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Je soutiens l'importance théorique et pratique d'une distinction conceptuelle entre la classe dirigeante et la classe dominante. Chaque cas de pouvoir de classe est aussi un cas de domination mais un cas de domination de classe n'est pas toujours un cas de pouvoir de classe. La bourgeoisie est seulement la classe dominante et non pas la classe dirigeante. La classe dirigeante c'est la classe qui dirige l'Etat directement (en tout ou en partie) et qui par son pouvoir exclut les autres classes du processus politique. La raison pour laquelle il importe de faire cette distinction est qu'elle nous permet de comprendre pourquoi les révolutions démocratiques bourgeoises n'ont pas conduit tout simplement au remplacement d'un type de pouvoir de classe par un autre mais plutôt à un type essentiellement nouveau de société de classe qui permet le développement d'une vie politique démocratique pour tous les citoyens. La distinction entre le concept de classe dirigeante et celui de classe dominante a certains avantages. Elle nous permet une analyse plus subtile de la bourgeoisie où l'on voit que c'est la première classe de l'histoire qui puisse dominer sans diriger. Le concept de classe dominante est un instrument plus souple pour évaluer les degrés et les diverses formes de domination. ïl permet au marxisme l'étude des élites du pouvoir. Le plus grand avantage de la distinction entre classe dirigeante et classe dominante, c'est de permettre au marxisme d'affronter des questions politiques fondamentales qui lui seraient fermées tout autrement.
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In all probability, the revolution which broke out in Syria in March 2011 will be the fi nal act of the Arab Spring. As distinct from the revolts in North Africa, the basis of the Syrian confl ict is distinctly more complicated. This means that no clear settlement has been achieved as yet. Moreover, on the one hand, the impasse in the struggles between Baszar al-Assad’s loyalists and the rebels is causing an humanitarian crisis which is becoming steadily more evident while, on the other hand, it is giving rise to an increasingly serious threat to the entire Middle East. In this context, the article undertakes an attempt to indicate the most signifi cant determinants, both domestic and external in kind, which are affecting the specifi c nature of the confl ict. The authoritarian political system, the religious and ethnic divisions, the economic situation, the potential of the government’s army, the presence of chemical weapons and the precarious identity of, and fragmentation within, the Free Syrian Army should all be numbered among the most crucial domestic factors. When describing the external determinants, however, the Syrian confl ict should not be perceived purely as a phenomenon which has become a part of the Arab Spring movement, since the course of events in this particular country has become an opportunity for important international actors to jostle for position in both the regional and the global dimensions. This means that both the course of the war and its outcome may have a potentially crucial impact not only on the situation in Syria herself, but also on the entire Middle East.
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The object of the study was an attempt aimed at ascertaining whether the core-periphery theory can be used to describe the international economic relations involved in the emergence of a knowledge-based global economy. To that end, the most important core-periphery theses were selected and subjected to empirical verifi cation. When applying core-periphery theory to the present day, the new, global division of labour should be taken into account. The economic core consists of the nations which are the most advanced in creating a knowledge-based economy. The essence of the core’s ascendance is the fact that it produces new, innovative goods for which there is a mass demand. The greater the periphery nations’ demand for those goods, which they themselves are unable to produce, the greater the core’s dominance and ability to dictate prices. In joining the global economy and taking over industrial production, the periphery nations have derived direct benefits. The core nations have benefited indirectly by way of social security and political stability. The peripheral nations have undergone a new economic and political stratifi cation, which has separated them into an industrial semi-periphery and a raw materials periphery. The industrial periphery, processing raw materials into manufactured goods, acts as the intermediary in the trade between the core and raw materials periphery.
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Reviews: Totalitaryzm a liberalna demokracja. Ryszard Legutko, Triumf człowieka pospolitego Polski interes narodowy – dwa spojrzenia. Porównanie koncepcji. Jerzy J. Wiatr, Polski interes narodowy: refl eksje o historii i współczesności oraz Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski, Geopolityka – siła – wola. Rzeczypospolitej zmagania z losem Janusz J. Węc, Pierwsza polska prezydencja w Unii Europejskiej. Uwarunkowania – procesy decyzyjne – osiągnięcia i niepowodzenia Prezydencja Polski w Radzie Unii Europejskiej, pod redakcją Józefa M. Fiszera .....................................
