Political Profile Research Articles

Blue economy in Southeast Asia: Oceans as the new frontier of economic development

ABSTRACTWhile the term “blue economy” has found increasing traction with a variety of stakeholders (both state and non-state) in the recent past, a working definition of the concept at a regional or global level is yet to be arrived at. This paper begins with a brief examination of the concept of blue economy, followed by a discussion of blue economy initiatives undertaken or aspired towards at the regional level of Southeast Asia. In doing so, three fundamental propositions are made: First, the prospects for blue economy in Southeast Asia remain optimistic despite difficulties in collective action posed by the “ASEAN Way”, an obstacle which appears to have been considerably overcome in the launching of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. Second, Indonesia’s growing economic and political profile allows it to assert the reins of regional (and even global) leadership on blue economy, without necessarily limiting itself to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) means and mechanisms. Third, while traditional security issues, both between Southeast Asian and extra-regional powers and within Southeast Asia over outstanding sovereignty and jurisdictional disputes, may impede cooperation on tackling non-traditional (maritime) security issues in the region, they may not prove as formidable an impediment against the successful realisation of blue economy initiatives.

“MAGISTRADOS IMPERIAIS”: atuação política e perfil de formação e carreira dos juízes de direito no Rio Grande do Sul (1833-1889)

The article studies the magistrates who act as judges in Rio Grande do Sul between 1833 and 1889. First, it provides a brief analysis of the social, educational, professional and political profile of the 149 graduates in law that exercised that office in that period. In the second part, it analyzes the political practice of these magistrates, especially at the local level, where they found themselves immersed in clientelist networks vying for local power and had a strong role in the electoral process.

Nic pro holky? Genderové nerovnosti v politické participaci na sociálních sítích

This paper elaborates on the authors' previous research on the relatively unexplored area of the gender aspects of online political participation. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyse communication on selected Czech political parties' Facebook profiles during the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2013 and 2014. The article focuses on women's presence in political discussions and the relationship between their presence and the negativity of the communication in the forum, and presents a literature review offering possible explanations for the surprising difference in both the activity of men and women and the differences in the activity of female participants on the profile pages of different parties. The results of this research challenge some established assumptions about the alleged narrowing of the gender gap in the Internet environment and in social media specifically, as men turn out to be much more active than women.

Los presidentes latinoamericanos y las características de la democracia

The objective of this paper is to seek relationships between the characteristics of democracy in a country and the features of its political class. In order to so, indexes that measure different attributes of democratic political systems are linked with the political and social profile of the individuals who have occupied the presidency. The study applies to Latin America presidents in the period between 1978 and 2015. Starting with an initial observation of the data, the analysis concentrates on six countries: the three that present the best results and the three with the worst scores in an aggregate of indicators used to assess democratic systems. To the extent that the quality of political systems increases, there is a tendency for the quality of their politicians to increase as well, or at least there is less likelihood that leaders with low levels of training and political professionalism will be able to succeed in politics.

Acortando la brecha de género: un análisis de los perfiles de las diputadas en México de las lxi y lxii legislaturas

The purpose of the text is to answer different questions related to the social and political profiles of the deputies of the mexican Congress; as well as the gender gap, considering its parliamentary and partisan history, age, educational level and professional career. For it, the author take as elements of study, two Mexican legislators, lxi (2009-2012) and lxii (2012-2015). A database with the information of representatives was created with the idea of ordering fundamental information and also a depth interviews were conducted with key women within political parties.

