Politisk forskning og politisk teori

Emotions have always been considered an important element of political communication. Recent research has demonstrated the significance of emotions in individual information-processing and political judgements. Used strategically, emotions thus become an instrument for influencing people. Based on content analyses of TV news and political talk shows in Germany, this book analyses with which emotions television portrays politicians and which techniques are used to trigger emotions in viewers. Using experiments, it investigates how portraying emotional politicians can affect political attitudes against the background of the theory of emotional contagion.

This book examines the governance and democratization process in Africa, its history, trends, and prospects. Written by a diverse panel of experts, the book provides an intersectional and interdisciplinary analysis of Africa's democratic environment. Chapters cover topics such as the evolution of democracy in Africa, electoral politics, gender, activism, human rights, and cultural diversity. Critically assessing the fit of democracy for African countries and offering strategies for the Africanization of democracy, this volume will be important for researchers and students interested in African politics, postcolonial theory, democracy, and governance.  

This edited collection represents the first comprehensive volume in English on the crucial, but under-explored, late period in the history of East European communism. Focusing on developments in Czechoslovakia from the crushing of the Prague Spring in August 1968 to the ¿Velvet Revolution¿ of November 1989, the book examines a broad range of political, social and cultural issues, while also analysing external perceptions and relations. It explores the concept of ¿normalisation¿ in historical context and brings together British, American, Czech and Slovak experts, each with their own archival research and particular interpretations. Overall, the anthology aims to assess the means by which the Prague Spring reforms were repealed and how Czechoslovakia was returned to a ¿normal¿ communist state in line with Soviet orthodoxy. Key themes include the Communist Party and ideology; State Security; Slovak developments; ¿auto-normalisation¿; women and gender; cultural and intellectual currents; everyday life and popular opinion; and Czechoslovakiäs political and cultural relationship with the USSR, the GDR, Poland and Yugoslavia. The volume sheds light on the process of decay of the Czechoslovak communist regime and the reasons for its ultimate collapse in 1989.

This book takes a timely look at histories of radical Jewish movements, their modes of Holocaust memorialisation, and their relationships with broader anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles. Its primary focus is Australia, where Jewish antifascism was a major political and cultural force in Jewish communities in the 1940s and early 1950s. This cultural and intellectual history of Jewish antifascism utilises a transnational lens to provide an exploration of a Jewish antifascist ideology that took hold in the middle of the twentieth century across Jewish communities worldwide. It argues that Jewish antifascism offered an alternate path for Jewish politics that was foreclosed by mutually reinforcing ideologies of settler colonialism, both in Palestine and Australia.

Gibt es eine ostdeutsche Identität? Bezeichnet ¿ostdeutsch¿ analytisch treffend spezifische Lebensumstände oder ist sie eine politische Erfindung? Der Band informiert hierzu aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht. Politikwissenschaftliche, soziologische, wirtschafts- und finanzwissenschaftliche Beiträge untersuchen dies z.B. anhand der Wirtschaftskraft, des Wahlverhaltens, der Parteien, der Zivilgesellschaft, von Bürgerdialogen, Demokratieförderprogrammen oder Elitenbildern. Die Analysen zeigen Ostdeutschland und ostdeutsch als weiterhin sinnvolle analytische Kategorien, die auch gesamtdeutsche Entwicklungen zu verstehen helfen. Zwar ist ein Teil von Ost-West-Unterschieden auf feingliedrigere soziale und regionale Differenzen zurückzuführen (Kompositionseffekte). Dennoch verbleiben auch unter Berücksichtigung dieser Merkmale genuine Besonderheiten Ostdeutschlands (Kontexteffekte). Vor diesem Hintergrund bildet Ostdeutschland eine sozial relevante Lebenswelt und ein kontroverses Identitätsangebot.

