Illegitimate Power Research Articles

Uma proposta para a criação de democracias solidárias

The neoliberal ideology, which has prevailed almost everywhere in the world in the last 40 years, has been accentuating them. Today, the existence of a plutocratic oligarchy is increasingly evident, with excessive power for societies that claim to be democratic. When they use the term “liberal democracy” to designate the societies in which we live, we have to consider it a euphemism. We do live in neoliberal plutocracies, in which a tiny percentage of citizens have excessive and illegitimate power, always entrenched in the financial system, keeping the States hijacked. If this situation is unacceptable, it is also a situation in which remuneration inequality is so blurred that it prevents rewarding the social merit of each citizen's activity. This proposal attempts to find a balance between these two extremes. On the one hand, not allowing the existence of plutocratic oligarchies, but allowing the social merit of each citizen's activity to be rewarded, within socially acceptable limits.

Transformation of the concept of "power" as a basic cultural value in the media discourse of modern times in metagraphic representation

The relevance is due to the fact that new geopolitical realities cause the transformation of basic concepts, which include the concept of "power", which has an internal conflict of content, where there is power as self-possession and power as the management of others. At the same time, the concept of "power" itself is built in various linguistic and philosophical coordinate systems. The research is based on an ethnic-psycholinguistic scientific paradigm, within which the concept of "power" is analyzed from the point of view of structure and semantics as a separate element of linguistic consciousness, actively represented in the speech activity of representatives of various linguistic cultures (Kazakh, Russian, Anglo-American, Chinese). The appeal to this concept is predetermined by the acuteness of the experience of the problem of power itself as a constantly evolving socio-political institution. The aim of the study is to model the concept of "power" in the modern linguistic consciousness of modern times with the establishment of its structural and content specificity. The complexity of the claimed topic is predetermined by the initial ambiguity of power as a social phenomenon, which includes a binary of oppositions: "I" individual and "We" collective, the ability to control oneself and the ability to control others, legitimate power and illegitimate power, ethical power due to respect and authority and the power of oppression and pressure due to fear. The metagraph of the complex socio-political basic value "power" perfectly illustrates the representation of this complex concept, demonstrating qualitative transformations in the structure of the meaning of this concept at different levels of lexico-semantic, neurasthenic and symbolic-semiological hierarchy.

Elements of Confucian Virtue Politics

Elements of Confucian Virtue Politics Youngsun Back (bio) I. Introduction As Sungmoon Kim points out, contemporary Confucian studies has been disproportionately focused on the ethical side of the tradition. In this regard, Kim’s book, Theorizing Confucian Virtue Politics: The Political Philosophy of Mencius and Xunzi, makes an enormous contribution to the field of Confucian political thought. What makes his project even more valuable is that he goes beyond the textual analysis of political concepts and ideas in classical Confucian writings and builds them into a coherent and systematic political theory. In what follows, I will examine Kim’s reconstruction of the Confucian political theories of Mencius and Xunzi. However, rather than taking issue [End Page 497] with whether his reconstructions are true to the original ideas of these Confucian thinkers (I believe there could be a number of legitimate reconstructions), I intend to accept his version of Confucian political theories as they are. On this assumption, I first investigate whether his conceptual frameworks are effective and appropriate to philosophical reconstructions of Confucian political thought, and then I examine whether his reconstructions have any limitations, and, if any, what parts should be complemented in order to make them a comprehensive theory. II. Negative and Positive Confucianism Kim makes clear that he is not aiming at providing a correct interpretation of the political messages in the Mengzi and the Xunzi. Rather, his aim is to reconstruct their political insights and ideas in a philosophically intelligible way, probably to the extent that neither Mencius nor Xunzi themselves had or could have thought. In order to turn their ideas into a systematic political theory, Kim employs four conceptual frameworks, which are closely related to each other: (1) negative and positive Confucianism, (2) virtue and ritual constitutionalism, (3) moral and civic virtue, and (4) strong and tempered virtue monism. I will first examine negative and positive Confucianism. According to Kim, Confucian virtue politics places supreme importance on the moral character of the ruler for the success of the government. On the one hand, the ruler should exert his political power to run the government in a way that brings benefit to the people, and, on the other hand, he should not exert his power in a way that brings harm to the people. Kim calls the dimension of enabling the ruler’s legitimate power “positive Confucianism,” and that of constraining the ruler’s illegitimate power “negative Confucianism.” He argues, in general, that Mencius’ political theory leans toward negative Confucianism, and Xunzi’s toward positive Confucianism. However, one should not mistakenly consider them a bipartite system. As Kim notes, “positive Confucianism refers to the aspect of Confucian virtue politics that enables the ruler, properly constrained by the logic of negative Confucianism, to legitimately exercise his political power and authority for the sake of public interest or common good.”1 He seems to be saying that the ruler’s legitimate power is to be enabled on the condition that it is properly constrained. This suggests that Xunzi’s positive Confucianism is not an antithesis of Mencius’ negative Confucianism; rather, it is predicated upon negative Confucianism. What is more, Kim argues that Xunzi’s positive Confucianism is a further articulation of the nascent insight in Mencius’ thought. If this is Kim’s view, then we can render their systems more accurately as seen in the nested relationship in Figure 1. In my view, in order to capture this relationship properly, instead of employing a simple “negative/positive” framework, it would have been [End Page 498] better for Kim to pay closer attention to the dynamic and productive interplay between negative and positive dimensions in the political thought of Mencius and Xunzi. Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Furthermore, the framework of negative/positive Confucianism tends to gloss over the differences as well as overemphasize the closeness between Mencius and Xunzi. First of all, what is enabled concerning the ruler’s interest seems to be quite different in the thought of each of the two Confucians. Kim’s point is that we find positive Confucianism in both thinkers in the sense that they do not object to the ruler’s interest per se, but rather...

