Political Forces Research Articles

Constitution Making and Enduring Challenges To Democracy in Turkey

AbstractSome observers expected that the 2023 general elections in Turkey would end the long rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while others anticipated his narrow victory. But it takes more than results at the ballot box for Turkish democracy to flourish in the medium term. Instead, we must focus on the underlying political structure, especially the constitution and its making. This study examines the social and political forces that have shaped Turkey's constitutions, from the Ottoman Empire through today. The analysis shows that top‐down constitutional processes only create advantages for the incumbent power, and they are symptomatic of weak democratic traditions. The most common use of constitutional revisions has been to serve the needs of the political elite at the time, without any long‐term objectives or broadly based political discourse among governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders. Therefore, Turkey has not been able to break the cycle of authoritarianism, even through seemingly democratic constitutional revisions. The study concludes that the future of the constitution is not bright. Given Erdoğan's narrow victory in the 2023 elections and setbacks in the recent municipal voting, revisions in the near term will seek to shore up the power of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

CONSERVATIVES OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND IN 1914-1916

Since the birth of independent Poland in 1918, historians and publicists have been arguing about who deserves the main credit for this most signifi cant event in the modern history of the Polish nation. In the period between the world wars, the dispute for supremacy was fought between J. Piłsudski and R. Dmowski, in socialist Poland they were supplanted by the Russian October Revolution, but already in the 1980s the debate resumed with renewed vigor. Th e compromise solution proposed by Prof. S. Kieniewicz was not widely s upported. Since the 1990s, there has been a steady return to pre-war approaches to the problem. Th us, political forces other than the pilsudniks and national democrats, led by R. Dmowski, once again remain outside the fi eld of vision of the authors writing on this topic. Among them are conservatives of the Kingdom of Poland, through whose eff orts, from September 1917 to 14 November 1918, the construction of the state institutions of the Kingdom of Poland was underway with the consent of the Central Powers. Th e Kingdom was formed by the act of Emperors Wilhelm II Hohenzollern and Franz Joseph Habsburg of 5 November 1916. Th e contribution of the conservatives is clearly underestimated; moreover, they alone are accused of pursuing a conciliatory (Ugodian) policy towards the Russian, fi rst, and then the German and Austro-Hungarian authorities, although all other political parties in the Polish lands, with the exception of the social democrats of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, also took conciliatory positions at the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, it was these parties, which were united under the general name of “activists”, who responded to the manifesto of 5 November and sent their representatives to the Provisional State Council of the Polish Kingdom. Th e conservatives, on the other hand, took a wait-and-see attitude in November 1916 and refused political cooperation with the German and Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities until September 1917.

“ZEMSKY SOBOR OF ALL THE RUSSIAN LAND” IN 1917. REFLECTIONS ON THE LATEST STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF THE 1917 STATE CONFERENCE BY A.B. NIKOLAEV

The review examins the monograph by A.B. Nikolaev “State Conference of 1917: Summoning, Composition, Activities”, published in 2022. The preparation and holding of the large-scale all-Russian event in the revolutionary year of 1917 are analyzed in the context of studying parliamentarism in Russia. The Moscow State Conference of 1917 arose from an urgent necessity for the coalition Provisional Government to strengthen its prestige and A.F. Kerensky’s personal power, as well as probably to receive a “tribune”, which could be used to give prompt explanations on all issues that would arise in the event of its transformation from an advisory institution as an ersatz parliament into a body with constituent functions. In addition, the Provisional Government was looking for opportunities on a state level to reconcile revolutionary socialist democracy and bourgeois liberalism movements, which had already completely split by that time. Moscow State Conference of 1917 assumed crucial significance due to the desire to find a way out of the existing revolutionary impasse and to serve as a support for the weak and dependent dual state power. Having ensured this support, it would become a united, strong power, capable of saving the country from internal collapse. In an effort to prevail over the impending political and social anarchy, the Conference became a tense, dramatic episode of the Revolution of 1917. The observers and participants of the State Conference obviously regarded it as the “Zemsky Sobor of all the Russian Land” which met in the former capital of Russia to solve the pressing problems and give state power the physical and spiritual strength it needed. The results of the State Conference proved to be contradictory for all political forces. The Provisional Government was able to obtain majority support at the meeting, but the nature of this support indicated the extremely precarious position of the coalition. As a result of the research, the author of the reviewed monograph comes to the conclusion that the State Conference, while maintaining the coalition, did not strengthen it. Representatives of revolutionary democracy were forced to make concessions to the bourgeoisie, which subsequently led to the loss of revolutionary democracy’s authority among workers and soldiers.

