Political Motivations Research Articles

AN ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CHINA PAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR

Economic Integration, economic development and integration reduce discrimination, taxation, value limits, and restrictions on the transfer of goods between different areas and regions. As a result, the integration is in the process of becoming more political. Political motives may be the first step towards economic integration, and similarly, if the first motives are economic gain, the need for political unity may emerge over time. To improve communication, the Economic Corridor concept is used into foreign policy activities and coordination as it supports economic growth at the national and international level and strengthen regional integration. The emergence of economic channels in South Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon, with the CPEC serving as the most developed example at the moment. The study is a mixed study where main focused on qualitative and quantitative study and also analyzed primary and secondary sources.

Calcified identities: Persisting essentialism in academic collections of human remains

Essentialist assumptions about human beings persist in scientific practice, despite their erroneous logic. This article examines essentialism related to research on, and handling of, academic collections of human remains. Historically human remains, and skulls in particular, have served to produce various forms of scientific racialization and racism, confining people to fixed notions of identities and legitimizing violent systems of exploitation and oppression. Contemporary handling of these human remains aims to account for the problematic and violent past, examining the provenance of particular human remains, often leading to their restitution. Despite the different political and ideological motivations of contemporary practice, it too often relies on essentialist categorization and inaccurate or erroneous assumptions. This text exposes the problematic logic of social essentialism and challenges its prevalence in scientific practice.

Why Should I Become a Christian? The “Kristian Legend” in the Context of Byzantine Thought

In this brief account we offer a thematic and comparativist interpretation of the legend of monk Kristian in terms of its Christian ideology and philosophy. Our contextualisation and thematic analysis help also in the long run to assess the date of the legend. We ponder the basic question of “why Christianity”, which in dependance on whether it was significant for monk Kristian or not, reveals to us other historical realities of Bohemia and Moravia of his period. There is an internal dynamic but also contradiction in the legend. Monk Kristian perhaps on political motives sets to show how saints Václav and Ludmila are a source of unity and national identity. However, in his task he falls into a contradiction because what was promised was not delivered. And Christianity is anything, but a road to unity, accord, power that he promised at the outset, which he betrays in his historical information. At the same time an internal dynamic shows that the humble attitudes of Václav and Ludmila bring about the end goal or fulfil the promises about the worthiness of Christianity and its role, since their miracles and sacrifice unite and harmonise the state and build nationhood. A detailed, in-depth study of the thematic construction of the legend offers material for comparison, especially with for the neighbouring Frankish/German areas. We solve these tasks set in the study by comparing the “Kristian Legend” under research with Byzantine sources.

The humanitarian, social and political motivations of food aid: an ethnographic approach of the marauding in Nice

The humanitarian, social and political motivations of food aid: an ethnographic approach of the marauding in Nice

Living Together for a Better Life: The Impact of Cooperative Housing on Health and Quality of Life

To guarantee the right to adequate housing is crucial worldwide, and even more so in Spain, where there is an accumulated delay in public housing policies compared to other European countries. This situation has led to an increase in Catalonia of cooperative housing under a grant-of-use (GoU) model based on collective ownership, and the intention of people to live together, sharing daily life, and collectivizing risks and care-based work. These characteristics may impact on people’s health, but evidence is yet limited. Our study aims to explore the mechanisms that explain the relationship between cooperative housing under a GoU model and health in Catalonia. A descriptive−exploratory qualitative study was carried out. A total of 26 participants from 11 housing cooperatives were interviewed. Our results indicate that the impact of cooperative housing on people’s health is mainly explained by these components: (1) living aligned with their political motivations; (2) legal and economic aspects; (3) communal living; (4) governance, decision-making and participation; and (5) material aspects of the dwelling. Despite having health benefits, the lack of clarity in the Spanish legal framework and public funding makes universal access difficult, but it is a step forward in breaking with the speculative housing dynamics that exist in our context.

