ABSTRACT This article challenges contemporary Kantian arguments for universal basic income (UBI) by reinterpreting Kant's political philosophy through the lens of political realism. Current defences of UBI from a Kantian perspective often rely on an idealist reading that overlooks the practical realities of state power and global politics. I argue that Kant is better understood as a ‘transcendental political realist’ who saw a republican state, defined by the separation of powers, as the necessary precondition for any moral society. From this realist viewpoint, politics is not simply applied ethics; rather, a just political structure is the autonomous foundation upon which ethical life can be built. Applying this framework, the article finds UBI to be a problematic solution to economic dependence. In the current global landscape, UBI risks creating a new form of state domination, undermining the core Kantian value of civic independence. The article concludes that a truly Kantian approach prioritises the establishment of robust republican institutions that empower citizens to become their ‘own masters’, achieving independence through a just system of labour, not through state provision.

ABSTRACT Digital media have become powerful platforms for feminist activism, amplifying marginalized voices within Afro-Nigerian political and sociocultural realities. I examine the DANG Community (@diaryofanaijagirl), a prominent Nigerian feminist digital space, using feminist critical discourse analysis of responses to a video on fraudulent mixed-orientation marriages. Findings reveal two key feminist strategies, critiquing societal norms and offering constructive recommendations, alongside two antifeminist tropes: prescriptive moral judgment and individualization of responsibility. Centering intersectionality, I challenge the marginalization of Global South feminisms and foreground digital communities as vital sites of advocacy, solidarity, and resistance amid rising antifeminist discourses in Nigeria, and Africa by extension.

ABSTRACT Focusing on ASEAN university responses to Myanmar students displaced by the 2021 military coup, this article contributes to emerging scholarship on university responses to displacement by examining how higher education institutions in politically constrained contexts create protective educational environments. Drawing on a survey of 26 ASEAN higher education institutions and informal interviews with 9 academics and managers, the analysis reveals that universities create what we term 'safe spaces’ through three interconnected mechanisms: administrative accommodation, institutional agenda alignment and promoting regional integration. These mechanisms enable universities to navigate the complex terrain between humanitarian commitment and political constraint without directly challenging state authority. The study advances a conceptual distinction between ‘sanctuary’, territorially-bound protection requiring institutional autonomy, and ‘safe spaces’ created through accumulated practices that respond to student needs within existing administrative frameworks. The article concludes by suggesting policy directions at institutional, national and regional levels that could enhance university capacity to create safe spaces whilst acknowledging the political realities within which these institutions operate.

This study examines the use of jargon in Indonesia’s 2024 presidential debate using William Lutz’s Doublespeak theory. It identifies the forms and functions of political jargon as rhetorical tools to frame political realities and influence public opinion. Using a qualitative descriptive approach and ethnography of communication, the study analyzes transcripts from the first official debate (December 12, 2023). Findings reveal that Anies Baswedan used the most jargon (37.37%), followed by Prabowo and Ganjar (31.31% each). Jargon serves to build credibility while obscuring policy substance through technocratic language. Thus, jargon operates as doublespeak that shapes perception and legitimizes political power.

Abstract This essay provides meta-ethical foundations for an approach to political realism. The foundations appeal to the kind of non-objectivity of morality involved in taking a critical and reflective perspective on our own moral and political outlooks. The essay argues that the distinctive methodology of an approach to political realism can be derived from these non-objectivist foundations. This methodology requires political philosophy to be more critical and reflective than it usually is, for it to be more deeply engaged with history, sociology, and other human sciences, and for it to look less like applied moral philosophy.

Religious fundamentalism represents a highly contentious and evolving topic within contemporary European culture. This research examines the phenomenon through its historical, political, and cultural dimensions, encompassing various religious traditions including Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and Islam. Fundamentalism is viewed as a response to modernisation, secularisation, and globalisation, while also serving as an ideological mechanism for maintaining identity and tradition. Particular emphasis is placed on its interplay with national identity, pluralism, and democracy, as well as the resulting cultural conflicts. Migrations, the influence of media and emerging technologies, and the institutional response of the European Union are identified as pivotal elements shaping the current dynamics of religious fundamentalism. The ultimate determination is that fundamentalism should not be perceived merely as an external threat, but rather as an intrinsic component of European cultural and political reality, which concurrently challenges and redefines the continent’s future.

