Political Paradigm Research Articles

Paradigms of leadership: A study of doctoral dissertations in two Mexican universities

Latin America is increasingly contributing to scientific research on leadership, although less than other regions. What are the predominant paradigms on leadership within the scientific community in Mexico? The article reviews doctoral dissertations on leadership from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Anahuac University of Mexico (UA) defended before 2021. The findings highlight that 1) the number of doctoral dissertations has grown from 2016 onwards, especially in educational leadership. 2) In both universities a “functionalist” paradigm prevails, based on the transformational leadership model. 3) Two other leadership paradigms are present, referred to in this article as ‘political’ and ‘humanistic’. 4) These three paradigms have their characteristics and preferences in terms of research methodology, language, and reference authors. 5) The use of a paradigm is associated with the type of faculty rather than the type of university (public or private): in business faculties the functionalist paradigm predominates, in education faculties the humanist paradigm, and in political science or communication faculties the political paradigm. In conclusion, it is recommended to confirm the exploratory result obtained and to promote the dialogue between leadership paradigms.

Development and Indigenous Ecopolitics in Post-Peace Guatemala

How do Indigenous and peasant political paradigms interact? This essay examines the relationship between Indigenous-ontopolitical critiques of development and peasant-oriented demands for alternative development in the Guatemalan defense of territory (DT), an Indigenous-led alliance against extractive development. Drawing on politically-engaged ethnographic and historical fieldwork, I argue that theories that counterpose indigenous ecological values of reciprocity and human-nature relationality to “development” oversimplify Indigenous responses to the multi-dimensional nature of colonization. I describe how Indigenous cosmological critiques coexist with demands for food sovereignty, agrarian struggles, integral development, and even progressive (redistributive) extraction in territorial defense movements. I suggest that the ascendance of post-development critiques in the DT crowds out heterogeneous demands for anticolonial development, limiting the movement’s potential to present a compelling alternative for marginalized communities. I point to a convergence between some kinds of Indigenous ontopolitics and counterinsurgency efforts to repress radical developmentalism and propose holding critiques of and demands for development in creative tension to strengthen counterhegemonic struggles.

Governmentality, Democracy, and Liberalism: Desire in Samrat Upadhyay’s ‘The Guru of Love’

In Samrat Upadhyay’s The Guru of Love (2003), the political and the personal intersect, with the novel as a genre exposing how they are interwoven. In the Nepali-American novelist Upadhyay’s novel, democracy and liberalism operate through the management and redirection of desires, instead of constraining them. The novel itself, as a genre, becomes the canvas for orchestrating this transformative process, engaging both characters and readers. Set against the backdrop of Nepal in the global south, The Guru of Love challenges conventional notions, suggesting that democracy’s efficacy does not hinge on industrialisation and education alone. Instead, democracy itself can serve as a potent political tool for nurturing a citizenry that favours such politics. As this novel shows, the key tenet of liberal and capitalist governance lies in the augmentation and regulation of the individual’s desires. Upadhyay’s novel is a testament to the celebration of individualism and shows the workings of capitalist and liberal deregulation as a mechanism for managing and channelling desires. It portrays how these political ideologies shape and mould the individual’s personal aspirations and society’s political paradigms.

Pothum Janakummah Ragaviah’s “Fairy-land”: A “Hindoo Lady of Madras” in Victorian London

ABSTRACT In Pothum Janakummah Ragaviah's Pictures of England (1876) (the first known English account of a female Indian traveller's experiences of England and Europe), London represented a stage of realist mobilities of her person and her social and aesthetic identities – a privilege otherwise inaccessible to a swarming majority of nineteenth-century South Asians. The Pictures elucidates a political paradigm when elite (including Brahminical) Indian sensibilities were divided between two potentially incompatible drives. One was to enunciate their will to reform hierarchical inequities of Hindu and Indian society from within, without colonial support. The other was to ally with selective models of Anglican sensibilities, which could invariably prolong such inequities through means other than religion and caste. Nevertheless, the Pictures can still be considered an important specimen to highlight the coproduction of Victoriana by non-British factors, in a kind of unremunerated affective labour of placemaking by Indians of the nineteenth-century imperial capital.

