Political Technology Research Articles

Saul Alinsky in the podcast «House of Cards»

Historian Dmitry Peretolchin quotes several of my publications on the creation and application of political technologies in the United States in his program about Saul Alinsky on the House of Cards podcast on the Den TV channel. An advertisement for the conference "Russian World Against the Global Reich" was inserted into this broadcast. This article: analyzes the statements of the podcast about Alinsky and his main ideas; showes that the main source of Alinsky's political technologies is the experience of professional revolutionaries in Russia and that they in no way confirm the idea of a global Reich; describes the political technology that Alexander Prokhanov and his media complex uses to implement the Fifth Empire project, which is currently merged with the ideology of the Russian World; analyzes the ideological orientation of the House of Cards podcast and the Picture of the World club on the Den channel. The articles illustrates how the authors of the podcast are working to substantiate the propaganda direction of the media complex. The article also aims to show that political technologies, in particular, technologies of co-organization continue to develop and be implemented in countries with different political systems and can be applied to various types of social movements.

Political Administration VS Political Competition Under Neo-Authoritarian Rule

The article discusses the replacement of political competition with political administration in order to maintain the power of the ruling political actors and ensure the tenure of the ruling regime under neo-authoritarian rule in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The administration of all key arenas of the political sphere is implemented through special political technologies and informal practices of political corruption. A pseudo-multiparty system with a dominating ruling party is being constructed in the party-political arena. In the media arena, the most influential mass media are being “nationalized”. In the arena of personnel, through political nepotism, adherents of the ruling regime are placed in key political and administrative positions of public power. In the electoral arena, the institution of elections is transformed into a procedure for the formation of public authorities by manipulating the voting procedures. In the legislative arena, the ruling party provides political administration of legislative and parliamentary activities in general. In the judicial arena, through the administrative regulation of the judiciary personnel, the judicial system is integrated into a single system of neo-authoritarian rule aimed at providing judicial protection for the ruling regime from the discontent of the citizens and using courts for political purposes. To demonstrate the appearance of democratic legitimacy, all neo-authoritarian regimes imitate the work of the basic institutions of democracy.

Precedent name: from the source spheres “literature” and “cinema” in the target sphere “political discourse” (based on the material of the Spanish-language media)

The article is devoted to the consideration of the metaphorical use of precedent names from the source spheres “literature” and “cinema” in the political discourse of modern Spanish-language mass media. The names of heroes of ancient mythology, works of classical Spanish and foreign literature, including children’s literature, as well as movie characters, carriers of certain qualities and properties, are widely used as precedents. As a result of the study, the grounds for metaphorical transfer from the named source spheres to the target sphere are established. The function of precedent names is also revealed not only as actualizers of the precedent situation, but also as a means of characterization of political opponents in the sphere of political discourse in the context of the struggle of political forces for the possession, preservation and disposal of power. The modern political discourse of the Spanish-language media as an arena of political confrontation is characterized by intolerance, agonality, the “language of hostility” marking opponents as “alien” in the “friend”– “alien” binary opposition with the predominance of discrediting characterization of political opponents aimed at debunking claims to leadership of a politician, demonstrating his incompetence and hanging labels. In the context of the language game, precedent names are used as a metaphorical definition of the names of current politicians. For characterization, precedent names are taken with both negative and positive connotations, but imparting a negative connotation to the object of characterization due to the emerging phenomenon of enantiosemia when using them as a metaphorical definition of proper names. Thanks to the atmosphere of the language game created in journalistic texts by means of well-known precedent names from works of mass culture, through the game connection of the name of a politician with the precedent name of a characteristic hero, such texts acquire the property of information and entertainment journalism, they implement the pragmatic function of precedent names aimed at manipulating the addressee, at encouraging him to act for the purposes of one political actor or another, and a sign of political technologies is revealed with full evidence of the author’s intentions.

