Legitimate Representation Research Articles

Whom Do I Trust to Represent Me? Long-Term Care Resident and Family Perspectives on Legitimate Representation.

Public engagement in long-term care policy making in Canada has primarily focused on "intermediary agents" who speak on behalf of long-term care (LTC) residents and their family caregivers. Yet the legitimacy of these intermediaries, as perceived by those they represent, has gone largely unexplored. This study examines LTC resident and family perspectives on who can legitimately represent them in LTC policy making. We used an interpretive description design, drawing on semi-structured interviews with LTC residents and family caregivers in Ontario, Canada. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Eighteen interviews were conducted with 19 participants. Three key characteristics of legitimate representatives were identified: (1) willingness to act in the best interests of residents and families, (2) having the necessary skills and capacity to participate in LTC policy making and (3) engaging directly with residents and families. Governments and civil society organizations seeking to establish and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of LTC residents and family members can pursue this goal by supporting intermediaries who mirror the identities or experiences of those they represent, who are dedicated to serving their interests and who routinely and directly engage with them to understand the realities of LTC.

Theatre as a space of empowerment and emphasis of voices

The theatre looks out from both directions. On the one hand, the artist’s (director’s) gaze determines our (spectator’s) gaze, and on the other hand, there is the question of whether the artist’s gaze is able to see through our eyes and, of course, whose eyes they are. Are they created by the theatre itself – in the name of all its direct creators and thus in its own image and according to its own wishes, or is ‘their studio’ also open to those who come to the theatre from the substance itself – from the living substance of the dramatic texts? So also to those who find it difficult to afford a theatre ticket. Is a theatre that does not look backwards, then, still credible as a universal or legitimate representation of the world and its social relations?

Effects of Audit Committee Practices on Service Delivery in Water and Sewerage Companies in Kenya

Prudent corporate governance requires an all-encompassing approach focused on democratic values, legitimate representation, and involvement while respecting and safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders. Corporate governance fosters successful organizations that impact society positively. A central concept in corporate governance is the effective execution of the oversight role, majorly accomplished through independent audit committees. Inconsistent or ambiguous audit scope often results in disputed financial reporting and audit processes, with boardroom wrangles that sometimes spill over to the performance of official tasks and the provision of services. The research aimed to answer the question “Does the presence of independent audit committees influence the quality of services provided by water and sewerage companies in Kenya?” Using a descriptive research design and stratified sampling approaches, the study sampled respondents from among management, employees, and customers. The research found that board diversity had a statistically positive effect on the quality of services, and audit committees held the management and staff accountable in their respective functional areas. The study concludes that audit committees should be sufficiently diversified for impartiality in exercising oversight on the firm; and recommends that management should uphold the audit committee’s resolutions to guarantee efficient financial reporting practices.

Culture Wars and Nationalism

Culture war, as an analytical category, is a modern means of cultural struggle between antagonistic positions that seeks monopoly over the legitimate representation of one’s own identity. It constructs culturally contestable relations between substantive elements such as life, religion, nation, status or race, which are heavily invested with sacredness, turning the world of values into a fundamental battleground within the civil sphere. The culture war, more than a conflict of ideological interpretations, is a struggle for meaning, and therefore directly affects the question of identity, as particularly affected by the return of emotions. Hence its link with nationalism. From this perspective, and attending to the North American and European, more particularly French, spheres, the article has a bearing on the nature and characters of nationalism as fuel for cultural wars, with the aim of rethinking nationalism and its relationship with patriotism in order to arrive at a renewed idea of patriotism as an antidote to national-populism, constituted today as a privileged place for national worship and cultural warfare.

Institutional, Nurses’ and Patients’ Spiritual Imaginaries Compared

In this article we seek to compare institutional, professional (largely nurses’) and patients’ perspectives on spirituality with the aim of contributing to two different, albeit potentially overlapping, strands of research, namely, the study of the governance of religious diversity and the inclusion of spiritual interventions in hospital settings, using data collected in the research project RESPIRO (breath) (2019–2022). Importantly, in this article we rely on the toolkit of the sociological trade to explore what we can learn about religion and spirituality by studying hospitals, building on the working hypothesis that the practical and discursive universe of ‘health’ and ‘salvation’, the two most valued symbolic resources of the medical and the religious/spiritual fields respectively, are inherently interrelated. In so doing, we reconstruct the “spiritual imaginaries” surrounding institutional, nurses’ and patients’ perspectives on spirituality in hospital, a previously unexplored subject. These three spiritual imaginaries are the expression of hospital management’s, nurses’ and patients’ respective positioning in the broader field of religion and spirituality in healthcare; that is, they voice different instances of what is considered the legitimate representation of religion and spirituality within healthcare institutions and care practices.

