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This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 16(3) (2021) in order to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends and knowledge. The first paper analyses the economic consequences of the rise and spread of the Covid-19 virus in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The second paper presents a multi-regional generalized RAS technique to update input–output tables. The third paper investigates which European Union regions are most likely to be exposed to external shocks and which are more resilient. The fourth paper proposes a new neighbourhood inequality index for cities. The fifth paper analyses productivity and profitability using a sophisticated hierarchical model applied to a huge data set of individual firms. The sixth paper contains an empirical analysis on the choice of the national capital city location among 80 potential candidates in China over a period of 2240 years. The seventh paper explains political ideology at the municipality level in Switzerland based on 312 federal referendums between 1981 and 2017. The eighth paper examines the driving forces of business cycle synchronization among the 49 US states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1921, in his ground-breaking Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse , Freud momentously redefined psychoanalysis, until then an individual psychology, as a social psychology. Whereas individual psychology had previously already been viewed as, de facto , interpersonal, even though not explicitly defined as such, Freud (1933a) unambiguously stated that “sociology, too, dealing as it does with the behaviour of people in society, cannot be anything but applied psychology,” and, by extension, applied social psychology as well. An essential part of social psychology is the relationship between the leader and the led. The latter applies not only to leader-led dynamics in small groups, but even more dramatically to the leaders of masses and mobs. Mass phenomena are seen as crucial to understanding diverse mass events in history: the two great World Wars of the 20th century and dictatorial fundamentalist political ideologies such as Fascism and Communism; and current events such as international terrorism and regional conflicts, and their relationship to a renewal of fundamentalist religious ideologies. Once again, political, social, and ideological differences are being addressed by violence and war. In the spirit of Freud's 1932 reply to Einstein “Why War?,” this paper is also a plea for using the peaceful method of interpersonal dialog and negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than a decade of multi-actor conflict in Syria has resulted in a complex patchwork of legal identity documentation issued by state and non-state actors. This paper considers the legal identity practices pursued by the Kurdish-led Self Administration governing large swathes of territory in the north of the country. Specifically, the paper studies the forms of identity documentation the Self Administration does and does not provide to people present under its control. Beyond this, the paper focuses on how this system coexists with that of the central state, reflective of the Self Administration's broader approach of compromise combined with competition, to operate as a de facto authority respecting the overall sovereignty, yet challenging specific policies, of the central state. Against the backdrop of somewhat contradictory accusations of collaborating with the Syrian government and simultaneously seeking independence from it, the Self Administration has refrained from mimicking the state while expanding its own de facto 'jurisdictional subjecthood'. Practices of legal identity consequently help to elucidate necessary nuance in understanding the relations between the Self Administration and the government in Damascus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing scholarship on cryptoeconomics describes this field as a new and emergent phenomenon. In this paper, I claim that crypto anarchists and cryptoeconomists design and build decentralised networks as governance systems according to the common principles of cryptography, economics, and engineering, and thus, cryptoeconomics is not new but has historical intellectual roots in the political ideology of Crypto Anarchy. Cryptoeconomics is a multidisciplinary field of study concerned with the design of decentralised systems that facilitate the coordination of multiple actors. Practitioners of crypteoconomics, known as "cryptoeconomists," employ engineering and economic methods to create institutional infrastructure for social coordination. Crypto Anarchy is a political ideology that emphasises autonomy and anonymity and the practice of self-organising through technical means largely attributed to a counter-cultural subgroup known as the "cypherpunks". I demonstrate the link between Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics through the analysis of empirical evidence from primary archival sources, secondary sources, and academic literature. The implication of these findings is a deeper understanding of what the creation of cryptoeconomic systems does in enabling a political economy of distributed, autonomous coordination. What cryptoeconomists did not adopt and perpetuate is a value for anonymity, which is where the social outcomes of Crypto Anarchy and cryptoeconomics diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the photographic career of Stefano Lecchi, the Italian photographer best known for his series of photographs documenting the aftermath of the defence of the Roman Republic in 1849, a key episode in Italy's nationalist movement, the Risorgimento. This study concentrates on the album Fotografi di Roma, which presents thirty of Lecchi's salted paper prints from that series together with eleven topographical views. This album demonstrates how the events of the Risorgimento expanded the existing canon of Italy's historical monuments to include new sites identified with contemporary political actions that in turn contributed to the collective memory of the founding of the nation. Using newly discovered biographical information and highlighting the transnational network of colleagues and patrons surrounding this album, the author proposes the significance of these photographs to Italian nation-building across the political spectrum and posits Lecchi as an important, although often neglected, figure in the early development of paper photography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilizes the online world politics simulation Statecraft to examine how students perceive the influence of simulations on their political ideologies as well as their expectations about behavior and outcomes within the constraints of a virtual world. This paper does not evaluate learning outcomes or student understanding of class content. The research method relies on the content analysis of one hundred and ninety-five papers collected from