The framing of power in communicative planning theory: Analysing the work of John Forester, Patsy Healey and Judith Innes

In this paper, I analyse the framing of power in streams of communicative planning influenced by American pragmatism, sociological institutionalism and alternative dispute resolution. While scholars have heavily debated Habermasian communicative planning theory, the broader conception of power across these linked, but distinct, streams of the theory remains to be explicated. Through analysis of 40 years’ of publishing by John Forester, Patsy Healey and Judith Innes – widely cited representatives of these three streams – a broader account of the treatment of power in communicative planning is established. The analysis shows that the streams of communicative planning provide distinct approaches to power with a joint focus on criticising conflictual illegitimate power over and developing ideas for how consensual power with might arise through agency in the micro practices of planning. Even if communicative planning thereby offers more for reflections on power than critics have acknowledged, the theory still leaves conceptual voids regarding constitutive power to and legitimate power over.

ИТ-гиганты versus национальные государства: перспективы цифровой многополярности

This paper presents a political and predictive study of relationship between nation states and large corporations (tech giants) in relation to socially relevant online platforms (SROP). The key question of the article: will the current dominance of global SROP increase, or will they be fragmented (that is the separation of relatively isolated national or meta-regional segments) under the influence of nation states’ intention to protect their sovereignty. A methodological framework includes the following tools: (1) a discourse analysis of the research literature, (2) constructing predictive scenarios based on implicit models revealed in reviewed publications. Despite the search for some kind of control that nation states can have over global SROP (specifically, in India and Turkey), the Chinese model of total fragmentation of SROP is gaining support. Global SROP, as a manifestation of non-public and illegitimate power of tech giants, have transformed the landscape of contemporary international relations. A systemic virtualization of politics reduces the capacity of nation states to survive in a medium where social relations, identity, political behavior, and historical memory are formed and destructed through the intangible impact of global actors and unpredictable virtual cataclysms. The author draws a conclusion that the presumption of multipolarity of the world makes the fragmentation of SROP the only positive scenario. The intention of some governments to make do with only regulating the global tech giants can be interpreted as an illusion that threatens the survival of nation states.

The Tyrant’s Progress: The Meaning of ΤΥΡΑΝΝΟΣ in Plato and Aristotle

Abstract This article considers a longstanding problem: what does the word τύραννος mean? And if it means ‘bad / tyrannical ruler’, why are good rulers called tyrants? The solution proposed here is that tyranny is not a fixed state of being, or not being, but instead a gradual process of development. To be called a tyrant, a ruler need not embody all the stereotypical traits of tyranny. If tyranny is, by definition, unconstitutional and illegitimate rule, then there may be no clear moment at which one ceases to be a general or king and becomes a tyrant, only a process by which the tyrant gradually strengthens his rule and develops the negative attributes associated with absolute and illegitimate power. A strong trend in not only the political theory of Plato and Aristotle, but also Greek poetry and historiography in general, is to trace the decline of tyrannies from initially good and popular governments to ones that are despotic and unpopular: the tyrant’s progress.

How Identity Politics Objectifies People and Undermines Rational Agency

In our contemporary society it is widely recognized that public discourse has become increasingly polemical and polarized, as claims to truth and justice are cynically dismissed as manipulative power plays. We argue first that this growth of power politics reflects the triumph of the objectifying stance of the social sciences, and the consequent loss of any distinction between legitimate and illegitimate power, and second that it is ad hominem to dismiss or accept people’s arguments simply because of their identity interests, their positionality, instead of considering the explicit meaning and validity of what they say. By adopting the objectifying perspective of the social sciences, identity theorists on the left and the right reduce “power” to coercion and fail to appreciate the power of persuasion, and the normative conditions that make rational agency possible. This tendency is ultimately contemptuous of human dignity because it undermines the rational agency and moral responsibility of everyone concerned, from the objectified human subjects to the objectifying theorists.

