Traditional Political Institutions Research Articles

The Development of the Berliner as a Political Person under the Influence of the Urban Cultural Environment

Introduction. The article explores the reasons for the emergence of ethnic diversity in the city of Berlin, encompassing political, historical, geographical, anthropological, and sociological aspects of the urban environment. It also outlines the current issues in German society that shape the political culture of its people. The relevance of the topic is driven by the political radicalization of migrants in Germany, particularly in Berlin, resulting from cultural globalization that impacts traditional political institutions and behavioral models of the city's residents. The crisis of the liberal-democratic model and the increase in the number of Eurosceptics also play a significant role in the transformation of the political culture of contemporary Berliners. Solving the problem of political radicalization of migrants is equally important for the Russian Federation, especially in St. Petersburg, combining characteristics of the European urban environment and the polyethnic Russian state, whose residents consider themselves Russians despite national and cultural differences. Methodology and sources. The research is grounded in Ernest Burgess's model of concentric zones. The study relies on research methods such as synthesis, comparison, analysis, and sociological approaches. Data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the results of the 2016 elections to the Berlin House of Deputies, the 2021 elections, and the subsequent 2023 elections, historical data, and findings from other researchers on the topic served as sources for the study. Results and discussion. The study identifies features of urban culture shaping the polyethnic Berlin society, including the ethnic diversity of residents, unique self-identification of Berliners, the presence of distinct urban districts, squatter movements, and the influence of architectural and spatial characteristics on the formation of human social behavior. Some city problems were also highlighted, such as the crisis of formation of a distorted perception of right and left currents among Berliners, the failure of multiculturalism policies, the migration crisis, and housing shortages. Conclusion. The development of a Berliner as a political being is influenced by the characteristics of the urban environment and certain issues facing the city, where the residential district, properties of the city's political culture, and ethnic background impact the political views of its inhabitants

Rising Populism in Global Politics: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Solutions

This article delves into the phenomenon of rising populism in global politics, offering a comprehensive examination of its causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Populism, characterized by its appeal to the sentiments and concerns of ordinary citizens, has gained significant traction in various regions around the world. By exploring the underlying drivers, such as economic inequality, cultural shifts, and the erosion of trust in traditional political institutions, we aim to shed light on the roots of this trend. Furthermore, we analyze the far-reaching consequences of populism, including its impact on democratic norms, international relations, and policy outcomes. Lastly, this article outlines potential strategies and solutions for addressing the challenges posed by populism, emphasizing the importance of fostering inclusive political discourse, reinforcing democratic institutions, and promoting evidence-based policymaking. In an era marked by populist surges, this research provides valuable insights for policymakers, scholars, and citizens alike, aiming to contribute to a more informed and constructive dialogue on the future of global politics.

Life Dedicated to Africa

In 2023, the eldest Russian scholar in the field of African Studies R.N. Ismagilova celebrated her 95th birthday. For the past 73 years her life has been dedicated to studying and researching of diverse social, cultural, ethnic and political processes evolving in Africa. She is the author of an impressive number of academic books and other fundamental research materials, on both individual African countries and the problems characteristic for the region as a whole. As a social anthropologist, Prof. R.N. Ismagilova, DSc, currently focuses her attention on the analysis of ethnic problems as well as on the issues relating to the functioning of traditional political and sociocultural institutions and their role in modern society, in particular, in the aspect of conflict resolution.

Being a master of metaphors

Being a master of metaphors

“Digital Leviathan”: Scenarios for the Development of the Hobbesian Monster in the 21st Century

In the research, the Hobbesian concept of “Leviathan” is used as a metaphor and a “heuristic scheme” describing the change of epochs and the formation of a new universal scale for innovative forms of socio-political organization. The subject of the research is the phenomenon of digitalization, as well as key changes caused by the digital transformation of public policy and power relations. “Digitalization” is considered as an ambiguous and multilevel phenomenon, reflecting a whole series of cardinal transformations in the sociopolitical life of society, which at the ideological, institutional, instrumental, technological and praxiological levels “clears space” for new forms of social organization. Аrgues that currently there is an acute competition to define, legitimize and promote a certain “projective image of the future” corresponding to the latest socio-political order and normative sociotechnological system (“engineering law”). In particular, the author considers contradictory trends, on the one hand, aimed at preserving and reproducing traditional political institutions, and on the other, related to forming new digital era institutions, digital governance structures and practices of public-power interactions. The research pays special attention to the competition of the state and new digital and technological actors in the political space. It discusses various scenarios of digital transformation of society, state, and government and considers such digital effects in the modern political process as “information noise”, “information overload”, “profile reconfigurations” of relations, the formation of alternative digital spaces (metaverses), as well as their influence on the current political order, power relations, socio-political dynamics.