Religiosity and entrepreneurship: women entrepreneurs in Turkiye

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to showcase how entrepreneurial opportunities can be contextually formed differently for women entrepreneurs concerning their relationship with religion. This article reveals the multi-level and nuanced relationship between religiosity and entrepreneurship through a contextual lens by studying the interaction in a specific national country, Turkiye.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the life stories of 10 Turkish women entrepreneurs operating in Turkiye. Data were selected purposefully to conduct an in-depth analysis. Thematic content analysis with a discursive approach and deductive and inductive coding methods were performed.FindingsThe findings suggest that the relationship between religiosity and entrepreneurial opportunities is highly contextual and nuanced. Religiosity brings trust and provides access to religious networks which can lead to entrepreneurial opportunities, while leaving people outside of this network bereft of these benefits. The creation of a closed circle for its beneficiaries is a feature of a social network, yet the results show that contextual forces of politics and gender can lead women entrepreneurs outside of this religious network to limit their possibilities of accessing public funding and facilities based on their perceptions as well as negative experiences. It is also seen that religiosity at a certain level is necessary to operate in conservative settings and traditionally masculine business environments with patriarchal practices and norms, as well as due to the religious affinity of the ruling political party. However, because of perceptions and discursive meanings attached to religion and religiosity in the country, women entrepreneurs need to be cautious in expressing their religiosity and find a balance so that they are not seen as unprofessional, incompetent and unqualified as well as do not jeopardise their business due to a controversial religious affiliation.Originality/valueThis paper is of value as it studies religiosity from a contextual perspective enabling and constraining women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurship in relation to gendered and political structures. In this way, it displays the multiple ways of limitation and support that religiosity can bring for them concerning entrepreneurial opportunities. Turkiye provides a rich context with its mixed religious and secular societal norms and values and neo-liberal institutions and policies to examine the so-far underexplored issue of religiosity in the field of entrepreneurship.

Legal Framework and Rule of Laws in The Context of Indonesia’s National Resilience

This study aims to explain the impact and pattern of the relationship between the framework and the rule of law on the quality of data-data, in particular demography, politics, society, culture, defense, and security, so as to provide an appropriate perspective on the lens of Indonesia's national resilience. This study uses a structured literature review that explains the relationship and impact of the framework and the rule of law on the Qatar-data, especially on the political, economic, demographic, social, security, and defense forces. The results of this study show that the framework and rule of law have a net relationship and have a positive correlation with political, economic, demographic, social, security, and defense forces, where the quality of both either positively or negatively affects the level of resilience or vulnerability to Indonesia's resilience as a nation-state.

French feminisms, global imperialisms—some historiographical reflections on writing Feminism’s Empire

ABSTRACT French feminisms and anti-imperialisms co-constituted each other in many ways in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet there exist few histories of the intersections of the period’s feminisms and empire, in either French or English. The absence of scholarship investigating the links between two major nineteenth-century ideological, social, and political forces raises myriad questions that emerge at the junctures of institutions, interests, power, epistemologies, politics, and history. Why the silences concerning the relationships between feminisms and imperialisms? How would analyzing their complex relationships alter our understandings of not only these two major conceptual frameworks, but also of gender, race, whiteness, religion, and class—and their intersections—during this period. My book, Feminism’s Empire, emerged from these questions; its central arguments engage, critique, and explain their intricacies.

