Political Tradition Research Articles

Breaking Hegemony of Traditional Political Parties: A Study of Shifting Dalits’ Support Base in Punjab

The present study is an analysis of Dalits’ shifting support base among major political parties in Punjab, namely Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and specifically Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2022 Punjab Assembly election. With an established presence in the State, the AAP could present itself as a new alternative. The AAP defeated all the traditional/mainstream political parties in the recent Assembly election to put an end to the deeply entrenched family (SAD-Badal) and dynastic rule (Congress). The present research paper is an effort to find out the causes behind the shifting Dalit support base. The AAP’s success was a clear message from the people of Punjab that they were fed up with the power circle of traditional parties that were in agreement with each other to rule the State by turns. Paper argues that Dalits are likely to vote for the parties that have a chance to come to power as in 2022 Punjab Assembly Election, Dalit support base has widely shifted to AAP. The study was qualitative and conducted in the Doaba region of Punjab. It is an analysis of the interactions with 300 respondents of the targeted SCs population and 30 leaders from the major political parties in Punjab.

Perspectives and Methodological Peculiarities in Developing the Form of Governance in the Republic of Armenia

The current article considers the issues concerning perspectives and methodological peculiarities of developing the model of governance in the Republic of Armenia. The history of developing the form of governance in the Republic of Armenia, advantages and disadvantages of different forms of governance, factors and circumstances, which should underlie the selection of the form of governance are studied in the article. The author concludes that, while speaking on the forms of governance, we are often guided by fictional perceptions, which should be overcome and cannot serve as the basis for reforms concerning the aforementioned issue. Moreover, in the result of processes of legal convergence, the forms of governance have borrowed from each other the mechanisms that are not originally typical of them, and from this aspect their rapprochement can frequently be noted. The author notes that the problems, solution of which is the main reason for continuous changes of the form of governance, will not be solved in conditions of new reforms implemented by the same logic. Hence, the axis of the problem of the further improvement of the model of governance in the Republic of Armenia should be transformed from the issue of making a choice between this or that form of governance, and the attention should primarily be focused on improving the mechanisms of separation and balance of powers, as well as forming and strengthening constitutional and political traditions and culture.

How a left-wing political party fails to keep up with the times

ABSTRACT How can a political party, especially a progressive one, fail to understand and embrace the major changes of its time? The article examines the experience of the Italian Partito Democratico (Democratic Party [P.D.]). Since its foundation in 2007, the party has failed to achieve satisfactory results with regard to its explicit objective of creating a ‘new national party’. Although the party has often joined coalition governments, there has been a marked decline in its electoral support and in the active participation of citizens in its activities. The main thesis of the article is that the current crisis of the P.D. is due to a lack of understanding – almost a rejection – of the two main political changes that have occurred in recent decades: the personalization of politics and the digitalization of society. The party’s refusal to embrace possible political innovations in these areas has been very clear. There is an important paradox here: the fact that a political force which, given its position on the political spectrum, should be looking to the future, instead views the present with great suspicion. This is a position that has become typical of many European left-wing parties, which are well rooted in long-standing political traditions, but are finding it increasingly difficult to understand how societies are changing.

A diachronic study of Chinese greetings between new acquaintances

In order to trace the evolution of greeting culture from pre-modern China to modern society, this study investigates 483 greetings between new acquaintances (GBNAs) collected from 6 works of the 17th-18th centuries and 9 novels of the mid-20th century. The results show that, in both periods Chinese GBNAs are highly situation-dependent and primarily performed in the mode of “seeking information - confirming”. The changes are first and foremost manifested in three respects. First, the GBNAs in the 20th century exhibit a tendency of “impersonalization” in terms of topic selection and the use of sentence patterns. Second, generally speaking, the GBNAs in the 20th century are semantically more informative. Third, the disappearance of asymmetric addressing and the decrease of honorifics indicate that the traditional politeness maxim of “self-denigration and other-elevation” is gradually discarded in modern China. It is argued that the evolution of GBNAs might be attributed to both the New Culture Movement and the modernization of traditional society.

New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work

The emergence of labour conflicts across different sectors of the gig and precarious economy is challenging established industrial relations (IR) frameworks and some of its political implications. Despite its analytical merits, Kelly’s union-centred mobilization theory appears insufficient to explain these mobilizations, characterized by informal networks and self-organization. Evidence from the sectors of logistics and cloudwork, where processes of digitalization have been rampant in recent years, shows that there is a need to build a more processual account of worker mobilizations in which non-institutional factors play a major role. Drawing on the European social movement tradition, in this article the authors consider two factors, supportive communities and political activism traditions, as key to understanding critical cases of mobilization in the gig economy and renewing IR theories of collective action through a class-based approach.

