Political Folklore Research Articles

Protest Slogans of the Snow Revolution in Russia (2011–2012) as an Expression of Peaceful Resistance against the Authorities

The expression of resistance against the authorities during the street protests of the so-called snow revolution in the years 2011-2012 reached a level of mass creativity and visuality previously and since unrecorded in Russian social life and, despite its lack of success, it is worth attention due to its openness and intensity. During the snow revolution a certain corpus of texts (slogans) was shaped, with repeatability typical for folklore – it was a recurrence of themes, motifs, characters, linguistic tricks, images, textual models. The aim of analyzing selected protest slogans is to showcase contexts that constitute the source of oppositional expression on the textual (slogan on a poster), visual (image on a poster) and object (artifacts) level. The examples of the protest creativity presented in the article prove that verbal, visual and material ways of resistance realized functions typical for political folklore, such as integrating the rebels, mocking the stronger enemy as a defense strategy, unmasking the crimes of the government, and expressing the expectations of the protesters.

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

Tito and Children in Political Folklore 1980: Wishes for Tito's Speedy Recovery

In 1980 Tito's health deteriorated. The citizens of Yugoslavia followed the news about the course of his illness with apprehension and anticipation. From January to May 1980, citizens sent more than four hundred thousand messages wishing Tito a speedy recovery. Among the most numerous were children. Starting from the assumption of the closeness between political socialization, folklore and political culture in Yugoslav society, in this paper I analyze some of the basic motives present in the messages that children sent to Tito. Insight into the messages that the editors of the publication "Tito. Messages, wishes - the children of Yugoslavia" call a "vow", and in the sense of the promise that children will preserve the achievements of Yugoslav socialism, it enables the reconstruction of Yugoslav political myths and Tito's representation within children's political culture. The reconstruction of the narrative enables the recognition of the following motives: Tito as a hero and a fighter against all evil; 2. Tito as a solar deity; 3. Tito as an (imaginary) friend and protector of all the children of the world. For the purposes of this paper, wishes for a speedy recovery are understood as a folklore genre, and some of the specifics of Yugoslav children's political folklore.

Astapova , Anastasiya Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State (review)

REVIEWS 563 Astapova, Anastasiya. Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State. Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, Boulder, CO, New York and London, 2021. xii + 171 pp. Notes. References. Index. $95.00: £73.00. The close relationship between humour and rumour is the main theme of the latest work by Dr Astapova, a senior research fellow in Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, who first became known by her Negotiating Belarusianess: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between (see SEER, 94, 4, pp. 772–74). Her new thoroughly researched study, whilst again concentrating on Belarus and Lukashenka, is also notable for pointing out that many of the jokes about him could be or, indeed, are replicated in generic forms referring to other dictators, like, to mention but a few, Soviet General Secretaries, Putin, Franco, Castro and, indeed, the leaders of some of the former Soviet satellites and most of its republics, not to mention some countries in the ostensibly democratic European Union. After the Introduction, the book’s six chapters, each subdivided, are: 1. Why Does the Jelly Tremble? Surveillance Rumors and the Vernacular Panopticon; 2. Why Do all Dictators Have Moustaches? Political Jokes in the Authoritarian State; 3. Joking about the Fear (of Joking); 4. The Making of the President: Lukashenko’s Official Image and Vernacular Ridicule; 5. When the President Comes: Potemkin Villages; and 6. ‘There is a High Probability of the Mustachioed Dude’s Victory’: Election without Choice. Her conclusion begins with a well-known Soviet joke about animals collecting money to build a bridge, in which only the donkey (in some versions, goat) is successful. It was repeated to her twice in 2019, something she considers symptomatic: ‘the joke is a perfect reflection of the current Belarusian political and social life: nepotism, corruption, and a shadow economy which results in terrible unprofessionalism, especially from those employed in the state apparatus […] Both rumors and jokes about corruption are a matter of everyday life and discussion: rather than making people feel indignant, this becomes a normalized reality that everyone regularly faces’ (pp. 139–40). The main fieldwork for this study was carried out in 2013 with remarkable thoroughness in her native Viciebsk and in Miensk, although a few jokes were recorded at later dates. The author, however, was well aware that while her book was coming out, some changes were perhaps coming about in 2020 after yet another fake election was followed by exceptionally widespread and persistent mass protests, notably, led for the first time by women, but regularly broken up with extreme violence. Certainly, some Belarusians felt and perhaps still feel optimistic, but in January 2021, for example, all post from abroad was (still) being opened by the ‘customs’. Whatever happens, Astapova’s book will SEER, 99, 3, JULY 2021 564 retain its relevance, being both enlightening and entertaining, and written in a scholarly yet readable way with some familiar and many more unfamiliar illustrative examples. There are a number of misprints, most of which may be silently corrected. It is, however, unfortunate for Jonathan Waterlow, author of a book about life and humour under Stalin, that he should twice be referred to as Waterloo. Perhaps worse is the misspelling of the name of Brian Bennett as Bennet both in the text and the references, particularly as he is one of the few referenced authors who actually met Lukashenka when he was our Man in Miensk in the years 2003–07. These points do not detract seriously from a book which is without doubt a milestone in the important and fascinating field of political folklore. It should interest anyone interested in Belarus or, indeed, authoritarian societies in general. London Arnold McMillin Haynes, Rebecca. Moldova: A History. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2020. xvi + 237 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £65.00; £19.99. In her book, Rebecca Haynes responds to the challenge of writing the history of one of the most recent states to emerge on Europe’s map: the Republic of Moldova. Very little has been written on this topic in English or in French (see Charles King, Alain Ruzé, Nicholas Dima, Stephen D...