Activities of Borno Traditional Political and Religious Leaders in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970

This article examines the activities of Borno traditional political and religious leaders in the Nigerian Civil War, with specific reference to the role of the Shehu of Borno and other chiefs, Muslim and Christian leaders. Traditional political leaders are the custodians of culture and traditions in Borno. They galvanised support for the war by mobilising society to contribute to the war effort. This article adopts a qualitative method, using oral sources from interviews conducted with surviving members of the traditional political and religious institutions. Traditional political leaders also commissioned religious leaders to pray for a successful end to the civil war, the unity of Nigeria and to preach the legality of enlisting into the military profession.

Trust and authority in the age of mediatised politics

This article examines the role of trust in the age of mediatised politics. Authority, we suggest, can be successfully enacted despite the disrupted nature of the public sphere if both rational and moral trust are utilised to formulate validity claims. Drawing from Maarten A. Hajer's theorisation of authority in contemporary politics, we develop a model of how political actors and institutions as well as the media employ both rational and moral trust performances to generate authority. Analysing a Finnish case of controversial investigative journalism on defence intelligence, we show how the media in network governance need to critically evaluate the authority performances of political actors while at the same time enacting their own authority performances to retain their position within the governing network and to manufacture trust among networked publics. This volatile position can lead to situations where the media compete for authority with traditional political institutions.

Traditional Political Institutions in the Context of Digitalization: Risks and Prospects of Transformation

Traditional Political Institutions in the Context of Digitalization: Risks and Prospects of Transformation

Colonial rule, trajectories and travails of the Kingship Institution in Akokoland, 1900–1960

ABSTRACT Akokoland is a conglomeration of many towns located in the north-eastern part of Yorubaland. There exists many colonial documents with narratives to the effect that, colonial rule profited the Akoko communities that were brought under it. This paper, however, argues that colonial rule adversely impacted and altered the workings of the kingship institution in the period under review in Akokoland. Through a gristmill of sources, the paper discusses how power politics was used as a divide-and-rule tactic to enforce loyalty and consequently alter well developed traditional political institutions using the kingship institution in Akokoland as case study. The paper reveals that colonial enterprise in Akokoland was tailored towards the pursuit of power and rewards rather than the welfare of the people through political opportunism paid for by the establishment of harsh tax regimes and the imposition of political control of non-Akoko towns on the people of Akokoland by the agents of colonial administration. Beyond this, the kingship institution in Akokoland has continued to show resilience and remains a potent pillar of societal cohesion, viable grass root mobiliser, interpreter of government policies and viable agent of inclusive development.

Шеринг-экономика в России: новый источник политического участия и демократизации?

Introduction. Scientific understanding of current and future trends in the development of society, the formulation of problems of social development, and even more so its prediction is associated with the analysis of the role and place of modern and promising communication technologies in the complex architecture of social interactions. Today, such technologies determine the direction of restructuring traditional political and economic institutions contribute to the formation of fundamentally new formats of social interactions. The beginning of the 21st century was marked by a wide spread of sharing relations – old socio-economic practices of joint (shared) use of goods in a new technical and technological design. The driver of the development of joint consumption practices has also been the spread of global trends in the transition from a system of strong fundamental links between socioeconomic entities to weaker but numerous temporary links. Methods and materials. In the course of the study, the sharing economy was considered through the prism of structural-functional, neoinstitutional and network approaches. The authors used system analysis, interdisciplinary and empirical methods (questionnaire, expert survey), as well as the method of social modeling. The materials for the study were the publications of leading foreign and domestic researchers of the issue in peer-reviewed scientific publications, as well as the results of a cross-regional sociological study conducted by the authors. Analysis. Currently, an institutional formation of a new ontological reality within which self-regulating, more autonomous from the state, sharing communities built on the network principle function is taking place. Through the liberalization of access to a wide range of benefits through low-cost channels, sharing contributes to the growth of trust, social well-being, and reduction of social tension. At the same time, the uncontrolled spread of sharing practices is fraught with a drop in the level of institutional and interpersonal trust, an increase in conflict in society, and the deformation of regional and sectoral labor markets, which will naturally affect social well-being and political stability. Results. The obtained results confirmed the hypothesis of the study that the practices of joint consumption in Russia have a pronounced development potential and a growing influence on the political sphere through the growth of political activity of the population participating in these practices, through the actualization of microsocial contracts and the subsequent translation of their content to the macro level.

