State Hegemony Research Articles

The Origin of Alliances: From Sparta to the EU’s Solidarity Clause

According to the International Relations theory known as Realism, interstate interactions, whether ancient or modern, are motivated by the pursuit of hegemony of individual states, which act as monolithic groups in articulating their foreign policy decisions. The application of Realism to the study of Spartan foreign policy in the third century BC shows the validity of this theory in explaining certain aspects of ancient interstate interactions, as illustrated by the two alliances discussed in this article. The first, earlier alliance, between King of Macedonia Antigonos Gonatas and Sparta and some Peloponnesian cities, was made in response to the threat posed by King Pyrrhus of Epirus who was set on conquering them. The later alliance, between Sparta and other states, was made to stop the ambitions of King Antigonos Gonatas who controlled many cities of the Peloponnese and sought to conquer the whole of Greece. In forging such alliances, according to the Realist view, the states acted as large monolithic groups, yet a broader assessment of the available evidence shows the presence of smaller, subtler networks of individuals, which were paramount in articulating important foreign policy decisions. The comparison of Spartan decision making with the activation in 2009 of the EU’s Solidarity Clause, included in Article 222 of The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), indicates that the activation of this clause too required the consensus of several European governing bodies. By bringing to light the critical role played by smaller networks of power in foreign policy decision making in the ancient and the current-day EU alliances, this article exposes both the merits and the limits of the Realist international relations theory.

A Century of Uneven and Combined Development: The Erosion of United States Hegemony and The Rise of China

The concept of uneven and combined development where the interconnectedness and interactions of different societies shape and combine with their internal structures to drive the evolution of comparative development and power is used to examine the drivers of successive phase of global development in the 100 years since 1917. This concept was coined by left-wing theorist and the Soviet Communist party leader Leo Trotsky with the aim of explaining peculiarities of imperialRussia’s development. Currently it is applied for different cases of political and economic development on the global level. The concept of uneven and combined development allows taking into account both intra-state and extra-state factors, including political regimes evolution, international trade dynamics. Most attention is paid to the drivers of secular economic decline in the United States and the Western world, the way it was tempered by a wave of productive and financial globalization that itself permitted the rise of a number of emerging economies with the economic, political and cultural capacity to exploit latecomer advantage and the way the rise of new powers is leading in the direction of a polycentric multi-civilizational world and a possibly more inclusive model of development. To put it simply, the article addresses political economy of global power shifts and their prospects.

A Century of Uneven and Combined Development: The Erosion of United States Hegemony and The Rise of China

The concept of uneven and combined development where the interconnectedness and interactions of different societies shape and combine with their internal structures to drive the evolution of comparative development and power is used to examine the drivers of successive phase of global development in the 100 years since 1917. This concept was coined by left-wing theorist and the Soviet Communist party leader Leo Trotsky with the aim of explaining peculiarities of imperialRussia’s development. Currently it is applied for different cases of political and economic development on the global level. The concept of uneven and combined development allows taking into account both intra-state and extra-state factors, including political regimes evolution, international trade dynamics. Most attention is paid to the drivers of secular economic decline in the United States and the Western world, the way it was tempered by a wave of productive and financial globalization that itself permitted the rise of a number of emerging economies with the economic, political and cultural capacity to exploit latecomer advantage and the way the rise of new powers is leading in the direction of a polycentric multi-civilizational world and a possibly more inclusive model of development. To put it simply, the article addresses political economy of global power shifts and their prospects.

CONTESTATION OF HEGEMONIES THROUGH PROPAGANDA THEATRE IN POST 2000 ZIMBABWE: THE CASE OF MAD¬ZOKA ZIMBABWE AND THE COUP

This paper discusses the state-) citizen contestations in Zimbabwe and examines the role of theatre in legitimising and/or resisting state hegemonies in the context of the post 2000 Zimbabwean cultural struggle. Using the theory of hegemony, the paper argues that, after ) the repossession of land by the majority of the black population in 2000 and the constitutional referendum held in February 2000, whose “No” vote challenged the hegemonic discourses and patriotic history of the ruling ZANU PF party, what followed was a largely polarised society split between the pro-hegemonic civic society such as ZNLWA on one hand, and an equally vociferous anti-hegemonic civic society that supported the ruling cultural formations (Raftopoulos and Mlambo 2009; Ravengai 2008). The pro-hegemonic(agree) civic society sought to stabilise and legitimise state authority and its discourses on sovereignty, land reform and the removal of sanctions, while counter-state hegemonic actors such as ZimRights agitated for the respect of human rights, constitutionalism and democracy. Individual theatre practitioners took a cue from these opposing civic society bodies and critically dialogued among themselves, thereby creating some form of binaries characterised by those who also sought to stabilise and maintain the prevailing status quo on one hand, and those that resisted and questioned the legitimacy of the prevailing hegemonies on other hand. In this paper, the polarised state of the theatre is represented by two opposing agitational propaganda performances, Madzoka Zimbabwe and The Coup.

