Political Authority Research Articles

Reperkusije petooktobarskih promena 2000. godine u svetlu dokumenata, memoara i svedočenja

Drawing upon documents, memoirs, testimonies, and scholarly literature, this study elucidates the dynamics underlying the October 5th alterations in 2000 within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia. „The Fifth October“ refers to a sudden shift in political authority driven by compounded socio-political, economic, and societal tensions, alongside external influences. These multifaceted political and security upheavals, culminating on October 5, 2000, exhibited characteristics akin to a „colored revolution“, signifying a change in power dynamics without altering the prevailing political structure or formal power mechanisms. While temporal detachment affords a more impartial inquiry, the analysis contends with entrenched political narratives, oscillating between glorification and complete denial of the significance of October 5th.

When long lost siblings reunite: populism, conservatism and the discontents of progress

ABSTRACT Although in recent years populism has emerged from within mainstream conservative parties around the world, populism and conservatism are still rarely studied together. Trying to establish a link between the two may appear paradoxical, given their opposing ideational content, as populism mobilizes the people against the elites, while conservatism defends established hierarchies and traditions. This article argues however that we can identify many more similarities and overlaps between populism and conservatism if we adopt a broader conceptualization of political ideologies that includes not only their ideational content but also their discursive, strategic, organizational and structural dimensions. On this basis, the article views populism and conservatism as modes of politics that mobilize followers primarily on the basis of idealized visions of the political community and state–society relations. Although populism puts forth an antagonistic vision of these relations and conservatism a deferential one, both are otherwise quite similar to strategies aimed at defining the boundaries and character of the political community on the basis of its relationship with political authority. The article conducts an empirical probe demonstrating how its theoretical argument can be applied in comparative research.

Populism Unveiled: Mechanisms and Triggers of Political Violence

In recent decades, there has been a widespread surge of populism worldwide. Populists strategically utilize media platforms to highlight the suppression of ordinary citizens by political authorities and the perceived unethical behaviors of political elites. Populists, who employ political slogans advocating for the interests of the common masses and eliminating corrupt elites, have swiftly garnered widespread support. However, the ascent of populists to positions of authority has coincided with a notable increase in political violence. While scholars have extensively elucidated definitions and classifications of populism, and numerous theoretical studies have analyzed factors contributing to the emergence of populism in different geographical areas, there remains a shortage of unified comprehension regarding the mechanisms through which populism incites political violence. This paper investigates the various trajectories of political violence triggered by populism through a comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis. The study contends that political violence is incited by populism through two distinct pathways, as evidenced by an analysis of incidents occurring in various regions under populist regimes. The first pathway sees political violence initially prompted by the consolidation of power and the repression of political adversaries by populist leaders. The second pathway involves the xenophobic ideology of populism intensifies conflicts between native citizens and foreign immigrants, thereby heightening the likelihood of political violence.

COUNTERCULTURAL CHARACTER OF JOHANNINE CHRISTIANITY

The paper presents the rhetorical aspects of Johannine literature and shows the countercultural character of the community that produced it. Although different in genre, content and scope, the Gospels, the three Epistles and the Book of Revelation exude the same countercultural mechanism. To recognise these mechanisms on the literary level, the first part of the paper shows the impulses of countercultural interaction with the audiences. They are marked as a confrontation with religious and political authorities. Being in constant conflict with the Jewish synagogue and God-defying structures of the Greco-Roman world, the Johannine community built its own world. This world is legitimised as countercultural, i.e. constructed in opposition to the prevailing social structures and cultural practices. René Girard's anthropological concept of the scapegoat serves to observe the countercultural basis of Johannine Christianity, which is contained in the Christological symbol of the lamb. In the second part of the paper, examples of the operation of the countercultural mechanism are listed, and how it reshapes cultural practices and social structures is shown. The Johannine motifs of love and sacrifice are crucial in this process. Finally, the paper's conclusion briefly discusses the potential of the countercultural contribution of Johannine literature to Christianity and contemporary society.