PENGGUNAAN WEBSITE APPSHEET SEBAGAI TEMU BALIK ARSIP INAKTIF FOTO DI DINAS PERPUSTAKAAN DAN KEARSIPAN KABUPATEN PONOROGO

<p><em>Information is an important part of communication between individuals and groups. Information is closely related to archive search. Archive searching is an important part of archive editing because searching allows researchers to find important information in archives. Based on the results of an archive search survey at one of the archival institutions, namely the Ponorogo Regency Library and Archives Service, archive searches are still limited through Microsoft Excel and there are no other innovations. Seeing current technological developments, researchers offer solutions for searching archives through the AppSheet website at the Ponorogo Regency Library and Archives Service. The purpose of this study, among others, is to find out how to use the AppSheet website, use the AppSheet website in related agencies, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the AppSheet website. The research method in this study is a qualitative method through interviews and observation. The informants in this study were 4 archivists in related agencies. The results of the study show that how to use the AppSheet website consists of 22 steps. How to use the AppSheet website in related agencies include: 1) The features provided are quite easy to use. 2) Retrieval components that are fulfilled include: users, queries, documents, and matching. 3) The description is complete. 4) The retrieval step is quite easy. 5) Available metadata include: processing unit, file number, file number, description of archive information, time period, and amount. 6) Obstacles in the operation of the AppSheet website as a retrieval of inactive photo archives so far not all users can access and cannot be operated offline. 7) The solution for operating the AppSheet website as a retrieval of inactive photo archives is that later users who really need access to these inactive photo archives will be allowed to view them to get information to support their final thesis or assignment. In addition, active photos need to be placed on a flash disk to back up data. 8) There is no comparison with other applications. 9) Criticism and suggestions follow technology and regulatory developments in politics and law and features are added. Disadvantages of the AppSheet website include: users must understand technology and need to share links so that other users can access them. The advantages: increasing efficiency, effectiveness, presentation of information, when it is static it can be accessed by the public.</em></p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: Inactive Photo Archive Retrieval, AppSheet Website, Ponorogo District Library and Archives Service.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p><em> </em></p>

"Soft power", "color revolution" and "hybrid war": public diplomacy vs political technology

"Color revolutions" are a form of "hybrid war" unleashed by the global hegemon against uncontrolled states in order to maintain its dominance in the world. Today they are becoming the main destabilizing factor both for a single nation and for the system of international relations as a whole. A comparative analysis of the "color revolutions" since the collapse of the USSR allows us to conclude that the theses spread by Western propaganda about the positive impact of the "soft power" on the "progress of democracy" are unfounded. Despite the presence of real socio-economic diffi culties and the so-called "protest potential” in the impacted countries "color revolutions" are primarily staged and controlled from abroad. As a rule, the main object of infl uence in the preparation of "color revolutions" are traditional family values, historical memory and the country's top political leadership as a guarantor of national sovereignty. The key actors of color revolutions are foreign-funded NGOs and the media which broadcast values and meanings alien to national self-consciousness into the information space and also “heat up” protest relations in the society. The point of application to seize control within the "color revolution" is the election of the country's national leadership or referendums on socially signifi cant issues. Accordingly, the most crucial task of sovereign states is to protect the electoral process from external interference, the spread of false information about elections and their discredit. An important factor in protecting the electoral rights of citizens and legitimizing state power is public observation of voting. Tools and resources of “soft power” are underestimated and poorly used by the post-Soviet states to defend national interests, protect the sovereign choice of the people and counteract attempts of external interference into domestic political processes. Promising directions for expanding infl uence on international relations are concentrated in the information, communication and political fi eld of the Internet which is still a territory of relative legal “freedom”. Among the main areas of protection "information sovereignty" are the following: expansion of Russian jurisdiction to representative offi ces of foreign IT platforms operating within the Russian Federation, development of media literacy and critical thinking of citizens, the need for constant refutation of "fakes", introduction of special programs that can recognize them and determine their distributors, prohibition of anonymity in social media, increasing legal liability for the production and distribution of "fakes".

Credibility Perceptions of Online Political News Among Bangladeshi Millennials Residing in the Capital

With the expansion of political technology, newsrooms are now escaping borders by introducing cloud-based news broadcasting platforms right to people's fingertips, and concerns regarding the legitimacy of these internet political news sources are simultaneously emerging. Since the millennials had the opportunity to get the essence of both the mainstream and the digital media outlets, the primary objective of this study is to investigate and examine the perceptions of Bangladeshi millennials regarding the credibility of digital political news coverage and the content they convey. A structured questionnaire survey been used for this study as primary data sources. The study found that, although the mainstream dynamic political news media outlets have wider-spread popularity, the millennials of Bangladesh find that the newly emerged online mediums are more credible for receiving political news.

