This study explores the six distinct varieties of the one-rupee coin minted in India during 1903 under the reign of King Edward VII. These coins, produced in Calcutta and Bombay, reflect both deliberate minting practices and accidental engraver errors. The six recognized types include: (1) Calcutta-minted rupee with no mint mark, (2) Bombay-minted rupee with a small incuse “B,” (3) Bombay-minted rupee with a small raised “B,” (4) Bombay-minted rupee with a “dot” on the stem of the lotus-bud, (5) Calcutta-minted four dots rupee, and (6) Calcutta-minted three dots rupee. Through examination of historical context, minting practices, literature review, and collector perspectives, this paper demonstrates how these varieties serve as valuable artifacts of British India’s monetary system. The findings illustrate the intersection of political authority, colonial minting practices, and numismatic significance.

Wojciech Piotrowski was born on 25 October 1952 in Warsaw, in the first decade after World War II, when the city was recovering from the ruins. From 1955, he lived with his parents in Zielona Góra (until 1945, the German town of Grünberg), near Poland's new western border. There, he began his primary school education. He read extensively from his school years onwards. Archaeology was popular at the time, and historical themes relating to the Middle Ages were common in novels and in belles-lettres more generally. The year 1966 marked the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of the Polish prince Mieszko I. For the Roman Catholic Church, which then played an important role in the country, it was the millennial anniversary of Christianity in Poland, and for the political authorities controlled by the Soviet Union, which did not see eye to eye with the Church, it was the millennial anniversary of the state. With the creation of the new Polish People's Republic (PRL – officially since 1952, the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'), the country saw a return to the borders of the times of Mieszko I and his son, King Bolesław Chrobry 'the Brave' of the Piast dynasty (who reigned from 992 to 1025).

This article examines how the legitimacy of political authority is being reshaped by the rise of the digital state, where public power is increasingly exercised through algorithms, automated decision systems, and data infrastructures. It argues that classical legitimacy theories—associated with Weberian authority, Easton’s systemic approach, Luhmann’s (1990) self-legitimation, Lipset’s conviction-based legitimacy, and process-oriented accounts such as Wesołowski’s reflective action and Biernat’s constitutive legitimation—remain analytically valuable but require translation into the operational logic of algorithmic governance. The paper proposes a working definition of algorithmic legitimacy as the publicly defensible right to govern via computational systems, sustained when procedures are explainable and contestable, outcomes meet auditable thresholds of fairness and reliability, and affected publics have meaningful routes of participation and redress. Reframing Easton’s input–throughput–output model through a “data pipeline” lens, the article shows that legitimacy is now produced and tested across data acquisition, model design, deployment, and performance monitoring. It also highlights how Luhmann’s self-referential legitimation can intensify under algorithmic systems that cite their own metrics and audits as justification, risking opaque auto-justification unless paired with epistemic transparency and public reason-giving. Drawing on belief-based and reflexive perspectives, the article emphasizes that accuracy or efficiency alone cannot secure legitimacy: legitimacy depends on procedural due process (notice, explanation, appeal), correction capacity, and citizen oversight. The conclusion advances a multidimensional test for algorithmic rule: legitimate digital governance must integrate participatory design (input), transparent and contestable pipelines (throughput), and audited, just outcomes with timely redress (output). Algorithmic legitimacy is therefore reflexive by design—earned through iterative justification, error-handling, and democratic accountability rather than presumed from technical correctness.

Life and politics, once marked by the “will of heaven” in determining the fate of half the world (Communist and Capitalist), have come to an end along with the conclusion of the Cold War. A new, shared hope has emerged to achieve the goal of shaping global politics. Life is no longer separated from the calculations and mechanisms of politics but shares the same desire: to pursue a better life. Life and politics are no longer detached. The effort to achieve a better life is carried out through various global and regional economic collaborations and free markets. However, the benefits cannot be equally enjoyed; each actor seeks to maximize their own gains from opportunities to increase profits. Strict regulations have thus become a constant process of interest-driven change, aligned with new interests, pushing the emergence of institutions embedded in political authority (the rulers, government, parliament, bureaucracy) to oversee market territories in order to standardize political and economic resources within the forces of production, as part of the effort to achieve continuous profit in the midst of free trade-through processes of overproduction and consumption. This article is a philosophical concept using normative research methods that engage in depth with various theoretical sources including Descartes, Foucault, Hegel, Weber and Bourdieu. How exactly is the consequence of “Politics”. That the consequence of politics is to direct human action, from all aspects of life. Every aspect of life whether in the fields of power, economy, culture and defense aims to persuasively anticipate themselves in the sovereignty of taking lives for maximum gain - where no one can act better without making others worse off. Each assumes the position of the zone of profit extraction and, at the same time, the consumer as a dumping ground - instead of politics leading in practice to a situation of letting die rather than being said to be a killer. Thus, what manifests in life today is a trajectory of physical and mental labor, which distorts the line between politics and death (quietus politic).