Oppression, Solidarity, Resistance: The Forging of Kurdish Identity in Turkey

This paper examines the intersection of oppression and Kurdish resistance to the state in Turkey and the impacts these have on the formation of ethnic identity amongst the Kurds of Diyarbakır. It examines how repressive state measures imposed upon the Kurds, ostensibly to crush the PKK, rallied Kurdish political sentiment such that resistance to state hegemony expanded to encompass a much broader ‘popular resistance’. Resistance by ‘everyday’ Kurds to what they perceive as hegemonic projects, whether instigated by Kemalists or the AKP, continues to forge internal cohesion and highlight their differences from the majority Turks. In this way, resistance becomes a central pillar of Kurdish identity.

The 2015 general elections in Nigeria: new media, party politics and the political economy of voting

SUMMARYThis Briefing argues that social media evidently did not provide the platforms for democratic struggles and the transformation of the political economy of voting during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. Arguably, only the trade union movements such as the Nigerian Labour Congress formed a vibrant vanguard for democratic struggles challenging neoliberal policy and state hegemony.

Subaltern Voices/Interests in Contemporary Protest Theatre in Zimbabwe

Critics contend that Zimbabwe plunged into a political and economic crisis between 1999 and 2009. This decade in crisis witnessed a boom in a form of theatre that questions the authority and legitimacy of the state (Zenenga 2010). This theatre is highly adversarial and oppositional to state hegemony (Chivandikwa 2012). This brand of theatre, known as protest theatre, refers to a theatre that directs its efforts towards the subversion of an existing dominant ideology. In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere, protest theatre develops as an alternative platform through which citizens challenge and engage the state on issues of democratic reforms. Protest theatre, thus, aims to provide alternative democratic space (public sphere) where voices that the state-controlled media silenced can deliberate on issues of social and political transformation. Hence, from its inception, protest theatre predicates its practice upon democratic ‘ intentions.

A Dialogic Approach to Alien Movies

Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, this paper introduces a dialogic approach that draws attention to how meaning is created by viewer responses to social texts. Focusing on the depiction of aliens in popular films, this paper analyzes different representations of aliens and viewer responses to those depictions. The Avengers (2012) draws on traditional geopolitical understandings of United States hegemony to create its fictional Marvel Universe. Avatar (2009) and District 9 (2009) feature strikingly different transformations of the protagonist into the alien other. As mediascapes become increasingly fractured, popular geopolitics and related fields will benefit from engaging more closely with the diversity of viewer responses.

War and Resentment: Critical Reflections on the Legacies of the Iran-Iraq War

During the challenging transitional period after the 1979 revolution, the Iran-Iraq War helped the Islamic Republic to consolidate its hold on power by creating new institutions of coercion and governance, mobilizing popular support, and eliminating domestic rivals. Despite the state becoming entrenched, the political elite and Iranian society both remain highly divided over the legacy of the war and the nature and the direction of the post-revolution and post-war project. The popular aspirations that were unleashed during the revolution were incorporated into the war experience, but they remain unfulfilled and are a major factor that shape public culture and political practices. This discontent is compounded by the shortcomings of authoritarian and ill-conceived post-war reconstruction, especially in war-torn regions. The imposition of an official interpretation of the ‘Sacred Defense’ effectively silences plural experiences of the war and alternative and more critical analyses of it. As a result, instead of acting as a unifying experience that reinforces state hegemony, the legacy of the war is a widespread resentment that affects public culture and political attitudes. This article investigates the conflicted legacies of the Iran-Iraq War by using case studies from historical and ethnographic research, as well as professional experiences (Much of the analysis in this article is based on the author’s academic research and professional experience in Iran during extended intervals since 1989. These include ethnographic research and professional work as a regional planner on post-war reconstruction in rural Khuzestan; ongoing historical and ethnographic research on the refinery city of Abadan; urban research and consulting collaboration with the Tehran City Council and other urban institutions; and ongoing editorial collaboration with the journal Goftogu in Tehran).

