Political Science Research Articles

Who belongs to the “historic nation”? Fictive ethnicity and (iI)liberal uses of religious heritage

ABSTRACT Scholars in various academic disciplines have pointed out how national religious heritage is increasingly appropriated by the far right, to construct a false binary between secular Christian European states on the one hand, and Islam on the other. This article contributes to this literature by examining how these political developments, often deemed “illiberal”, are enabled by “liberal” uses of religious heritage. Using the lens of what Étienne Balibar calls “fictive ethnicity”, the article examines how both liberal and illiberal uses of religious heritage in Western Europe construct a historic nation to which only dominant groups can lay claim, which contributes to the symbolic and material marginalisation of minorities. This has repercussions for analyses of socio-political exclusion and for liberal nationalist theory: addressing contemporary inequalities requires not only limiting explicitly exclusionary forms of nationalism, but also actively unsettling the widespread ontology of homogeneity underpinning national fictive ethnicities.

Construction of Practical Teaching Mode of Law Course Based on Multi-Mode and Low-Resource Language Learning

China's legal profession is a new profession emerging in the process of China's rule of law. Its development and refinement are increasing in accordance with the rapid social, economic and political development. However, as a lawyer, people need to learn real kung fu. For complex and changeable legal practice problems, people should use the simplest and most effective way to solve them. Therefore, it is necessary to study the curriculum of law specialty to achieve its purpose. It is also necessary to reform the traditional education methods, introduce modern scientific and technological means, and improve their effectiveness, so as to construct a practical teaching mode of Professional Courses in Law (PCL). For practical legal courses, it can be conducted through multi-mode low-resource language learning method. This paper aimed to study how to study the ability of students to obtain information, process information and analyze and process information based on intelligent multi-image feature fusion. Based on the investigation of teaching objectives and teachers' teaching requirements, and the analysis and arrangement of the investigation results, a multi-task learning system model based on image intelligent features was established. In this experiment, 494 valid questionnaires were used to analyze the current situation of PCL practical teaching. Among them, 10.32% and 65.59% of the students were very satisfied with the results of PCL practical teaching, and 18.02% and 59.31% of the students liked PCL practical teaching very much. In the survey on the influencing factors of PCL practical teaching activities, 61.34% of the students thought that the students did not know enough and were not enthusiastic enough. On the whole, the students are satisfied with the practical teaching arrangement of PCL, but from the actual situation, the effect of practical teaching is not very good, and the expected goal has not been achieved.

Critical Junctures, Ideological Continuity and Change in Western Europe: Comparing the Pandemic and the Global Financial Crises

ABSTRACT Research focusing on the Covid-19 crisis politics treats ideology mostly as an independent or intervening variable, lacking attention to the effects of the pandemic on ideological conflict and the configurations between ideas and actors and is ambiguous about its impact. To address these deficiencies, we provide an assessment of ideological change by combining accounts of political development and theories of hegemony and apply the resulting framework through a comparative history of “crisis” in Western Europe, juxtaposing the pandemic with the 2008 financial crisis. We argue that the pandemic’s ideological impact entails signs of both continuity and change, across both ideational and institutional dynamics, more change than the financial crisis, but not reaching the threshold of “a critical juncture” and thus amounts to a partial ideological reconfiguration. The analysis has implications for the Covid-19 pandemic legacy, the study of crises and the ideological terrain in the current context.

Predicting Novel Terrorism: Media Coverage as Early-Warning System of Novelty in Terror Attacks

ABSTRACT In this article, we argue that the process of predicting terrorist attacks needs to integrate the evolving dynamic of terrorism and we make a case for novelty as crucial feature to encompass terrorism’s changing nature. To predict when and how terrorist organizations will conduct their next attack, and whether it will have a novel approach, we base our analysis on media coverage. As media continuously covers political, economic, and societal analyses on a national and international scale, it provides rich information that can fuel early-warning systems for terror attacks. We analyze the content of 2,173,544 newspaper articles, reporting on 42,252 terror attacks by 1,121 organizations. Our analyses show that content of media coverage relates to the interval until the following attack from the same terror organization as well as whether they will conduct a novel and even more devastating terror attack. Hence, our approach and findings can contribute to building early-warning systems.

