Political Foundations Research Articles

Strong presidents and grand corruption scandals in the Philippines

PurposeThis paper provides evidence from the Philippines that strong presidents (termed here as hyper-presidents) have failed to address systemic corruption despite their anti-corruption rhetoric and promises.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a case study methodology to review how “strong presidents” have dealt with the problem of corruption in the Philippines and to examine their handling of grand corruption scandals. Data were collected from court decisions, congressional reports, news reports, journal articles, and other academic publications.FindingsThe paper has two major findings. First, none of the strong presidents were able to build the social and political foundations for anti-corruption reform. Second, in dealing with corruption scandals, the strong presidents observed selective persecution and particularistic concealment (cover-ups) instead of allowing the rule of law to prevail. These findings dismiss the idea of the sufficiency of strong presidents, some of whom project the possession of the political will necessary to combat corruption in the country.Originality/valueWhile the need for strong leaders has been emphasized in the anti-corruption literature, this paper argues that such leaders do not necessarily add to the political commitment needed to fight systemic corruption or even lay the political, institutional, and social foundations for reform. Strong presidents in the weak Philippine state are powerless against the institutions and culture that encourage and tolerate grand corruption.

Anti-Woke Publics

ABSTRACT To illuminate the varied and sometimes contradictory modes of public engagement practiced by right and far-right publics, this forum contribution introduces a concept of anti-woke publics. Representing themselves as fair-minded occupants of a political middle ground, anti-woke publics characterize wokeness as a divisive and destructive leftist ideology. They draw on discursive strategies of abstraction, universalism, and ahistoricism that obscure their ideological orientation and divert public attention from the unequal, unjust, and anti-democratic consequences of their advocacy. Their public engagement exhibits a fundamental tension between professed commitments to equal opportunity and their public advocacy in defense of an unequal status quo. Anti-woke publics situate the individual as the primary social actor and champion colorblindness as the ethical orientation for engaging diverse public actors. Sharing advocacy networks with avowedly supremacist publics, anti-woke publics facilitate the wider circulation of supremacist discourses among influential and mainstream publics.

The Political Uses of the Covid Pandemic in the Rise of Greek Neo-Authoritarianism

ABSTRACT Post-2010 economic and more recently pandemic shocks opened the path for re-invigorating Greek authoritarianism while undermining democratic institutions. This paper examines the ways in which the authoritarian conundrum reshapes progressively, on the ashes of the socio-economic and health crises, the cultural and political foundations of the rule of law in Greece. The paper consists of the following sections. First, it tries to discuss critically patterns on authoritarian rule by, first, drawing on its socio-historical origins and analyses in theoretical terms the rise of Greek neo-authoritarianism with an emphasis on COVID-19. Second, it discusses how pandemic laws and subsequent policy processes opened the path for controversial repressive law fostering neoliberal policies. Third, it sheds light on the institutional dimensions of the public health crisis, declared in March 2020 that required public authorities to establish a restrictive and mainly preventive state of emergency, while discussing the political and social consequences of the exacerbation of executive dominance. Fourth, it shows that in moving from a provisional state of emergency—which in principle is not constitutionally unconditional—to a state of (permanent) exception that defies the legal order, Greece has progressively developed an authoritarian apparatus of legal permissiveness, a new form of authoritarian legality.

Becoming propaganda: critical race theory and the effect of fiction on education

ABSTRACT How does a social cause like race in public education get revived and reinvented? How do political interest groups mount a campaign that flows internationally from the United States to Australia and leads to the political exclusion of Critical Race Theory from the Australian Curriculum? This article addresses these questions by examining how social media has been used to distribute propaganda that infers racial literacy education is a problem for Australian schools. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s theories of propaganda and using artefacts from multiple Internet websites, including social media, this article examines how conservative lobbyists in education have adjusted claims from the United States to suit the highly mediated political culture of Australia in 2021. These conservative groups worked to gain political ground by deliberately subverting Critical Race Theory, turning it into a political weapon that has been deployed by political actors across the US, UK and Australia. This article traces the subversion of CRT and efforts by social media creators, editors and academics to control the meaning of the Law School concept. It concludes by discussing the consequences the use of CRT as a political weapon has had on Australian education.