E-motions and participation in technopopulist movement-parties. Enthusiasm and technopolitical disillusion

Social movements (SMs) protesting against the consequences of the austerity produced by the 2008 great recession leveraged collective participation as a paradigmatic way of revamping democratic institutions and processes. In southern Europe, participation was harnessed by technopolitical movement-parties (MPs) such as the Five Star Movement (M5S) in Italy and Podemos in Spain. These are political forces combining SM characteristics with a technopolitical narrative to induce ‘e-motions’: emotional arousal of the membership produced by idealising the potential of digital technologies to enact unprecedented popular participation to renew democracy. Combining technocracy (popular competence via technopolitics) with populism (people vs elite rhetoric) the M5S and Podemos built a technopopulist discourse able to generate emotional engagement of the membership and high expectations for collective participation. However, the centralism of the leadership and its control over technopolitics produced an individualised model of engagement which led to disillusion. The article firstly elaborates a narrative literature review on participation, technopolitics, movement-parties, populism, and emotions to frame the affective relationship between participation and technopopulism. Secondly it uses qualitative methods to scrutinise the constituent process of M5S and Podemos technopolitics – when the digital process and infrastructures were created within both MPs – outlining the emotions elicited by technopolitical technopopulism.

Soraya Antonius’s Arab awakening: Palestinian identity, activism, and Anglophone literature

ABSTRACT While scholarship on Anglophone Palestinian literature has burgeoned in recent years, there has been no attempt to retrieve and assess the work of Soraya Antonius (1932–2017), author of two remarkable English-language novels depicting British-ruled Palestine from the 1910s to 1948, The Lord (1986) and Where the Jinn Consult (1987). Exploring and contextualising Antonius’s contribution to this literary corpus, this article examines the cultural, political and linguistic forces shaping her writings. It begins by tracing the fusion of Anglophile mimicry and anti-colonial resistance typical of her parents – George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening (1938) and Katy Antonius, Mandatory Jerusalem’s leading socialite. While her parents funnelled their Levantine-cosmopolitan options into a distinctive Palestinian identity, the Nakba compelled their daughter to take the opposite trajectory, leaving Palestine to pursue cosmopolitan possibilities elsewhere. The article’s second section thus considers her work in 1960s and 1970s Beirut, first as a journalist and editor, committed to developing a critical discourse on Western Orientalism, and subsequently as an activist and spokesperson, advocating the Palestinian cause. Probing how these biographical and professional strands shaped her fiction, the final section demonstrates how the first novel’s Anglophile fascination with the coloniser’s mindset is replaced, in the second novel, with a decided focus on Palestinians’ perspectives. Echoing Albert Hourani’s critique of the ‘Politics of Notables’, Where the Jinn Consult thus offers a loving yet bitter account of her parents’ generation, complacent and ineffectual in the face of looming catastrophe.

Legal Counterrevolution: Property and Judicial Power in the Weimar Republic

This article offers a new account of the rise of judicial power in modern Germany. Strong judicial control of the government is often associated with the constitutional ethos that emerged in postwar West Germany as a reaction to Nazi rule. This article locates the origins of German judicialization in the political struggles of the Weimar era. It shows how the assumption of a power to judicial review by Germany's highest court, the Reichsgericht, was the product of the successful cooperation of the judiciary with conservative political parties on the issue of property rights in the young republic. These were at the centre of two controversies examined in the article: the expropriation of princes of former ruling houses and the consequences of the hyperinflation of 1923. In both cases the Reichsgericht used an understanding of property as an inalienable right to radically reinterpret Germany's first democratic constitution, which had in fact granted the legislature extensive power to modify property relations. This suited the judiciary's own objective of assuming stronger controls over legislative action and bolstered the political position of conservative forces in Weimar politics. What emerged was a supra-positive constitutionalism that sought to supersede the written constitution. These political realities were an essential context for theoretical debates on the extent and limits of judicial power between theorists such as Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, Franz Neumann, and Ernst Fraenkel. An examination of the complex interaction of parliamentary, judicial, and popular politics concerning the issue of property reveals that German judicial empowerment amounted to an attempt to rewrite the Weimar Constitution and limit the scope of Germany's democratic revolution.

