political power in Israel. Drawing on a variety of primary and secondary sources, Bar reviews the ways in which Kahane’s historical interpretation is used to support his modern political and ideological positions. He finds that two main paths serve as a fulcrum for Kahane’s historical reception to justify his demands for segregation and separation between Jews and Gentiles (including the forced transfer of Israeli Arabs and/or Palestinians) on a theological-historical basis. The first is admonitory, and utilizes the Holocaust as a negative example to show how assimilation and coexistence—in Israel or elsewhere—between Jews and Gentiles leads to an inevitable ‘physical and spiritual Auschwitz’. The second path is a positive one, which looks to the utopian ‘golden ages’ of Jewish history in ancient times as an example of how past heroes and leaders, such as biblical figures or the Hasmoneans, behaved in the face of hardships and risks of assimilation, as well as the destruction of Jewish lives and religious practices.

Satire Meets Critical Realism in the European Semiperiphery: A Study on Ibsen and Caragiale

Henrik Ibsen and Ion Luca Caragiale seem to have nothing in common but that each is considered the “national playwright” of Norway and Romania, respectively. The present contribution seeks to draw some parallels between the two (semi)peripheral authors from the late 19th and early 20th century based on their ideological positions in the literary fields of their countries. After tracing the relationship between their dramatic output and the idea of revolution, i.e., how revolution in several of its forms is reflected in their works, I work my way towards their common preoccupation for “legalizing” the world—either through bureaucracy or finance—and how this preoccupation finds its most suitable expression. Finally, I discuss how form plays a crucial role in officializing content and how Ibsen’s seriousness reflects the more prosperous, more established Norwegian bourgeoisie, whereas Caragiale’s mockery, satire, and absurdism lays bare the “frivolousness” of the new Romanian middleclass, as aspirational as it is morally precarious.

Compte rendu: Unveiling the Depths of Social Innovation: A Journey Through Scholarship and Critique. A review of The Encyclopedia of Social Innovation

It is unclear when, how, or by whom the term “social innovation” was first used. According to Moulaert et al. (2013), the term was coined in Europe in the 1960s. The first book on the subject was published in 1967 by Fairweather, who sought to address social problems through experimental methods and had a reformist and moralistic view of sociology. In Latin America, the terms “appropriate technology” (Caldas & Alves, 2013) and “tecnologia social” (Pozzebon, Souza & Saldanha, 2023) emerged around the same time. These terms were aimed at social development and questioned the role of technology in society, proposing an emancipatory view to create spaces and opportunities that redefine social relations. The term’ social innovation’ has garnered substantial attention in recent academic and empirical research. This is evident in the proliferation of events, exhibitions, and platforms dedicated to discussing and promoting social innovations. The term has also become a prominent keyword in English language scientific research, particularly in business administration, public administration, and public policies, where it supports a wide range of theoretical and ideological positions on the nature of innovation in contemporary society. [...]

La creatividad en la cobertura fotográfica de los problemas sociales: Entrevista a Jesse Mireles

Interview conducted with the photographer specialized in documentary f ilm and journalism, Jessica Mireles Quiñones in the context of her coverage of the social problems of Mexican and Zacatecan society. She shares how she approaches complex contexts derived from the violence due to the war against organized crime, the situations that indirect victims encompassed in the euphemism of "collateral damage", mothers searching for missing persons; go through; inhabitants violently displaced from their communities; childhoods with lives disrupted by stray bullets. Shares the alternatives that photography and the image in general of fer, to tell and transmit these hard stories, through a narrative that has scope and impact with the aim of contributing, to counteracting the problem through reflection, denaturalization and action against the different types of violence that have emerged from the State of Mexico’s f ight against organized crime groups, and the dispute that they maintain throughout the national and state territory. She also talks about her beginnings in the world of photography and how it has been useful to her, in addition to a therapeutic activity, as a way to transmit her ideological position and the way she understands the world.

The Future of Conservatism?

AbstractThe Case for Conservatism is the first report of the Onward think tank's Commission on The Future of Conservatism. It examines present discontents and offers a set of principles for addressing them. It argues that Conservatives need to shift their ideological position away from the economic liberalism of Margaret Thatcher and the social liberalism of David Cameron and adopt a position which is socially conservative and economically interventionist in order to rebuild a successful electoral coalition and an effective programme for government. They seek to re‐found Conservatism on the pillars of family, community and nation, and the obligations of citizenship rather than the freedom of the individual. They provide a distinctive voice on where Conservatism has gone wrong and how it should change, but they may struggle to become the dominant voice shaping the party's future, because the doctrines of economic liberalism still command strong support.