Political Society Research Articles

Role of Political and Civil Society in Kalinga Nagar Resistance Movement in Odisha, India

The presence of neoliberal developmentalism is insidious and ubiquitous, and it has naturalized displacement. Odisha, a resource-rich state, has also experienced developmental discontent in the form of displacement, everyday tyranny, resistance, and dispossession. Displacement causes widespread multiple discontent among the local affected people, and it is being resisted in local place-based struggles in Odisha. These kinds of local place-based struggles give birth to many political societies, where they play multiple roles in the struggle. Besides, the resistance has sought the support and solidarity of civil society. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Odisha, followed by interviews and group discussions with affected and displaced people, civil and political society members, government and industry officials, and other members involved in the movement. Secondary sources of data were collected from newspaper reports, government documents, movement letters, leaflets, pamphlets, booklets, leaders’ affidavits, police FIRs, and personal diaries of leaders. Drawing from Partha Chatterjee’s concepts of political society and civil society, the article locates the roles of political and civil societies in the resistance movement. The article discusses the emergence of political clientelism as an essential element in political society, which also delimited the space of civil society in the resistance movement.

Justice, rights-politics, and the coloniality of knowledge production: critical lessons from Rojava and the Jineolojî movement towards liberating life

ABSTRACT Since 2012 a revolution has been taking place in Northeastern Syria (Rojava). This project in ‘democratic autonomy’, has taken place in the anomic gap left by the absence of a state, and has been driven in large part by feminist activists. These feminist activists have played a pioneering role in re-imagining a moral and political society, through Jineolojî or ‘women's science’. Jineolojî now extends beyond Rojava, constituting a vibrant and powerful transnational or diasporic public sphere, working to develop and promote new ideas about justice, morality, and politics from a situated and embodied gendered perspective. Drawing on interview data and published materials, this article examines the constitution of Jineolojî, as well as the practices of research and self-fashioning activists undertake in the cultivation of new models for feminist power and legality. What emerges from these onto-epistemic practices of revolution and the entanglement of ways of being, knowledge and the law, is the production of new modes of desire, subjectivity, and rights. It argues that the practice of Jineolojî offers critical lessons for cosmological and political justice rooted in the local and a vernacular practice of rights.

MULTIPLICATION CHALLENGES ON THE DEMOCRACY OF SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka’s democracy faces significant challenges, particularly in the wake of the 2022 economic crisis and political unrest. Since gaining independence in 1948, the country has struggled with issues such as executive overreach, corruption, and economic mismanagement. These problems have weakened democratic institutions and deepened public distrust. The research examines the impact of the concentration of power in the executive branch, especially following constitutional changes like the 20th Amendment, which limited checks and balances. The 2022 economic collapse intensified public dissatisfaction, leading to widespread protests against the ruling class. The study uses both primary and secondary data. Primary data includes interviews with civil society experts, political analysts, and legal professionals, providing insights into socio-political dynamics. Secondary data comprises constitutional amendments, government reports, and legislative documents to trace governance changes. Findings reveal that weak political institutions and corruption undermine democracy, even as external pressure for reform grows. Key issues include a lack of judicial independence, exclusion of marginalized ethnic groups, and poor governance. The study underscores the need for political and civil society collaboration to rebuild public trust and strengthen democratic values. Reforms focusing on reducing corruption, ensuring an independent judiciary, and promoting inclusivity are essential for long-term democratic stability. Without decisive action, the vision of a united, democratic Sri Lanka remains at risk.

동북아시아 영토갈등의 구조: 일본 정치사회 감정의 정치, 탈이념 보수화

This article argues that the territorial issues that are unfolding in Japan are closely related to the structure of Japanese political society, and through this, it examines the mechanisms by which the conservative political system is strengthened, and suggests that the regional conflicts in Northeast Asia, including territorial issues, can be explained by reducing them to the problems inherent in the self-centered Japanese political society. What is needed in the study of the territorial issues centered on Japan and the conflicts in Northeast Asia in general is to identify the structures that perpetuate the conflicts in the region and the influence of domestic political necessity on the foreign policy making process. The territorial issues that have been reddening in the process of dismantling and ending Japan's post-war system can be understood as a problem of Japan's political and social structure, not just a territorial issue. Therefore, it is fair to say that the territorial issues in Northeast Asia are the result of a combination of a lack of awareness of neighboring countries and the emotional anti-intellectualism and de-ideologization of Japanese political society, the driving force of which is the de-ideologization of the general public and conservatization from below, where the narrative of resistance has disappeared.

