Elite Research Articles

Tradition and Modernity: The Interface of Clan Structures and Electoral Politics in Naga Society

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between clan structures and electoral politics within Naga society, focusing on the interface between tradition and modernity. Challenging the perception of traditional institutions as static entities, the study highlights how clan structures are not timeless but rather modern constructs, subject to reinvention and adaptation. Drawing on the works of Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983), the research explores how clan members navigate power dynamics and political influences, particularly in the context of emerging political elites. By employing a social construction approach, the author investigates how traditional clan systems influence modern electoral contestation and vice versa. Through fieldwork conducted in Phaibung Khullen village, the author, an insider researcher, examines the interplay between traditional practices and contemporary electoral processes. The findings underscore the mutual reconfiguration of clan structures and electoral politics, emphasizing the enduring influence of tradition on modern political mobilization. This study contributes to a nuanced understanding of how traditional institutions shape and are shaped by the evolving landscape of electoral contestation in Naga society, highlighting the complex interface between tradition and modernity in clan-based communities.

Mainstreaming anti-Semitism on Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT: Examining Payitaht: Abdülhamid

While conspiracy theories have traditionally received attention from the Turkish public and political elite, recently, however, they have proliferated when explaining complex situations. This paper examines conspiracy theories in Turkey and the role of entertainment media, specifically the popular period drama, Payitaht: Abdülhamid, in mainstreaming conspiracy theories. Payitaht: Abdülhamid, as an ideological state apparatus, repurposes anti-Semitism as salient conspiracy theories by creating scapegoats and existential others. This paper argues that the state uses entertainment media to disseminate conspiracy theories and, in effect, endorses anti-Semitism. As a result, anti-Semitism has transformed from a marginal movement to a mainstream movement.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Socialisation in the Knowledge Society

This paper addresses socialisation in the knowledge society, focusing on the usefulness of socialisation for the knowledge society. In the educational knowledge society, the processes of socialisation are increasingly understood as the accumulation of social and cultural capital, related to the functions of educational development. The aim of the research is to critically perform a comprehensive analysis of socialisation in the knowledge society by carefully examining socialisation, knowledge, knowledge society, knowledge economy, education and social studies. The features, types and stages of socialisation, the concept of knowledge and its types, the consequences of knowledge society, knowledge society as academic concept and stage of development as well as the analysis of socialisation for the knowledge society were thoroughly discussed in this study. The conceptualization of the knowledge society, which emerged between 1940 and 1960, is examined in this paper along with its significance. The knowledge of society's cognitive role structure and the spiritual qualities that influence creativity are discussed as essential components of socialisation. Under the broad technological field, and circumstances of modern knowledge culture, the potential of early socialisation is described by the dynamics of the professional maturation period. In order to understand the substance of modern education in accordance with its cultural mission, the study develops the theoretical groundwork and offers practical justification for socialisation as a concept, which is vital to the growth of the knowledge society. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the governments, political and economic elites, as well as businesses, civil society, news media, and academic communities should embrace the usefulness of socialisation in the knowledge society.

Immigrant threat, perception of unsafety, and political articulation of immigration and multiculturalism in European countries

A large body of work has examined the relationship between population composition and risk of victimization. Past research has also suggested that the nature of political rhetoric may have profound impacts on perceived threat, fear of crime, and moral panic. This study constitutes the first attempt to examine the relationships between the negative political articulation of both immigration and multiculturalism by extreme right-wing parties and the perception of unsafety risk in European countries. We employ data from the 2018 European Social Survey (ESS), which we merge with data from the Manifesto Project Dataset, a comparative dataset on political statements. The results reveal that individuals who reside in countries with higher levels of negative political articulation of immigration and multiculturalism express greater perceived unsafety. The results also show that higher levels of perceived immigrant threat amplify the relationship between negative political articulation of immigration and perceived unsafety. Finally, news exposure amplifies the effect of the negative political articulation of immigration on the perception of unsafety when perceived immigrant threat is higher. Our findings underscore the importance of the political context and the potential of political elites to shape public perceptions, including the perception of unsafety.