In Defense of Central Bank Independence against its Enthusiasts

The problem of time inconsistency provides the basic economic rationale behind the independence of central banks, understood as the most suitable institutional mechanism for ensuring price stability. According to the consensus that emerged in the 1990s and the 2000s, endowing the central bank with independent decision-making authority over the use of monetary policy instruments, with a mandate for price stability, enhances the effectiveness of monetary policy and reduces the inflation volatility. It may be surprising that criticisms of the once almost sacrosanct independence arise after the Great Financial Crisis, when it is widely recognized that central banks “saved the world” from repeating the Great Depression of the 1930s. The paper is an attempt to explain the rationale why these cracks in the consensus have arisen and offers suggestions what to do about it. Independence has an economic basis that is as solid as its political foundation is fragile, because central banks are unelected power. And in the realm of economics and politics, the political economy of central banking may help us understand the evolution of the degree and the specific form of independence because of both internal and external political and economic constraints. The paper examines these issues in some detail, to contextualize the economic and non-economic threats to independence and discusses possible mitigants. Properly assessing the challenges is a prerequisite for preserving the value of this institution, which is perhaps the most important and effective institutional innovation of our time in macroeconomic policy.

Social media and the fragility of Africa

This research empirically analyzes the effect of social media on fragility. It goes beyond political grounds which oppose techno-optimistic to techno-pessimistic perceptions of the impact of social media to analyze its consequences on global, security, economic and social fragilities. The research uses annual data from a panel of 47 African countries for the period 2000–2018. Results reveal that the use of social media by the public to organize offline political actions has no outcome on global fragility. However, its use by elites for the same end accentuates global state fragility. This operates through security and political fragilities. Fragility is negatively associated with higher civil society participation, education and democracy. The use of social media to organize offline political actions either by people or by elites in the context of higher civil society participation reduces fragility, while its use either by people or by elites in the context of higher educational level accentuates state fragility. The use of social media to organize offline political actions by people in the context of democracy boosts fragility but its use by elites in the same framework reduces fragility. There is a need to sensitize people, especially elites in Africa on the threats and opportunities of social media. There is also a necessity to develop a dynamic, well-educated and well-organized civil society and population in order to better valorize the opportunities that social media represents.

Религия – политика – нация: трансформация конфессиональных образов Тридцатилетней войны (1618-1648)

The article is devoted to the transformation of confessional images into national ones in German visual journalism during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). This is most clearly seen in a unique German monument from the Thirty Years' War era - illustrated single-leaf woodcuts on which images were combined with text below. The engravings of the illustrated single-leaf woodcuts reflected all the most pressing processes and events of the early modern period, including the crisis of religious consciousness and the collapse of the idea of a “universal monarchy” - a single Christian state under the auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor. During the era of the Thirty Years' War, politics could not be imagined without religion, and religious motives were not separated from political ones. The Thirty Years' War, which turned into the first pan-European catastrophe, became a new step in the secularization of consciousness, which contributed to the metamorphosis of political teachings of the 17th century. The Thirty Years' War, which turned into the first pan-European catastrophe, became a new step in the secularization of consciousness, which contributed to the metamorphosis of political teachings of the 17th century. The gap between politics and religion that began at this time was expressed, among other things, in the emergence of the idea of the nation as one of the leading leitmotifs of state development. National consciousness gradually turned into a kind of foundation for politics. During the era of the Thirty Years' War, this was reflected in the interpretation of Christian symbols and confessional images in visual media. In illustrated single-leaf woodcuts, they were increasingly associated with claims to the uniqueness of one’s own nation and the need for state sovereignty. Traditional religious meanings and motives were used to create images of both national heroes and “anti-heroes” - enemies of the state and nation.

