Political Objectives Research Articles

Style on Trial: The Gendered Aesthetics of Appearance, Corruption, and Piety in Indonesia

Abstract In the two decades since the end of Suharto regime in Indonesia, two apparently distinct public industries have emerged in tandem: gendered forms of religious style, glossed as modest fashion, and legal efforts to hold citizens accountable for theft, glossed as corruption. Many of the most high-profile anti-corruption cases in the past decade have brought these two fields into semiotic interaction, as female defendants increasingly deploy forms of facial cover associated with extreme religious piety to signal humility and shame when appearing in court, in the process complicating the relationship between religious semiotics and criminality. Analyzing how and why these two genres of political communication have intersected in the past decade, and to what effects, requires situating these shifts in the context of dense aesthetic archives in which the spectacularity inherent to fashion resonates with the unique impulses of a post-authoritarian political landscape in which uncovering secrets is especially alluring. I argue that the hermeneutic impulses motivating popular fascination with criminal style, often circulated via social media, open new analyses of the ethical relationship between beauty and justice. Building on the scholarship on transparency and on the human face, I argue that putting gendered religious style at the center of the analytical frame—from religious self-fashioning to court appearances, and as forms of political protest—reveals the ethical impulses behind seeing and being seen, and the faciality of scandal.

China–Latin America relations in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative

AbstractMotivationAs a leading programme aimed at promoting “connectivity” and “exchanges of people,” BRI is providing a new avenue to expand China's presence and influence in Latin America and contribute to its rise at the systemic (global) level. Research shows that China's BRI in Latin America is not merely an economic initiative, but offers a combination of economic, political, and strategic objectives and consequences.PurposeThe purpose of the research is to examine China's BRI in Latin America from geopolitical perspectives, as well as its motivations, focuses, and consequences. It contributes to the scholarly discussion by analysing China's BRI in the greater picture of China's rise at the systemic (global) level and examining it through a political economy lens.Approach and methodsThe research examines China's BRI in Latin America with a special focus on large‐scale infrastructure projects that may have geopolitical implications and transform the built landscape in the region. The research is based on a critical review of the literature, and especially the Chinese academic literature, government documents, and corporate documents provided by some Chinese companies involved in large‐scale BRI projects.FindingsThe research finds that BRI helps China increase its economic and political co‐operation with the states of Latin America. China is increasingly capable of reaping not only economic but also geopolitical benefits from BRI by intensifying economic and, by extension, political relations with Latin America.Policy implicationsChina's BRI in Latin America looks to obtain not merely economic, but also political and strategic benefits from China's “soft” power. Chinese policy‐makers should be aware that China's “soft power” and interest could be strengthened if BRI could be implemented in accordance with the principles of advancing democratization, “good governance,” and environmental protection.

Conspiracy Theories as Productive Practices: Toward a Theory of Conspiratorial Style, Agency, and Politics

This article reviews anthropological explorations of conspiracy theories—in dialogue with insights from other disciplines, primarily political science, philosophy, and social psychology—to frame conspiracy theories as productive social practices. While conspiracy theories are often depicted through their epistemological shortcomings and associated with social and political margins, this article traces the nascent threads across anthropological scholarship to reach an emic understanding of those narratives and their sociopolitical reverberations and proposes approaching conspiracy theories through their style, agentive implications, and political effects. Conspiratorial style, the article argues, pertains not to the content of the narrative but to its incessant seeking of covert operations beyond readily visible forms as well as a growing flexibility regarding the narrator's belief in the narrative's veracity. The agentivizing dynamic generated through conspiracism differentiates contemporary conspiracism from its predecessors and involves an empowering current. Finally, the article focuses on how contemporary conspiracism is intricately linked to political contestations.

Land struggles, livelihoods, and trajectories of agrarian change in the Polochic valley, Guatemala

ABSTRACT This article assesses the impact of political contestation on trajectories of agrarian change in the Polochic valley, Guatemala. Livelihood surveys were carried out in four Indigenous Maya-Q’eqchi’ agrarian communities, two of which obtained access to land as a direct outcome of grassroots resistance to land grabbing. By situating livelihood strategies within the broader political economy, I argue that political contestation has inadvertently reproduced a functionally dualist agrarian structure that sustains the agroexport plantation economy while leaving little potential for expanded reproduction among campesino households. Agrarian social movements must look beyond land access alone to achieve the transformative change they seek.