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Recognition is a topic at the forefront of both modern and postmodern political philosophy. It results from the conceptualisation of the circumstances of the self; the individual’s otherness within the political community and fundamental need to make that community recognise their particularity. The solution presented by Rousseau leads to the annihilation of individuality in general will, while that put forward by Hegel gives rise to the transformation of both self and community in the process of recognition. The Hegelian idea inspired postmodern conceptions of recognition. Postmodernity is confronted with claims of recognition on the part of determinate determined, pre-political identities, particularly ethnic ones. These identities are hardly reconcilable with the notion of equality. The solution lies in shifting the objective of recognition from the fulfi lment of inner, psychological need (Charles Taylor, Axel Honneth inter alia) to the changing of institutional structure (Nancy Fraser, Jürgen Habermas inter alia). The last stage of this evolution is the concept of identity as politically constructed, and not politically expressed, in the process of recognition. The main examples of this approach are postmodern feminism (Judith Butler) and queer theory.
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The aim of the article is to characterise biopolitics in the context of the controversy surrounding human enhancement. A diagram created by James Hughes is brought into play in order to depict the particular nature of contemporary political divides following the emergence of the biopolitical sphere. The dispute between the transhumanists and the bioconservatives relating, in essence, to the issue of the modifi cation of human nature is best grasped as exemplified by the debate surrounding the problem of human enhancement. The analysis is based on three points which, to a large extent, determine the form of the dispute, namely, the assumption of extreme connectedness, the precantionary principle and the category of distributive justice in the biopolitical perspective. An explicit emphasis is placed on the fact that the problems which emerge in the debate differ from classical political issues and demand a redefinition of the concepts fundamental to the human condition. The consequences of this change are of crucial signifi cance to the resolution of questions emerging in both the public sphere and legislation.
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Romania’s contemporary political system is generally described as presidential, semi-presidential or mixed, combining features of both the presidential and parliamentary cabinet system. The President is an essential factor of the political system. However, the role is not on a level matching that fulfi lled by the President of France under the Fifth Republic, for instance. The function of President is a relatively new component of the Romanian political system, having only come into being in 1974. When the foundations of a democratic system emerged after the collapse of communism, the President, appointed through general presidential elections, became one of its crucial elements. The personalities of successive heads of state, Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu and Traian Băsescu, have had a great impact on positioning the President within the country’s political system.
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The subject of the article is the political thinking of communitarianism. The author acknowledges Benjamin Barber and Henry Tam as representatives epitomising that trend. Their concepts of community and citizenship suggest the possibility of seeking a conciliatory position toward liberalism and republicanism in communitarianism. Aspects specific to both the first two doctrines are present, in particular, in the postulate for a more frequent and more inclusive implementation of the ideal of direct democracy expounded by Barber and Tam. The article includes, inter alia, a presentation of the characteristics of the communitarian community and the potential benefi ts resulting from the universal, direct participation of citizens in shared decision-making on political, economic and social matters, as well as a description of the principal components of the communitarian civic education programme.
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The article sets out to analyse the phenomenon of German anti--Semitism within the process by which its leading adherents endowed it with the semblances of science. Alongside Wilhelm Marr, coiner of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ and “patriarch” of the position it describes, one of the champions of that ‘modern nti-Semitism’ was a student of his, Theoder Fritsch, to whom the paper is devoted. Fritsch’s idée fi xe was to present the traditional anti-Semitism of the confessional, in other words, anti-Judaism, as well as the then fl edgling racial anti-Semitism, with a ‘scientifi c’ world view (wissenschaftliche Weltanschauung). This guise of unquestionable knowledge, empirically verifi ed, was intended to place an ideological weapon in the hands both of the disciples of the ‘old school’ of anti-Semitism and of the new votaries who were drawn to the ‘movement’ (Bewegung). In the eyes of the latter, the central conception of the ‘instinctive’, ‘pre-scientifi c’, which is to say, religious, anti-Semitism was offensive, if not to say discrediting per se. Fritsch’s opus magnum was his Anti-Semitic Catechism, the systematics and substance of which are the subject of penetrating analysis in the article, as are his ideological path and the reception of his works in Hitler’s Third Reich.
