Nature Of Political Power Research Articles

Time, Neoliberal Power, and the Advent of Marx’s “Common Ruin” Thesis

Marx and Engels warned that class struggle would result “either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.” This essay argues that through the effect of neoliberal networked economy, we have had both a “revolutionary reconstitution of society” and the “common ruin” of both bourgeois and proletarian classes. Their “common ruin” is expressed through their lack of viability as the basis for their respective democratic projects—liberalism and socialism. The revolution in information technologies and the rise of the neoliberal network society has transformed the nature of political power that had been founded upon traditional industrial forms of production and social–political organization. The essay develops a theory of technological change and a subsequent transformation in our relationship with time. By emphasizing the dialectic of technological–temporal change in the nature and quality of political power, we see that the very basis of both power and politics has become transformed in ways that negatively affect the potential of democratic forms of power, liberal, or socialist. The essay ends with a call for a new political approach to time, a “temporal sovereignty” to revive and renew the basis of democracy within a networked society.

Digital Power in World Politics: Databases, Panopticons and Erwin Cuntz

The nature of political power has changed with the advent of modern information technology while our theories and metaphors to understand it remain wedded to earlier periods. This article begins with a discussion of some of the work done by databases in domestic and world politics. In particular, it introduces the political effects of contemporary data-management practices through short examples of terrorist information databases, the 2008 Obama campaign’s database, as well as biometric databases deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Liberia. This leads to a consideration of the finite applicability and relevance of the widespread metaphor of the Panopticon to these kinds of cases. Given the limitations of such an image, the concept of digital power and the political metaphor of Cuntz’s Tower are proposed. Digital power foregrounds the importance of machines for contemporary sovereignty while moving beyond ocular-centric notions of surveillance. Cuntz’s Tower illustrates the power of identification and sorting in addition to the Panopticon’s emphasis on self-discipline. This article acts as an initial ground-clearing exercise for more extensive analyses of databases in domestic and world politics.

Land Tenure, Rural Space, and the Political Economy of Ptolemaic Egypt (332 BC-30 BC)

In this paper I argue that statist (or “despotic”) assumptions of royal power does not adequately describe the nature of political power in the Ptolemaic development of Egypt. I examine the process of Ptolemaic state formation from the point of view of the expansion and the settlement of the Fayyum, the foundation of Ptolemais in the Thebaid, and from the point of view of new fiscal institutions.

The Culture of Politics and the Politics of Culture in the Anthropology of Douglas Miles

During the Vietnam War, the US government funded anthropological research in South Vietnam that was charged by critics as supporting counterinsurgency measures. My 1973 BA Hons thesis addressed theoretical debates about the nature of political power in post-colonial peasant societies using ethnographic reports of the research group at Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group. In recent years, anthropology has returned to ethical debates in the discipline brought on in the context of US actions as one of the Superpowers during the Cold War and has examined these debates in terms of different contemporary research values in the discipline, as well as changed global politics. From the distance of almost half a century, I wish to re-examine these ethnographic texts in a critical reading of the nature of power in the villages studied.

War on terrorism: from the bloody clash of civilisations to a nonviolent coexistence of nations and civilisations

No one in the field of political science or legal profession has dared to give a clear and acceptable framework for a definition of the 'terrorism', due to the fact that terrorism changes through time. History examples show that terrorism has been used by liberation groups in order to seize power; by revolutionists, who changed the nature of political power; by anarchists, as a notion of propaganda by deed; by dictatorial leaders and finally by common criminals. Moreover, in the past two decades differences between civilisations have emerged and their interests have clashed. This resulted in the most dangerous aspect of terrorism, as terrorists seem to act 'on behalf of the weak' and wage their 'holy war' against their enemies. The legislative, administrative and police measures taken against terrorism, while numerous, have proven ineffective. The only effective solution against terrorism is true and sincere dialogue among parties-civilisations that respect other parties-civilisations. This approach will lead to a nonviolent coexistence of nations and civilisations. However difficult this dialogue may seem, it is the best safeguard against terrorism ? and the only way for mankind to reach its destination, after a long and tiring journey, as Fukuyama describes it in his book.

