Public Disaffection Research Articles

Justice and vilayat in post-revolutionary Iranian Shiʿism

Justice and the guardianship of the jurist ( vilayat-i faqih ) have been the two ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran ever since the 1979 Revolution. Unlike vilayat-i faqih , the meaning and essence of justice in post-revolutionary Shiʿi-Iranian thought has not received due attention in the scholarly debate. The hegemonic Shiʿi discourse in Iran defines justice as based on three principles: awarding every person their due rights according to the law; ‘setting everything in its place’, and the elimination of tyranny and oppression. It maintains that true justice can be realized only within an Islamic system ruled by the ‘fully qualified jurist’. This formula has elicited additional debate, especially since 2011, over the reciprocal status and dependence of the two concepts. The debate was triggered by intra-elite tensions, and subsequently by the need to respond to public disaffection over the deficiencies in the implementation of social justice in Iran. It culminated in subordinating the ideal of justice to clerical authority and to the principle of expediency as determined by that clergy. Thus, vilayat-i faqih has been transformed from the means to implement justice to the ultimate self-serving end-goal of the regime’s ideology.

Institutionalising participatory and deliberative procedures: The origins of the first permanent citizens’ assembly

AbstractIn the context of public disaffection towards representative democracies, political leaders are increasingly establishing citizens’ assemblies to foster participatory governance. These deliberative fora composed of randomly selected citizens have attracted much scholarly attention regarding their theoretical foundations and internal functioning. Nevertheless, we lack research that scrutinizes the reasons why political leaders create such new institutions. This article fills this gap by analysing a specific case: the first permanent randomly selected citizens’ assembly that will work in collaboration with a parliament in the long‐term (Ostbelgien, Belgium). This case is analysed through a framework that pays close attention to the context in which it developed, the profiles of political elites that supported its creation, as well as the multiple objectives it was vested with. The findings reveal that initiators of citizens’ assemblies fundamentally conceive them as a way to strengthen a polity's identity, to save the electoral model of democracy, and to restore the legitimacy of traditional political leaders. Our analysis of this particular conception lead us to argue for the need of developing context‐sentive approaches to participatory and deliberative procedures, as well as to discuss whether we should consider the latter as mere elites’ legitimation tools.

Populism and plebiscitarianism 2.0: How Podemos used digital platforms for organization and decision-making

Using the Spanish party Podemos as a case study, this article opens up a dialogue between researchers in the fields of populist communication and the digitization of political parties. Research has persuasively shown how the participatory promise of digital parties often degenerated into “plebiscitarianism 2.0.” However, partly because of the mutual disengagement between these fields, the mismatch between promise and reality remains poorly understood. This article argues that, in the case of Podemos, this gap arises from the party’s populist project to turn widespread public disaffection into political power—a project that, as populism typically does, involved the use of plebiscitarian linkages and, therefore, was contradictory to the promise of promoting participatory democracy. By bridging the gap between populism and digital party research, this article calls attention to how populist actors use digital media not only to bypass traditional gatekeepers but also to replace political parties with online plebiscites.

Limits of restrictions of human rights and freedoms to ensure security (problem statement

