Unjust Government Research Articles

Dystopian Visions and the Making of Privacy Law

This article explores the role of references to dystopian literature in the context of developing privacy laws. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of a large corpus of legislative and judicial texts from Germany and the United Kingdom, I demonstrate that references to popular dystopian works of fiction like Orwell’s 1984 have animated and shaped the legal recognition of privacy. Specifically, dystopian visions are evoked as reasons that warrant the legal protection of privacy rights. I explore lawmakers’ vision of a technologically empowered totalitarian state and discuss how these connect to historical, contemporary, and hypothetical examples of unjust regimes. I argue that literary imaginations of dystopia are often themselves built on historical experience, suggesting that the aptness for social critique is, as literary critics suggest, built into dystopia as a genre. I furthermore explore how the theme of democracy is employed as a counterpoint to fears of dystopian totalitarianism. Portraying privacy invasions as harmful to democratic ideals discursively amplifies their dangerousness—and thereby works to justify regulatory intervention. My research findings prompt us to view legal norms as a cultural artifact that reflect cultural imagination and literary narratives.

Political corruption in unjust regimes

A theory of political corruption must give a plausible descriptive account of what counts as politically corrupt conduct, and a plausible normative account of the reasons why (if any) such conduct is wrongful, and distinctively so. On Ceva and Ferretti's sophisticated descriptive and normative account of corruption if and only if the act is carried out by a public official acting in her capacity as officeholder, and she knowingly acts to ends which are not congruent with the terms of her mandate. By their own admission, Ceva and Ferretti focus for the most part on just, or nearly just, regimes – which include democratic regimes. In this paper, I probe the strength and implications of their account for political corruption in clearly unjust regimes, in which individuals’ basic civil, political and socio-economic rights are routinely and systematically violated. I argue that their account does not straightforwardly apply to these cases, and that their cursory treatment of all-things-considered justified corruption in those regimes exposes a gap in their account of corruption.

Authority, Plurality, and Anarchist Scepticism

AbstractAccording to A. John Simmons's anarchist scepticism, there is no duty to obey the law as things stand, as legal obligations have legitimacy only when voluntarily incurred by most or many citizens. However, an alternative, pluralist position is suggested by Simmons's sensitivity to the diversity of reasons and to the possibility of unresolved conflict. It shows that the grounds of legitimate authority are plural, and include distributive justice. Also, even voluntarily incurred obligations can be defeated by conflicting reasons, as when we are duty bound to an unjust regime.

Justice as the constitutive norm of shared agency in Rousseau’s Social Contract

ABSTRACT Kantian constitutivists, like Velleman and Korsgaard, argue that there are norms internal to individual agency. Yet as Gilbert and others have argued there may be norms internal to shared agency as well. Might political principles of justice be norms of this second kind? I turn to the history of philosophy for an answer, focusing on Rousseau’s classic work the Social Contract. Rousseau is much better known as a social contract theorist – but I argue that he is also a constitutivist about group agency. This means he is a thinker for whom success or failure in realizing the demands of justice is nothing other than success or failure in acting together. Unjust regimes, e.g. despotic ones, are ones whose members fail to genuinely act together. Interpretively, this approach has the advantage of explaining away the appearance of totalitarian tendencies in Rousseau’s thinking (‘the general will is always right’). Philosophically, it has the advantage of revealing in Rousseau’s writings what I believe is a unique type of social contract theory, resolutely non-hypothetical and normatively robust. In the closing sections, I revisit the oft-raised question of Rousseau’s relation to Rawls in light of the interpretation of the former proposed here.

Perpetuating the past: U.S. high school history textbooks and systemic racism

ABSTRACT While decades of scholarship demonstrate that U.S. history textbooks have incrementally told a fuller story of U.S. history, our review of nine prominent high school history textbooks illustrates how these texts perpetuate systemic racism and uphold the socially constructed centering of whiteness. Those contemporary textbooks’ accounts of 13 unjust government actions directed against different minoritized groups reveal three narrative strategies that continue to displace systemic racism from the nation's narrative: omitting refuses to acknowledge the existence of unjust actions; minimizing reduces the pernicious effects of those actions; and severing disconnects those actions from governmental culpability. We conclude with recommendations for how textbook creators might work against the systemic racism that has permeated the collective memory of the U.S..

