Liberal Press Research Articles

Aliran in Malaysia: A Public Interest Group Assuming the Role of the Liberal Press

Abstract This article studies how the Malaysian public interest group, Aliran, has attempted to foster a civic culture and create a liberal press. Aliran believes these are necessary for the advancement of democracy in Malaysia. The organization's journal, Aliran Monthly, follows the liberal press method of scrutinizing what it sees as the four estates of government, the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, and the Malaysian press. The Aliran Monthly advances the group's goal of creating a civic culture by fostering the idea that the country's citizens should insist upon the accountability of the four estates. By providing a dissenting opinion, the Aliran Monthly sees itself as assisting the citizens of Malaysia in evaluating the individuals and institutions that govern them.

Code Blue: Health Care in Crisis

ABSTRACT Americans enjoy the best medical care in the history of the world, but our system is being destroyed by government regulation, by the socialist principles embodied in the Medicare and Medicaid systems, and by the social policies our society has followed over the last half century: that is the theme of Code Blue: Health Care in Crisis, by Dr Edward R. Annis, past president of both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the World Medical Association, and one of America's most distinguished physicians. He tells us what the liberal press has consistently hidden: that the problem is government, not health care, that all of the problems in health care have a made in Washington label, and that the current health care is simply a crisis in government mismanagement. Unfortunately, most Americans, including many of our leaders in organized medicine, are not aware of this.The first of the

Warrior or Esthete? Reflections on the Junger Reception in France and Germany

When ErnstJiQnger won the Goethe Prize in 1982, he became an object of sustained attack for the liberal press in Germany, which saw in him a symbol for the conservative Wende that had just brought Kohl and the Christian Democrats back to power after the only tenure of social democracy the nation had ever experienced.' It seemed impossible that a relic from a past age, a glorifier of the Prussian military and an early exponent of the fascist state, could receive the most prestigious award in German cultural life. In tact, most people were surprised to know that the author was still alive. Measured solely in terms of circulation, Jiinger is a minor writer, whose books are published in the tens, not in the hundreds of thousands like Grass, Enzensberger, or Lenz. Across the Rhine, however, Juinger is celebrated and spoken of with reverence across the political spectrum. Chic postmodernist intellectuals drop his name and the most in-tune professors of literature would not consider initiating their students into contemporary German literature without having them read a title from the grand ecrivain allemand.2 At the level of state, Juinger plays the role of a kind of unofficial reconciler between France and Germany. Mitterand personally invites him to breakfasts in the Elysee, and the war hero and last surviving bearer of the pour le merite is constantly invited to openings of museum

At EPA, Tough Was Not Enough

Are You Tough Enough? is a book by a person victimized by her own arrogance and arrogance of an Administration that grossly underestimated level of public support for environmental laws. The first Cabinet-level U.S. official to be cited for contempt of Congress in modern era, Anne Burford, head of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) until 1983, misses no opportunity to express her contempt for all those who helped her achieve that distinction. When she came to Washington, Burford had just completed two terms as a legislator in Colorado, where she had played a key role in passing measures that represented a conservative revolution. At end of her first year, in a poll in which press participated, she was voted outstanding freshman legislator. Soon afterward, the press started to do a job on me simply because I was a conservative. In her view, the liberal press (if ...

De opinierichtingen in de Belgische dagbladpers

From the outset the Belgian press has been a political press. The catholic and liberal newspapers, however, have never been tightly linked to the corresponding political parties, whereas the socialist and communistnewspapers depend officially from their respective political party so that they can be considered as real party-papers.Of the 39 Belgian newspapers 20 can be defined as catholic, 7 as liberal, 7 as socialist and 1 as communist ; 4 newspapers call themselves «neutral», but on several political occasions they heve nevertheless taken up position. Among these 39 newspapers only 19 can be considered as «independent» : of the 20 catholic newspapers 16 belang to 5 different newspaper chains ; 7 of the liberal dailies are owned by only 3 newspaper groups; 3 of the 7 socialist papers belang to the same chain and 3 of the so-called «neutral» dailies are published by only one group.From the circulation figures of the Flemish press it emerges that the catholic and liberal newspapers make some progress, while the socialist dailies are constantly regressing. The total circulation of the Frenchspeaking newspapers is slightly receding, but here again the socialist newspapers are the big losers. It should be noticed that only the circulation figures of the Flemish newspapers are officially ascertained, whereas the major part of the French-speaking newspapers do not allow such an official control.From this it is clear that in Belgium there exists a real disproportion between the number of readers of political opinionnewspapers and the voters for the corresponding political parties. For the moment the number of readers of catholic newspapers surpasses the amount of voters for the CVP-PSC-party in an considerable way. This also applies to the liberal press, where the amount of readers outnumbers the voters for the PW-PLP-party. On the other hand, the number of readers of socialist newspapers even does not amount to half of the numbers of voters for the BSP-PSB-party.