students enrolled in ten sections of a coauthor's courses. The papers reveal that students may begin the simulation with different expectations. Some approach it as a game while others use it as a way to test their ideological goals and values. Students make definitive connections between their initial political ideologies (folk realism or folk idealism) and their initial strategies within the simulation as well as how their ideological positions change over time as a response to events within the simulation. In addition, they justify their actions based on their political ideology and final outcome-success or failure. This is true even though most students are aware, at least in part, of a number of procedural restrictions inherent in the simulation. Recommendations for monitoring during and debriefing after the simulation are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted, in part, as a response to the horrific antisemitism leading to the extermination of millions of Jews in World War II. Yet, today, organisations that utilise human rights instruments to criticise Israel's laws, policies and practices are themselves being cast as antisemitic. How has the contemporary human rights regime come to be charged with antisemitism? The ostensible answer is that the meaning of antisemitism has expanded to include anti-Zionism and harsh criticism of Israel. While scholars have debated the validity of this expansion, this paper interrogates three types of abstractions: those deployed by traditional antisemites, those emanating from human rights, and those mobilised by the new antisemitism doctrine. An analysis of these abstractions helps clarify the new hostility between antisemitism and human rights. Whereas Zionism aims to protect Jews by asserting a right to Jewish difference within the context of a nation-state, human rights aim to protect Jews by promoting an egalitarian distribution of rights among the population. The crux of the matter is that the solution human rights offer to antisemitism also threatens the Zionist project, since it challenges the racialized mode of governance that this political ideology has implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmopolitanism, which is often defined as openness to other cultures and individuals, is significant for understanding processes of stratification in contemporary, globalised societies that are home to increasingly diverse populations. In this paper, we broaden the perspective on cosmopolitanism to include cultural, interpersonal, and political dimensions. We test the associations between these types of cosmopolitanism and three types of correlates: socio-demographic characteristics, personal exposure to other cultures, and exposure to other cultures via various media. We analyse data from nine European countries that differ in the characteristics of their population, cultural traditions, and political models. Results indicate that differences between respondents in the nine countries are better explained by individual characteristics than by country characteristics. Furthermore, it is mainly personal and mediated exposure to other cultures, rather than socio-demographic variables, that play a significant role in influencing respondents' cosmopolitan tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) established in 2015 has developed an institutional framework that on the paper largely mimics the European Union's. The article suggests that a closer examination of the economic interdependence in the region adds valuable knowledge regarding the development of the organization. The analysis follows a (post)-functionalist model and highlights how the integration process responds to economic interdependence, and that the integration process has the potential of generating spillovers. The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) has initiated work targeting the removal of non-tariff barriers, and business associations in the region are paying attention to the organization. Yet, there are also several constraints to integration in the region linked to the member states' reluctance to delegate substantial powers to the EEC, and their insistence on the cooperation as being merely economic. These limitations are in line with previous suggestions in the literature regarding non-democratic regional organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Digital constitutionalism' is an appealing concept to explain the recent emergence of constitutional counteractions against the challenges produced by digital technology. However, the existing scholarship does not offer a unitary picture of this notion. This paper carries out a literature review of the topic and suggests a new systematisation of the theoretical framework surrounding the concept of digital constitutionalism. It is argued that digital constitutionalism is the ideology that adapts the values of contemporary constitutionalism to the digital society. It does not identify the normative responses to the challenges of digital technology, but rather embodies the set of principles and values that informs and guides them. Conversely, the emerging normative responses can be regarded as the components of a process of constitutionalisation of the digital environment. In light of the adopted definitions, the paper ultimately illustrates a new way of mapping the constitutional responses that have emerged to address the challenges of digital technology. They not only include the constitutional tools that we could define as 'classic' in the context of constitutional theory, such as the binding legal texts produced in the state-centric dimension, but, significantly, also new instruments, which are developed in the transnational dimension of private actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constitutes an introduction to the special journal issue on the twentieth-century architecture for children regarded as 'citizens of the future' by several distinct ideologies. Four papers from different geographical areas, performed at different times of the twentieth century, comprise the issue and present a rich array of political projects which nonetheless shared the belief in children and childhood as the objects for education, indoctrination, and social transformation. This introduction intends to contextualise architecture of spaces for children in a historical and theoretical perspective discussing its relations with social sciences and the recent field of childhood studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2021 local government elections (LGE) in the Republic of South Africa once again delivered hung metropolitan municipalities – a phenomenon that became common following the 2016 LGE results. The City of Cape Town is, however, a metropolitan municipality that has experienced coalition governance since the early 2000s, while the rest of South Africa's metropolitan municipalities were governed by the ruling African National Congress from 1994 to 2016. The 2021 LGE delivered coalition governments across the majority of metropolitan