Political Movements and State Authority in Liberal Democracies

1990 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Rochon

Political movements are an increasingly common form of mass political mobilization, and the legitimacy and authority of democratic states depends to a growing extent on the relationship between movements and states. Existing case studies of political movements neglect that relationship in favor of issues of mobilization, organization, and societal impact. These studies can nonetheless be used to show that political movements employ a mixture of confrontation and collaboration in their relationship to the state. More centralized states, which offer fewer institutional channels for movement influence, face more confrontational movements. However, political movements in all democratic settings use confrontation primarily as a strategic device to enhance their leverage in negotiations with state authorities. Movements are not a challenge to state authority so much as they are a force for change within democratic society.

Author(s):  
Dustin Gamza ◽  
Pauline Jones

What is the relationship between state repression of religion and political mobilization in Muslim-majority states? Does religious repression increase the likelihood that Muslims will support acts of rebellion against the state? This chapter contends that the effect of repression on attitudes toward political mobilization is conditional on both the degree of enforcement and the type of religious practice that is being targeted. When enforcement is high and the repressive regulation being enforced targets communal (rather than individualistic) religious practices, Muslims expect state persecution of their religious community to increase, and that this persecution will extract a much greater toll. They are thus more willing to support taking political action against the state in order to protect their community from this perceived harm. The chapter tests this argument with two novel survey experiments conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2019. It finds that the degree of enforcement has a significant effect on attitudes toward political mobilization, but this effect is negative (reducing support) rather than positive (increasing support). The chapter also finds that repression targeting communal practices has a stronger effect on attitudes toward political mobilization than repression targeting individualistic practices, but again, these effects are negative. The chapter’s findings suggest that the fear of collective punishment increases as the degree of enforcement increases, particularly when it comes to repression targeting communal practices. Thus, while Muslims are motivated to protect their community from harm, it may be that the certainty of financial and physical harm outweighs the expectation of increasing religious persecution.


10.1068/d236t ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Rubenstein

This author suggests new avenues for thinking about the relationship between formerly stateless societies and the state. It does so through a detailed study of one particular group, the Shuar, indigenous to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Formerly an acephalous society of hunter-gardeners, the Shuar now constitute a federation with a democratically elected, hierarchical leadership and are at the forefront of indigenous movements in Latin America. The author analyzes this transformation in the context of colonialism but argues that colonialism involves far more than the movement of people from one place to another or the extension of state authority over new territory. Rather, he reveals colonialism to hinge on the transformation of sociospatial boundaries. Such transformations were critical not only to Shuar ethnogenesis but also to Ecuadorian state-building. That is, colonialism involves a dialectical reorganization both of the state and of its new subjects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Maksum

Political economy and religious policies affect the relationship between sharia and financial authorities. Countries that make Islam as the official religion put Sharia authorities within the scope of the state. Malaysia is one of the countries that put Sharia authorities in the structure of state authority, although it is subject to independency. In the meantime, Indonesia combines the two models of relationship: 1) granting broader independence to sharia authority (the Indonesian Ulema Council) and 2) forming sharia board to deal with sharia finance, among others. The comparison of Indonesian, Malaysian, and the Middle Eastern countries’ system shows that the independence and the effectiveness of sharia economic fatwa application are found to attract each other. This, in turn, influences the supervision of Islamic financial institutions.  AbstrakPolitik ekonomi dan kebijakan agama memengaruhi hubungan antara otoritas syariah dan otoritas keuangan. Negara yang menjadikan Islam sebagai agama resmi menempatkan otoritas syariah dalam ruang lingkup negara. Malaysia adalah salah satu negara yang menempatkan otoritas Syariah dalam struktur otoritas negara, meskipun tetap independen. Sementara itu, Indonesia menggabungkan dua model hubungan: 1) memberikan independensi yang lebih luas kepada otoritas syariah (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) dan 2) membentuk dewan syariah untuk menangani hal yang berkaitan dengan keuangan syariah. Perbandingan sistem Indonesia, Malaysia, dan negara-negara Timur Tengah menunjukkan bahwa independensi dan efektivitas penerapan fatwa ekonomi syariah terbukti saling berhubungan satu sama lain. Ini, pada gilirannya, memengaruhi pengawasan lembaga keuangan Islam.


Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lugano

This chapter provides an overview of the relationship between civil society and the Kenyan state. It unveils two contradictory trends: civil society’s opposition to, and co-optation by/cooperation with, the state. The chapter argues that these tendencies are contingent on organizational positionality within the prevailing political settlement, which constitutes state authority. The trends further affirm the centrality of civil society in Kenya’s political settlements, and associated reflections of key societal divisions along ethnic and political lines that in turn help to shape organizational relations with the state and broader society. Overall, the checkered relationship between state and civil society supports both popular perceptions of the latter’s contributions to democratization, as well as concerns regarding its transformative potential.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
John Docker

Genocide studies are at a cross-road. In June 2016, the International Network of Genocide Scholars, sponsor of the Journal of Genocide Research, imperilled the future of genocide studies by aligning itself with Zionist Israel, which many scholars consider to be a genocidal settler-colonial perpetrator state. Almost at the same time, Damien Short's important intervention Redefining Genocide was published, suggesting new directions for genocide studies in the Anthropocene and featuring Palestine as one of its case studies. In considering historical and ongoing genocides in Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Australia, Redefining Genocide inspires a rethinking of the relationship between genocide, settler-colonialism, and the state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5079
Author(s):  
Sławomir Ostrowski

The socioeconomic sphere and the relationships in which commitment occurs are important elements in the development of sustainable services. The study reported in this article identifies the elements that influence the development of the relationship between service providers and their customers and proposes a model that describes the state of the relationship between service providers and customers in terms of symmetrical commitment of both parties. Qualitative research including interviews with experts and case studies was completed, resulting in a ‘ladder of commitment’ model that identifies distinct commitment levels and specific commitment factors functioning at each of those levels. In practice, the proposed model makes it possible to assess the state of customer and provider commitment, identifying commitment deficits on the part of the customer or service provider. This article can provide practical added value for managers who are looking for ways to analyze customer commitment in order to develop sustainable services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
Audrey Macklin

A handful of Canadian church congregations provide sanctuary to failed asylum seekers. Many also participate in resettling refugees through a government program called private sponsorship. Both sanctuary and sponsorship arise as specific modes of hospitality in response to practices of exclusion and inclusion under national migration regimes. Sanctuary engages oppositional politics, whereby providers confront and challenge state authority to exclude. Refugee sponsorship embodies a form of collaborative politics, in which sponsorship groups partner with government in settlement and integration. I demonstrate how the state’s perspective on asylum versus resettlement structures the relationship between citizen and state and between citizen and refugee. I also reveal that there is more collaboration in sanctuary and resistance in sponsorship than might be supposed.


1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Greer

An extensive literature already applies a variety of theories of interest intermediation to case studies of British agricultural policy. This paper applies the concept of policy network to one particular territorial aspect of agricultural policy – the relationship between the state and the farmer in Northern Ireland during the period of devolution between 1921–72. The conclusion is that although theories of policy community and meso-corporatism have some explanatory value, La Palombara's notion of parentela is necessary to any understanding of the essential nature of the farmer-state relationship in Northern Ireland.


Author(s):  
Damien Van Puyvelde

In the 21st century, more than any other time, US agencies have relied on contractors to conduct core intelligence functions. This book charts the swell of intelligence outsourcing in the context of American political culture and considers what this means for the relationship between the state, its national security apparatus and accountability within a liberal democracy. Through analysis of a series of case studies, recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews with national security experts in the public and private sectors, the book provides an in-depth and illuminating appraisal of the evolving accountability regime for intelligence contractors.


1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
Edward D. Wynot

The relationship between the Jewish nation and the governing systems of Central and Eastern Europe has long fascinated, and bedeviled, contemporary observers and modern scholars alike. Numerous problems continually seem to defy convincing resolution. Among them are such key questions as these: Which factors can be used to define the Jews — i.e., linguistic, religious, ethnic lineage, custom and tradition — or a combination of these? Can the Jews become trusted loyal citizens of a secular state wherein they form a distinct ethno-religious minority? How can the government and/or its supporting majority determine at what point the Jews cease to be productive, contributing members of society, and become instead a harmful burden to the state and its people? Nowhere, it seems, has this collection of thorny issues, conveniently known as the “Jewish Question,” enjoyed such widespread attention and concerted concern from both official and general sources as in the lands ruled by the Russian tsars and, after 1917, by the Soviet commissars.


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