Political Regimes and Informal Social Insurance

Deliberate non-enforcement of the law has been analyzed as a policy tool to redistribute income. I show that it also responds to political incentives for the provision of insurance, resembling two well-known dimensions of social policy design. I analyze data from a large informal program of social insurance in the world: informal access to electricity service. Transmission and distribution losses (TDL) in the electricity sector are counter-cyclical because non-compliance and theft increase during economic crises. By exploiting variation in political institutions, I capture political motivations for the provision of informal insurance. Using a panel of 110 developing countries (1970–2014) and instrumental variables for business cycles and regime type, I show that unlike highly entrenched autocrats, democracies tolerate increases in electricity losses during negative income shocks. This paper expands the literature on “forbearance” showing how the provision of informal insurance varies across the developing world.

An analysis of fake social media engagement services

Fake engagement services allow users of online social media and other web platforms to illegitimately increase their online reach and boost their perceived popularity. Driven by socio-economic and even political motivations, the demand for fake engagement services has increased in the last years, which has incentivized the rise of a vast underground market and support infrastructure. Prior research in this area has been limited to the study of the infrastructure used to provide these services (e.g., botnets) and to the development of algorithms to detect and remove fake activity in online targeted platforms. Yet, the platforms in which these services are sold (known as panels) and the underground markets offering these services have not received much research attention. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper studies Social Media Management (SMM) panels, i.e., reselling platforms—often found in underground forums—in which a large variety of fake engagement services are offered. By daily crawling 86 representative SMM panels for 4 months, we harvest a dataset with 2.8 M forum entries grouped into 61k different services. This dataset allows us to build a detailed catalog of the services for sale, the platforms they target, and to derive new insights on fake social engagement services and its market. We then perform an economic analysis of fake engagement services and their trading activities by automatically analyzing 7k threads in underground forums. Our analysis reveals a broad range of offered services and levels of customization, where buyers can acquire fake engagement services by selecting features such as the quality of the service, the speed of delivery, the country of origin, and even personal attributes of the fake account (e.g., gender). The price analysis also yields interesting empirical results, showing significant disparities between prices of the same product across different markets. These observations suggest that the market is still undeveloped and sellers do not know the real market value of the services that they offer, leading them to underprice or overprice their services.

Misinformation or activism?: analyzing networked moral panic through an exploration of #SaveTheChildren

ABSTRACT Central to the growth and visibility of conspiracy theory QAnon is the #SaveTheChildren movement – a digital social movement aimed to bring awareness to and end child trafficking. This paper analyzes the #SaveTheChildren movement on image-sharing platform Instagram, where the hashtag (and related others) had to be shielded by the platform because of its association with QAnon. A thematic analysis of #SaveTheChildren posts examines the motivations, tactics, and desired outcomes of the movement. Emergent themes highlight the pervasive spread of misinformation regarding human trafficking and the ideological, political, and social motivations of posters. Drawing on shared reality theory and social identity theory, we argue that the movement represents a ‘networked moral panic’ and explore the structural limitations of digital social movements in an era of information disorder.

What motivates the ‘green’ transition: Russian and European perspectives

This paper considers the challenges of the ‘green’ transition and analyses to what extent political motivations weigh in the decision to replace fossil fuels by renewables in the energy mix. While the environmental reasons for the transition have been thoroughly explored in the literature, the influence of political factors on the decision to promote renewables remains underexplored. The EU’s active mobilisation against Russian oil and gas imports after the 2022 hostilities in Ukraine is but the latest indication of the growing impact of political considerations on energy decision-making. We use qualitative methods based on expert interviews triangulated with an analysis of energy mixes to determine the main factors behind the choice to develop and actively promote renewables. A comparative analysis of the European Union and Russia reveals that the motivation to reach or preserve energy independence guides both countries dependent on energy imports and fossil fuel exporters in their agenda regarding renewables, but results in different policy choices. The paper also provides an analytical framework to assess energy independence, highlights some of the social and economic risks related to the green transition, and offers recommendations on robust policy-making on energy mixes under conditions of uncertainty.

