Political Scene Research Articles

Gertrude Bell and the Genesis of Sectarian Division in Modern Iraq

Sectarian jargon has become part and parcel of the Iraqi political scene after 2003. Sectarian phenomenon, however, has always been part of Iraqi political life at least since the creating of Iraqi state in 1921. This study, examines specifically the British role in creating the sectarian division in Iraq as viewed by Iraqi Shi’is. Iraqi Shi’is have always put forward their claim as the most affected by the political division resulted after 1921. The paper will present first a varied spectrum of reflections for Shi’a intellectuals and ‘ulama of enduring British role. I shall review then an historical evolution of Shi’a-British encounter to assess finally, how this experience has shaped the attitudes and mentality of present Shi’a personals and forces in Iraq.

Political constitutionalism in Europe revisited

AbstractThis article traces the disconnect in the constitutional study of the European Union from the Maastricht era to the euro crisis. In the Maastricht era, a discourse of ‘post‐sovereignty’ came to dominate theoretical enquiry, reflecting but also distorting a number of material developments: the ‘end of history’, the retreat of critical theory into discourse analysis and systems theory, and the prioritization of law over politics. Jürgen Habermas was a key intellectual figure in driving this ideological mix at the very moment when anti‐systemic challenges began to return, both formally and informally, as exemplified in the German Constitutional Court and the French political scene. In revisiting the idea of political constitutionalism, we can foreground this constitutional disconnect and show how it contributes to the irresolution of the subsequent euro crisis conjuncture.

Isaiah D. Clawson: A Salem County Politician in a Time of Transformation

Isaiah D. Clawson was a physician and politician from Salem County in the antebellum era. He first affiliated with the Whig Party. When that party disintegrated in the mid-1850s, Clawson sought the support of the American (Know-Nothing) Party before affiliating with the more enduring Republican Party. Clawson's political maneuvers when he ran for, and was elected to, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1854 and 1856 revealed the political options open to Whigs as their party faded from the political scene. In the context of New Jersey politics, where the American Party endured longer than elsewhere, political figures such as Clawson had to gain and hold on to support from both Americans and Republicans to unify the opposition to the Democrats. Although Clawson's political positions were more in line with Republican thinking on slavery and internal improvements, political realities of the time compelled him to rely on a united opposition to win and retain his seat in the House of Representatives.

Health system recovery in Northwest Syria–challenges and operationalization

The demonstrations in Syria in 2011 became an uncompromising conflict that divided the country into three main areas of control: governmental areas, northeast Syria, and Northwest Syria. A series of United Nations resolutions adopted in 2014 authorizing official cross-border humanitarian aid in opposition-held areas to allow humanitarian agencies and organizations to use routes across the border from neighborhood countries like Turkey to deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need in Syria. The resolution was extended annually until 2021 when it was adapted to involve a cross-line humanitarian response from governmental areas besides cross-border operations. The last adaptation of the cross-border resolution, whose original form was interpreted as a politicized action by Russia and China, implicates an unframed and unplanned transition from an emergency to an Early Recovery status. Without an appropriate framework for the current geopolitical complexity in Syria, Early Recovery programs are doomed to fail, resulting in further complications in the political and humanitarian scenes. Moreover, the effectiveness of the cross-line mechanism is questionable, considering the lack of accessibility and acceptability for Damascus-based humanitarian operations in areas out of government control. The article reviews studies about Early Recovery guidelines and operational frameworks of health systems recovery in post-conflict settings to derive a practical and hybrid framework for operationalizing health system recovery in Northwest Syria, considering current geopolitical and humanitarian circumstances. This article draws upon the six building blocks of the health system, the essential package of public health services, Early Recovery integration criteria, health system resilience dimensions in the literature, and public health determinants to identify context-specific health system recovery challenges and priorities. As a result, we introduce a new health system recovery framework, which is operationalized for the context of Northwest Syria.