The insufficient imagery of top-down, bottom-up in global movements analysis

Scholars have shown various ways in which new types of transnational interdependence influence conflicts and resistance. Conventional conceptualization often depicts movements as emerging from the ‘bottom-up’ efforts of distinctive, individual collectives to challenge the ‘top-down’ hegemony of bureaucratic states, multinational corporations, and some international civil society organizations. But globalization scholars, and particularly those developing a framework of world society studies, place interactions among different levels of action and orientation at the center of conflict analysis and show how mobilization and change occurs across complex, interdependent relationships. In this article, I interrogate the different and often contradictory ways that dimensions of mobilization and social change are commonly denoted in this usage. I then explore alternative global theoretical frameworks that give greater explanatory power to the dynamic global–local interface. To move beyond the constraints of binary thinking in global movements analysis, I suggest that future scholarship clearly specify significant attributes of mobilization, identify how attributes vary and co-mingle, and locate social processes among a host of global–local relationships.

Growth and Distribution Regimes in India after Independence

The Indian economy has witnessed four qualitatively different regimes of capitalist growth and distribution since independence. The first two regimes in the period (1951–80) operated under the hegemony of the Indian state, the third one under the mixed hegemony of the state and private capital (1980–91), and the last one under the hegemony of private capital (1991–2012). These four regimes are associated with very different growth and distributional dynamics, roles of the state, and ended with crises of diverse kinds that then ushered in new regimes. This paper attempts to show how Indian political economic history after independence is a patchwork of periods of short-lived stability that were in turn shaped and produced by various crises and contingencies. It is certainly the case that through this entire period, even as economic growth was achieved, there was an unmistakable emergence of private capital and professional classes as the dominant (without being hegemonic) classes that have become adept at using markets and the state to further their own interests. The authors argue that this dominance itself has come about through a series of contingent outcomes.

Way Out West

Western Australia, like Tasmania, can slip too easily off the map, a periphery on the periphery, its significance occluded by the hegemony of the eastern states of Australia. Yet Western Australia is core to Australia’s economy, not least through mining, and through its proximity to Asia. The West is itself connected more closely to region, in both the local and transnational senses. Its tradition of secessionist thinking indicates a kind of exceptionalist culture. This is a difference which begs for explanation. This essay introduces some motifs and themes of this special issue of Thesis Eleven, entitled ‘Way Out West: Mapping Western Australia’. It locates the West in some recent historical, geographical and narrative context. It gestures toward the biography of its editors, Jon Stratton and Peter Beilharz, and their locations spread across the west and east of the continent. It calls for further scrutiny of these, and other antipodes.

Dreams and Nightmares of Liberal International Law: Capitalist Accumulation, Natural Rights and State Hegemony

This article develops a line of theorising the relationship between peace, war and commerce and does so via conceptualising global juridical relations as a site of contestation over questions of economic and social justice. By sketching aspects of a historical interaction between capitalist accumulation, natural rights and state hegemony, the article offers a critical account of the limits of liberal international law, and attempts to recover some ground for thinking about the emancipatory potential of international law more generally.

Negotiating the Struggle for Justice: Negotiation and Communication Practices of Selected Families of Media Killings

This qualitative study inquires into the negotiation styles and counter-hegemonic communication practices employed by the families of media killings in their pursuit of justice. Anchored on the analytical concepts of Gramscian hegemony and resistance, the study reveals the dominant negotiation styles utilized by the families and how these styles, first and foremost, manifest the families’ need to be recognized as victims of injustice and impunity especially by the institutions of state power, and secondly, reflect their own power to resist the prevailing state hegemony in the context of negotiation.

A critical approach to discipline of human geography as an apparatus for state hegemony in Turkey

This study examines the hegemony of political power on the discipline of human geography in Turkey. Throughout the history of the country, human geography curricula have been aligned with the nationalist and hegemonic power politics of state authorities instead of being guided by universal norms, thus ignoring Turkey’s sociopolitical and cultural geography. This is reflected in the contents of human geography text books at the high school and college level. Similarly, the subjects of articles that have appeared in the 12 academic geography journals published in Turkey within the last 71 years also support this claim. The intervention of political power in the academic identity of human geography and the efforts to align human geography curricula with a certain ideological view have resulted in the emergence of apolitical geographers, who remain deaf and blind to social issues. This study analyzes the negative features of human geography education curricula and their political implications in Turkey, and proposes several recommendations.