The paradox of technocratic democracy and the democratic deficit of european institutions by Jürgen Habermas

In the nineties, Habermas redirected his political writings to the post-national constellation (global and European) and the possibilities of a society politically integrated through transnational democracy (or post-national democracy). This thematic reorientation took place on two fronts. The first one is the global transnational democracy, which includes the impacts of the economic globalization on national democracies, as well the proposal for a political Constitution for a pluralistic world society, based on a constitutionalization of international law. The second one is the European transnational democracy, which includes the redefinition of the political profile of European welfare state for an economic liberal profile, as well the paradox of democratic technocracy operated by European institutions and the proposal to overcome the decoupled technocratic policy model. This paper will address only this last topic, describing the reasons of the democratic deficit and the consequent delay of European political Union. Despite numerous reforms, the technocratic policies have not eliminated the discrepancy between centralization and democratization, and mistakenly indicate another direction further reinforcing the problem of European undemocratic institutions. In contrast, Habermas argues that the democratic deficit could only be overcome replacing the technocratic approach by a deeper democratization of European institutions.

An enigma named Agostino Gemelli: Catholicism, fascism and psychoanalysis in Italy during the inter-war period

The Franciscan friar Agostino Gemelli has been the subject of much research and debate. This is due to his important political profile and, above all, to the role he played in mediating between the Catholic world and fascism in Italy during the inter-war period. Gemelli was also a central figure in Italian psychology, especially during the 1930s and 1940s. This article is structured to focus in particular on the way that his connections with political and ecclesiastic powers allowed him to become increasingly significant within Italian psychology. Using the example of Gemelli's relationship with psychoanalysis, this study highlights the tension between his relatively open-minded stance and his links to authoritarian, dogmatic ideologies and institutions.

Statistical Analysis In Criminal Justice Research

The use of statistics and statistical analysis on crime and criminal justice is critical in order for governments to be effective in implementing anti-crime programs and protect the well-being of the population and assess the social impact of public expenditures and policies. In an increasingly globalized and interconnected world, in the age of cybercrimes even, the collection of reliable and comprehensive criminal justice statistics cannot be understated. Countries collect huge amount of data pertaining to crimes, criminal profiles and related socio-economic, political and geographic profile of different communities and the country as a whole in order to sustain its respective criminal justice system. In many cases, the governments undertake extensive research using quantitative or qualitative techniques or both in order to generate the data. During the research process, statistical analysis is required to transform all these data into useful information for effective criminal justice decision-making as well as policy research.

The 2012 killing of Chinese citizens in Rome and the ambivalence of Italian journalism

ABSTRACTSredanovic discusses the killing of a father and daughter of Chinese origin in Rome in January 2012, and the portrayal of the case in Italian print journalism. He uses a qualitative analysis of a corpus of 193 articles from seven Italian newspapers with different political, market and geographic profiles. The frequency of generally negative and stereotypical portraits of migrants in crime news is well known; however, this specific case offers a number of less familiar insights. Sredanovic shows the multiple and changing frames and themes, both positive and negative, deployed to portray the event across the two-week period in which it was featured on the front pages of newspapers. He demonstrates in particular the ways in which stereotypes that are often used against migrants in crime news find place even in a case in which the migrants were the victims of the crime. He further illustrate how the representation of the perpetrators shifted from describing them as an exception (when it was thought they were autochthonous) to generalizing about their deviance when it was discovered that they were of Moroccan origin. Sredanovic locates this discussion in an anti-groupist theoretical frame, arguing that the stereotypes used cannot be adequately explained by majority-minority group interactions, and that the delimitation and definition of groups should be understood as ideological from the start. He also argues that aspects of the production routines of crime journalism can be added to the factors that explain the portrayal of the event. He concludes by arguing that Sinophobia is a form of prejudice that varies geographically and in time, and calling for non-reifying, practice-informed analyses that mix discriminating and non-discriminating discourses.

Is there a model of political Identity in the small Cities of Portugal in the Late Middle Ages? A preliminary theoretical approach

The concept of small cities adopted in this article corresponds to urban centres with low relevance in the Portuguese political system. To identify these territorial communities, several classification criteria are suggested (namely the legal status and the political profile of the town) that, after being exploited in monographic studies, may allow conceiving an interpretative model. The most important criterion discussed in this article is the political culture that the concelhos (“municipalities”) preserved in the dialogue they established with the crown. It can be asserted that for the 14th century we have not identified any difference between the discourse delivered by the most important and the less important municipalities in this institutional relationship. This is not the case for the 15th century. Indeed, while small cities keep merely defending the legal order, large cities created an autonomous political identity.