LITURATERRA [Entrevista: 2024, 3] A política contra o destino: o modo de pensar as alternativas

Brazilian philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a professor at Harvard University (USA) for over forty years, presents and discusses his perspective on politics in this interview. In it, he discusses elements of his social and political theory, one of the highlights of which is his treatment of institutional issues in an original way that differs from conventional institutionalism. He begins by defining the distinction between right and left in contemporary circumstances. It defines the possible types of politics. He deals with the fundamental concepts of his theory of institutional alternatives, explaining the nature of his experimentalist proposal. It approaches the organization of powers with a different emphasis from the dominant reflection on political institutions, always uncritically focused on the issue of stability, and proposes that the main objective of politics is to provide structural transformations. It argues that the democratic regime should have its center of gravity focused on majorities and not minorities. And he suggests that the central cause of the current crisis in democratic societies is of a programmatic nature: we have not yet been able to clear away the rubble of bankrupt social democracy. The general theme discussed was a new institutional model that would enable liberal societies to overcome the dead end in which they find themselves. The interview took place on May 22, 2022, in the district of Araras, in the municipality of Petrópolis (RJ).

Abortion Law Illiberalism and Feminist Politics in Comparative Perspective

Since the 1970s, a liberal politics has dominated comparative abortion law, one almost too ubiquitous to name. This article tracks departures from liberal abortion law in Europe and the Americas that have reshaped the field of comparative abortion law. Section 2 examines the repurposing of liberal abortion law for illiberal ends in a conservative moment of authoritarian governments and their anti-gender campaigns. Drawing on larger ideas of autocratic legalism, the article analyzes how governments and courts have used the features of liberal abortion law to revoke or defeat abortion rights. Section 3 examines the counter-emergence of a feminist protest politics that has abandoned liberal abortion law in a democratic remaking of society and state. Today, in abortion lawmaking through democratized institutions and in the unmaking of abortion law through direct action, feminist movements are reclaiming comparative abortion law and its politics.

Queering Authoritarianism in Uganda: Dissident Sexualities and Tropical African [anti]-Aesthetics in Stella Nyanzi’s No Roses from my Mouth

In this article, I argue that queering female sexualities as ‘dissident sexualities’ Stella Nyanzi in her collection of prison poems, No Roses from My Mouth (2020), harnesses the aesthetics of radical rudeness (insults) through expressions of humor, innuendo, and anecdote grounded in the Baganda cultural repertoire, to critique President Yoweri Museveni’s authoritarian regime in Uganda. Her poetry draws attention to queer sexualities grounded in stylistics of dissent. Humor in the prison poems allows Nyanzi to develop an audacity that alludes to the authenticity of her queer consciousness. To this end, the article teases out how radical rude poetics, a corollary of tropical [anti]-aesthetics, affords Nyanzi a literary platform to manipulate pejorative imagery, libidinous metaphors, subversive phrases, and lewd expressions entrenched in humor as political protest. More evocatively, the article asserts that within the context of tropicality, radical rudeness as pan-Africa’s anti-aesthetic response to the Western (English) culture of politeness is focused upon in No Roses from My Mouth as a literary fuse that expands tropical aesthetic’s critique of colonialism/postcolonialism in Africa to poetically confront authoritarianism in Uganda.

The Separation of Powers and Judicial Independence in South Africa: A Theoretical Critique

Section 165(2) of the South African Constitution of 1996 proclaims the independence of the courts. This principle is predicated on the philosophical notion of separation of powers prominently adopted in democratic countries like South Africa (SA). Separation of powers and the behavioural demands on judgeship have produced a general conception that the judiciary is independent; even of politics. This is not the case, politics and judiciary are inseparable since they both seek to achieve the same political objectives. This article adopts Critical Legal Theory (CLT) with historical and philosophical analysis to theoretically repudiate the generalisation. This is a qualitative study and has identified a gap in SA constitutional scholarship regarding interrogating the concept of judicial independence. Resolving this issue the article contends that politics are innate to the judiciary. This reasoning stems from the interrogation of the classical development of the “separation of powers”, and the principle of judicial independence. As a complex phenomenon, judicial independence here is not being explored institutionally and administratively. Rather, it is probed from its conceptual premises. Through court judgments, court activism, and South Africa’s history of constitutional development, the article determines that the judiciary and the law in SA are innate in politics. The intent is to disabuse scholarship from accepting the generalisation of the principle of judicial independence. This is not an anti-constitution critique, but a belief/notion that if adjudicators are not strangled with “judicial independence” general narrative, the courts will expedite the constitutions’ transformative objectives.