Intellectual and Political Sociability Between the Late ECLAC and CIEPLAN: From Criticism of the Chilean Economic Model (1973-1990) to the Birth of Neo-Structuralism

The paradigmatic rise of the Chicago Boys during the Pinochet regime (1973-1990) was a radical response against the state-led import substitution industrialization and its intellectual influence from CEPAL. Although CEPAL's ideas and history have attracted great interest, reflections on CEPAL’s role during the Chilean authoritarian regime are often limited. In this paper, I intend to offer systematic new evidence and perspectives on the behavior of CEPAL during Pinochet’s government. I argue that, in a context where CEPAL had been losing its influence and experimenting with several problems, some of its economists developed political and intellectual sociability with members of the think tank called Corporation of Studies for Latin America (CIEPLAN) to criticize Chilean economic policies. Moreover, this complex historical process was one of the sources of the birth of neo-structuralism in the late 1980s.

От «азиатского способа производства» к «политаризму»: становление историософской концепции Ю.И. Семенова

The article examines the origin of the concepts of ‘politarism’ and its derivatives ‘political mode of production’, ‘political society’, which are quite often used in the Russian domestic socio-historical and socio-philosophical literature. It is shown that the immediate predecessor of this concept was the ‘Asian mode of production’ and its various analogues (‘Eastern despotism’, ‘the era of Asian kings’ etc.) in the works of K. Marx, which remained mainly in manuscript form. The fi rst discussion around the Asian mode of production (AMP), which unfolded in the USSR in the 1920s, although it was suppressed by harsh administrative methods, nevertheless brought a significant revival to the Soviet social philosophy, which was already under the powerful pressure of the dogmas of the ‘historical materialism’ and the so-called five-term scheme of socio-economic formations. A second similar discussion, which took place in the 1950s and 1960s, also played such a role, prompting, among other things, a significant part of professional orientalists to large-scale and conceptual socio-historical generalizations. The activities and works of the recently deceased professor Yu. I. Semenov, whose name is directly related to the appearance of the term ‘politarism’ in Soviet and then Russian social philosophy, are specially considered. Y.I. Semenov’s original historiosophical concept, created and developed by its author in the conditions of his conscious opposition to the aggressive ideological environment and administrative dictate, has become a valuable component of the conceptual and scientific understanding of the historical process, retaining its heuristic significance to this day. The concepts used by Y.I. Semenov and, in general, his very approach to understanding social and political reality deserve attention as one of the versions of non-dogmatic, creative Marxism, which occupies a noticeable niche in modern domestic and foreign academic discourse.

‘Now I still honour you ... the first honours are yours’: Women’s public and private epigraphic texts from Classical Greece

The male dominance of Classical Greek society in politics and the arts leaves women normally defined as of little consequence relative to their male contemporaries. In addition, Ancient Greek male authors present women as defining themselves as inconsequential, a point we should question. This paper reviews epigraphic texts written by or for women such as public inscriptions, epitaphs and private messages to the gods. The public texts demonstrate that some women took control of their public image through their public texts. Although private texts take up themes concerned with the traditional role of women as mothers, wives or lovers, they also provide evidence for female agency in addressing these concerns.

Licenses to retain in Tudor England, 1541–1585

Abstract Late medievalists have shown that retaining was central to English political society in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They have also debunked the myth that Henry VII sought to end noble retaining and shown that such practices continued into the sixteenth century. Despite this, there has been no focused examination of licenses that Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I granted to select individuals permitting them to retain beyond those categories of servants specified in early acts. These licenses are a unique and underexplored source base that allows questions normally posed by medievalists to be posed for the early modern period. This article examines 138 licenses between 1541 and 1585, identifying the patterns of such grants and their role in understanding the crown's use of noble and gentry retaining in the mid sixteenth century. The reason for each grant differed but all recipients were deemed useful to the crown for various reasons, illustrating the continued collaboration between crown and nobility into the sixteenth century. Throughout, this article emphasises the implications of licenses to retain for understanding the attitude of the English crown to the private power of nobles and gentry over the longue durée.

