Political Center Research Articles

Capital cities in multi-level settings: Assessing Scottish and Welsh residents’ perceptions of London, Edinburgh and Cardiff

Devolution processes, while aiming to transfer power to sub-state entities, contribute to creating new political, administrative, and economic centres. Consequently, in multi-level systems, we observe the coexistence of state-wide and sub-state capital cities, which may be perceived differently by citizens. This article focuses on the United Kingdom and analyses the results of an original survey conducted in Scotland and Wales. In these two devolved nations, sub-state capital cities, Edinburgh and Cardiff, ‘compete’ with the UK capital, London. Respondents were asked to assess these three cities across three dimensions: the individual/value dimension, the symbolic dimension, and the integrative dimension. While, overall, both Edinburgh and Cardiff outperform London on all three dimensions, important differences exist among respondents. This study shows that far from being neutral, the role of capital cities in devolved jurisdictions can be highly politicised and is also closely associated with individual preferences for more or less decentralisation.

Democratic legitimacy and its vulnerabilities: The case of South Africa

This article uses the example of South Africa to explore how inequality, institutions, identity, and polarization interact. The first 15 years of the country’s constitutional democracy was characterized by a virtuous spiral fueled by hope that a thriving, inclusive society was in reach, an embrace of win-win cooperation, and a surge of civic confidence in the legitimacy of the public domain. The next 15 years witnessed rising discontent in response to continuing massive inequality and economic hardship – plus sustained efforts by populist political entrepreneurs to use economic discontent to fuel identity-based polarization and weaken institutions. In both periods, contrary to the either/or discourse of much scholarship, change was fueled by the ways in which economic expectations and identity politics interacted with one another. Renewal of the political center needs both reforms that address economic imbalances and engagement at the level of ideas.

The antinomies of feed and feeding in animal agriculture

This paper is about the environmental politics and ethics of animal agriculture through a focus on feed and feeding. We review a large and interdisciplinary body of scholarship on animal agriculture to show that the production of feed, and the feeding of animals in confined systems of production, is associated with degradation, exploitation, and violence. At the same time, and especially in the current conjuncture, feed and feeding research and scholarship highlight ways to address and mitigate animal agriculture's environmental problems while also providing hope for more ethical multispecies relations on the farm. We map the antinomies of feed and feeding through three analytical registers: feed as object, feeding as practice, and feed/ing as conversion. We argue that feed and feeding are at the center of the contemporary politics and ethics of animal agriculture — both as a site of exploitation and domination, but also as a contested promise of a more ethical and sustainable animal agriculture. Our conclusion examines how the antinomies of feed and feeding are both incompatible and yet bound together, an issue that we argue provides critical insights into the contemporary environmental politics and ethics of animal agriculture.

The effects of marginalisation in areas of high political centralisation

ABSTRACT Recent research indicates the existence of ‘places that don’t matter’, where residents harbour feelings of abandonment, prompting a tilt towards anti-system narratives. Yet, the effects of territorial marginalisation extend beyond voting behaviour, influencing deeper underlying factors. Utilising data from 9924 cases in the region of Valparaiso in Chile, this study reveals that living in politically marginalised cities in contexts of high political centralisation correlates with reduced political knowledge and internal political efficacy, even when accounting for other sociodemographic characteristics. By focusing on territorial marginalisation, this analysis offers a fresh perspective on the interplay between individual sociodemographic characteristics and political engagement.

The Price of Centralization: A Comparative Study of Tocqueville and Late Ming Chinese Thinkers

ABSTRACT This article offers a comparative study of the views of Alexis de Tocqueville and those of several Chinese thinkers of the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644)—primarily Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi—on the socio-political processes of centralization. My central claim is that their views of political centralization and of the decentralized polycentric society that preceded it in their respective countries exhibit a remarkable array of analogous structural features. More specifically, both Tocqueville and his Chinese counterparts perceive in centralization an inherent unsustainability driven by its self-destructive nature: since the foundation and strength of statism depends on its social resources, the centralization of power inevitably results in the weakening of its own basis. I conclude that through their nuanced reinterpretation of self-interest, both parties advocate a “small-community-oriented communitarianism” instead of the increasingly centralized modern state.

