Political Power Research Articles

The blockchain university: disrupting 'disruption'?

This paper explores the promise of disruption of higher education offered by latest platform technologies - a combination of mobile applications for connecting teachers and students and blockchain technology for secure transactions of information and money. We start with a brief examination of several generations of technological disruptions arriving from the Silicon Valley with a special focus to educational technology. Showing that these disruptions are primarily focused to furthering capitalist mode of production, we question whether the latest disruption could provide different results. We briefly examine a historical (utopian) attempt at disrupting education described in Ivan Illich's book Deschooling Society (1971). While this analysis firmly belongs into the past, it presents us with important insights about connections between education, technology, capitalism and the environment which are just as relevant today. We proceed with an analysis of the world's first blockchain university - the Woolf University. Advertised as 'Uber for students, Airbnb for teachers', the Woolf University offers the seductive promise of radical transformation of higher education based on cooperative principles. We examine blockchain technology in detail and identify its main novelty - the transfer of trust from people to technologies. We briefly question this transfer, leaving a more detailed analysis for further research. Instead we focus to ideological underpinnings of the blockchain university, as they reflect to teaching, learning, and university administration. We show that further analyses of the blockchain university will be best supported by adopting a networked learning perspective and especially its wide body of knowledge about various (learning) connections. The Woolf University has not even admitted its first cohort of students, and the question remains as to whether Woolf will now adopt the blockchain in such a manner as to radically disrupt 'disruption', or it will simply blend into the existing powerful political, educational and economic structures. Our analysis, which is therefore based on early ideas about the development of the Woolf University, indicates that it has the potentials to offer cooperative learning to students, cooperative employment to academic workers, all the while retaining highest quality of teaching and learning modelled after ancient scholastic principles. On that basis, we conclude that the Woolf University, together with other adaptations of blockchain technology for educational purposes, does offer a lot of potential for fundamental disruption of higher education and should be closely watched in the times to come.

The Emergence of the Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement: Partisan Federalism, Not White Protectionism

Abstract One-third of all US counties have enacted Second Amendment Sanctuary (2AS) ordinances, preventing the enforcement of state and federal gun control laws. We test two theories to explain 2AS enactment. First, 2AS may be a manifestation of partisan federalism. This perspective predicts that the nationalization of policy issues has led partisan groups to support “sanctuary” policies in friendly jurisdictions to frustrate the opposition. Second, given the close link between gun policy preferences and racial identities, 2AS enactment may be related to racial dynamics and especially the declining political power of White Americans. Thus, we should expect that 2AS adoptions will occur in majority White counties with declining White populations. We leverage a unique dataset of county-level 2AS enactments to test these hypotheses. We find strong evidence for the partisan federalism hypothesis. In contrast, we find weak and inconsistent evidence for the racial threat hypothesis.

Beyond Chinatown: Chinese diaspora, the transition of power, and the planning of the City of Medan in Dutch East Indies

ABSTRACT Medan is a port city in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A special case among colonial cities, it featured a large number of Chinese migrants – a third party in addition to the colonizer and the colonized – who played a key role in its urbanization process. Highlighting a trichotomous power framework formed by the Dutch colonizer, the indigenous people and the Chinese diaspora, this paper argues that the Chinese diaspora, with the arrival of commercial elites, obtained opportunities to shape the backbone of the city through skilfully transforming their economic power into political and spatial power. Chinese economic activities such as property investment and co-development not only led to unconventional Chinese quarters but shaped the zoning and axiality of the whole city. The Chinese diaspora also shaped Medan’s streetscape and architecture through individual building design, which, in turn, strengthened their economic power by the careful manipulation of architectural elements from various sources to suit different purposes. The planning history of Medan represents an alternative trajectory to colonial urbanization often led by Europeans, highlighting an ambiguous and shifting power relation among three parties in a transforming colonial society.

The Boundaries of Popular Control in Late Medieval English Towns

Abstract Scholarship on pre-modern popular politics often focuses on speech, identifying the ways in which people outside the elite could have a “voice” in government. Using examples from late medieval English towns, this article argues for the existence of a particular kind of popular politics that centered on seeing and hearing rather than speaking. This type of politics—labeled “popular control”—concerned the right of the urban political community at large to observe rituals of governance and to audit financial accounts. Through these acts of collective witnessing, lesser citizens and non-citizens exerted an indirect political power to restrict leaders’ freedom of action and to ensure that their performance of office abided by set rules. The unusually detailed Hall Rolls and Hall Books produced by the civic government of Lynn in 1412–13 and 1418–25 illustrate that “popular control,” far from being a vehicle for increasing the urban commons’ “voice” in municipal decision-making, often stood in opposition to principles of elected representation. After 1418, more people were being admitted to the inner sanctum of virtuous individuals deemed capable of offering rational counsel to mayors and jurats, but there were fewer opportunities for the wider public to witness performances of governance by this expanded group of decision-makers. The crux of debate in fifteenth-century English towns—and, perhaps, in the tumultuous world of late medieval Europe more generally—was often less about who should exercise political influence and more about how popular political power could be exercised most appropriately and effectively.

