scholarly journals Why Did Italian Democracy Become Vulnerable? Theorizing the Change from Neo- to Quasi-Militant Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Joanna Rak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Change ◽  
Socioeconomic Inequality ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Northern League ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Italian Legislation ◽  
Over Time

Embedded in scholarship on militant democracy, this research aims to explain how Italian legislation was positioned to militant democratic measures and how this changed over time. Drawing on the qualitative source analysis and the explanatory frameworks of democratic vulnerability tests two competing theory-grounded assumptions. While the first one assumes that Italian democracy became vulnerable when traditional militant democracy instruments were outmoded, the second considers the misuse or abandonment of those means with social consent as the source of vulnerability. The crisis-induced socioeconomic inequality and uncertainty weakened the Italian political nation. As a result, the latter supported populists in return for a promise of political change. The anti-democratic legal means employed to extend power competencies and prevent the exchange of ruling parties were the way to and the costs of the expected political change. At the same time, the political nation became unable to self-organize to strengthen democracy self-defense. As a result, Italians co-produced a quasi-militant democracy that turned vulnerable because militant democracy measures were misused or not used with the consent of Italians that relinquished their political subjectivity in favor of the Northern League and the Five Star Movement.

Time to Laugh or to Cry?

Making Waves ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Mairéad Hanrahan
Keyword(s):  
French Text ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Defining Moment ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Original Time ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

Hélène Cixous’s 1975 ‘Le Rire de la méduse’, later expanded into ‘Sorties’, represented a defining moment in both feminism and literary criticism/theory. When for the first time the French text was republished in 2010, Cixous speculated that the text was – disappointingly – still timely after all those years, contrary to her hopes at the original time of writing. This chapter explores Cixous’s text in relation to time in a number of different respects. It examines the significance of its very particular reception over time, and the implications that the signal failure to read it may have for both feminism and literary criticism/theory. But the chapter also considers the significance of Cixous’s work on time. The very notion of an anniversary, which simultaneously marks both a movement forward and a return to the past, is at odds with the linear, teleological idea of progress that remains dominant in discourses of political struggle. Yet the term ‘revolution’ indicates the importance of a cyclical movement of turning around or returning in effecting political change. This chapter therefore also studies the political dimension of Cixous’s approach to temporality.

Where the wind blows: Five Star Movement’s populism, direct democracy and ideological flexibility

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Manucci ◽  
Michi Amsler
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Large Space ◽  
The Core ◽  
Automated Content Analysis ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Over Time

The paper focusses on the online political discourse of the Five Star Movement (5SM) and its strategic adaptability. The main goal of the analysis is to establish how salient several topics are over time in order to test the party’s ideological flexibility. Indeed, 5SM’s post-ideological approach and its emphasis on direct-democratic tools might constitute a winning formula for other populist parties willing to exploit the crisis of the mainstream parties and representation. The paper, through an automated content analysis, tracks the longitudinal evolution of the salience of the topics addressed by 5SM on the party’s blog. This allows us to establish which topics are at the core of the party’s message and which, on the other hand, have been raised strategically over time. Results show that 5SM’s discourse is very flexible and adaptable: it devotes a large space to the importance of direct democracy while flexibly addressing different topics depending on the political and social context.

Past Sovereignty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Thought ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Over Time

Ideas of self-sovereignty and self-sacrifice drew American and French revolutionaries to Roman virtuous exemplars—and into errors of reception, according to prominent contemporaries. Focusing on Benjamin Constant’s and Edmund Burke’s critique of the excited pleasure revolutionaries take in imitating Roman models, this chapter asks what insight into the mechanisms of political change we may gain by studying the revolutionary desire for Rome and the rage felt by the opponents of revolution against that desire. Constant and Burke, insofar as they discuss how the liberal free autonomous self rules itself and relates to others, and how modern thought relates to the past, take up problems still essential to the political thought of modernity. By considering the rhetorical extremes of both liberal and conservative thinkers in their reactions to Roman tradition, we understand better how such critiques of pleasure, desire, and imitation determine the transmission of political ideals over time.

Coevolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi Max Spiegel
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Islamist Movements

This chapter seeks to understand how Islamist movements have evolved over time, and, in the process, provide important background on the political and religious contexts of the movements in question. In particular, it shows that Islamist movements coevolve. Focusing on the histories of Morocco's two main Islamist movements—the Justice and Spirituality Organization, or Al Adl wal Ihsan (Al Adl) and the Party of Justice and Development (PJD)—it suggests that their evolutions can only be fully appreciated if they are relayed in unison. These movements mirror one another depending on the competitive context, sometimes reflecting, sometimes refracting, sometimes borrowing, sometimes adapting or even reorganizing in order to keep up with the other.

