Political Domain Research Articles

Constraints on cooperation shape hierarchical versus distributed structure in human groups

Some human groups are organized hierarchically and some are distributed. Both types of groups occur in economic, political, and military domains, but it is unclear why hierarchical organizations are favored in certain contexts and distributed organizations are favored in others. I propose that these different organizational structures can be explained by human groups having different constraints on their ability to foster cooperation within the group. Human within-group cooperation is often maintained by monitoring and punishment. In hierarchical groups, monitoring and punishment are organized into tree-like command-and-control structures with supervisors responsible for monitoring the cooperation of their subordinates and punishing non-cooperators. By contrast, in distributed groups, monitoring is diffuse and punishment is collective. I propose that the organization of cooperative human groups is constrained by the costs of monitoring and punishment. I formalize this hypothesis with a model where individuals in a group cooperate to produce public goods while embedded in a network of monitoring and punishment responsibilities. I show that, when punishment costs are high and monitoring costs are low, socially-optimal monitoring and punishment networks are distributed. The size of these distributed networks is constrained by monitoring costs. However, when punishment costs are low, socially-optimal networks are hierarchical. Monitoring costs do not constrain the size of hierarchical networks but determine how many levels of supervision are required to foster cooperation in the hierarchical group. These results may explain the increasingly large and hierarchical groups throughout much of human history. They also suggest that the recent emergence of large-scale distributed organizations has been possible because new technologies, like the internet, have made monitoring costs extremely low.

Addressing the social inequities of vaccination: an imperative to close the gap

Addressing the social inequities of vaccination: an imperative to close the gap

Spatial Planning, Environmental Activism, and Politics—Case Study of the Jadar Project for Lithium Exploitation in Serbia

It is an indisputable fact in the world today that lithium is one of the key chemical elements of the future, one that is critically important for the development of renewable energy sources, electromobility, green industry, and the overall sustainability of our planet. Lithium ore, in the form of jadarite, was discovered in Western Serbia in 2004, with an estimated 10% of the world’s reserves. This paper presents the basic elements and methodology of the spatial plan for implementing the Jadar project for the exploitation and processing of the mineral jadarite in Serbia and the accompanying strategic assessment of the plan’s impact on the environment, which was carried out by the authors of this paper. The procedure for public participation during the development of the plan was analyzed, as well as the subsequent campaign by environmental activists against the exploitation of lithium, and the political decision to invalidate the plan and stop the project. The aim of the paper is to point out the dilemma that arises, in the opinion of the authors, when the problem of lithium exploitation in the initial stages is moved from the domain of spatial planning to the domain of strictly environmental activism, and, in the end, the political domain. The authors take the position that if there is no plan for development, there is no foundation on which to develop and monitor the environmental dimension of development, direct the subsequent design process, or assess the environmental impact for each of the planned facilities, after which process it is possible to make final, binding decisions of a technical, legal, or financial nature. The basic conclusion is that the issue of the potential exploitation of lithium, the most important aspect of which is its environmental impact, must be considered and resolved in several steps, while the role of spatial planning cannot be neglected.

Multi-dimensional resilience: A quantitative exploration of disease outcomes and economic, political, and social resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic in six countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a need for better understanding of countries' vulnerability and resilience to not only pandemics but also disasters, climate change, and other systemic shocks. A comprehensive characterization of vulnerability can inform efforts to improve infrastructure and guide disaster response in the future. In this paper, we propose a data-driven framework for studying countries' vulnerability and resilience to incident disasters across multiple dimensions of society. To illustrate this methodology, we leverage the rich data landscape surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic to characterize observed resilience for several countries (USA, Brazil, India, Sweden, New Zealand, and Israel) as measured by pandemic impacts across a variety of social, economic, and political domains. We also assess how observed responses and outcomes (i.e., resilience) of the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with pre-pandemic characteristics or vulnerabilities, including (1) prior risk for adverse pandemic outcomes due to population density and age and (2) the systems in place prior to the pandemic that may impact the ability to respond to the crisis, including health infrastructure and economic capacity. Our work demonstrates the importance of viewing vulnerability and resilience in a multi-dimensional way, where a country's resources and outcomes related to vulnerability and resilience can differ dramatically across economic, political, and social domains. This work also highlights key gaps in our current understanding about vulnerability and resilience and a need for data-driven, context-specific assessments of disaster vulnerability in the future.