The Peril of Climate Change in Jenny Offill's Weather (2020)

The paper demonstrates the peril of climate change as represented in Jenny Offill's Weather (2020). The paper sheds light on one of the environmental troubles that we are encountering at present – climate change. The paper highlights how the environment controls one's life. The analysis is conducted within the scope of ecocriticism. Demonstrating how the confabulation between literature and the environment might ardently modify society's behaviour to decrease the environmental problems that have outspread today is the main purpose of this study. The paper is significant as it pilots readers to ponder the practices of society in dealing with nature. The paper shows how Offill's Weather (2020) calls people to be responsible to other human beings and to the land. With a focus on the novel, this paper appraises three main themes that appear in Weather (2020). The themes concern the anthropocentric attitudes towards nature, the theme of determinism, and the repercussions of climate change on psychological well-being. The paper concludes that there are severe consequences of climate change if appropriate procedures are not taken. As an environmental novel, Offill's Weather (2020) delves into the ecological, political, economic, and technological grounds for climate change. The paper draws on many theories, including capitalism, existentialism, determinism, and climate anxiety. This paper opens new horizons for a forthcoming investigation in this regard.

Regrounding the Unworldly: Carnap’s Politically Engaged Logical Pluralism

Recent discussions of logical pluralism trace its origins to Rudolf Carnap’s principle of tolerance; indeed, the principle is seen as one of Carnap’s lasting philosophical contributions. In this paper, I will argue that Carnap’s reasons for adopting this principle are not purely logical, but are rather founded in the Vienna Circle’s manifesto—a programmatic document that brings the Circle’s philosophical work together with a program of social change. Building on work by Uebel, Romizi, and others, I argue that we must understand the principle in light of Carnap’s role in writing the manifesto, and thus as integrated into the larger philosophical and political goals of the Circle. This history illuminates the often-ignored relationship between Carnap’s logical pluralism and his political views. Finally, I turn to the political situation of the post-World War 2 period in the United States. During this time, the Circle’s emigres in the USA transitioned their work from active efforts to reform society to the technical work that we recognize as the foundation of American analytic philosophy today. In this final section, I argue that the reasons that Carnap distanced himself from the political foundations of his view were due in large part to McCarthy-era persecution of left-wing academics.

Apuntes para una historia intelectual de la Fundación Friedrich Ebert en América Latina

The promotion of democracy was from its origins one of the banners of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), ideologically linked to the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and which disembarked in Latin America in the 1960s. It is this transnationalization that we are interested in exploring from the perspective of intellectual history (Altamirano, 2005, Palti, 2004-2005), breaking with a unidirectional idea of transfers and circulations, in order to understand the exchange and connections between regions, ideas and people. The article first focuses on explaining the particularity of the German Political Foundations and the functioning of the FES in Latin America and then goes on to explore three intellectual projects of the Foundation, such as the Latin American Institutes for Social Science Research (ILDIS), the Center for Democratic Studies of Latin America (CEDAL) and the New Society Journal (NUSO). Based on the premise that ideas are important insofar as they conveyed meanings and representations in the region, this paper seeks to map the little known but strong presence of the FES in Latin America during the Cold War years. And how it became an important platform capable of connecting people, ideas and regions. In this framework, the FES, and this is our bet, can be thought of as an intellectual network that, while participating in and promoting debates on development, dependence, anti-imperialism, revolution and democracy, was building a space for indigenous social democracy.

The role of the Rev. Albert Bereczky (1893–1966) in the Anti-German Resistance and in the Rescue of People (1944–45)

Albert Bereczky, the pastor of the Reformed Congregation on Pozsonyi Street (Budapest), joined the anti-German resistance after the German invasion of Hungary on 19 March 1944 and became one of its most committed activists. His friendship with Zoltán Tildy, President of the Smallholders Party, led Bereczky into the resistance movement, and he helped him to organize one of the main bodies of the movement, the Hungarian Front. Miklós Mester, State Secretary at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education, and Ottó Komoly, President of the Hungarian Zionist Federation, also became important associates. It is mainly in the light of the memoirs and diaries of the latter two that our study gives an insight into Bereczky’s multifaceted and varied activities, the main elements of which were liaising between different resistance groups and hiding those who had been persecuted on racial or political grounds. Bereczky also played a major role in the Reformed Church in Hungary’s outreach to Jews, for example, in organizing the ultimately unsuccessful public church protest against the deportations. Keywords: Albert Bereczky, Holocaust, German occupation of Hungary (1944–45), anti-German resistance movement, Zoltán Tildy, rescue of Jews80 évvel ezelőtt Bereczky

‘They abscond’: migration and coloniality in the contemporary conjuncture in Europe*