‘Translating’ Valperga: A Journey Through Mary Shelley’s Italy

ABSTRACT This essay addresses how the manifold Italianness of Mary Shelley’s Valperga informs our translation of the novel into Italian. Valperga narrates – and in part fictionalizes, especially through its female figures – Italian Medieval history, based on the author’s wide-ranging and scrupulous research into multiple historiographical sources from Machiavelli to Muratori to Villani. It also engages with the Italian cultural and political scene of Shelley’s own time. The novel was composed between the revolutionary moti of 1820–21 and the later Risorgimento, and powerfully reflects the troubled political climate of the age. Valperga draws on Shelley’s experience of living in early nineteenth-century Italy, as well as on her reading knowledge of Italian, a language that she was successfully endeavouring to learn to speak at the time. There is therefore a special appropriateness, and also a special responsibility, in translating the novel into the language and culture that played such an important role in its formation. This essay provides significant examples of the challenges involved in the translation process.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan: A Political Biography

Alliances are popular in democracies when there are no prominent national political parties because a single party cannot govern a nation. Many personalities played an important role in the formation and working of the alliances. One of the stalwarts among those leaders is the name of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan. He spent a considerable portion of his political life in the struggle against military and civilian dictators for strengthening parliamentary democracy. The research aims to investigate Nawabzada Nasarullah’s political biography. It highlights his position and tactics against civilian dictators distinguished by his steadfast dedication to democratic values, the galvanization of public opinion, the creation of alliances, the filing of legal challenges, the promotion of his cause on a global scale, and his ability to persevere in the face of difficulty. His contributions significantly influenced the political scene of Pakistan and emphasized the value of democratic leadership.

The buildup to the National Security Law in Hong Kong: From Structural Contradictions to Direct Violence

The political scene of Hong Kong both before and after the transition from British to Chinese authority was one of negative calm - the absence of violence. Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984), for instance, & a mini-constitution (i.e., Basic Law) picturing the city's future under the People's Republic of China were to guarantee the public's autonomy in politics and social rights. Nevertheless, Hong Kong's political context evolved from poor peace (with the Joint Declaration providing a foundation for positive peace) to indirect and ultimately direct violence. The writings that envisioned "a substantial amount of autonomy" and "democratization" were riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. The rise of the National Security Act continued this aggressive trajectory, in which underlying conflicts created cycles of continual violence that were originally entrenched in structure but became explicitly evident at a level of mindset and subsequently conduct after 2014.

Antyeuropejski wymiar referendów szwajcarskich. Casus Szwajcarskiej Partii Ludowej

THE ANTI-EUROPEAN DIMENSION OF THE SWISS REFERENDA: THE CASE OF THE SWISS PEOPLE’S PARTY The aim of the article is to analyze the impact of referenda on the increase in the popularity of anti-European sentiments in Switzerland on the example of the activity, in particular during selected referendum campaigns, of the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP). Two research hypotheses will be examined in the article: leading – H1: The Swiss People’s Party uses anti-European slogans to build its position on the political scene; and auxiliary – H2: the Swiss anti-European narrative is primarily related to migration issues. In order to verify or falsify the hypotheses, the following research questions were posed: Q1: Which dimensions of Europeanization arouse the greatest controversy and political disputes in Switzerland?; Q2: What are the programmatic and organizational specifics of the Swiss People’s Party?; Q3: What means does the Swiss People’s Party use in referendum campaigns?; Q4: Are there, and if so, what, specific features of the Swiss anti-European narrative? The answers to the research questions will be contained in the following parts of the text. In the summary, research hypotheses will be resolved and conclusions will be presented.