Political paradigms and vocational education policy in Indonesia: a document analysis

Purpose This study aims to explore vocational education as stated in the basic constitution, law, government and ministerial regulations in the Indonesian context. This study aims to outline the Indonesian vocational education paradigm based on regulatory documents. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a qualitative document analysis approach by extracting vocational themes regarding senior high school and higher education from the available documents. The keywords used for document document analysis are education, vocational school and vocational higher education. These words are forced to be used to distinguish the types and levels that exist in Indonesian education. Findings The findings of this study identified that the political paradigms of vocational education, such as equality and justice, naming (regulative), purpose and life skills, the curriculum of local cultural value, decentralized authority, link and match and future paradigms are important themes raised in this study. This is a study to explore the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia. Research limitations/implications The vocational education policy documents in Indonesia that were analyzed may have been forgotten. As a result, the forgotten documents are not included in the analysis document. Forgotten interpretations and documents are part of the limitations of this research. Practical implications It is hoped that the findings of this research will have an impact on improving vocational education policies in Indonesia. This can also be a comparison for other countries in looking at vocational education paradigms and policies. In general, these research findings can help in improving vocational education policies. However, this research still has limitations in terms of the number of documents analyzed. Originality/value This study contributes to the promotion and political debate of vocational education nationally and internationally. The study further explores how interest groups are taking a role in achieving Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education policies that are compatible with today’s needs and demands.

Politicizzare la cura per curare la democrazia

“Taking care” involves a politics of relationships. Care has both a subjective and a relational dimension: starting from subjectivity, everyone opens up to vulnerability, dependence, fragility. Care is above all a practical path of spillage from the self and return to the self, enriched by the experience of the other. This paper proposes a reflection that starts from the founding myth of the essentiality of care and crosses the feminist critique of essentialism and the dialectical tension between mysticism and de-valuation. Focusing on the analysis provided by the so-called second school of ethics of care, it wants to reflect on the current possibility of making care a political paradigm for change and democratization of relationships and society.

The nonhuman and coming community in the selected works of Olga Tokarczuk

ABSTRACT This paper explores the plight of nonhumans and the form of the coming community through the status quo of border-crossing bodies in selected works by Olga Tokarczuk in light of biopolitics. It highlights the link between dehumanization and biopolitics and argues that the nonhuman becomes a foundation of modern sovereignty. The nonhuman is produced by an inclusive exclusion, where the violence enters in and maintains the sovereign, and this anthropocentric mechanism becomes the fundamental political paradigm. To resist this anthropocentrism, Tokarczuk proposes a new form of community, the ‘airport-republic’ with fluid trans-borders, for opening up a new subject construction model and human organization form for post-Holocaust humanity. However, it is easy for these people who are invisible or becoming nonhuman to fall into the indistinguishable zone between humans and animals, between bios (politically qualified life) and zoē (bare life). They cannot be guaranteed by the sovereignty power, thereby falling back again into the logic of the Holocaust.

The Ecofeminism Practice: The Women's Movement in the Documentary Film “Sangihe Melawan”

Ecofeminism is an interrelated and holistic theory and practice. Ecology, in conjunction with discourses on women's freedom and radical democracy, constitutes one of the primary pillars of democratic confederalism, which is the development of the political paradigm in Indonesia. Ecofeminism also manifests in several areas, including the women's resistance movement against gold mining by PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS) in Sangihe. This study aims to describe the representation of the women's movement in the documentary film "Sangihe Melawan," which was uploaded to the YouTube channel of Watchdoc Documentary on July 1, 2022. This research employs semiotics techniques. The data analysis unit in this study includes images or visuals, audio (dialogue and narration), acting, setting, type of shot, and angle, which collectively demonstrate the role of women in the concept of Social Ecofeminism. The results indicate that women are represented as the most disadvantaged parties in the exploitation of natural resources. The women's movement to protect the environment is also depicted as an effortful endeavor. The women's resistance to the expansion of gold mining in Sangihe was manifested in various actions, including awareness-raising activities, a women's rally, legal action against PT TMS through the Manado and Jakarta Administrative Courts, and other legal avenues.