The events of March and the "Vooruit"

The aloofness or non-involvement of the independent press and to a great degree, of the Liberal press as well, contrasted sharply with the emotional reactions of the Catholic papers. The Socialist press, however, is beyond any doubt, the most ,engaged in social affairs and hence one finds V ooruit the most fascinating of all the papers in Ghent in this year of turmoil. The Socialist mouthpiece, from its very beginnings, has been dealing with the entire gamut of social issues and the March events only intensify the paper's eagerness to communicate and to inculcate its readers with Socialist philosophy. Besides the summary-type news reports on the events themselves, the major part of the small four page paper is devoted to social problems in the form of editorials, letters, articles or short stories. The tone of these writings can be angry or enthusiastic, plaintive of rude, but, in general, one must admit it reached the level of understanding of the readers and hence, was successful. During the early weeks of March the question of universal suffrage is frequently debated and related to the planned demonstration of June 13 in Brussels 1 • The Voomit discusses, at length, the involvement of the anarchists in the outbreak of the turmoil in Liege. It is only by the time that the confusion and rioting has spread to the Borinage that the paper begins to take the side of the strikers, mostly because of the harsh repressive measures by the army. This belated sympathy for the strikers does not mean that the V ooruit was unsympathetic to their cause. It was definitely a matter of expediency because the paper did not want to be associated with the ,criminals and vandals of the early days. After the first week, V oorttit has taken a firm position and begins to withdraw from the initial defensive stand to a more agressive attitude. This agressiveness is combined with its first suggestions to remedy the terrible social situations in the country. The initial proposal is a practical one: to send food to the disaster areas. When people are fed, they will no longer burn and loot, the paper argues. Furthermore, there is an immediate need for negotiations between strikers and management and last, but not least, no more troops should be dispatched 2 • Several subscriptions are started by the paper to get funds to help those workers who have been dismissed by their employers or to pay the legal fees for those who are brought before the courts 3 • Since the Socialist paper is convinced that the ,great and only instigator of the strikes is

Liberal and Labor Press Advertising

The Australian system of political advertising is a confusion of forty-year old, ad hoc processes; a pastiche of many themes, lacking a central orienta tion, in search of a cogent expression. It is a remarkable synthesis of sophisticated television techniques, short-sighted intuitive planning and a crude polemical style in the press. The formulation and execution of politi cal press advertising is sanctified as much by tradition as by logic and proven electoral effectiveness.

Public-political development conditions for children's literature in Lithuanian realism at the beginning of the twentieth century

The article analyzes the two directions of Lithuania ideological approaches to children's reading at the beginning of the 20th century regarding the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the two cultures in every national cultural spirit. The clerical bourgeoisie, who had followed the czarist regime, promoted religiosity, blind obedience to the czar, and ruling class reading books, and they published clerical children's literature. The liberal bourgeoisie, frightened by the growth of the revolutionary movement, was against a revolution. The liberal bourgeoisie were joined by some democrats and progressive intellectuals who were concerned with public education, actively participated in the country's cultural life, and worked for the liberal press. G. Petkevičiūtė-Bitė, P. Mašiotas, J. Jablonskis, K. Vairas-Račkauskas, K. Skabeika, and others wrote about the education of children and children's literature. Revolutionary Social Democrats (V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, Z. Aleksa-Angarietis, etc.) demanded abolition of child labor, the introduction of universal children's education, and education's democratization. After an analysis of the social and political situation in the beginning of 20th century Lithuania, the article concluded that the leading Lithuanian authors depicting the tragic situation of children in the capitalist political system were influenced by the national liberation and social fight of the nation. J. Biliūnas, Žemaitė, Lazdynų Pelėda, L. Didžiulienė-Žmona, K. Jasiukaitis, V. Mickevičius-Kapsukas, J. Šepetys, J. Janonis, K. Stiklius, K. Lekeckas, and others portrayed Children's life as oppressed and exploited by the bourgeoisie. Progressive ideas were reflected in M. Pečkauskaitė's Šatrijos Ragana (Witch's) story "The Light" and in the best stories of K. Sakalausko-Vanagėlis, P. Mašiotas M. Grigonis for children. A religious world view established itself in Lithuanian literature as, reflected in some moments of the class struggle at the beginning of 20th century. It was the beginning of a fierce fight with reactionary children's writers and teachers who sought to tear away the children from the knowledge of the social realities of life, to educate them in the spirit of clericalism, apolitically, obedient to the bourgeoisie. Realistic Lithuanian children's literature development conditions are analyzed on the basis of archival documents and other sources from the beginning of the 20th century.