The Many Nationalities of Tamara Khanum: Friendship of the Peoples at Home, Abroad, and Within

AbstractInspired by scholarship on empire and historical biography, this article examines the life of Soviet entertainer Tamara Khanum (1906–91) and her formation as a socialist intermediary. First, it considers how an ethnic Armenian born in the Uzbek SSR came to represent an image of liberated Eastern femininity to domestic audiences. Then it considers her genre of song, dance, and costume of various nationalities as a technology of Soviet cultural politics, suited to mediate interethnic harmony at home and as a weapon of Cold War cultural diplomacy. It proposes her genre as a linking strand between various eras of Soviet internationalism, helping to define a distinctive emotional dimension to Soviet Central Asia’s role as model for the Third World. Integrating autobiographical, biographical, and archival sources, the article contends that one of the byproducts of a career spent facilitating interethnic connection was Khanum’s adoption of firm but heterodox convictions on nationality and the Soviet doctrine of Friendship of the Peoples.

VERBAL WAYS AND MEANS OF MANIPULATIVE EFFECT IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE REPUBLICANS ABOUT THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

The article deals with investigating the speech ways of the realization of a manipulative effect in the discourse of the Republicans about the Russian-Ukrainian war.
 The intensive development of political technologies, ever-increasing role of mass media, the acuteness of the problem of language manipulative potential encourage the increase in attention of society to the theory and practice of usage of special ways which favour the realization of the political discourse main functions. The defining feature of political discourse is struggle for power, which provides for bringing the greatest possible number of supporters to their side, that is why the subjects of politics should create such a discursive reality which would meet the needs, interests and expectations of their audience. Description is not an aim of political discourse, its aim is to persuade a recipient, arouse certain intentions and induce to act.
 Political activity has a lot of manifestations, and one of them is war. So, war is part of politics and, respectively, accepts all its features and characteristics. We consider that war discourse is an integral component of political discourse. Discourse of the militaries about war, discourse of politicians about war, discourse of mass media which highlights military operations are classified as war It’s a well-known fact that war is a continuation of politics with the help of violent means and is connected with the shift of relationships between the subjects of politics. So, it is obvious that the war discourse of the aggressor state politicians as well as the discourse of the states which are the allies of the aggressor state and of those who are interested in waging this war are unduly manipulative.
 Any manipulation is realized by using the certain speech means in particular by speech effect.
 Speech effect is the use of the peculiarities of the language system and functioning which have an increased capability of the effect on the consciousness and conduct of the recipient or recipients of a message.
 American politicians, the representatives of the Republican party, use the following lingual ways and means to realize the manipulative effect on the audience in their discourse about the Russian-Ukrainian war: "labelling", stereotypes, comparisons, repeats, coinages, suppression of information which appears in concealing the certain topics or in their partial presentation.

Cooperative Rule: Community Development in Britain’s Late Empire. By Aaron Windel

In this impressive first monograph, Aaron Windel makes the case for seeing agricultural cooperatives as a political technology central to British colonial rule and its ends in Asia and Africa. He casts colonial cooperative societies as tools of political control and economic integration, but ones that were in many cases appropriated and subverted by the colonized. Writing with verve, clarity, and care, Windel makes this argument by drawing together diverse contexts from the British colonies, to Britain itself, and the Deep South of the USA. He demonstrates that the cooperative institutional form made possible not only the further encroachment of the global market forces on colonial agricultural economies, but also the rise of anti-colonial organizations such as the Kenya African National Union and the Uganda National Congress in the late colonial period. This engaging argument unfolds across five substantive chapters, which cover a timeframe that begins in the late nineteenth century and ends in the 1960s. Chapter 1 details the emergence of colonial cooperativism as a much-hyped official project of Indian character reformation amid the crisis of colonial capitalism on the anti-colonial frontlines in Punjab. It also traces the transfer of cooperatives and their legislation to colonial Malaya, Zanzibar, Tanganyika, and Kenya, focusing on the role of cooperative evangelist-expert Claude Strickland. Chapter 2 is concerned with the contribution missionaries made to folding cooperatives into inter-war community development in the British Empire, as part of the ‘social gospel’ influenced by US rural sociology.

ESCHATOLOGY AND ESCHATOLOGICAL METANARRATIVE AS A KEY POLITICAL TECHNOLOGY AND SOURCE OF LEGITIMATION OF POWER

The article introduces the analysis of eschatological metanarrative as political technology and aims to give a comprehensive account of its presence in variety of discourses. The main objective of the present inquiry was to explore the eschatological meta

InterFaces: On the relationality of vision, face and race in practices of identification. A multimodal intervention.

