National Political Culture Research Articles

Struggles over Legitimate Science

In several countries, national governments have implemented science policy reforms to elevate research excellence and to promote managerialist principles with an aim to gain success in the global knowledge-based economy. This qualitative study explores discursive responses to the current science policy reforms in Finnish and Swedish sociology. Drawing on a Bourdieusian perspective and a two-country research context, the research scrutinises the dynamics between the field of sociology and science policy paying particular attention to how the science policy ideals on excellence appear in the internal discursive struggles surrounding legitimate science among professors of sociology, who are conceived as a scientific elite. The results show that the excellence ideals are met in various, conflicting ways in sociology. Furthermore, there are national differences as Finnish sociology expresses more compliance towards science policy reforms than its Swedish counterpart, which seems more able to distance itself from these ideals and cherish traditional academic values. These findings evince that although science policy trends are becoming increasingly global, national university traditions and political cultures entail a slightly different national shape to seemingly similar reforms, which again, shapes the way the science policy incentives are made sense of at the grassroots level of academia, even within this particular discipline.

THE TURKISTANI MEDIA IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC (1920-1960)

In the following article the data on media outlets of the turkistanis who were sent to emigration during the soviet authorities in 1920-1960 s. are scientifically reconsidered based on the sources. Along with articles on the history of Turkestan, excerpts from poems and works of art in the spirit of independence were published on their pages. This served to form a national consciousness, political and legal culture among Uzbek migrants

Spelling-gate

AbstractBack in 2009, the Labour British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was attacked for “bad spelling” in a condolence letter written personally by him to the mother of a soldier who died in combat, and publicised by The Sun newspaper. “Spelling” here acts as a leveller of hierarchical differences in the national political culture, with ruler and subject both publicly disciplined by the same standard language ideology. Previous research on orthography as social practice has tended to focus on deliberate manipulation of fixed spellings; this article extends the approach to unconventional spellings that have come about ‘by mistake’, and also widens it, to consider aspects of orthography other than spelling, focusing on the look of the Prime Minister’s handwriting. At issue, semiotically, are meanings such as ‘the personal touch’ and ‘respect’.

When Media Worlds Collide: Using Media Model Theory to Understand How Russia Spreads Disinformation in the United States

Ever since the 2016 U.S. elections, disquiet about the role of Russian propaganda in the U.S. media system has grown into outrage and fear. How has one authoritarian state been able to wreck so much havoc in the U.S. media system? The answer lies in a relatively small area of political communication scholarship: the study of national media models. Scholars ranging from Fred Siebert to Paulo Mancini have eloquently articulated how closely media systems reflect their national political systems and cultures. While this debate has remained mostly academic, it now holds the key to understanding (and trying to control) the vulnerabilities to disinformation in the U.S. media ecosystem. This paper pushes back against the idea that media literacy of the audience is the critical problem in combatting ‘fake news’ created as disinformation by other countries. The U.S. media audience has not fundamentally changed in the past two decades. What has changed in the way in which media is supplied to the American public, notably the decline of traditional news, the fragmentation of the information space online, the rise of news distributed within trusted circles via social media platforms, and the flooding of the U.S. news supply with both foreign and domestic disinformation. In thinking about the role of Russian propaganda as one central challenge to the U.S. media system, it is clear the affordances of the Russian media system strongly favor the ability of Russia to exploit the U.S. media sphere. Under the Russian media system, journalists are considered mouthpieces for political interests and mold information to support those in power, unfettered by the U.S. ideal of media in service to the public or a greater truth. The U.S. media cannot completely ignore these messages, but must expend precious resources refuting or attempting to find some sort of impossible ‘balance’ between disinformation and actual news. Nor can the mainstream U.S. media counter with its own disinformation, as this violates American media ethics. This paper will discuss evidence from the 2016 U.S. elections to showcase the role Russian disinformation has played in undermining the U.S. media system and how it has dovetailed with other challenges to the supply of information to U.S. citizens. The paper also will suggest possible solutions to the issue of Russian disinformation, with an emphasis on how social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should acknowledge their essential role in preserving the free media system and significantly increase their efforts to help the American audience to identify disinformation.