Emerging Evils in Post-Colonies

The colonial and postcolonial are two different ideological eras in the colonized peoples’ history, which are taken up by post-colonial literature. Without rehashing the ex-colonized beings’ painful past from a rebellious and revanchist perspective, postcolonial writers’ literary projects aimed at revitalizing the ex-colonized beings’ experience in the form of collective memory. In such a creative art, the narrative devices in force decry retrograde and dehumanizing practices. In terms of vision, the call for improving the relationship between ex-colonizers and ex-colonized subjects is highly prescribed. All neocolonial policies and related influences are systematically proscribed, thus favouring the creation of a global village free from inequalities, exclusions, and other injustices. In essence, the poetization of “Bournehills” in The Chosen Place, The Timeless People and “Kosawa” in How Beautiful We Were is part of those narrative techniques. Today, in a disguised form, Westerners, with their seducing offers or projects, corrupt tiny groups of undeveloped people won over to their cause and keep the masses in misery. In this context of political paradigm shift and sociocultural mutation, the study of the forms of life in the post-colonies remains a challenge. This helps to disclose on the one hand how the former colonial maintains their ex-colonies in perpetual dependence and on the other hand, highlight how the ex-colonized beings or heirs react and overcome neo-colonial policies. To account for the features of neo-colonialism, the use of Perussetian semiotic approach will be helpful. This will contribute to looking into the prevailing forms of life in both fictional imaginaries. Two points of interest will be scrutinized: “post-colonial order features” and “ex-colonized beings’ resilience”

THE CONTRACT AND THE PARASITE

Michel Serres’s natural contract is not merely a proposal for an alternative legal or political paradigm. It offers something deeper: a new imaginary to unsettle and confront the deep assumptions of classical social contract theories and their retrojected justification: the state of nature. The argument of this article is that Serres systematically unpicks the conditions of possibility of the contractual paradigm in the modern social imaginary, replacing them with an original noise, a primacy of parasitic relationships and a telos of symbiosis. This reframes the natural contract as the visible profile of a comprehensive social and natural imaginary that radically refigures society and ecology otherwise than on the basis of primacy of reciprocal exchange relationships between self-sufficient individuals.

Reconstruction of the 1945 Constitution for strengthening the legal framework of Indonesia Environmental Law

The Anthropocene era was marked by a decline in the quality of the environment including being influenced by the law itself, for example the Job Creation Law was considered to have a negative impact on efforts to protect the environment. This research will analyze the development of legal instruments and the role of the Constitutional Court in environmental protection. This research will be conducted by studying legal literature. The urgency of changing the environmental law political paradigm (green policy) in Indonesia based on the ecocentrism paradigm will provide stronger environmental law political guidelines. Efforts to strengthen the paradigm of environmental protection are carried out by reconstructing the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia by granting rights to the environment and setting state obligations. There is a role for the Constitutional Court through Decision Number 32/PUU-VII/2010 and Number 18/PUU-XII/2014 by providing guidelines for the development of more comprehensive environmental law.