Volumes of literature and critical works have been written in an attempt to situate the place of politics in literature. Some postcolonial writers have argued vehement that it is practically impossible to write apolitical literature in the postcolonial world. This paper considers Alobwed ’Epie and Ayi kwei Armah as writers in “Postcolonial Politics”. Their novels are considered here as political pamphlets designed to castigate specific political regimes which have transformed the lives of the citizens into a perpetual nightmare. It equally examines the novels as those that expose some of the most gruesome and nauseating realities of postcolonial leadership politics. Furthermore, this paper sustains the argument that in the novels under study, the masses are projected as people who have been politically, economically and socially deceived, marginalized, oppressed, persecuted, enslaved, exploited and brutalized as a result of excessive greed, corruption, nepotism and tribalism. These ills are the major viruses that continue to deprive the pauperized masses from the benefits of independence as the transition from the colonial to the neo-colonial regimes was a mere change of political actors but the leadership tactics remained the same. From a Marxist and New Historicist theoretical paradigms, the analyses reveal that there is a thin line between the world of the novels and the social climate in which they resonate and adumbrate. Consequently, the novelists succeeds in transforming political realities into eternal truths of the human condition in postcolonial Africa. The analyses further stress that the novels offer synthesis of the people’s political experiences reconstructed in prosaic form. As such, the novelists consider the servant leadership and the moralization of political leadership as condition sino qua nons towards a free, fair and transparent society.

Indian miniature paintings, celebrated for their meticulous detail, intricate brushwork, vivid color palettes, and narrative richness, employ a wide range of visual strategies to create multidimensional experiences. Within this visual repertoire, props defined as inanimate objects integrated into the pictorial space emerging not merely as ornamental flourishes but as essential narrative and aesthetic devices. In Rajasthani miniature painting in particular, props serve to anchor storytelling, guide the viewer’s gaze, and generate visual rhythm, while simultaneously enhance the compositional harmony, spatial balance, and ornamental refinement. Their deliberate selection and placement communicate symbolic meanings that extend beyond decoration, reflecting the cultural values, social hierarchies, political realities, and emotional restraints of the time by situating props within the broader visual languages of Indian miniature traditions, Mughal, Pahari, Rajasthani, and Deccani. This study highlights how the Rajasthani school cultivated a distinctive sophistication in their deployment. Through art historical methodologies and semiotic analysis, the paper argues that props function as active agents in visual storytelling, embodying both the visible and the symbolic. The visual allure of props in Rajasthani miniatures thus transcends mere ornamentation, positioning them as critical components within the artistic and cultural lexicon, while simultaneously testifying to the painter’s skill and pursuit of aesthetic harmony.

The Slovak provincial organisation of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers’ Party was formed in 1918, evolving out of its pre-war existence as an autonomous section of Hungarian Social Democracy. Its integration into the organisational structures of the Czech Social Democratic Party reflected both long-standing cooperation between the two movements since the late nineteenth century and the political realities created by the establishment of the Czechoslovak state. This realignment was framed by the doctrine of Czechoslovakism, which postulated the existence of a unified Czechoslovak nation and functioned as an integrative response to ethnic nationalism and centrifugal tendencies within a multinational polity. In the early years of the Republic, Slovak Social Democrats aligned themselves closely with the defence of Czechoslovak state unity, together with the Agrarian Party and the Czechoslovak National Socialists. Although this stance initially proved electorally advantageous – most notably in the parliamentary elections of 1920 – it soon became a political liability. As Slovak political life matured, electoral support increasingly shifted towards autonomist programmes, articulated most effectively by Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party. As a result, Slovak Social Democracy experienced a sustained decline in electoral support, descending from a leading political force to a marginal, albeit persistent, presence within the party system. This trajectory was further exacerbated by an internal party crisis in the early 1920s, when the secession of radical socialist factions and the establishment of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia significantly weakened the party’s organisational base. The resulting fragility constrained its ability to translate electoral representation into durable influence within executive office, despite the prominence of several individual figures at the national level. The party’s final political engagements unfolded against the backdrop of the Munich crisis of 1938, when its leadership participated in negotiations over Slovak autonomy. Its initial refusal to endorse the Žilina Agreement proved short-lived; the subsequent reversal, however, failed to prevent the party’s dissolution. During the Second World War, former Social Democratic activists were relegated to clandestine political activity. Beyond formal politics, Slovak Social Democrats sought to shape public discourse through the party press and affiliated organisations. Persistent financial constraints, however, rendered these initiatives structurally fragile, resulting in a volatile landscape of short-lived periodicals at provincial and local levels. In contrast to the Czech lands – where dense networks of affiliated organisations enhanced Social Democratic mobilisation – the Slovak organisation remained comparatively under-institutionalised. This dimension of Social Democratic activity in Slovakia has thus far received only limited attention in the historiography.