Dynamics of English gratitude expression: a corpus-assisted analysis of UK government COVID-19 briefings

Abstract With a focus on politicians’ and medical experts’ gratitude expressions in UK government COVID-19 briefings, this research describes how perspective and intensity were modulated in expressing gratitude to realise different pragmatic intentions. This corpus-assisted analysis finds that retrospective or prospective gratitude expression was adopted by the two British elite groups to build solidarity (encouraging) and/or make requests (directing) for protecting public health. Gratitude of varying intensities was expressed (e.g. by highlighting metaphorical dimensions such as WIDTH and DEPTH) to correspond to the importance of a benefit (judged by how much the given benefit matches the receiver’s needs and preferences) and/or to implicitly display the evaluation of the benefactor’s responsibility and efforts. We tentatively formulate a dynamic model of gratitude expression in public discourse and shed light on the metaphorical conceptualisation of English gratitude expression and the power of gratitude expression in boosting social cohesion and directing social actions in a discourse of crisis.

Normative Power China: Why Kazakhstan is Ignoring the ‘Re-education’ Camps in Xinjiang

The issue of the Xinjiang re-education camps has not led to universal condemnation of China’s policies. In fact, some of the countries whose citizens are interned prefer not to press the issue at all. This has been the case of Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian country neighbouring China. Using the concept of normative power China (NPC), this article examines via content analysis of speeches and interviews how and why the Kazakhstani government has followed the Chinese official position. The results suggest that China has been somewhat successful in exerting its normative influence amongst the Kazakhstani political elites.

Autonomy as a form of state sovereignty of the Ukrainian Cossack State (late XVII-XVIII centuries)

The study of Ukrainian statehood’s history is important for understanding the continuity of state formation in Ukraine and supporting the nation-state revival. It is crucial to examine Cossack statehood in the mid-17th century, specifically its foreign policy and international situation. The purpose of this article is to study the main directions of activity of the hetman administration of the Ukrainian Cossack state in the XVII-XVIII centuries, focusing on protecting the sovereignty of the Ukrainian government in domestic and foreign policy. The article’s methodological basis is rooted in general scientific principles and methods of cognition. These principles aim to provide an objective and comprehensive understanding of facts, events, and phenomena. The research follows the principles of historicism and objectivism, which prioritize factual material and avoid bias. General and specific historical methods of scientific research were employed in investigating the topic. These methods included: analysis and synthesis when examining sources and literature, periodization for organizing the research, problem-historical approach for presenting historical material, and comparative-historical analysis for comparing similar indicators and facts within the same historical context. Result: The elite’s perception of itself as a subject of socio-political life led to the creation of contractual orientations and the demand for mutual obligations to be recognized. This was evident in the requirements of the monarch’s oath to fulfill the contract. The Ukrainian political elite justified their intentions and actions towards protectorates based on the principle of contract, showing their willingness to fulfill contractual obligations on an equal footing. Conclusions: The legal subjectivity of the Ukrainian political elite has been reduced to post-sovereign autonomism due to increasing foreign policy imperial pressure. The typological characteristics of this are the following: 1) recognition of the supreme power of the protector-monarch; 2) refusal to regulate social relations by the laws of the protector’s country; 3) categorical denial of the right of the political elite of the monarch-protector’s country to perform any managerial functions within the political system of the Hetmanship.

The Impact of the European Union on the Endorsement of the Justice Reform in Albania

European integration has been the primary goal of Albanian foreign policy since the collapse of the communist regime, regardless of the ruling political party. The political elite and the Albanian people embrace and support the integration process. Also, the European Union has grown as a transformative power in Albania, fostering democracy, influencing structural reforms, and impacting the rule of law through the promise of future accession. However, the enlargement process has been slow due to internal and external factors. The article analyzes the EU as a transformative power and the use of Conditionality in Albania as an essential diffusion channel of the EU's values and norms, using the adoption of justice reform as a key study. The article's objective is to examine how the EU perspective membership has influenced the endorsement of justice reform in Albania. The paper argues that the EU approach has succeeded in fostering compliance with formal accession criteria but has yet to implement the justice reform due to internal factors and a not linear enlargement perspective. Progress Reports, literature, surveys, and media articles will be analyzed to fulfill the paper's objective.   Received: 10 February 2024 / Accepted: 20 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Explaining the impact of citizens’ initiatives on social movements: insights from the Spanish housing movement