The concept and classification of reasons for a court decision in economic litigation

Issues of the historical formation of the motives of a court decision as a component of the process of motivation of court decisions in the economic judiciary of Ukraine are highlighted.
 Attention is drawn to the complex nature of the motives of the court decision, to their twofold subjective-normative essence. Emphasis is placed on the importance of motivational reasons, judicial reasoning and judicial conviction, as the fundamental motives of the law enforcement activity of judges of the economic jurisdiction.
 The significant complexity of such a psychological category as a motive was noted, even regardless of the procedural activity associated with the motivation of court decisions.
 The existing classification of reasons for a court decision is analyzed and the legal characteristics of the main types of reasons are provided. Attention was drawn to the inadmissibility of taking into account "political motives" in the process of judicial proceedings. The importance of the role of judges in the process of citing the motives of court decisions, taking into account moral aspects in order to endow judicial acts with the property of justice, is noted.
 Emphasis is placed on the complexity and importance of the activity of economic jurisdiction judges in providing sufficient and convincing reasons for the decision, which requires maximum professional knowledge, skills and abilities from them.
 On the basis of the obtained results, the need for further improvement of the motivational and law-enforcing activity of the court is stated, which will ensure that every person realizes the principle of the rule of law and the right to a fair hearing of his case, with the receipt of a high-quality and motivated court decision.

Constitutional human right in the context of the COVID-19 challenge

The purpose of the article is research the interaction between human rights and measures to protect public health in the face of new legal challenges posed by COVID-19 through the disclosure of key legal standards to combat pandemic threats; study of the problem of restriction of the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and mass events; to analyze aspects of the implementation of the constitutional right to education in a pandemic crisis and the issue of restriction of freedom of movement. The article examines the interaction between human rights and measures to protect public health in the face of new legal challenges posed by COVID-19 through the disclosure of key legal standards to combat pandemic threats; study of the problem of restriction of the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and mass events; to analyze aspects of the implementation of the constitutional right to education in a pandemic crisis and the issue of restriction of freedom of movement.
 The author's methodological analysis included a number of philosophical, general scientific and special scientific methods. In particular, the method of comparative jurisprudence was used to analyze the experience of a number of countries in allowing the restriction of human rights. The comparative method contributed to the generalization of knowledge in the field of medicine, law, public administration, psychology, etc. Synergetic aimed at the binary nature of legal reality and uncertainty in a pandemic crisis.
 The positions of scientists and institutional international bodies on the legitimacy of restrictions on human rights are represented, the position is motivated by a casual dimension. The author reveals the key standards of counteracting pandemic threats, special attention is focused on the problem of restricting the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and mass events. The difficulties of realization of the constitutional right to education in the conditions of pandemic crisis are pointed out and also questions of legality and non-discrimination in the field of freedom of movement are raised.
 An analysis of the experience of a number of countries has shown that in most countries, the rules of exclusive action allow for restrictions on human rights or certain deviations from the general mechanism of their implementation in times of health threats and/or national emergencies. However, in accordance with international law, as well as constitutional law in democracies, such measures must be necessary, proportionate and reasonably linked to legitimate public aims.
 It is stated that state anti-epidemiological measures deprive citizens of the opportunity to properly exercise their constitutional rights, including the right to peaceful assembly, mass events, the right to education, and freedom of movement. Please note that the introduction of measures to prevent diseases that threaten public health should be exclusively for this purpose and should be motivated by critical necessity and not by political motives and interests. Restrictions must pursue a legitimate aim, demonstrate the exact nature of the threat and be proportionate according to that aim. This should demonstrate the direct and immediate link between the implication and the threat.
 The conclusion states that the restrictions imposed by the application must comply with strict proportionality tests. Restrictions should not be too broad, they should be the least intrusive.