Exploring Cooperatives, Cooperation, and the Nature of Work in a Belizean Village

This article examines how cultural models in the national political culture played out in a Belizean village whose culture was rooted in a quite different cultural model and characterized by ideals of self-reliance and individualism rooted in Yucatecan Maya culture. This is a study of eight worker cooperatives, of cooperation, and of individual work over a 34-year period, from 1979 to 2012 in the village of Bullet Tree Falls. This village is an historically agricultural village populated with Maya refugees from Mexico and Guatemala. I observed three distinct national political cultures, each seeking to promote local worker cooperatives. But generally, the national political culture did little to support the worker cooperatives. Only in the last phase of influence do we see what was necessary to make a worker cooperative organization somewhat functional. The paper concludes with observation of two enterprises where workers successfully participated, but not according to the formula for the cooperative. Here personnel could work independently but cooperated only when it proved useful. Recognition of positive features of the workplace environment suggests that investigating local cultural experience is an important and practicable effort, far more so than simply assuming the national political culture is viable on the local level.

From Extremism to Terrorism: The Radicalisation of the Far Right in Italy and West Germany

Since the 1960s in Italy and Germany the notion has prevailed that ‘the state’ has given support to right-wing terrorism. This article challenges such views by examining the internal dynamics of right-wing terrorism in both countries with reference to Ehud Sprinzak's theory of ‘split delegitimisation’. To explain the different scale of Italian and West German terrorism one must analyse personnel continuities, the nature of the perceived ‘communist threat’, as well as the national political culture. Thus, without neglecting state support for the far right, this article emphasises how the internal dynamics of terrorist groups respond to political and social frameworks. Only if we acknowledge that right-wing terrorist groups possess their own agency can we fully understand their development. This is even more urgent in a time when – once again – the far right is on the rise in Europe.

Śmierć w Tiergarten

The subject of the article is the comparison of two approaches to German-Polish relations: the one of Helmuth Plessner, the founder of the contemporary philosophical anthropology and one of first theoreticians of German “Sonderweg” in the history of Europe, and that of a Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz as one of the most radical critics of the Polish “national Form”. Its starting point is the presentation of the main assumptions of Plessner’s philosophical anthropology, especially his idea of the human as an eccentric positional being, as well as the literary representation of man as a being shaped from outside, which one can find in the work by Gombrowicz. The historical source of that comparison is, on the one hand, the analysis of German national consciousness and political culture, first introduced by Plessner in 1935 in his Schicksal deutschen Geistes im Ausgang seiner burgerlichen Epoche , and further published in 1959 in the book entitled The Belated Nation , and, on the other hand, the fragments of the Diary by Gombrowicz from 1964, published separately on German as Berliner Notizen (1965). While presenting the substantial convergences of those views as well as subjecting to critical assessment the premises of the same substantial differences between them, author, on that basis, aims at the reconstruction of the conditions which would enable, German-Polish recognition, that would go beyond the national solidarities.

Scientific Advice and Administrative Traditions: The Role of Chief Scientists in Climate Change Adaptation