The Role of Oc Eo Ancient City in The International Maritime Trade Network (From The First to The Seventh Century)

Oc Eo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) is an archaeological site in the Mekong Delta, located in southern Vietnam (Óc Eo commune,Thoại Sơn district, An Giang province). Oc Eo is often mentioned in research about ancient Southeast Asia as a part of the Funan kingdom. Some studies have identified Oc Eo's role as a trade, political, and religious center of Funan, but the position of Oc Eo in ancient international maritime trade network has not been clearly stated. Approach this issue from archaeology perspective, the authors surveyed the sites and studied artifacts found at sites in the Oc Eo area, particularly origin of these artifact. Ancient Chinese bibliographies are also cited to supplement the article. The findings state the favorable conditions for the development of Oc Eo as a port city: the location of a traffic hub of inland canals; a stop on the sea route from east to west; and having sources of local products that can be used as goods to exchange with merchants. The article also proves that Oc Eo city was an important port in the maritime trading system in ancient Southeast Asia during the period from the first to the seventh century CE. which was a transit point connecting between China and Southeast Asia, China, and India, maybe even the Mediterranean.

Introduction

Recent decades have brought the topic of researching East Asian collections in Europe and the world to the forefront of research and academia. The colonial and postcolonial frameworks of collecting practices, the cultural and socio-political settings in which the collectors assembled their collections, as well as the history of displaying East Asian objects in museums and other institutions, were researched both in the political centres of those practices and on their peripheries. In a differently structured approach, the collections of objects themselves came into the focus of the research, including their materiality and their “biographies”, providing a novel perspective on the historiography of collections. The Department of Asian Studies at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana), Science and Research Centre Koper, Celje Regional Museum and the Mari­time Museum of Piran hosted an international symposium entitled Orphaned Objects: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to the Research of East Asian Objects at the Faculty of Arts on 18 September 2023. The symposium was organised as part of the project Orphaned Objects: Examining East Asian Objects Outside Organised Collecting Practices in Slovenia (J6-3133, 2021–2025), funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency. This volume includes most of the papers presented during the symposium.

The 1943 West African Editors’ Press Delegation to the United Kingdom: Mediating the Metropole from World War II Nigeria

Abstract The 1943 Tour of Eight West African editors to London formed a major event in World War II United Kingdom–West Africa relations. The tour is often understood in terms of the symbolic importance of Azikiwe's landmark Memorandum on the Atlantic Charter. This article argues that we should reappraise our understandings of the tour and pay closer attention to African actors and networks beyond the Colonial Office. We must understand Britain as a periphery to a West African social, cultural, and political centre. The tour reveals how Britain was mediated in West African terms. Existing historiography focused on Azikiwe's Memorandum or decision-making within Whitehall has ignored both the importance of the tour in West Africa and the diversity of Africans in Britain involved in the tour. The present article focuses on African responses to the tour and, drawing on the historiography of print culture and wartime African mobilities, prioritises African-authored sources. Cumulatively, it situates the tour within an evolving historiography of global mobilities in WWII Nigeria. Rather than simply seeking to unite the metropole and colony in a single field, the article suggests that we must consider more deeply the ways that Africans provincialized the metropole, while centring African colonies.

Against eco-authoritarianism and ecomodernism: Towards a critique of ‘planetary’ governmentality and fantasies of steering

Contemporary society is dominated by the reality of the Anthropocene ecological crisis. In a certain subset of the ecopolitical literature, however, this topic is framed as a problem of governance. Supposedly, the unintended consequences of numerous micro-level human actions can be addressed by macro-level government interventions. Such discourses of eco-governmentality are informed by an emphasis upon the ‘planetary’ and the desirability of political centralisation. Our article seeks to critically engage with both the notion of a supposedly ‘planetary’ community of interests, and also reject the idea of global eco-governmentality. In our view, not only does the misguided emphasis on global ecological governance oversimply the planetary predicament, obscuring differences between cultures and social power structures; but it also runs the risk of obviating local democracy and could also lead to an ecologically legitimated undemocratic global technocracy. Instead of centralisation, further decentralisation could be key to both thinking and acting ‘glocally’, without expecting too much from political systems. We make the case against eco-authoritarianism and also reject ecomodernism. Recent critiques relating to the pitfalls of ecomodernism can help us construct a more inclusive, bottom-up form of ecopolitics.

MANAGEMENT AND USE OF CEMETERY LAND IN THAI BINH CITY: CURRENT SITUATION AND SOLUTIONS

Thai Binh city - is the provincial capital and the political, economic, and socio-cultural center of Thai Binh province, one of the 04 satellite cities of the Southern Red River delta region, currently a Type 2 city under Thai Binh province. In more than 20 years of construction and development, Thai Binh city has had a high growth rate and is striving to become a Type 1 city under the province by 2025. Along with the development process, the city always pays attention to environmental protection issues, striving to build Thai Binh city to develop quickly and sustainably, in which the city mentions the issue of planning and managing cemetery land in the area - one of the sources that can cause environmental pollution in the city. The research will evaluate the current status of land use and management as well as propose solutions to improve the efficiency of land use management of cemeteries and graveyards, contributing to ensuring the needs of society as well as ensuring environmental factors for sustainable development in the research area.