Gradual de-idealisation and progress in political science: a case study

This article contributes to the discussion regarding the relationship between idealisation, de-idealisation and cognitive scientific progress. In this, I raise the question of the significance of the gradual de-idealisation procedure for constructing political science theories. I show that conceptions that assume the reversibility of the idealisation process can be an extremely useful theoretical perspective in reconstructions of political science modelling and analyses of scientific progress in political science. I base my position on the results of the methodological reconstruction of Richard Jankowski’s theory of voting. My reconstruction and results of empirical studies show that by gradually removing simplifying assumptions, models can emerge that more accurately identify the determinants of the voting decision and the corresponding relationships. In the case I analysed, the transition from coarse-grained to fine-grained models likely demarcates the line of scientific progress.

STYLISTIC ROLE OF DETERMINED VOCABULARY IN PUBLICISTIC STYLE (Based on the material of Lina Kostenko’s article “The Humanitarian Aura of a Nation, or The Defect of the Main Mirror”)

This research aims to analyze the stylistic possibilities of deterministic vocabulary in a journalistic style based on the material of Lina Kostenko’s article “The Humanitarian Aura of the Nation, or the Defect of the Main Mirror”. To achieve this goal, we have carried out a continuous selection of quotes from the analyzed article using lexical units that have undergone determination; described the thematic classes of deterministic lexemes, distinguished the decisions of the functional, lexical-semantic, and traced semantic-stylistic levels, the semantic modifications of the deterministic vocabulary; revealed the stylistic role of determinations for achieving a communicative goal. The article uses several linguistic and general scientific research methods: the continuous selection method that we used to single out quotes in which the author used deterministic lexemes; based on semantic analysis, we have carried out a thematic classification of the studied material; statistical methods made it possible to reveal quantitative parameters of thematic groups of deterministic vocabulary; with the help of structural-thematic and semantic analysis, we have classified selected lexemes according to the levels of determination; we have also applied the interpretive method to reveal the semantics of deterministic lexical units in specific contexts, of analysis. We have also used descriptive, comparative, component, and deductive research methods to accomplish the article’s aim. We have singled out 167 quotations with lexical units that underwent determination and were used for different stylistic or content purposes. We have identified 146 terms of twenty-one thematic groups. The most frequently presented general scientific terms (19.2%), political science (13.8%), psychological (9.6%), and historical (8.9%) terms, the dominance of which can be explained primarily by the content features of the analyzed work. Considering the degree of loss of the signs of the term by the lexeme, 67% of determined lexemes are functional determinations that belong mainly to the groups of general scientific terms and terms of the socio-political sphere. We have established that the functional determinations reflect the features of the modern communicative space, testify to the high intellectual level of the author, and are aimed at the same educated readers. Determinations of the lexical-semantic level arise due to the modification of term semantics and the emergence of a new, universal meaning of the lexeme, usually recorded in explanatory dictionaries. Thanks to the combination of language units from different thematic fields, seven intentions are actualized, additional common language connotations are superimposed, and original imagery arises – all this contributes to the emergence of a specific expression inherent in the journalistic style of literary language. We have revealed that the term gets the semantic-stylistic level of determination when it undergoes certain semantic modifications and becomes an element of an artistic device (trope, stylistic figure). The specificity of Lina Kostenko’s creative style determines the presence of complex artistic images in the analyzed work, which combine semantic transformations and stylistic means – figures, and tropes. Usually, artistic metaphors with antitheses, oxymorons, epithets, phraseology, etc., are intertwined in one quote. Determinations contribute to the semantic accuracy, exactness, and imagery of speech and reflect the author’s subjective perception of the corresponding subject or phenomenon, strengthen the author’s assessment of what was said, and contribute to the statement’s expression.