Donoso Cortés as Servant of the State

It is as the author of the Ensayo Sobre El Catolicismo, El Liberalismo Y El Socialismo that Juan Donoso Cortés, first Marquis of Valdegamas, is best known. Donoso's reputation as a spokesman of the forces of counter-revolution grew steadily after 1848, and by the time the Ensayo appeared in 1851 he had, so to speak, a readymade audience of both friendly and adverse critics scattered throughout the continent of Europe. But the dramatic clashes of opinion with which the work was received extended its fame beyond the expected limits. For in the Ensayo Donoso not only attacked liberalism and socialism, but, perhaps without meaning to do so, he also offered a challenge to an important segment of Catholic thought and opinion, namely the Catholic liberals. The result was that the conservative publicist who was accustomed to being attacked from the Liberal benches in parliament and by the liberal press in Spain now found his severest critics in a Catholic group which included Bishop Dupanloup of Orléans and whose spokesman was the Abbé Gaduel. Of them Donoso complained to Pius IX that they were “prelates who had turned themselves into journalists.”

The Japanese General Election of 1928

On February 20, the long expected parliamentary election was held. As the first expression of national opinion under the manhood suffrage law, its result was awaited with unusual interest. Dissolution of the House of Representatives had been demanded by the liberal press ever since the passage of the election law of 1925, but the old parties had been reluctant to appeal to the electorate. In the fifty-second session of the Diet, the Kenseikai cabinet reaped a harvest of unpopularity by an arrangement with the Seiyukai and Seiyuhonto which prevented a no-confidence vote. When the Seiyukai came into office in April, 1927, it was apparent that any ministry which postponed dissolution would forfeit popular esteem; and in any case the four-year term automatically required a general election before May, 1928. The Kenseikai and the Seiyuhonto made preparation for the coming election by amalgamating into a united opposition under the name of the Rikken Minseito. The Seiyukai prepared by dismissing the governors in twenty-four of the forty-seven prefectures and filling their places with adherents who would promote the party's interests at the polls.

The Struggle over the Lloyd-George Budget

The Constitutional Crisis of 1909–10. Comparison with Crises of 1832, 1846, 1884–5, and 1886, 244. — Popular political education through the platform and the press, 245. — Liberal and Tory Press in 1909–10, 247. — Platform Propaganda in 1909, and in previous crises, 248. — Class bitterness in the Budget struggle, due in first place to action of the peers in attacking the Budget. Letters and speeches of peers, 253. — Unfair assessment of mansions of aristocracy for local rates, 257. — Peers' desire for protective duties, 258. — Propaganda of political leagues, 259. — Chamberlain's share in the struggle, 260. — Reasons for the Lords' rejection of the Budget, 262. — Chamberlain's appeal to the Lords to reject it. Contrast between his attitude in 1884 and in 1909, 264. — Methods of propaganda in constituencies and results in education of people, 266. — Agreement of Liberals and Tories on need of new expenditure. No opposition to old age pensions or Dreadnoughts, 268. — The taxation proposals, 269. — Motor car and petrol duties, 269. — Tax on urban undeveloped land and on unearned increment, 270. — Attitude of municipalities to these taxes, 272. — Tax on renewals of leases of building sites, 273. — Ground landlords of London and site values, 274. — Tax on mining royalties and way leaves, 275. — Tax on monopoly value of liquor licenses.