The conflict within: the politics of parliamentary election management in Iran

ABSTRACT Scholars of comparative politics have long been interested in understanding conflicts that arise among elites within authoritarian contexts. Such conflicts are particularly puzzling when they occur in the context of authoritarian elections and within state administrative institutions like the electoral management body (EMB). Using previously unanalysed primary sources provided by Iran’s Ministry of Interior, which document the inner workings of Iran’s 2000 parliamentary election management, this study investigates intra-elite conflict associated with this important election. I found that within the dual EMB structure, where elected and unelected members coexist, elected administrative members can access information on irregular activities by unelected members more than those outside of this body. These information resources encourage elected members to take the risk of accusing more powerful elites – the unelected members of the regime – of electoral fraud. This is particularly evident during the reformist (moderate opposition) Presidency. My findings suggest the importance of examining intra-elite conflict within administrative institutions – EMBs – for a better understanding of political contestation within otherwise opaque authoritarian regimes.

Metadiscourse and metalinguistic talk about script choice in Serbia: chasms and consequences for criticality

In Serbia, script diversity remains the norm whereby Serbian is routinely written in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. This is not free of political contestation. Metadiscourses construct Cyrillic as the authentic script and central to ethnoidentity or, alternatively, as indexing dangerous nationalism, conservatism and Russian-leaning politics. On the flip side, metadiscourse associates Latin with modernity and progress, but for some with unwelcomed Western influence. But how do individuals themselves understand script preferences? This paper takes a folk linguistic approach to investigate whether the metalinguistic talk of Serbian individuals about script preferences is indeed informed by political metadiscourse. The data concern not only the stated preferences of individuals but also, borrowing from theory of mind, metatalk about how people explain the script preferences of others. The paper shows that the ideological oppositionality presupposed in metadiscourse tends not to be validated in metalinguistic talk, reminding us to be cognisant of chasms between societal-level metadiscourse and the lived experiences of individuals, and to avoid assumptions about the reach and impact of critical metadiscourse.

Rehabilitating Republican China: Historical Memory, National Identity and Regime Legitimacy in the Post-Mao Era

Abstract Described in the Chinese Communist Party's orthodox historiography as a dark and repressive period and part of the “century of humiliation,” the Republican era has in recent decades undergone a significant reassessment in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In books, newspaper articles, documentaries and dramas, Republican China has sometimes been portrayed as a vibrant society making remarkable progress in modernization in the face of severe external challenges. This article explores the origins of this surprising rehabilitation and examines in detail how the Republican-era economic legacies have been reassessed in the reform era. It finds that while the post-Mao regime continues to use the negative view of China's pre-communist history to maintain its historical legitimacy, it has also been promoting a positive view of aspects of the same period in order to support its post-1978 priorities of modernization and nationalism, a trend that has persisted under Xi Jinping despite his tightened ideological control. The selective revival of Republican legacies, although conducive to the Party's current political objectives, has given rise to revisionist narratives that damage the hegemony of its orthodox historical discourses, on which its legitimacy still relies.

‘Towards a modern democracy’? The constitutional politics of the 1990s British left

ABSTRACT This article argues that a ‘constitutional lens’ sheds light on British political contestation in the 1990s. It is commonly suggested that 1990s politicians merely consolidated the hegemony of ‘Thatcherism’. Yet, this struggles to encompass the decade’s political volatility, from the Conservatives’ descent into internecine warfare over the Maastricht Treaty to the fraught Irish peace process. Though varied, these developments shared a key theme: controversy over the constitution of the United Kingdom. To illustrate its case, this article applies the constitutional lens to the 1990s left. Existing accounts emphasise Labour’s concessions to Conservative opponents. By 2001, however, the first Blair government had enacted contentious constitutional changes: devolution, proportional voting systems, and a Human Rights Act. These policies reflected a dynamic, new, liberal-left politics of constitutional reform. From the 1980s, liberals, social democrats and Marxists forged a new constitutional agenda, responding to trends since the 1960s—growing ‘popular individualism’, agitation for ‘human rights’, European integration, and Scottish nationalism—and to the end of the Cold War. By the 1990s, campaigners had developed a bold programme for ‘modernising the constitution’, which influenced Labour’s programme. Through New Labour’s governments, this agenda profoundly reshaped the institutions of British politics in the twenty-first century.