“Братья-мусульмане” в странах Магриба: трансформации политического ислама в Алжире, Марокко и Тунисе

Since their formation, the parties of political Islam that exist today in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were traditionally seen as the “voice of people” in authoritarian states, the means and the vanguard of social movement for a better life. In an attempt to enter political arena, while adapting to different challenges posed by their regimes as well as jihadi Islamism both domestically and regionally, these Islamist parties have undergone a number of transformations both in their ideology and relations with the regime. However, the crucial point of these transformations was becoming a part of the state that they had been aiming to change. After their short-lived electoral success, they find themselves in crisis. First, they are no longer perceived as a sociopolitical force that strives to voice concerns of the oppressed and to fight for their interests against the unjust regimes. Instead, they are now deeply associated with the “old guard”, no less corrupt than the governments and the political elites, against whom people protest. Second, while they were trying to adapt democratic ideas to their narratives, they were moving further away from their Islamist identity. Third, they have learnt the constraints of their political capabilities: in order to preserve their legal status, they have to coopt with the regimes, but when they do they lose their public support, and when they resent this cooptation, the regimes force them to weakness and internal divisions, yet again causing loss of social base.

Yahwistic incongruency and enigma: A challenge to relinquish violence?

This article deals with the incongruency and enigma of violence on the part of Yahweh, in order to locate action or inaction against violence on a human level. The debate whether people should be actively involved in serving their countries in the military, if political leaders can wage war and take up arms against a corrupt, grossly oppressive and unjust regime, and if people should vote for and endorse parties with such policies, is contested. Furthermore, questions such as whether people can fight back when they are attacked on the street, whether they can own firearms and use them in self-defence when their families are under siege, and if they can physically harm a person who is in the process of sexually abusing their spouse, are indeed pertinent yet difficult questions to answer, especially in light of verses that say ‘Blessed are the meek… blessed are the merciful… blessed are the peacemakers… blessed are those who are persecuted…’ (Mt 5:3–10). The questions are foregrounded on the notion that appropriates the Christian use of violence to correct a wrong. For the purpose of this study, a historical and literary analysis was employed.Contribution: This article contributes to the theological discourse within the Old Testament, ethical studies, New Testament studies as well as practical theology as it explores the intersections between the theological theme of violence by means of historical-critical and inter-textual reading methods.

SUGESTÃO DE LEITURA: A REPÚBLICA

Background: Does history really repeat itself? Is it possible that a book written by Plato around 375 BC could have any relation to the present? Aim: to verify the ideas of Plato and to reflect if there is any kind of correlation with the present. Methods: Reading and text interpretation. Reflection. Results and Discussion In a period of restriction of ideas, it is relevant that after reading this book, a reflection is made on the paths that civilization is rapidly taking. Book VIII discusses four unjust constitutions: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. It is argued that a society will decay and go through each successive government, eventually becoming a tyranny, the most unjust regime of all. Conclusions: Many societies decay, the downfall of a prosperous society takes place quickly.

Diverse Articulations of Urban Indigeneity among Lowland Indigenous Groups in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

This article contrasts politico‐legal understandings of indigeneity to the lived experiences of urban residents in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) who belong to distinct lowland indigenous groups and whose specific demands are often not addressed by government authorities. It also critically examines power relations and patterns of exclusion within urban indigenous communities. The findings offer insights on the multiple, and at times conflicting, experiences of distinct urban indigenous residents. They also highlight the need to consider alternative indigenous struggles which confront unjust government practices that reproduce social exclusion and coloniality, but also problematise patriarchal relations and gerontocracy among urban indigenous groups.