Academic freedom and knowledge tradition of the Arab heritage

PurposeThis paper aims to confront some of the many facets of academic freedom as a whole, including the shared concerns with Western academia, its relationship to the politics of Arab society and the relevance of these issues within local political domains. It attempts to profile the problems hindering societal progress beyond the seemingly defined truth. While this subject has many facets, this article only examines academic freedom within the scope of knowledge and inquiry derived from the revered text of the Qur'ãn, including its relation to democracy and radicalism. It is an effort to refocus Arab intellectual dialogue on its ailing academia. It also argues for Arab society to reclaim its core culture of Islam as an enabler of learning aside from the Eurocentric perspective of academic freedom.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses an expository and persuasive format in its novel perspective. This expository form sets out the argument of academic freedom as being indigenous to Arab-Islamic heritage and pursues a persuasive statement for its resolution. This format outlines the main familiar aspects of academic freedom and lays out its components within Arab-Islamic history.FindingsThis paper provides insights and arguments supporting its main theory. It suggests that Arabs must judiciously consider what their education will look like and accomplish in the next 100 years, considering the sociopolitical status quo and the chances of changing it. It argues that academic freedom is indigenous to Arab-Islamic early history, academia and knowledge governance. Therefore, Arab academia must not ignore its heritage to examine what hinders education and intellectualism. It concludes with the point that reinstalling a culture of knowledge will create a relevant democracy.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications for research, practice and society are vast. Further academic freedom research would redefine terms of processes, change the role of academic leadership, debunk locally dominated politics, introduce learning-first policies, balance inequalities in gender, abolish academic tribalism and move past colonialist ideas and predominance. For researchers, this point of view would open doors for new scholastic approaches.Practical implicationsThis paper includes practical implications that stem from an approach that would provoke practical possibilities and call for more academic conversations. Further conversations should explore and debate the gaps in Arab-Islamic knowledge history. The Global South of the Arab World or the Middle East and Northern Africa/Southwest Asia North Africa region could consider drafting a contemporary MENA account of a Magna Charta Libertatis Academicae or a Magna Charta Universitatum that is galvanized by Arab revivable heritage. Moreover, It would be productive if Western universities that operate in the Arab World would also take an active role in denouncing undemocratic practices and not merely operate as commercial enterprises.Social implicationsRealizing academic freedom in Arab institutions will have a positive spillover effect on Arab society, including thriving and free media, freedom of speech and gender issues. Academic freedom is one of the main elements in structuring free political culture that adhere to the principles of tolerance. Academic freedom is necessary for showing all contesting ideas in a better light and, ultimately, achieving a form of intellectual equipoise.Originality/valueThis paper concerns academic freedom in the Arab-Islamic World. The majority of academic freedom scholarship today assumes a Western democratic context in discussing or even arguing against it. The paper's focus is a novel expansion of that literature.

From ban to Herzeg: Foreign lexical layers in cyrillic business and legal acts of medieval Bosnia and hum

This paper deals with foreign lexemes attested in business and legal acts created in the area of Bosnia and Hum in the period ranging from the late 12th to the late 15th century, with the aim of shedding light on their origin, the domain of use and degree of adaptation within the Old Serbian language. In addition to the younger lexical layer, the focus was also on the old loanwords from the Proto-Slavic language. The excerpted corpus proves a strong influence of the Greek language, which, in addition to the field of ecclesiastical terminology, also left its mark in the naming of occupations, money and measures, and to a lesser extent in the legal sphere and secular titles, while it also mediated in the adoption of certain names of the months of the year. In addition to the calendrical lexicon, Latin and Italian covered the field of commerce, law, public services and organization of cities and fortifications. To a certain extent, the sources also provided insight into the ecclesiastical terms of Latin origin, as well as the Oriental titles adopted from Turkish. The Oriental influence appears sporadically even in the domain of politics and trade, whereas the words from the German and Hungarian languages are found only in individual examples. The incomplete adaptation observed within several thematic groups testifies to the ongoing and still current processes of establishing different terminological subsystems. Representing different chronological layers in the structure of the lexicon of the Old Serbian language, the lexicon of foreign origin thus largely reflected the specific political, economic and cultural context and influences that shaped the history of these areas in the Middle Ages.