Song as Social Media: Street Songs and Political Sociability in Early Modern Germany

This paper will focus on sixteenth-century weaver and wedding singer Jonas Losch of Augsburg as a focal point for examining craftsmen in Germany who moonlighted as singers, offering both formal and informal entertainment in the streets, pubs, and other informal spaces of early modern German towns. Because songs were one of the few ways that artisans of lower status were able to make their voices heard, their songs were often political, socially critical, or even subversive, although many of these artisan singers also performed at weddings or in other non-political venues. In a process recognizable to a modern audience, sharing songs of protest provided a vehicle for building and solidifying group political identity and politicizing the spaces in which they were performed. The setting of political songs to familiar tunes associated with Protestant or Catholic identity increased the potential for eliciting emotional reactions and inflaming passions among listeners, which could lead to conflict. Because sound also penetrated windows, walls, and thresholds, songs could temporarily redefine spatial boundaries. The networks of artisan singers who wrote, copied, and shared these songs created political space for a lively public sphere of opinion among the artisan classes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Behind the trigger: democracy, neoliberalism, and civilian militarism in Latin America

The relationship between liberalism and militarism continues to spark debate, especially regarding the impact of neoliberalism. While ­militarism is often seen as a threat to democracy, it can paradoxically enhance state capacity when strategically employed within radical political projects. This paper presents a comparative analysis of Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Colombia from 1982 to 2004, examining the interplay of political, military and economic networks of power. Using the concept of ‘civilian militarism’, this study reveals how neoliberal adjustments allowed the rise of civilian authorities that promoted militaristic values, using military actions and norms to pursue political goals in response to crises. It explores how neoliberal policies and transformations, sometimes compounded by contradictions surrounding the illegalisation of hard drugs, opened space for the emergence of radical political projects. This deterioration, coupled with weak political or civil society activism allowed militaristic leaders to rise with the intention of addressing the troubled times in some countries more than others. By offering a macro-historical comparative perspective, this paper demonstrates how neoliberalism, and the limitations of civilian and political actors, in some countries pave the way for the emergence of civilian militarism, which, if not contained, can lead to authoritarianism.

Book Review: Political Communication, Culture, and Society., by Patricia Moy and Rico Neumann (Eds.)

Book Review: <i>Political Communication, Culture, and Society.</i>, by Patricia Moy and Rico Neumann (Eds.)

The Influence of the Media on Political Decisions

The news media's function in contemporary political philosophy is restricted to acting as a go-between for the public and their representatives rather than as a rival source of political power. However, even while politicians continue to make official decisions, the media controls their space. Over the past few decades, political campaigns have evolved in character. In the early 1900s, newspapers were the only media with political influence; they were modified to reflect the impact of radio media on politics. Social media now affects us; later, television influenced society's politics. In addition to elections and political campaigns, social media significantly influences how society thinks about politics. Many researchers' opinions that examined the connection between politics and the media are the main subject of this narrative review and concluded that the leading media, whether they are referred to as "liberal" or "conservative," are vast corporations that are linked to and owned by even more giant conglomerates. They offer a commodity for sale to a market, just like other businesses. Social media has revolutionized politics by providing channels for involvement, mobilization, and interaction that were impossible decades ago. The media significantly impacts politics, elections, and campaigns by determining the critical topics, which candidates will receive the most attention, and what standards they should apply when assessing candidates.

MUTUAL COOPERATION OF POLITICAL AND CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTIONS IN SHAPING TERRITORIAL INTERESTS IN UZBEKISTAN

This article talks about the mutual cooperation of political and civil society institutions and their importance in the formation of territorial interests in Uzbekistan. Opinions of a number of scientists on the topic are presented.