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Both the introduction of the mechanisms of direct democracy into the legislative process and their application in Venezuela are the result of many years of political discourse and radical voicing of public expectations, the origins of which stretch back to the Fourth Republic. The legal solutions in respect of civic participation were introduced into the Constitution and legislation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in order to respond to the crisis in the political system and party democracy, the legitimacy of which was being questioned. The subject of the analysis undertaken in the article are the mechanisms and institutions of direct democracy applied in Venezuela on the strength of the provisions of the law in force and introduced under the transformation of that state’s socio-political system. The mechanisms of direct democracy which have been instituted can be defi ned as advanced and as radically broadening the opportunities for genuine civic participation. A particular feature of Venezuela’s basic law is the fact that it sets direct democracy in opposition to the representative form. The legal solutions adopted sanction the functioning of a political system which is fi rst and foremost grounded in the executive authorities’ mobilisation and organisation of society within the structures of a controlled direct participation.
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The article presents the relationships which exist between the geopolitical system and the international economic order, particularly in the financial sphere. The aim is to demonstrate the reasons underlying the crucial significance of geo-economic strategy, a strategy designed to establish the kind of economic system which will reinforce the geopolitical order in the long term. It would appear that, following World War II, the leading Western superpower lacked this strategic imagination. Initially, the changes which occurred in the USA’s ideology and modus operandi in the 1970s in respect of the international financial system seemed to resolve the problems in economic and political spheres alike. However, in the long run, the liberalisation of the financial markets proved to be unfavourable to the stability of the global economy. It was also one of the major factors in the erosion of the American geopolitical system established after World War II.
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Could a subsequent wave of the democratic revolution which hit the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East also reach the Islamic Republic of Iran? The article analyses the domestic prerequisites for a successful revolution and the democratisation of the Iranian theocracy and includes findings as to whether it is, indeed, a theocracy or if it is, quite simply, an authoritarian state and thus somewhat easier to destabilise than a totalitarian regime. The authors identify the crucial changes which occurred both in society and in the structures of the parties and state alike following the authorities’ perpetration of fraud in the 2009 presidential elections. The analysis was conducted across six categories, namely, the authorities’ vertical and horizontal responsibilities; the religious rigour of Shia Islam; the democratic enclave; the vying within the autocratic ruling elite itself; and the post-totalitarian phase. Progress in the direction of opening up to democracy was found in the majority of the categories, though not of a kind whereby the collapse of the ayatollahs’ dictatorship by any means other than revolution might be anticipated within the next few years. The answer to the question posed in the title reads as follows: a democratic Iran is possible, but not just yet, all the more so, inasmuch as the way in which the West’s restrictions and the spectre of an armed conflict provoked by the prospect of Tehran’s possessing nuclear weapons might influence the attitude of society and the vigorous in-fi ghting among the conservative elite is an unknown quantity.
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Trenutni međunarodni poredak postojećih državnih granica - povučenih uz tek usputno uvažavanje etničkih i kulturnih želja njihovih naseljenika - je u ovom momentu suštinski istrošen. Nadolazeće snage nacionalizma i kulturnog buđenja su spremne da potvrde svoje postojanje. Države koje nisu u stanju upravljati svojim etničkim manjinama na način koji će zadovoljiti i prošle nepravde i buduće težnje za većim samoopredjeljenjem su osuđene na raspad. Samodefinirane etničke grupe, a ne postojeće nacionalne države, će postati osnovni konstitutivni element budućeg međunarodnog poretka.