It’s not just about jobs: The significance of employment quality for participation in political violence and protests in selected Arab Mediterranean countries

It is often proposed that the young unemployed are more likely to engage in political violence, conflicts, and protests. One problem in studying the unemployed – especially in the Global South – are the blurred lines between the unemployed, the employed, and those working in the informal sector. Further, the employed are a heterogeneous group so employment quality might also play an important role. To tackle these issues, this study uses a new quantitative dataset, which covers youth in five Middle Eastern and North African countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. These data provide considerably more fine-grained information about the employment situations of the respondents than the datasets previously used. The study investigates separately two forms of political participation: in political violence and in demonstrations. The regression analyses show that there is no clear difference between the young unemployed and the young employed in their likelihood to participate in the studied political activities. However, some features related to employment matter. Those whose employment status is ambiguous are substantially more likely to participate in demonstrations and political violence than the employed. Among those who work, those who are dissatisfied with their work and those who work fewer hours participate more often in these activities. Income on its own does not seem to have an effect; however, those who have more assets are more likely to participate, and compared to those who feel themselves middle income, those feeling rich or poor are more likely to engage in political violence and demonstrations. The results suggest that instead of thinking in terms of a dichotomy of the employed and unemployed, more emphasis should be placed on understanding the variety of employment situations and employment quality and their impact on political instability.

Citizens as lawmakers: legal innovation and the competing moralities of environmental juridification

ABSTRACT Law has increasingly become a relevant political language and a field of political contestation for citizens. In the context of socioenvironmental disputes, citizens have appealed to the courts or become involved in lawmaking as means of asserting their rights and worldviews. Such citizen engagements with law, I argue, amount to a form of worldmaking, as they allow for the introduction of situated moral values that challenge existing notions, rooted in liberal legality, about the environment, development, and sovereignty. This article explores this argument through the prism of the twelve-year long citizen opposition to mining in El Salvador and citizen engagement with law that culminated in the country’s 2017 national ban on metal mining. It focuses on two processes of citizen-led legal experimentation: participation in a commercial arbitration dispute through two amicus curiae submissions and the production of several iterations of law drafts. The ethnographic research on which the article is based employed a networked methodology with a constellation of citizen actors whose engagements with law brought about the mining ban and articulated a set of alternative moral values.

Constructing Disraeli in Twentieth-Century Conservatism

Abstract Since the 1960s, when historians first dethroned the dominant view of Benjamin Disraeli as a Tory democrat and social reformer, his association with an interventionist, socially inclusive Conservatism has largely been considered an exercise in political myth-making. This focus on the Disraeli ‘myth’ has tended to obscure the myriad and substantive ways in which Disraeli’s life and works were interpreted and put to work in Conservative ideological debates and political practice in the twentieth century, reducing them to social policy and state intervention in the economy and overlooking the lineages of his political career in Conservative political economy debates, conceptions of the nation and the constitution, and imperial and foreign policy thinking. This article examines interpretations of Disraeli, and how his legacy was constructed, by conservative biographers, historians and public intellectuals from the decades after his death until the historiography of the 1960s. It traces how Disraeli was memorialised and celebrated in the Conservative movement and popular culture; how his life and works were interpreted for popular audiences by an important group of conservative historians in the inter-war period; and how Disraeli was mobilised in Conservative and Unionist Party debates on tariff reform, social reform, the nation and empire, concluding in the aftermath of the Second World War, when his legacy and statecraft were consistently evoked in Conservative debates on post-war Britain. It demonstrates that Disraeli was interpreted in much more diverse ways, and with more diverse political objectives, than the standard readings of the Disraelian tradition have hitherto appreciated.

The impacts of the intended transition of Pakistan from geo-politics to geo-economics

This research explores the implications of Pakistan's intended transition from geo-politics to geo-economics on its foreign policy, analysing the shift through the lens of neoliberalism. The study investigates the economic realignments, foreign policy strategies, and impacts on security and defence posture post-transition. Employing qualitative analysis of policy documents, trade agreements, and economic indicators, the research provides a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics at play. Key findings reveal that Pakistan's geo-economic reorientation has been driven by factors such as globalization, regional integration, and economic diplomacy. Pakistan pursued a more balanced foreign policy, seeking to expand its strategic interests through economic partnerships. Economic reforms have been central to this shift, including privatisation, investment facilitation, and trade liberalisation. However, the transition has also highlighted challenges such as uneven economic growth, dependence on foreign capital, and balancing economic objectives with security concerns. The research concludes that Pakistan's foreign policy has evolved from a traditional geopolitical focus to a more economically oriented approach. While the transition has presented opportunities for growth and development, it has also necessitated a reassessment of security strategies and balancing economic and political objectives. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for navigating the complex geopolitical landscape and achieving sustainable regional development.

Protesting in a different way: minority activism from within the urban economy and politics

ABSTRACT In marginalized communities where traditional political channels are often inaccessible, social movements and protests have emerged as vital platforms for voices seeking to challenge established power structures. This study reveals a compelling shift in recent decades as these neighborhoods undergo economic transformation and gentrification. It uncovers a distinct pattern of activism characterized by the emergence of middle-class ethnic entrepreneurs and business owners who engage in activism from within the urban economy and political systems. This qualitative case study, conducted within a Latino community in the U.S. delves into the activism of this actor, providing a deeper understanding of how this pattern, which both challenges and engages with the system, gives rise to local political conflicts and accusations of ‘class betrayal’, and cooptation. By utilizing a ‘place-based’ mobilization model and examining the interplay between ethnic and class affiliations, this study enriches our understanding of political protests and activism in ethnic/racial communities.