Portal Project as a Study of Digital Sculpture in the Public Space in the 21st Century

This article examines the effects of digital technologies on art in the 21st century and the transformation of art in the public sphere. After the Internet revolution, significant progress has been made in areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and biotechnology. These technologies have also created significant transformations in art disciplines, offering artists new forms of expression such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive installations. Today, one of the main goals of public art practices, which also use these new forms of expression, is to convey social, cultural, and political messages by reaching large segments of society. Digital art, on the other hand, transforms these practices, offering viewers more interactive, participatory, and innovative experiences. The article discusses how digitalization transforms the social context of art through the discussions of Jürgen Habermas, Hannah Arendt, Henri Lefebvre, and Michel Foucault on the concept of public space. What these theorists have in common is that they emphasize that the public sphere is a central concept for understanding and transforming society's political, social, and cultural structure. While Habermas sees the public sphere as the ground for democratic debates, Arendt considers this space an arena based on the visible actions of individuals. While Lefebvre argues that the public sphere is constantly reproduced by social relations and power dynamics, Foucault, on the other hand, draws attention to how the relations of power and surveillance shape this field. With the approaches of these theorists, it has been tried to associate the redefinition of the public sphere through digitalization and the transformative role of art in this process. In addition, Benediktas Gylys' Portal Project, a public artwork discussed in the axis of all these discussions, aims to strengthen cultural and social ties by combining digital sculpture and relational aesthetics. While the project aims to increase the interaction of different cultures through live video connections between cities, it also raises important ethical questions about surveillance and privacy. In addition, it has been examined that the new forms of expression and interaction methods offered by digital technologies make public spaces more dynamic and democratic and strengthen the role of art in social interactions.

A Critical Overview of the Implementation of Right to Information in Sri Lanka

The Right to Information (RTI) is integral to the concept of democracy today, as it embodies key democratic principles including good governance, transparency, and accountability of public authorities. In Sri Lanka, the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016, introduced through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 2015, stands as a significant initiative within the country's legal framework. Despite being ranked as the world's 4th best mechanism, the practical implementation of Sri Lanka's RTI regime faces several shortcomings even nearly after a decade. Hence, the objective of this research is to critically evaluate the practical application of the Black Letter Law related to the right to information in Sri Lanka. This literature-based qualitative research is a comparative study of jurisdictions. Right to information laws, conventions, legislation, case law, and scholarly publications were used to analyse and identify gaps and propose recommendations based on global best practices to create a robust implementation mechanism for RTI. The study reveals that language barriers, rejection of information on unreasonable grounds, lack of knowledge and awareness, exclusion of NGOs and private organizations from RTI coverage, inadequate media intervention, and misuse of legal provisions are key barriers for coherently executing the right to information in Sri Lanka. Adhering to the principle of maximum disclosure, establishing strong oversight mechanisms, implementing effective records management, fostering supportive political and civil society cultures, and providing training for information officers are recommendations for building a robust RTI mechanism in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka can also gain insights from India to follow innovative approaches for public awareness at grassroots levels. Thus, it can be concluded that despite a strong legal framework, overcoming implementation barriers requires coordinated efforts and close monitoring.

Analysing digital campaigns of nationalist parties in Indonesia through political party tweets

Twitter is the main platform for digital campaigns that influence public opinion. Through Twitter, political parties reach a wider audience to disseminate messages effectively. This research analyses narrative content on social media as a medium for political party campaigns delivered via social media. This research examines the campaign content strategy of nationalist party Twitter accounts in Indonesia. The method used is a qualitative method utilising Quality Data Analysis (QDA) with the help of Nvivo 12 Plus software. Three nationalist party Twitter accounts were taken based on their popularity, particularly @Gerindra, @Nasdem, and @PDI_Perjuangan. The @Gerindra account with 68.1 thousand followers highlights aspects of the party's identity and the figure of Prabowo Subianto. In contrast, the @NasDem account focuses more on party identity, national issues, and active participation in political society. The @PDI_Perjuangan account focuses on the spirit of struggle, the candidacy of Ganjar Pranowo, and the construction of the party's identity and history, with high activity, namely 1219 tweets in three months. The results of the analysis of the content of nationalist party Twitter accounts can provide insight into political party communication strategies in digital campaigns in Indonesia.