The ‘Narrative Turn’ Revisited

This note reviews, through examples, how narrative remains a powerful and changing element in public communication, refreshed not only by shifts in technologies and modes but also by the tonalities and affective character of contemporary political exchange.

About the Second Koguryo Capital

The article discusses the current issue of studying the second capital of the early medieval state of Koguryo. It reviews and generalizes the limited and somewhat outdated Russian historiography on the topic. In order to reveal the unique features of the capital during the middle period, key Korean and Chinese written and epigraphic sources were examined and analyzed. According to the written data of the “Samguk Sagi”, the existence of the second capital is connected to the period between 3–427 AD. Information regarding the location of the capital remains unclear until the end of the Koguryo period and is only revealed in the subsequent Bohai period. The analysis of written sources is complemented by archaeological data of the ancient Guonei city and Wandu Mountain City located in the Jilin province of China, which correlate with the capital’s sites. Guonei city located in modern Jian city was a large centre; the perimeter of the walls was approximately 2.74 kilometres. In the central part, buildings correlating to administrative or palace buildings were excavated. At the nearby Wandu Mountain City, the perimeter of the walls was approximately 7 kilometres, and a large palace complex stretching over four terraces was discovered. Archaeological information indicates a different time period of the capital as a fortified city, and confirms its functioning as a centre of the district and Huanzhou county throughout the Bohai period. It is believed that initially, the Koguryo leader established a military headquarters in a hard-to-reach mountain valley near Yalu river, which evolved into a big administrative and political centre as the state developed. Further archaeological surveys are needed in the Koguryo capital area to establish a detailed chronology and better understand the futures of the Koguryo capital, and to further explore the connection between archaeology and early chronicle information.

Centralization and Long-Term System Performance: Evidence From State Takeovers of School Districts

Does centralization affect the performance of public institutions in the long run? Can states more successfully improve struggling bureaucracies than local governments? This paper explores these questions in the context of educational governance with a focus on state takeovers of school districts in the U.S.—a shift away from the traditional school board governance arrangement toward more centralized decision-making at the state level. In recent decades, takeovers have become a more common policy response to perceived low performance of public school systems. This paper extends an earlier study on the topic to examine the longer-run effects of this form of political centralization on system performance. Using a nationwide sample and up-to-date event study methods, the paper finds no evidence that takeovers of districts between 2010 and 2018 generated improvements in student reading and math performance, up to nearly a decade after takeover occurred. Takeovers lasting a greater number of years are not associated with differential impacts. Findings are not driven by compositional changes in student populations or bias due to variation in treatment timing. This form of political centralization from local to state levels therefore does not appear to be a consistent tool for improving the performance of public institutions.

State-led Development and Migrants’ Resilience in the City of the Forest

Abstract State-led initiatives to nationalize Brazilian Amazonia during the interwar period framed uncontrolled human mobility as a significant threat to state and property interests that needed to be managed. As political centralization intensified disparities and decision-making power in the region, a culture of internal-migrant resilience became stronger. By focusing on dynamics taking place in Manaus, the city of the forest, this article shows that the ability of self-driven people-on-the-move to navigate fraught environments and negotiate socioeconomic inequality was crucial not only during the economic rubber boom but also in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly throughout Amazonia’s rubber crisis.

Analysis of settlement patterns of the Upper Zarrineh River Basin in the Iron Age III

The archaeological site of Ziwiye in the upper Zarrineh River basin is considered one of the key sites for understanding the cultural and political developments of Iron Age III societies of the northwest Iran. However, despite years of excavation at Ziwiye, key questions about this area still remain unanswered. It seems that sites such as Ziwiye, Qalaichi, Zandan-Soleimian, Rabat and Hasanlu indicate a widespread settlement pattern with a political centrality role in the northwestern Iran during the late Iron Age. The pattern in which the local states centered on these sites dominated the entire cultural and geographical area through regional interaction. Therefore, in the present research, with the archaeological survey of the Upper Zarrineh River Basin, focusing on the role and significance of Ziwiye in the political and cultural structure of this region, an attempt has been made to provide a model of regio­- nal-political development to understand the developments of the late Iron Age in this region. The studied pottery from the field survey indicates that Ziwiye was not an isolated castle and had an organized cultural and political interaction with the surroun­ding archaeological sites. In order to understand the status of sites like Ziwiye in the geographical region of the northwestern Iran, in the first step it is necessary to determine its position in the more limited cultural area around it, in the Upper Zarrineh River basin, so that it is possible to recognize the status of Ziwiye in the area of complex cultural–political geography of northwestern Iran in the Iron Age III. Based on this, the study of the Upper Zarrineh River basin was undertaken. Although some studies had previously been conducted in this basin, to understand the settlement position of Ziwiye in relation to its surrounding sites, an archaeological survey around Hasanlu was carried out within a radius of 15 km in the mountains and 30 km in the plains, which is the same distance a horse rider could travel per day. The results of this research indicate that the Ziwiye site was the most important settlement in the upper Zarrineh River basin, which had political, military and cultural dominance over the surrounding area.

