scholarly journals Re-imagining Petitioning in Spain (1808–1823)

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Palacios Cerezales
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Age Of Revolution ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
The Right

This article examines collective petitioning in metropolitan Spain during the Age of Revolution, focusing on the practices and discourses that framed petitioning as a meaningful form of action. There was a deeply rooted tradition of petitioning in old regime Spain, which was part of the ordinary bureaucratic workings of the crown and also provided a legitimizing framework for rioting in specific contexts. The collective experimentation in popular participation after the 1808 Napoleonic invasion transformed petitioning. Petitioning was first reconceptualized in accordance with the emerging language of rights and popular sovereignty. Activists and commentators had some awareness of the use of public petitioning in Britain, and once the representative Cortes met in Cadiz in 1810, public petition drives on public issues became part of the political culture. At the same time, the need to legitimate unconventional forms of action in the context of a crisis in the state converted petitioning into an all-embracing right. The right to petition, not only encompassed signed protest texts but also legitimated the old tradition of petitioning by riot and further was used to justify provincial rebellions, juntas, and military pronunciamientos. In comparative terms, this article highlights the elasticity of the language of petitioning during the Age of Revolution and cautions against narrowly associating it with one particular form of collective action or historical trajectory.

Price Fixing and the Political Community, 1778–1779

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Owen
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right

In 1779, Pennsylvanians undertook a bold experiment in economic regulation—forming price-fixing committees to reverse wartime inflation. This chapter analyzes the committees’ structure and the context in which they were created. Winter 1778 saw great political turbulence: the evacuation of Philadelphia, treason trials, and an attempt to rewrite the state constitution. By 1779, defenders of the constitution were using price-fixing committees as a means of defending a Constitutionalist vision of government in which the people held the reins of power and the right to shape that government. Though the committees struggled to establish universal legitimacy, they helped legitimate a robust participatory political culture based upon popular sovereignty. This culture, though, remained turbulent, as in the Fort Wilson Incident of October 1779, in which militiamen surrounded the house of Republican politician James Wilson. This chapter investigates how Constitutionalists defended their vision of political culture even during periods of great upheaval.

The Involvement of Malagasy Women Parliamentarians for a State of Law allowing the Development of Women

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
RANDRINRIJAONA MAEVA
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Women's Development ◽  
Equal Part ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The Right

The exclusion of women is at the heart of the modern political order, despite the gradual recognition of formal equality between men and women in the exercise of political rights. The evolution of the political culture has nevertheless allowed the gradual access of women to power. Yet in the case of Madagascar, gender consideration is not limited to the integration of women in power, but several challenges lie ahead for the country in terms of women's rights. Women parliamentarians through their roles can advocate for women's rights. But the question is how these women parliamentarians advocate for women’s development rights do?Women's development requires respect for their rights, and women parliamentarians, when designing and passing laws, have the opportunity to fight for women's rights, which generally boil down to the right to health, safety and work. The aim is therefore to highlight the capacity of women parliamentarians to establish a rule of law that allows women to develop. Women's participation in the proposals and discussions of laws can play an equal part in promoting women's rights and women's development.

scholarly journals Political Theory of Populism

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Urbinati
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Democratic Principles

Populism is the name of a global phenomenon whose definitional precariousness is proverbial. It resists generalizations and makes scholars of politics comparativist by necessity, as its language and content are imbued with the political culture of the society in which it arises. A rich body of socio-historical analyses allows us to situate populism within the global phenomenon called democracy, as its ideological core is nourished by the two main entities—the nation and the people—that have fleshed out popular sovereignty in the age of democratization. Populism consists in a transmutation of the democratic principles of the majority and the people in a way that is meant to celebrate one subset of the people as opposed to another, through a leader embodying it and an audience legitimizing it. This may make populism collide with constitutional democracy, even if its main tenets are embedded in the democratic universe of meanings and language. In this article, I illustrate the context-based character of populism and how its cyclical appearances reflect the forms of representative government. I review the main contemporary interpretations of the concept and argue that some basic agreement now exists on populism's rhetorical character and its strategy for achieving power in democratic societies. Finally, I sketch the main characteristics of populism in power and explain how it tends to transform the fundamentals of democracy: the people and the majority, elections, and representation.

RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARIES: MODERATE LIBERALISM IN THE KINGDOM OF SARDINIA, 1849–1859

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERTO ROMANI
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Ultimate Source ◽  
The Right ◽  
Citizens Attitudes ◽  
At Home

ABSTRACTIn the 1850s, the Piedmontese ‘moderate’ liberals created a peculiar political culture, suited to the twofold task of strengthening representative institutions at home and justifying Piedmont's Italian mission. Inspired by both the whig tradition and the French Doctrinaires, the moderates elaborated arguments advocating elite government and countering democracy. Gioberti, Balbo, Carutti, Mamiani, and Boncompagni shared five theses: (1) natural (and/or divine) laws are both the ultimate source of right and wrong in politics and the guarantee of gradual progress; (2) only the citizens who understand the natural order should rule; (3) ‘democracy’, that is popular sovereignty and universal suffrage, is inherently wrong; (4) granted that citizens' attitudes play an important role in politics, certain virtues are required by representative government; and (5) moderatism was imbued with Burkeanism, meaning that it endorsed a realistic, prudent approach to politics, that much was made of Italian and especially Piedmontese history and traditions, and that mere constitutional machinery was to be disdained. This political culture led the moderates to portray everybody who was either on the right or the left of their camp, both in Piedmont and Italy, as a ‘sectarian’ and hence a dangerous revolutionary.