Описание Кабарды Д.А. Милютина в контексте становления кавказского варианта россий-ского ориентализма

The paper pertains to the analysis of a manuscript authored by D.A. Milutin in the first half of the 19th century, regarding the region of Kabarda. This manuscript, hitherto unpublished in academic circles, has been the subject of our examination. Our endeavor was to uncover the utilization of ori-entalist clichés by the manuscript's author, in order to depict both the geographical delineations of this ethno-political entity and the ethnography, livelihood, societal structure, and customary legal norms of its inhabitants. A remarkable parallel can be observed between certain aspects of the manuscript and the ideas propounded by E. Said in his discourse on European Orientalism. The researcher drew a comparison between the political framework and traditions of the Kabardian people and those prevalent in Eu-rope. Moreover, the researcher romanticized the region's historical past, employing the concept of "reverse human progress," along with other typical methodologies embraced by Orientalist thinkers of that era. Concomitantly, D.A. Milutin provided detailed descriptions of the political, social, and everyday existence in Kabarda, thereby endowing the manuscript with an intrinsic value as an origi-nal historical and cultural resource for contemporary scholars. It is concluded that, similar to numer-ous analogous texts produced by Orientalist scholars, the significance of D.A. Milutin's manuscript lies not in its political arguments concerning the military and economic dominion of the Russian Empire over the Caucasian peoples, or the imperative to extend colonial governance to these ethnic territories; rather, its true worth resides in the remarkably astute observations it offers on the life, history, and culture of the people it portrays.

A Comparative Study on the Semi-Presidential Government System: The Cases of the Russian Federation and Post-Communist Poland

According to the widely accepted view, the existence of a government accountable to the parliament and a head of state elected by the people and endowed with powerful powers is sufficient to define the system as semi-presidential. However, although there are many unique definitions and qualifications in itself, it is not possible to talk about the existence of a uniform semi-presidential system. The reason for this is that countries interpret the government system within the framework of their own political culture and administrative tradition. Therefore, government systems are not typical models and can take different forms within the states' own administrative traditions. In this direction, in this study, the semi-presidential model of the Russian Federation and the semi-presidential model of post-communist Poland will be examined comparatively. Making a comparative study on the semi-presidential government systems of Poland and Russia will not be a comparison only in terms of revealing the differences, as it is thought. This study aims to make a contribution to the studies of the government system by comparing the states of Poland and Russia, which use the semi-presidential government system in a unique way. In addition, the main purpose of this study is to reveal that each country interprets the system of government it uses within the framework of its tradition of governance and political cultures.

Ecstasies of Uplift

Abstract “Religion is the decoration of life,” declares Peter Sloterdijk in his newly translated Making the Heavens Speak: Religion as Poetry (MHS), arguing that much of our understanding of the spiritual life is distorted and exceptionally narrow. With refreshing and renewed vision, this text points out the ways in which the heavenly skies have been a source of divine inspiration and cipher for theopoetic illuminations. We have failed to grasp how modern secularization, ironically, was a blessing in disguise for religion since it helped to unscrew any religious authorities from the burden of needing to associate with or justify their existence through some national, political, or identity-based associations and cultural traditions. Either as a stroke of good fortune or just a contingent set of circumstances, Sloterdijk argues that religion has benefited from secularization—in becoming “useless,” religious practices have been liberated or “emancipated” from the burden of being politicized, nationalized, or mythologized.

Religious Leaders and Social Transformation at Ogan Ilir Regency Indonesia

Religion encompasses a process of inheriting values by its adherents from generation to generation through a learning process. The process of inheriting religious values was instilled by religious elites who not only transferred religious teachings but also transformed the nature and character of a society. One of the areas experiencing this phenomenon is Ogan Ilir Regency, South Sumatra, and its people, who are known to have tough characters and solve problems using physical violence even though the area has had traditional institutions since its ancient days, which although traditional in nature, have modern elements such as democratic traditions in politics. They also set the social order to avoid violent attitudes written in the code of laws in Simbur Cahaya. For this reason, we will discuss how the pattern of religious leaders transforms the characteristics of society, and how the model of social transformation occurs. This article describes and analyzes the above using a sociological and anthropological approach. Data collection was carried out through observation and involvement of the author in religious activities as well as in-depth interviews with ideational ethnographic methods. The data was analyzed using several relevant theories. The findings in this study are as follows: in general, when religion is seen as part of a culture, it will continue to develop and ”change”, bearing in mind that society itself continues to change dynamically. For this reason, strategies are needed so that religious values can be embedded properly and can change the character of society. One of these strategies is through the Cawisan tradition, which is a medium for non-formal education and a place for religious learning for the people of Ogan Ilir and is a public space as well as a mode of strength of the Civil Society – the agency of religious leaders in dealing with various social problems. Religious leaders instill a sense of Besemon (having a sense of shame) to take action against violations of religious teachings and rules.
 Keywords: Religious Figures, Strategy, Transformation