Qualitative comparative analysis of policies implemented by 26 European countries during the 2020 great lockdown.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, from March 1 to April 15, 2020, significant variations emerged among countries regarding the implementation of lockdown policies. During this period, viewed strictly from an epidemiological perspective, lockdown measures are considered the most effective means of containing a pandemic. However, the adoption of such measures varied, raising questions about whether the reluctance or failure of countries to implement lockdown policies reflected a disregard for epidemiological knowledge or stemmed from an inability to enforce these measures. This article employs Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with 26 European countries as case studies to investigate under what combination of conditions a country would implement lockdown policies. The QCA results identify three distinct combinations of conditions that lead countries to implement lockdown measures. First, countries with relatively concentrated political power are more likely to implement lockdown policies. Among the 10 countries governed by a majority party or majority coalition within a two-party or moderate multi-party system, seven implemented lockdown policies. Second, in cases of relatively dispersed political power, countries facing state fragility risks are more likely to implement lockdown policies. Among the eight countries that meet both conditions, five implemented lockdown policies. Finally, factors such as political heritage, severity of the pandemic, demographic composition, healthcare access, quality standards, and the ruling party's ideology play a lesser role in the decision to enact lockdown measures. This article offers a novel perspective on the dynamics of party politics and state capacity in the context of decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between political systems and public health crisis management, highlighting how various political and governance factors influence the adoption of public health interventions during crises.

Decolonisation and Downshift-Knowledge Reproduction in Africa

Colonialism established a system of racial oppression, both mentally and physically, by impeding pre-colonial African education, which was originally intended to reflect the realities of pre-colonial African societies. Before the colonial administration, Africans were already developed people with different educations for different age groups, making them functional and inclusive within the larger political sphere. Decolonisation only reflects a shift in political power and the withdrawal of colonialists from African territories, but it has not resulted in any fundamental shift in the mentality of political leaders and nation-building in the decolonised nations. The education curriculum left behind by colonial governments was designed to make African nations economically and technologically dependent on developed nations. Such a pattern of education was not geared toward African technological development, but rather conditioned African nations to be consumers rather than producers, with the resulting loss of initiative among the Africans. The curriculum is insidious in terms of principles and implementation across all levels of educational institutions, slowly destroying the economies of African nations that were once ahead of European nations during the pre-colonial epoch. Instead of accelerating the socio-economic development of decolonised African nations, the curriculum based on Western principles and ideas further subjugates African economies to imperialist influence and hegemony through the instrumentality of international financial institutions, which frequently dictate exploitative asymmetric relationships between the developed and developing African nations. African nations must therefore look inward for an African-oriented and culturally appropriate educational curriculum to meet the demand for socioeconomic advancement and growth.

Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

Gendered Ideologies and Authoritarianism in Nicaragua

Although anti-feminist discourses and practices are often associated with “right-wing” governments, self-proclaimed “leftist” regimes can also be organized around patriarchal ideas. In this article, I analyze how the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua has employed gendered ideologies to consolidate and legitimate its political power. While the Ortega-Murillo regime initially used elite pact-making to gain control of Nicaragua’s legal institutions, their latter strategies, which included alliances with religious conservatives, threats and intimidation, and legal mechanisms, were mainly focused on restructuring and pacifying civil society. Within this process, targeting feminist ideas and feminist organizations has been a central component of their autocratic toolkit.

A gender perspective on the role of technology in democratic development through wartime civic engagement

ABSTRACT Civic engagement during crisis response not only addresses immediate challenges but also acts as a catalyst for democratic development. In a diverse society facing collective threats, such as a military invasion, people learn to manage and respond to crises cooperatively, searching for effective instruments of self-organizing and responding. Technology plays a crucial role in empowering civic actors, enabling them to acquire both interpersonal and political power for effective co-action. Recognizing that their actions take place within socio-technical arrangements where technology, institutions, and societies are interconnected and mutually influential is essential. Although, technology use entails certain risks, this interconnectivity enhances inclusivity, providing benefits to individuals of all genders, particularly those who encounter barriers to physical participation. It amplifies the voices of women and LGBTIQ+ individuals, thereby increasing the efficiency and convenience of engaging in efforts to address socially significant issues. This paper delves into the nuanced, gendered role that technology plays in the democratic development of a society at war through its civic engagement in the collective response to threats, highlighting the transformative potential of technological inclusivity in fostering democratic resilience against external threats.

