scholarly journals The Empty Centre: The Hollowmen and Representations of Techno-Political Elites in Australian Public Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim D. Weinert ◽  
Kieran Tranter
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
Political Elites

scholarly journals Juju and Statecraft: Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Comfort Max-Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Political Advantage

<p>Religion plays an integral role in all aspects of Ghanaian life, including politics. In recent years, many scholars have commented upon the spectacular rise of Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana since the 1970s, noting its particular influence in politics and in shaping the Ghanaian public sphere more generally. Curiously, though less often noted, rumors about “the occult” and occult influence have also flourished during this same period. Despite Pentecostal hostility to the occult and Pentecostal influence in public life, such rumors have become prevalent to the point that they represent a distinctive feature of Ghanaian politics. This thesis addresses the phenomenon of rumors about the occult in contemporary Ghanaian politics. It argues that the flourishing of political-occult rumors and the strength of Pentecostalism are related. Focusing on the period between the late 1970s and present, and drawing on data from fieldwork interviews and newspaper reports, the thesis examines the force of occult rumors in modern Ghanaian politics. It demonstrates some of the ways in which Ghanaian political elites deploy occult rumors for political advantage and some popular attitudes of the Ghanaian electorate to the rumors. The project proposes that the occult, far from being a phenomenon existing on the margins of modern Ghanaian society, is powerful, public and mainstream.</p>

scholarly journals Juju and Statecraft: Occult Rumors and Politics in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Comfort Max-Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Political Advantage

<p>Religion plays an integral role in all aspects of Ghanaian life, including politics. In recent years, many scholars have commented upon the spectacular rise of Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana since the 1970s, noting its particular influence in politics and in shaping the Ghanaian public sphere more generally. Curiously, though less often noted, rumors about “the occult” and occult influence have also flourished during this same period. Despite Pentecostal hostility to the occult and Pentecostal influence in public life, such rumors have become prevalent to the point that they represent a distinctive feature of Ghanaian politics. This thesis addresses the phenomenon of rumors about the occult in contemporary Ghanaian politics. It argues that the flourishing of political-occult rumors and the strength of Pentecostalism are related. Focusing on the period between the late 1970s and present, and drawing on data from fieldwork interviews and newspaper reports, the thesis examines the force of occult rumors in modern Ghanaian politics. It demonstrates some of the ways in which Ghanaian political elites deploy occult rumors for political advantage and some popular attitudes of the Ghanaian electorate to the rumors. The project proposes that the occult, far from being a phenomenon existing on the margins of modern Ghanaian society, is powerful, public and mainstream.</p>

scholarly journals Zarys historii idei elitaryzmu. Od Platona do Czesława Znamierowskiego

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-54
Author(s):  
Marek Maciejewski
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Closed Circle ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century

The subject of this paper is political elitism (or the existence of political elites) and the shaping of that concept from the ancient times to the 20th century, on the example of the views of its main creators from Plato, through Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, Georges Sorel, or Max Weber to Czesław Znamierowski. Particular focus has been put on the ideas developed at the turn of the 19th century, including those of Robert Michels, Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto, which the author considers to be the fullest and most original. All those ideas have been based on the presumption that the existence of elites is an obvious and indispensible fact since people are different and the natural inequality among them must be maintained to comply with intellectual, moral, or religious premises. Although, practically, all concepts of elitism have been critical of the Marxist theory or any other form of socialist ideology, most theorists hold an opinion that political elites should not isolate themselves in a closed circle, but allow at least some representatives of the other parts of society to join in. Only such ‘circulation’, they claim, can ensure durability of the elites and their survival. Some more recent concepts of political elites go further and propose that interests and aspirations of social masses be taken into account as broadly as possible. This view is a consequence of a conviction that elitism understood as a manner in which political structures function has disappeared and we are currently dealing with an objective process where different types of elites are emerging to create ‘lesser elites’, which – as the process of democratisation of public life continues – results in a gradual departure from the idea of government composed of excellent minds and personalities.

scholarly journals URBAN MOVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF THE LEGITIMATION OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF ALTERNATIVE GROUPS AND CIVIL ORGANISATIONS AT A TIME OF EUROPEAN CRISIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
BARBARA LEWENSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
European Crisis ◽  
Urban Movements ◽  
Depth Interviews

This paper constitutes an analysis of urban movements, marked in the research as alternative groups and civil organisations, in terms of the new politics characteristic of new social movements. In particular it indicates that these movements, ostensibly urban, actually express demands towards the broader social system, delegitimating it in a twofold manner.  Firstly, the acceptance of certain general principles in democratic values and rules is coupled with criticism of how the system functions in practice and of the political elites in Poland, via protest, lobbying, and watchdog activities. A separate type of delegitimation embraces organisations among which we may list cooperatives and squats, as well as organisations managing concrete spaces and withdrawing from participation in public life, shutting themselves away within autonomous spaces and realising a different cultural and democratic model. In both of these groups we are thus dealing with a strongly accentuated anti-systemic and anti-capitalist attitude towards the political reality of the period of transformation in Poland. The research delivered confirmation of the overall research hypothesis adopted in the Lifewhat project, according to which in response to economic crisis civil society responds with the emergence of alternative forms of resilience, not only alleviating the consequences of the crisis but which also, as time passes and the scale of their activities increases, may give rise to a new quality – including in a political sense. The research constitutes a part of the international Lifewhat project. It was conducted on a sample of eighteen purposefully selected civil groups and organisations operating in large cities in Poland, using the method of in-depth interviews.

Socio-political and confessional preconditions of the birth of the Ukrainian Evangelical-Reformed Church in Western Ukraine (20-30 years of the twentieth century)

2000 ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
R. Soloviy
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Religious Influences ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Factor ◽  
First World

In the history of religious organizations of Western Ukraine in the 20-30th years of the XX century. The activity of such an early protestant denominational formation as the Ukrainian Evangelical-Reformed Church occupies a prominent position. Among UCRC researchers there are several approaches to the preconditions for the birth of the Ukrainian Calvinistic movement in Western Ukraine. In particular, O. Dombrovsky, studying the historical preconditions for the formation of the UREC in Western Ukraine, expressed the view that the formation of the Calvinist cell should be considered in the broad context of the Ukrainian national revival of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new assessment of the religious factor in public life proposed by the Ukrainian radical activists ( M. Drahomanov, I. Franko, M. Pavlik), and significant socio-political, national-cultural and spiritual shifts caused by the events of the First World War. Other researchers of Ukrainian Calvinism, who based their analysis on the confessional-polemical approach (I.Vlasovsky, M.Stepanovich), interpreted Protestantism in Ukraine as a product of Western cultural and religious influences, alien to Ukrainian spirituality and culture.

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