La influencia de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza en Rodolfo Llopis

Rodolfo Llopis, influido por los principios pedagógicos de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, intentó renovar la educación: primero como docente en la Escuela Normal de Cuenca, y más tarde como director general de Primera Enseñanza, coincidiendo con el bienio reformista de la Segunda República. Su gran deseo de cambio social le llevó a luchar por la educación y la democracia como pilares fundamentales para la regeneración social, política, pedagógica y cultural. Su formación en la Escuela Superior de Magisterio le puso en contacto con los profesores defensores del ideario de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza, y las influencias de Francisco Giner de los Ríos y Manuel Bartolomé Cossío definieron su perfil de docente y político institucionista.

When do candidates attack in election campaigns? Exploring the determinants of negative candidate messages in German televised debates

Content analyses of televised debates indicate that candidates often attack each other. Unfortunately, we know very little about when candidates go negative. Furthermore, most research is focusing on the United States. This paper contributes in several ways to our understanding of when candidates choose negative messages. First, we identify some previously unnoticed factors and assign them to three broad categories: a candidate’s (personal and political) profile, the debate format, and the strategic context of a debate. Second, we use a unique data set based on all German televised debates. Third, we run multivariate models to investigate which variables are responsible for the use of attacks. Our results indicate that attacks are very popular. Candidates attack if they belong to the opposition, if they compete at the national level, and if they are behind in the polls. In addition, personality can affect the use of attacks.

The Pegida Movement and German Political Culture: Is Right‐Wing Populism Here to Stay?

AbstractThis article outlines the rise and fall of the ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West’ (Pegida), a right‐wing populist street movement that originated in the city of Dresden in October 2014 and peaked in January 2015. The Pegida movement combined fear of ‘Islamisation’ with general criticism of Germany's political class and the mainstream media. This ambivalent and largely undefined political profile proved its strength in mobilising a significant minority of right‐wing citizens in the local context of Dresden and the federal state of Saxony, but generally failed to spill over to other parts of Germany. The social profile of the Pegida movement, which included ‘ordinary citizens’ with centre‐right to far‐right attitudes, points to significant overlap between general disenchantment of the political centre ground in Germany with the political system, as outlined in recent sociological research, and the ability of a largely leaderless populism to mobilise in the streets.

The Role of the Speaker in Britain House of Commons

The role of the Speaker of the Parliament represents a topic that constantly interests constitution and political experts, regarding both static and dinamyc profile. In this perspective, this analysis will focus on the neutral model of British parliamentary governance (speakership). As a constant reference will be used the examination of the institution of the Presidency of the Parliament in its dual role, as an internal organ of the Parliamentary Assembly, but also as a structure of high “external” institutional profile, which in collaboration with other constitutional bodies is essential for institutional qualification in which its role is located. A special attention will be paid to the form of the British government and how it has affected the powers and role of the Chairman of the Assembly in the political-constitutional order. The methodology used in this paper will be analytical. The main objective of this study will be to explain the factors that led to the installation of such model in this Country as well as causal relevance of each one . These variables such as the form of government, political system and the party system will be tested in this case for understanding the model of British parliamentary. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s2p679

Cross Border Migration as the Flip Side of Patriarchy, Poverty and Development in India and Nepal