‘Lab Rats for Science’: Uranium Mining, Expellees, Public Health, and Narratives of Radiation Danger in Cold War West Germany, 1955–1968

In 1955–6, three thousand German-speaking men were ‘repatriated’ from Czechoslovak forced labour camps, where they mined uranium, to West Germany, where they demanded benefits for health damage from radiation exposure. These men connected their group's experiences to the fears and developments of early Cold War West Germany, personifying the health risks of the Atomic Age and citizens’ demands that their states offer protection from such risks. These men contributed to public awareness of radiation health risk and to ambivalence about safe ‘peaceful nuclear technology’ in the late 1950s and 1960s, earlier than is usually assumed. They further inspired concrete policy changes, especially in occupational health protection, illustrating that post-war responses to nuclear technology emerged from the intersection of longer historical experience, specialised local knowledge and grassroots activism, as well as from post-war scientific and political developments. It further shows long-lasting expellee influence in unexpected areas of West German policy.

Towards an abolitionist feminist peace: State violence, anti-militarism, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda

Abstract Ever more doubts are being raised over the ‘transformative potential’ of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and whether it brings us closer to realising feminist peace. Underpinning a current of WPS activism and scholarship is a radical conceptualisation of feminist peace rooted in anti-militarism, anti-capitalism, and anti-imperialism. This strand shares many commonalities with abolition feminism, yet the two literatures and movements are rarely put in conversation. While both begin from similar political commitments and analyses of the international system, they propose radically different solutions for bringing about feminist liberation. Building on this observation, we ask: (1) how would abolition feminism explain why the WPS agenda has often failed to make progress towards a radical vision of feminist peace?; and, as a corollary, (2) what does abolition feminism demand of the WPS agenda? First, using the framework of ‘reformist’ and ‘non-reformist reforms’, we argue that many WPS policies are better understood as reformist rather than transformative. Second, we argue that abolitionist thinking suggests deeper critiques of WPS than those often put forward by its anti-militarist critics, based on a broader conceptualisation of militarism. Ultimately, abolition feminism demands non-reformist, anti-carceral solutions that raise challenging questions about pathways towards feminist peace.

The Rule of Law: A Slogan in Search of a Concept

AbstractRegularly invoked but rarely defined, ‘the rule of law’ has over the last few decades been converted from a legal term of art into one of the most ambiguous slogans of contemporary public policy. Political scientists claim it as a crucial test of a regime’s legitimacy. Economists maintain that it provides an essential foundation of a flourishing market economy. Philosophers suggest it captures the essence of the state as a moral association. Historians acknowledge that, even if they might distrust such an abstract notion, the imposition of effective inhibitions on power is an ‘unqualified human good’. And lawyers, of course, have treated it as the foundation of their discipline ever since the mid-thirteenth century when Bracton asserted that ‘there is no rex where will rules rather than lex’. Those who extend its usage beyond the confines of professional legal discourse commonly give it a positive valence. But the rule of law also has its detractors. These critics assert that it promotes purely formal, individualistic values at the expense of substantive justice, or that it is a smokescreen preventing us from seeing the impact of recent global developments that signal the rule of lawyers. Some anthropologists even denounce it as an imperial ideology that legitimates European conquest and the plunder of the rest of the world. But given the fact that almost every state in the world now claims to act in compliance with the rule of law, these critics seem to have done little to dent its appeal. Yet, the sheer range of views and perspectives that now exist about the meaning, purpose, and value of the rule of law considerably complicates any inquiry into its current standing. In this paper, I will try to bring some clarity to the issue by providing a sketch of the main varieties of ways in which the term is being invoked. The paper comprises five sections, which each address a specific aspect of the term’s usage: (1) its coinage in English law, (2) the adoption of a superficially similar terminology in the German concept of the Rechtsstaat, (3) the jurisprudential innovations that complicate its meaning, and finally its most recent invocation (4) first in development work and (5) secondly in constitutional rejuvenation.