The expansion of extractive economies in Colombia disrupts human and ecological interactions in particular places. In response, Black communities have enacted different activist strategies, including legal mobilization around the multicultural reforms that took root throughout Latin America in the 1990s. However, these legal mechanisms in Colombia reflect a Pacific-centered bias, which ties Blackness to rigid ethnic and territorial definitions, marginalizing alternative identities and attachments to space. While recent scholarship in anthropology, critical geography, and political ecology has examined how multicultural rights shape state-ethnic group dynamics, less explored is how seemingly homogeneous groups contest exclusionary legal frames by integrating legal and contextual strategies across multiple scales. Drawing on critical geography, legal mobilization, social movements studies, and feminist political ecology, in this paper, we study the strategies and processes enacted by Black communities in the inter-Andean valley region in northern Cauca to contest illegal mining and associated developments. Building on ethnographic fieldwork, our analysis shows that laws are subject to contestation, renegotiation, and strategic appropriation. We show how subaltern groups strategically engage with legal and self-ascribed context-specific practices to prefigure political authority, allowing them to shape relations to space and nature and advance their pursuit of what we conceptualize as territorial justice. Through their dialectical engagement with the law, these communities assert territorial authority beyond strict legal definitions, shaping new political subjectivities that exceed identity boundaries imposed by legal frameworks while being institutionalized.

Abstract In January 2025, the March 23 movement (M23) captured the city of Goma for a second time, marking a deeply symbolic moment in the decades-long conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). North Kivu’s capital, home to 1.5 million people and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons who have fled surrounding areas amidst fighting since late 2021, had previously fallen to rebels on four occasions since 1996. In this latest iteration, neither the subcontracting of armed groups under the Wazalendo (‘patriots’) moniker, nor the intervention of African peacekeepers and private contractors, prevented the demise of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) at the hands of the M23 and its allies of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF). The M23 kept progressing, also taking South Kivu’s capital Bukavu in February 2025. Subsequently, it has deployed its own brand of government, nominating new political authorities and reorganizing local governance—much like the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebellion in the late 1990s. In 2025, the DRC counts over six million internally displaced persons amidst a concoction of conflicts featuring a hundred armed groups and a steep increase in foreign involvement compared to the previous decade.

This study examines how John Locke’s theory of limited government can be analytically evaluated using data-driven methods in contemporary governance systems. Locke argued that legitimate political authority rests upon the consent of the governed and that state power must remain limited to protect natural rights. While scholars have widely debated Locke’s normative political philosophy, few attempts have integrated computational tools, governance indicators, or data-analytics frameworks to test how Locke’s principles manifest in real governmental performance. Using secondary datasets such as World Governance Indicators (WGI), Worldwide Freedom Index, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), and e-Governance performance indicators, this study evaluates modern governance practices against Lockean benchmarks such as rule of law, accountability, limited coercive authority, and protection of individual rights. The findings show that countries with strong constraints on executive power, transparent regulatory systems, and participatory political mechanisms demonstrate outcomes consistent with Locke’s theory. The study concludes that combining political philosophy with empirical political data provides a scientifically grounded approach to test the relevance, applicability, and transformative power of classical political thought in present-day states.

Abstract This study introduces the novel concept of the justice/participation paradox to post-conflict peace and justice literature. The 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) formalised a solution to the peace-versus-justice dilemma: allocating congressional seats to FARC while ensuring legal accountability through the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). In the JEP, perpetrators receive alternative sanctions instead of prison, provided they fully disclose the truth about their crimes, without inhibiting political participation. This has given rise to a new paradox: the ‘justice/participation paradox’ of promoting a political project in one arena while confessing crimes in another. The article analyses the performativity of confession vis-à-vis political participation, based on 38 interviews, participant observation, and 35 hours of video recording. It finds that former FARC members use the JEP to confess and show remorse while asserting political authority. Their dual role complicates continued political engagement, especially as guaranteed congressional seats expire and JEP sanctions must be fulfilled. Based on these findings, the article underscores the importance of recognising time and grass-roots political participation in future peace processes.