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Islam i islamski pokreti su danas, više nego ikada, a naročito u odnosu na nekoliko proteklih stoljeća, prisutni na međunarodnoj sceni. Ovo prisustvo iskristalizirano je u različitim oblicima – antikolonijalnim pokretima, suprotstavljanju zapadnjačkim režimima, suprotstavljanju određenim aspektima prednosti Zapada i njegove kulture u islamskom svijetu, učešću u političkoj sili, organiziranju islamske vlasti itd. Vrhunac ovog trenda može se zapaziti u 80-tim i 90-tim godinama. Ovakva aktivna i svakako pažnje vrijedna prisutnost, iako je najuočljivija u političkom obliku, ima i snažne kulturne odlike. Možemo reći da se prisutnost islama zapravo manifestira u obliku borbenih pokreta i pokreta oživljavanja islama. Prvi, sa ratobornom i neprijateljskom tendencijom i orijentiranošću ka vojnom i političkom polju, postoje i djeluju većinom u Afganistanu, Libanu, Palestini, Alžiru itd., dok drugi imaju više kulturni aspekt i usmjereni su ka oživljavanju temeljnih islamskih vrijednosti koje su zaboravljene tokom vremena. Ovi pokreti za oživljavanje, nakon perioda relativno duge pasivnosti, a kao odgovor na svestrane napade, su mnogo prisutniji nego u prethodnim decenijama i nastoje u vihoru pritisaka modernizma i zapadnjačke civilizacije dati novu definiciju identiteta islamskog društva. Ovakvo dešavanje može se primijetiti u cijelom islamskom svijetu, npr. u Turskoj, Maleziji, BiH, Iranu itd.
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The paper considers the recent official reactions in several European countries to the German chancellor Angela Merkel’s claim that “Multikulti has failed totally”. It argues that such developments are also the result of the erosion of the institutional and normative strength of fundamental rights and liberties against the principle of “cultural defense”. As this notion is often identified with forms of illiberal multiculturalism, the notion of multiculturalism is itself in danger of being compromised. However, in relation to the canonical definition of multiculturalism one should also consider the multicultural strategies which have so far proved practically useful: cultural and territorial autonomies, educational institutions in minorities’ mother tongues etc. The study shows that, given the demands and the issues raised by the main Romanian minorities, the multicultural strategy may well prove successful in the case of the Hungarian community, though not in the case of Roma.
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Obiect: atingerea demnităţii pe criteriul apartenenţei la etnia romă Petentul consideră că i s-a încălcat dreptul la demnitate prin afirmaţia făcută de reclamat („ţigan împuţit, leneş, aschimodie”). Faptele sesizate privind reclamatul D.C. reprezintă încălcare a dreptului la demnitate în conformitate cu prevederile art. 15 al O.G. nr. 137/2000, republicată; Reclamatul D.C. se sancţionează cu avertisment.
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While not a plea for cultural relativism, this article will show and discuss the constant evolution of the importance of the concept of cultural diversity at a worldwide scale, within UNESCO, and emphasize the impact that cultural diversity has on the creation, application and observance of public international law. The rationality of such an attempt lies in the contestable character of contemporary international law as a synthesis of different legal cultures. Bearing in mind this reality, the adoption of international legally binding instruments in this field could be considered an evolution, unless suspected of a different aim. The article will analyze, while listing each instrument adopted within UNESCO, if those legally binding instruments were conceived in order to actually protect cultural diversity or to promote and protect certain political and economical interests of the powerful states of world. What are the goals of these instruments? To protect a state’s cultural diversity and then devise a set of common universal values or, rather, to transform the identity of the actors in order for them to consider then that public international law norms are conceived according with their own conceptions of their identity?
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Obiect: afirmaţii cu caracter discriminatoriu la adresa ateilor Petentul - Asociaţia Umanistă din România AUR - arată că declaraţiile deputatului PDL, William Gabriel Brânză conform cărora „Ateii sunt oameni periculoşi” sunt discriminatorii. Afirmaţia „Cei care nu cred în niciun dumnezeu sunt oameni periculoşi” nu reprezintă discriminare potrivit art. 2 al O.G. nr. 137/2000, republicată.
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