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, the public sphere in Europe has become increasingly ‘culturalised’. Ideas about European heritage and culture have been used as a way to exclude people, notably migrants. My intention is to understand how at this time the cultural, political and economic are articulated together in Europe. I do so by examining the trope of ‘migrants absconding’ which is a prominent concern of the European Commission, as reflected in legal innovations and in media and far-right generated moral panics. By focusing on the social, political and legal relations around ‘migrants absconding’, I read from the ground up value regimes that animate and organize the European social formation at this conjuncture. This social formation is made up of articulations along political, economic and cultural grounds, which allow for incorporating the themes of populist far right groups into the very core of the European Commission. This fosters and legitimizes value regimes bent on culturally cheapening migrants as incompatible, deviant or dangerous outsiders with a very limited right to social and political participation, much less an independent social reproduction. This then allows for their labour power to be also cheapened, super exploited and disposable. This type of value regime centring on culturally cheapening people deemed outsiders, controlling their social reproduction, and making them available as cheap labour was also a key feature of the colonial social formations of the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries, where concerns about ‘natives’ absconding tended to also be prominent. That there is something colonial about the contemporary conjuncture may be seen in the cultural-political-economic articulations dominant in Europe and their cultural and economic cheapening strategies. To abscond is to leave value regimes. Absconding is transgressive, it is to deliberately step out of place, and to attempt to pursue an independent social reproduction.

The Ways of Restoration of Armenia’s Deficient Sovereignty within the Framework of the Changing International Legal Order

This article is devoted to the examination of the legal and political foundations of the sovereignty of the Third Republic of Armenia and the revelation of the deficiencies thereof in the light of the current deep geopolitical transformation. Particularly, the former foreign policy model of Armenia is defined, and the details and consequences thereof are elucidated, i.e. Armenia pursued a client-state model of foreign policy, which implies a one-sided political stance and the vertical relationship between the patron state and client state, including a patron state’s domination in the internal policy dimensions of the client state, such as economy, internal politics, etc. It is substantiated, that as a result of the aforementioned foreign policy model Armenia lacked appropriate means of maneuver when the interests of the patron state started to contradict Armenia’s national interests. Therefore, the Armenian side lost the 44-day war and is subjected to continuous aggression from Azerbaijan.

The role of political foundations in the bank indebtedness of political parties: the case of Spain

ABSTRACT The bank indebtedness of political parties and the economic connections they maintain with their foundations can influence the quality of democratic processes and the independence of public representatives. In this paper, we argue that both of these funding elements can also be related. Based on an analysis of the economic information on Spanish political parties and their foundations between 2007 and 2019, we prove that business and individual donations that political foundations receive, as well as contributions made to them by political parties, influence the level of bank indebtedness of the parties they are linked to, as well as the cost of such indebtedness. Our results imply that as well as having direct consequences for the economy and public policy, the economic instrumentalization of the foundations by political parties influences the financial structure of political parties and conditions their position before credit institutions as well as their competitive capacity.

That is What Most of Us Fail to Remember: Politics as a Neutralizing Game World Designed by Elites

Concepts such as political framing and elite capture have never been thought of as part of the humanitarian foundation of politics. This is, however, not true of identity politics. Christened in 1977 by the Combahee River Collective, identity politics was originally meant to enable a group, composed mainly of black feminist women, to build their own political agenda. Striving to see the full complexity of their values and priorities leveled with those of other political movements, identity politics was looking to reveal limitations from inside groups and widen the scale and scope of problems tackled. Unity was meant to guide society towards a better world. Nevertheless, presently, identity politics often represents a normalized separation between societies whose identities are defined by past history. No longer meant to strengthen the voices of the unheard, it has become a political tool for those exercising significant impact on the political discourse of the present. Similarly, the integrities of both values and religion have, over time, subsided to power as well. With the basic foundations of the world's politics hijacked, a race against time has begun as society's justifications for climbing over people and exploiting the planet's limited resources have driven it to the verge of a disbalance so grave it might prove impossible to reverse. Thereupon, this text aims to analyze the scope of this twisted use of politics, explore activism as a countereffect, and examine the development of society under what can be defined as a never-ending match between "dark" and "light."