The system of images in A. Varlamov's novel "The Mental Wolf"

This article is devoted to the study of the images of the main characters of the novel, representing the author's complex view of the pre-Soviet period of Russian history, the First World War and the Revolution. Each character is characterized by his own system of ideological coordinates that form the picture of the world in the novel, expressing the national and cultural consciousness of the era. The character's deep characterization is based on a value paradigm, the constituent elements of which are attitude to nature, religion, homeland, and war. It is considered how these value characteristics are reflected in the life position of each character represented in the novel.The purpose of the article is to consider the system of images in A. Varlamov's novel "The Mental Wolf". The need to consider this problem is determined by the general literary position that the author's idea of life is expressed through a system of characters. The author uses the following research methods: comparative, hermeneutical and comparative typological. With the help of a systematic approach, an analytical study of images is provided. The analysis of the image system in the novel allowed us to correlate the images with the compositional structure of the work, to consider their position in the chronotope, to determine the characterological conflict in the novel. As the analysis made it possible to determine, the characters of Varlamov's novel form a system. Its main feature is the complex connections between the characters. The system of images in the novel is based on the idea of their attraction – repulsion. Relevance is seen in addressing one of the key problems of literary criticism based on the work of a modern author. It is established that complex connections of attraction, repulsion and pair interaction are established between the characters of the novel, which ultimately allows us to talk about a complex ideological concept of the novel depicting a person and his spiritual world in an era of changing social, cultural and political paradigms.

Good News for the Oppressed? Exploring the Spiritual, Political, and Intercultural Dimensions of Howard Thurman’s Philosophy

This paper centers on the godfather of the civil rights movement, Howard Thurman, and his most influential work, “Jesus and the Disinherited”, as a pre-eminent text into early 20th century intercultural philosophy. Building upon Kipton Jensen’s analysis in “Howard Thurman: Philosophy, Civil Rights, and the Search for Common Ground”, this presentation will reframe Howard Thurman’s unique philosophy as one that integrates spirituality, interculturality, and critical social analysis. It is well known that Thurman’s treatise on the oppressed was carried in the pocket of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the civil rights movement for the ways it empowered nonviolent resistance for those marginalized by the dominant culture of the United States, which was (and still is) built on racism, military violence, and class-based oppression. This paper advocates that Thurman came to his philosophical conclusions through deep engagement with various cultural and philosophical traditions, most notably the Hindu spiritual–political paradigm of Mahatma Gandhi, and sought to harmonize these insights for African Americans in the USA. By investigating the intercultural foundations of “Jesus and the Disinherited”, this paper will encourage scholars to explore how interculturality enriched Thurman’s philosophy and how this fostered a more expansive vision of community in pluralistic societies. This article traces the roots of the development of “Jesus and the Disinherited”, looking back to presentations Thurman gave as early as 1922, concluding with the publication of his book in 1949. And via this study, we will see the progression of Thurman’s ideas and the impacts interculturality had on his philosophy and vision for social justice.

Divergent and Emergent Political Theologies of Peace Amongst Jewish Israelis

ABSTRACT In this article, I consider the emergent political theology of a peace from within the religious Zionist community. Given the dismal state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it is surprising that the last decade has seen the spontaneous emergence of several grassroots Israeli peace initiatives, and even more surprising that many of these initiatives have emerged from the religious Zionist community rather than the Israeli peace camp. The article presents ethnographic data on the scriptural interpretations of one of these initiatives, the Citizens Accord Forum. The article illustrates their hermeneutic labor on questions of Jewish sovereignty and questions of non-Jews within the Jewish state. The article considers how this alternative political theology is emerging between two far more hegemonic political paradigms: the “religious right” and the “secular left.”