The Polish-Ukrainian Conflict of 1918–1919 in the Context of the Rise of the Versailles System

The article studies the process of peace settlement of the war in Eastern Galicia between 1918 and 1919. The author conducts a comparative analysis of the policy of Poland and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic meant to legitimate power in the disputed region. He also studies the mediation initiative of the Entente and the conflict settlement process during the peace conference in Paris, revealing the motives of the parties’ actions. With reference to a particular example, the article mainly aims to prove that the idea of law and justice was degrading and failing due to the hegemony of western states that assumed the role of world arbiters following the defeat of the German-Austrian alliance. This status let them ignore the principles of international relations and take decisions relying on geopolitical motives and their own imperialist interests. The analysis is made with reference to archival and published sources, i.e. texts of international treaties, minutes of the Supreme War Council’s meetings, diplomatic correspondence, reports of povit commissars of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, appeals on behalf of the Polish population of Galicia, etc. Additionally, the author takes into account the achievements of modern historiography relating to the issue in question in the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and English languages.

Turkish Foreign Policy under the AKP Government: The Failed Hegemony of a Pivotal State

Turkish Foreign Policy under the AKP Government: The Failed Hegemony of a Pivotal State

Towards State Hegemony Over Agricultural Certification: From Voluntary Private to Mandatory State Regimes on Palm Oil in Indonesia

Previous work on certification of palm oil has reported on a trend toward a change, from failed state regulation to voluntary, private governance. However, recent observations suggest a trend, moving from voluntary, private governance to mandatory state governance in palm oil certification in Indonesia, a move in which the state is reclaiming authority. In this light, the aims of our research are (1) to identify the main actors involved in certification politics, (2) to explain this trend in terms of the actors' interests and whatever benefits may result for them. We developed our research questions based on bureaucratic politics and power theory. A mix of document analysis, interviews, and observations are applied for addressing the questions. The results answer our research questions, i.e., that (1) the state claims back its authority over certification from private actors and contributed to the complex meta governance of palm oil certification, the state mandatory scheme that is supported by states' bureaucracies in charge reduces the influence of non-government or private actors. (2) This trend is due to a coalition of specific state bureaucracies and big industry interests, which grant privileges to industry that are denied to small producers. Unexpectedly, all Indonesian bureaucracies associated with this trend support mandatory state certification, which indicates that palm oil has been elevated in importance to become a matter of national, rather than mere bureaucratic interest. Making certification mandatory through coercive regulatory power is the main tool with which state power can challenge voluntary implementation and reclaim authority. Furthermore, the state needs the voluntary system to exist as well in order to strengthen its position. Therefore, the voluntary and the compulsory systems collaborate to attract global initiatives, which is contributing to the high complex of meta governance.

FROM 1984 TO BIRCH: THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL AND TRADITIONAL ARTS/GAMES IN THE PLAYS OF KEE THUAN CHYE

Malaysian playwright Kee Thuan Chye's plays such as 1984 Here and Now, The Big Purge and We Could **** You, Mr. Birch have always placed Malaysian politics as their centre stage discourse. Through his plays, Kee provides an intimate glimpse of Malaysian politics and the individual who struggles to make meaning out of the drudgery of the power struggle between the state and the individual. While Kee's focus, as Gilbert and Lo suggest in their 'Introduction to 1984 Here and Now', has been on how 'existing hegemonic power structures perpetuate gross inequalities in the Malaysian society', he has also touched on the social relations between communal groups that were discriminated against by race-based policies of the National Economic Policy (NEP). This paper takes a deeper look at the meaning of cultural/traditional recreational activities depicted in three of Kee's political plays, arguing that activities are not mere social activities but a manifestation of a deeper network of symbolisms and the politics of representation and dissent against the hegemony of the political state.

‘I am a paramount chief, this land belongs to my ancestors’: the reconfiguration of rural authority after Zimbabwe's land reforms

This article explores the reconfiguration of rural authority in the aftermath of Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform Programme, particularly the way the programme has allowed local chiefs to deploy ancestral autochthony as a way of contesting state hegemony over the countryside. It argues that chiefs cannot simply be viewed as undemocratic remnants of colonial rule; instead, a nuanced understanding of their role in rural governance is required.