Haynes , Rebecca Moldova: A History (review)

SEER, 99, 3, JULY 2021 564 retain its relevance, being both enlightening and entertaining, and written in a scholarly yet readable way with some familiar and many more unfamiliar illustrative examples. There are a number of misprints, most of which may be silently corrected. It is, however, unfortunate for Jonathan Waterlow, author of a book about life and humour under Stalin, that he should twice be referred to as Waterloo. Perhaps worse is the misspelling of the name of Brian Bennett as Bennet both in the text and the references, particularly as he is one of the few referenced authors who actually met Lukashenka when he was our Man in Miensk in the years 2003–07. These points do not detract seriously from a book which is without doubt a milestone in the important and fascinating field of political folklore. It should interest anyone interested in Belarus or, indeed, authoritarian societies in general. London Arnold McMillin Haynes, Rebecca. Moldova: A History. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2020. xvi + 237 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £65.00; £19.99. In her book, Rebecca Haynes responds to the challenge of writing the history of one of the most recent states to emerge on Europe’s map: the Republic of Moldova. Very little has been written on this topic in English or in French (see Charles King, Alain Ruzé, Nicholas Dima, Stephen D. Roper), not always from a historical point of view, and sometimes a linguistic one (Donald Dwyer). The author has focused in the past on issues related to the history of Moldova and Romania, and has published several works on topics related to twentiethcentury political history. An explanation for the lack of monographs on the subject is the fact that the Republic of Moldova is a successor to only half of the former medieval principality of Moldavia, and it shares a common history with one part of what is nowadays Romania. Most historians have approached this region as a whole, and only historians from the Republic of Moldova have tried, for reasons that are easy to understand, to shape a history only for the region between the Prut and the Dniester rivers, seen as the evolution of a newly independent country set against the post-1991 struggle for democracy. A comprehensive study of this little-known region is therefore welcome. Its nine chapters present a valuable achievement of synthesis, with the author dealing with seven centuries of Moldovan history, from its beginning to the disputes between political parties in the contemporary Republic of Moldova. Haynes prefers to use the current REVIEWS 565 name of the republic, even when referring to the medieval and pre-modern period of the history of this principality, known in English literature under its Latinized name: Moldavia. It must also be pointed out that, within this political structure, the area between the Prut and the Dniester (called Bessarabia by the Russians after 1812) was always an area of secondary interest, less populated and less urbanized and with lower economic status, since it was more exposed to Tatar attacks from Crimea and Budjak. Haynes, though, has risen to the challenge of integrating the territory of the current Republic of Moldova (the eastern part of the former principality) into the history of the entire country — not an easy task. She initially focuses on the country as a whole, only shifting her attention to the area between the Prut and the Dniester after it began to be shaped into existence after the Russian occupation of 1812. This is a common situation in many other countries in the Balkans, where there are several histories shared by different states. I should note the author’s capacity for synthesis, as she presents us with a coherent narrative that allows the reader unfamiliar with the political landscape in Southeast Europe to better understand the complex political and economic relations that guided the evolution of the Romanian principalities. Caught between various neighbouring powers, such as Poland, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, which were later joined by Russia and Austria, Moldavia managed to preserve its political identity, and retained a wide autonomy even in the darkest years of the eighteenth century. The strongest part...