O programa nuclear iraniano e o regime de não-proliferação: dilemas para o futuro

O programa nuclear iraniano causa receios e inquietações há tempos, existindo suspeitas de que o país almeje a utilização da energia nuclear para fins militares, tornando-se uma potência nuclear ilegítima. Décadas de sanções e iniciativas de negociação não têm alcançado resultados satisfatórios. O presente artigo visa analisar o atual quadro da questão nuclear iraniana, argumentando que reflete controvérsias e dificuldades intrínsecas do regime de não proliferação nuclear.

ГРОМАДЯНСЬКЕ СУСПІЛЬСТВО УКРАЇНИ: ТЕРНИСТИЙ ШЛЯХ ТВОРЕННЯ

Problem of the creation of civil society institutions is actual and requested. Ukrainian society is in a search state of optimum model of existence and communication with the state and power from the moment of independence acquisition. A few attempts of building of effective institutions of civil society in Ukraine failed. However the search continues. Own and world experience inspires the Ukrainian people on creation of own way to the real democracy cherished in dreams. Research of formation and development of civil society at the national level is not only extremely important, but also vital in the context of world legitimation processes. Essence of civil society is in structural opposition to power, public control over its activities. Civil society is the initiator of power delegitimation and it is also is an indicator of gaining legitimacy by the authorities. One of functions of civil society is to non-admit, and better prevent coming to power potentially illegitimate power institutes and establishment of the illegitimate regimes. Civil society can give birth on the «barricades» of fight against illegitimate power and to disappear after defeat in this fight, or to degrade under the pressure of external and internal contradictions. A task of civil society is not only society mobilization on a fight against the illegitimate regime but also consolidation of society with the aim of further effective state formation.

Why Markets? Welfare, Autonomy, and the Just Society

Review of Eric A. Posner's Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society.

When God and State Don’t Dominate: Pragmatism, Political Theology, and Democratic Authority

ABSTRACTAuthority is a normative status – not just power but legitimate power. But what distinguishes legitimate and illegitimate power? Combining recent pragmatist work in the philosophy of language with a Hegelian view of power and recognitive relations, I develop a model of authority rooted in non-dominating democratic practices. The result is a pragmatist political theology that is Hegelian in inspiration and radically democratic in practice.

Wireless sensor network for smart power metering

SummaryIn this paper, the problematic of power metering is targeted. Places with shared power sources, where electricity usage is calculated equally according to the number of users, are often misused by single users for illegitimate power usage. Special wireless sensor network was developed and implemented in a scenario of multi‐store parking garage to solve this problem. This paper is an extended version of the paper published in the iNetSApp'15 section of the FedCSIS 2015 IEEE international conference. This paper is supplemented with measured waveforms of mains magnitudes for concrete electrical appliances (bulb, refrigerator, and electric motor). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

La revolución sin revolución en la teoría política pleno-medieva: el tiranicidio y la ausencia de acción colectiva en el Policraticus

Se ha asumido que la ausencia de principios ascendentes del poder en la teoría política medieval, imposibilitó el desarrollo de teorías revolucionarias con las que hacer frente a los abusos del sistema político. No obstante, la tiranía y sus implicaciones fueron un problema real y un tema de debate frecuente entre los pensadores medievales. A mediados del siglo XII, John de Salisbury formuló una forma teórica de oposición y ruptura frente a la tiranía, sin llegar a subvertir la comprensión dominante del poder. Articuló la legitimidad de la resistencia a través de la defensa de la ley natural. Así, al plantear el tiranicidio en su Policraticus como un posible final hipotético para el tirano, articula de forma implícita una teoría proto-revolucionaria de la oposición y la reacción contra los abusos de un poder ilegítimo.

Islam and Politics: the Case of the Islamic State

AbstractThis paper assesses the fundamental relation between the Islamic-political movements and establishment of the Islamic law (Shari’a). I argue against the critiques of western foreign policy and show that the Islamic State (Caliphate) is both a result of the historical process of the people of a region and the extreme interpretation of the text and Sunna which emphasizes on the traditional Sharia law and the concept of Jihad by fortifying political Islam qua militant Islam. I argue that the Islamic revival aims to a certain political order which threatens the world security and peace. Moreover, I argue that the structural violation of Human Rights is rooted in the traditional concept of Islamic law or Sharia, which obtains its immunity by an illegitimate power. This traditional Islamic law is the inalienable character of authoritarian/totalitarian regimes. This paper is based on the assumption that the extreme ideological/theoretical interpretation implies the empirical objectives of Militant Islamic community with or without any external influential elements. In this sense, we can address the question: how different interpretations and traditions in executing the Islamic Sharia give the social and political grounds a seed for the emergence of violence and terrorism. At the end, this paper ends with a propose which emphasizes on the role of international cooperation to find a resolution and also on the education as a long-term plan to defeat extremism and terrorism.