Mind the gap: The nation form and the Kohn dichotomy

AbstractThe dichotomy between civic Western nationalism and ethnic non‐Western nationalism (also known as “the Kohn dichotomy” after the historian of nationalism Hans Kohn) remains one of the most influential frameworks for understanding nationalism. It is also one of the most controversial: The binary schema has been criticised not only for its conceptual inconsistencies but also for entrenching an ethnocentric hierarchy that depicts Western nations as fountains of civic virtue. This article enriches these longstanding debates by excavating the neglected inverse side of the Kohn dichotomy. Since the late nineteenth century, the idealised Western nation is imagined not only as a civic polity united by common political traditions but also as an organic community blessed with natural boundaries. In short, Western nations are depicted as both civic and ethnic. Meanwhile, non‐Western nations are denied the privilege of being contradictory and deemed to suffer from a perennial mismatch between civic and ethnic elements: Non‐Western nations are depicted either as ethnic communities lacking civic traditions or as artificial political constructions lacking organic roots. Without taking into account this intricate dialectic between the civic and ethnic poles of the nation form, critics of the Kohn dichotomy will struggle to fully grasp its ideological functions or historical longevity.

Decolonizing the “state of nature” in political thought

The study of coloniality as a “social imaginary” (Charles Taylor) from the perspective of decoloniality invites European scholars, to “think again”, to interrogate their own traditions, including their modern political philosophical tradition. In this article, I will discuss a powerful modern political imaginary, namely the democratic narrative of the “social contract”. Such narratives or “imaginations of our origin” (Ursprungsphantasien: Philip Manow) give us answers to the enigma of our social and political existence: what does it mean to live in this political community? What does it give us, ask from us? In the modern narrative of the “social contract”, we are told that, to be a good citizen, we have/had to leave the “state of nature” (status naturalis), a state often described as a state of disorder, conflict, and war, and accept the status of citizenship (status civilis) and a powerful state as guarantee of peace and the rule of law. In this article, I will firstly give some examples of the use of this narrative in very diverse contexts: 1) in the context of the European religious civil wars in the 16th and 17th centuries (birth of the modern liberal political philosophy), 2) in the context of the transition of European nation-states to the European Union after WWII, 3) in the context of the transition of Apartheid South Africa to a non-racial democracy. Secondly, I will concentrate on one of the first philosophers who introduced the state of nature/civil state narrative, Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), to discover that his political imagination is deeply influenced by the colonial experience in the “New World”, especially the meeting with the indigenous Indians in America. In several aspects, they are in Hobbes’ imagination the incarnation of the life in the “state of nature”. This raises the question, how the idea of a democratic social contract can be reformulated, without Eurocentric and racist premises, and without simply reversing the Hobbesian narrative: since the “colonizer” is the root of our conflict and controversies, to expel him will restore a durable peace.

Precarious discourses: herstory and the politics of re-articulation in Panashe Chigumadzi’s These Bones Will Rise Again

ABSTRACT Zimbabwe’s nationalist historiography is founded on an androcentric political imagination that excludes women from sites of nation-narration and knowledge production. This scenario has sparked a proliferation of women-authored and women-centred historical narratives (‘herstory’) that seek to displace male-centred history (‘(his)tory’) and reinscribe women into the nationalist narrative. Through a close reading of Panashe Chigumadzi’s autobiography, These Bones Will Rise Again (2018), the article offers a context-specific evaluation of herstory’s capacity to transcend the single-eyedness and misogynistic underpinnings of (his)story. I demonstrate that herstory and (his)story are equally monolithic discourses that seek to eliminate each other, and this antagonism undermines the possibilities of a multi-inclusive nationalist history. Overall, I argue that while herstory can be a potent tool for subverting masculinized national memory, it inherits some of the exclusionary tendencies of (his)tory in ways that undermine its overarching goal to de-gender the discursive space. The article finally proposes that herstory necessarily needs to be (re)situated within the tradition of negotiation politics if it has to transcend the faults of (his)tory. To explore these dynamics, I draw on Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘The Dangers of a Single Story’ (2009).