Deliberative Democracy, Epistemic Injustice, and Epistemic Disenfranchisement

In this paper, we explore some links between deliberative democracy, natural testimony, and epistemic injustice. We hope to highlight the exclusionary effects of some cases of testimony-related epistemic injustice within the deliberative democratic framework and, in particular, two subtle ways of epistemic injustice that are not often highlighted in the political domain. In other words, we hope to highlight two specific mechanisms of epistemic exclusion within the democratic deliberative process that are not explicitly noticed in the relevant literature. In section 1, we present the deliberative model of democracy and the deliberative process. We then introduce the notion of epistemic (dis)enfranchisement, which we distinguish from formal enfranchisement, and explain the role that natural testimony plays in establishing citizens‘ epistemic enfranchisement. In section 2, we introduce Fricker‘s notion of testimonial injustice and two further testimony-related forms of epistemic injustice which seem to have been largely neglected in the debate so far, namely, discursive injustice and testimonial void. We also point out negative epistemic consequences of positive identity-prejudicial stereotypes. In section 3, we argue that these testimony-related forms of epistemic injustice can lead to epistemic disenfranchisement, which, we note, is an obstacle to deliberative democracy that warrants serious consideration.

Moving the Needle on Sustainability: A Viewpoint from Within and Without

This study delineates between sustainable development, an established idea, and sustainability management, an emerging discipline. Theoretical and practical sustainable development is said to call for a sustainability management viewpoint that emphasizes safeguarding both man-made and natural assets. Management of sustainability comprises all of the actions and steps that must be taken to realize the goal of sustainable development. Last but not least, sustainability management is essential for improving environmental and corporate governance mechanisms that work to ensure that all people, both now and in the future, have access to the world’s man-made and natural assets. The study also highlights the importance of developing a sustainability management strategy to guide human actions across the political, economic, social, technological, and legal domains toward long-term sustainability.

Political Security Threat Prediction Framework Using Hybrid Lexicon-Based Approach and Machine Learning Technique

The internet offers a powerful medium for expressing opinions, emotions and ideas, using online platforms supported by smartphone usage and high internet penetration. Most internet posts are textual based and can include people’s emotional feelings for a particular moment or sentiment. Monitoring online sentiments or opinions is important for detecting any excessive emotions triggered by citizens which can lead to unintended consequences and threats to national security. Riots and civil war, for instance, must be addressed due to the risk of jeopardizing social stability and political security, which are crucial elements of national security. Mining opinions according to the national security domain is a relevant research topic that must be enhanced. Mechanisms and techniques that can mine opinions in the aspect of political security require significant improvements to obtain optimum results. Researchers have noted that there is a strong relationship between emotion, sentiment and political security threats. This study proposes a new theoretical framework for predicting political security threats using a hybrid technique: the combination of lexicon-based approach and machine learning in cyberspace. In the proposed framework, Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, and Support Vector Machine have been deployed as threat classifiers. To validate our proposed framework, an experimental analysis is accomplished. The performance of each technique used in the experiments is reported. In this study, our proposed framework reveals that the hybrid Lexicon-based approach with the Decision Tree classifier recorded the highest performance score for predicting political security threats. These findings offer valuable insight to ongoing research on opinion mining in predicting threats based on the political security domain.

Opinie internautów na temat fake newsów (komunikat z badań)

Fake news is becoming increasingly prevalent in mass media and poses a significant threat to various aspects of society, including individual, political, economic, cultural, and health domains. Current events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, demonstrate the harmful effects of disinformation on the real world. This article presents the findings of an empirical study conducted on a sample of 110 internet users to understand their attitudes towards fake news. The study aimed to explore how internet users perceive fake news, its forms, and the risks associated with believing false information. The research results demonstrate that the respondents had a good understanding of the concept of fake news and its dangers. Most of the respondents reported attempting to verify the information they read by cross-checking it with multiple sources of information.

Israel’s Geopolitical Strategy: Strategic Partnership, Territorial Disputes and International Support

This study delves into Israel's geopolitical strategy, with a particular focus on its strategic partnership, territorial disputes, and international support in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within the broader context of Middle East geopolitics. Israel, as a pivotal player in the Middle East, wields significant influence over regional stability and international politics. First, we examine the robust cooperation between Israel and the United States, a crucial alliance spanning political, military, and intelligence domains. This partnership not only bolsters Israel's national defense but also holds considerable sway in Middle East geopolitics. Next, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the territorial disputes, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which constitute the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. These disputes have intricate geopolitical implications and require international intervention, encompassing political and legal dimensions. Lastly, we concentrate on Israel's geopolitical standing on the global stage, emphasizing the influence of the United States and the role of international organizations. U.S. support significantly shapes Israel's international relations, while international entities play pivotal roles in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In essence, this study seeks to provide profound insights into Israel's geopolitical strategy and its profound impact on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the broader Middle East geopolitical landscape. By dissecting these critical elements, we aim to offer valuable perspectives and references for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the advancement of peace and stability in the Middle East.