Back to a resilient future: Digital technologies for a sustainable supply chain

AbstractEconomic, political, and societal pressure forces companies to act more sustainably. New legislation and regulation such as the Supply Chain Act, mandates companies to take responsibility for their actions as well as those of their supply chain collaborators. Meeting these requirements demands transparency. Digital technologies along the supply chain have the potential to collect diverse types of data and raise awareness for sustainability purposes. For example, data obtained from multiple supply chain participants can be used to estimate CO2 emissions or optimize resource utilization. Following guidelines for systematically reviewing a body of literature, this paper therefore investigates the distribution of digital technologies in supply chains for sustainability. Based on a collected corpus of 70 articles, we identify seven key digital technologies and indicate how they can be employed to contribute to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The results show that (1) blockchain is the most used technology for sustainability within the supply chain and (2) the majority of articles on digital technologies in our corpus address the social dimension of sustainability. Our findings advance the understanding of how digitalization can transform supply chains into more sustainable entities and help practitioners decide which technology fits a certain sustainability dimension.

Frontline celebrities featured: investigating the most engaged Douyin videos during Xi’an lockdown

ABSTRACT This study examines the interplays between media organisations, platform affordances and governance logic on Douyin, one of the most popular short video platforms in China, and how these forces work together to construct the narratives of frontline care workers during the Xi’an lockdown. A digital ethnography was conducted on Douyin through the first two months in 2022. After sorting the videos based on their popularity, the first 100 ‘most liked’ videos were documented and coded thematically. The results show that official media accounts were the main providers of the ‘most liked’ videos during the lockdown. Frontline workers were seen in over half of the videos (n = 58). Nearly a quarter of the 100 ‘most liked’ videos (n = 22) featured frontline workers as the focus. The prevailing sentiments manifested by the videos when focusing on frontline workers include uplifting, endearing, touching, grateful and empathetic. Only four videos took on a critical tone. This study contributes a Chinese perspective to the current knowledge of Internet celebrity culture by expanding the discussions on the nexus between political and commercial forces during a pandemic lockdown and the implications on China’s celebrity culture.

In Search of Non-Linear Futures: Feminist Methodological-Analytical Strategies for Reading Against the Grain

ABSTRACT Feminist and queer thinkers are increasingly problematising linear time and developing other ways of theorising and exploring non-linear time and temporalities. In this article, we join such work as we formulate a set of methodological-analytical reading strategies that can assist us as scholars in writing up alternative futures from empirical data. We focus on young women whose ‘successful’ futures are typically represented as a linear trajectory where actions in the present ensure a gradual progression towards the desired future. However, linear time is not a neutral entity; on the contrary, it is both a performative and political force and, in this article, we argue that it is timely to consider temporal alternatives to the linear norm. Drawing on a QLR study of young women’s future-making in Denmark and taking inspiration from queer theory, affect theory and hauntology, we present three strategies for ‘reading against the grain’ of linear time: reading for temporal points of resistance, reading for lively statements and reading for affective intensities. We argue that these strategies can assist us in amplifying ‘cracks’ in the dominant, linear narrative and thereby can shed light on/‘travel to’ non-linear forms of future-making.

Race, gender, and Occidentalism in global reactionary discourses

Abstract This article seeks to deepen understanding of the global politics of reactionary discursive formations, which at the current conjuncture increasingly coalesce around self-victimising articulations of racial nationalism and a rejection of social justice struggles, often delegitimated as ‘elitist’ in Western core contexts or ‘Western’ in postcolonial spaces. Drawing on insights from feminist and postcolonial scholarship on racial entanglements, masculinism, and Occidentalism, I argue that racialised and gendered imaginations about an emasculated and overly multiracial West and, relatedly, renewed East/West binaries enable reactionary discourses in both Western societies and elsewhere through adaptable mechanisms of mediating between the international and the domestic. I then extend an analysis of global racial entanglements and gendered East/West binaries to Chinese anti-baizuo discourse from both online nationalists and dissident intellectuals, which provides a prime example of how grammars of global reactionary discourse are localised in different political projects and ideological constellations. It demonstrates how reactionary imaginations of the West are instrumental for animating narratives of racial-civilisational hierarchy and masculinist notions of politics and society hostile to egalitarian and emancipatory ideals in a ‘non-Western’ context. Moreover, by highlighting overlaps and divergence in the refashioning of dualistic constructs in American and Chinese ‘anti-woke’ narratives, I show that reactionary discourses operate not only across the geopolitical divide, but also through it, invoked by opposing political forces sharing ethnonationalist and masculinist logics in processes of mutual othering to perpetuate antagonistic identities. The article contributes to the intersection between critical research on the global right and postcolonial International Relations (IR).