When Nepal's poverty and patriarchy extended their political chemistry to the ideas and the ideal of development and progress, it could not have been foreseen that social, economic political profile of migrants would entail, not only issues regarding the movement of workers between the two countries, income and remittances but also involvement in petty crimes, child labour and unregistered employment. India has been a traditional hot spot for Nepalese migrants since the past century. Detailed studies of the migration pattern between India and Nepal reveal that a new peculiar category of migrants has of late come into being in big cities adding outside of traditional migration destinations such as Bihar and West Bengal. Through this paper I aim to examine the changing dynamics of migration between India and Nepal by working among three kinds of migrants in Delhi, namely, cooks and/or waiters in restaurants or roadside eating joints, night-watchmen, domestic helps and tailors. On the basis my findings, I refer to them as ‘itinerant migrants’ in order to situate their particular migration model. These migrants ‘on the go’ not only traverse freely through the symbolic realms of friendship between the two countries, but reside with a dual existential focus upon their lives. These actors have achieved a monetary and emotional satisfaction for themselves even at the cost of working informally without rights. My work takes the stand that although the itinerant migrants remain silently entrenched in the anonymous underbelly of development and international relations, yet they are not entirely invisible. Those who deal with them, employ them, trust or remain distant with them are fully aware of their existence and status. Traversing the space created by a partnership between the loopholes of bilateral relations on the one hand and changing migration patterns on the other, these iterant travelers throw open grey zones of existence worth debating. Out of these, day to day exploitation, drugs and unregistered existences amidst a fraternal ethos of solidarity are some of the issues that this paper identifies and proposes for further research.

Protest avatars as memetic signifiers: political profile pictures and the construction of collective identity on social media in the 2011 protest wave

Protest avatars, digital images that act as collective symbols for protest movements, have been widely used by supporters of the 2011 protest wave, from Egypt to Spain and the United States. From photos of Egyptian martyr Khaled Said, to protest posters and multiple variations of Anonymous' mask, a great variety of images have been adopted as profile pictures by Internet users to express their support for various causes and protest movements and communicate it to all their Internet peers. In this article, I explore protest avatars as forms of identification of protest movements in a digital era. I argue that protest avatars can be described as ‘memetic signifiers’ because (a) they are marked by a vagueness and inclusivity that distinguishes them from traditional protest symbols and (b) lend themselves to be used as memes for viral diffusion on social networks. In adopting these icons, participants experience a collective fusion in an online crowd, whose gathering is manifested in the very ‘masking’ of participants behind protest avatars. These forms of collective identification, while powerful in the short term, can however prove quite volatile, with Internet users often discarding avatars with relative ease, raising the question whether they can provide durable foundational elements of contemporary social movements.

Raising the political profile of the neglected zoonotic diseases: three complementary European commission-funded projects to streamline research, build capacity and advocate for control.

Raising the political profile of the neglected zoonotic diseases: three complementary European commission-funded projects to streamline research, build capacity and advocate for control.

The growing role of evaluation in parliaments: holding governments accountable?

To date, the role of evaluation in parliaments has hardly been analyzed. This is a surprise as members of parliament are stakeholders par excellence, who could have an interest in evaluation. But do they? Through a systematic analysis of written questions and interrogations in Germany and Flanders we investigate MPs’ attention to evaluations. The following aspects are analyzed, from a comparative perspective: the content of questions on evaluation, the political profile of the MPs posing the questions, the share of questions on evaluation, and the distribution of questions over political parties, policy areas and over time. Points for practitioners The role and use of evaluation in the democratic process might be enhanced. On the one side members of parliament might wish to be better informed on evaluation methods as well as on possibilities for using evaluation results for accountability and learning purposes. On the other side evaluators might strive for strengthening the demand for evaluation in the policy-making process and not only public administration.

In a Different Voice? Explaining the Use of Men and Women as Voice-Over Announcers in Political Advertising

We draw on a comprehensive database of American political advertising and television audience profile data to investigate the ways in which gender influences choices about the use of voice-overs in political advertising. Our findings suggest that although men voice the vast majority of political ads, campaigns do strategically choose the sex of the voice-over announcer and that it systematically varies with candidate characteristics, ad tone, and, to a lesser extent, issues. Moreover, using survey data, we show that the choice of voice-over influences the perceived credibility of the ad.