The subject. The world faced a coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Many states, including Russia, adopted harsh measures that were largely based on restricting human rights and freedoms in an effort to counter pandemic spread. Inter-State borders were closed, restrictions were imposed on the operation of public catering organizations and the holding of sports and entertainment events was suspended, some of the fundamental rights were heavily con-strained. This resulted in the growth of public disaffection, falling of incomes and a worsening of the overall economic environment. As a result, the problem of the permissibility of restrictions of human rights and freedoms for the sake of public security, as well as the requirements for such restrictions, had once again become relevant.The purpose of the article is, firstly, to learn what is the concept of “freedom” nowadays, to define the conditions and principles of application the permissible restrictions on human rights and freedoms, their aims and purpose. The authors dare to analyze the laws and regulations establishing the possibility of restricting human rights and freedoms and to give a description of the procedure for imposing restrictions in situations of greater danger.The methodology of research includes formal legal interpretation of legal acts, systemic approach to cognition of social relations, analysis and synthesis.The main results, scope of application. The definition and concept of freedom, its limited character, the regulation of the possibility of its restriction for the purpose of protecting society have been studied and defined. Russian and international legislation on the restriction of human rights and freedoms has been analyzed. The principles on the basis of which it is permissible to restrict human rights and freedoms have been identified. The principle of the inadmissibility of restrictions on all rights and freedoms; the adequacy of the imposed restrictive measures to the existing threat; the principle of economic efficiency; the principle of detailed regulation of the imposed restrictions are among them. It has been found out that there is a threat of establishing tyranny with arbitrary restrictions on human rights and freedoms.Conclusions. In today’s world, the restriction of human rights and freedoms should be considered as a necessary measure to ensure the security of the individuals and of society as a whole, especially in the situations of a great danger to public interests. At the same time, the imposing restrictions should be strictly regulated and, moreover, possible abuses should be avoided in order to minimize the negative consequences and avoid establishing totalitarian regime.

Tweeting Outside the Lines: Normalization and Fragmentation as Political Reporters Break from the Mainstream

ABSTRACT The field of journalism is experiencing intense diversification in form and message while trying to overcome widespread public disaffection by reinforcing professional norms. This study focuses on two forces—normalization and fragmentation—by observing them at work on social media. We analyzed content and interactions from mainstream and non-mainstream political journalists covering a 2016 U.S. presidential debate. Forces of normalization would draw these two groups of reporters together in a monolithic, widespread practice, perhaps including both newer and older methods. Forces of fragmentation, on the other hand, would drive groups of practitioners further apart, with clearer lines separating mainstream journalism from its offshoots. The key question is where these similarities and differences between mainstream and non-mainstream journalists arise. Findings suggest divergence in objectivity and gatekeeping, and convergence in campaign coverage practices. The evidence suggests that, on Twitter, mainstream reporters insulate themselves by interacting mainly with other journalists, while non-mainstream journalists offer openly partisan interpretations and seek out audience participation and engagement, often from people sharing their viewpoints.

Breaking into a Consociational System: Civic Parties in Lebanon’s 2018 Parliamentary Election

Despite its consociationalism and clientelism, in 2018 civil society groups hoped to gain a real foothold in Lebanon’s parliament in light of recent social mobilization, local election results, and the introduction of proportional electoral rules. Contributing to the literature on power-sharing, this paper analyzes why civil society groups were so hopeful and why they only won a single seat. While confessional parties shaped electoral rules to their advantage and deployed their powers of clientelism, there are signs of the same deeply rooted informal norms and practices that promote status quo elections in other consociational cases despite broad public disaffection with governance.

'I Think I Made The Right Decision … I Hope I'm Not Wrong'. Vaccine hesitancy, commitment and trust among parents of young children.

During the last decade, public health research has emphasised the growing public disaffection with vaccination. This contemporary vaccine hesitation (VH) refers to a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines, as well as agreement despite doubt and reluctance. We investigated VH among French parents of young children, with an emphasis on two key features of VH: trust towards physicians and commitment to vaccination issues. We targeted two populations with contrasting socioeconomic profiles, using in-depth interviews (n=25). Most parents exhibited some kind of VH, with differentiated attitudes across vaccines, including acceptance despite enduring doubts, especially for vaccines already provided to older siblings ('vaccine inertia'). Despite the rise of the Internet and social media, our participants still strongly relied on face-to-face interactions with peers and significant others. Most participants trusted their own physician but this was the result of a selection process: they had engaged resources to find a physician they could trust. Participants with contrasted socioeconomic profiles struggled with the same dilemmas, and they committed themselves to the same quest to find the 'right' physician. Nevertheless, parents with a higher socioeconomic status were able to engage more resources and use a wider repertoire of actions, and they also displayed greater health literacy.

State of the field: What can political ethnography tell us about anti‐politics and democratic disaffection?