Civilizing Russia's “Barbarous Kingdom”

Abstract The Hulu series The Great, an ahistorical satire of the eighteenth-century Russian Empire, set at the courts of Peter III and Catherine II, doubles as a critique of contemporary politics and culture. Created for Anglophone audiences with little knowledge of history, but aware of stereotypes of Russia as a despotic, dysfunctional backwater, the show's appeal rests on the love-hate relationship between Peter the bro-emperor and the “girlboss” empress Catherine, as well as the expectation that Catherine, ultimately, will “have-it-all.” This article examines the gender dynamics structuring Peter's and Catherine's narrative arcs and argues that Catherine's trajectory from naïve, self-declared enlightened European princess to skilled, pragmatic ruler undermines Peter's attempt to liberate himself from an outdated model of masculinity.

Partisanship and the Pandemic: How and Why Americans Followed Party Cues on COVID-19.

The United States underperformed its potential in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors use original survey data from April 2020 to March 2022 to show that political partisanship may have contributed to this inconsistent response by distinguishing elites and citizens who took the crisis seriously from those who did not. This division was not inevitable; when the crisis began, Democrats and Republicans differed little in their viewpoints and actions relative to COVID-19. However, partisans increasingly diverged when their preferred political leaders provided them with opposing cues. The authors outline developments in party politics over the last half century that contributed to partisan division on COVID-19, most centrally an anti-expertise bias among Republicans. Accordingly, Republicans' support for mitigation measures, perception of severity of COVID-19, and support for vaccines gradually decreased after the initial outbreak. Partisan differences also showed up at the state level; Trump's vote share in 2016 was negatively associated with mask use and positively associated with COVID-19 infections. Diverging elite cues provided fertile ground for the partisan pandemic, underscoring the importance of political accountability even in an era of polarization.

Use of Big Data in Political Communication Analysis: Forming a Targeting and Electorate Segmentation Strategy

Use of Big Data in Political Communication Analysis: Forming a Targeting and Electorate Segmentation Strategy

The Influence of Shakarim Kudaiberdiev’s Work on the Economic, Cultural, and Spiritual Development of Kazakhstan in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century

The significance and relevance of the issues are predetermined by the fact, that, by the time of Shakarim Kudaiberdiev’s activity, the political and social situation of Kazakhstan in the early 20th century was on the verge of collapse. The main factor that influenced this situation was the policy of spreading illiteracy, people alienated from religion language, and writing. From the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kazakhstan suffered from the colonial policies of the Russian Empire. Currently Kudaiberdiev writes a work “Catechism of Muslims”. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the consequences of the creative work on the economic and spiritual and cultural development of Kazakhstan. During the analysis, several scientific sources and materials were analyzed, and the following scientific methods were used: structural-functional and dialectical methods, the method of synthesis, logical and comparative analysis, and the method of generalization. During the research, it was proved that in the works of Shakarim Kudaiberdiev the calls to fight against the policy of tsarist Russia and to revive their language, customs, religion, and history were present. The main result of this research is proof that the works of Shakarim Kudaiberdiev had a tremendous impact on the social status, culture, religion, and language of the Kazakh people. His works acted in opposition to Russian policy and encouraged people who were tired of colonial oppression. The research on this issue is actively developed, therefore this work is of practical value for the definition of the role of Shakarim’s creativity during the economic, cultural, social, and political development of Kazakhstan at the end of 19 – the beginning of 20 century.

“No longer the haven of tolerance”? The press and discursive shifts on immigration in Sweden 2010–2022

ABSTRACT The article explores key trajectories of Swedish press discourse on immigration in the period 2010–2022 which covers a variety of socio-economic and political developments including parliamentary entry and growth of the immigration-critical Swedish far-right. Analysing the press across its key variants (liberal/conservative, nationwide/regional, broadsheet/tabloid), the article points to how dynamics of the press discourse on immigration locates within the key “discursive shifts” in the wider Swedish public sphere, including those related to regular political events such as national-parliamentary elections (of 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022) as well as those marked by other, pivotal contextual factors such as the 2015–2016 European “Refugee Crisis.” Deploying a systematic, multi-method approach from within critical discourse studies, the article leads to a number of findings, including on the gradual change and the apparent negativisation of the analysed press discourse over time. It highlights that the increasing hybridity and ambivalence of discursive constructions of immigration in the press are among the key factors underlying their alignment with the wider logic of the public sphere in Sweden, and especially with developments in Swedish political discourse in recent years.