Political and Legal Authority in Flux

Political and Legal Authority in Flux

Differentiating Religion from Problem and Religious Problems from Each Other: Before and Today

This study aims to understand and interpret the process of turning religion into a problem. Expressed differently, religious problems in the context of globalization will be the object of historical analysis regarding their meaning and interpretation. Although this analysis can be done in a separate way of treatment, perhaps as a preparation for such a study, efforts will be made to take over some initiatives previously carried out in this field, the issue is treated from the historical perspective: before and today. At the same time, it is very important to show that terms such as Christianity and Islam, seen from the point of view of their proponents, are used in connection with the process of turning religion into a problem. The process of turning Christianity into a problem is named by historians and sociologists as the process of secularization, which is described as removing temporal (material) religions from their ruling domains to make them independent and humanitarian. Finally, turning religion into a problem and secularization are two separate expressions of the same phenomenon. If there is secularization anywhere, religion has become a problem; if somewhere religion has become a problem, this is a sign of secularism. Meanwhile, in the Islamic world, secularism was previously carried out by a process that preceded secularism, thus turning Islam into a problem. The name of this problem is colonialism. Expressed differently, in the Islamic world, both secularization and the transformation of Islam into a subordinate problem because of secularism are the results of colonialism. The spread and expansion of secularism in the Islamic world came about as a natural result of the spread and expansion of colonialism. Among its historical conditions, the classical period, even though it is a specificity that at first glance does not seem very important - when compared to the colonial conditions that have to differentiate specifics of our subject, the importance comes to the fore clearly - is the fact that political authority has been in the hands of Muslims and that, therefore, social organization has been realized in its authentic terms. Therefore, two specifics, historical conditions and human nature have been, firstly, the tool and secondly, as an external visual form of being, and all issues and solutions to situations have been realized in such authentic conditions. At this point, Islam, and Christianity, stripping themselves of traditions, were oriented to recall purely and, in this context, a new attitude began to develop, such as the understanding and reinterpretation of the fundamental religious texts, about which these beliefs were discussed. In this study, we are dealing with an innovation regarding the meaning and interpretation of religious texts, indirectly expressed by differentiating religion from believers. There is one thing that cannot be discussed, it is the process of turning religion into a problem and religious problems from each other. Furthermore, in this study, we will be careful not to openly criticize one of the descriptive and comparative methods used by world historiography. On the one hand, the methods are directly related to their issues, in a sense, the issues predetermine the way of handling them. From this point of view, criticizing the method without criticizing the issue would be unfair. On the other hand, there is no need for a critic with an understanding of the method treated within the connection with its issues, related to its application in another important issue from it. To sum up, the criticism is present within the description of the treated method related to the particularities of the case. In my opinion, the sufficient expression of an idea makes a separate criticism unnecessary since it also carries its criticism, from the point of view of emphasizing the changes in a world that is becoming more and more globalized.   Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

Disentangling Leviathan on its home turf: Authority foundations, policy instruments, and the making of security

AbstractMaking security has been Leviathan's home turf and its prime responsibility. Yet, while security states in advanced democracies share this uniform purpose, there is vast variation in how they legitimize and how they make security policies. First, the political authority of elected policy‐makers is sometimes superseded by the epistemic authority of experts. Second, states make security, in some instances, by drawing on their own capacities, whereas in other fields they rely on rules to manage non‐state actors. Based on this variation in authority foundations and policy instruments, we disentangle Leviathan into different types of (i) positive, (ii) managing, (iii) technocratic, and (iv) regulatory security states. Our typology helps better understand contemporary security policy‐making; it advances regulatory governance theory by conceptualizing the relationship between expertise and rules in a complex and contested issue area; and it provides insights into the “new economic security state” and the domestic underpinnings of weaponized interdependence.

Chinese Constitutonal Performance Unveiled: Text Mining Insights in Civil Litigations

Abstract This article presents a comprehensive examination of the role of constitutions in private disputes, with a specific focus on the Chinese Constitution. Utilizing an extensive dataset of digitized court adjudications, this study delves into a relatively unexplored area, yielding crucial factual and legal insights. The research reveals that the Chinese Constitution significantly influences civil adjudications, both implicitly and explicitly. Furthermore, court judgments emerge as pivotal forces shaping public awareness of constitutional principles. These findings hold profound implications for comprehending the role of constitutions in contexts beyond democratic frameworks, particularly within the private sphere. The study underscores how the capitalist market in China empowers individuals to assert and safeguard private rights, consequently affording the Constitution a protective role in this realm. Concurrently, the existing regime has systematically eroded the Constitution’s influence in public affairs, maintaining its symbolic and rhetorical role. Notably, the concept of judicial independence remains a sensitive subject in China, leading many civil courts to eschew constitutional provisions in favor of political expediency. This paradox underscores the necessity of establishing a reasonably independent judiciary as an integral facet of constitutionalism in such settings. In sum, this research challenges prevailing assumptions about constitutionalism’s contours. It transcends the conventional focus on political authority, illustrating how empirical investigations into constitutional performance within civil litigation can illuminate the emergence of constitutionalism in the shadows of non-democratic systems. These findings offer valuable insights into the role of constitutions in private disputes and pave the way for further exploration within this evolving scholarly domain. Ultimately, this study advances our comprehension of constitutional realities and their far-reaching impacts on the legal landscape and society within contemporary China.