The impact of digital citizenship on the development of the socio-political environment of the region

The emergence of cyberculture, characterized by extensive use of digital technologies, has transformed various spheres of life, notably the political domain. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of digital citizenship on the development of the socio-political environment of the region. The research methodology includes a comprehensive review of literature from specialized databases, providing a rich understanding of the evolving trends in cyber communication and digital citizenship. The study concludes that the exercise of citizenship within a cyberpolitical framework can contribute significantly to democratic expression, provided it aligns with the users’ comprehension and purposeful consumption of digital content. Authors conclude that digital citizenship have the transformative potential for socio-political development, while also highlighting the need for enhancing digital literacy and critical thinking skills among citizens to ensure the positive impact of this transformation in a region.

The existence of the Ahmadiyya in Indonesian democracy: a struggle for survival in the midst of the Islamic-movement competition

This article attempts to portray the competition of forces in the Indonesian democratic system, with the Ahmadiyya movement as the test case for the “contestation”. This article takes into account the reformation era as the landscape of the study, since this era opens a relatively wider opportunity for many entities to freely express their ideas and actions. Exploring the socio-political approach, this study comes up with the following findings: first, in the sociological domain, as predicted by Dawam Rahardjo, moderates defeat radical Indonesian Islam as the former outnumber the latter. However, in the political domain, as pointed out by Martin van Bruinessen, since the moderate Islam is just a silent majority, then the radical Islam wins the competition - marked by the issuance of the SKB Tiga Menteri, because the factor at work in the winning of this political competition is more on the “logic of power”, rather than the “power of logic”. The victory of the radical Islam in the political domain in turn implies at the failure of the Ahmadiyya movement in its struggle for survival in Indonesia.

The UK Supreme Court’s Miller II: Keeping the Court out of politics’ way?

Abstract In recent years, the legitimacy of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has come under increasing pressure, with critics accusing the Court of unduly entering the domain of “politics.” Using the September 2019 Miller/Cherry “prorogation” judgment as a case study, this article analyzes the tension underpinning the criticisms. In particular, it makes two theoretical claims. First, three normative worries guide attempts to distance adjudicative judgment from the political sphere. Courts should not disrespect settled law (the “lawmaking worry”), interfere with the autonomy of politics (“the interventionism worry”), or answer political questions (“non-justiciability worry”). Second, though all three worries represent coherent norms in the abstract, in deeply controversial cases like Miller/Cherry, those norms fail to be of independent help. Attempts to distinguish the judicial domain from the domain of politics, the article argues, are themselves rooted in ideologically deeply colored definitions and acts of political stance-taking.

Selected Contexts of the Contemporary Imaginarium of Europe: Metamorphoses and Activations of Political Images and Myths

This article reflects on contemporary images and myths of Europe as well as on those that accompanied European political discourse, or funded it. The choice of specific elements of the imaginarium is dictated by their rank and their political and social impact, as well as their links with the recent and current political and social reality (the Cold War period, the transformation years in Central and Eastern Europe, the ongoing migration crisis). The author considers the sources, transformations and activation of political myths and the specificity of political stories and structures, as well as the political and social functions that they perform. The significant motif of this article is related to the thought of Hans Blumenberg. The work on political myth is linked with the ‘socio-political’ need for significance and understanding of the processes, phenomena and events taking place in the social and political domain.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis and Energy Insecurity: Is energy transition a sustainable alternate?

Phenomena like globalization and interdependence shape the contemporary world. The outbreak of Russia-Ukraine crisis instigated a wave of alarm amongst the global leaders due to a high risk of the war’s potential consequences on the entire world. As the crisis intensified, it started taking economic, political and energy domains under its spur. On one hand, west imposed sanctions on Russian economic and energy firms, i.e., Gazprom. Being an energy giant, Russia utilized its energy resources as a tool to respond to the western sanctions. Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II pipelines were shut down. Hence, triggering an energy crisis in states like UK, Germany, France etc. Coupled with harsh winter, hike in energy bills and food prices etc. has had both social and economic ramifications. To curb this energy security dilemma, European states have undertaken several steps including signing deals with countries like Norway, Azerbaijan and Qatar. Energy transition is yet another option at the table for EU member states to consider to deal with this crisis. This research paper will discuss the significance of Russian energy resources, the European energy crisis that has been instigated as a result of Russia-Ukraine conflict, the implications of this crisis, attempts of European countries to deal with it. This paper will also highlight the phenomena of energy transition and whether it can serve as a sustainable and self-reliant substitute for Russian energy resources or not.