“Returning Home as an Enemy”. The Languages for Description and Self-Description of Inner Asia Repatriates

The article explores the doubts and anxieties associated with the return of two communities of Russian long-term residents of Inner Asia – the Cossack repatriates of the Three Rivers Region and the local Mongolian Russians – to the Soviet citizenship. The theoretical basis of the article is the statement about the epistemological character of the presence of the past, which determines a crucial influence of the current terms on any historical knowledge. In this perspective, the memory of the past can be considered not only as its subjective reflection, but also as a social practice that identifies the community’s status. The purpose of this article is to show how the Soviet people used speech practices in relation to the temporary and spatial discrepancy of repatriates. The main characters of this article will be the ways of creating an image of the enemy linguistically and mastering it by target groups in everyday life. In this perspective, the decision to repatriate, which causes distrust and alarm, is a convenient marker for the inclusion of local political folklore in the conflict between ethnic and political solidarity in Soviet society

Політичний фольклор як протестний дискурс С. Єфремова (за матеріалами Щоденників 1923 – 1929 рр.)

Political folklore, as a reflection on political processes, has a pragmatic aspect in the form of political anecdotes. The formation of plots around which a verbal story is created indicates the degree of public attention to political phenomena, facts and political actors. Therefore, for the researcher of such texts, not only the anecdotes themselves are important, but also the topics around which the plot was built. As a tool of historical memory that can be used for political purposes, a political anecdote can emotionally complement or deny historical memory. Hence the emphasis on some historical events, and the lack of plots on other events indicates the translation of meaning, which has an intermittent frequency of codes. Recognized by a common cultural space, but in a public space, they are under the control of a government that has both blocking tools and its own dissemination mechanism. Hence, the researcher deals with both controlled and protesting political anecdotes. The use of emotional images of "ours" and "others" through political anecdotes polarizes society, which can lead to both division and national unification. Therefore, it is important to study the reflection of changes and expectations, which are reflected through the discourse of everyday life on the example of political anecdotes. The analysis of political anecdotes recorded in the "Diaries" of Ukrainian public person Serhiy Yefremov from 1923 to 1929 is conducted. The protest discourse of political anecdotes is emphasized, which both reflected the protest attitude to the political regime and created new unofficial political discourses. Through the study of certain forms, techniques, metaphors, laughter communication is studied and the dual structure of the "theory of liberation" at the personal and political levels is proved.

PIOSENKA TRWAJĄCA WIECZNOŚĆ: SOWIECKI APARAT REPRESJI WOBEC UKRAIŃSKIEGO FOLKLORU POLITYCZNEGO

In the Soviet Ukraine, political folklore was a powerful channel of unofficial com-munication for a large part of that country’s population. Telling jokes and performing songs that ridiculed communist authorities as early as in the 1920s was a widespread way of expressing mass resistance against totalitarianism for many Ukrainians. In the 1930s-50s’, the Soviet apparatus of repression applied punishments of imprisonment lasting 3 to 10 years to those disseminating folkloric political satire along with confisca-tion of their property. Some people who were repressed for carrying out political folklore never returned from the GULAG. This article is based on folklore materials gleaned from criminal cases found in former NKVD and KGB archives, which were made available to researchers in 2015 in the Ukraine.

Folklor polityczny w czasopismach emigracji ukraińskiej wydawanych w międzywojennej Polsce

The article is devoted to the Ukrainian political folklore which was published in the inter-war press of the Ukrainian emigration. Some emigrant journals were published in Poland. The pages of these publications published political folklore which was banned in the USSR. The early publications of the anti-Soviet people’s satire have so far been poorly investigated by folklorists who were engaged in political folklore.