‘Bastion of Italian-ness’: the nationalization of welfare and the changing meaning of rehabilitation in post-war Italy (1945–59)

ABSTRACT The article analyses social welfare programmes set up by the Italian state to manage and provide assistance to refugees coming first from Dalmatia, then from Istria and finally by the territories near Trieste, between the immediate post-war period and the late 1950s. It connects the literature on these refugee flows and the historiography of the Italian welfare state by providing new insights into how the recognition of minority rights deeply affected the organization of the social welfare system throughout the 1940s and the 1950s. The article focuses on the shifting meaning of the term ‘rehabilitation’, an outcome of post-war transnational circulations of ideas about the renewal of welfare. It identifies three chronological sections: the aftermath of the war, when social assistance to refugees was organized in Italy in the context of a project to renew the state and its relations with the individual and society; the period after the signing of the Luxembourg Peace Treaty, when in response to the emergency but also out of purely political considerations public authorities significantly changed the guidelines of the entire social welfare system’s development; and finally, the policies set up in the 1950s, which aimed not only at providing stable accommodation for refugees but also at other geopolitical, socio-cultural, social engineering and electoral objectives. Thus, this contribution not only explains how the construction of the welfare state in Italy has been shaped by the problem of refugees, but also shows another side of the same issue: the role of welfare provision in constructing social groups, which in this case took on a strong ethnic and political character.

Bulls on Parade

1 Kgs 12:25-33 is composed of two significant layers – an earlier stratum that may be based on an Israelite royal inscription and a later, likely Judahite redaction. These can be disentangled based on a redaction critical approach rooted in studies of compilational and editorial practices attested in biblical and Cuneiform sources. Though the final text is often analyzed as an idol polemic, the Israelite strata suggest that Jeroboam is not depicted as constructing idols but rather pilgrimage outposts. This is borne out by the use of bovine iconography to direct ritual movement at other Levantine sites, as well as the broader Near Eastern practice of establishing pilgrimage networks in order to project political authority over multiple settlements, knitting them together into a kingdom. Accordingly, this article argues that the Israelite text depicted Jeroboam creating a pilgrimage network to performatively bring his Israel into being. Participating in this pilgrimage was a performance of Israelite identity. The Judahite redaction disavowed this by othering key aspects of the Israelite material culture depicted in the text. The final text is thus an example of identity politics rather than an idol polemic.

Problematizing Managerial Militarization: Claims to Military Logistical Expertise in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil

The Brazilian Armed Forces have had a prominent role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We take this participation as an entry point to confront traditional assumptions of studies on civil-military relations and militarization, investigating a particular claim used to justify the mobilization of the Brazilian military in health-related activities: their credentials in a managerial expertise in logistics. In doing so, we argue that there is an ongoing re-articulation in the discursive regime used to justify their expansion of roles—not one anchored on the efficiency in the use of violence associated with a “war ethos” specific to the military professional, but another, grounded on a managerial expertise to efficiently procure, manage and distribute resources across the national territory, especially in contexts of “crisis.” We claim that the historical transformation of such discourse is a particular expression of global processes that have historically vested “managerial expertise” with political authority to solve social problems in critical situations. We also contend that this managerial dimension has been largely neglected in the critique of militarization articulated in traditional and contemporary civil–military relations studies. In light of these processes, this article seeks to contribute to critical work regarding the conditions for and effects of the expansion of military roles under the regime of justification here analyzed, thereby stimulating us to rethink the assumptions upon which militarization can be problematized in the contemporary period.

Reflections on the Historiography of Post-War Justice and the Holocaust in Lithuania

Abstract The article gives a brief overview of the historiography of post-war justice in Lithuania. It begins with an introduction to post-Holocaust justice, outlining the functioning of the post-war war crimes trials in Soviet Lithuania, including the institutional framework, the retribution law, the nature of legal proceedings, and the procedural changes that took place over time. The article then presents the historiographical approaches historians have used to investigate these trials and depicts the current developments in this field of study. It shows that following the fall of the Soviet Union, the first works on post-war justice lacked an in-depth analysis and instead concentrated on how the Soviet regime had utilized these legal proceedings for political purposes. The article presents not only the micro-historical studies that historians have conducted on selected court cases in recent years, but also explores the ways in which the relationship between the Holocaust and the Soviet war crimes trials, as well as the visual representation and mediation of these trials, have been investigated. It then briefly discusses the missing categories of analysis that need to be integrated into the study of post-war justice in the case of Lithuania. The article finishes by presenting the debates and controversies surrounding this historical topic. It shows that the Soviet campaign of post-war retribution is embedded in the “narratives of doubt.” The credibility and reliability of the legal records compiled by KGB officials are constantly questioned not only by the legal and political authorities, but also by historians.