councils, namely: City of Tshwane (the capital), City of Johannesburg (Africa's economic hub), Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, City of Ethekwini, and Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. This paper provides a conceptualisation of 'coalition governance and politics', and key characteristics of this phenomenon in South Africa and globally. Conceptual and operational understandings of coalitions is crucial given their increasing prevalence in South Africa. Areas of cooperation, compromise, consensus and divergence among the prospective coalition partners in South Africa are also examined in the article (based on political party electoral performance trends, political ideology, policy preferences and leadership personalities and qualities). Such factors are important because they determine the likely feasibility, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of coalition governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the interplay between narratives on Central Asia as a region. It compares European Union (EU) narratives with those of the five post-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. By doing so, it investigates the manifestations of narratives, stories and narrators who continue to construct and convey certain discourses about the region, comparing EU discourse and that of the local political elites in Central Asia, respectively. By looking at official discourse conveyed by the presidents of the countries and in key foreign policy documents, the interplay of narratives as dialogues between narrators is analysed, thus expanding into ideational analysis, an emerging trend in the literature on post-Soviet Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deploys a discursive institutionalist framework to explore how various categories of ideas – from ideology, to programme, to policy – interact to shape the planning policymaking process. Using the emergence of the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework in England as a case study, the role of the political ideology of the leadership of a political party (as distinct from, but related to, the broader category of 'neoliberalism') in shaping and legitimising planning reform is analysed. It is shown that it is not only the political ideological legacy of a political party and how it melds with the prevailing paradigmatic orthodoxy (such as neoliberalism) that matters in framing planning reform, but that the way in which ideas are communicated and consulted on in the policymaking process is also significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper answers a call for contributions ‘dedicated to revealing how markets and marketing make violence culturally acceptable and socially normalised’. Such an investigation has to involve some in-depth conceptualisation with respect to the meanings of both marketing and violence. The market is an institution related to other institutions which altogether are - as in all societies - trying to cope with violence. Today our societies are based on both markets and democracy, but those institutions tend to be mutually contradictory. When marketing tends to replace politics and to almost religiously convert citizens into consumers it is social cohesion that is at stake. This paper aims at contributing to a deeper understanding of social/historical trends. As it highlights the importance of ideas (representations and motivations) and their links with changing institutions, it might help researchers and marketers to a broader understanding of their role and towards a more conscious social behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While schools are necessary spaces for democratic education, more analyses are needed that unpack their limits. Drawing from ethnographic research in U.S. Government classrooms in two predominantly White schools in politically conservative communities in central Ohio, findings show that teachers and students idealize a politically neutral pedagogy, yet in practice, teachers engage in discursive and pedagogical moves that reify right-wing politics in implicit and explicit ways. Ideas that deviate from "neutrality"--those deemed "racial" or left-leaning--are viewed as "political" and avoided. Drawing on the concept of hegemonic power and situating this amidst conversations of the White normative trappings of civic and social studies education, this paper offers insights into the political ideologies and pedagogical choices that shape right-wing civic learning opportunities in politically and racially homogenous schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation and political ideology were closely interlinked in apartheid South Africa: forced removals in areas considered important for conservation was a common practice. Post-Apartheid reforms sought to address the injustices of the past, and at the level of policy, the Land Restitution Act of 1994 recognizes the injustices suffered by specific groups during Apartheid providing a framework to address their claims. However, the land claims process is still marked by various injustices. Drawing on life history interviews conducted with 31 members of the Likhayalethu Community, South Africa, as a case study this paper presents an analytical discussion of how the Land Restitution policy framework in South Africa attempts to address the epistemic injustices in the case of claims in protected areas. The paper raises concerns about the capacity of this policy framework to prevent epistemic injustices from continuing to occur through the current land restitution process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the period of the last four decades and evaluates the significance of four major themes in the macro-environment of sport management and policy. These themes are (a) the shift in international relations from a bi-polar to a multi-polar model; (b) the challenging of teleological assumptions concerning the development of western models of modernization, and their replacement with accounts of multiple modernities; (c) the emergence of Populism and the changing nature of political Ideology and sport policy; and (d) contemporary notions of language, truth, discourse. The paper presents a review of relevant literature in the fields of philosophy, politics, policy and discourse analysis, identifying the impact and significance of such changes. The findings highlight the need for policy and management to adapt to the new realities. (a) First, operating within a multipolar international relations system implies adaptation to the erosion of western hegemony in the international sports economy. (b) Second, challenge to the dominance of the western modernization thesis, by proponents of multiple modernities, implies a requirement to serve needs of heterogeneous markets within culturally diverse societies. (c) Third, the development of the politics of cultural populism, requires managers/policy-makers to understand and resist the use of sport in promoting negative, non-inclusionary ideological