“SAVAGE DEMOCRACY” BY C. LEFORT AND M. ABENSOUR

The article examines one of the interpretations of radical democracy, which in the works of C. Lefort was called “savage democracy”. Based on the analysis of the historical development of political regimes of the modern era, Lefort comes to the conclusion that the victory of democracy is not a historical necessity. He proposes to go beyond the understanding of democracy as an established political regime and think of it as a constant conflict of political forces. M. Abensour reveals the term “savage democracy” as the power of people, manifested in the actions of people at the moment of historical rupture. At such moments political institutions are reestablished, and new political languages reflecting the interests of participants in popular movements are formulated.

Foreign experience of investigating crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations)

The article deals with specific issues of foreign experience in investigating crimes committed by members of informal youth groups (associations). It is emphasized that the study of foreign experience in the investigation of crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations) will contribute to the development and improvement of recommendations for the investigation of the corresponding category of criminal offenses in Ukraine.
 The peculiarities of detection and investigation of crimes committed by members of youth informal groups (associations) in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the USA are analyzed.
 Most often, French youth can unite in informal groups in connection with a common place of residence (street, district, city), because of race, nationality, political views, social crises, etc. Difficulties in investigating the criminal activities of informal youth in France are associated with the active use of social networks for the preparation and concealment of committed offenses, the organization of gangs, an increase in their number, and a great public outcry.
 All youth informal groups (associations) in Germany can be divided into 3 types: 1) associations of young people who are migrants, refugees and spend their free time together, live on the same street, in the same district; 2) neo-Nazi youth associations; 3) unification of youth on the basis of political views and protest sentiments.
 The boom in youth crime in the Netherlands occurred in the early 1980s. But a balanced preventive work, starting in 1985, gave results. An active struggle is being waged against youth neo-Nazi groups (associations) on the Internet.
 There are 434 youth gangs in Canada with approximately 7,070 members. The greatest concentration of youth gangs in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
 In the 50s. XX century. American youth, and students in particular, showed themselves for the first time as an active political force, able to defend their positions on an equal footing with political parties and «adult» public organizations. The youth of that time advocated civil liberties – freedom of speech, organizations, meetings, etc. But informal youth groups in the USA are not only a subcultural phenomenon, but also gangs that actively engage in criminal activities based on the promotion of ideas, views, and lifestyles.

Innovating the Local Plan through Co-Creation and the Public Sociology Approach toward Urban Regeneration: An Italian Case Study

This paper examines the role of social research and communication methodologies in fostering substantive democratic participation and policy co-production within the context of urban regeneration initiatives anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This research critically analyzes the “becoming public” of sociology and social research in participatory design processes related to traditional urban planning instruments at the local scale (Regulatory Plans) in the Italian context, specifically through the case study of the Municipality of Appignano. It questions the role of sociology in activating a competent public sphere and promoting deliberative democracy at urban and territorial design levels and whether we can identify the traits of public sociology in facilitating the different stages of these processes. This paper details a participatory process in Appignano that sought to innovate urban regeneration within complex legislative frameworks, emphasizing community engagement and interdisciplinary approaches. The findings reveal a community actively participating in the regeneration process, demonstrating a high level of agreement on various urban development strategies aimed at sustainability. This study underscores the capacity of public sociology to facilitate public debate and democratic dialogue and suggests that such participatory approaches can significantly contribute to sustainable and resilient urban development, highlighting the potential of sociology as a moral and political force in urban planning.