This book examines subjectivity and neoliberalism in Latin America. The chapters, first published in the journal Subjectivity, cover a range of topics, from work to childcare to violence to university education In the Introduction, Julian Medina Zarate and Flavia Uchoa point out the complex history of the arrival and take-up of neoliberalism across the continent, the deep-seated role of colonial and post-colonial violence, thus the specificity of modes of governance in the complex relationship between the North and the South. The chapter by Antar Martinez Guzman considers the role of neoliberalism in the huge rise in male violence across the country, exploring hyper-violent masculinities in the context of social precarity. Antonio Stecher and Alvaro Soto Roy discuss the transformations in work identities and thus the consequences for subjectivity for workers in three kinds of employment in neoliberal Chile. Fabio d'Oliviera studies phsychologists operating in an increasingly precarised service sector in public assistance programmes in Brazil. Hernan Pulido Martinez explores the role of artefacts in the introduction of discourses and practices related to quality within a university in Colombia. Ana Vergara discusses parent-child relations in the context of neoliberal Chile.

This book aims to present a coherent picture of Germany's European policy during Merkel's chancellorship. At the same time, it traces the development of the EU in the period 2005-2021. Accordingly, the European crises and the internal and external threats to the integration community are addressed, as well as the jointly developed solutions. Thus, on the one hand, the book shows what Germany was willing to do for Europe; on the other, it reveals how the EU was able to develop further as the most important point of reference for German politics and power.

This book deals with one of the most pervasive ways by which people have addressed authority throughout history: petitioning. Based on a Congress held at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (Petitions in the Age of the Atlantic Revolutions), in February of 2019, the book explores traditional practices and institutions, as well as the transformation of petitions as vehicles of popular politics. The ability or the right to petition was also a crucial element for the development and operation of early modern empires, playing a major role on the negotiated patterns of the Atlantic World. This book shows how petitions were used in Europe, America and Africa, by the governors and the governed, by the rich and the poor, by the colonists and the colonised and by the liberal and the reactionary groups. Broken down into three thematic parts, encompassing both in chronological and geographical scope, the book deepens our understanding of petitioning and its relation with ideas of consent and subjecthood, nationality and citizenship, political participation and democracy. This book provides a rare comparative platform for the study of a subject that has been receiving growing interest.

International Relations: Theories, Concepts, and Organizations analyzes the changing dynamics of world politics on a rational scale. It presents the conceptual and theoretical codes of International Relations (IR) to academics, journalists, politicians, and thinkers. In addition to concepts and theories, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have an important place in IR are examined. Under the influence of the globalization process, radical changes are taking place in world politics. Increasingly complex, world politics is transforming into a multi-layered structure. This book has been prepared to make IR understandable and accessible clearly.

The exciting story of New York in the progressive era told by the reformers and visionaries who shaped its history,

Essays exploring to what extent Nietzsche's thought can aid us in understanding politicized identities.

A critical reflection on the limitations of Carl Schmitt's political theology, reconsidered in light of the current crisis of the liberal democratic order.

This first comprehensive account of the utilitarians' historical thought intellectually resituates their conceptions of philosophy and politics, at a time when the past acquired new significances as both a means and object of study. Drawing on published and unpublished writings - and set against the intellectual backdrops of Scottish philosophical history, German and French historicism, romanticism, positivism, and the rise of social science and scientific history - Callum Barrell recovers the depth with which Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, George Grote, and John Stuart Mill thought about history as a site of philosophy and politics. He argues that the utilitarians, contrary to their reputations as ahistorical and even antihistorical thinkers, developed complex frameworks in which to learn from and negotiate the past, inviting us to rethink the foundations of their ideas, as well as their place in - and relationship to - nineteenth-century philosophy and political thought.

Postliberalism discusses the liberal agenda and how liberalism has destroyed many of country's institutions and has left the country morally vacuous and morally barren. Postliberalsim is a call to advance beyond a liberal account of affairs and to once again realise a conservative account of society that is grounded and rooted in family, locality, community and solidarity.