Association Tounissiet

In May 2011 twenty women of different profiles, including academics, housewives, lawyers, and engineers, established the Association Tounissiet in Tunis. We met two months after the revolution to help establish democracy in the new Tunisia. Our aim was to work on behalf of the rights of women that have long been suppressed. The situation of women scarcely corresponds to the legal texts in Tunisia, which hid the reality on the ground. The association has nineteen core members who spearhead activities and projects and participate in local and national demonstrations. Tounissiet also cooperates with several partner organizations across the country, including in Nabeul, Jendouba, Sousse, Gabes, Sfax, Tataouin, and Sidi Bouzid. These associations are often involved in various Tounissiet activities in Tunis and the region.Before the revolution women were the first victims of the dictatorship. They were deprived of the basic rights of expression, freedom, and equality and of participation in civil society and political domains. Only women of certain socioeconomic or political profiles could actively participate in public life, including associations, government, and public- or private-sector decision-making positions. Tounissiet is an apolitical organization that aims to promote the roles of Tunisian women without distinction among them. Our slogan is “Tounissiet pour les Tounissiets” (Tounissiet for all Tunisian women).The mission and focus of the association today are to promote the values of citizenship among women; support female leadership and encourage women to play an active role in decision making; identify the key concerns of rural women and propose concrete solutions; and be the voice for women victims of oppression. The goal of our initiative Promoting Women’s Rights, which has been funded for the past three years, is to empower rural and urban women to participate in local and national decision making. The goal of our Women’s Leadership Academy, funded by the United Nations Development Programme, is to prepare qualified women to run for legislative and municipal offices. The regional project Heya [She], to Support Women Leaders, which collaborates with five other associations in Tunisia, also has partners in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen. The goal of this three-year project (concluding in 2016) is to increase women’s active participation in public spaces throughout the Middle East and North Africa by assuring durable and fair changes for men and women and the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized women.The postrevolutionary context in Tunisia has renewed a rich and diversified feminist dynamic. Tounissiet works alongside other associations with years of experience. One challenge is to maintain and promote our position in a very active civil society by playing a central role in the establishment of the rule of law. Tounissiet will have to follow the process of democratic transition by developing legal projects that reinforce the principle of gender equality in the new constitution. Tounissiet must strengthen its legal capacities to propose laws and to focus on strategies of effective litigation.Another major challenge is to assure the rehabilitation of victimized women and ensure that the transitional justice process pays attention to the specific needs of women. Since 2012 Tounissiet has defended women who are victims of direct and indirect violence. We have called for a women’s committee in the Truth and Dignity Commission, and we accompany women throughout the trial and support their struggles for the truth.In conclusion, we have to work hard to strengthen the capacities of rural and urban women to ensure the continued active participation of women. A key challenge that underlies all of our projects is to help qualified women gain decision-making and leadership positions. We believe that Tunisian women are well-placed legally and juristically in this regard compared to many other countries, including Western ones. This is mainly due to the personal status code issued on August 13, 1956, by a decree of the bey (the monarchy was abolished in July 1957). The constituent assembly adopted a new constitution in 2014, after the Tunisian Revolution in 2011. Article 21 of the constitution states the equality of citizens before the law without discrimination. Article 34 requires the state to ensure the representation of women in elected assemblies. Article 40 grants men citizens and women citizens the right to work in decent conditions and earn fair wages. Furthermore, Article 46 requires the state to protect, support, and develop women’s acquired rights; ensure equal opportunities for men and women in all fields; ensure parity of representation in elections; and take necessary measures to eliminate violence against women. We are working for the implementation of the constitutional principles of justice, equality, and parity by raising awareness of them among the various actors in society so that women have equal access to and full participation in power structures and local and national decision making.Tounissiet BoardApril 21, 2015Translated and edited by miriam cooke and Frances Hasso