Homecomings From “The Hague”

Based on the analysis of media reporting on the release and return of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) defendants after the end of their trials or imprisonment, this article focuses on the homecoming celebrations organized for politically prominent defendants. While large celebratory homecomings were vastly covered and discussed by local media, most of the defendants actually returned with no public welcome. This article demonstrates that the homecomings of politically significant returnees became part of a normalized political folklore, in which the convicted individuals are welcomed in the same manner as those acquitted. Nevertheless, this article suggests that these events are not necessarily (or not only) an expression of popular support to wartime “heroes.” Instead, it argues that political actors seek to utilize the occasions of the return of those ICTY defendants who possess symbolic capital as wartime political or military leaders in order to gain political profit. As these homecomings have become an expected political and media spectacle, they are treated by media professionals as such. The local media coverage of the homecoming spectacles reveals that while they are politically potent events, they are also contested: on the one hand by the proponents of competing ethnonational historical narratives and on the other by more critical media outlets that refuse to take them at face value.

Lisandro E. Claudio. Taming People's Power: The EDSA Revolutions and Their Contradictions. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2013, 240p.

Taming People's Power: The EDSA Revolutions and Their ContradictionsLISANDRO E. CLAUDIOQuezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2013, 240p.People is the foundationalist myth of the ruling Aquino which began with the presidency of Corazon (Cory) C. Aquino who replaced the fallen dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986 and which continues under the presidency of her son, Benigno (Noynoy) S. Aquino, III, which will end in mid-2016. The Aquinos and their yellow crowd elite supporters claim legitimacy based on a divinely sanctioned popular uprising against an evil dictator re-establishing a righteous democracy. People power also gained international prominence as one of the first televised revolutions, with the plucky Cory Aquino defeating the wily dictator Marcos, leading to a heroic transition to democracy. That this piece of political folklore has lost appeal for most Filipinos who remain poor and are now often disillusioned with this once new political order is evidenced by the dwindling crowds at the annual celebration of power. The themselves seem to have abandoned the idea of people power.No recent book captures the ambiguous legacy of better than the work of the young Ateneo historian Lisandro E. Claudio. What Claudio has done in this book is quite extraordinary. He systematically distinguishes two formations, the official, yellow narrative and the anti-people National Democratic discourse of the communist left (later in the study it becomes evident that he analyzes a third discursive alternative as well: the subaltern perspective of laborers on the Aquino-Cojuangco owned Hacienda Luisita). Claudio then examines how these discourses are literally monumentalized and the message this political architecture is trying to convey. These material commemorations of the anti-Marcos struggle culminating in the mass uprising against Marcos that he examines are, on the one hand, the quasi-official of the Shrine of Mary Queen of Peace, popularly known as the Our Lady EDSA shrine and the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes) of the left.Beyond this Claudio then undertakes an ambitious and revealing case study of how people power is viewed in Hacienda Luisita, the great plantation of the landlord-politician Aquino- Cojuangco dynasty. But he also shows how the role of the communist left is viewed ambivalently by the sugar plantation workers, many of whom were caught up in violence initiated by the strike breaking landlords but also instrumentalized by the left.The book is well written in a sophisticated, but intelligible post-modern style, with key theoretical insights effectively used to clarify Claudio's discursive approach to recent Philippine history. The result is a study full of more insights about recent Philippine politics than any other I have read in past decade. Claudio constructs a theoretical framework for the book drawn from memory studies to reconstruct the people narrative. He invokes Foucault's regime of truth, a provisional . . . product of the capillary movement of knowledge-power-but may nevertheless coalesce into identifiable discursive formations (pp. 5-6). Not a mere top-down ideology like the authoritarian developmentalist one of the Marcos era, the mainstream discourse was created by the Church hierarchy, middle class activists, big business, and traditional politicians. But Claudio is not content with just analyzing the official story which deemphasizes the role played by ordinary Filipinos who overthrew Marcos in favor of the Godgiven- miracle explanation of EDSA (the major Manila street after which people power is often known in the Philippines). …

Dimensões teóricas sobre o folclore político no Brasil

<p>Este artigo tem como premissa uma revisão de literatura e digressões<br />sobre o tema do folclore político. Do ponto de vista de “Gênero Jornalístico”,<br />caracteriza-se mais pela publicação de pequenas notas, via de regra bem<br />humoradas, sobre ações engraçadas ou negativas praticadas por políticos<br />brasileiros. Do ponto de vista metodológico, faz uma revisão nos conceitos<br />de folclore político, folkcomunicação, marketing boca a boca e colunismo<br />político. E por fim fala de algumas passagens sobre o folclore político entre<br />presidentes da República e governantes mais conhecidos no país.</p>