Prototypicality threat drives support for nativist politics in U.S. and U.K. elections

Recent research shows that increasing diversity due to immigration can lead members of dominant ethnic groups (e.g., Whites in America) to experience prototypicality threat – the concern that their claim to best represent their national identity may be lost. Here we examine the emotional and behavioral responses to prototypicality threat in the domain of politics. Across eight years, five studies, two nations, and four electoral contexts (White Americans’ support for Trump in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election; White Britons’ support for the 2016 Brexit Referendum; White Americans’ support for Congressional candidates in 2018 U.S. Midterm Election; and White Americans’ support for a fictitious Congressional candidate in the 2022 U.S. Midterm Election), we show that prototypicality threat explains support for nativist policies and candidates. Furthermore, when those high in prototypicality threat see their favored nativist politics as victorious, they report lower anxiety and threat after the election. By demonstrating the role of prototypicality threat in support for nativist politics specifically, this work helps us understand how people respond to broad societal issues and suggests novel strategies for addressing politics hostile to immigrants.

The Influence of Radical Islam on the Quality of Islamic Education in Schools

This paper discusses the influence of radical Islamic understanding on the quality of Islamic education in schools. The method used in this research is qualitative. While the data collection technique is literature. The results of this study indicate that. First, the notion of radicalism in Islam is an understanding that wants radical changes in both the individual, social, political and religious domains. The understanding of religious radicalism wants a fast and revolutionary change by using exclusive, extreme, fundamentalist methods and finally terrorizing opponents who do not agree with them. Interpreting the verses of the Qur’an and hadith is done textually and according to their wishes. Second, currently the influence of radicalism has targeted and entered into Islamic education in schools. The survey results of several institutions indicate that the influence of radicalism and intolerance is included in the realm of Islamic education. The influence of radical understanding in the world of Islamic education today is through various ways, it could be from the teachers, the learning curriculum in schools, learning methods, textbooks to the inclusion of mass media platforms. Third, deradicalization of radicalism in Islamic education needs to be done to ward off radicalism, such as parents and the community jointly preventing the rise of cases of radicalism in the world of education.

Spillover effect of workplace democracy: A conceptual revision.

The so-called "spillover thesis" by Pateman is one of the prominent theoretical explanations for why workplace-based participation and democracy could induce stronger political participation. By this thesis, Pateman underscored the relevance of industrial workplaces as relevant places where citizens can be socialized regarding democratic attitudes while proposing the educative effect of workplace democracy and assuming a strong linkage between workplace-based and political participation as moderated by self-efficacy. The spillover thesis has received a controversial consideration as previous empirical studies have provided inconsistent evidence. Some empirical undertakings support the assumption by Pateman and indicate a positive relationship between workplace democracy and societal effects, like increased moral and community orientation or higher levels of political participation among employees from companies with higher degrees of workplace democracy. Other empirical studies yield results that do not confirm the thesis. Scholars have discussed method-based shortcomings of the previous empirical research while pointing to the inconsistency of definitions and operationalizations as the main shortcoming. In contrast to that, systematic conceptual consideration of the spillover thesis and the accompanying scholarship are still lacking. The present article addresses this shortcoming and provides a critical reflection on the spillover thesis and corresponding research. It aims at identifying the main conceptual shortcomings and providing avenues for future theoretical undertakings in analyzing whether and how participation at the workplace is related to participation in political domains.

Thinking Transindividuality along the Spinoza-Marx Encounter: A Conversation

Ever since the publication of Read’s The Politics of Transindividuality (2015), the academic interest in transindividuality has steadily mounted. In this conversation, Bram Wiggers and Jason Read discuss the current state of affairs around the concept of transindividuality. The conversation begins with a definition of transindividuality and discusses what sets the term apart from other philosophies of social individuation. Having defined the concept of transindividuality, the conversation then engages with the question of how transindividuality can be adopted as a means of social-political critique. First, Bram and Jason discuss how transindividuality is evoked but not explicitly mentioned in the social-political critiques of Spinoza and Marx. Secondly, the conversation takes up the social-political critiques of Paolo Virno and Bernard Stiegler who make explicit use of transindividuality. Central to the later parts of the conversation is the complicated interrelation between the political and economic domains of individuation, as well as the tendency of collective modes of representation to be effaced and obscured by (neoliberal) individualism and the post-Fordist conditions of labor. Overall, the conversation highlights the relevance of transindividuality for social-political philosophical critique.