ABSTRACT How do instruments of direct democracy affect the social movement organisations that sponsor them? Drawing on social movement studies and direct democracy research, we argue that direct democracy has a transformative effect on its sponsors because it triggers a triple process of movement building, learning, and bargaining with political elites. This triple process sets in motion enduring trends within the organisation that has undertaken the burden of promoting the initiative. We illustrate this argument with the case of a people’s legislative initiative (a non-binding mechanism of direct democracy) organised by a housing rights organisation between 2011 and 2013 to counter the eviction crisis in Spain. This initiative did not result in the reform that activists demanded. Nevertheless, it contributed to consolidating the sponsor organisation, innovating its repertoire of action, and broadening its strategic options.

Who Believes in Fraud in the 2006 Mexican Presidential Election? Election Denialism, Partisan Motivated Reasoning, and Affective Polarization

Abstract Why do some voters believe that there is electoral fraud when this belief contradicts the best available evidence? While the literature on public opinion has explored misperceptions’ pervasiveness and the factors that contribute to them in advanced industrial democracies, the present study analyzes motivated reasoning among voters in a young democracy, Mexico. This study highlights the important role that partisanship plays in voters’ likelihood to believe the allegations of electoral fraud in the 2006 presidential election in Mexico, which continues polarizing both political elites and the electorate even today. To understand the mechanisms at work, this research finds that it is not voters lacking information but rather voters with high levels of affective polarization and conspiratorial thinking who are more likely to believe that there was electoral fraud. The study also includes a survey experiment that fact-checked the belief in the alleged electoral fraud. Consistent with motivated reasoning theory, MORENA partisans resisted efforts to reduce their misperception. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the conditions that make some voters hold misperceptions in young democracies.

Activism in the era of democratic backsliding: explaining the efficacy of the clean-air campaigns in Poland

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship on popular mobilization and activism in Central and East Europe suggests a shift from institutionalized civil society organizations towards grassroots mobilization. Whilst the emergence of such citizen-led activism across the region can be traced back to the anti-neoliberal urban movements that arose in the 2010s in the immediate post EU-accession period, the so-called “illiberal turn” and the legal restrictions placed on formal civil society organizations by radical right and conservative politicians have arguably exacerbated the shift and momentum. In Poland, the reaction of political elites to air pollution activism and the apparent responsiveness of policymakers is particularly puzzling given the “green conservatism” bordering on “environmental nativism” of the Law and Justice government (2015-2023). Building on semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 policymakers and activists involved in the clean air campaign in Poland, we contend that their success in terms of increased public awareness and positive government response is a consequence of the concurrence of (i) a particular (health) framing of air pollution, (ii) the devolution of power and responsibility for managing air quality to regional government, (iii) the circulation of new information and data, and (iv) the emergence of new actors and activist strategies.

The Clash of Collective Memories in Postwar Chechnya

ABSTRACT Established shortly after the beginning of the Second Russo-Chechen war of 1999–2009, the Russian-backed Chechen government is actively engaged in a reinterpretation of the nation’s history. The Chechen political elite that ruled the republic during its independence (1991–1999) opposes these efforts and promotes a version of history that dominated Chechen public discourse in the 1990s. Relying on qualitative methodology, this article explores Chechen memory politics of the past three decades through these two dominant clashing interpretations. The article answers the question: What Chechen collective memories are the most contested and why?

High-Intensity Hydraulic Fracturing May Hold Off US Gulf Oil Declines, but Shell Study Reveals That It’s No Easy Feat