The Somali Regional State of Ethiopia: History and Prospects for Development

The Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, by its very existence, demonstrates an attempt to resolve territorial disputes in the Horn of Africa over the past two decades. Ethiopia and Somalia lay claim to the territory despite the fact that it is peripheral to both nations. Nevertheless, it is located at the centre of the Somali Peninsula, at the crossroads of trade routes from the hinterland of North East Africa to seaports, at the crossroads of Christian and Islamic civilisations. The formation of the Somali Regional State was made possible after Ethiopia became a federal state in 1994, when the rights of ethnic Somalis living in the eastern part of the country were redefined. The article provides an overview of the historical background of the Ogaden and analyses the problems inherent in its being part of federal Ethiopia. The uneasy relationship between the region and the modern Ethiopian state demonstrates that ethnic federalism, in the absence of developed democratic mechanisms, generates a number of contradictions between different peoples who, under a federal system, are entitled to, or at least hope for, legitimate representation in the central government. The interest of Soviet and Russian scholars in the “Ogaden problem” was mostly limited to the Cold War period, when two states tried to resolve territorial disputes by waging war with both sides receiving military support from the Soviet Union. Nowadays the question of effectiveness of ethnic federalism within Ethiopia is more in the focus of research. In the article the author analyses the main stages of the creation of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia and offers some ideas for future studies of the Region.

Spatial imagery in extractive capitalism: form and strength in corporate social responsibility diagrams

In the contemporary capitalism of flows, companies that strongly depend on territorial resources adopt social private policies so as to ensure the spatial insertion of their projects. In order to preserve their reputation, they also take part in a dispute for the legitimate representation of social space through the growing use of the visual instrument of diagrams. From among the corporate uses of diagrams, two types will be discussed herein. Whereas “corporate social responsibility” diagrams presuppose a harmonic space of partnership and cooperation, social risk mapping reveals the presence of dissensus and threats to the business climate. The text makes a critical reading of the business management literature and the diagrammatic material that composes it, and discusses diagrams published in the sustainability and corporate social responsibility reports of large corporations in the mineral extractive sector.

The Contribution of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya to Salafi Sufism

This article aims to explore the Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s original views on Sufism. Ibn Qayyim is regarded as an authority in Salafi circles who reject Sufism as a legitimate representation of Islam, especially its philosophical orientation. This article uses a literature research model to reach the finding that Ibn Qayyim understood Sufism as a moral system and part of the science of Islamic morality. Sufism aims to purify the soul to prepare it for its return to God along the path of love. The basis of Sufism as revised by Ibn Qayyim was the Qur’ān, the Sunnah, the traditions of the companions, the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya, and the teachings words of the early Sufi masters. Ibn Qayyim strongly adhered to the orthodox principles of Islamic scholarship later dubbed as Salafism, especially in terms of prioritizing the shari‘a over reason and rejecting esoteric interpretation (ta’wīl). For Ibn Qayyim, the Sufi philosophers were misled in overly relying on ta’wīl and disregarding the role of reason. His approach to Sufism was to perform an objective evaluation of the Sufi teachings circulating at his time. Instead of joining either side, the side of those who condemned it as unlawful innovation (bid‘a) or the side of those who accepted it uncritically, Ibn Qayyim chose to conduct an extensive review of its ideas and practices, rejecting those elements that he found objectionable and accepting others that he found commendable.

Antagonistic understandings of sovereignty in the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis

Since the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, the government led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) has sought to win two interwoven battles: the restoration of ‘a strong state’ internally and ‘regaining sovereignty’ in the country’s relationship with the EU. By examining the 2015 constitutional crisis in Poland, this article seeks to understand how and why a domestic dispute over the nomination of constitutional judges has transformed into a conflict of sovereignty in the EU polity. The paper shows that the claims to sovereignty of political, social, and legal actors reflect opposing conceptions of this principle as well as of democracy and the rule of law. PiS’ understanding of State sovereignty is rooted in the past, echoes its Hobbesian conception, and is reminiscent of Carl Schmitt’s notion of the political and of democracy. In 2015, this conception was pitted against the supremacy of the Constitution (legal sovereignty) and the ideal of shared sovereignty. Drawing on 20 parliamentary debates, this paper shows that the 2015 Polish constitutional crisis encapsulates a conflict of sovereignty over who holds the most legitimate representation of the people and who should have the last word in key political conflicts and constitutional settlements.