POLITICAL CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE IN THE JOB CREATION BILL DISCUSSION

Regulatory reform by amending various provisions in dozens of laws into a single Omnibus Law on Job Creation has been rejected because it is considered to eliminate protection for workers/labourers, and expand the dominance of employers. The wave of rejection continues to strengthen, raising questions about the process of political communication, conflict and negotiation, and political compromise between political forces in the DPR (Parliamentary Institutions). With a constructiveist paradigm and case study method, and supported by several theories from political science, political communication, negotiation theory, conflict theory, as well as several concepts regarding political compromise, the results showed that political communication in the discussion of the Job Creation Bill took place systematically by placing the authority of political parties as decision makers. Political conflict occurs due to inflexible negotiations. Political negotiations carried out through a principle-based negotiations approach, although it can accelerate the discussion process, is unable to guarantee the effectiveness of political compromise. The Job Creation Bill comes as an orthodox legal product and was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Four things that become the findings of this research are (1) the dynamics of political communication are strongly influenced by the presidential-multiparty political system that produces majoritarian power, so that it has consequences for political alignments; (2) political conflicts that arise due to polarisation of political support have presented inflexible political communication, (3) principle-based political negotiations are pragmatically able to accelerate discussions but do not guarantee resistance/rejection by the public; and (4) political compromise through the stages of strategy development, relationship management, and decision making, cannot be a form of agreement that can accommodate all parties

Communication Regime in Georgia: Dialogue in the Context of Severed Diplomatic Relations

This article presents the results of a research on the information and communication situation in Georgia, the role and importance of national and foreign communication resources, conducted by the annual monitoring of the friendliness of communication regimes of the National Research Institute of Communication Development (NRICD). The authors examined the main challenges and threats in the communication regime of the two countries. The article reveals the latent problems of the communication regime, including the concentration of media in the hands of a narrow circle of individuals and political forces, as well as the increasing politicization of information. The article examines the peculiarities of presentation of news materials that shape anti-Russian rhetoric and agenda. The communication regime between the two countries is largely determined by the continuing tension around the Tskhinvali region and Abkhazia, as well as the instability of the internal political situation. The increasing fragmentation of Georgian society, the extreme polarization of various political forces, and the growing role of non-regional actors have a great impact on Georgian political discourse and official rhetoric and serve as a facilitator for the complication of bilateral relations.The article uses the materials of the annual monitoring of the communication regimes of post-Soviet countries. Monitoring is provided by the National Research Institute for the Communications Development (Moscow).

Race(ism), Power, Intimidation, & Domestic Terrorism: A Critical Content Analysis of HBCU Bomb Threats on Social Media

ABSTRACT Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded with the principal mission to educate Black people during an era when they were barred from most postsecondary opportunities. Today, these institutions play a vital role in the higher education landscape and help to insure the long-term viability of the U.S. economy. This research explored public discourse regarding HBCU bomb threats during 2022 and how public comments reflected on issues of race(ism), power, intimidation and domestic terrorism as a continuation of historical violence against Black Americans. The authors employed critical content analysis techniques and Critical Race Theory, while examining social media posts from X (formerly known as Twitter) as an innovative data source regarding public dialogue. The findings discuss two overarching themes within public discourse about these campus safety threats—(1) racism and White supremacy; and (2) political (in)action. These findings provide insights concerning perceptions of historical and contemporary racial oppression and terrorism experienced by Black individuals. The findings also highlight discourse concerning the ways in which racism and White supremacy were perpetuated by national political forces and (in)actions. Moreover, the findings reflect the ways in which public discourse situate racism as a norm in the U.S.

In These Dark Times: Exploring Our Values as Transactional Analysts

This essay addresses personal and professional values underlying (but not necessarily consciously articulated) how we practice and what we define as healthy outcomes for our efforts as transactional analysts. It is an invitation to consider the importance of a professional culture of curiosity and respect, one that can welcome and make use of difference and conflict, stressing the need for the elaboration of theories and values that actively attend to social and political forces that shape beliefs and behaviors. Central to this essay is a critique of the incorporation of “I’m OK, You’re OK” as a central value of transactional analysis.