We can’t just shut up and play: How the NBA and WNBA are helping dismantle systemic racism

In 2020, the lack of an administrative response to the rising rates of COVID-19 and the inability of public leaders to provide proper oversight and accountability for unjust government actions by (police officers) presents a clear case of the failure of the administrative state. These actions have led to a national outcry by individuals and organizations (in particular Black Lives Matter (BLM)) that are fed up with the inequity that exists in society. Unlike prior movements, BLM in its current form has gained a powerful ally in members of professional sports, in particular the NBA and the WNBA. While sport figures have protested administrative failures before, this new wave of athletes have been able to capitalize on their positions and gain the support of their respective associations. In this dialogue, we explore the emergence of the Black American athlete as a key group in creating change within the administrative state, highlighted by the actions of LeBron James and Maya Moore as well as organizational support from both the NBA and the WNBA to combat social injustice across several settings. Finally, we assert that athletes play a powerful role in pushing forward the conversation around institutional and systemic racism in society.

Silver Lining: The Emblematic Exemplum of Silver Surfer #40–43 (1990)

This article examines how the Silver Surfer issues #40–43 relate to the American recession in 1990 and discusses the result with regard to the superhero genre and the medieval emblematic exemplum. Similar to Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), the Surfer issues are a critical commentary on capitalism and American society. However, where Miller’s work delivers a clear message about how ordinary people can resist an unjust regime, in the Surfer issues there is no victory for the ordinary citizen. Instead, the reader is consoled in a cathartic way in identifying with a superhero stripped of his powers by the system. In a historical analysis of the comic story’s response-inviting devices, structure and techniques, the article demonstrates that while the issues feature traits typical of the superhero genre, they are also instances of the medieval genre of the emblematic exemplum. When read through this lens, the issues gain explanatory power in addition to their ability to move the readers. They explain what happens to society when bureaucrats take over, foreground the relation between comics and their readers and problematize the issue of what it means to be human.

The Moral Justification of Civil Disobedience in a Constitutional Democracy: An Appraisal of Rawls’ Notion of Civil Disobedience

The paper examined the moral implications of civil disobedience in a constitutional democracy, using John Rawls’ notion of civil disobedience as a conceptual framework. It deals with the moral problem of justifying a civil revolt against an unjust government in a democratic setting. The paper adopts the method of textual analysis and uses John Rawls seminal work, A Theory of Justice , as its primary text. In the sum, Rawlsian theory of justice is a mid-way between the liberal principle and egalitarian principle. To secure the human capacity for free choice and pursuit of common good, Rawls posits that we must accept the first principle of justice, which protects the equal liberties of citizenship as contained in the social contract. Although his ideas have attracted a lot of criticisms from both the right and left of the ideological spectrum, the paper thinks Rawls’ position makes a lot of moral sense. The objective of the paper is to defend, on moral grounds, the idea of civil disobedience when those in power become unjust and oppressive in relation to the social contract. It concluded with the view that the political class hold power and authority on trust and this makes it morally justifiable to resist the abuse of such powers since it contradicts the values of integrity, fairness and justice. Moreover, the equal dignity of human beings as moral persons dictates equal liberty and freedom of action that negates the arrogation of powers by a select State official who are in minority. Key Words : moral, justification, justice, civil disobedience, democracy

The Common Freedom of the People: John Lilburne and the English Revolution, by Michael Braddick

Michael Braddick’s excellent biography of John Lilburne deals with a remarkable life lived through a remarkable time. Lilburne came from gentry stock in the north of England and was apprenticed to the London clothier Thomas Hewson, who had connections in the London puritan underground. At the beginning of the Scottish troubles, Lilburne went to the Low Countries and was likely to have been involved in illicit printing against the Caroline regime. On his return to England he was arrested and showed remarkable courage, independence and inventiveness at his trial, after which he was, nonetheless, imprisoned. His travails became something of a minor cause célèbre and were used in wider arguments against arbitrary and unjust government. This set a pattern for the rest of Lilburne’s short life: connections with sympathetic associates; unflinching resistance in the face of what he perceived as injustice; a formidable streak of independence and self-belief; a talent...