Destituent Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-138
Author(s):  
Markus Patberg
Keyword(s):  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

This chapter takes up the public narrative of ‘We, the multitude of Europe’, which suggests that the only hope for progressive change in the EU lies in a politics of disruption, and asks whether this idea can be defended based on a systematic model. To that end, it resorts to the political theory of destituent power, according to which opposition to or withdrawal from public authority can function as a legitimate trigger for constitutional change. Distinguishing between anti-juridical and juridical conceptions of destituent power, the chapter discusses to what extent the disruptive political strategies put forward by protest movements in the EU can be regarded as justifiable. Focusing on the juridical strand as the more plausible one, it argues that ideas of destituent power as ‘state civil disobedience’ run into a problem of authorization. By contrast, popular sovereignty-based approaches illuminate a neglected dimension of constituent power: the right to dismantle public authorities without the intention to create new ones. While such a model of destituent power in part captures the actions and demands of EU protest movements, it can only complement, not replace, the constructive side of constituent power.

scholarly journals Popular Political Participation in the Late Roman Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Claudine Lana Earley
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Roman Republic ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Popular Pressure ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Right ◽  
Late Roman

<p>Roman democracy is in fashion. In particular, the publication of Fergus Millar's The Crowd in the Late Republic (1998) has stimulated debate on the democratic elements in Roman government during this period. In this thesis I examine the nature of popular participation in the late Roman Republic. I focus on the decision-making power of the populus Romanus and popular pressure to effect reform in the favour of citizens outside the senatorial and equestrian orders. My findings are based on analysis of ancient literary and epigraphic sources, along with a critique of modern research on the topic. The first chapter introduces the subject with a survey of current scholarly opinion and discussion of key concepts and terms. Chapter Two investigates how power was shared between senatus populusque Romanus and the distribution of power in the assemblies, concluding that participation was widespread as a result of the changing circumstances in the late Republic. As farmers and veterans moved to Rome, and slaves were freed and granted citizenship and the right to vote, the balance was tipped in the favour of the non-elite voter. Each class of the populus Romanus could participate in Roman politics, and certainly members of each did. Having concluded my analysis of the formal avenues of participation, I move onto the informal. Chapter Three is the first of three chapters of case studies focusing on demonstrations and collective action which form the heart of this work. The first set of studies cover secession, mutiny and refusal of the draft. Chapter Four continues with studies of popular pressure to gain reforms to improve the food supply, restore tribunician power, obtain relief from crippling debt and land shortage. The final chapter of analysis, Chapter Five, investigates collective action at contiones, legislative assemblies, trials, ludi et gladiatores, triumphs, funerals, and elections. The findings of these three chapters bring me to the conclusion that Rome was a democracy, if of a particular type. The nature of popular political participation in the late Republic resembled that of an emerging democracy with the non-elite gaining an increasing role in the decision-making process, albeit without constitutional definition. The citizens' right to participate in the formal assemblies was augmented by their ability to take part in less formal ways also. These informal methods ranged from popular involvement in contiones through to the application of pressure on senators through the threat of secession and mutiny. Only the rise of the principate, with formalised roles for the various sectors in society under one leader, brought these developments to an end.</p>

Political Culture in Rural Botswana: a Survey Result

1977 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Parson
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Survey Result ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Beliefs And Values

Political culture may be defined as the attitudes, beliefs, and values held by a population and directed towards the political system of which it is a part,1 and includes what people know about that system and their evaluation of its work.The concept is of importance for two main reasons. First, the attitudes that people have will help determine their behaviour. If the view is held that development must involve popular participation, then it is important to look at those factors which might affect whether or not people will participate. The second, and related, reason is that political culture tells us something about the degree to which people accept as legitimate and useful the political system under which they live. This is important to know when considering questions, for example, that have to do with the potential for political instability.

Space of kinship, space of empire

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aya Ikegame
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Kinship Language

This article centres on perceptions of ‘space’ amongst members of the Mysore royal caste from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. There were several perceptions of space coexisting at the time. One was based upon a traditional idea of space that prohibited the aristocracy, especially the king, from travelling beyond a certain area. Another was the imposed perception of empire, which gave Indian royals the idea that parts of their world were connected horizontally through the expansion of empire. The Mysore royals tried to embody perceptions of both spaces through restrictions on kinship and strategic matrimonial alliances beyond their territories. On the one hand, one of the royal clans insisted that they had the right to receive women from the royal house by using a Dravidian kinship language of ‘reciprocity’, which had in practice never been fully exercised between the clan and the royal house in the pre-colonial period. On the other hand, some royal caste members were keen to embody the Imperial hierarchy, in which Mysore occupied the second highest position, by establishing marriage alliances with the Rajputs in northern India. By doing so, they could re-assert their status, both in terms of Imperial hierarchy and of Kshatriyaness. The article argues that both perceptions of spaces helped a national class of Indian aristocracy to emerge, and that that class of aristocracy still influences the political culture of India in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP FATIGUE IN AFRICA. A THEORETICAL APPRAISAL.

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1139-1145
Author(s):  
Christian Akani
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Inclusive Governance ◽  
The Right

Colonialism cannot be forgotten in Africa because of the disorientation and dissonance it enforced. This scenario paved way  for unbridled expropriation  of human and material resources. But, by the beginning of the 1940s African  nationalists  rejected the colonial political economy, and  demanded for self governance.  The aftermath of their demand engendered a wind of change which swept most African states to statehood in the 1960s. Regrettably, five decades after independence, the continent is still experiencing a free fall  in all human development sectors. Those who inherited political power, rather than ensuring inclusive governance have imposed pain and terror on their people . With an analytical , method the paper argues that politics is squarely responsible for the leadership fatigue in the continent. It concludes that for Africa to have the right leaders they desire, the political institutions must guarantee popular participation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document