Smart Resilience and EU Enlargement Policy

The European Union’s enlargement policy is an ever-changing policy area. Today, its flexibility is illustrated by an ever more diverse set of entry rules. In the half-century since the first round of enlargement, the transposition of thousands of pages of legislation has been accompanied by the harmonisation of laws and the incorporation of other values, along with indicators of economic maturity. In the wake of the first two enlargements, the credibility of the European Union was under threat in the eyes of the political elite and society in the applicant countries, and reforms were introduced to avoid disillusionment. The sluggishness of enlargement in the Western Balkans and the aftermath of recent Russian aggression in Ukraine have redefined the course of enlargement policy with any significant acceleration yet to occur.

Fascism, Anti-Liberalism and Liberalism in Italy

Abstract Anti-liberalism is often highlighted as central to interpretations of fascism. This article discusses the existence of a liberal-fascist current in Italian Fascism. Very active during the first years of the Fascist government, this current was expressed in the pages of the journals La Nuova Politica Liberale, which brought together disciples of the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, and Critica Fascista, an organ of the revisionists led by Giuseppe Bottai. Anti-individualist, anti-naturalist and anti-democratic, this current asserted that the rights of the nation preceded individual rights, that freedom would not exist in a supposed state of nature and would be the creation of a political society. It rejected the opposition between freedom and authority, stating that only a strong and orderly state would allow freedom to occur. Although the existence of a liberal-fascist current does not impugn the predominantly anti-liberal character of Italian Fascism, bringing it to light contributes to a more complex assessment of Italian Fascism, underlining the existence of different intellectual currents, ideological clashes, and political antagonism within the movement.

Does peers' credit behavior affect smallholder farmers’ credit and savings decisions? Evidence from the northern region of Ghana

Access to credit remains a major challenge in developing countries, leading to increased poverty levels and low savings. Despite the importance of social networks and social support systems, the literature has not considered the link between peer credit on one hand and own credit and savings on the other. This paper examines the effect of peer credit on farmers (own) credit and savings using cross-sectional data from 400 farm households in northern Ghana. The study employed a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and the control function approach to identify the network effects. The results show that an increase in the share of farmers’ peers with credit, increases own credit access but leads to a decline in savings. This implies the presence of endogenous effects on credit, but no evidence of contextual effects was found. The results further show some heterogeneities in the effect of peer credit but with diminishing marginal returns to own credit. The study recommends that to promote credit access, financial institutions must focus on farmers with high-network credit. They should also ensure the sustainability of credit among farmers to improve savings. The study underscores the importance of cohesive networks in promoting credit access among farmers, therefore key stakeholders such as the government, religious and traditional authorities as well as political and civil society organizations must collaborate in their efforts to promote social cohesion by minimizing civil disputes and conflicts. This will ensure that farm households in developing communities continue to benefit from social network support.

From Kingdom to Colony: Framing the English Conquest of Ireland

Abstract This article offers a new way of framing the English conquest of Ireland by focusing on the development of a kingdom of Ireland both before and after the invasion of 1169. It thus spans the historiographical divides that tend to partition Irish history at the point of the English invasion, and which also frequently disaggregate the study of British and Irish history. By exploring the complexity of Irish political society and culture before 1169, one can see how King Henry II sought to use its structures to facilitate his annexation of ‘the kingdom of Ireland’ in 1171–2. This included the Church, which offered Henry’s dynasty the ideological support and legitimacy it had once provided for Gaelic kings of Ireland. Paying attention to the numerous references to the ‘kingdom of Ireland’ in the records of the English government also highlights the processes by which Henry’s son John and his successors sought to Anglicise this kingdom by imposing England’s laws, institutions and political culture upon it. Crucially, ultimate control of these structures remained with the administration in England, so in this way Ireland was transformed from a kingdom to a colony. Recognising this liminal period in the development of Anglo-Ireland provides context for the emerging colonial community in Ireland, as well as strategies of resistance and compromise employed by the Gaelic Irish under English rule.