AbstractThis article adopts and reinvents the ethnographic approach to uncover what governing elites do, and how they respond to public disaffection. Although there is significant work on the citizens’ attitudes to the governing elite (the demand side) there is little work on how elites interpret and respond to public disaffection (the supply side). It is argued here that ethnography is the best available research method for collecting data on the supply side. The article tackles longstanding stereotypes in political science about the ethnographic method and what it is good for, and highlights how the innovative and varied practices of contemporary ethnography are ideally suited to shedding light into the ‘black box’ of elite politics. The potential pay‐off is demonstrated with reference to important examples of elite ethnography from the margins of political science scholarship. The implications from these rich studies suggest a reorientation of how one understands the drivers of public disaffection and the role that political elites play in exacerbating cynicism and disappointment. The article concludes by pointing to the benefits to the discipline in embracing elite ethnography both to diversify the methodological toolkit in explaining the complex dynamics of disaffection, and to better enable engagement in renewed public debate about the political establishment.

Political Participation and Mobilization after Mali’s 2012 Coup

Abstract:If the sudden downfall of Mali’s officially democratic system in early 2012 surprised many observers, the failings of the Malian state—including public disaffection with the political process, weak rule of law, and inadequate delivery of basic services—were widely known both at home and abroad. Focusing on activists based in Bamako, this article assesses Malian civil society’s response to these challenges since the March 2012 military coup and considers prospects for wider political engagement by the Malian public.

The run up to Israel’s 2015 elections: a political history

The 19th Knesset dissolved itself on 8 December 2014. New elections were set for 17 March 2015. Polls taken immediately after the dissolution of the Knesset showed major public disaffection with Netanyahu. Yet in polls on hypothetical run-offs against other party leaders, Netanyahu was seen to win in all cases. Labour and Hatnuah ran together. So did four Arab parties. A new party, Kulanu, led by Moshe Kahlon, joined the contenders. Several parties held primaries. In the campaign, online videos played an increasingly important role. Polls during the final days and exit polls turned out to be unreliable. The Likud became the largest party in the 20th Knesset with 30 seats.

La política representativa tradicional en los tiempos de la e-democracia. Entre novedades y desafíos jurídicos

During the years of economic crisis, public disaffection with politics and especially politicians has been growing. Citizens distrust politicians who are the product of political parties, they feel that the exercise of sovereignty is increasingly remote from those democratic principles which should represent any rule of law. Although citizens continue to express their preferences through voting, the participation of citizens in political affairs practically does not exist. In this context new scenarios seem to be open. E-democracy (digital democracy, cyber democracy) is an example. This paper examines this opportunity, the parallelism between traditional representational politics and new methods of participation that work with new technologies. To do this we consider the Spanish case, which seems to be open to these types of practices. It seems appropriate to consider the question of whether representative democracy is destined to end or otherwise can be reviewed in the expectation that it will accompany new participation systems prevalently using the new technologies. Undoubtedly, this potential relationship faces different legal obstacles. Today the organizational structure of the constitution seems to prevent this reciprocity. However, the investigation will attempt to demonstrate that there is a possibility of coexistence and a possible change in the view of citizen participation vis-a-vis classical representation. Keywords: political representation, e-democracy, cyber participation, citizenship, democratic proposals.

El ascenso de los candidatos outsiders como consecuencia de las nuevas formas de Comunicación Política y la desafección ciudadana.

Los candidatos outsiders, aquellos que se presentan a elecciones sin contar con experiencia en política y al margen de los partidos, son habituales en nuestros días. En el presente artículo se pasa revista a los casos más significativos de los últimos 30 años y se analizan las causas del fenómeno, ligadas a las nuevas formas de Comunicación Política, el infoentretenimiento y la personalización, así como a la pérdida de confianza y desafección de los ciudadanos hacia los políticos por culpa de la crisis y la corrupción, revisando también los posibles riesgos de la generalización de estos candidatos para las democracias.