The role of the chief scientist (CS), a key administrative position in various Israeli ministries, is to fund policy‐oriented research and support evidence‐based decision‐making. Has the CS's role promoted or constrained incorporation of scientific advice regarding climate change adaptation into governmental policy? Have administrative traditions affected the adaptation planning process in Israel? Analysis of documents and 26 in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders sheds light on the ongoing climate change adaptation policy formulation process. Our study reveals that the CS of the Ministry of Environmental Protection functions as a bridge at different interfaces and can be characterized as a boundary worker between institutions. The inherent independence of this position facilitates the CS's ability to initiate, foster, and prioritize complex issues such as adaptation. Our findings further suggest that the perception that Israel has already adapted, or will easily adapt, has negatively affected the adaptation process. 科学建议和行政传统：首席科学家在气候变化适应工作中的作用 首席科学家是以色列各部门的一个关键行政职务, 其具体作用是为政策性研究提供资金, 并支持循证决策。对于有关气候变化适应的科学建议, 首席科学家的作用是促进还是限制了其被纳入到政府政策中？行政传统是否影响了以色列的气候适应规划进程？通过文件分析及与关键利益相关者的26次深入访谈, 笔者揭示了正在进行的适应气候变化政策的制定过程。研究表明, 环保部门的首席科学家在不同的层面上起着桥梁作用, 在不同机构的分界线上工作以彼此连接。该职位的内在独立性能促进首席科学家在发起问题、培养和优先考虑包括适应气候等复杂问题的能力。研究进一步表明, 以色列已经适应了或即将轻易适应某些观点, 而这已经对气候适应过程产生了负面影响。 Asesoria cientifica y tradiciones administrativas: el papel que juegan los cientificos principales en la adaptacion al cambio climatico El papel que juegan los cientificos principales, un puesto administrativo clave en varios ministerios israelies, esta especificamente designado para el financiamiento de investigacion orientada hacia la politica y el apoyo a decisiones basadas en evidencia. ?El papel que juegan los cientificos principales ha promovido o limitado la incorporacion de asesoria cientifica en lo que concierne a la adaptacion al cambio climatico dentro de las politicas del gobierno? ?Las tradiciones administrativas han afectado el proceso de planeacion para la adaptacion en Israel? El analisis de los documentos en 26 entrevistas exhaustivas con partes afectadas clave ilustra el proceso de formulacion de las politicas de adaptacion al cambio climatico actual. Nuestro estudio revela que el Cientifico Principal del Ministerio de Proteccion Ambiental funciona como un puente para diferentes interfaces y puede ser caracterizado como un trabajador limitrofe entre las instituciones. La independencia inherente de esta posicion facilita la habilidad del cientifico principal para iniciar, fomentar y darle prioridad a complejos problemas como la adaptacion. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que la percepcion de Israel ya se ha adaptado, o se adaptara facilmente, y ha afectado negativamente el proceso de adaptacion.

Le congrès mexicain mis en scène. 1813–72

SUMMARYBy looking at the various sites where successive Mexican congresses met between 1813 and the 1870s (be they constituent or legislative bodies), this article examines the role of such assemblies in the national political history and public culture of Mexico. The first part of this article follows the steps of successive congresses, identifying periods of serious political conflicts – though congress enjoyed a time of relative flourishing when it occupied a chamber within the National Palace. By analysing the ceremonies, rituals and symbols adopted by congresses, the second part of the articles underlines a historical rupture after 1857, which coincides with the laicization of government, and the secularization of the public space and parliamentary rituals.

News, Noise, and the Nature of Politics in Late Medieval English Provincial Towns

AbstractRecent research has stressed the importance of “popular politics” in English political culture especially after the Peasants' Revolt and during the political disturbances of the fifteenth century. Scholars have begun to explore how the structures of local political culture could inflect the nature of politics on a national level, notably through petitioning and the circulation of open letters and manifestos, thus moving beyond the nobility and gentry to consider the influence on late medieval political life of the society and culture of rural and urban communities that were far from the center of power. This article is a contribution to a growing body of work that aims to show how particular aspects of provincial urban politics affected national political culture. By focusing first on news distribution and contemporary conceptual structures that linked rumor, noise, and riot in one continuum; and by then considering the relationship between communal mobilization at times of political crisis and everyday policing institutions such as the hue and cry, the article investigates how the nature of political life in provincial towns affects our understanding of late medieval English political culture as a whole.