An anti-fascist struggle conditioned by ethnic concerns: Jewish self-defense groups in 1960s South America

ABSTRACT Following the kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and the antisemitic wave it provoked in South America throughout the 1960s, Jewish-Argentines, Jewish-Uruguayans and Jewish-Chileans organized themselves into armed self-defense groups and trained in response to growing xenophobia and racism. This little-researched history highlights the efforts of Jewish youth to break away from communal political traditions. They defied the practice of their parents and grandparents who preferred peaceful compromise over direct confrontation with either state officials or extreme right-wing organizations. These Jewish youngsters defined organizations like the Argentine Tacuara or Juventud Uruguaya de Pie as neo-Nazi. They took as a role model the ghetto fighters and the partisans of World War II and were now prepared to resort to violence in their struggle against antisemitism. Based on an oral history project, the article describes how they not only guarded community institutions but also attacked nationalist bullies, printing houses of antisemitic literature and Arab diplomatic legations. However, as this article argues, they did not collaborate with leftist anti-fascist groups, since they were also concerned in promoting Zionism and immigration to Israel.

Imagining the Settler-Colonial City: Introducing Urban Indigeneities and the Settler-Colonial City, a Special Issue of the Urban History Review

This article introduces the essays collected in this special issue of the Urban History Review and sketches the urban imagination of settler-colonial political traditions. It focuses on the way settler cities are imagined, argues that the settler-colonial city may be seen as distinct from other urban formations, and suggests that the urban form is a constitutive component of settler-colonial formations and their imaginaries. Settlers, the founders of political orders in distant locales, have cities on their minds precisely because they are heading in the opposite direction. They focus on the city they will build and on the cities they are escaping. They are especially concerned with the ways in which the former is going to differ from the latter. This imagination should be considered when appraising the settler colonial city, an endeavour to which this special issue contributes.

From Free-rider to Game Changer: China’s Evolving Cooperation, Technology, and Influence in the Middle East

Abstract: This article explores the evolving dynamics of power and technology in the Middle East, with a particular focus on China’s increasing influence in the region. Amidst the shifting balance of global power, China has transitioned from a peripheral player to a significant stakeholder in the Middle East, deploying its technological prowess and, more recently, diplomatic weight. As the United States and the West grapple with the implications of this shift, regional middle powers are not merely spectators in this superpower rivalry; they are resorting to ‘strategic hedging,’ forming their own partnerships focused on economic and knowledge transfer, replacing traditional political and security alignments to address regional and global challenges. The article discusses future regional trends, emphasizing the potential for Asia-Middle East minilateral cooperative frameworks. It concludes by suggesting that the United States should adopt a healthy balance between values and interests and move away from a zero-sum mentality by embracing a more cooperative approach to China’s regional presence. Specifically, the United States should accept global connectivity and sustainability momentum by encouraging more strategic partnerships between Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

The Concepts of Women's Empowerment in Child Malnutrition Programs in Luangprabang Province, Lao People's Democratic Republic.

In several developing countries, such as Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the fight against malnutrition is carried out through programs that involve collaboration between internal (national) and external (international) actors. These actors may have different perceptions on what is one of the pillars of these programs: the empowerment of women, especially mothers of young children. Little is known about these differences and the impact of these differences on the empowerment component of collaborative projects and the perception of its impact on the reduction in malnutrition in the country. A multiple case study was performed. Data collection was carried out in Vientiane Capital and Luangprabang province. The data were obtained from (1) documents, (2) semi-structured interviews with representatives of internal and external organizations, and (3) focus group discussions and individual interviews with mothers of children under five years old. Analysis consisted of characterizing the empowerment component of nutrition programs of internal and external organizations, as well as mothers, based on an OXFAM's adapted conceptual framework on women's economic empowerment. The study revealed a common understanding among government and external organizations regarding the significance of promoting women's empowerment for reducing child malnutrition in Lao PDR. However, variations were observed in the interpretation of specific determinants of women's empowerment, specifically in relation to women's autonomy and the role of social capital. The perspective of internal actors includes the political ideology and traditions that make Lao PDR a distinct country. This perspective dominates the nutrition programs conducted under the collaboration of internal and external actors. In Lao PDR, the concept of women's empowerment in nutrition programs conducted through collaboration between internal and external actors and targeting young Lao mothers gives prominence to political and socio-cultural factors.