Land Use Consultation Advancing Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Ripe for Clinical Trials

Land use matters produce high volumes of “combatants.” Developers change neighborhoods and daily routines, not always for the better. Disruption of street life at the granular level has devastating impacts on those sharing one neighborhood. Poor and lower income populations, and increasingly middle income persons, cannot afford hiring lawyers to represent them in costly land use battles. Local regulators are charged with securing competing goals: to protect property owners against the potential erosion of their wealth and health caused by new development, and to promote their towns’ economic efficiency and growth for competitiveness. This difficult balance at times renders outcomes of land use hearings incredible or irrationally-based on the surface. Local bureaucrats are not oblivious but have limited opportunity to focus on some negative dimensions of development; and in Therapeutic Jurisprudence terms, resulting intense public disaffection with an administrative legal process like land use regulation is unhealthful. Academics and practitioners urge American law schools to teach collaborative problem-solving and unconventional forms of conflict resolution, while Therapeutic Jurisprudence advocates urge introducing students to how legal processes and their actors affect a community’s well-being. The Task Force on the Future of Legal Education was created in summer 2012, charged to recommend to the American Bar Association how law schools, the ABA, and other groups and organizations might take concrete steps to address issues concerning the economics of legal education and its delivery. The task force’s Final Report (January, 2014, page 24) tells law schools to accommodate missions featuring more skills-related courses and simulations of real-world law practice (experiential learning), so that new graduates have some competencies in delivering some legal services (Page 26, Report). This paper addresses a proposed experiment at the confluence of currents of public disenchantment, citizen underrepresentation and lawyering-education transition. While the legal clinic specializing in mediation of land use controversies conceived here has built-in challenges, the Task Force affirmed that 21st Century legal education needs “a much stronger culture of innovation, nimbleness and attention to factors outside the academy.” (Pages 4 and 27, Report) As explained in the paper, focused clinic student participants will gain a sense of citizenship and appreciation of the power of Therapeutic Jurisprudence to raise public spirits while learning practical problem-solving skills like active listening and task-absorption. The risk-reward balance favors engaging both law schools and their surrounding communities in the proposed clinic endeavor.

Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War by Todd Brewster (review)

Reviewed by: Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War by Todd Brewster Robert O. Faith Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War. Todd Brewster. New York: Scribner, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4516-9386-7, 352 pp., cloth, $27.00. A year punctuated by frequent Union military failures, formulation of a policy of emancipation, and widespread public disaffection, 1862 proved to be one of the most trying years of the American Civil War for Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’s Gamble, Todd Brewster explores the transformative period between July 1862 and January 1863, the month in which President Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation. It is during this time, Brewster argues, that one might find the “real Lincoln”—one who came to embrace emancipation while the focus of the Civil War shifted from reunion toward the destruction of slavery (8). Written in engaging prose and mindful of the many complexities and ambiguities of Union war policy and Lincoln’s thinking on race and slavery, Brewster’s narrative offers an immersive look into the processes by which Lincoln ultimately changed the nature of Union war policy to include emancipation along with reunion. Beginning with the funeral of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s son on July 13, 1862, when Lincoln first revealed his plans for emancipation to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of State William H. Seward, Brewster’s narrative marches forward chronologically, with each chapter focusing on major events or themes between July 1862 and January 1863. Largely based on standard primary sources regarding Lincoln and emancipation, the book also contains a helpful appendix that includes the texts of all three drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as Lincoln’s famous letter to Albert G. Hodges of April 4, 1864, justifying military emancipation. Throughout the book, Brewster carefully traces the development of emancipation policy in Lincoln’s mind, revealing the extent to which Lincoln’s thinking on emancipation evolved between the September 22 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and its final version, one hundred days later, on January 1, 1863. Brewster maintains that Lincoln’s initial position on slavery during the war was largely hands-off, as he encouraged military officials to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, for instance. Moreover, Lincoln’s fear of the social consequences of immediate abolition—reflected in part by his enduring embrace of colonizing free blacks outside of the United States—“made him uncomfortable with any plan that did not take gradualism as its philosophy and popular consensus as its partner” (46). As political and military events unfolded throughout 1862, though, Lincoln came to embrace a policy of military emancipation, however limited in scope. Still, for all of its moral grandeur and mythical status to modern Americans, the myriad political and military uncertainties surrounding the Union war effort ensured that the fate of emancipated slaves remained far from clear on January 1, 1863. Indeed, as Brewster aptly writes, for Lincoln the final Emancipation Proclamation was “a roll of the dice” (243). [End Page 454] While Brewster ultimately emphasizes Lincoln’s evolving policy of emancipation, he also devotes some attention to other major developments in the Union during the latter half of 1862. Here, one will find a general discussion of military events through the end of the year, as well as the growing dissent of a northern public that knew little of military victory and much of war-weariness and sacrifice. Although important for establishing the political and military context of the Union war effort in 1862, these subjects are treated better elsewhere. Yet even on such crucially interdependent topics as slavery, emancipation, and colonization, Brewster’s book does not engage the larger historiographical literature and debates, which may disappoint specialists in these areas. Instead, Brewster devotes considerable space to detailed biographical sketches of Lincoln’s political influences, cabinet members, military subordinates, and family members that, at times, are an unnecessary digression from his larger narrative. The same may be said for particular topics that are given disproportionate treatment here, such as his discussion of...