Introduction: One of the classic questions of political theory is how to establish legitimate authority without jeopardizing the freedom and autonomy of individuals. The answer to this question lies in the concept of consent, which explains when political authority is legitimate. The concept of consent is a cardinal notion in contractualist theory and represents the basis for understanding political legitimacy and political obligation. John Locke’s theory of the state largely relies on the doctrine of consent. This doctrine marks a pivotal moment in the development of liberal and democratic theories in the history of political thought. However, the doctrine has sparked various controversies and has raised questions about whether Locke’s early and later positions are mutually compatible. This paper contributes to the scholarly debate by examining the role of consent in Locke’s theory of the state. Aim: The paper will analyze different dimensions of consent in the theory of the social contract: explicit and implicit consent. Special attention will be given to the concept of coercive consent, which, as a phenomenon, has been separately studied in contemporary contractualist theory. Materials and Methods: By analyzing the theoretical settings of the most significant representatives of social contract theory, we will try to answer the question that constitutes an important point of this paper: When can a social contract be considered valid and legitimate? In this paper, two extreme theoretical settings will be analyzed together with the arguments put forward by their proponents for or against coercive consent in social contract theory. Results: The analysis of theoretical approaches shows that the constitutional contract is valid when the political community is constituted on the basis of the consent of free and sovereign individuals. To safeguard the freedom and autonomy of the individual will, it is essential that those over whom political authority is established grant their consent to it. Conclusion: The concept of consent is a cardinal notion of contemporary contractualist theory, woven into the very foundations of republican political doctrine. Consent should be understood as a dynamic category that reflects the recognition of the necessity of a certain type of political authority, while simultaneously respecting the determination of the people to remain free.

Many insist that only religious inclusivists can meaningfully espouse religious liberty as a universal public policy, because exclusivist perspectives inherently undermine the notion of religious freedom through their particularist truth claims. This study, however, challenges this assumption. Religious exclusivists can simultaneously, consistently, and robustly endorse a public policy of religious liberty for all, without resorting to normative pluralism or religious inclusivism. To make this argument, the article will first examine the support of a universal and global ethic in Hans Küng (an influential, religious inclusivist) and then the description of a universal and global ethic in Martha Nussbaum (whose approach may be interfaced with religious particularism and exclusivism). While the former appealed to a commonality of shared content (a common core of ethical and related beliefs), a shared telos (a similar moral transformation of adherents), and a shared destiny (effectively leading to the same Ultimate Reality), the latter primarily contended for a commonality of shared capacity (the human conscience) rooted in basic human dignity. Nussbaum’s model, reflecting themes found in the seventeenth-century work of Roger Williams, can be consistently interfaced with a Christian particularism, in which Jesus Christ alone (not any political authority) is the rightful Lord of the conscience.

Abstract This article explores the implications of the absence of central political authority on Islamic jurisprudence in pre-colonial Mauritania. It examines how Saharan jurists, in the absence of a sultan, assumed de facto authority to uphold shariʿa, thereby legitimizing the local Muslim community and its internal alliances. These jurists adapted Mālikī jurisprudence to the socio-political and economic challenges particular to the desert environment, using flexible principles and tools of ijtihād. This adaptability enabled them to address complex legal issues, including interactions with mustaghriqī al-dhimma, management of tributes imposed by the Banī Ḥassān, the adoption of pecuniary penalties in place of retributive measures to prevent tribal conflicts, and the expansion of the ʿāqila concept. Furthermore, their approach facilitated the controversial recognition of French colonial rule. The study highlights the intricate relationship between shariʿa and siyāsa and commends further research into the nawāzil heritage of the Mālikī school, to deepen our understanding of how Islamic jurisprudence adapts across diverse political contexts.

Abstract This study examines the contentious reception of Tawfīq Fayyāḍ’s novel al-Mushawwahūn (The Deformed, 1963) within the Palestinian literary field of the 1960s. Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the literary field, the analysis explores how external forces, including political authority, market pressures, and dominant ideology, intersected with internal factors—such as authorial habitus and aesthetic innovation—to shape the novel’s production and reception. The study reveals how the Communist Party’s ideological hegemony, Israeli censorship policies, and imported commercial literary models created a restrictive cultural environment that systematically excluded experimental works. Fayyāḍ employed a modernist approach that foregrounded individual subjectivity, religious skepticism, explicit sexuality, and psychological alienation. These elements directly challenged those of the dominant socialist realism and collective resistance narratives of the time. The paper demonstrates how symbolic violence operates through conditional recognition, as evidenced by the contrasting reception of Fayyāḍ’s later ideologically conforming works. This case study illuminates the complex mechanisms through which literary fields regulate cultural production under conditions of political occupation and cultural marginalization.