Astapova, Anastasiya Negotiating Belarusianness: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between (review)

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 772 sense-memories and human interactions. It is both engaging and highly readable, and despite the odd typo and an incorrect date it is an extremely valuable addition to the growing body of literature on everyday life in the GDR, and will appeal to those interested not only in GDR history, but also in urban studies, geography, memory studies and sociology. While it might have been interesting to investigate the post-Wende period in more detail, such an endeavour doubtless warrants a study of its own. Although Marzahn may currently be seen as a place with no past and no future, there remains much to learn from its study in the present. School of Modern Languages and Cultures A. Saunders Bangor University Astapova, Anastasiya. Negotiating Belarusianness: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between. Dissertationes Folkloristicae Universitatis Tartuensis, 22. University of Tartu Press, Tartu, 2015. 214 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Price unknown. Political folklore in Belarus flourishes, despite the country’s reputation for apathy or, at least, passivity. Anastasiya Astapova’s thoroughly annotated dissertation offers the fullest analysis and illustration of this phenomenon to date. Its basic form is an extended introduction to the subject, including the work’s somewhat enigmatic title, followed by five of the author’s articles. The Introduction consists of: ‘Belarusian history and a rationale of current political situation’; ‘Representing Belarus: stereotypes, questions and challenges’; Theoretical framework and main concepts’; ‘Sources and methodology of this research’; and ‘The articles in brief and the main ideas described therein’. The English is at times less than authentic, and another minor problem is inherent to the dissertation’s format, namely the pagination, which makes direct reference to the work complex indeed: throughout the Introduction, References and Publications, as well as the first article, the pages are numbered consecutively 1–91; articles 2–5, however, are numbered individually, and the general pagination only resumes with ‘Summary in Estonian’ (p. 206). These small difficulties, however, pale beside the very thorough, well informed and illustrated research of a professional folklorist whose material, beyond the theory, is mainly derived from interviews with Belarusians inside and outside the country. Astapova has assembled some excellent verbal and visual illustrations to accompany her work. The first article, ‘Why all dictators have moustaches: Political jokes in contemporary Belarus’, for instance, has a picture of Hitler, Stalin and Lukashenka in profile over the heading ‘They Fought for Belarus’. REVIEWS 773 Manyofthejokesareofagenerickindrelatingtodictators,nationalstereotypes, limited intelligence and other staple topics, although the frequently inept sayings of the Leader himself appear highly amusing to many of the people interviewed. In article two, ‘Political biography: Incoherence, contestation, and the hero pattern in the Belarusian case’, small changes in the Leader’s date of birth make several of Astapova’s interviewees think of other plenipotentiaries’ tendency to alter the calendar at will. Hero patterns are graphically illustrated by two photographs of Lukashenka and Putin, each standing up to their waists in fields of corn. Beyond entertainment, the article gives seriously detailed attention to the origins, official and unofficial, of the Belarusian leader (nicknamed Baćka [Dad]), including national and racial features; for example, one picture shows a little boy holding up a placard: ‘A gypsy is no dad to me’. Article three, ‘When the president comes: Potemkin order as an alternative to democracyinBelarus’,describesafarfromexclusivelyBelarusianphenomenon in some of its most absurd manifestations, as the Leader regularly rides around his beleaguered country. As elsewhere in Astapova’s work, the academic narrative is lightened by stories told by the people she speaks to. The fourth article, ‘In search for truth: Surveillance rumors and vernacular panopticon in Belarus’, is introduced by a detailed theoretical introduction, before turning to rumoured and in many cases real instances of state surveillance. Belarus’s very high level of army personnel per capita (higher than Russia, for instance) and a large militia, as well as considerable mystery surrounding the command structure, all help to fuel fears that there may be a constant and omnipotent big brother. One cartoon shows Lukashenka behind a desk marked ‘Boss’ in the middle of a prison camp the shape of Belarus. Also discussed in this article are more than one terror attack, where the...

Marginal Linguistic Systems (Animal Calls, Child-Directed Language) and Political Folklore in Lebanon. Two Case Studies

This paper takes a sociolinguistic approach to the analysis of the informal usage of two words common in modern Lebanese political discourse; ħarf at-tanbīh (the warning interjection) “hā,” used in Arabic inter alia in calls to animals, and the hypocoristic forename “Roro,” borrowed from the French. The paper also demonstrates how these lexical characteristics of the Lebanese dialect reveal similarities to what Ferguson termed marginal systems within languages. The paper is supplemented by graphical representations and other extra-linguistic data.