The Scope of the Concept of Poetry in Afghanistan

The poetry of stability in Afghanistan, like the poetry of stability in other countries of the world, has a conceptual richness that has not yet been dealt with in its wide angles, and in the opinion of the author, it is considered necessary that its conceptual foundation be broken and explained. Afghanistan is a country that has been affected by accidents for a long time, and the mastery of its people in front of the eyes of the aggressors has become famous in the world, which should not be ignored. On the other hand, there is no doubt that such a struggle has played a prominent role in contemporary Persian poetry, and it is necessary to examine the existence and conceptual structures of the poetry of stability in Afghanistan because the poetry of stability in Afghanistan was able to show the main identity with social awareness and consciousness. To show the people of Afghanistan in different political and social scenes to the world, various political events, especially the invasion of the Russians into Afghanistan as the biggest event in the contemporary history of Afghanistan and the world, added to the social tensions in Afghanistan and the resulting consequences caused many political, social and cultural crises that these factors caused so that the religious feelings and emotions, patriotism and freedom that were created, will open a new perspective for the artists and poets of our country. From this point of view, the current research is based on the thematic dimension and has paid attention to the conceptual aspects of sustainable poetry in Afghanistan.

Media Coverage of Gordon Brown’s ‘Bigotgate’ in the 2010 British General Election

The aim of the paper is to gain a better understanding of the effect of media on public opinion, with particular attention to Gordon Brown’s ‘bigotgate’ taking place in April 2010 during his campaign for the British general election. The paper seeks to argue that the event had a major impact on Brown’s political career as well as Labour’s image on the British political landscape. The corpus of the study includes a selection of 100 articles from The Guradian which are qualitatively analysed, using media agenda-setting and framing, and juxtaposed to 30 Ipsos Mori opinion polls dealing with the event and related issues. Results show that the event had major repercussions on the British political scene. It damaged Brown’s political career, contributing to Labour’s inability to secure their fourth term in Ten Downing Street and increased Britons’ concern about mass migration, particularly from Eastern Europe.

Analysis of Donald Trump’s Inaugural Speech based on Attitude Within Appraisal Theory

In the 1990s Martin and his colleagues proposed the appraisal theory, which is based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Martin aims to analyze the appraisal resources for realizing interpersonal functions in discourse from a lexical perspective, which refers to how the speaker expresses the content of the text, the attitude of the author and the communicative intention through the language construction, so as to establish interpersonal relationship with the audience, and then influence the audience's attitude and behavior. Appraisal theory, which focuses on the various attitudes, emotional intensity and value judgments that can be negotiated in discourse, is a supplement and extension of the study of the interpersonal function of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and has gradually received wide attention from scholars at home and abroad as the theory has been developed and improved. In early 2017, American business tycoon Donald Trump delivered his presidential inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol and was officially sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Trump swept the U.S. political scene with his unique business flavor and style, shocking the U.S. homeland and bringing unpredictable speculation to today's world politics. His inaugural speech has abundant interpersonal resources, and Trump used different appraisal resources to express his political views and promote the "America First" viewpoint to build a good image. Therefore, this study analyzes the distribution of attitudinal resources in the three subsystems of affect, judgment, and appreciation in President Trump's inaugural speech from the perspective of the attitudinal system in Martin's appraisal theory, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, and explores the reasons for them. It was found that there were 94 attitudinal resources in this speech, among which 20 (21%) were affect resources, 48 (51%) judgment resources, and 26 (28%) appreciation resources. The distribution of different types of attitudinal resources varies because the distribution of resources is related to the identity of the speaker, the topic of the discourse and the audience, which reflects the interpersonal meaning of the discourse.

Walking on the tightrope between moderation and radicalisation: the first 100 days of the Meloni government

As the fatal grip of the Covid-19 pandemic started to ease, in summer 2022 Italy underwent seismic political developments, which saw the establishment of the first totally populist radical right government in Italian history. On 25 September 2022, the general elections shook up the Italian political scene, with Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) scoring a resounding victory that earned the party the seat of the Prime Minister. Despite fears of a radicalisation of FdI resulting in a neofascist government, evidence points in a different direction. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate whether, in the first 100 days in government, FdI moderated, radicalised, or displayed continuity with its trademark ideology and manifesto pledges. While acknowledging the copious amount of bills, decrees, and laws proposed by the governing coalition, as well as a plethora of speeches they released, in the interest of space, the scope of this article is circumscribed to the analysis of the new executive, with a special emphasis on FdI, in the timeframe between the election results and the first 100 days of the new government. Considering this evidence, this article argues that FdI is definitely acting as a populist radical right party, tilted towards moderation, and, mostly, continuity with the 2022 electoral pledges, albeit with some oscillations to radicalisation.