ABSTRACT How does fiscal integration reshape political authority in the European Union? Even though fiscal integration has not relocated key competences from the member states to the EU, fiscal integration is set to relocate power in EU multilevel governance. The analysis of changes in actor constellations and governance techniques reveals that fiscal integration affects the core of the system’s architecture. From a federal perspective that measures the mix of shared and self-rule, the article shows how the complex management of shared governance evolves and undoes the EU sub-state and non-state linkages that multilevel governance refers to. The widening of funding objectives, the shift to conditionality – and demand-driven funding principles, and the growth of EU fiscal capacities without new substantive EU self-rule, go hand-in-glove with a stepwise redefinition of shared management between the Commission the national governments that redefines the exercise of EU authority.

Abstract This article examines two ruined monumental architectural complexes in ancient Oaxaca: the Main Plaza of Monte Albán and the acropolis of Río Viejo. I consider how the material vibrancy of these ruins differed in ways that both brought together and destabilized communities. After its abandonment, the ruins of the Main Plaza, as well as the mountain on which it was built, continued to assemble substances important to human well-being, including rain, clouds, sky, mountains, ancestors, and deities. People periodically journeyed to the plaza to make offerings and bury their revered dead, thereby constituting a broader identity and community. In contrast, the earthen architecture of the acropolis, located in the center of Río Viejo, rapidly decayed in the tropical lowland climate. The reemergence of hierarchy at Río Viejo in the Late Classic period activated material memories of rupture held in the ruins that threatened and resisted new forms of community and political authority.

Abstract The Baltic Sea suffers from excessive input of nutrients leading to eutrophication as a key pressure for the marine ecosystem. Land-based pollution from agricultural activities constitutes a major source of nutrient input to marine environments. To reduce nutrient runoff from agriculture, European and national policymakers have introduced regulations, such as the EU-Nitrates Directive, the HELCOM-Baltic Sea Action Plan, and national fertilizer regulations. However, the effect of these regulations and measures has been limited so far. One reason for this is the limited acceptance of regulations by farmers. By combining theoretical-conceptual literature on individual acceptance with insights from empirical research on agri-environmental schemes (AES) and farmers’ behavior, the paper develops a comprehensive analytical framework for systematically studying central determinants of individual acceptance of agri-environmental policy regulations. A local case study of a nearshore area at the Baltic coast in Northern Germany is conducted, where intensive agricultural production takes place. The paper uses qualitative content analysis of twenty semi-structured qualitative interviews with local farmers as well as political and administrative authorities in the region. Findings indicate that, in particular, economic concerns, policy design factors, and different dimensions of political mistrust – interacting in a wicked-problem complex – cause substantial acceptance deficits. Apart from providing new conceptual insights for multi-disciplinary research on individual acceptance of (marine) environmental protection, the paper also offers insights about how to further develop governance approaches for reducing agricultural nutrient input in marine water, as well as for other land-based sources of marine pollution.

ABSTRACT This article situates Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962) in the context of the decline of British hegemony following the Second World War and the rise of what would eventually be known as capitalist realism. Burgess’s novel of a youth culture being controlled by an authoritarian state confirms the hypotheses of Fredric Jameson on postmodernism and Mark Fisher on canceled futures, namely that alternatives to the dominant social order have now been reincorporated into the logic of late capitalism. The dystopian novel’s pastiche of different languages found in the characters’ futuristic lingo is evidence of a cultural exhaustion that characterizes our inability to make sense of linear time in the era of neoliberalism. Moreover, the novel’s alternative version as it appeared in the United States signaled the rise of American dominance on the world stage. A Clockwork Orange demonstrates the way Britain attempted to maintain its authority in global politics by clinging to its past, which shows that a key aspect of imagining the future lies in abandoning the hopeless nostalgia that is easily co-opted by nationalist supremacy.