Propositions pour la prévention et la promotion de la santé bucco-dentaire chez les enfants

At the last congress of the Association Dentaire Française (ADF) (French Dental Association), the minister of health and prevention, François Braun, stressed the importance he attached to oral health prevention. He also emphasized his desire to roll out and extend prevention campaigns, targeting young people in particular. With this in mind, we are working to lay the political foundations for the mass, free distribution of single-use toothbrushes with fluoride toothpaste in schools. This oral health promotion campaign would aim to debunk any myths or misinformation spread by manufacturers and to encourage a profound cultural change in the way children and their parents learn about oral hygiene. The "cavity-score," which is still under development, could help to reinforce the idea, both among the general public and among healthcare professionals, that oral health is not isolated from the rest of the body, and that this health issue cannot be dealt with in isolation, but in conjunction with all healthcare professionals.

The Directive (EU) 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union: Much ado about nothing in Sweden?

The EU Directive 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages has been welcomed by many stakeholders, but Sweden (together with Denmark), with its historically good track record regarding labour rights, is opposing it on both political and legal grounds. The Directive, the Swedish Government argues, will not fulfil its goals, and concerns, in any instance, matters that are excluded from the competence of the EU. This article describes and analyses the implementation measures in a system whose wage-setting mechanism – at least according to its own opinion – needs no support, and in which legal and political objections have been raised against the Directive.

Trade Dilemma of Global Hegemony: Analyzing the Transition in US Trade Policy from Globalization Deals to Hybrid Deals

This paper presents an analysis framework of the trade dilemma faced by global hegemony. It argues that maintaining global hegemony and addressing domestic conflicts simultaneously is a challenging task. Since the 1980s, the United States has prioritized the expansion of transnational capital, often at the expense of domestic vulnerable industries and the interests of low-skilled workers. This unbalanced development has led to intensified social contradictions within the United States. To resolve these conflicts, the US has shifted from reciprocal globalization deals to self-interested hybrid deals, aiming to uphold the interests of transnational capital while also addressing the concerns of workers. The negotiation experiences of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) demonstrate this mode of the US trade policy. While this strategy may repair the domestic political foundation, it leads to new challenges for the US, such as discontent and resistance from the international community, or encountering difficulties in promoting cooperation with US trading partners. These challenges will pose a threat to the long-term stability of the international economic order.

The future of control/The control of the future: Global (dis)order and the weaponisation of everywhere in 2074

AbstractIn this article, I am going to suggest that questions of societal and political control will be fundamental to the challenges humanity faces in the next 50 years, a continuation of the political and social problems of modernity but playing out in a range of political contexts and with a range of technological ‘tools’. Technicians of security will attempt to manage the disorder and insecurity that results from the potential weaponisation of everything, to use a phrase from Mark Galeotti, and the weaponisation of everywhere, a condition where the state will be seeking to control a range of emerging terrains and domains. But at the same time, while societies in 2074 might be confronting conditions that are an intensification of modern political problems, there is the possibility that the impact of climate emergencies and other ecological/technological dangers might produce global disorder unlike anything experienced in modernity, radically transforming (or mutilating) the ‘material’ foundations of international politics, presenting us with problems unlike anything encountered before. At this point, as Bruno Latour suggested, we might have to depart (for our own survival and the survival of others) from the ideas about politics and economy that we have ‘inherited’ from modernity.

Tinjauan Yuridis Tentang Implementasi Prinsip Pancasila Sebagai Landasan Politik Di Indonesia

Pancasila has been the main political foundation in Indonesia since its independence in 1945. The implementation of Pancasila principles in state politics has been the subject of important juridical debate. This article investigates the juridical review of the implementation of the Pancasila principles as a political foundation in Indonesia. Through analysis of the constitution, court decisions, and academic discussions, this research explores how the principles of Pancasila are understood, interpreted, and applied in the Indonesian political context. The results of this research provide an in-depth understanding of the role and relevance of Pancasila in the formation of public policy and the protection of human rights in Indonesia. Pancasila, as the foundation of the Indonesian state, has a very important role in determining the direction of state political policy. The implementation of Pancasila principles as a political foundation has become a significant debate in the juridical context in Indonesia. This research aims to conduct an in-depth review of the implementation of Pancasila principles in Indonesian political policy juridically.