scholarly journals Performing Disobedience: Domestic Transgressions and Political Transformation in Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Rebeca Gualberto Valverde
Keyword(s):  
Political Transformation ◽  
Tragedy Of Mariam

The De-legitimization of General Jaruzelski's Government by Official Mass Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-112
Author(s):  
Indira Dupuis
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Print Media ◽  
Initial Point ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Public Criticism

In this article, I present the results of an analysis of print media reporting on the spectacular trial in 1984 against the murderers of Jerzy Popiełuszko in communist Poland. The aim of my research is to show how the coverage contributed to the de-legitimization of the Communist Party despite the mass media system's tight structures of control. Because of mass media functionality, the coverage of this event contributed to political transformation not only by publicizing a hitherto tabooed topic but also by establishing an initial point for informed public criticism of the government.

Political transformations in the CEE post-communist countries: theoretical and metodological approaches

2017 ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Vira Burdjak
Keyword(s):  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Illiberal Democracy ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Political Realities

Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of political transformations in the CEE post-communist countries have been analyzed. The author argues that democratic transits do not guarantee transition to democracy and its consolidation. They are just polymorphic conversion processes from one political state to another, where the final destination is not always a democracy. They are influenced by general international factors, which allows us to consider the democratic transits, which may not consolidate into democracy, as integral components of the modern global democratic wave. Their real democratic value is not a definite variable. Political realities indicate that some of the transits proceed to illiberal democracy and hybrid regimes with different (non-) democratic features or often with versions of a new authoritarianism. In electoral democracies, only the external, formal sides of the democracy and democratic procedures are imitated, especially elections, which does not give grounds to relate these regimes to the democratic ones. Keywords: Post-communist countries of CEE, theoretical and methodological approaches, political transformation

Five Lessons from European Democracy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Matijasevich
Keyword(s):  
Political Community ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Track Record ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The Eu

Outside of some states still struggling with post-communist transitions, Europe itself may be the first European democracy to collapse in decades. Though never a bastion of participatory democracy and even subject to continuous criticism due to its democratic deficit, the European Union (EU) has provided hope to those who envision a post-national democratic political community. As such, whether the EU survives its present crisis or not, cosmopolitan democrats will look to the EU as a vindication of their ideals. Though perhaps surprising given their track record, this paper will argue that political scientists, especially those concerned with democratization, can also be optimistic about what the EU has brought to the table in terms of how we conceive processes of democratic development. Throughout the paper it will be demonstrated that the creation and maintenance of the European democracy has challenged much of the literature's fundamental assumptions of what makes democracy work. Five key lessons from the European democratic experience will be presented in an attempt to disrupt some of these assumptions including lessons regarding the diversity of the demos, the contingency of democratic upkeep, the challenges of the state, the role of elites in political transformation, and the necessity of exclusion within inclusive spaces. Though a general theory of democracy will not be presented, suggestions will be made as to how we can incorporate some of these lessons into the dominant approaches to democracy found in the literature.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v7i1.214

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke A. Ackerly
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Power Relation ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Women's Human Rights ◽  
Taking Responsibility

Just responsibility is a transformative human rights politics for taking on the complexities, power inequalities, and social normalization of injustice itself. Just responsibility is a human rights theory of political responsibility in which we understand human rights as enjoyed and shared throughout political community (and human rights entitlements as a tool toward that end), political community as defined by its web of networks, not its boundaries, accountability as a political process of discernment, not a power relation, and leadership as a quality of political community, not of individuals within it. Found within and supported by the principles-in-practice of women’s human rights activists, this grounded normative theory of responsibility guides us in a human rights enhancing way to be accountable leaders in political transformation, taking responsibility for global injustice in a just way.

The Social Paradox of Citizen Denunciation: Informing Practices in Modern Poland

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542097764
Author(s):  
Jolanta Arcimowicz ◽  
Mariola Bieńko ◽  
Beata Łaciak
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Media Report ◽  
Civic Society ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Communist Countries

Within sociological literature, including that which analyses systemic changes in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, denunciation is one of the least studied issues, both empirically and theoretically. In Poland after the political transformation, as well as in other post-communist countries, the problem of dealing with security service and secret police informers and collaborators has not gone away. News media report a rapidly growing number of denunciations directed to various institutions and administrative offices, and legal regulations regarding denunciations have also appeared. In public discourse, denunciation and whistleblowing are increasingly often equated. Encouragement to inform about aberrations, confronted with the consequences that whistleblowers face, shows the legal and social vacuum around the institution of whistleblowing in Poland. This article, in response to questions about the modern social image of denunciation, is based on analysis of in-depth individual interviews conducted during 2015–2017 with children, adults, and administrative officials in three Polish cities. The results show that both children and adults treat denunciation as a form of harming others, though they do differentiate their moral judgments depending on the delator’s intention, but they rarely attribute any motive other than personal gain to whistleblowers’ actions. Finally, the existing administrative acquiescence and institutional support for denunciation are sometimes interpreted in terms of the weakness of democracy, immaturity of civic society, and the legacy of a totalitarian state.

scholarly journals Authoritarian resilience through top-down transformation: making sense of Myanmar's incomplete transition

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Ruzza ◽  
Giuseppe Gabusi ◽  
Davide Pellegrino
Keyword(s):  
Political Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Divide And Rule ◽  
Events Data

AbstractStarting from the imperfect nature of Myanmar's democracy, this paper aims to answer two questions. First, can Myanmar's transition be defined as a case of democratization, or is it, rather, a case of authoritarian resilience? To state this differently: is the progress enjoyed by Myanmar's polity the outcome of an ongoing process that is supposed to lead to a fully fledged democracy, or, rather, an attempt to enshrine elements of authoritarian governance under a democratic guise? Second, if the balance leans towards the latter instead of the former, how did authoritarian resilience work in Myanmar? The transition is analysed from a long-term perspective, moving from the 1988 pro-democracy uprising up to the most recent events. Data were collected from available published sources and from three fieldworks conducted by the authors in Myanmar. The paper concludes that Myanmar's transition is better understood as a case of authoritarian resilience than as democratization and highlights three core traits of Myanmar's authoritarian resilience: first, the very top-down nature of the political transformation; second, the incumbents’ ability to set the pace of political reform through the use of repression and political engineering; and third, the divide-and-rule strategy used as a means to keep contestations separated and local.

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