Understanding Rojava

Abstract This study critically analyzes representations of Kurdish women fighters in US mainstream media from January 2014 to December 2018. The article argues that the narrative articulated through the presentation of Kurdish women in the US media as “badass” soldiers fighting against the violence and extremism of the Islamic State serves to eschew a deeper understanding of their political and ideological motivations. Although they do not fit into the stereotypical category of oppressed Muslim women in need of saving, Kurdish women too are the subject of misrepresentation in US media in ways similar to the monolithic and essentialized representations of Afghan women in the post-9/11 era or Iranian women following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The present work questions why this misrepresentation takes place and what renders the representation of Kurdish women Orientalist despite its differences from the previous discursive constitutions of Muslim women in US media.

Archeological Approaches in Jordan From 1800 Until Now

Since the early nineteenth century, individuals interested in the antiquities of Jordan investigated, documented, and interpreted the archaeological finds they encountered or excavated in this country. Their approaches developed over time, not only due to the advancement of scientific methods and tools, but also because during the last two centuries major changes affected the religious and political motivations of western archaeology in the southern Levant. In the first part, the paper traces the basic elements of these developments and their intellectual background and, in a second part, it outlines the methods Jordanian archaeologists utilized to engage with their own cultural heritage over the same period. The paper concludes with recommendations for Jordanian archaeologists that would pave the way for a state-of-the-art investigation of Jordanian antiquities, on the one side, and for a proper appreciation of the contribution of Jordanian archaeology to the Jordanian cultural identity, on the other.

DOĞU ANADOLU’DA MÖ 2. BİNYIL BAŞINDA ORTAYA ÇIKAN KURGAN MEZARLAR VE KURGAN HALKLAR SORUNSALI

In the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, the tradition of burial mounds defined as kurgan tombs emerged on the frontiers of Transcaucasia and Northwest Iran, known as the plateaus of the Eastern Anatolia Region. Contrary to the emergence of these tombs, most of the settlements in the region vanished. Political motivations may be the reason for such a change, or as claimed, people may have left the plains and started animal husbandry due to climate instabilities. Accordingly, this paper seeks to bring together these views in a theoretical framework and discuss them in light of climate, people, environment, and migration.

On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy.

At the time of writing, nearly one hundred published studies demonstrate that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are negatively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. These correlational findings are often interpreted as evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation are exogenous factors that shape human behavior, such as forgoing vaccination. This interpretation has motivated researchers to develop methods for “prebunking,” “debunking,” or otherwise limiting the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation online. However, the robust literatures on conspiracy theory beliefs, health behaviors, and media effects lead us to question whether beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation should be treated as exogenous to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Employing U.S. survey data (n = 2,065) from July 2021, we show that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are not only related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal, but also strongly associated with the same psychological, social, and political motivations theorized to drive COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal. These findings suggest that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation might not always be an exogenous cause, but rather a manifestation of the same factors that lead to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. We conclude by encouraging researchers to carefully consider modeling choices and imploring practitioners to refocus on the worldviews, personality traits, and political orientations that underlie both health-related behaviors and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation.

The Social Construction of a ‘Pan-Arabist Hero’: Gamal Abdel Nasser

This article investigates the social construction of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s pan-Arab identity from a social constructivist theoretical approach. In this sense, it scrutinizes how Nasser came to be constructed as a pan-Arab hero by cleverly manipulating the symbolic politics and establishing socially and politically binding pan-Arab norms and eventually made himself constrained by them. This study also examines social constructivism’s explanatory power as a theoretical model in understanding and explaining Nasser’s political motives and moves by comparing it with that of rationalism. It is argued that Nasser’s power did not come from the economic or military capabilities, as rationalism fails to explain, but his power came from his ability to frame the events within a historical narrative in such a rhetorical way to establish new Arab norms. He was the leading figure in the establishment of United Arab Republic, North Yemen Civil War and The Six-Day War of 1967, despite all were against his and Egypt’s absolute material national interests. This article analyzes the path to nationalist ascent and descent of Nasser’s Arabism by chronologically scrutinizing on the discourses and events in order to examine the power of the given theories in explaining each period.