Ideario sobre participación política de estudiantes de grado 11 del Colegio Distrital Paulo Freire.

The main purpose of this research article is to investigate the political ideology of the eleventh grade youth of the Paulo Freire district school, in the city of Bogotá. The present study used the qualitative methodology, since it allows collecting the perceptions and interpretations of the students. The instrument applied to carry out the data collection was the survey, which allowed collecting the necessary information that makes it possible to understand the ideas and conceptions that students have about political participation. The result of the investigation favored the understanding of how in various classes a democratic thought is created and promoted that allows students to think and give their opinion in a critical and authentic way regarding political and social issues, on the other hand, it was possible to know the tastes and alternative political scenarios of the students; In the same way, a distaste was evidenced in the students for exercising and belonging to the participatory scenarios arranged by the institution, this is due to the underestimation of adults and in part to the traditional politics of the country.

AXIOLOGICAL DIMENSION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE AND THE IMPACT IT MAKES ON ITS DEVELOPMENT

The article presents the main principles of the axiological approach to the formation of the content of higher education in the context of current global trends and challenges caused by the modernization of the educational environments in Ukraine and the EU. The socio-economic, political, technological and cultural transformations that have been taking place in the world over the recent decades have had a significant impact on the development of education. In 2018, the EU adopted the key competencies for lifelong learning, including digital competence and entrepreneurship, which were introduced for the first time. This demonstrates that in order for the graduates to be employed universities have to respond quickly to the new labour market requirements and promote the formation of a competitive personality that has well-developed life, career and study skills. The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was signed in 2014, and since then the cooperation between Ukrainian and European educational institutions has got intensified. In this respect, it is vital to consider the axiological aspects of higher education and the determination of value components of the content and criteria of high quality education. By definition, the axiological approach proclaims the human being as the highest value of society and allows integrating the development of universal, national, professional and personal values in the educational process. The university is able to be the environment where the formation and consolidation of the value sphere of the individual takes place. The content of the value component of education is formed at the state level within regulatory documents and at the university level within the framework of educational and professional programs, training courses, compulsory and elective disciplines. However, formal copying of the value-based education of other countries cannot bring the desired results, as the factors that determine which values are the basis for the content of higher education in European countries differ from those in Ukraine. A comparative analysis of the value component of the content of university education in Ukraine and the EU countries shows that national traditions of lifestyle, production practice, politics and culture are essential the development of education

“The Dispute between Horus and Seth” and the Emergence of the Early Kingdom of Ancient Egypt

The author suggests a new hypothesis for the emergence of the Early Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. This hypothesis supposes that long before the Early Kingdom, a durable, well-organized and deep-rooted political tradition existed in Egypt. At its core, there was clearly a political tradition of Lower Egypt, the Delta. That is why the new political elite, which came from the South, had to incorporate themselves and their power in this already existing and very strong tradition. The South, after it started to dominate the all-Egyptian state, had to “re-build” the mythological cycle of Horus and Seth, aiming to legitimate the new power. The “mimicry” of “jackal”-kings under the “falcons“was the result of this process of adaption to the old political tradition. Over time, this “mimicry” transformed into a new entity. This is well demonstrated by the appearance of such a mythological character as “a falcon sailing in a boat”. However, the question remains: was it the Early Kingdom (and not the earlier pre-state formation, as K. Sethe and his followers thought) founded by the kings worshipping the Horus from the Delta? The alternative explanation presumes the revival of K. Sethe’s hypothesis (at a new level, of course). Such a return to K. Zethe’s hypothesis is possible, however, only on condition that archaeological data confirming this assumption are obtained in the future.

The Míkmaw Concordat: Rethinking Treaty Making between Indigenous Peoples and Settlers

AbstractIn 1610, the Míkmaq formed a treaty with French representatives of the Holy See. James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson argues inThe Míkmaw Concordat(1997) that through this treaty the Míkmaq enfolded settlers into their existing international political order by extending to settlers their concept of sacred kinship. In the more than 25 years since the publication ofThe Míkmaw Concordat, it has received no attention from scholars of political science. This omission is unsurprising as political science struggles to account for Indigenous politics because of its traditional focus on the “Westphalian state.” This framework excludes many aspects of Indigenous political traditions, particularly their approaches to international politics, which are not reducible to state‐centric frameworks. The Concordat, as a treaty between two nonstate entities, is an example of Indigenous treaty making that can illuminate both the history of settler colonialism and how contemporary social movements are resisting the settler state.