Challenging Power and Redefining Progress: Arundhati Roy’s Critique of Neoliberalism, Militarization, and Environmental Injustice

Abstract: This study examines how Arundhati Roy critically articulates power dynamics in her groundbreaking writings The Greater Common Good and Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin, offering a thorough analysis of neoliberalism, militarization, and environmental injustice. By dissecting modern development theories, Roy reveals structural oppressive mechanisms that disproportionately affect ecological systems and vulnerable groups. The study shows the complex relationships between economic exploitation, environmental degradation, and social marginalization by critically examining the ways in which corporate interests and state-sponsored policies work together to sustain structural violence. The research examines the rhetorical construction of development via a postcolonial feminist perspective, exposing the systematic commodification of natural resources and the dispossession of indigenous population by neoliberal ideology. Roy’s philosophical intervention highlights grassroots resistance as a transformative political approach and centers the realities of marginalized people, challenging prevailing narratives. Large- scale infrastructure projects, like the Sardar Sarovar Dam, are symbolic representations of modern power structures that put economic expansion ahead of the wellbeing of people and the environment, as the analysis shows. The ethical implications of development theories are critically examined in this study, which adds to larger academic conversations about social resistance, political economy, and environmental justice. Roy’s writing are regarded as an important intellectual critique that reveals the normalized violence present in international capitalism systems and provides substitute ideas of progress, sovereignty, and ecological interdependence.

Skipanarligar fortreytir og føroysk stjórnarviðurskifti

Political Parties are complex organisations with different tasks and roles. It is clear that political parties solve important tasks in the Faroese democratic system. This article focuses on the political parties, the party system, and Faroese governments. The article builds on the assumption that institutional settings influence the conditions for government activity. The article identifies factors for the Faroese system like a multi-party system with a weak political centre and coalition governments with larger policy stretch compared to other political systems, which means potential challenges. The investigation, however, shows that despite these identified factors, the political system has a continuous structure and also governments are rather stable at the same time as parties take turns in government coalition formation.

Traditions of Equality: The Archaeology of Egalitarianism and Egalitarian Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa (First and Second Millennium CE)

Interest in egalitarianism and egalitarian behavior in complex societies has grown in recent years, spurred by anarchist approaches and collective action theory. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, has seldom figured in the discussions, despite the fact that it has been historically home to a diversity of societies that have either rejected political centralization altogether or put limits to it. The aim of this article is to examine, from an archaeological point of view, the forms of resistance that have restricted—or thwarted—monarchic power in the continent during the last two millennia. For this, I use the concept of traditions of equality. They can be defined as sets of political practices that are materially constituted, shaped by culture and transmitted through collective memory and that generate and structure egalitarian behavior in any given society. They occur across different types of sociopolitical organizations, from undivided societies of hunter-gatherers to strongly hierarchized kingdoms. Here, I will explore six of such traditions as they operate in Sub-Saharan Africa: relocation and isolation, anarchic and heterarchical settlements, adverse sacralization, equalizing technologies, counterinfrastructures, and revolution.

Political conformity and digital transformation: Evidence from China

This study investigates the influence of political conformity on digital transformation in Chinese family businesses from 2011 to 2020. We find that political conformity significantly boosts digital transformation by strengthening strategic leadership, technology focus, and organizational capabilities. It also fosters risk-taking, reduces agency costs, and eases financial constraints. The impact is more pronounced in situations in contexts with high economic policy uncertainty, when executives have limited IT knowledge, family members hold positions in the party committee, and the firm is geographically proximate to the political center, Beijing. Additionally, aligning political conformity with technology strategies not only advances digital transformation but also enhances the businesses' Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) profile and firm value.

Street protest in the first decade of illiberal Hungary: the case of Budapest

ABSTRACT The paper focuses on the anti-governmental protest movements in Budapest in a 10-year long period of the Orbán regime. A quantitative analysis of media reports reveals that the number of street protests remained significant, though with a decreasing intensity in the second half of the period. Empirical evidence on the fragmented and diverse protests suggests that (1) democracy remains of high importance, which is the main issue of dissent in authoritarian regimes; (2) national issues dominate the protests in Budapest due to the centralization of politics, and (3) western-type post-materialist issues are visible elements of the protest culture.