Analysing the Liberal Democrats

This article sets the scene for those that follow. It picks out the main themes of each, arguing that the Liberal Democrats could benefit from considering the issues around policy and the nature of political power that arise from the articles. It also argues that debates over relations with other parties are likely to be central to Liberal Democrat politics in the foreseeable future.

The Sacred, Social Creativity and the State

This paper explores the specific contribution of a strand of contemporary French social theory founded by Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort to the under standing of human power. It formulates a conception of power that transcends its definitions in terms of physical coercion or institutionalised violence to reveal the way power is creative and institutes the social. Its reflection on the cultural nature of political power and it role in society is shown to extend the pioneering reflection of Durkheim's sociology, especially as regards the homology that exists between religion and politics. The social role performed by the state explored by Durkheim prefigures Gauchet's theory of the state, which builds on Lefort's work. Gauchet's theory can be said to elaborate a critical synthesis of the two stands of Durkheim's work: the sociology of religion and the sociology of the modern state. This synthesis raises questions on the role played by the European state in the development of individualism, in both its political and economic manifestations.

Globalization, international coalitions, and domestic reform

This article considers the impact of China's insertion into the global political economy on the nature of political power in China. It argues that for most of the period of the transition from socialism, state leaders attempted to protect domestic interests where possible from the perceived detrimental impacts of globalization. However, China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) marked a key shift in this strategy. Through the creation of an international coalition for reform, key state leaders used WTO entry as a tool to enforce change on reluctant domestic constituents, rather than the earlier strategy of protecting them from competition and change. While domestic reform efforts have been responsible for many of the changes to the Chinese regime, external actors and interests have also played an important role in altering the fundamentals of politics in the People's Republic of China, and in particular, changing the raison d'être of Communist Party rule.

The civilian target in Sierra Leone and Liberia: Political power, military strategy, and humanitarian intervention

This article traces one of the logics of the ongoing war in the Mano River region of West Africa. It argues that, in the wake of humanitarian interventions in Sierra Leone, combatants who moved on to fight in Liberia were more likely to use attacks against civilians in their military strategy. It suggests, however, that such tactical military choices are to be understood in terms of local contexts of meaning, most notably about the nature of political power. The author's own ethnographic work with the kamajor militia in Sierra Leone and with Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in Liberia serves as the basis for this analysis, and he advocates a participant-observation field methodology for the study of contemporary conflict. 'VIOLENCE', WRITES THE SIERRA LEONE SCHOLAR YUSUF BANGURA, 'does not have only one logic, but several.'' In what follows, I trace one of those logics of war in the African postcolony: from humanitarian interventions to attacks on civilian targets. In doing so, I make two points. First, that in the Mano River region of West Africa, humanitarian interventions have led combatants to employ atrocities against civilians increasingly as a military tactic, making the bodies and futures of non-combatants a crucial terrain of the frontline. Second, this logic can only be understood if we simultaneously consider the local context of meaning in which such tactics are deployed, most notably cultural constructions regarding the nature of political power. Humanitarian interventions are now an integral component of African conflicts. Despite the legitimate criticisms of observers of African affairs Danny Hoffman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. He is currently researching the kamajor militia and their role in the wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. For their input to various versions of this article, he wishes to thank Charles Piot, Orin Starn, Scott Straus, Benjamin Valentino and Elizabeth Woods, as well as two anonymous referees. 1. Yusuf Bangura, 'Understanding the political and cultural dynamics of the Sierra Leone war: a critique of Paul Richards' Fighting for the Rainforest', African Development XXII, 3/4 (1997), p. 130.

How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory

1. Introduction: the nature of political power 2. The long-term developments of three chiefdoms: Denmark, Hawaii, and the Andes 3. Sources of economic power 4. Military power: the strategic use of naked force 5. Ideology as a source of power 6. Chiefly power strategies and the emergence of complex political institutions Bibliography Index.

Planners and politicians: liberal politics and social policy, 1957-1968

This text explores the interrelationship between social programmes, federal-provincial relations, the role of the bureaucracy in devising and legitimizing policy and the nature of political power in the modern Canadian state.