Dialektika Progresif; “One Dimensional Man”, Desublimasi Represif: Kritik Herbert Marcuse Atas Masyarakat Industri Modern

Marcuse’s main idea is that technology and mass consumption have created a social order that makes people "one-dimensional human," losing the ability to think critically and see social alternatives. Marcuse argued that a fundamental change in society was needed to allow the liberation of individuals from the pressures and constraints generated by the capitalist system. The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the dialectic of Herbert Marcuse's approach to the "one-dimensional man" and repressive desublimation. This research method uses a qualitative approach with a critical approach to the study of Herbert Marcuse's thought. The concepts of "repressive sublimation" and "administrated" describe the way modern society directs its natural human impulses into a form regulated and controlled by social and political authorities. Repressive sublimation results in the suppression of self-expression and creativity, while administrated refers to the dominance of bureaucracy and technocracy in managing society. This results in unfreedom and homogenization in society. This study contains Marcuse's biography, looking at the content of his works, contributions to knowledge and communication, and the relevance of Herbert Marcuse's critical thinking to the current context. One Dimensional Man; is used as a spectacular work a narrative created to criticize the irrational and oppressive grand narrative of capitalism with an exploitative power structure through the affirmative dimension, for which Marcuse suggests rebuilding the dimension of negation; Where society again has critical power and is no longer in a state of silence.

Analysis of the Socio-Health Situation of People in Humanitarian Crisis ″Case of Repressed from Congo-Brazzaville″

Context: The returnees from Congo Brazaville were received by the town hall of Kinshasa which brought them to Maluku. From there, those with closer family members went home, but the others and their children settled around the Cardinal Malula stadium for lack of accommodation. Purpose: This study is carried out with the aim of analyzing the socio-sanitary situation of people expelled from Brazzaville based around the municipality of Kinshasa. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey made it possible, by interview and direct observation with the support of an interview guide, to collect information from 321 Congolese from the DRC expelled from the Republic of Congo, living in the commune of Kinshasa. This information was statistically analyzed using SPSS version 21 software. Results: It emerges from the descriptive analysis that the majority of respondents, ie 68.2%, were housed in tents. 84.4% experienced both physical and moral violence. 62.6% had an altered physical state. The most frequent problems include: lack of access to health care (100%); insalubrity (80.9%); malaria associated with other pathologies (80.8%) or alone and lack of access to drinking water (74.7%). From the inferential analysis, it emerges that the factors associated with the state of health of the repressed were: poor bowel management resulting in the use of stage [RR = 3.4 (1.70-6.69); p ˂ 0.000] or open air [RR = 2.93 (1.38 – 6.23); p ˂ 0.005] instead of a latrine; violence [RR = 2.91 (2.07 – 4.08); caring for at least 5 children [RR = 1.71 (1.21–2.41); p ˂ 0.002] as well as divorce [RR = 1.49 (1.16 – 1.92); p ˂ 0.002]. Conclusion: The socio-sanitary situation of those expelled from Brazzaville was not favourable. The direct involvement of the political and health authorities of the DRC with the support of national or international organizations would allow the proper management of humanitarian crises in the country.

Analysing the Impacts of Fiscal Decentralisation on Public Services Delivery: Evidence from Health Sector in Pakistan

Delegation of power can of political, social and fiscal authority and all the three has been considered an important policy reform to achieve high growth, better delivery of services and stabilize the macro uncertainties in economy. Among the three types of decentralization, this study was conducted to assess the fiscal aspect of decentralization and its impacts were analyzed on public services deliveries, which is one of the core objectives of power delegation. Pakistan was taken as a sample case. Annual time series data spanning from 1974 to 2021 were sourced from both the World Bank and the economic survey of Pakistan. Fiscal decentralization was measured through fiscal transfers and vertical balances while public services were proxy through health sector. In health sector this study took infant mortality rates because of the ways availability of data. Per capita GDP, Rural-Urban ratio and health expenditures were taken as a control variable. The results were extracted through ARDL and it was found that between the two proxies of fiscal decentralization, fiscal transfers is more effective than vertical balances and therefore it was suggested that government may increase the share of provinces to further improve the delivery of public services in Pakistan.