Representation in participatory health care decision-making: Reflections on an Application-Oriented Model.

ContextThe involvement of lay people in health care decision‐making processes is now the norm in many countries. However, one important aspect of participation has not received sufficient attention in the past and remains underexplored: representation.ObjectiveThis paper explores the question of how public participation efforts in collective health care decision‐making processes can attempt to aim for legitimate representation so that those individuals or groups not present can be taken into account in the decisions affecting them. This paper argues that to make decisions that effectively address those affected, representation needs to be seen as a relevant part of any participatory setting. To support this argument, the paper outlines the concepts of participation and representation and transfers them to health care contexts.ResultsA conceptual reflection on responsiveness and the characteristics of representative actors in representative‐participatory settings is introduced, which could provide actors planning to conduct participatory health care projects with tools to reflect on the merits and possible flaws of participatory constellations.Patient or Public ContributionThe paper contributes to improving public participation in health care decision‐making.

Plurilingual literary spaces

In this article, I define the notion of a plurilingual literary space. While drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, I adopt a critical stance towards the highly autonomous, territorialized, and monolingual French case that he studied. Even though language is the material that the writers work with, the legitimate representation of the nation remains the major issue for non-central literary spaces, among which are plurilingual spaces. I elaborate on a typology of plurilingual literary spaces, which are heavily related to the political structure and language policies of the state. Then I concentrate on one of the types, that of plurilingual literary fields, where the language issue is the most significant. I argue that tensions or collaborations between the different linguistic groups depend on the symbolic balance of power between them as well as on official language policies. The most autonomous writers do not always desire to build bridges across language barriers, and they would sometimes rather create identity walls. I distinguish between unitarian policies that lead some linguistically dominated writers to reject collaborations and monolingual policies which lead the autonomous writers to reject the linguistic divisions.

Method of description for the dynamics of the signal delay change in discrete time with changing aircraft position in space

The article presents an innovative approach to the description of the aircraft range parameter in discrete time when simulating the process of its repositioning in space. A method of describing the dynamics of changes in signal delay in discrete time when the aircraft is changing its spatial position is proposed. Such a model adequately describes the change in signal delay in discrete time. The direction of estimation for the adequacy of radio signal delay change simulation in algorithms of optimum filtration is defined in accordance with the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft. Simulation of the signal delay dynamic change is carried out (it is completely described by the dynamics of change in the distance to the aircraft). The transformation stages of simulation data for the initial model in continuous time with realization of the standard Gaussian random numbers are justified. Information on the simulation data transformation taking into account the correlation matrix of discrete white noise is provided. A method of calculating the transition matrix through the Laplace transform is proposed. The scientific-applied direction of research is determined – it lies in the development of a method for the legitimate representation for the mathematical model of aircraft’s changing range in discrete time within one-dimensional space: the longitudinal and the transverse dimensions. This approach takes into account the continuous description for a system of stochastic differential equations. A comprehensive algorithm for modeling the values of discrete white noise on modern computer equipment and calculating the dynamics of the aircraft range parameter changes is proposed. This algorithm allows to correctly form the a priori information about the change of the vector parameters of the aircraft spatial position at discrete moments of time. As a result, it was shown that the use of the obtained information in the optimal filtering algorithms minimizes the error when determining distance to the aircraft and, accordingly, allows to increase the accuracy and adequacy of the signal delay simulation in discrete time. The results of this research can be used in modernization of the existing models and development of promising on-board radar stations, integrated rangefinders, systems of radio technical reconnaissance and electronic warfare systems, as well as in technical implementation of aircraft flight simulation systems.

The antifascist boxing body: Political somatics in boxe popolare

Palestre popolari (‘people’s gyms’) are flourishing in contemporary Italy. These gyms are run by leftist grassroots organizations (ANTIFA), which promote an alternative boxing style: boxe popolare (‘people’s boxing’). Drawing on a three-year ethnography, this article focuses on body usages in boxe popolare. Connecting Mauss with Bourdieu, the study elucidates that the ways in which bodies are deployed in boxe popolare shape a scheme of dispositions – mutualism, combat, engagement and conviviality – forming an antifascist pugilistic habitus. A leftist physicality is hence incorporated as an interpolation of political dispositions with virtues of prowess, self-control and toughness, instilled in boxe popolare bodies regardless of their gender identity. This emergent leftist physicality becomes bodily hexis as soon as it is displayed publicly by the fighters, both men and women, as the legitimate representation of the political community to which they belong. The study ends highlighting implications for research about political somatics.