Berlin Dada and the Time of Revolution

Despite its brief history, Berlin Dada (1918–20) produced a glut of chronicles and memoirs, as if to immortalize its ephemeral insurgency. Its self-appointed chronicler, Richard Huelsenbeck, tried to harness this compulsion to memorialize in the service of Dadaist agitation he hoped would unleash a revolutionary time and redeem the failure of the communist uprisings at the end of World War I. his seditious temporality was based on two incompatible concepts of revolution: a properly political notion aimed at overthrowing an unjust regime and a vitalist discourse aimed at tapping into the circular low of life. he clash of the two modes of revolutionary time is enacted in Hannah Höch's photomontage “Cut with the Kitchen Knife” (1919). he spectral temporality that sustains both is conjured by the Dada Almanac (1920), a literary compendium that doubles as a quirky inquiry into political normativity and an inluential paradigm of Dada's self-legitimation.

The three betrayals of the medical cannabis growing activist: From multiple victimhood to reconstruction, redemption and activism

While cannabis has been widely used in the UK for over 50 years, it is only in recent decades that domestic cultivation has become established. Public concern, media reporting and policing policy has emphasised the role of profit motivated criminal organisations often working on a large scale and with coerced labour. However, increasingly, another population are growing for medical reasons, to help themselves and others treat or manage difficult, poorly understood, or incurable conditions.Our study sought to further understand the motives, techniques and interactions of cannabis cultivators through interviews with 48 growers and supplementary ethnographic work. As well as those motivated to grow for personal use, social and commercial supply purposes we identified a cohort growing to provide themselves and others with cannabis used for therapeutic purposes. This paper draws primarily on interviews with a sub-group of sixteen medically-motivated growers who were not only involved in treatment, but also embraced the label “activist”.Rather than develop techniques of deception they were organising to effect a change in legislation. Rejecting the image of criminal perpetrators, they presented themselves as victims of unjust government policy, an indifferent medical establishment, and brutal and immoral criminal markets. Through cultivation, association, self-healing and apomedication, they have found voice and are shifting the debate over the status of growers and of cannabis itself. The ambiguity of their position as both producers and patients challenges the assumptions underlying legal distinctions between suppliers and users, with potentially profound implications for policy.

Exorcising Cuba's Future: A Conversation with Yoss

photo : restless books W hen we were together in Cuba in early 2015, I took a photo of Yoss tenderly holding a kitten we encountered in Old Havana. When I later asked him about life during Cuba’s Special Period, the time in the early 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union, which had artificially propped up Cuba’s economy, I was surprised to hear that he had survived during the extreme food shortage of that time by catching and eating cats, which he skinned and decapitated to convince his mother they were rabbits. What could be more dystopian than having to hunt for house pets for food, in a society built on utopian ideals, and under a government that proclaimed a better future was just ahead? Yoss and I spoke over email about Cuba’s special relationship with the concept of dystopia and its role in his work as a writer of science fiction. David Shook: The way you’ve described the Special Period sounds to me like a reallife dystopia. Is that accurate? Did living through that time affect your writing? 54 WLT MARCH–APRIL 2017 cover feature dystopian visions Exorcising Cuba’s Future A Conversation with Yoss by David Shook Yoss: Of course, living in such difficult times affected my writing. I wouldn’t have written A Planet for Rent if I hadn’t seen so many male friends trying to illegally leave Cuba on rafts, so many female friends prostituting themselves, if I hadn’t reached the level of having to buy rice in a black bag and eating cat meat. Some writers say that reality doesn’t affect them. I’m not one of those, evidently. Shook: You’ve written a great number of stories set in dystopian futures. One that I particularly like is the one in progress that you told me about, in which Cuba becomes the fifty-first state of the United States. Do you think that imagining future dystopias can help us avoid them? Do you feel that you, as a writer, have any responsibility to warn your readers about the possible future consequences of present decisions, or is that beyond the scope of your duties? Yoss: Many think that we science-fiction writers are professional pessimists: we’re always writing about asteroids that hit Earth, epidemics that kill 99 percent of the population , etc. In reality, we think that speaking about these possibilities is the best way of exorcizing them. So science fiction works like a warning: if those that can change the future read our apocalyptic stories, perhaps they’ll change it for the better. And Cuba will continue being an independent country and not even an Associated Free State like Puerto Rico. Not writing about these possibilities , which are sad and terrible but perfectly real, would be irresponsible. . . . And science fiction is a literature of responsibility for the future consequences of our present actions, among other definitions. So we continue depicting dystopias and begging in our minds that they never become real. Shook: What dystopian futures do you think are most realistic? Yoss: The most realistic dystopian futures are those that appear utopian. The most absurd ones. For example, before the recent presidential election, I wrote a novel, Que den un paso al frente los caídos (The fallen step forward), in which I told the story of the division of the United States into two dozen small nations, after Donald Trump’s second term. It seemed then that Trump would never be president . . . now, caray! He already is! I just hope he doesn’t dismember the country. Shook: I’m interested in Cuba’s relationship to dystopia. Not just in regard to the Special Period but also in how the revolution was a response to a notoriously corrupt and unjust government and in how things today are changing so quickly. Could you speak to that? Yoss: This is the most difficult question. We Cubans have been indoctrinated for decades to believe that we live in the best of all possible worlds, or at least that it was just around the corner, in that communism which we were just about to reach, if we continued down the...