Powerful Politicians, Political Costs, and Income Smoothing

ABSTRACT This paper investigates whether and how firms receiving benefits through their connections to politicians use accounting discretion to mitigate the costs associated with negative publicity. I utilize a unique setting that captures the change in political costs arising from chairmanship appointments to influential U.S. Senate committees. Firms in the home state of a promoted officeholder often receive preferential treatment, drawing public scrutiny and incentivizing them to avoid reporting extreme earnings through income smoothing to reduce adverse political attention. Employing a difference-in-differences research design, I find evidence that home-state firms smooth their earnings throughout the officeholder’s tenure following a senator’s promotion to chairman or ranking minority member. Cross-sectional analyses demonstrate that these effects are stronger for firms anticipating higher political costs. Overall, this paper provides evidence of the political cost hypothesis, highlighting the role of political connections in shaping firms’ financial reporting strategies. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; H57.

THE IMPACT OF GODDS ON POLITICAL POWER IN ANCIENT IRAQ

This research, titled "The Impact of Godds on Political Power in Ancient Iraq," delves into the connection between religion and political authority in ancient Iraq. It explores how religion influenced kings and the political systems across different historical periods in ancient Iraq. The study highlights how rulers utilized religion to justify their authority, claiming divine endorsement to legitimize their political control over the civilization. The research is structured with an introduction, three sections, and a list of sources. The first section explores the role of religion, the second part delves into the significant gods in ancient Iraq, and the third section investigates how gods played a crucial role in shaping political power in this ancient civilization. The study concludes by presenting key findings.

Captured by Elites: The Portuguese Media System in Liberalism (1820–1926)

This article argues that the concept of ‘captured media’ is invaluable to a deeper understanding of the roles performed by media systems throughout European liberalism and early democratization of nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This case-study explores the structures of the media system during Portuguese Liberalism (1820–1926) in the scope of the Portuguese empire. The concept of the ‘Imperial Public Sphere’ is applied to show how imperial and colonial elites captured the media system to exercise and spread its political and ideological power. As a methodological approach to analyze the roles performed by press, the case-study relies on the model developed by Hallin and Mancini (2004), which is applied to three empirical cases. The use of the concept ‘captured media’ in the field of media history is a contribution to understanding the political roots of the press during colonialism and its legacy to contemporary media systems in Lusophone countries.

On the Religious and the Secular in Nineteenth-Century Buganda

Abstract The case of nineteenth-century Buganda opens up a number of assumptions within scholarship about religion, secularity, and politics in African history. Although much scholarship focuses on European colonizers introduced alien categories such as religion and imposed distinctions between religion and politics, this paper foregrounds a different set of historical transformations in what is now Uganda – transformations that ultimately increased rather than diminished connections between the exercise of political power and markedly religious convictions. Along the way, it locates some of the most important pieces of this story in ‘the precolonial’. This allows the paper to trace the emergence of the category of religion, as well as analyze the sense in which it is meaningful to think of precolonial Buganda as secular at a particular moment. In so doing, the paper puts an African story in dialogue with wider conversations on the secular.

Dynamics of Power and Politics in Ibn Khaldun's Social Philosophy

This research examines Ibn Khaldun's social and philosophical thoughts, especially regarding power and its dynamics. Using quantitative data from literature studies, we understand that cycle theory is a fundamental principle for Ibn Khaldun when looking at power dynamics and human civilization. Ibn Khaldun believes that human power and civilization have cycles like human life. Humans are born, grow, develop, mature and grow old and then die. According to Ibn Khaldun, power is also the same; nothing lasts forever, and everything has a final limit. Ibn Khaldun believes that the fundamental laws in social and political systems are not static but historical. The period for a civilization or power to survive depends on the strength of the Asabiyyah in society, state, culture, and the nation itself. Besides 'asabiyyah, moral strength is a pillar in maintaining civilization's progress and power. Morals are the soul of power and civilization. Their existence is like the soul for the body. Moral principles in exercising power also differentiate Ibn Khaldun from the pragmatic view of power and modern politics, which believes that politics does not have to be linked to moral values; it is the art of achieving power by any means. According to Ibn Khaldun, power is not merely the physical and worldly control authority over a country and region. Still, it functions as an instrument that guarantees the realization of God's vision for human civilization, namely the benefit of the people or the common good.

Reframing Relationality as Cultural Work in the Global South: Moving History into the Present, and the Future.

