Legal Mobilization: The Neglected Role of the Law in the Political System

1983 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 690-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Kahn Zemans

This article argues thai the role of the law in the political system has been construed much too narrowly. A review of the political science literature demonstrates an interest in the law that is largely confined to the making of new laws, social change, and social control. That view implies an acceptance of the legal profession's distinction between public and private law as a reasonable guide for political scientists in the study of law.A more interactive view of the law is presented, characterizing legal mobilization (invoking legal norms) as a form of political activity by which the citizenry uses public authority on its own behalf. Further, the legal system, structured to consider cases and controversies on an individual basis, provides access to government authority unencumbered by the limits of collective action. This form of public power, although contingent, is widely dispersed.Consideration of the factors that influence legal mobilization is important not only to understanding who uses the law, but also as predictors to the implementation of public policy; with very few exceptions, the enforcement of the laws depends upon individual citizens to initiate the legal process. By virtue of this dependence, an aggregation of individual citizens acting largely in their own interests strongly influences the form and extent of the implementation of public policy and thereby the allocation of power and authority.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
A.L. ELISEEV ◽  
◽  
O.V. LEONOVA ◽  

The purpose of the article is to reveal the role of Komsomol in the political system of the USSR. The authors note that Komsomol was directly a state body in relation to youth, acted as the official guide of party and economic directives to the youth environment, developed and implemented in practice the state youth policy in relation to Soviet youth. The main functions of the communist youth union in the Soviet society are also highlighted, the representation of Komsomol in the authorities of the Soviet state is reviewed, the role of Komsomol in the adoption of the law on youth is revealed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 24-30
Author(s):  
O. V. Deliia

The macro-objective level of studying the political environment of state policy actualizes the comprehension of the political system in the structure of the external environment through the description of the category «political culture». In general, scientific understanding of the phenomenon of political culture has become a derivative of various research traditions. At the present stage, it is possible to identify several more or less formalized conceptual positions on this matter: subjective objective approaches, cultural and political doctrines.The essence of political culture unites the behavioral, activity aspects of subjects in the sphere of politics and the way the political system operates. Also, the notion of political culture captures the established system of values, norms, institutions, political consciousness that has developed historically, and the forms of political activity that correspond to it. At the same time, all these concepts, approaches have a point of intersection, which represents the main environmental feature of the phenomenon of political culture - universality, presence in one form or another in all spheres of social life.Domestic researchers recognize and underscore the importance of the influence of political culture on the whole complex of relations between the participants in the political process, the form of organization of state power, the form and effectiveness of the political system, the structure of institutions of power, the ability of political culture through its regulatory mechanisms to achieve social consensus, to promote or impede democratic development national state. At the same time, the problem of the environmental significance of political culture for public policy in foreign and domestic scientific discourses arises more theoretically than practical.In our case, the empirical basis for such a reflection was the information and analytical materials of the Razumkov Center «Political Culture and Parliamentarism in Ukraine: Current Status and Main Problems». Proceeding from this generalization, political culture in the structure of the political environment is a systematically organized integrity whose influence extends to its sphere components (mental, social, institutional, economic, etc.), Their interaction, the result of interaction. And finds its manifestation at all levels of society. The combination of these areas and their content is the conditions and factors of the public policy environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

<p>The article presents the attitude of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro – a key statesman and political writer in the 17<sup>th</sup>-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – toward the principle of <em>necessitas frangit legem</em>. At the beginning, the intellectual sources of his understanding of this principle are discussed. Two groups are referenced: one referring to the Christian legal view on <em>necessitas</em> and the other connected with the question of the reason of state. Then four aspects of Fredro’s thought and political activity are analyzed. Firstly, his reference to <em>necessitas</em> treated as the justification of the amendment of the old law. Secondly, various examples of his flexible attitude toward law. All of them express Fredro’s opinion on the key role of prudence in the process of applying law. Thirdly, the question of the infringement of law is discussed by referring to his concept of the exception from law and his reaction to Siciński’s veto. Fourthly, it is pointed how in the context of the political conflict during the 1660s Fredro adopted a much stricter attitude toward observing the law. In the end, the conclusions state that Fredro’s case is a good example of the dilemma of Polish political thought and practice of how to combine effective governance with the respect for constitutional forms.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
abdul muiz amir

This study aims to find a power relation as a discourse played by the clerics as the Prophet's heir in the contestation of political event in the (the elections) of 2019 in Indonesia. The method used is qualitative based on the critical teory paradigm. Data gathered through literary studies were later analyzed based on Michel Foucault's genealogy-structuralism based on historical archival data. The findings show that, (1) The involvement of scholars in the Pemilu-Pilpres 2019 was triggered by a religious issue that has been through online social media against the anti-Islamic political system, pro communism and liberalism. Consequently create two strongholds from the scholars, namely the pro stronghold of the issue pioneered by the GNPF-Ulama, and the fortress that dismissed the issue as part of the political intrigue pioneered by Ormas NU; (2) genealogically the role of scholars from time to time underwent transformation. At first the Ulama played his role as well as Umara, then shifted also agent of control to bring the dynamization between the issue of religion and state, to transform into motivator and mediator in the face of various issues Practical politic event, especially at Pemilu-Pilpres 2019. Discussion of the role of Ulama in the end resulted in a reduction of the role of Ulama as the heir of the prophet, from the agent Uswatun Hasanah and Rahmatan lil-' ālamīn as a people, now shifted into an agent that can trigger the division of the people.