Post-Soviet 'Uncivil Society' and the Rise of Aleksandr Dugin: A Case Study of the Extraparliamentary Radical Right in Contemporary Russia

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Cambridge for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis dissertation argues that, in Russia, the extreme right, in spite of its relative fail-ure to become a notable force in parliament throughout the 1990s, remains a signifi-cant social and political factor in the new century. The thesis uses the generic concepts of uncivil society, groupuscule, and right-wing Gramscianism developed in comparative fascist studies to substantiate the claim that the political potential of ultra-nationalism in a given country might be assessed in-completely by sole measurement of the electoral performance of right-radical parties. It refers to the transformation of anti-Semitism in late Imperial Germany from a party ideology into a component of national political culture as an example illustrating that stagnating or downfalling ultra-nationalist parties, sometimes, indicate not a decline of the popularity of their aims, but an infiltration of their ideas into society. The thesis reviews recent comparative research on the role of third sector actors in regime change and post-War politics in Western Europe to illustrate that a consideration of the organizational capacities, ties with the elite, and social rootedness of extremely right-wing extraparliamentary groupings might constitute an important addition for an adequate assessment of the prospects of the ultra-nationalist movement of a given country. In its second, empirical part (Chapter III), the study develops a case study in the emergence of post-Soviet uncivil society detailing the context and course of the rise, in 1988-2006, of Aleksandr Dugin’s circle of “neo-Eurasianists” from a lunatic fringe group into an influential think-tank with a notable presence in the Russian book mar-ket, intellectual discourse and mass media. Apart from showing Dugin’s increasing reach into Moscow high politics, the study, in particular, focuses on his purposeful attempts to enter Russia’s academic life and mainstream political publicism, and some successes he had in doing so. The conclusions relate the findings from the case study to recent trends within Rus-sian extremely right-wing party politics, and make some tentative suggestions on how the Russian extreme right, as a whole, as well as its scholarly study, as a collec-tive enterprise, might develop in the future.

The Ayurveda of Baba Ramdev: Biomoral Consumerism, National Duty and the Biopolitics of ‘Homegrown’ Medicine in India

ABSTRACTThis paper examines a cultural politics of nationalism and alternative medicine in India. It investigates the rhetoric of a popular guru, Ramdev, who criticises ‘the West’ and promotes ‘homegrown’ yoga and Ayurveda for strengthening individual bodies and the body of the nation. I argue that the expansion of the Ayurvedic market in India and Ramdev's personal success are both based on discourses that interweave a neo-liberal quest for health with nationalist sentiments and consumerist desires. I show how yoga and Ayurveda—situated within narratives of citizens’ duty to consume the homegrown—have become political tokens of national belonging and biomoral consumerism.

Образ идеального государя как отражение традиционной русской правовой культуры

The ideal of power is one of the characteristics of the political culture. In traditional cultures, power is often personified in the person of the sovereign. Studying traits of the ideal sovereign helps tell a lot about the features of the national political and legal culture. The search for the traditional Russian political culture makes actual the identification of such features.

Autonomy and Agency in American Criminal Process

This is an essay about the interaction of two assumptions that shape the way fairness is pursued in American criminal procedure. The first assumption is that fairness is best advanced through a series of procedural rights that defendants can invoke or waive at their discretion. The second assumption is that the choices made by defense attorneys can fairly be attributed to their clients. The first of these assumptions reflects a strong national commitment to individualism; the second reflects a heavy reliance on lawyers to safeguard defendants’ interests. Both reflect a deeply rooted distrust of government. Each of these two assumptions is defensible, and each relates to fundamental aspects of the national political culture. Taken together, though, they have narrowed what fairness means in American criminal adjudication; they combine with a kind of negative synergy, making each harder to defend than it might be without the other.