Diversifying News Sources as Multicultural News Production: Critical Political Economy Approach to Sourcing Practices in Ethiopian Mainstream TV Channels

This study examines the diversity of news sourcing in Ethiopian TV channels, utilizing Critical Political Economy approach. It analyses 1167 news stories from 2019 to 2021 and interviews with 25 journalists. The study reveals disparity in the representation of peripheral communities, despite the utilization of various news sources. This indicates that diversifying news sources alone does not guarantee equal representation of diverse voices. Economic limitations, editorial decisions, and language barriers confine news gathering to specific geographic regions. Journalists’ limited autonomy and newsroom culture contribute to prioritizing government affairs thereby limiting diversity of voices. The study suggests collaborative efforts among news editors, managers, and political authorities, and policy framework for multicultural news production, to achieve content and voice diversity. It emphasizes the need to combine normative principles with real-world practices and the impact of resource constraints on media reception and viewer choices in future research.

The Double Identities of the Shaman and the Dualistic Attitudes of the State: An Exploration of Contemporary Organizational Shamanism in Northeast China

This paper presents a case study of the first shamanic organization in China and argues that organizational shamanism in Northeast China is characterized by the double identities of the shaman and the dualistic attitudes of the national authorities. The analyses in this paper reveal how the shamanic organization created a modernized and globalized space for traditional shamans and specialists to connect with the outside world, enabling them to gain empowerment, legitimacy, and agency. Chinese authorities hold dualistic attitudes towards shamanism: the positive attitude of seeing shamanism as part of cultural heritage has always been coupled with the negative attitude of seeing shamanism as superstition. The studies in this paper demonstrate that organizational shamanism in Northeast China has played a crucial role in negotiating with political authorities and linking local traditions with global discourse. In this sense, the traditional eco-cosmological way of maintaining relationships with natural forces and nonhuman beings has been irrevocably transformed into a cosmopolitical form for the shaman, where the animistic world engages with the outside world, global currency, and political forces.

The Intellectual History of Milton Friedman's Criticism of Corporate Social Responsibility

This article is the first to reconstruct the intellectual history of Milton Friedman's criticism of business and its social responsibilities. Using original archival research and printed evidence, this article makes three major arguments. First, Friedman's criticisms of business and its social responsibilities evolved over time and emerged from persistent anxieties among economic liberals about monopoly, business interests, and political authority that were explicitly read from Adam Smith. Second, the article contributes to the emerging intellectual history of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by reconstructing the development of Friedman's criticisms, their transformations, and their reception within the context of American managerial thought from the 1950s to the 1980s. Finally, contextualizing Friedman's criticisms demonstrates his concern about decision-making logics within organizations, which in turn explains his belief that CSR would contribute to collectivization and enhances the understanding of neoliberal political thought.

Fundamental Rights and Limited Possibilities: The Proviso of the Possible in European Fundamental Rights Doctrine

Abstract Fundamental rights to positive state action are costly. An allocation in favor of one individual rightsholder always results in lower allocations in favor of others. The dominant approach in fundamental rights doctrine assumes these conflicts can be resolved judicially by balancing competing rights and other public needs. In practice, carrying out an in-depth balancing in resource allocation cases proves challenging but constitutional courts developed different strategies and concepts to deal with costly rights. The European Court of Human Rights applies a “wide” margin of appreciation and requires that positive state obligations do “not impose an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities.” Following the German Federal Constitutional Court, several constitutional courts have applied a concept known as the “proviso of the possible.” The proviso of the possible constrains positive rights and results in a wide margin of discretion granted to political authorities. This article attempts to investigate the specific meaning of the “proviso of the possible” in the context of European fundamental rights law by comparing it against alternative doctrinal concepts. The investigation aims to identify common legal principles and methods to deal with fundamental rights conflicts over scarce public resources.

Beyond ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fans: exploring the mechanisms enabling football fans’ position as a stakeholder in the management of circulations

ABSTRACT This article explores mechanisms enabling football fans’ position as a (safety) stakeholder in the context of European football. It is clear that fans, in the eyes of some football and political authorities, are considered to be ‘potential troublemakers’ or ‘risks’ that must be governed or controlled. However, at the same time, fans are also increasingly considered as contributors towards ‘safe’, ‘secure’, and ‘enjoyable’ football events. Borrowing theoretical insights from Foucault’s writings on security and circulations, this article locates the football fan within what he calls a ‘security dispositif’. By examining processes through which ‘bad’ and ‘good’ fan circulations and populations are enabled, this article looks at the conflicting and (sometimes) contradictory public fan identities that football and political authorities attribute to football fans. It is argued that fans’ stakeholder role represents a counter to ‘security’ becoming defined solely on the terms of football’s governing bodies and political authorities.