This article problematizes vision in practices of identification. It draws on the metaphor of the 'interface' to emphasize that vision emerges 'in between' eyes, faces, bodies, objects and ideas of belonging and otherness. As such, vision can be a material and political technology that enacts certain people as racial others. To attend to the materiality and politics of vision and its messy relationship with race, I bring together three European stories in which faces are drawn, seen or identified, while race hides or surfaces in intriguing ways. Through these stories we learn that race is saturated with affect and is recalled in objects and bodies. In addition, this article offers a novel methodological approach. It employs the eyes of the reader not only to read but also to watch. Vision itself becomes a technology, this time not to produce or reinforce, but to disturb and perhaps even undo ideas of racial otherness. Through the use of experimental montage, I attend to the complexities and incongruities of seeing faces and race without settling on a single narrative. I actively engage the eyes of the viewer to argue that vision is always relational and partial and therefore, it can also be harnessed to undo racial otherness by fragmenting, multiplying and affecting.

Operation “Ryanair”

Aim. To reveal the essence, content, goals, objectives and methods of the special operation of the American special services related to the emergency landing of a Ryanair aircraft at the airport in Minsk, as a result of which the KGB of the Republic of Belarus detained oppositionists R. Protasevich and S. Sapega.Methodology. The study was carried out using the methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization and interpretation of the results.Results. It has been established that, in terms of its scheme and manner of execution, the “Ryanair case” is identical to the operation “Doping Scandal with WADA” carried out by the US intelligence agencies against the Russian Federation in 2015–2018. The goal of the Ryanair operation is the same as in the WADA scandal: make those who were repeatedly caught in a lie admit the allegations on all counts; the form of the operation is an operational experiment (provocation). Thus, the Ryanair operation is a combination of techniques, methods and tricks previously worked out by US intelligence in a whole series of operations against the Russian Federation.Research implications. Information about the latest forms and methods of organizing and conducting information operations, such as Operation Ryanair (carried out by the US intelligence agencies against Belarus), can be used in the work of state bodies responsible for organizing a systemic counteraction to informational aggression by foreign states, and will also be of use to political scientists, political technologists and specialists in counteracting destructive political technologies.

РЕВОЛЮЦИИ И «ЦВЕТНЫЕ РЕВОЛЮЦИИ»: ОБЩЕЕ И ОСОБЕННОЕ

Color revolution is a term introduced and used by the mass media since around 2004 to describe various anti-regime protest movements and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in post-Soviet territory during late 20th — early 21st centuries. It should be noted that use of this term in the present-date media or official political discourse is not limited by the CIS region. Color revolutions that have become one of the most prominent political phenomena of the new millennium having affected many regions worldwide are not only a part of history, but also a material for active scientific reflection of the researchers and public persons in respect of preconditions and underlying causes of such phenomena, which problem becomes ever more topical in the modern world, whereas the so-called “forced democratization” with massive involvement of the up-to-date political technologies and techniques for achievement of the set goals serves as the pretext for interference into interior affairs of the sovereign states. Given that this concept is moving beyond the 21st century and it is possible to project it to somewhat earlier events, we may put a predictable question as to what exactly we mean by the “color revolution”, and in which way any given public unrest and power shift may be added to this group. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the patterns of the studied phenomenon related to destabilization of political environment in the country, explore its main signs and implementation models, specific aspects of the protest movement and power struggle. The article analyzes the theoretical concept of “color revolutions”, investigates whether it is reasonable to consider them as revolutions per se, reviews the new coup technologies in the modern political practices, and identifies their driving forces and mechanisms.

An intolerable burden: Racist territoriality in theUnited StatesSupreme Court's Insular Cases

AbstractThe Insular Cases are a set of early twentieth‐century US Supreme Court cases establishing the legal relationship between the United States and its territorial acquisitions. The Insular Cases have received limited scholarly attention in geography, despite their integral role in continuing to deny full constitutional protections to over 3.5 million American citizens and nationals. Informed by conceptualisations of territory as both process and political technology, political geography offers a critical lens through which to interpret the spatial implications of the Insular Cases. This article conducts a discourse analysis of the Insular Cases, tracing the US Supreme Court's creation of incorporated and unincorporated territorial statuses as they are positioned within contemporaneous racist logic and international norms. I argue that, by inventing differentiated categories of territory, the Insular Cases sought to spatially accommodate white supremacist imaginaries. This paper advances political geography by centring the judicial production of American territorial categories, and adds a geographic perspective to existing literature that interrogates the white supremacist, imperialist source of territorial status today.

Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan

Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan

Political myth design as a technology for mass consciousness manipulation

In this article, the authors consider political myth design as a political technology to manipulate and control mass consciousness and unconsciousness with the mass media. The reasons to use the myth design in politics are systematized and the principles under which the political myth design result is formed are emphasized. The features and reasons to use this technology in politics are highlighted, and a number of principles are given, according to which a political myth design constructs the necessary information and ideological result. Theoretical provisions are analyzed and systematized and the practical methods of myth design in politics are described in the article. The main ways to use myths in politics are structured. The paper focuses on the mythological techniques actively used in political myth designing, and on the three main practical tasks of political myth design. The research conducted makes it possible to define a political myth as a result of political myth design, which can be described as a socio-cultural technology for the development of modern myths perceived by the «political result» consumers as the reality of their worldview. This technology uses archetypes, storylines, heroes, and other elements of traditional mythology when creating, disseminating, and transmitting various mass messages, including political communication in the media reality.

NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR THE UKRAINIAN POLITICIAN IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ECONOMY OF UKRAINE

The article is devoted to the study of the modern political system of Ukraine and changes in the requirements for it in the conditions of the post-war reconstruction, which awaits our state. The ethical side of native political activity is studied; the «distorted» needs of politicians, who do not follow ethical norms, are presented in comparison with the pyramid of the human needs developed by A. Maslow (the dominant need for power as a means of satisfying of one’s own interests, which replaces the needs for respect and self-realization). It is substantiated that the task of the political community is to implement the interests of the society through the exercise of power, however, in practice, the values that Ukrainians consider basic (justice, human rights) are not always dominant in the activities of politicians. The results of a survey of the population regarding their understanding of patriotism, which was conducted in 2019, are shown, and it is substantiated that today new demands are placed on its essence and implementation by politicians directly. As the last elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held in peacetime with the use of «dirty» political technologies, today there is a significant number of deputies in the parliament who are not patriots of the state, there is a need to take this virtue into account in the future election process. The volume and structure of state budget expenditures for the maintenance of the Verkhovna Rada were studied, which grew unreasonably every year without a visible improvement in the performance of the deputies’ professional duties. The phenomenon of corruption in government bodies is studied, the dynamics of the Corruption Perception Index in Ukraine is presented, which is one of the lowest and is almost three times inferior to the indicators of developed European countries (Germany, Denmark). The level of integrity of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 8th convocation and their specific manifestations of dishonesty are reflected. The importance of the professionalism of representatives of the highest authorities of Ukraine in the conditions of post-war reconstruction is substantiated. The analysis of the professional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation showed an insufficient number of economists, financiers, scientists among parliamentarians, who are necessary for making important decisions in the process of rebuilding the economy. A portrait of a «reference» politician has been developed, which should have a set of professional knowledge, competencies, as well as such personal qualities as patriotism and integrity.

La Chine : un défi des Lumières techniciennes

A vast circulation of technical knowledge between China and Europe happened during the 18th century. While the circulation of knowledge is well known in the scientific field, it is still little studied in the technical field. Yet Chinese inventions « heritage » (printing, gunpowder, compass, etc.) has long been a received idea and the « transfer » of techniques has been the subject of many simplified accounts. The article analyzes to the complexity of the processes of knowledge circulation and highlights how the kingdom of France organized a huge accumulation of Chinese technical knowledge during the 18th century. It turned China into a central element of the « political technology » of the Enlightenment.

Political technologies and propaganda in the context of global revolutionary transformations

Political technologies and propaganda in the context of global revolutionary transformations

Pojęcie technologii w dyskursach polskiej Lewicy, Centrum i Prawicy . Analiza posiedzeń Komisji Cyfryzacji, Innowacyjności i Nowych Technologii w świetle krytycznej analizy dyskursu E. Laclaua i Ch. Mouffe

This study emphasizes the often overlooked role of technology in Polish politics and aims to analyse its interaction with the ideological stances of the parliamentary Left, Right, and Center. Drawing on the critical discourse analysis framework of E. Laclau and Ch. Mouffe, the authors argue for a reevaluation of the concept of ‘technology’ and its implications. They demonstrate how this redefinition significantly impacts the preferred model of state intervention in technology regulation within specific political contexts. To achieve this, the researchers thoroughly examined transcripts from the deliberations of the Committee on Digitization, Innovations, and New Technologies during the 9th term of the Sejm. This text serves as an introductory overview, laying the groundwork for a more extensive exploration of the intricate relationship between technology and politics. The combination of critical discourse analysis and thematic content analysis proves to be a valuable research approach for this endeavour.