Poor Performance by Government: A Functional Explanation of Public Disaffection

Poor Performance by Government: A Functional Explanation of Public Disaffection

An Analysis of Climate Change, Poverty and Human Security in South Africa

In South Africa, climate change mitigation poses significant challenges to the South African Government because it has to juggle the climate change imperatives , with the critical issues of poverty and human security, as well as a host of daunting development challenges inherited from the Apartheid regime. This paper utilizes a qualitative methodology to collect and analyse data on climate change, poverty and human security nexus in South Africa. It outlines the development challenges and development policy responses targeting poverty and human security. The analysis of the causes and effects, as well as the impact of climate change, is followed by a discussion of the delivery of basic social services and the resultant public disaffection leading to violent service protests. A significant proportion of South Africans, especially the poor, have to contend with poverty, a lack of basic social services and unemployment which are being compounded by climate change. The final section of the paper argues that despite significant service delivery milestones, little progress has been made on the central objective of reducing poverty and inequality. Consequently, although a lot has been achieved in terms of the legislation, policies, programmes, and provision of basic services for the poor, the challenge facing the South African Government is how to link the objectives of poverty alleviation policy with those of climate change and human security priorities within a sustainable development framework. The paper recommends that in order to reduce poverty and increase the poor people's capacity to adapt or respond to climate change the government will need to: firstly , mainstream or integrate climate change adaptation with sustainable development policies; and secondly, improve the capacity of local authorities to effectively deliver services to their communities . This paper has been motivated by the explosion of service delivery protests around the country, which have become violent and increasingly xenophobic resulting in attacks on African nationals and foreign -owned small businesses in the townships and informal settlements.

George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society (20th Anniversary Edition)