English Votes for English Laws

English Votes for English Laws

Between Sovereignty and Anarchy: The Politics of Violence in the American Revolutionary Era

Between Sovereignty and Anarchy considers the conceptual and political problem of violence in the early modern Anglo-Atlantic, charting an innovative approach to the history of the American Revolution. Its editors and contributors contend that existing scholarship on the Revolution largely ignores questions of power and downplays the Revolution as a contest over sovereignty. Contributors employ a variety of methodologies to examine diverse themes, ranging from how Atlantic perspectives can redefine our understanding of revolutionary origins; to the ways in which political culture, mobilization, and civil-war-like violence were part of the revolutionary process; to the fundamental importance of state formation for the history of the early republic. The editors skillfully meld these emerging currents together to produce a new perspective on the American Revolution, revealing how Americaufirst as colonies, then as united statesureeled between poles of anarchy and sovereignty. This interpretationugleaned from essays on frontier bloodshed, religion, civility, slavery, loyalism, mobilization, early national political culture, and warmakinguprovides a needed stimulus to a field that has not strayed beyond the bounds of rhetoric versus reality for more than a generation. Between Sovereignty and Anarchy raises foundational questions about how we are to view the American Revolution and the type of experimental democracy that emerged in its wake.

SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF GENDER ASYMMETRY IN GOVERNMENTAL BODIES

The negative effects of gender asymmetry are revealed in governmental bodies. These effects are expressed in their social inequality, gender segregation according to professional vertical, the social discrimination against women, the limited possibilities of their self-realization. Gender asymmetry produces and reproduces the national political culture among women, confirms the monopoly of men concerning responsible decision-making. The restricting effect on the gender exchange of human resources (professional, intellectual, creative ones) refers to the negative consequences of gender asymmetry in governmental bodies. It makes a negative impact on the moral and psychological climate in an organization. In general, gender asymmetry is opposed to the processes of socialization and humanization among governmental bodies and its social efficiency enhancement. Two circumstances are marked especially: first of all, the fact that the negative effects of gender asymmetry appear at all relevant levels - individual employees and organizations, society as a whole; secondly, the fact that these effects are manifested mainly in the form of certain trends that leaves room for a targeted reaction.

Эволюция статуса профессиональных администраторов в Средневековой Руси на примере Боярской Думы

The article is about the evolution of the status of the Boyar Duma in Russia during the six centuries from X to XV. The role of boyars in the political life of the country has changed with the development of the role of the Prince´s administration and overcoming feudal disunity. Boyars´ management in real historical practice was
 ineffective. But this fact has become an important factor in the formation
 of national political culture.

The politics of resonance: Transnational sustainability governance in Argentina

AbstractWhy do private governance initiatives trigger greater participation in one country than another? This article examines the domestic dimension of transnational regulation through a case study of private sustainability governance in Argentina. Drawing from theories of contentious politics, the argument poses that the resonance of transnational private governance is shaped by the semantic compatibility of “incoming” sustainability programs against national political culture. Analyzing the limited participation of Argentine actors in contemporary sustainability initiatives, the article claims that the validity and relevance of sustainability programs is affected by three dimensions of national political culture accentuated over the last decade: a politicized model of state‐society relations, the low visibility of environmental matters, and a widespread anti‐corporate culture. By examining the ideational fundamentals of the “politics of resonance” in Argentina, the article makes a relevant and original contribution to transnational regulation literature, highlighting the need for theoretical accounts and empirical analyses that address domestic and cultural variables as fundamental pieces in transnational norm diffusion and effectiveness.

Political discourses on Europe and European integration in national election manifestos and party programmes

Through a textual analysis of national election manifestos, this paper critically discusses political parties' discourses towards Europe and European integration in three European Union (EU) member states: Germany, which has always promoted further integration; the United Kingdom, which has consistently been a keen supporter of intergovernmentalism; and finally the Netherlands, one of the original six and a willing, yet cautious, supporter of supranational cooperation. By analysing how political parties frame European integration in their discourses, we aim to investigate the variance in national political cultures with respect to identity and self-identification with Europe as a determining factor of support for the process. This paper concludes that although European integration is structured around a framework of interests in all the six party discourses under analysis, the construction of national identities and hence the articulation of national interest in EU membership as well as the visions for the political structure of the union varies significantly.