This study examines the relationship between electoral integrity and democratic legitimacy in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (1999–2023), situating the analysis within the broader West African democratic landscape. Employing qualitative methodology and comparative review of seven electoral cycles, this paper investigates whether electoral integrity genuinely influences democratic legitimacy or remains a theoretical ideal disconnected from political reality. Findings reveal a paradoxical pattern where, despite periodic elections, persistent irregularities including vote buying, result falsification, and violence have undermined both electoral credibility and citizen trust. Notably, voter turnout declined precipitously from 52.3% in 1999 to a historic low of 26.7% in 2023, signaling a profound legitimacy crisis. The study concludes that while electoral integrity significantly impacts democratic legitimacy, institutional constraints and political interference have transformed this relationship into a contested myth, necessitating urgent institutional reforms to restore public confidence.

Abstract The postmodern turn in political theory represents a seismic epistemological and normative change of the certainties of modernist structures in the face of fragmented, contingent and discursively constituted view of politics. Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Francois Lyotard are also thinkers that undermine the conceptual grounding of universal truth, rationality and stable political subjectivity and thus reconfigure the conceptual landscape of power and legitimacy. This paper explores the ways in which postmodern political theory transforms the conceptualization of power into a diffuse, relational, and networked relationship between knowledge and discourse as opposed to being concentrated in a centralized position of the state or ruling elite. It also examines how discourse is involved in the production of political realities, identities and regimes of truth based on the discursive and hegemonic paradigm introduced by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. It is within this theoretical framework that the paper critically examines the new crisis with regard to democratic legitimacy in the modern societies. The weakening of the normative basis of the democratic consensus and public reason is due to the erosion of meta-narratives, the proliferation of rival truth claims, and the mediatization of politics. The legitimacy becomes volatile and disputed as democratic institutions are more and more likely to work in a terrain of fragmented identities, algorithmic communications and symbolic struggles. Postmodernism is a space that enables pluralism, marginal voices and critical resistance, but it is also a space that raises the threat of eroding the potential of shared norms and joint decision making. The article ends by suggesting a re-conceptualization of democratic legitimacy that balances postmodern lessons with the imperative to have normative foundations, participatory politics and institutional responsibility in a more complicated political order.

Sport had become a focal point of public interest by the 1920s at the latest. In Austria and Germany, magazines reported on events and competitions in glossy, image-rich formats. Such coverage was intended to shape bourgeois taste – particularly that of women – and is apparent through a case study of Moderne Welt. Significant effects of the visualization of sport is situated at the intersection of popular culture, design, and art. While the figure of the New Woman emerges as a central focus, journalists also engaged with broader trends, positioning themselves as tastemakers and pioneers. Beyond the often curious elements of emerging leisure culture, the growing use of photography played a key role in transforming sports reporting. The convergence of bourgeois aspirations and mass taste contributed to political blindness and the whitewashing of political realities in the early 1930s.