messages. (d) Finally, the undermining of notions of truth in public discourse, will require managers to defend evidence-based policy, and publicly acknowledged criteria of truth in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing contention in the Housing Justice movement from activists, theorists, and politicians that not only should everyone have enough housing, but there is something wrong with having too much of it. This paper provides a framework to articulate and defend efforts to create housing wealth ceilings. Building on the work of Ingrid Robeyns, it develops the moral and political doctrine of housing limitarianism. This doctrine asserts it is morally wrong to have too much housing while others, human or animal, do not have enough, and that governments ought to limit the excessive acquisition/consumption of housing by individuals and corporations. I employ the Rawlsian ideal of property-owning democracy to argue for the dispersal of homeownership throughout society. Lastly, I discuss how housing justice can ethically negotiate the apparent conflict between increasing the supply of affordable housing and the preservation of natural habitat for wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 100th anniversary of the Republic, Turkey experienced another multi-party election. This paper aims to analyse the role partisanship played in determining the outcomes of the 2023 General Elections. The literature provides valuable insights about the effects of partisanship on the vote choice in Turkey, and underscores the influence of political socialization, newly emerging political parties, clientelist ties and voters' threat perceptions on party identification. To contribute to this literature, this study provides individual level analysis of the data gathered via Turkish Election Studies (TES) and compares the results of 2018 and 2023 elections. This comparison includes comparative examination of partisanship vis-à-vis the effects of such individual variables as social class, political ideology, voters' perceptions of the recent performance of the macro economy, and cultural identities. The findings show that partisanship and cultural divisions seem to be crucial determinants of vote choices in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History education has been instrumental in transmitting collective memories across generations while sustaining national traditions. Many nations use history education to instill national memories in their future citizens. In the current Jewish context, history is arguably a dominant cultural discourse. History education is deemed central to preparing future Jewish citizens of Israel. In particular, Zionist scholars and educators use the Bible as their primary text, providing an infrastructure of history and myths for this national ideology. In order to investigate the relationship between political ideology, education, and national memories, this paper explores the ways in which the Hebrew Bible and Jewish history are being taught interchangeably in Jewish-Israeli schools. Drawing on various source materials (such as political videos, school curricula, and textbooks), the paper retraces the origins of this conflation, critically examines its goals, and suggests possible effects it may have on the formation of children's and adolescents' collective memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the phenomenon of teacher awards with particular reference to one bestowed in Spain. This phenomenon is analysed in line with the consequences of free market ideology in education and the ideology of influencers and followers. Drawing on qualitative research based in participant and non-participant observation, in-depth interviews and document analysis, the results show that education practice was determined by the award requirements, and complying with its criteria became the overriding objective. The need for recognition was highlighted but critical views were also brought to light in relation to the notions of microcelebrities, performativity, individualism and competitiveness. The paper contributes to critical reflections on the already existing controversies regarding awards in education and specifically those presented to individuals. School teachers' perceptions of and reasons for participating in these initiatives and the repercussions in their classrooms are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current era of more extreme political and religious views coming into the mainstream, this paper investigates whether party affiliation is associated with the concept of religious morality more than political ideology. To answer this research question, we construct an empirical scale of religious morality based on data from opinion polls, which remain among the most efficient and widespread survey methods to capture psycho-social data at large scales. Classification models, using ideology and religious morality as predictors, respectively, were compared on their performance in predicting party affiliation. Response data on just four questions from a national opinion poll were used to demonstrate the viability of constructing a parametric scale using item response modeling approaches. Results show that even with 'small data', a measurement-based and data-driven approach can produce classification models that are both statistically precise and accurate. Finally, we discuss the findings and the implications for both politics and psycho-social measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significance of historical narratives on populism, the congruence between collective memory and scholarship regarding populism is scarce in Central and Eastern European countries. We address this gap by analysing the commemorative narratives of the competing populist right-wing political parties in Hungary and Poland promoted during celebrations for the Day of National Unity and National Independence Day celebration. The paper analyses the structure, content and functions of commemorative speeches to highlight the similarities and differences between the political actors under consideration. The findings reveal that victimisation and heroisation are constant and stable components of both countries' political narratives. Moreover, the elements of populist communication are articulated alongside nationalist themes emphasising the greatness of the nation, historical revisionism or national Catholicism. The references to the people using ethno-cultural and exclusionary terms are of particular significance. Although praised and credited with positive qualities, the Polish and Hungarian peoples are more frequently presented as victims of international enemies, European elites or internal, cultural and political elites. This victimhood status allows political actors to both represent themselves as advocates of the people and legitimises their claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an analysis of the moderating role played by political ideology in transparency, thereby contributing to the growing