The Global South was popularised during the 1970s in recognition of the greater economic and political power of the ‘Third World’ and as a reaction to pejorative expressions. Nevertheless, as a terminology it is formed within the colonial/modern world-system imagery and manifests multiple subaltern subjectivities and different articulations of power and resistances. In this chapter, we use the practice of talanoa as a decolonizing community arts-based methodology which is an integral part of Pacific dialogic engagement to re-narrate histories and experiences of oppression as we draw on the colonizing experiences of (hetero) gender and Whiteness shaped how these coloured our agencies. In this paper we put to work the practice and potential of talanoa as a heterodox decolonizing methodology that challenges the orthodoxies of the Global North who habitually rewards normative methodological processes. This paper located in part in the 1970s considers questions of how positionality, power and relationships are experienced and re-negotiated through the talanoa and also explores the relationship between voice and participation. Our experiences of participation articulated in this chapter take the form of narratives with an intent to interrupt, subvert and counter the orthodoxic use of analytical tools and theoretical frameworks habitually deployed and modelled across the academy in the Global North. We consider the power the talanoa has for re-negotiating cultural differences and histories situating affective intensities to guide, dis/connect, excite, divert, inspire, distract, startle, surprise, and re-orient thinking to move history into the present, and the future.

‘Mankind Dame’: John Studley’s early modern Clytemnestra

Abstract John Studley’s Agamemnon (1566) explores women’s rule and how it can combine feminine and masculine elements to achieve and maintain political power. To do so, Studley employs the character of Clytemnestra, who simultaneously retains elements of her previous dramatic versions and is shaped to resonate with early modern English audiences. This process is twofold, taking into consideration linguistic and character traits. Clytemnestra’s language is expanded from the Latin through masculine-coded tropes characteristic of vernacular lyric. Moreover, she possesses traits traditionally considered masculine (martial courage, determination, bold speech and skill in weaponry). In Studley’s Clytemnestra, then, endurance and action combined create a gender hybridity in speech and behaviour. In turn, her portrayal resonates with discourses surrounding early modern women rulers, from Elizabeth Tudor to Mary Stuart. Ultimately, Agamemnon reshapes the treacherous queen of Mycenae to function as a commentary on how a woman in power could appear, speak and behave.

Explanation and comparison of the security position of castles in the development of the Zandiyeh period (with emphasis on Kermanshah Castle)

During the Zand period (1751-1794), the spread of firearms, especially cannons, did not have much impact on the conquest of strong fortresses. Given the lack of comprehensive research on fortresses during the Zandiyeh period, the research findings indicate that urban and rural fortresses were the most important sites for the accumulation of resources and political power, attracting pretenders to the throne. Kermanshah Fortress was considered the most valuable fortress in the country due to its rich military stores, which led to the longest period of siege and field battles.

Contesting State Predation: Political Capital, Power Dependence, and Cross-Listing

Contesting State Predation: Political Capital, Power Dependence, and Cross-Listing

Jiang Qing, the Iconic Anti-icon: Visual Dissection of Female Political Power in Post-Mao People's Republic of China

This article examines how, in the years following the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Jiang Qing 江青 (1914–91) became a negative icon of a liberated woman in high office in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). During the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing transformed herself into a model female political leader. After her arrest in 1976, however, political caricatures systematically deconstructed her curated image by transforming her into the antithesis of the ideal powerful woman in a socialist society. Since a model liberated female politician was not yet available, Jiang Qing served as an “iconic anti-iconic” of women in politics under state socialism. Acknowledging the importance of Jiang Qing as a historical figure in Maoist China, this article analyzes how post–Cultural Revolution caricatures of her provide us with an understanding of the Chinese Communist Party’s anxieties about women in power, and it raises questions about the absence of an iconic woman-leader in the PRC’ s political visual culture despite years of campaigning to achieve women’s liberation.

Editorial

This special issue of Euxeinos explores the ways that urban Poles, German-Austrians, Ukrainians and Soviets have imagined and constructed an image of the Carpathian mountains from the mid-19th century to the current day. The city is often seen as the epitome and engine of modernization and progress, whether through trade, technological advancements, or industrial development. It is in the city that cultural institutions, commerce, and political power predominantly reside. Urban centers, whether large or small, have been the epicenters of massive mediatization, shaping our imagination of places beyond the cities. Urban dwellers have actively imagined, reinvented, and transformed rural life, often through a process of destruction and reconstruction. Folk arts and rural lifestyles were invented and reinvented, imagined, and reimagined, resulting in new forms of culture. Natural phenomena, like mountains and rural areas, were transformed into imaginary spaces that expressed anxieties about urban conditions, community bonds, environmental crises, human relations and power structures. The landscape became integral to depicting practices and imposing ideas about belonging, authenticity, roots, communities, states, hierarchies, and borders.