Tensions between sanctions and insolvency law: Searching for a model solution with a focus on the European Union and Poland

AbstractThis article explores the conflict between insolvency law and sanctions law, particularly in the context of European responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Historically, conflicts between legal systems have shaped laws, and modern insolvency law continues this struggle by determining creditor priorities in cases where debtors cannot fully satisfy them. The article highlights how recent sanctions, which freeze assets to restrict the economic activities of sanctioned individuals and entities, complicate insolvency proceedings. The European Union, along with Poland, has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, including bans on transactions, asset freezes, and trade restrictions. These sanctions, while aimed at political objectives, often push businesses into insolvency by preventing access to resources. Case studies such as GoSport in Poland, Amsterdam Trade Bank in the Netherlands, and Fortenova in Croatia demonstrate the complexities that arise when businesses linked to sanctioned entities become insolvent. Key issues include the legal treatment of frozen assets, creditor satisfaction, and the potential for sanctioned entities to benefit from bankruptcy proceedings. Poland has revised its sanctions law, introducing provisions for the appointment of independent managers to oversee sanctioned companies, ensuring continued operations without benefiting sanctioned owners. However, uncertainty remains over the management and distribution of frozen assets, with no clear framework in place. The article concludes that insolvency and sanctions law, though often in conflict, must be applied flexibly to address individual cases. A balanced approach is needed to protect creditors while adhering to the political and legal objectives of sanctions.

Global citizenship among students of Kazakhstan: the role of social media

With the increasing involvement of universities in Kazakhstan in the processes of internationalization, there is a need to adapt educational programs to the changing requirements of the labor market and the national educational environment. An important aspect of these changes is the study of the perception of global citizenship among students of Kazakhstan. In this article, the authors present the results of their two studies on global citizenship. In the first study, the authors set out to study the behavior of university students with participation in democratic processes and their use of social media. In the last decade, many researchers have studied the impact of social media on youth participation in global public life. Many of them noted the positive impact, suggesting that the use of social media would promote democratic participation, especially among the younger generation. Among the students of Kazakhstan, 284 students took part in this study. Participation in global and democratic processes includes five main elements: voting, political activism, consumer participation, protests, and communication with politicians. Our research has shown that university students in Kazakhstan most often express their support or protest within the framework of consumer participation. Students in Kazakhstan demonstrate a low level of participation in political activism, protests and communication with politicians. Regarding the second work of the authors, the study aims to adapt the Scale of Global Citizenship to the context of Kazakhstan, which is a key step in preparing students for active participation in democratic processes. The study used a cross-sectional design using quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. 374 students participated in the study. Based on the results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as reliability calculations, it was found that the Global Citizenship Scale has been successfully adapted for use in Kazakhstan, which confirms its applicability in the country.

Emotion Narratives on the Political Culture of Radical Right Populist Parties in Portugal and Italy

The growth of radical right politics raises concerns about authoritarian and exclusionary scenarios, while populism is understood as a logic that articulates democratic demands and strengthens political engagement. There is a lack of research on the democratic views of radical right populism. Moreover, the burgeoning literature on these phenomena generally examines either the supply or demand side of politics, neglecting the narrative dimension that emerges from the two intertwining. This article aims to fill these gaps by using the heuristic of the “emotion narrative” that circulates between the supply and demand sides of radical right populist parties to examine their political culture. Assuming that populism creates social identities through the affective articulation of popular demands, focusing on the “narrative of emotions” (and not only on the narrative dimension of particular emotions) allows us to analyse how social and political objects, facts, ideas, and scenarios generate political culture. Through a mixed-methods comparative study of Portugal and Italy, this article assesses the emotion narratives of the parties Chega and Fratelli d’Italia. The dataset includes 14 semi-structured interviews with MPs and an original survey with 1,900 responses regarding political realities (on the democratic system, power structures, ethnic diversity, political history, and role of the media) and hypothetical scenarios (on authoritarianism, the rise of migration and diversity, anti-corruption, securitisation of the state, and expanded use of referendums). The emotion narratives of radical right populist political cultures engender democratic visions rooted in exclusionary identities with positive affection for centralism, authoritarianism, and securitisation of the state, as opposed to innovation and participation.