George Ritzer, The of Society: 20th Anniversary Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2013, 237 pp., $46.00 paper (978-1-4522-2669-9). Over the past few decades, George Ritzer's work on has effectively become a franchise operation in its own right. Since his initial formulation of the term in a short article in the Journal of American Culture in 1983, the so-called McDonaldization has spawned a score of related books and academic articles by Ritzer and others, generated an extensive secondary literature, become a pedagogical staple in countless university courses, and established itself as part of the popular lexicon in ways that few sociological concepts ever have. The recent publication of a special 20th anniversary edition of Ritzer's The of Society presents us with an opportunity to reflect appreciatively but critically upon this impressive legacy, and to assess how well Ritzer's long-established theoretical framework has been able to adapt to or withstand the shifting winds of intellectual and historical change. Although this seventh edition of Ritzer's classic text has updated its range of topical references and ventured to address a range of new issues, it is also--somewhat counter-intuitively--notably shorter and more concisely argued than the previous edition. Ritzer's decision to condense and combine previously separate chapters and to significantly pare back his analysis of topics such as globalization threatens to amplify the book's preexisting tendency toward intellectual simplification and overgeneralization, but it arguably enhances the book's already considerable appeal as an undergraduate teaching text. While his fellow professional scholars might understandably wish that Ritzer had afforded himself the space to reformulate and defend the thesis with greater nuance, precision, and responsiveness to his critics, it would be remiss of them not to appreciate his unique ability to make otherwise daunting theoretical material accessible, relevant, and exciting for a lay audience. Indeed, in the context of undergraduate sociology courses in which many students often remain quite suspicious of or outright hostile to the ostensibly musty and irrelevant domain of theory, Ritzer's book provides an excellent initiation into the sweep and excitement of theoretical thinking. Drawing upon a broadly conceived version of the Weberian theory of rationalization, all editions of this book have helped students to draw vital connections between far-flung historical events such as the emergence of modern state bureaucracy and the development of Taylorized factory production, the fast food industry, and the McDonaldizing tendencies at work in education, leisure, travel, sports, religion, family life, shopping, popular entertainment, the news media, social work, and many other spheres of contemporary social life. While acknowledging the quasi-democratic and populist appeal of many McDonaldized institutions and experiences, Ritzer--as ever--retains a strong emphasis upon the irrational, destructive, disenchanting, and dehumanizing consequences of formally rational systems. This provides him with a means of establishing a common thread between an array of pressing social, environmental, psychological and health-related risks and pathologies in contemporary society. Ritzer's basic conceptualization of as an insidious, tentacular, and ultimately irrational social process driven by the pursuit of maximum efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control remains intact in this latest edition of his book; he is, however, is at pains to freshly address a variety of recent social, cultural, economic, technological, and intellectual developments that seem to either validate or challenge the ongoing salience of this process. In the first instance, this entails addressing McDonald's own ongoing efforts to rebrand and reposition itself in an era of economic uncertainty, insurgent competition from other restaurant chains, and growing public disaffection with the fast food sector, understood as both the chief emblem of an unhealthy, unsustainable, and morally suspect industrial food system, and as a powerful symbol of the malaise of consumer capitalism more generally. …

POST-POLITICAL POISONS? EVALUATING THE ‘TOXIC’ DIMENSIONS OF TONY BLAIR'S LEADERSHIP

Important aspects of Tony Blair's leadership style were shaped by the perceived need to appease economic elites and to avoid public perceptions of disunity within the Labour Party. Yet Blair's approach produced some ‘toxic’ outcomes, notably contributing to: the economic crisis of 2008; increased public disaffection from formal politics; and the Iraq controversy. Blair's success owed much to his ‘post-ideological’ postures, and highly personalised style, yet at times these tools were used to mislead his supporters in damaging ways.

El laberinto de la participación juvenil: estrategias de implicación ciudadana en la juventud

El estudio de la participación juvenil supone un reto investigador, por cuanto las prácticas colectivas de los jóvenes se contextualizan en el marco de la participación ciudadana adulta, pero presentando elementos y potencialidades propias del a condición juvenil. El artículo pretende asumir el vínculo entre reproducción del orden social y producción de nuevos órdenes en las prácticas sociales de los jóvenes, para cuestionar los enfoques teóricos que plantean una desafección pública de la juventud contemporánea. Para ello se exponen las limitaciones y disfuncionalidades del modelo participativo actual y se proponen elementos que configurarían las condiciones neecsarias para la implicación ciudadana de los jóvenes, a través del avance en tres dimensiones básicas de los procesos participativos innovadores: inclusividad, intensidad e influencia.

`These Crowded Circumstances'

Nobody likes pack journalism - not the reporters who are members of the pack, not the objects of the pack's attention and not the readers who deplore the pack's intrusiveness and obtrusiveness even as they stay with the coverage. To distance themselves from the pack, reporters have hit upon the curious rhetorical strategy of writing about it as if they were not a part of it. This article argues that this kind of distanced reflexivity is best understood as a strategic ritual aimed at maintaining the culture of journalism in the face of public disaffection with intrusive reporting and excessive coverage.