body of literature on the topic of local government transparency. Although previous research has indicated that transparency in local governments depends on a variety of political factors, the influence of political ideology on transparency shows some inconsistencies. This paper argues that, among various political issues that affect the disclosure of information, political ideology acts as a moderator of active information disclosure. The empirical analysis is based on unbalanced panel data from 308 Portuguese municipalities. The results of this study confirm that political ideology moderates the relationship between political factors and active information disclosure. Specifically, they indicate that political ideology plays an important role in improving levels of transparency in municipalities governed by left-wing politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During South Africa's apartheid era, the social and political ideology of Afrikaner nationalism Othered those who disrupted an idealised vision of white heteronormative Afrikaner masculinity. While protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation were enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution in 1996, anti-LGBTQ violence remains a reality. It is common for young LGBTQ individuals to exercise the personal freedoms associated with leaving home to attend university to express their sexual orientations and/or gender identities more readily. This paper applies interpretive phenomenology to interview data with members of the LGBTQ student community at a rural university town in an overwhelmingly white Afrikaans region. It explores the complex and ill-defined relationships between LGBTQ student experiences, local heteronormative values, and shifting institutional identities in an era of social transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates existing theories regarding women's participation in top government positions by applying these theories to Asia through a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). Thus, this paper aims to identify the conditions necessary and/or sufficient for women to break the political glass ceiling in Asia. Overall, the results show that political parties in democratic or hybrid regimes support different types of female candidates depending on the party's ideology and political scenario. More specifically, there are three alternative pathways for a party to be successful when selecting a female candidate in Asia. Conditions that were previously necessary in the region, such as family ties to political dynasties or contexts of instability or transition, are no longer necessary. New opportunities in specific socio-political contexts are arising for women who aim to reach the highest office in the country but do not belong to political dynasties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two purposes: to provide a contextualised account of the Young Hegelian theory of the state, and to argue that Marx began working on the manuscript known as his 'Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law', not in the Summer of 1843, as most commentators assume, but at least as early as the Spring of 1842. The established narrative describes the Young Hegelians as 'liberals', and suggests that Marx 'Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law' represents his rejection of their liberalism and turn towards a more radical democratic and revolutionary position. Conversely, I argue that the Young Hegelians (notably Arnold Ruge and Bruno Bauer) were never liberal (at least not by any standard definition of that term) but articulated a radical and revolutionary theory of the state from the outset – one that understood freedom, not as independence, but as political participation, and that characterised the modern state, not as the guarantor of private rights, but as the institutional framework in which all citizens could realise their public freedom. In this sense, Marx's 'Critique of Hegel's Philosophy Law' does not represent a break with the Young Hegelians theory of state, but a contribution to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper clarifies Havel's perception of post-democracy through his various writings and speeches, in comparison with the concepts of post-democracy as proposed by C. Crouch, J. Rancière, R. Rorty, S. Wolin, J. Habermas, and Ch. Mouffe. Consequently, Havel's critique of the then Western parliamentary democracy and the very essence of his notion of post-democracy will be thoroughly illuminated. The historical and intellectual circumstances that shaped his thinking on the topic will be analysed as well. Some misinterpretations of Havel's thinking that have emerged in the meantime will also be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital media plays a vital role for political parties' communication. Research so far has focused mainly on the use of social media for election campaigns, while little is known about party officials' use of social media for intra-party communication. Besides elections, key events for political parties are conferences, in which delegates play a central role in transmitting the party branches' perspectives to the party and vice versa. Therefore, this paper addresses a) the role played by social media regarding the communication of party delegates with their party branch, and b) the factors determining delegates' social media usage. To answer these questions, we drew on survey data collected during the 2018 party conference of the German Green Party. Based on multivariate analysis, our results indicate that party delegates' social media usage is rather low and driven by (younger) age and normative and strategic considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to Dr Aaron Edwards' comments on my previously published article ‘Unionism, truth recovery and the fearful past’ (2011, Irish Political Studies, 26(3), pp. 361–382). It highlights two main areas of concern – the manipulation of the papers' findings into a broader critique of peace process narratives and that the paper ‘skews’ loyalist paramilitaries' contribution to peace-building. Both points suggest a misinterpretation of the arguments contained in my paper and its relationship to the field of transitional justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rally-around-the-flag effect describes the tendency of public opinion to become more favourable toward political leaders in times of crises. Political leaders rarely can exchange this initial rally-around-effect into long-term support, however. The central question addressed in this paper is, why political leaders cannot maintain this increase in support over time. Based on three-wave panel data collected during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden (N = 1716), this paper investigates why political leaders cannot maintain initial popular support in the long run. Empirically, we find that perceptions of how Sweden is affected by the crisis and political ideology are both important drivers to