Assessment of Political Power in the Israeli Knesset

1985 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 673-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amnon Rapoport ◽  
Esther Golan
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Indices ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Ideological Space ◽  
Banzhaf Power Index ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ratio Scales ◽  
Best Fit

Immediately after the election to the tenth Israeli parliament (Knesset), 21 students of political science, 24 Knesset members, and seven parliamentary correspondents were each asked (a) to assess the political power ratios of the 10 parties represented in the Knesset and (b) to judge the ideological similarity between them. As ascertained by Saaty's analytic hierarchy scaling technique, the power ratio judgments proved sufficiently consistent to justify the construction of individual ratio scales of perceived political power. The ideological proximities were adequately represented by two-dimensional ideological spaces. Analyses of the derived power measures showed that the higher the political sophistication of the subject, the higher the combined power attributed to the religious parties and the lower the combined power assigned to the two largest parties Likud and Labor. The derived power measures were then compared to the predictions of six power indices, three of which only consider the ideological space. Of the six models, the generalized Banzhaf power index best accounted for the perceived power of 62% of the subjects, whereas the classical Shapley-Shubik index provided the best fit for 31% of the subjects. The generalized power indices were found only partly satisfactory with a need for further revision.

Art in the Service of Power: The Creation of a “New Man” (On the Example of Soviet Propaganda Porcelain of the 1920s)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 442-456
Author(s):  
Margarita Bayutova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Random Choice ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
New Man ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Applied Art ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

In the article the author considers the problem of using art as the political power instrument. The subject of the study is the analysis of applied arts possibilities as a means of political propaganda and agitation, the necessary qualities and political views formation in a person. The material for the analysis is the Soviet propaganda porcelain of the 1920s. The choice of this material is caused, firstly, by its great visibility in the framework of the discussed problem, and, secondly, by the negative result of its use in real politics (at first sight, paradoxical). At present, Soviet propaganda porcelain is considered to be a “unique phenomenon” of Russian and world art. However, the main reason for its appearance at the beginning of the 20th century was not the search for new art forms. After coming to power in 1917, the Bolshevists faced the need to form political views of the citizens that were compatible with the party course — in general, to form a “new man” capable of living in a new society. On the one hand, porcelain was a random choice at that period of time (1920-s) but, on the other hand, people assigned specific characteristics to it as a type of applied art. And, therefore, they ascribed to it the possibilities of an instrument of political power. But at the same time using it in that capacity is greatly limited due to other specific properties, as well as due to other historical circumstances. The main reason for the failure of Soviet propaganda porcelain as the political propaganda and agitation means is the contradiction between the course of political power and the essence of porcelain as a phenomenon, i.e. inconsistency between the goal and the means to achieve it. In general, the author draws a conclusion that there is a difference between the goals of art and power and, as a consequence, the groundlessness of the power attempts to consider art exclusively as its own tool.

Feminist ‘Selves’ and Feminism's ‘Others’: Feminist Representations of Jamaat-E-Islami Women in Pakistan

2005 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amina Jamal
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Women ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Women's Autonomy ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
Ideological Space ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Important Site

In Pakistan, as in many other societies, politico-religious movements or so-called Islamist fundamentalist movements are becoming an important site for women's activism as well as the harnessing of such activism to promote agendas that seem to undermine women's autonomy. This has become a concern for a growing feminist literature which from a variety of political and theoretical positions seeks to understand and explain the subject-position of Muslim women as politico-religious activists. This paper attempts a deconstructive reading of texts by leading Pakistani feminist scholars as they attempt the difficult process of steering between fundamentalism and Orientalism in their accounts of ‘fundamentalist’ women in the political ideological space of Pakistan.

The Gallic Singularity and the Royal Mistress

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-66
Author(s):  
Christine Adams
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Marie Antoinette ◽  
Louis Xvi ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Realm

The relationship of the French king and royal mistress, complementary but unequal, embodied the Gallic singularity; the royal mistress exercised a civilizing manner and the soft power of women on the king’s behalf. However, both her contemporaries and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historians were uncomfortable with the mistress’s political power. Furthermore, paradoxical attitudes about French womanhood have led to analyses of her role that are often contradictory. Royal mistresses have simultaneously been celebrated for their civilizing effect in the realm of culture, chided for their frivolous expenditures on clothing and jewelry, and excoriated for their dangerous meddling in politics. Their increasing visibility in the political realm by the eighteenth century led many to blame Louis XV’s mistresses—along with Queen Marie-Antoinette, who exercised a similar influence over her husband, Louis XVI—for the degradation and eventual fall of the monarchy. This article reexamines the historiography of the royal mistress.

Introduction National Liberalisms in Illiberal States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark I. Vail
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Financial Policies ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

This chapter situates the book in theoretical and empirical contexts. It provides a brief overview of competing theoretical approaches to explaining trajectories of economic reform in continental Europe in the era of austerity and transnational neoliberalism since the early 1990s. Since standard analyses of “neoliberal” reform fail to capture these dynamics of economic reform in continental Europe, as do conventional institutionalist and interest-based accounts, it argues for an approach that emphasizes the political power of ideas and highlights the influence of national liberal traditions—French “statist liberalism,” German “corporate liberalism,” and Italian “clientelist liberalism.” It provides a brief overview of the remainder of the book, which uses a study of national liberal traditions to explain trajectories of reform in fiscal, labor-market, and financial policies in France, Germany, and Italy, three countries that have rejected neoliberal approaches to reform in a neoliberal age.