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) positions adolescents as co-researchers to investigate and address social issues affecting their lives. While YPAR has gained global prominence, comparative research examining how it is conceptualized and practiced across regional contexts remains limited. This study analyzes the differences and commonalities in participatory research projects involving youth conducted in North America and Latin America, focusing on theory, methodology, youth participation roles, and socio-political contexts. We conducted a rapid review of 85 peer-reviewed and grey literature sources published between 2003 and 2023, utilizing the SPIDER framework. Sources were screened through a multi-step collaborative process and analyzed thematically across four domains: theoretical foundations, methodological design, domains of inquiry, and youth roles, assessed using Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation. Studies in North America often emphasized individual youth empowerment and institutional reform, drawing on critical pedagogy and positive youth development frameworks within school and health settings. In contrast, Latin America studies prioritized collective action, sociopolitical transformation, and decolonial theory, frequently embedded in grassroots movements. Regarding participation, youth in North America often assumed protagonist roles within structured institutional boundaries, while Latin America projects engaged youth as co-creators of knowledge within broader community-driven struggles. This review highlights significant regional distinctions in how YPAR is theorized, practiced, and institutionalized. Findings suggest that hybrid approaches-integrating the institutional access common in North America with the grassroots, collective activism of Latin America-may enhance the transformative potential of YPAR. Future scholarship should explore context-sensitive frameworks that elevate youth leadership while respecting regional epistemologies and political realities.

ABSTRACT The paper looks a critical look at the parallel defence buildup plans of Japan (Defence Buildup Program/DBP) and the EU (ReArm 2030 ). The paper highlights how both allowed regional competitors to initiate negative shifts in relative power that undermine the security of both. In response, both Japan and the EU adopted a similar response of defence industrial expansion and enhancing long‐range, autonomous warfare capabilities, responding the economic and political realities of their respective societies. The paper also highlights the foreseeable difficulties in financing these plans in the long term, as well as the potential weaknesses introduced by post‐heroic, anti‐militarist attitudes in both Japan and the EU.

This article examines the multifaceted dimensions of the caste census debate in India, exploring the paradoxical nature of counting caste in a society that aspires to transcend caste divisions. Drawing on historical analysis of colonial census operations and contemporary case studies from Bihar and Telangana, the study navigates the complex intersection of social justice imperatives, constitutional principles, and political realities that shape this controversial demographic exercise. The research examines how modern caste enumeration evolved from colonial administrative practices and analyses the methodological, ethical, and legal challenges associated with contemporary efforts to count caste. While proponents argue that comprehensive caste data is essential for evidence-based policy interventions to address persistent socioeconomic disparities, critics contend that such enumeration risks reinforcing the very social divisions it aims to overcome. The article pays particular attention to recent state-level caste surveys and their implications, including the Bihar High Court judgment that reaffirmed constitutional limits on reservation policies despite the availability of demographic data. Through this analysis, the study reveals how caste census initiatives embody a fundamental tension between recognition and transcendence—between acknowledging caste as a persistent social reality requiring measurement and the ultimate goal of creating a society where caste no longer determines life opportunities. The article concludes by proposing a balanced approach that reconciles data collection with constitutional values, emphasising methodological rigour, transparency safeguards, and a multidimensional understanding of social disadvantage that can guide Indias path toward meaningful social equality.

The purpose of this study is to reinterpret the meaning of the gangho space in Yun Seondo’s Eobusasisa through Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia and to examine its political implications within the spatial order of the Joseon literati society. The research focuses on the poetic world of Eobusasisa and the perception of gangho revealed in its postscript. Methodologically, this study adopts Foucault’s theory of heterotopia as an analytical framework to examine the spatial and temporal structures represented in the work. The analysis shows that the gangho space juxtaposes heterogeneous spaces such as the royal court, the kingly way, and historical sites, while forming a heterochronic temporal structure distinct from the secular time of the court. Through this structure, the gangho operates according to principles different from those governing the court. Furthermore, expressions found in the postscript－such as Yuse doknip jiui (the meaning of standing alone apart from the world), Changju odo (my way in the rivers and lakes), and Changju ilsa (a recluse of the rivers and lakes)－indicate that the gangho is a space whose meaning can be fully understood only by literati who share particular ethical attitudes and political experiences, functioning as a space characterized by rules of access and limitation. In this sense, the gangho in Eobusasisa can be understood not merely as a natural site of reclusion but as a political heterotopia in which literati reconstruct their mode of existence and justify themselves while maintaining a certain distance from the realities of court politics. This study suggests a new approach to reinterpreting classical literature from the perspective of spatial theory and highlights the political significance of the gangho space.