understand the declining government approval following a rally-around-the-flag effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent ethnic tensions in Myanmar especially in the Rakhine state has once again placed the country onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look at race relations in contemporary Myanmar with a special focus on the Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in the country today should be analysed within a certain historical context and should be seen as part of a historical continuum. This paper places a lot of importance on this historical continuum. In this connection, the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, politicians and their obsession with Buddhism and trying to make it the state religion shortly after independence in 1948, and the xenophobic policies followed by the military junta after 1962 deserve special mention. The paper further argues that the current state of affairs and escalation in violence has happened recently because of the convergence of the activities and ideologies of certain political groups like the military junta, the National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and the role played by certain Buddhist extremist groups like the MaBaTha in Burmese politics. To ease the existing tension in the Rakhine, the central government would need to take a more federally minded approach and introduce meaningful democracy and development in the frontier parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

4Chan remains a compelling yet insufficiently explored phenomenon of the modern Internet. Through the years, it has developed an infamy, especially concerning its /pol/ subboard, for being a belligerent and potentially extremist online community. The subboard has developed a user base composed predominantly of males who, almost completely anonymously, through a giant number of daily posts, discuss issues in some way connected to politics. This has resulted in one predominant discourse on women and their roles in the political world, one marked by description of a presumed all-encompassing and crippling inferiority. This paper seeks to illuminate this discourse by performing discourse analysis on a database of posts made by Serbian /pol/ users. The analysis is described in three closely connected sections. The first focuses on the explicit framing of women in political roles. The second and third sections describe the discourse as it pertains to the lack of fitness women allegedly show through impersonal social relations and as intimate partners, which together construct a basis and influential linkage as subboard users argue that they are unfit for politics as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the gendered discourses of the – seemingly favourable – media coverage that certain Heads of State received for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at media reports published in different English-speaking outlets in the US, the UK, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland, and using multimodal feminist critical discourse analysis, we identify and describe strategies that on the surface appear to challenge hegemonic – and largely masculine – discourses of leadership. Upon closer scrutiny, these superficially complimentary reports rather reinforce and naturalise discriminatory gender ideologies, and, as we demonstrate, they do so to different degrees along a continuum of essentialising, contextualising, and problematising. We critically discuss the discursive and visual processes involved and show that complimenting these leaders on their performance compares them against a masculine norm to construct their leadership as 'alternative', exceptional, and hence marked. This gendered portrayal of political leadership in times of crisis illustrates how the discursive construction of identities, responsibilities, and relationships during COVID-19 largely hinges on power relations and political ideologies that systematically disadvantage and undermine women. The purportedly positive form in which this occurs makes it particularly difficult to challenge and subvert these discriminatory discourses and their underlying gendered ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Psychologist Michael defines banal nationalism as ordinary iconographies communicating a sense of nation and permeating daily existence (8). Postage stamps are vehicles of banal nationalism, as they are ephemeral and small government-issued items that seem innocuous. However, the images chosen to be on postage stamps are carefully considered and chosen, and commonly reflect the ideologies of the dominant political party at the time of production. Yet many citizens do not take the time to contemplate why a certain image has been produced on this medium of government authority. In my paper I will unpack the Bharatiya Janata Party's philosophy and rise to power in 2014 and then discuss how postage stamps issued in 2017, specifically the series on Indian food, reflects the party's implied ideologies. The government chose to depict twenty-four different foods and broke them up into four categories, two of which are tied to religious, predominantly Hindu, occasions. To print these foods on postage stamps allows the subconscious spread of BJP philosophies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US administration recently asserted that it was supporting liberal values through the deployment of military force to 'liberate' Iraq. This paper explores one aspect of the topical theme of liberalism and the use of force through a philosophical exercise concerning the means used to attain such ends. Drawing on the liberal political tradition, this paper puts forward an ideal type, a benchmark as it were, for militaries and their deployment by governments avowedly in pursuit of liberal agendas. This ideal type is constructed in two sections: operationalization and form. This paper therefore begins to provide a mechanism, some guidelines or talking points, for articulating and evaluating just how well liberal states may or may not be living up to their proclaimed lofty ideals in the very real world of military force and military forces at a time when a fundamental 'transformation' of defence is claimed to be a pressing priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the possibilities and limits encountered in analyzing the complex and paradoxical dynamics of what Marxism terms political praxis. Among the tools employed is the concept of class consciousness, which is used to identify the theoretical-philosophical principles that serve as guides. The basis for the paper is provided mainly by the works of Marx, Engels and Lukács, as well as by the Lukácsian tradition that permeates the academic field in Brazil, where the author of the paper is located. Also proposed is a dialogue with such authors, extensively studied on the Brazilian national scene, as Paulo Freire and Mauro Iasi. Using these references, and taking into consideration the similarities and differences