Age as a Legal Fact in the Family Sphere: Temptations and Conventionality of the Number of Years

The paper examines the meanings of an age as an independent legal fact or an element of a complex legal and factual structure in the family legal sphere. The author states that the legal significance of a person’s age is diverse and ambiguous. At the same time, legislative decisions are based on various factors: conventions of the digital designation of the age report point, respect for national and cultural traditions, including legal ones, considerations about medical and psychological characteristics more or less corresponding to a particular age, subjective preferences or mistakes, purely political (ideological) motives. As a result, the combination of these factors leads to justified or, to varying degrees, unjustified approaches that are extremely approximate in digital terms. The paper criticizes family law provisions concerning regional diversity and regulating the issue of reducing the age of marriage, which does not always reflect the real national and cultural characteristics of the territories and excessively localizes the concept of legal capacity. The author analyzes the differentiation of the child’s age capabilities as a subject of family law, including the context of interaction with relevant decisions in other branches of Russian law (constitutional, municipal, administrative, civil, labor, civil procedure). The absence of a system in this matter is stated. It is proposed to adjust the legislation in terms of systematization of «launch points» of partial legal capacity of minors. The author emphasizes a psychological context of the problem of a legal age for the child. The paper demonstartes other values of age for the family law sphere, namely: invalidity of marriage, alimony obligations, custody and guardianship, adoption (adoption).

Political Modernization Theory

The published text is a slightly abridged version of one of the chapters of the textbook (2021) dedicated to the theory of politics. The article deals with political motives and stages of the evolution of the theory of social and political modernization. Separately, the author dwells on the characteristics of the classical theory of modernization, including its criticism in non-classical versions of this theory. The article proposes a typology of political modernization, as well as an assessment of the theoretical models of Russian political modernization.

Can Structured Finance Support New Ways of Anticipating and Managing Crisis?

The world is facing a pivotal moment when the interconnectedness of crisis anticipation and crisis management needs to be formalized in financial policy planning. The onset of COVID-19 demonstrated the across-the-board lack of preparedness of economic actors public and private. While the private sector mostly looked at the short-term profitability, the public sector dragged their collective feet on investing in public works without the usual political motivations. As both a banker and public policy professional, I am struck by the high degree of dependence on taxation to fund public good infrastructure in 2022. I see an urgent need to change our dialogue around public-private investment, to begin to address simultaneously the financial goal of profitability and political goals for the public good. This article explores a range of solutions available to capital markets with the elasticity to address and absorb the future shocks to which we must face up.

A Real-Time Digital Twin and Neural Net Cluster-Based Framework for Faults Identification in Power Converters of Microgrids, Self Organized Map Neural Network

In developing distribution networks, the deployment of alternative generation sources is heavily motivated by the growing energy demand, as by environmental and political motives. Consequently, microgrids are implemented to coordinate the operation of these energy generation assets. Microgrids are systems that rely on power conversion technologies based on high-frequency switching devices to generate a stable distribution network. However, disrupting scenarios can occur in deployed systems, causing faults at the sub-component and the system level of microgrids where its identification is an economical and technological challenge. This paradigm can be addressed by having a digital twin of the low-level components to monitor and analyze their response and identify faults to take preventive or corrective actions. Nonetheless, accurate execution of digital twins of low-level components in traditional simulation systems is a difficult task to achieve due to the fast dynamics of the power converter devices, leading to inaccurate results and false identification of system faults. Therefore, this work proposes a fault identification framework for low-level components that includes the combination of Real-Time systems with the Digital Twin concept to guarantee the dynamic consistency of the low-level components. The proposed framework includes an offline trained Self Organized Map Neural Network in a hexagonal topology to identify such faults within a Real-Time system. As a case study, the proposed framework is applied to a three-phase two-level inverter connected to its digital model in a Real-Time simulator for open circuit faults identification.