Pragmatic Saintliness: Toward a Criticism and Celebration of Community

Abstract This essay responds to John McDermott’s diagnosis of politics and religious life in the U.S.: “[B]oth traditional political and religious institutions are no longer an adequate let alone rich resource for a celebratory language.” I present a new celebratory language by reading William James’s description of saintliness in Varieties of Religious Experience. James gives me the resources to naturalize and democratize saintliness. Distinguished not by her transcendent miracles but by her this-worldly energies and experiments, the pragmatic saint remakes the experience of her community through celebration, a form of appreciation and criticism exemplified in engaged art. My ethical and aesthetic description of the saint thus builds on E. Paul Colella’s recent political description of the saint as the “strenuous citizen.”

Content and relationship between the main categories of the modern security environment

The study aims to analyse the connection among types of security intimidations: threats, challenges, vulnerabilities, and security risks, to establish the rapport between national and global threats, to review critical issues of the security environment.The study’s relevance is that the concept of security needs to be updated in the current changes in the global security context and the emergence of an increasing number and variety of threats under the transformations that are taking place. The research shows how the reconceptualization of security in the late twentieth century was influenced by global contextual changes associated with the end of the Cold War and the use of constructivist approaches in the social sciences. This dual change has led to a rethinking of security challenges in the second decade of the 21st century, leading to increased interest in this study. It is exposed that the concepts of vulnerability and risk are used not only in the context of foreign and defence policy, but also concerning ecologic security challenges caused by global environmental change, climate change and dangers and disasters, where there is no consensus within and among the community on vulnerability, and risks. In conclusion, it is proved that conceptual thinking on security threats has necessitated precise definition and consensus on these concepts, especially on practical policy measures to achieve agreed goals, and systematization of types of threats to all types of security and life support. It is determined that the degradation of traditional political institutions, against the background of the degeneration of the established international law system and order, cause the emergence of new threats to national security and, accordingly, political, as its subcategories. It is noted that modern researchers have paid little attention to studying the connection between the concepts of political security, state security and threats to state security. In the context of new globalization threats, states are facing a change in the security context and need to review security strategies and update the discourse on political and national security.

Voice, equality and education: the role of higher education in defining the political participation of young Europeans

Much attention has been paid by academics and policy-makers in recent decades to declining levels of voter turnout and engagement with traditional political and social institutions in established democracies. These trends are particularly marked amongst young people. Drawing on data from the European Social Survey, this article examines the role of higher education (HE) both as a source of unequal participation and as a means of fostering civic and political engagement amongst young Europeans. It uncovers two significant new findings. First, that being in education matters more than an individual’s level of educational attainment for levels of civic and political participation, and second, that HE establishments play a key role as social levellers: being in education neutralises differences between young people from high-income and low-income backgrounds with regards to such participation. The article argues that this places added emphasis on the role of educational institutions in nurturing democratic engagement.

Yellowization Versus Tradition: Yellowization Event in Solo City 1997

This research discuss the Yellowization program that occurred in Solo City in 1997. Yellowization is a program initiated by the Governor of Central Java, Soewardi in 1995. This program was then welcomed by regents and mayors throughout Central Java, including Imam Sutopo who is the Mayor of Solo. Yellowization is a policy to color the environment in central Java with yellow which is the color of the greatness of the Golkar Party. This policy is more intensively carried out ahead of the 1997 elections. In Solo, this policy caused widespread resistance. This is because Yellowization targets traditional political and cultural institutions, namely the Surakarta Kingdom or the Solo Keraton. Although it no longer has formal political power, in fact the Solo Keraton still has a strong cultural influence. The Keraton Solo was part of the target of Yellowization. The building in North Alun-Alun which was originally white was painted yellow by the government. This action was met with resistance from the Keraton who considered the government to have stepped on the dignity and cultural traditions of the Palace. Because the Keraton Solo color is identical to the white and blue colors. While the yellow color is more identical with the color of the Yogyakarta Keraton which is nothing but an empire that had been involved in a civil war with the Solo Keraton. Inevitably, Yellowization caused direct resistance from the Palace. On the other hand, the cultural power of the Keraton Solo still influenced the people who later fought back by launching a counter-action namely 'Whiteisation'. In this study, questions will be answered about how the Solo Keraton and the people of Solo oppose the Yellowization policy?

Explaining the Constitutional Integration and Resurgence of Traditional Political Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Social scientists have recently observed a ‘resurgence’ of traditional political institutions on the constitutional level in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, the scope and causes of the resurgence remain unclear. We base our analysis on original data on the degree of constitutional integration of traditional institutions and on their constitutional resurgence since 1990 in 45 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. We test six theoretical explanations for constitutionalization: former colonial rule, democratization, state capacity, economic development, foreign aid and settlement patterns. First, we verify the broad resurgence of traditional political institutions on a constitutional level. Second, our analysis suggests that, particularly in former British colonies, traditional leaders were able to translate the arrangements of British colonial rule as well as the advantages of a country’s deconcentrated settlement pattern into greater constitutional status. Third, settlement patterns proved important for traditional leaders to gain or increase constitutional status – leading to a constitutional resurgence of traditional institutions.