‘Princely seats’ and Thessalian hillforts: pre-urban Greece and the diffusion of urbanism in Early Iron Age Europe

The origins of Iron Age urbanism in temperate Europe were long assumed to lie in Archaic Greece. Recent studies, however, argue for an independent development of Hallstatt mega-sites. This article focuses on developments in Western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The author characterises the Archaic settlement system of the region as one of lowland villages and fortified hilltop sites, the latter identified not as settlements but refuges. It is argued that cities were rare in Greece prior to the Hellenistic period so its settlements could not have served as the model for urban temperate Europe. Consequently, the social and political development of Greece and temperate Europe followed different trajectories.

Compensation for cultural loss in Indigenous Australia

The issue of compensation for harm to Indigenous culture is increasingly prominent in Australian society, given the High Court's landmark decision in Northern Territory v Griffiths (2019). The High Court sought to assess the meaning of cultural loss from Indigenous testimony and ‘translate the spiritual hurt from the compensable acts into compensation’. The destruction of Juukan Gorge in Western Australia's Pilbara region in 2020 also prompted efforts to assess, evaluate and remedy the harm Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples suffered. Parallel debates about treaties have also raised the possibility of reparations for colonization. This article considers the challenges these legal and political developments pose for anthropology in Australia, where scholars have avoided discussing the concept of cultural loss for a generation.

A political theology for the Ghanaian context from Christ’s perspective

One of the key challenges facing contemporary Ghana is ineffective political structures and leadership. Leadership failure is the main reason why Ghana continues to experience socio-economic challenges such as poverty, hunger, poor education system, poor road networks, injustice, high unemployment rate, human right abuse, and local currency depreciation despite the country’s vast natural resources. Ghana’s socio-economic problems continue to attract scholarly attention and yet, the problems persist. As a predominantly Christian nation, the church has a major responsibility to engage the country’s political space by analysing and scrutinising political structures with the effect of chatting a new path of socio-economic and political developments. This research was, therefore, conducted to contribute to the ongoing discussion by exploring how a contextual application of political and leadership lessons embedded in Jesus’s teaching in Mark 10:35–45 might address the Ghana’s political needs. The article is a qualitative research that analysed data collected from books, Bible commentaries, journal articles, and dissertations.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research involves systematic and/or political theology, New Testament studies, and leadership and/or governance. It argues that for Ghana to overcome her political challenges, leadership must be seen as a position of service rather than an opportunity to amass wealth at the expense of others. The article contributes to the field of political theology in the Ghanaian setting.

Deep learning based Election Results Prediction using Twitter Data

Abstract: This project presents an intelligent system political sentiment analysis with information from Twitter. . The system utilizes deep learning techniques, specifically a BiLSTM model featuring an attention mechanism, to predict the political affiliation (BJP or Congress) of tweets. The data preprocessing involves cleaning text, data augmentation, tokenization, and indexing. A dataset is used to train the model. consisting of tweets from both parties, getting very accurate results in predicting the sentiment of tweets. Additionally, the software offers functionality for data visualization, including displaying sample tweets, sentiment analysis results, and the winning party. Additionally, an admin page is available for further customization and management. Overall, this project the possibilities of Using deep learning to analyze sentiment of political content on social media data.

Melito of Sardis on Tyranny and the Reign of Marcus Aurelius

The article examines perceptions of tyranny in Melito’s On Pascha and Apology, both written under Marcus Aurelius (161–180). This is the first systematic treatment of a key theme in Melito, approached not only from a theological perspective but also in the context of the Second Sophistic and Roman political developments. By proposing a more precise dating for On Pascha, we trace the development and consistency of Melito’s thought and arguments in regard to the relationship between Roman Empire and Christian communities in Asia Minor during the second half of the second century CE.

Hungary: Political Developments and Data in 2023

Hungary: Political Developments and Data in 2023