of approach, an attempt is made to understand how to identify movements of class consciousness based on the difference between the Lukácsian concepts of psychological consciousness and class consciousness, discussed in the Brazilian conjuncture and more widely. Finally, an attempt is made to demonstrate that these two concepts can be articulated through an understanding of the totality of the phenomenon under study; this is the case despite the differentiation between the concepts that emerges from considering the aspect of the universality of the class, as indicated by Lukács, Lenin, Marx and Engels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the discourse of friendship in public diplomacy surrounding the figure of US Ambassador Stanton Griffis during his tenure in Spain in 1951–1952 circulated in the Spanish national imaginary to construct a more favorable popular image of the United States. Though the ideological positions guiding the Truman presidency and the Franco regime differed drastically, positive affect under the guise of friendship circulated via the media spectacle surrounding Griffis’s image – thus fostering a sense of Griffis as a friend not only to the regime but also to individual Spaniards. Using articles drawn from the Spanish press, as well as letters found in the Stanton Griffis Papers at the Truman Library Institute, I will show how objects of the specific Spanish national pride promoted by the Franco regime – such as Catholicism and anti-Communism, brotherhood and even bullfighting – “stuck” to Griffis’s image via the use of affectively “sticky” words, such askindnessandsympathy,shared values,friendshipitself and evenfamily. This analysis reveals the flexibility of Franquista ideology and contributes to a deeper understanding of the discursive realignment towards the United States that occurred under the Franco regime in the years preceding the Pact of Madrid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines early modern discussions of democracy in the context of a chartered company: namely, the Virginia Company. It examines descriptions of the Company's constitution and politics as democratic. It focuses, in particular, upon a petition that William Cavendish (later the Second Earl of Devonshire) presented to the Virginia Company assembly defending the democratic constitution of the Company. Cavendish's secretary, Thomas Hobbes, may or may not have assisted with drafting that petition, but he was closely involved in the debates to which it contributed. The discussion, therefore, provides a broader context for debates about the role of democratic ideas in Hobbes' works. More importantly, however, it shows that sub-state bodies politic in early modern England, such as chartered companies, provided an environment in which political thought, including democracy, could flourish removed from the dangers of national politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uneven and Combined Development uniquely incorporated societal multiplicity into Marxist theory. So why did its first application end in Stalinist dictatorship? This paper seeks an answer by turning the idea back on itself, applying it first to Trotsky's doctrine of 'permanent revolution' and then to Marx's original idea of revolution. Trotsky hoped that Russia's 'revolution of backwardness' would be rescued by 'advanced' revolutions in the West, modelled on the French revolution. But what if – as this paper argues – that event too was ultimately a 'revolution of backwardness'? Two implications follow. First, Trotsky's 'permanentist' strategy was logically flawed: if all modern revolutions have been internationally-generated catch-up revolutions, then the idea of Bolshevism being rescued by 'advanced revolutions' elsewhere fails. But second, the consequences of multiplicity reach even deeper than Trotsky realized: they underlie and explain the original political formation, and troubled history, of revolutionary Marxism itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we draw on the concept of fantasy and the principles of political discourse theory to develop an analytical framework for the study of Veja's anti-populist discourse. As one of Brazil's most influential publications in elite policy-making circles, Veja exerts considerable influence over the way populist politics is portrayed and understood. By tracking the signifiers 'populism' and 'populist' in the pages of this weekly magazine, our study affirms the distinctive virtues of adopting a psychoanalytically-informed perspective on political antagonism and ideology, treating fantasy as a core concept in the study of polarizing discourses generally and discourses about populism in particular. Far from remaining above the fray in its opposition to the discourses of both Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (and the Workers' Party) and Jair Bolsonaro (and the Social Liberal Party), our critical fantasy study shows how Veja's pronouncements were both ideologically invested and normatively inflected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores resemiotisation in political discourse through an investigation of a video by Chokri Belaid, a Tunisian politician, lawyer and left-wing activist. Belaid, who was invited to a panel by Nessma TV in January 2012 to talk about a specific legal case, known as the "Persepolis case", was assassinated a year later on February 6th 2013 by religious extremists. Building on these contextual factors, the present paper highlights two levels of resemiotisation in this video. At a first level, Belaid repurposed the original legal purpose of the panel to assume several roles (politician, thinker, and lawyer) in order to infuse his ideology and political views. Second, the literal death of the author has induced several re-interpretations of this talk. The present study undertakes a multimodal analysis of the different frames and shots of this talk to argue that these two levels of resemiotisation are facilitated and highlighted by the integrated use of semiotic resources (gaze, gestures, camera movements, sound features and language) and other emergent semiotic resources exploited by secondary sign-makers for the re-interpretation of this video. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit is the recent example of British exceptionalism, namely, accommodating the UK's special position in the EU through differential membership, albeit from outside. UK negotiators initially demanded a 'bespoke' agreement for retaining most benefits of membership with limited obligations. Faced with an EU united around a set of negotiating guidelines, the UK opted for a distant and looser future relationship. Indeed, Brexit negotiations and the EU-UK TCA highlight core principles of EU external relations. Despite being an agreement of international law, principles of integrity, autonomy, and balance of rights and obligations shaped the content of the TCA. UK is now a third country with no special rights or privileges but a European neighbour. Assuming that Brexit is a unique case of managing relations with an ex-member but a comparable one in wider Europe, this article explores whether or not the TCA amounts to less than a neighborhood association more than a standard FTA? TCA has similarities of principles underpinning EU's neighbourhood agreements but its novel and bespoke features set it apart. The challenge is whether the UK will be able to upgrade its future relationship to 'deep integration through association' with new trade-offs between rights and obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like Karl Popper inThe Poverty of Historicismdoes with social science methods going by that name, this paper points to territorialism as a misguided way of dealing with contemporary issues. First it makes the case for territorialism. It implies the control of people and resources by controlling area, what is called “territoriality”. Under territorialism and the crisis of the European Union the paper shows that this crisis raises questions about what the Union is and should be. The prevailing answer of strengthening nation states may lead to its disintegration, Jan Zielonka argues, but disintegration will not lead to the expected resurgence of nation states, themselves epitomes of territorialism. Pursuing the neo-medieval alternative, this paper reports on the same author foreseeing overlapping territorial and functional arrangements, like in an empire. The next part discusses spatial planning in the neomedieval empire where European space must no longer be seen through the lens of territorialism. Rather, it should be viewed as overlapping and intersecting areas, each requiring its own governance. The implication for European planning, true also for strategic planning generally, is to abandon the pursuit of spatially integrated policies. Instead, planning should produce parallel and overlapping schemes for various territorial and functional spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing accounts of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and borders tend to assume that cosmopolitans are able to cross borders with ease, or even live across borders. Consequently, such accounts bring to the fore a cosmopolitan agency that, by definition, renders borders easier to cross but crucially, in doing so, fail to take into account the changing nature of borders. This paper challenges the traditional relationship between borders and cosmopolitanism by focusing on the changing nature of contemporary border processes. Using this as a framework, it is asserted that focusing on post-national border monuments can generate new perspectives on borders. More specifically, in order to understand post-national border monuments, it is argued that borders must be viewed less as markers of division and more in terms of mechanisms of connectivity and encounter. To this end, the paper offers some novel intellectual resources – namely ideas concerning interfaces and scale – that capture the ways in which borders are able to connect well beyond that which is proximate. The paper also considers the rationale behind two recently proposed border monuments - the ‘Star of Caledonia’ situated on the English/Scottish border and the ‘White Horse’ at Ebbsfleet in the south of England – in order to show how certain borders, some of which are located in non-traditional locations, are being (re)configured as visibly welcoming and ‘outward looking’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically engages with Philip Pettit's republican political philosophy, and with his republican theory of democracy in particular. After a brief summary of Pettit's conceptualisation of freedom as non-domination, the paper focuses on the question as to which institutional arrangement Pettit considers commensurate with this normative ideal. The paper prepares the ground for a critical reconstruction of Pettit's theory of democracy by highlighting the understanding of democracy in the republican tradition within which Pettit aims to develop his contemporary theory of democracy. The reconstruction leads to the argument that Pettit, in neo-Roman republican tradition, has written "the people" as a transformative actor out of the script of democratic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1989 seven nation-wide referendums have been held in Hungary. However, the function of direct democracy remained unclear. It is by no means insignificant, but its use is confronted with two major challenges: Hungary's political system is extremely majoritarian and predominantly representative. The conceptional and practical flaws limit the interaction between the representative and direct-democratic system, thereby restricting the development of more deliberative forms of politics. The paper will give an overview on the practice of direct democracy and will show how the ruling elites use direct-democratic instruments to gain political dominance. It also wants to contribute to the clarification of the role of direct democracy within a representative political system on a theoretical level and to help to better understand functional changes of direct democracy in the process of hybridisation. In terms of methodology, this paper represents a theory-led cross-section through Hungary's democratic history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amongst Britain's former colonies the independent countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean represent something of an anomaly in so far as the majority of them remain constitutional monarchies and continue to retain the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final appellate court, even though the region has had its own final appellate court - the Caribbean Court of Justice - since 2006. This is in marked contrast to Britain's former colonies in Africa and South Asia, the majority of which switched to republicanism soon after independence and at the same time abolished rights of appeal to the JCPC. This paper seeks to uncover the reasons for this anomaly by examining how the path that led to independence was shaped by a particular conception of Dominion status and by the willingness of nationalist leaders to embrace a dual identity: equal parts West Indian nationalist and Empire loyalist. It will also examine the phenomenon of the ‘postcolony’; being the persistence of the colonial order following the acquisition of constitutional independence. The paper has three aims. Firstly, to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of Dominion status and all that it symbolised in a region which is often overlooked in the scholarly literature on this topic. Secondly, better to understand the competing political forces that led three countries in the region to adopt republicanism, but inhibited its adoption elsewhere in the region. Thirdly, and finally, to enhance discussion of the complex nexus between republicanism and the abolition of rights of appeal to the JCPC where political and juridical considerations do not neatly align. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]