Communication

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian D. Liddy
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
And Control ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

The exercise of political power in late medieval English towns was predicated upon the representation, management, and control of public opinion. This chapter explains why public opinion mattered so much to town rulers; how they worked to shape opinion through communication; and the results. Official communication was instrumental in the politicization of urban citizens. The practices of official secrecy and public proclamation were not inherently contradictory, but conflict flowed from the political process. The secrecy surrounding the practices of civic government provoked ordinary citizens to demand more accountability from town rulers, while citizens, who were accustomed to hear news and information circulated by civic magistrates, were able to use what they knew to challenge authority.

Politonomy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Loughlin
Keyword(s):  
State Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
The Political ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Significance

This chapter examines Carl Schmitt’s contribution to political jurisprudence. It approaches the issue through the concept of politonomy, a concept first alluded to by Schmitt but which he never developed. Politonomy seeks a scientific understanding of the basic laws and practices of the political. The chapter situates Schmitt within the German tradition of state theory and shows that his overall objective was to build a theory of the constitution of political authority from the most basic elements of the subject. It suggests that Schmitt occupies an ambivalent position in political jurisprudence and that this is because of his distrust of the scientific significance of general concepts. To the extent that he acknowledged the existence of a ‘law of the political’, this is found in Schmitt’s embrace of institutionalism in the 1930s and later in his account of nomos as the basic law of appropriation, division, and production.

Democracy and Political Culture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.

Division de pouvoir et intégration social: de Montesquieu à la crise actuelle du parlementarisme

1968 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-269
Author(s):  
André Vachet
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Social Division ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
Vital Forces

Division of power and social integrationExplanation of some of the recent challenges to western democracy may be found in a re-examination of Montesquieu's thought. Here we find the theory of the separation of power to be far more complex than is implied in the simple divisions of legislature, executive, and judiciary. For Montesquieu, the separation of power is more a social division than a political or juridical one. He contemplated returning the organs of political power to various social forces, e.g. monarchy, aristocracy, and bourgeoisie, and that then the self-assertion of forces would be restrained by the resistance of other social groups. The realization of its goals would require every important social group to integrate itself both to society and to the state and to seek its goals through realization of the general good.Since Montesquieu's time, political structures would seem to have been very little changed even though social structures have been greatly altered by the rise of economic powers. Political institutions have been losing touch with the vital forces of society and these have had to find other channels of expression. The personalization of power, the rise of the executive, violence, and increasing paternalism may be viewed as phenomena of compensation by which attempts are being made to bridge the gap between the structures of political power and those of a society which has been restructured.Revigoration of parliamentary democracy would seem to require that all vital social forces be reintegrated into the political system and be given meaningful channels of political expression. Failure to make such changes opens the way to identification of the political powers with technocracy and the increasing general use of violence in the resolution of social problems.

The Israeli–Lebanese war of 2006: consequences for Lebanon

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-210
Author(s):  
Ziad Hafez
Keyword(s):  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Major Consequence ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

This article focuses on the political narrative in Lebanon before and after the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006. It revolves around the subject of national unity as a sine qua non condition for success for the Lebanese resistance led by Hezbollah. A major consequence of the narrative on national unity is the need to build a modern state and establish a cohesive defence policy. The paper also examines the impact of the war on Lebanon's economy and on its relations with the rest of the world (the USA, France, Syria, Arab countries, and Iran).

The Cycle of Agathias: New Identifications Scrutinised

1969 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 87-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. McCail
Keyword(s):  
Recent Article ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
Published Account

The Cycle of sixth-century epigrams edited by Agathias Scholasticus is the subject of a recent article by Mr and Mrs A. Cameron (JHS lxxxvi [1966] 6 ff.), who argue cogently that it was published in the early years of Justin II, and not the later years of Justinian, as has hitherto been supposed. Ca. also suggest identifications for many of the poets and imperial officials who figure in the Cycle. They do not, however, exhaust all the identifications that can be made, and some of those suggested by them require amplification or correction. Furthermore, Ca.'s view of the dating of the Cycle leads them, it seems to me, to underestimate its Justinianic character. The following observations are offered without prejudice to the merit of Ca.'s article as a whole.Among the Cyclic poets, only Julian the ex-Prefect of the East stands in close relationship to the political life of the age. His involvement in the Nika insurrection of 532 is attested by historical sources and, as Ca. claim (13), by two epigrams of the Anthology. The latter, however, contain difficulties passed over by Ca. In the first place, of the two epigrams on the cenotaph of Hypatius, only AP vii 591 is certainly from Julian's pen; vii 592 is unattributed in the Palatine MS., a fact which Ca. omit to mention. (It is absent from the Planudean MS.) The state of affairs in P is no accident, vii 591, though eulogising the dead man and alluding openly to the casting of his corpse into the sea, is moderate in tone, and would have caused no more offence to Justinian than Procopius's published account of the affair.

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