Verfassungs- und Gesetzesvorschriften über die Sprachenregelung im rumänischen Staat während der Zwischenkriegszeit

Language regulations in interwar Romania were affected by the antinomy between their political and legal (especially constitutional) architecture, devised along Western models, and the concrete political circumstances, in a polity whose aims were defined by the ethno-cultural and linguistic character of national community supportive of the state. The perception of the alterity of the new ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities—now accounting for a significant part of the total population—occurred through the lens of two conceptual paradigms, both of them ultimately striving to promote uniformity. On the one hand, the “nation state” character of interwar Romania entailed, at least implicitly, an advancement of the economic, social and professional status of the nation supportive of the state, to the disadvantage of the national minorities. The identity claims of the latter may well be accepted, but in exchange for relinquishing the right to participate in decision-making on major political issues, concerning the state as a whole. On the other hand, the state-centered legal thinking in constitutional and administrative law—adopted under French influence—was an instrument well-suited for promoting and achieving the desired cultural uniformity. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the Western legal and political paradigm identifying the state with the (political) nation—which formally coined the Versailles Treaty system—and the Central-European (mainly Austrian) pattern of thought, more sensitive to linguistic diversity, was discernable also at the level of the minority treaties.

Political Dynamics of the Era of Ali Bin Abi Thalib (Contribution of the Political System in Islamic Civilization)

<em>The study of political studies during the time of Caliph Ali bin Abi Thalib is very important to study in more depth. Because this study greatly contributes to political problems in Indonesia such as corruption and social injustice which are often debated. The aim of this article is to understand 3 things: First, the political paradigm of Ali bin Abi Talib's time. Second, internal and external factors that influenced the politics of Ali bin Abi Talib's time. Third, the positive and negative implications of politics for Muslims at that time. The method used is qualitative research with a literature review approach. The results found were 3 things: First, the political paradigm of Ali bin Abi Talib's time had 3 forms: (1) war politics (2) peace (3) justice. Second, internally there were 3 factors that influenced it: (1) differences of opinion (2) Caliph Ali's policies (3) Caliph Ali's characteristics. Externally, there are 5 factors that influence it: (1) the death of Muslims (2) support from the Kuffah community (3) the Governor's negligence (4) community problems (5) selfishness. Third, there are 3 positive implications for Muslims: (1) making it easier for Caliph Ali (2) the emergence of different forms of Islamic law (3) an orderly government system. Meanwhile, the negative implications for Muslims are 3 things: (1) changes in the Islamic government system (2) the emergence of new groups (3) division of Muslims. The conclusion of this article shows that it provides new views and insights into the study of Islamic Civilization during the era of Caliph Ali bin Abi Talib in the current political sector.</em>

Why Agamben Cannot Save Us: A Political Critique of Giorgio Agamben’s “Coming Politics”

Giorgio Agamben's critical stance on biopolitics and sovereignty is primarily concerned with the problem of the “state of exception” as the paradigm of contemporary Western politics. According to Agamben, human life has been reduced to a “bare life” by a state of exception founded on the relation between the law and sovereignty. In response, Agamben's redemptive politics is a counterargument to the contemporary nihilistic-exceptional politics and capitalism of spectacle. This “coming politics” is founded on some basic ideas such as “playing with the law,” “profanation,” “gesture,” “free use” and finally “form-of-life.” This essay will first explain the role of these ideas in Agamben's coming politics, then, it will demonstrate that all these ideas (or political strategies) are based on a deep belief in the power of thought. Therefore, it seems fair to assert that Agamben's coming politics is a kind of theoretical or philosophical politics and its hero or subject could be called “philosophers.” It will be argued that from a political standpoint, this philosophical politics not only cannot be redemptive but might also result in a form of political passivity and the maintenance of the current political order.

Electoral Conflicts in Cameroon: Causes, Consequences and Remedies

The advent of multiparty politics in Cameroon in the 1990s meant the acquisition of state power was to be achieved through competition, this saw the creation of political parties, birthing a pluralist democracy and shifting the paradigm of partisan politics from the one-party system to a multiparty dynamic. Elections were thus the only means through which these parties had to compete for state power, although it instilled hope in many, this phenomenon was accompanied by much more worrying issues in the name of electoral conflicts. From 1990 till present, elections in Cameroon have always been marred by conflicts. This paper examines the causes and impact of these conflicts on Cameroonians and proposes remedies to optimise the electoral landscape.