Making big decisions for the future

The Treasury’s long-term fiscal projections are designed to inform present-day policy. They draw attention to existing trends and potential future global and national developments in society, demography, politics, technology and the economy, and the fiscal implications of continuing existing policy unchanged through those changes over the next 40 years and beyond. They highlight that the later action is taken to offset an anticipated impact, the greater the policy change may have to be and also potentially the cost, not just in money but also in social cohesion if unusual intergenerational tensions develop as a consequence. But if large adjustments have to be made, even if over time, how might that be done in a representative democracy in which the ultimate decisionmakers, the politicians, are subject to frequent elections in which political folklore tells us the determinant issues are proximate and ‘courageous’ leaders are sacrificed to short-term voter self-interest?

Are Independent Councillors Really Conservatives in Disguise?

A feature of English local political folklore is the belief among national political parties, that Independent councillors are Conservatives in disguise. Yet, little evidence is given to support this idea because little is known about these councillors’ beliefs and assumptions or how they distinguish themselves from the party politics they eschew. In this article we address the question: Are all Independent councillors really Conservatives? The article answers the question by reporting the findings of research conducted among Independent and Conservative councillors in England to explore the complex, multidimensional and fluid world that is Independent politics.

Jewish spaces and Gypsy spaces in the cultural topographies of a New Europe: heritage re-enactment as political folklore

The European phenomenon of Jewish spaces was first described in the mid-1990s. They were then defined as themed environments initiated and operated by non-Jews, often located in historical Jewish neighbourhoods. Since then Jewish spaces have become a well-established concept in the media and among academics. This article explores Gypsy spaces as analogous to Jewish spaces. The paper compares two cases, the Gypsy pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France and the Jewish Culture Festival in the Polish town of Kraków. There are striking parallels between the thriving Gypsy music festivals, Gypsy horse fairs and Gypsy pilgrimages on the one side, and Jewish Culture Festivals on the other. The author formulates some hypotheses as to why Gypsy spaces have not yet been recognised and dealt with more extensively. To conclude, the Jewish and Gypsy spaces are situated in a European landscape of remembrance and interpreted as heritage re-enactment within the framework of European integration.

Gangster in guerilla face

Doble cara (double/two-faced) is a key trope in Salvadoran political folklore. It is a folk theory of mimesis, which attempts to `master the absent presence of the other' through a discourse of conspiracy. The term has a history in the US-funded Salvadoran civil war. In this article, I consider how doble cara has come to be deployed around a new and pivotal social subject — Salvadoran immigrant gang youth deported from the USA — and how these deported youth emerge as a packed and displaced sign for the trauma of post-civil war violence, the failed promise of peace, and ongoing entanglements between the USA and El Salvador. The article is written in conversation with Begoña Aretxaga, who inspired many of the questions explored here.

Kitsch is Dead—Long Live Garden Gnomes

ABSTRACTThis visual essay examines the garden gnome as a product of both low and high culture. Its essence of ambiguity and unreliability has through the ages made it a favored object for ironic comments, social and political statements, popular aesthetics and religious folklore. The gnome's more or less hidden nature of rude male (homo)sexuality saw him banished from the bourgeois sphere and transformed into childish triviality often conceived as kitsch. However, in the period of post-modernity, when many artists and cultural producers are inspired by “kitsch,” it seems pointless, if not impossible to maintain the concept of kitsch.

Richard Crossman, the Civil Service, and the Case of the Disappearing Pension

Richard Crossman - a member of Harold Wilson’. Cabinet from 1964-1970 - wrote widely about the relationship between ministers and the civil service, and, with particular reference to his famous Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, he continues to be cited as an influential figure who questioned the veracity of the traditional model of public administration. This article will move beyond an examination of Crossman’. own words, and a case will be considered, involving Crossman, where it appears that officials did play a large role in changing existing party policy. However, this case study - which draws heavily on archive material - will not be taken from Crossman’. time at the Ministry of Housing (1964-1966), where his bruising battles with ‘the Dame’ have become political folklore, but rather from a later period in which Crossman believed he had largely mastered the civil service