Governance Mechanisms Fostering a Legitimate Representation in Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACT A sound governance fosters the capacity of a nonprofit to meet the needs of the community by allowing local stakeholders to be represented on boards and to participate in decision-making through different mechanisms. This study explores the possible combinations of these mechanisms that lead to a high capability of acting for the community (substantive representation). To achieve this aim, a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is developed to analyze a group of grant-making foundations located in Italy. The results show that a high involvement of community representatives in organizational activities, a board that is largely rooted in the territory because of the residence of board members and a strong perception that the nonprofit is a legitimate representative of the community are necessary conditions associated with high levels of substantive representation.

The Character Sketch, the Aesthetics of Representativeness, and Rip Van Winkle’s Electoral Double Vision

AbstractThis essay examines how a literary genre called the character sketch shaped the ways Americans came to understand electoral representation as representative. Now little known but central to eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century literary culture in the US and Britain, character sketches and a related aesthetic discourse about how to distinguish “well-drawn characters” from caricature helped to naturalize the notion that meaningful, legitimate representation should be grounded in clearly delineated categories and distinctions that were true to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” However, this aesthetic and political framework intersected uneasily with the early nineteenth century’s racially and economically diverse electoral public sphere. This public sphere was rife with fear that electoral “combinations” would so badly misrepresent the electorate that the United States would be functionally returned to tyranny. And these abstract fears often became entangled with the embodied discomfort genteel white men like Washington Irving experienced when “beer-barrel” politics brought them into contact with fellow voters whom they considered themselves naturally socially or racially distinct from. As a result, this paper shows, writing for and about early US elections—including Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” (1819), whose electoral plot is often overlooked—was imbued with a disconcerting sense of double vision. Only by recovering that double vision’s embodied and racialized electoral context can critics fully grapple with the aesthetic and political legacy of American literature’s uneasy foundations.

METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA

Studies of political systems and political processes in the post-Soviet states of the Central Asian region are based, as a rule, on institutional and neo-institutional concepts. Attempts to mechanically apply certain ready-made western description schemes and even the corresponding conceptual apparatus to the Central Asian material rarely lead to convincing results. Many important factors affecting the political development of the region remain beyond research. By the beginning of the 2010s institutionalization and pluralization of the political space outside state control also included the development of the necessary legislative framework. Such a framework implies the consolidation of the legal basis for the creation and effective functioning of public associations and organizations, and the formation of legitimate and viable representation institutions. Russian authors are much more familiar with the material of the political reality of the CAR, therefore they give more balanced and accurate assessments. The disadvantage of Russian studies is the fact that, methodologically, they follow the approaches developed by Western political science. This encourages one to concentrate on some aspects of the political development of the Central Asian states and to underestimate or even completely ignore other, no less, and sometimes much more significant ones. In recent years, this deficiency is gradually being replenished. The findings of the researchers are becoming more objective, which helps to overcome erroneous political decisions and strengthen interstate cooperation. Over time, such studies will have the results of the development of new systematic and well-reflected approaches, adequate to the subject of political science studies.

Not the only game in towns: explaining changes in municipal councils in post-revolutionary Tunisia

ABSTRACTThis study sheds light on the relationship between local and national elites during political transitions. Examining local councils in post-revolutionary Tunisia (2011–2013), it examines why and when the composition of councils changed in the absence of local elections. The study yields two important lessons. First, changes in councils resulted from a power struggle between national and local elites. Councils were more likely to remain in place when local parties and unions helped council members resist pressures from above. The interplay of local and national actors, and not the council’s competencies, explains when changes took place. Second, all councils became politicized in the process. Far from being caretaker councils impartially addressing local needs, the councils were institutions playing important roles in the struggles between local and national political elites. Councils were arenas in which political power, and notions of legitimate representation, were contested in the absence of elections. The argument is supported by quantitative analyses of original data and four comparative case studies based on qualitative fieldwork. The findings highlight the importance of local councils in transition processes and provide a basis for further work exploring local-national engagement in democratization.