Comprehending the risk throughout a literary-geocritical approach. Rushdie's <i>The</i> <i>Satanic Verses</i> as evidence and an opportunity in investigating risk scenarios

<abstract> <p>This paper aimed to demonstrate the correlation, a hidden, intricate, interplay, between the conception of risk and the fluid nature of society during the eras of migratory relocations as portrayed in Salman Rushdie's literary masterpiece, <italic>The Satanic Verses</italic>. The general premise found in this paper was that risk is based on the following logical axiom: Risk is mathematically unpredictable, something that goes beyond the human capability of discernment or probabilistic prevision. This blank space that separates reality from its potentiality is the risk. Thus, in migratory relocation, the risk consists of the unknowability of what could happen the second after having passed a line. It is the border of what is known. Rushdie's work offers profound insights into the ways in which individuals navigate the turbulent waters of a rapidly changing world, where cultural, social, and political paradigms constantly shift. In the first part of this work, we will present the main topics related to risk. Rushdie's work underlines the central role that storytelling and narrative play in navigating the complexities of a fluid society. The characters in Rushdie's novel employ storytelling as a means of understanding and asserting their own identities, thereby confronting the inherent risk of being silenced or marginalized in a world dominated by shifting power dynamics. In conclusion, Salman Rushdie's <italic>The Satanic Verses</italic> provides a rich tapestry of narratives that not only explore the conception of risk in a fluid society but also challenge readers to contemplate the intricate interplay of identity, culture, and faith in an ever-changing world. This works serve as a testament to the power of literature to engage with contemporary issues, transcending boundaries, and sparking critical conversations. Through his vivid characters and daring narratives, Rushdie invites readers to grapple with the aims and main issues of our time: the quest for self-identity, the inevitability of risk, and the enduring need for storytelling as a means of understanding and shaping our rapidly evolving society.</p> </abstract>

The Economic Growth Factor in the Concept of Sustainable Reforms of National Pension Systems in the Eastern Europe Region

The international systems of indicators for the comparative assessment of the sustainability component do not always cover the Eastern European region, which can be considered an obstacle to the global understanding of the problems and possible solutions in the reform of national pension systems. At the same time, in the conditions when pension systems face the strong influence of several factors, and the operation and administration of national pension systems represent a challenge for most countries in the Eastern European region, it is important to determine the system of indicators, which would ensure a sustainable reform thereof. The article presents views on the systematization of the factors that influence the sustainable reforms of the national pension systems and the results of the study on the relationship between the factor of economic growth and the aging of the population, carried out for 10 countries in the Eastern European region and a chronological series 2010-2021. The data obtained on the correlation coefficient between economic growth and the rate of the elderly population confi rm recent research by other authors, carried out for 15 European countries during the same period, according to which the rate of the elderly population has a medium-level impact on economic growth for at least half of analyzed countries and for another third of countries there is no relationship between the economy and the 65+ population. The strength of the relationship between the economy and the elderly population in the period 2010-2021 was very weak in all countries in the Eastern European region. Moreover, in the Czech Republic and at the level of the region, this dependence could be considered as non-existent, the values of the correlation coefficients being close to 0. Only for Slovakia the correlation coefficient shows a slightly stronger but weak and opposite dependence, as for Belarus, Moldova and Russia. The author’s analysis does not validate the increasing burden of population aging in Eastern European economies, which means the lack of need to reorient public social spending towards higher age-related spending in the analyzed period. The study confirms the contradictory nature of the factor of raising the retirement age, thus, it could be removed from the list of beneficial factors of sustainable pension reform, and the cause-and-effect relationship between economic growth and the rate of the elderly population could be neglected. This study complements the data on the differences between Eastern European countries and Western and Northern European countries and would have an impact on policies to reform national pension systems, especially in the context of the political paradigm that supports the concept of a negative impact of aging on economic growth.