Oruwari-Briggs house and the evolution of contemporary Kalabari society

The evolution of contemporary Kalabari society reflects the contour of a historical progression of a people who struggled to manage the competing forces of unity and disunity in their existence. As a polity, it evolved from a fishing village to a city-state, to an empire, and to a republic or confederacy. This work examines the role of Oruwari-Briggs House in this evolutionary trajectory from the pre-colonial through the colonial to the post-colonial period. Methodologically, the work adopts the political economy approach. From oral and archival sources, published and unpublished works, the study demonstrates that the Oruwari-Briggs House played a strategic role in the inter-house rivalry, the formation of groups, and political alliances that culminated in the disintegration of Elem Kalabari, movement of populations to new settlements, the transformation of traditional political institutions, and the emergence of multiple centers of power symbolized by the existence of Amayanapu in contemporary Kalabari as against an Amayanabo for the entire polity in the pre-colonial period.

Политические партии в эпоху постмодерна

The study proposes the author’s concept of trans-formations which traditional political institutions undergo, and first of all, the parties in a new epoch which is called postmodernity. The presented con-cept is based on the previous research related to defining such concepts as social subject, pseudo-subject and social substrate. The analysis of chang-es which take place in political institutions im-plies the use of an interdisciplinary approach when a party is considered as a unique social system having both a micro- and macrosocial structure. The study examines in detail these elements of a party and their evolution through various epochs. There are made conclusions that such transformations are similar to social mutations that party organizations underwent during the period of a postmodernity triumph at first in the Western countries, and later throughout the globalized world. The party-building in modern Russia is considered, there are identified its main features in the context of postmodern con-cepts of political simulacra. The study presents the analysis of the actual conflict in the core of the Western world, i.e., in the USA, connected with the lack of a bipartisan consensus on the crucial issues of domestic and external policy of the leading world power. The considered conflict is interpreted in ac-cordance with the author’s concept of transfor-mation of parties as systems in the conditions of collapse of classical institutions of the political sys-tem of the modernist epoch.

Democratic Innovations Under Scrutiny

Is it still possible to think about innovations within the context of our battered democracies? ‘The Two Faces of Institutional Innovation: Promises and Limits of Democratic Participation in Latin America’ is a book that pursues this issue and reflects the maturity of this field of study on the topic of institutional participation and democratic innovations. Following an initial period of enthusiasm for these means of ‘deepening democracy’, the context of this work is one mistrust in traditional political institutions around [...]

Venue Coupling and Actor Circulation in Deliberative Systems: Health Care Governance in Ontario

The “systemic turn” has been one of the most important developments in deliberative democracy in the past decade. Through a deliberative systems approach, scholars and practitioners are challenged to think about ways in which various venues and institutions interact together to produce a healthy democratic subsystem. One major challenge to this approach, however, is its methodological weakness. How exactly are various venues and institutions connected? How do they interact with each other? What conceptual tools are available in making sense of the deliberative system?This article proposes the use of “venue coupling” and “actor circulation” to operationalize some of the key concepts of the deliberative system. Through the case of the Local Health Integration Networks in Ontario, Canada, this article maps the governance system, its institutional and interpersonal components, and their interconnections (or lack thereof). By drawing together key concepts in deliberative democracy and network governance, this article sketches out a framework that can be used to analyze governance contexts in which deliberative practices are fused with traditional political institutions like legislative bodies and bureaucracies.

Traditional Political Institutions and Democracy: Reassessing Their Compatibility and Accountability

This article revisits prominent frameworks for understanding traditional political institutions which make pessimistic assessments about their compatibility with democracy. Traditional political institutions are often assumed to be unaccountable because they are led by undemocratic leaders who are not subject to electoral sanctioning. However, drawing on new information from the TradGov Group dataset, an expert survey on the contemporary practices of more than 1,400 ethnic groups that currently have traditional political institutions, we show that these institutions contain their own distinct mechanisms of accountability. In a majority of cases, decision-making is consensual and leaders must account for their actions in various ways. We challenge the electoral accountability framework for understanding the quality of traditional leaders’ performance, instead arguing that traditional political institutions can be compatible with democracy and even accountable to their citizens insofar as they adopt inclusive decision-making processes and their leaders have strong nonelectoral connections to the communities they represent.