No safe passage: ‘the mapping journey project’

ABSTRACTThis essay examines ‘The Mapping Journey Project’ (2008–2011), an installation artwork by Bouchra Khalili. It consists of eight large video screens and headsets. In each video, a migrant draws a map of her/his journey to and in Europe and narrates her/his route (subtitled in English). In collaboration with Khalili, I argue, these storyteller/draftspersons create a dissident cartography that superimposes their lived geography on the background of legal geography. Thus, ‘The Mapping Journey Project’ is a work of art that is also a work of advocacy and provocation. Rather than advocating particular policies, however, it advocates in the sense of affirming the dignity of the subjects of the videos and their right to speak the truth of their lives. Moreover, it provokes by elucidating the moral stakes of the current political and economic order and by issuing a pointed demand for humane solutions. So long as vast global disparities of wealth and political power persist, it is no wonder that people who are excluded from the elite privilege of belonging to a prosperous society are burning the borders that protect this unjust regime.

Nurses need to stand together to denounce this cruel government.

I too feel Zeba Arif's disappointment that nurses did not create a storm of anger against unjust and cruel government plans, such as the cuts to disability benefits (letters, March 30).

Civil Disobedience for Conflict Resolution: Gandhi and Thoreau

The importance of civil disobedience in conflict resolution and peace negotiations has been universally recognized after the second half of the twentieth century. Civil disobedience as a powerful tool to fight the social and political injustices was first forwarded by Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher and writer, in his acclaimed essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” published in 1849. Though Thoreau’s practice of this idea transported significant changes while fighting the unjust American Government in his time, the power and significance of civil disobedience was fully realized after Mahatma Gandhi practiced it to fight the powerful British Empire in Africa and India. Though it seemed in the outset almost impossible to defy such a powerful enemy without using weapons or any other means of violence, Gandhian struggle surprised the world with the notion that the peaceful protest done in the ground of morality and truth has an immense power in comparison to physical force. This political theory of Gandhi provides us with the way to see and arbitrate conflict in the moral ground. His vision also provides us a realistic understanding of socio-political issues than any other conflict resolution theories of the contemporary time.

Relations between Canada and First Nations in the West (1867-1900): The Numbered Treaties, Indian Act, and Loss of Aboriginal Autonomy

This paper examines the relationship between the Government of Canada and First Nations during and after the first seven numbered treaty negotations (1867-1900). During this time, the government viewed First Nations as impediments to economic, political, and social development in western Canada. In order to secure land for newcomers and gain control of the West, the government negotiated treaties and passed legislation to control and assimilate the Aboriginal population (1876 Indian Act). As this paper explains, unjust government actions and broken government promises only made the relationship between First Nations and Canada more contentious during the late 19th century.