Invalid Votes, Deliberate Abstentions, and the Brazilian Crisis of Representation

AbstractAugust 31, 2016 registered the historical impeachment of Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, indicted for contravening the budget law and misstating the public deficit that propelled the country into deep economic recession. Many disagreements on this matter have permeated the country’s conflict atmosphere, supported by arguments that the collective will of more than 54 million voters was disrespected. Based on 3,010 interviews conducted in 204 Brazilian cities, we construct a pairwise comparison to present arguments that Rousseff had no legitimate representation in the 2014 national elections. We demonstrate how the suboptimal support of invalid votes and deliberate abstentions might have misrepresented the results of Brazilian presidential election by choosing a pseudo‐Condorcet loser candidate. The results in the Brazilian case study presented here point to the weakness in the social process of aggregating preferences by relative or absolute majority, and sets out recommendations.Related ArticlesGalatas, Steven. 2008. “‘None of the Above?’ Casting Blank Ballots in Ontario Provincial Elections.” Politics & Policy 36 (3): 448‐473. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2008.00116.xStockemer, Daniel. 2013. “Corruption and Turnout in Presidential Elections: A Macro‐Level Quantitative Analysis.” Politics & Policy 41 (2): 189‐212. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12012Stockemer, Daniel, and Stephanie Parent. 2014. “The Inequality Turnout Nexus: New Evidence from Presidential Elections.” Politics & Policy 42 (2): 221‐245. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12067Related MediaThe Conversation. 2017. “Kenneth Arrow’s Legacy and Why Elections Can Be Flawed.” March 1. https://theconversation.com/kenneth-arrows-legacy-and-why-elections-can-be-flawed-73675

The Role of Civil Society in EU Financial Regulation

‘The interests of European investors, consumers and SMEs,must be at the centre of the reform’. (European Commission, 4 March 2009) INTRODUCTION: A CRUCIAL AND OUTSTANDING ISSUE FOR THE EUROPEAN ECONOMY AND DEMOCRACY In March 2009, the European Commission (EC) recognized the need to put ‘the interests of European investors, consumers and SMEs at the centre of the financial markets reform’. The Commission therefore announced it will ‘ensure that the voice of European investors is much more strongly heard on all financial issues’. However, three years later, the European Economic and Social Committee still reported that ‘one of the reasons for the financial crisis was inadequate and ineffective regulation and supervision of the financial markets . One of the difficulties in financial regulation is how to ensure that differing and contradictory positions are given a balanced hearing . There is no effective counterweight to the legitimate representation of the financial sector's interests . Political debate primarily plays out between the legislator on one side and the financial sector concerned on the other’. Despite the creation and the development of BETTER FINANCE for all (formerly ‘EuroFinUse’, in short ‘Better Finance’) in 2009 and of Finance Watch in 2011 (section 2), and despite the build-up of independent competence (section 3), organised civil society still faces two major hurdles to become an ‘effective counterweight’ to the financial sector in the European political debate: – resources (section 4); and – equal access (section 5) to the public authorities. THE CURRENT REPRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES USERS AND OF THE CIVIL SOCIETY AT LARGE THE CREATION OF BETTER FINANCE (THE EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES USERS) IN 2009 Before 2009, there was no civil society organisation dedicated to representing the ‘civil society’ interests in financial services at the European level, except for the specific case of individual shareholders who created ‘Euroshareholders’ as an Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif (non-profit international association) under Belgian law in 1992. It was very representative of European individual shareholder interests as it gathered about thirty national shareholder and other investor and saver organisations from around Europe. But – in addition to its limited scope – its resources were very small, barely allowing it to rent an office in Brussels and to organise one or two meetings per year.

Epistemic injustice in dementia and autism patient organizations: An empirical analysis

ABSTRACTPatient organizations (POs) represent patient collectives in health care policy. The inclusion of people with a ‘neuro-psychiatric’ condition poses a particular challenge for the organizational processes and political representation of such collectives. In recent years, new POs (POs of) have been established in the field of autism spectrum disorder and dementia that advocate a different agenda and have a different organizational structure than traditional POs (POs for). The divide between these two types of POs indicates a different standpoint with regard to who should be included on an organizational level, which voices are accepted and who should represent these voices on the political level. The inclusion and exclusion of voices needs to be normatively justified in order to be regarded legitimate representation of such a collective. With the help of Miranda Fricker's theory of epistemic injustice, we scrutinize whether and, if so, which types of epistemic injustices (wrongdoings to a person as a knower) can be found within POs' practices and the political field in which they operate, by analyzing 37 interviews with PO representatives, their members and policy makers. Our in-depth analysis indicates that persistent stereotypes hamper the inclusion of affected members both within POs and on the health political level. Being affected causes distrust in having the ‘capacity to know' in a two-fold way; it is assumed that those who can represent themselves are “not affected enough” to present valuable insights into the condition and those who have difficulties to express themselves due to their condition are excluded because of their affectedness. We conclude that our analysis of the epistemic practices of POs serves as a good starting point to address these shortcomings from a theoretical and practical perspective and offers a valuable starting point for bioethics to understand unjust structures in the health political context.