Author(s):  
John Gardner

Torts and Other Wrongs is a collection of eleven of the author’s essays on the theory of the law of torts and its place in the law more generally. Two new essays accompany nine previously published pieces, a number of which are already established classics of theoretical writing on private law. Together they range across the distinction between torts and other wrongs, the moral significance of outcomes, the nature and role of corrective and distributive justice, the justification of strict liability, the nature of the reasonable person standard, and the role of public policy in private law adjudication. Though focused on the law of torts, the wide-ranging analysis in each chapter will speak to theorists of private law more generally.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Jette Steen Knudsen ◽  
Jeremy Moon

We investigate the relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (often assumed to reflect corporate voluntarism) and government (often assumed to reflect coercion). We distinguish two broad perspectives on the CSR and government relationship: the dichotomous (i.e., government and CSR are / should be independent of one another) and the related (i.e., government and CSR are / should be interconnected). Using typologies of CSR public policy and of CSR and the law, we present an integrated framework for corporate discretion for engagement with public policy for CSR. We make four related contributions. First, we explain the dichotomous and the related perspectives with reference to their various assumptions and analyses. Second, we demonstrate that public policy for CSR and corporate discretion coexist and interact. Specifically, we show, third, that public policy for CSR can inform and stimulate corporate discretion and, fourth, that corporations have discretion for CSR, particularly as to how corporations engage with such policy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurdistan Saeed

This study deals with the political parties’ pluralism in Iraq under the Parties Law No. 36 of 2015. The importance of the study lies in the fact that it looks at a topic that is at the heart of democracy and it is necessary for the success of any democratic processes. The study focuses on parties’ pluralism in Iraq since the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1921 until the end of the Baath Party regime in 2003, it also covers the period after 2003 and pays particular attention to the Parties Law No. 36 of 2015. It focuses on the legal framework of political parties after the adoption of the Political Parties Law and studies the impact of this law on parties’ pluralism in Iraq after its approval in 2015. The study concludes that Law No. 36 of 2015 is incapable of regulating parties’ pluralism for reasons including: the lack of commitment by the political parties to the provisions of the law, the inability of the Parties Affairs Department to take measures against parties that violate the law the absence of a strong political opposition that enhances the role of political parties, the association of most Iraqi parties with foreign agendas belonging to neighboring countries, and the fact that the majority of Iraqi parties express ethnic or sectarian orientations at the expense of national identity.


Author(s):  
Richard Whiting

In assessing the relationship between trade unions and British politics, this chapter has two focuses. First, it examines the role of trade unions as significant intermediate associations within the political system. They have been significant as the means for the development of citizenship and involvement in society, as well as a restraint upon the power of the state. Their power has also raised questions about the relationship between the role of associations and the freedom of the individual. Second, the chapter considers critical moments when the trade unions challenged the authority of governments, especially in the periods 1918–26 and 1979–85. Both of these lines of inquiry underline the importance of conservatism in the achievement of stability in modern Britain.


1970 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 754-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond F. Hopkins

The study of politics in “developing” countries has tended to focus on the less formal organs of government, such as political parties, the military, the bureaucracy, and even the educational system. National legislatures have often been ignored or rated of little significance in the political processes of these states. This practice contrasts markedly with the attention paid to legislatures in Western states. The most obvious explanation for it is that legislatures in new states tend to have little influence. Important decisions and shifts in power are usually made or recorded elsewhere in the political system.The Bunge, or National Assembly, of Tanzania is no exception to this general phenomenon. Nevertheless, an examination of the role of M.P.'s in Tanzania can be illuminating. The Bunge contains most of the major political leaders and has, at least constitutionally, broad authority. As a consequence, if the Assembly is to be only a weak political body, then informal norms limiting the powers of the M.P.'s role must exist. Moreover, these norms should prescribe authority relationships between the legislature and other policy shaping bodies in the political system, particularly the Party. Thus, an analysis of the roles of these men can provide important insights not only into the functions of the Bunge, but also into the elite political culture of Tanzania and the pattern of politics which this culture supports.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Prof. Dr. Razia Musarrat ◽  
Muhammad Salman Azhar

The focus of this research is the Pakistan’s bureaucratic structure and its workings during the Ayub Khan’s regime in Pakistan. Authors explore the political system during the Ayub Khan regime and point out that this system was not really political but that was bureaucratic in its nature where people have least freedom of speech.


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