_ When stimulating oil wells in the ultradeep Lower Tertiary play, “It is impossible to do too much contingency planning.” Those words rank high in a new study by Shell that shows how it has borrowed a page from the unconventional revolution to create “massive hydraulic fractures” in some of the deepest wells ever drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. Only a handful of operators can claim to have any experience in this area, but with more looking to follow suit the profile of US Gulf production may soon look a lot different. A separate study by Enverus Intelligence Research highlights that since 2016, at least 27 multistage hydraulically fractured wells have been completed in the Lower Tertiary, also called the Paleogene. That accounts for about half of all wells producing from the low-permeability trend defined by interbedded sandstones and shales that in the central US Gulf are found 5 to 6 miles below sea level. Enverus forecasts that as the share of fractured wells rises, Lower Tertiary production will more than double from 270,000 B/D in 2023 to 750,000 B/D by 2028. The market intelligence firm predicts such a surge will offset much of the anticipated declines from older Gulf projects and stabilize the region’s output at nearly 2 million B/D throughout the decade. The trailblazers are led by Chevron with 14 fractured wells at its Jack/St. Malo project followed by Shell with nine at the Great White unit and the Stones field, which at a water depth of 9,500 ft, is host to the world’s deepest production facility. The elite group is rounded out by US independent LLOG, which has three high-intensity fractured wells in the Buckskin field, and ExxonMobil with one in its Julia development. “Over the past decade the belief was that much of the Lower Tertiary would be subcommercial because many of the discoveries were around 5 to 15 md, which in the offshore context is considered super tight,” Marvin Ma, an analyst at Enverus, said. “But based on the experiences we’re seeing from Chevron and Shell, I think operators are starting to realize that it is possible to develop these projects commercially.” Indeed, the numbers shared so far are hard to ignore. Early production rates reported from some of the newest Lower Tertiary fractured wells have ranged between 15,000 and 22,000 B/D. And while poor results have been seen, Enverus believes the estimated ultimate recoveries (EURs) of many fractured wells ranges from 18–73% above the group with traditional completions. These figures translate to 6 to 10 million bbl of incremental crude. The View From 30,000 Feet If large-scale fracturing is the key to commercial success in the Lower Tertiary, it will not come easy. The remoteness poses cumbersome logistical challenges while the pressures involved with running a frac job in deepwater wells requires far more planning and modeling than usual. Ken Lizak, a completions advisor at Shell, said his team has reaped the rewards of this due diligence but noted future improvements are heavily reliant on technological progress.

Fascist-Axis Slovakia’s spiritual Polis Politicus: transformation of Ružomberok to the ‘capital of the movement’ under the Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party Rule (1938–1945)

ABSTRACT After the events of autumn 1938, the Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (Hlinkova slovenská ľudová strana; HSĽS) engaged in mythmaking to legitimize its regime in people's eyes. This included making a legend about the ‘capital of the movement’, a city linked to the party’s political struggle leading to ‘ultimate victory’. Ružomberok was naturally chosen, where chairman Andrej Hlinka lived and worked as a priest, and the party’s influential Ružomberok group came from. Using a creative destruction lens, this study follows the transformation of Ružomberok’s image from a provincial, politically insignificant town to the Slovak State’s spiritual metropolis and fascist Neueuropa’s progressive model city. We focus on the dynamics of reshaping: from initial plans, unimplemented reconstruction projects to politically motivated interventions in the public space to remodel Ružomberok corresponding to the new national ideology into a polis politicus highlighting the new aesthetics and values. Finally, we analyse political iconoclasm’s specific manifestations based on examples of political interference in architecture. We also reflect on the collapse of the old, ‘decadent’ to the construction of the new, ‘progressive’ on a societal level as targeted attempts by political elites to prove their system’s vitality through modernization compared to its predecessors.

State Youth Policy in Recruitment System of Political Leader

The article contains the results of a study, the aim of which was to identify the role of youth policy in the system of recruiting political leaders. In the text, the authors analyze the features of the formation and stages of development of youth policy as a part of state policy aimed at supporting young people and realizing their interests. The article describes existing programs and projects designed not only to support young people, but also to help identify, develop and support their political potential and, consequently, the formation of youth political leadership in Russia. The paper presents the results of an expert survey conducted by the authors in 2023, the aim of which was to determine the features of state youth policy as a tool for the formation and identification of the leadership potential of youth, as well as the integration of its representatives into the country’s political elite through the system of recruiting youth political leaders. As a result, the authors came to the conclusion that recently there has been an evolution of state youth policy in the indicated manner. It acts as the primary mechanism of socialization in the field of political leadership, providing opportunities for building a career in various fields of activity, including in the field of public policy and public administration. At the same time, as a result of the study, the authors came to the conclusion about the fragmented nature of its implementation, expressed in the difference between the declared and actual levels, which meanwhile makes it possible to build career trajectories and social elevators for a certain category of young people, forming the first level of the pool for recruiting political leaders.