Widowhood rites are a set of cultural practices prescribed to the surviving partner in a couple when one of them passes away. Historically, these rites were established to help the widower or widow cope with this painful transition, to honor them, and to facilitate their reintegration into society. However, in the contemporary context, these practices are increasingly criticized, particularly due to their perceived degrading and humiliating nature—especially for women, who are subjected to a longer and more restrictive ritual process. This gender disparity is partly attributed to the patriarchal structure of most African societies, to which the Babadjou community belongs. The recent increase in complaints against these rites raises a crucial question: Do widowhood rites still hold significant value in today’s society? This research adopts a qualitative approach, using a methodology that includes document analysis, in-depth individual interviews with widows and widowers, heads of families, and community or religious leaders in the West Region of Cameroon, as well as participant observation of certain widowhood ritual scenes. The aim of this study was to understand the origins of these rites, examine how their practice has evolved over time, and assess their current relevance in the society in question. The findings reveal that widowhood rites still carry a strong cultural significance within the Babadjou community, where traditional and religious authorities hold them in high regard due to their ancestral legitimacy. Nevertheless, due to scientific and technological advances, several changes have been observed: some rites considered too difficult or nearly impossible today have been abandoned, and there is a general trend toward making the process less burdensome. Field data reveals a growing sense of distress, particularly among widows, who denounce certain abuses they deem degrading and inhumane—calling into question the rites' role in promoting family cohesion and managing grief. While change is underway, it remains insufficient in the face of the serious grievances raised. As such, a collaborative initiative involving political, traditional, and religious authorities on one hand, and family actors on the other, appears essential to establish a cultural transformation that strikes a balance between preserving ancestral heritage and respecting widows’ individual rights.

This article examines the concept of democratic resilience and its vital importance in preserving the integrity of democracy and guaranteeing its future sustainability. The examination of democratic resilience is especially pertinent when the state allocates substantial resources to propaganda and other forms of deception, including post-truth, to undermine its democratic aims and purposes. The post-truth phenomenon profoundly influences moral and democratic principles, along with citizens' attitudes and perceptions. Individuals in contexts characterized by a pronounced post-truth phenomenon often exhibit heightened skepticism towards political and institutional authorities, potentially undermining democratic norms and eroding trust in institutions. The rapid dissemination of information through digital media intensifies this trend, making it more challenging to verify sources and distinguish between misinformation and truth. The post-truth phenomenon exacerbates misinformation by eroding ideals like impartiality and critical thinking, supplanting scientific and historical knowledge and reality. Consequently, the function of education, particularly that of schools, is essential in addressing the phenomena of post-truth. A comprehensive awareness of media operations, particularly in the realm of digital literacy, enables students to identify and counter misinformation, thereby fortifying democratic resilience.

This study investigates the emergence of political parody songs as a powerful medium of political communication in India. It looks at 18 parody songs by six creators from 2015 to 2025, focusing on their construction of political critique, use of rhetorical devices and the influence of intertextual elements. The analysis reveals that song creators subvert political authority by mocking leaders with playful nicknames, presenting policy failures as systematic features instead of aberrations and comparing the lived reality of the citizens with official narratives and political promises. Presenting English as a language of elite hypocrisy and Hindi as the language of authentic frustrations, these songs use irony, hyperbole and metaphors to make their sharp critique. Webs of meaning are created through intertextual references such as nostalgic Bollywood songs, catchy slogans and viral memes. These elements together create a mix that allows these parodies to reach millions of audiences and create counter-hegemonic narratives. However, the sophisticated cultural references in these parodies create an accessibility paradox that excludes the rural and non-English-speaking audiences they claim to represent. Moreover, by presenting all parties as equally corrupt, they risk promoting political cynicism instead of mobilising for social change. Contributing to the understanding of vernacular digital creativity in a postcolonial context, the researchers argue that YouTube enables new forms of political expression that powerfully document democratic decay but are still struggling to imagine alternatives.

Genealogy is a powerful analytical framework for understanding the cultural evolution of tribes, communities, and societies. This article demonstrates that the recurrent reliance on genealogical structures is a common feature of human societies, serving as a fundamental mechanism for cultural evolution through time, space, and culture. Based on comparative analysis of indigenous tribal societies (e.g., Aboriginal Australian kinship, Polynesian chiefly genealogies), agrarian civilizations (e.g., European feudal lineages, Chinese patriliny), and modern nation-states (e.g., nationalist mythmaking, DNA-based ancestry movements), this study reveals consistent patterns in genealogical functions. Drawing on an interdisciplinary perspective from anthropology, sociology, history, and evolutionary biology, it is argued that genealogical systems are not passive records of descent but dynamic forces of cultural continuity and adaptation. The evidence shows that, despite vast sociocultural differences, genealogy widely operates as a dual-purpose instrument. It preserves cultural memory and legitimizes political authority while simultaneously facilitating social adaptation and innovation in response to new challenges. The paper also critiques contemporary trends like commercial genetic genealogy, highlighting its potential for reconnecting diasporic communities alongside its risks of biological essentialism. Ultimately, the work establishes that the persistent and patterned reliance on genealogy from oral traditions to genetic data offers a critical lens for understanding the deep structures of cultural continuity and transformation in human societies. It further underscores the importance of genealogy in cultural evolution, historical persistence, societal transformation, and the construction of belonging in an increasingly globalized world.