EVOLUTION OF THE CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONSHIP IN PAKISTAN IN THE POST-COVID ERA

Pakistan has been ruled by military regimes for almost half of its history. Since the first coup in 1958, the military has experimented with a variety of political strategies and models of civil-military relations, including purely military rule and various forms of hybrid regimes. The military's attitude toward Islam has also evolved over time. Since 1947, the military has recognized the role of religion as the basis of national identity and has sought to integrate it into official propaganda despite the diversity of conceptions. The nature of the relationship between political parties and the military underlies recent political evolution. The 2018 general elections saw Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) prevail in large part due to the support it received from the military establishment. The military chose to support PTI as an alternative to the two main national parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), with which the military has been at odds for nearly two decades. However, the 2018 elections showed that the military's ability to control the political scene is limited. Indeed, the PML-N and PPP have maintained their traditional strongholds in Punjab and Sind. Despite the support of the military, the PTI only managed to prevail in the elections with a slight majority. The crisis of Imran Khan's government between 2020 and 2022 was due to three main factors: divisions between the parties in the ruling coalition; mismanagement of the emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic; and the PTI and military's differing view of economic cooperation with Beijing and particularly the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This situation led to a conflict between PTI and the military and the no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022 that ousted Imran Khan from power.

Polish electoral space aft er 2001 against the background of rivalry between the two main actors of the political scene

Th e aim of the paper is to specify the main patterns – and identify the basic determinants – of the formation of the Polish electoral space aft er 2001, with particular emphasis on factors of a geographical nature, against the background of the rivalry between the two main actors of the political scene, i.e., Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) and Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS). Using spatial econometric tools, it was found that the PO–PiS oligopoly on the Polish political party market results in increasing spatial clustering and geographical polarisation of voters of both parties in the form of urban–rural heterogeneity and east–west divergence. Th ese phenomena are explained by processes of alignment and convergence of individuals' views according to the logic of localised entrenchment of dominant opinions and consolidation of preferences within historically shaped regional arrangements according to the path dependency principle.

NAZISM AND ITS REFLECTION IN THE NOVEL BY DAVID GROSSMAN

The journey of modern Hebrew literature began in the last third of the eighteenth century, and Jewish critics record the virtue of introducing this new art to the Jews and alerting the public to it, Abraham Mabo. They reflect the realism of life through their writings, which expressed the writer's awareness and intellectual aspiration, which provided him with an increase of his references that he influenced and was influenced by to reflect them through the transformations that accompanied his career in the field of literary authorship. Intellectualism in the novel text of the wellknown Israeli writer David Grossman. Where it contained two topics, the first topic dealt with: an introduction in which we touched on the problem of displacement and diaspora that occurred to the Jews. The topic also included the importance of research and the need for it, since the research is a knowledge outcome that benefits readers and scholars, as well as the biography of the writer David Grossman and his most important literary productions, with the most important ideas dealt with in the novel " See Under: LOVE," the subject of the research. The second topic contained: the most important ideas highlighted by the novel, and presented the most important methods practiced by Nazism on the Jews of killing and torturing. The research concluded a set of conclusions, the most important of which are: 1. Since the beginning of the fifties, literary texts have been able to approach the political scene by addressing realistic topics that were able to embody and express the issues of the emerging Israeli society. 2. The subject of the Nazis distorted a large part of the Israeli literature, as it tended towards giving symbolic connotations through displaying events and analyzing them objectively

Configurations of Islam in Contemporary Art in Norway

Abstract In this article, I explore how Islam is configured in two creative universes that have recently affected the cultural and political scene in Norway. I compare the enactment in Oslo (2019) of Disgraced by the American playwright Ayad Akhtar to parts of the artistic project Heisann Montebello (2015–2017) by the Norwegian rap duo Karpe. In both fictional universes, references to Islam, Muslims, xenophobia, racism, terror, and politics of integration are paramount. It is therefore significant that major cultural institutions in Norway such as The National Theater, the music hall Oslo Spektrum, the National Library, and the Norwegian Broadcasting Network (NRK) stage these works. Overall, my main argument is that both productions speak to wider audiences in a multireligious and multiethnic setting, demonstrating that Muslims and different configurations of Islam have become an integrated part of Norwegian cultural life.