Caracterización Antropométrica En Deportistas De Artes Marciales Mixtas Por Métodos De Fraccionamiento De Masa Corporal En Dos Y Cinco Componentes Y El Somatotipo

Introduction: Finding a balance between physical abilities in mixed martial arts (MMA) is one of the greatest challenges for this discipline; their ignorance can lead to inappropriate practices for the athlete's entry into an ideal weight category, making it necessary to carry out an anthropometric description to provide reference data that allow the classification and interpretation of the athletes' anthropometric indicators. Anthropometrically characterize the athletes (MMA) of the elite group of athletes from the city of Medellín, to determine the body composition by 2 and 5 components and the somatotype. Methods:  A descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out, 22 athletes were evaluated, with an average age of 26.5 ± 3.5 years, and analysis of the anthropometric variables was made to determine the body composition. Results: In the two-compartment model, the equations of Jackson Pollock and Yuhasz had the lowest average fat in both men: 9,00 ± 3,33% and 8,47 ± 1,69% respectively, and in women: 17.72 ± 6.68%, 12.20 ± 3.67%. The proportion of adipose tissue was calculated with the five-component method, it was converted into fat weight, being lower by weight category in relation to the bicompartmental method, and the somatotype was evaluated under the Heath-Carter model. Conclusion: The athletes evaluated in this study have a lean mass and body fat very similar to those of Brazilians, the 5-component model is a timely methodology to generate reference data that allows classifying the athlete and also optimizing their somatotype.

Oligarki dalam Demokrasi serta Prakteknya dalam Politik Hukum Indonesia

Oligarchy, or political domination by a small number of individuals or groups, has become a concern in the context of democracy. The existence and practices of oligarchy can have significant implications for the formation of legal policy and the distribution of justice. The aim of this research is to investigate the concept of oligarchy in democracy, as well as analyze how oligarchy is practiced in Indonesian legal politics. This study used qualitative research methods. The data collection technique in this research is literature study. The data that has been collected is then analyzed in three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. The research results show that the concept of oligarchy in democracy refers to a political system in which political power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of individuals, often having close relationships with certain politicians and supporters. Oligarchy management in Indonesian legal politics is carried out through oligarchic political practices carried out by an elite group consisting of politicians, businessmen and military figures who hold power. This oligarchic political practice does not occur without reason, because indirectly, several legal provisions in Indonesia actually extend political domination that should be democratic. This situation makes it difficult to avoid oligarchic politics in Indonesia.  

Partisanship and Risk Talk on Twitter

There is abundant evidence that political polarization is associated with perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article turns to online expression and investigates the prominence, targets, and drivers of risk talk about the pandemic from Democrats and Republicans on Twitter/X, combining a user-level analysis, a content-level analysis, and manual coding of key accounts. We find that risk talk accounted for a greater share of pandemic-related discussion for Republicans compared to Democrats. Also, the specific targets of risk talk differed: Republicans focused more on risks related to public health guidelines and policies, vaccines, science, and the information environment, whereas Democrats emphasized risks associated with the coronavirus, politicians, and the economy. Furthermore, risk talk on both sides was spearheaded by news media, politicians, and activists; yet, this tendency to retweet opinion leaders was stronger among Republicans. These findings reveal nuanced partisan differences in risk-related opinion expression regarding the pandemic and point to the critical role of media and political elites within partisan groups in driving such opinion expression. Methodologically, our findings demonstrate how a multipronged analytic approach can help us identify meaningful expression patterns on social media.

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.

Elite Attitudes to the ‘Public Sphere’ in Fifteenth-Century Castile

ABSTRACT This article examines the manifold and complex responses of fifteenth-century elite politicians and writers to ‘public’ politics in Castile. Through analysis of a variety of sources including chronicles, allegorical poems, treatises, glosses and letters, it shows how the multiple conceptions of non-elite agency and attitudes to it can nuance our understanding of Castilian politics in the late Middle Ages. It argues that fifteenth-century chronicles, glosses and allegorical poems demonstrate a new attention from the elite to wider contexts beyond the confines of the traditional political society, which responded both to literary fashions and to real changes in the political reality of late medieval society. Moreover, their complex and even contradictory responses, which denigrated, appropriated and addressed these wider ‘publics’, ought to be considered integral to the development of ‘public opinion’, as part of a set of discursive and institutional struggles for the right to express political opinions.