A tribute to Merry Scheel and her Interactional Nursing Practice Theory.

A tribute to Merry Scheel and her Interactional Nursing Practice Theory.

Vertical Love: Forms of Submission and Top-Down Power in Orthodox Ethiopia

The classical sociological literature on Amhara hierarchy describes a society based on open relations of domination and an obsession with top-down power. This article asks how these accounts can be reconciled with the strong ethics of love and care that ground daily life in Amhara. We argue that love and care, like power, are understood in broadly asymmetrical terms rather than as egalitarian forms of relationship. As such, they play into wider discourses of hierarchy, but also serve to blur the distinction between legitimate authority and illegitimate power.

The Maine, the Romney and the Threads of Conspiracy in Cuba

What constitutes a conspiracy, and what are the stakes of popular theories of conspiracy? This article addresses these questions through an ethno-historical examination of narratives about conspiracies endured and posited by Cuban people. Long before the Revolution in 1959, continuing through the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, numerous assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, and onward to recent claims of biological warfare orchestrated by the government of the US, conspiracy theories have circulated widely in Cuba and its diasporic enclaves. Drawing on ethnographic and historical data, the article embeds present-day narratives of conspiracy in the longer-run history of Cuban conspiracy theories such as those initially presented in the case of the USS Maine and its nineteenth-century precursors, notably including the stationing of the HMS Romney in Havana harbour, and the so-called conspiracy of La Escalera in 1844. It argues, ultimately, that these tales are always morality tales, counterposing nefarious agents of an illegitimate external power to the imagined community of those (including the narrator's self and audience) thus disenfranchised. In that sense, then, the truth value of any particular account of conspiracy is irrelevant to the larger truth of Empire.

Power and legitimacy influence conformity

Although prior research indicates that power and hierarchy illegitimacy independently decrease conformity to social norms, we demonstrate that the two interact. In five studies, we find that legitimate power decreases conformity, whereas illegitimate power increases conformity. We conducted Study 1 in a business organization and found that power was negatively related to employees' conformity with organizational values when the power hierarchy was seen as legitimate, but positively related to conformity when the hierarchy was seen as illegitimate. In Study 2, we manipulated power and legitimacy via a recall task and found the same pattern of effects. Study 3 replicates this finding by manipulating role-based power and legitimacy and examining conformity to norms ostensibly established by others in the context of the study. In Study 4, we find that these effects are driven by increases in conformity among those who are in a state of legitimate powerlessness or illegitimate power. Finally, Study 5 demonstrates that legitimacy moderates the experience of power in part because of its effect on hierarchy stability. Our studies suggest that attributes of a power hierarchy, such as its legitimacy, can be as important in determining behavior as one's hierarchical position.

“In Everything Illegitimate”: Bastards and the National Family

“In Everything Illegitimate”: Bastards and the National Family

Neoliberalism’s War Against the Radical Imagination

Democracy is on life support in the United States. Throughout the social order, the forces of predatory capitalism are on the march. Their ideological and material traces are visible everywhere — in the dismantling of the welfare state, the increasing role of corporate money in politics, the assault on unions, the expansion of the corporatesu rveillance- mi litary state, widening inequalities in wealth and income, the defunding of higher education, the privatization of public education, and the war on women’s reproductive rights. As Marxist geographer David Harvey, political theorist Wendy Brown, and others have observed, neoliberalism’s permeation is achieved through various guises that collectively function to undercut public faith in the defining institutions of democracy. As market mentalities and moralities tighten their grip on all aspects of society, public institutions and public spheres are first downsized, then eradicated. When these important sites of democratic expression — fr om public universities to community health care centers — va nish, what follows is a serious erosion of the discourses of justice, equality, public values, and the common good. Moreover, as literary critic Stefan Collini has argued, under the regime of neoliberalism, the “social self” has been transformed into the “disembedded individual,” just as the notion of the university as a public good is now repudiated by the privatizing and atomistic values at the heart of a hyper- ma rket- dr iven society. We live in a society that appears to embrace the vocabulary of “choice,” which is ultimately rooted in a denial of reality. In fact, most people experience daily an increasing limitation of choices, as they bear the heavy burden of massive inequality, social disparities, the irresponsible concentration of power in relatively few hands, a racist justice and penal system, the conversion of schools into detention centers, and a pervasive culture of violence and cruelty — al l of which portends a growing machinery of social death, especially for those disadvantaged by a ruthless capitalist economy. Renowned economi st Joseph Stiglitz is one of many public intellectuals who have repeatedly alerted Americans to the impending costs of gross social inequality. Inequality is not simply about disproportionate amounts of wealth and income in fewer hands, it is also about the monopolization of power by the financial and corporate elite.