G. Lukács, “Techeniye” and Stalinism

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
Vladimir Y. Bystrov ◽  
Vladimir M. Kamnev
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
The Political ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Political Criticism ◽  
Political Views ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Over Time

The article discusses the attitude of Georg Lukács and his adherents who formed a circle “Techeniye” (lit. “current”) toward the phenomenon of Stalinism. Despite the political nature of the topic, the authors are aspired to provide an unbiased research. G. Lukács’ views on the theory and practice of Stalinism evolved over time. In the 1920s Lukács welcomes the idea of creation of socialism in one country and abandons the former revolutionary ideas expressed in his book History and Class Consciousness. This turn is grounded by new interpretation of Hegel as “realistic” thinker whose “realism” was shown in the aspiration to find “reconciliation” with reality (of the Prussian state) and in denial of any utopias. The philosophical evolution leading to “realism” assumes integration of revolutionaries into the hierarchy of existing society. The article “Hölderlin’s Hyperion” represents attempt to justify Stalinism as a necessary and “progressive” phase of revolutionary development of the proletariat. Nevertheless, events of the second half of the 1930s (mass repressions, the peace treaty with Nazi Germany) force Lukács to realize the catastrophic nature of political strategy of Stalinism. In his works, Lukács ceases to analyze political topics and concentrates on problems of aesthetics and literary criticism. However, his aesthetic position allows to reconstruct the changed political views and to understand why he had earned the reputation of the “internal opponent” to Stalinism. After 1956, Lukács turns to political criticism of Stalinism, which nevertheless remains unilateral. He sees in Stalinism a kind of the left sectarianism, the theory and practice of the implementation of civil war measures in the era of peaceful co-existence of two systems.

‘Sovereign Democracy’ and the Politics of Ideology in Putin’s Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Dima Kortukov
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Color Revolutions ◽  
Revolutionary Praxis ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The concept of sovereign democracy dominated the political discourse in Russia in 2006–8 but lost much of its significance since. In this article, I argue that sovereign democracy is best understood as the response of Russia’s authorities to the threats of democratization, following Eurasian color revolutions. I distinguish between three conceptually distinct aspects of sovereign democracy: (1) a social contract (2) a legitimation discourse; and (3) a counter-revolutionary praxis. These dimensions allow us to understand what functions sovereign democracy fulfilled within the framework of Russia’s authoritarian regime and why it lost its prominence over time.

JULIJONA – LIETUVOS DIDŽIOJO KUNIGAIKŠČIO ALGIRDO ŽMONA IR JO VAIKŲ MOTINA

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019/2 ◽  
pp. 5-39
Author(s):  
Darius Baronas
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Nature Of Information ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania

ANNOTATION. This article is the first attempt of the biographic research of Grand Duchess Uliana Algirdienė of Lithuania (d. 17/03/1392), based on the critical analysis of primary sources. It is also aimed at pointing out the reflection of the role of women in the pagan Lithuanian society. The research was carried out by means of the analytical and comparative method of historical source analysis with a view to separate as distinctly as possible the information derived from contemporary sources from the images imposed by later historiographic tradition. The article questions the stereotypes related to Uliana’s great political power in Lithuania’s political life that are well-established in modern historiography and present-day cultural memory. With this an attempt is made to draw attention to the problematic nature of information derived from historical sources as well as to more distinctly define the frames imposed by the political culture of pagan Lithuania which clearly marked the boundaries for the political activities of women representing the ruling dynasty. This article for the most part dwells on the issues related to the coverage of Algirdas and Uliana’s marriage and the period of their married life up to Algirdas’ death in 1377. KEYWORDS: Uliana, Algirdas, Simeon, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Moscow, Tver, Rus’, women

The Stabilization Process Then and Now

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Stabilization Process ◽  
The Third ◽  
Stabilization Phase ◽  
Over Time

This chapter shifts the focus to the third and final stabilization phase of the political communication cycle (PCC). During the stabilization phase, a new political communication order (PCO) takes shape through the building of norms, institutions, and regulations that serve to fix the newly established status quo in place. This status quo occurs when formerly innovative political communication activities become mundane, yet remain powerful. Much of the chapter details the pattern of communication regulation and institution construction over time. In particular, this chapter explores the instructive similarities and key differences between the regulation of radio and the internet, which offers important perspectives on the significance of our current place in the PCC and the consequences of choices that will be made over the next few years.

Canadian Exceptionalism: Explaining Differences over Time in Provincial and Federal Voter Turnout

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donley T. Studlar
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Multiple Regression Analysis ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
The Political ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Industrial Democracies ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Cross National

Canada is unusual among advanced industrial democracies in having some provinces which regularly have greater voter turnouts for provincial than for federal elections. Provincial and federal turnouts by province in Canada are analyzed for the 1945-1998 period using multiple regression analysis, both for each set of elections and by comparing differences between the two. Federal turnout has declined over the years but provincial turnout appears to have increased slightly. Although the effects found here largely confirm previous findings about the relative effects of different types of variables found for the Canadian federal level only, several of the political explanations previously supported in cross-national research find less support. Instead, region, population density, months since the last federal or provincial election, and season of the year generally have greater and sometimes more consistent effects. This suggests the need for more studies of turnout in democracies at sub-central levels.

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