Impact of Land Value Tax on the Equity of Planning Outcomes

The question of land ownership is fundamental to any modern society and has been blamed as the root of numerous social inequalities. This paper explores one potential solution to the land question, Land Value Tax (LVT), which was first popularised in the 1880s by Henry George. Despite its long history, LVT has not been widely implemented, but recently proposals to replace existing property taxes with this form of taxation have re-emerged on the political scene. While the Welsh Government has recently explored the idea of introducing an LVT, there are limited studies on this form of taxation in the context of a discretionary planning system, such as the Welsh planning system. This paper conducts exploratory qualitative research using Wales as a case study. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with experts across various related fields, primarily within taxation and planning, to establish the potential effects of LVT in practice, with a particular focus on how it might affect the equity of planning outcomes. Overall, the research showed that despite the strong theoretical potential, fundamental practical issues would diminish the ability of LVT to effectively influence planning. LVT is argued to be largely incompatible with a discretionary planning system (e.g., the Welsh planning system), and therefore, the research concluded that many of the potential benefits of LVT could be better achieved through reforms to existing taxes and planning processes, particularly land value capture mechanisms.

Long-term relationships between business interests and the state in Mexico

This text presents an overall and long-term vision of the relations between business and the state in Mexico. The analysis aims to explain how business mobilize their interests, what influence they have on public policies that affect the entire society, why and how they have participated in party politics and the expansion of democracy in Mexico. It shows how they started the twentieth century with a legitimacy deficit, expelled from the political scene because of the Revolution (1910–1921), and how they managed to grow and create powerful companies and organizations that allowed them to transnationalize and start the twenty-first century at the top of the power, not only economic, but also political. It examines the political participation of business to face the growing interventionism of the State in the economy during the period of industrialization by import substitution and shows how many business people left their companies to enter partisan politics from the local and regional spheres to the National. Their involvement in public policies that led to privatization, deregulation, and economic openness is also examined. The relations of business interests with the four governments of the twenty-first century is analyzed in a particular way: the two of the PAN (Vicente Fox, 2000–2006 and Felipe Calderón 2006–2012), that of the PRI (Enrique Peña Nieto, 2012–2018) and that of Morena (Andrés Manuel López, 2018…).

A Study of Covid-19 Coverage in the Western Mainstream Media from the Perspective of Agenda Setting

Apart from changes in lifestyle, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) alters people's values or way of thinking partly because people spend more time browsing the Internet during quarantine. Trendy topics are always related to COVID-19, such as newly updated morality and fatality rate, measures of avoiding COVID-19, and the impact of the pandemic on the global economics and political scene. Different news editors tend to emphasize different detail of the same piece of information, thus switching audiences' attention, leading to diversity of thinking on the same information. By applying the agenda-setting theory as a theoretical model and case analysis as methodology, the paper further explores how media handle COVID-19-related news to shape public opinion in the context of Western public opinion. Ultimately, this study found that news coverage in the Western mainstream media exhibits the following characteristics: control of the direction of news coverage, guidance of public opinion but susceptibility to public opinion, homogeneity of content and the ability to enhance mass cohesion.

The Prague Spring of 1968

Abstract The Prague Spring of 1968 and the events immediately following it represent a significant historical moment in Czechoslovak history. The unprecedented activation of society through protest and media, the search for its own path of development and its violent interruption, still resonate in society today. The following essay narrates major occurrences of the ‘Prague Spring,’ starting with its prologue, moving to the unfolding of 1968 events, and closing with an epilogue. It focuses on the activation of society in its criticism of the old order, support for change, rejection of the violent interruption and the onset of normalization in a changed political scene.