ABSTRACT As critical development scholars teaching the climate crisis, we sit at a juncture. The neoliberal university has placed employability and impact at the forefront of teaching metrics to our elite international student cohort. At the same time, our students face affective tensions in confronting the climate crisis as young people, aspiring to work in consulting, finance or policy careers. On climate, this dissonance means a commitment towards ecomodernist neoliberal policy approaches, the capitalist drivers of the climate crisis. In our paper, we propose a “radical pragmatism” in our climate education, which navigates the tensions of balancing critical climate pedagogy, climate anxiety and demands of the neoliberal university. We draw on eight in-depth interviews with undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in a climate change module in our International Development department at King’s College London. Through radical pragmatism, we teach “solutions” to the climate crisis as embedded in everyday struggles against fossil capitalism. Concrete alternatives and future imaginaries to the climate crisis are possible without foreclosing hope. Yet, we are not impractically prescriptive on student’s future career aspirations. We hope to provide a climate education that prepares students with critical skills needed to navigate the political realities of the capitalist world we inhabit.

Although framed in legal discourse as a non-violent and targeted instrument, economic sanctions imposed on Yemen have in practice operated as a form of warfare, extending well beyond political elites and systematically harming vulnerable groups. This study critically examines the ethical dilemmas and humanitarian consequences of economic sanctions, treating the disjuncture between their proclaimed aims and actual outcomes as symptomatic of a broader pattern in which economic coercion is normalized despite foreseeable civilian harm. Drawing on four analytical frameworks—utilitarianism, deontological ethics, international humanitarian law, and political realism—as part of the repertoire through which sanctions are justified, contested, and normalized, the research interrogates the legitimacy of these measures within a protracted armed conflict. Empirical evidence indicates that sanctions have exacerbated shortages of food, medicine, and fuel, eroded purchasing power, and disrupted commercial and banking systems, deepening the humanitarian crisis. The analysis underscores the ethical and legal challenges inherent in employing economic coercion amid fragile institutions and ongoing emergencies. It concludes that sanctions regimes functions less as a mechanism of targeted pressure than an instrument of collective punishment, undermining its moral legitimacy and any credible claim to fostering peace.

The manageability of the political space within any form of government organization should be considered a fundamental problem in politics. Its structure is determined not only by the challenges of the time, but also by historical practices and their interpretation. The article analyzes the valuable experience of the preparation and implementation of P.D.Kiselev's reform in the 1830s–1850s, which aimed to organize the management of the territories of the Russian Empire inhabited by state peasants. It is concluded that, despite the class-based nature of Kiselev's proposed model, it should be considered a fundamental approach to combining state administration (at the level of provinces and districts) and self-government (in volosts and rural communities). This is due to the fact that during Kiselev's “reforms” the problems were raised of delineating authority, strictly regulating the involvement of officials in self-government, and a strict prohibition was introduced on interference in day-to-day affairs, which remains relevant today. Special attention should be paid to the structure of self-government and the approaches to its formation: self-government at the level of volosts and rural communities, the allocation of deliberative and executive bodies in its structure, the creation of rural communities, the alternative nomination of candidates from the peasant environment, and the organization of procedures for the real participation of peasants in self-government in various capacities. P.D.Kiselev not only proposed a management structure that fit into the contemporary political realities of the absolutist state and the preserved communal self-government, but also proved the effectiveness of the developments by leading its implementation, which increased the socio-economic level of development among the state peasants, something that would not have been possible without the implementation of the proposed model of self-government. The article demonstrates a significant contribution by P.D.Kiselev to finding an effective model of territorial and regional governance for Russia, which combines state administration and self-government, and to developing the principles of its functioning.

The article explores the genesis and evolution of specialized arbitration as a key mechanism for resolving maritime disputes. The authors trace the historical path from ancient and medieval maritime customs to the formation of modern arbitration institutions. Special attention is paid to the transformation of maritime arbitration procedures and principles, which have proven their stability and effectiveness in the face of changing economic and political realities.