This book offers a model for understanding securitization in terms of hegemonic discourse formations. It re-thinks the very meaning of security as well as the relationship between the understanding of security in traditional and critical approaches in security studies to find a common denominator between them. Deduced firmly from realist political philosophy and its analytic categories, such as state-based sovereignty, security is presented as a function of discursive formations. Providing a sound discourse-theoretical foundation which includes both linguistic and non-linguistic practices as well as a focus on relationships of power, the book offers a basis for the integration of insights generated by the different approaches to securitisation, and enhances the analytical and explanatory depth of the concept. As part of its theoretical foundation, the book further presents a fundamentally new image of long-standing theoretical and conceptual challenges within speech-act inspired approaches, including the re-formulation of central analytical categories such as the speaker-audience-context nexus. By explaining securitisation as signifying the boundaries of the construction of meaning, it presents an original understanding of securitisation, which is deeply integrated into the structures of the social construction of meaning. On this basis, the book offers a new understanding of successful securitisation factors and insights into aspects that render specific objects more or less likely for securitisation. The book proceeds to discuss two central aspects of the securitisation debate: The constitution of power, as well as an exploration of the nature of the political and politicisation. An empirical case study on the development-security-nexus offers further insights into the applicability of the theoretical model.    This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of political science and international relations (IR) interested in a better understanding of IR theory, realism, critical security studies, and discourse analysis.

"The Enigma of Liechtenstein's Secret Banking System" delves deep into the corridors of the Principality of Liechtenstein's famed financial institutions, unraveling the mystique surrounding one of the world's most discreet banking systems. With its unparalleled reputation for privacy and banking secrecy, Liechtenstein has long been a magnet for global wealth, but what underpins this allure, and what are its implications on international diplomacy?Key highlights include:Historical Foundations: Tracing the evolution of Liechtenstein's banking system, from its modest origins to becoming a global hub for private banking and wealth management.Privacy Paradigms: Exploration of the legal and regulatory frameworks that have cemented Liechtenstein's reputation for banking discretion.Diplomatic Delicacies: How Liechtenstein's banking practices have often found themselves at odds with international norms, leading to diplomatic tussles and negotiations.Economic Implications: Understanding the role of banking in Liechtenstein's economy and how it intersects with global financial flows.Case Studies: In-depth looks at specific instances where Liechtenstein's banking system became the focal point of international scrutiny, espionage, and intrigue.The Ethics of Secrecy: A philosophical dive into the debates surrounding banking secrecy, financial privacy, and their place in today's interconnected world.Future Pathways: Speculating on the future of Liechtenstein's banking landscape in the face of global transparency initiatives, technological advancements, and shifting geopolitical dynamics."The Enigma of Liechtenstein's Secret Banking System" offers readers a rare glimpse behind the polished counters and marble facades of the country's banks, providing a comprehensive understanding of the diplomatic, economic, and ethical dimensions of this storied institution. It's an essential guide for diplomats, financial professionals, and anyone intrigued by the intricate dance between wealth, secrecy, and international relations.

"Secrets Unveiled" plunges readers into the shadowy world of espionage, revealing tales of legendary spies whose clandestine operations forever altered the course of history. Across chapters rich with suspense and intrigue, the book unveils the motivations, methodologies, and monumental outcomes of their covert actions.Highlights include:Age of Espionage: An overview of spying from ancient civilizations to the modern era, offering a timeline of significant developments in the craft.Masters of Disguise: Profiles of renowned spies, from femme fatales and double agents to unsung heroes who operated behind enemy lines, risking everything for their nations.Tools of the Trade: An in-depth look into the evolving technology and techniques-from coded letters and hidden compartments to sophisticated cyber operations and advanced surveillance tools.Turning Points: Exploration of pivotal moments in history influenced by espionage, such as the successful decoding of the Enigma machine during World War II and the intelligence battles of the Cold War.Betrayals and Double Crosses: Delve into the personal and political motivations behind some of the most famous defections and betrayals in espionage history.The Price of Secrets: Personal tales of sacrifice, capture, and often brutal consequences faced by spies when their covers were blown.Global Espionage: Beyond the well-trodden tales of Western intelligence, this section sheds light on the intricate spy games played in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.The Impact on Popular Culture: A nod to how real-life espionage has influenced literature, films, and television, shaping public perception of spies and their thrilling universe."Secrets Unveiled" weaves together meticulously researched facts with riveting narratives, ensuring readers not only gain insights into the clandestine operations that shaped geopolitical outcomes but also experience the pulse-pounding thrill synonymous with the world of spies. This tome stands as both a testament to the unsung heroes of the intelligence world and a captivating chronicle of their indelible mark on history.

"The Biden-Trump Showdown" offers a comprehensive and balanced analysis of two of the most influential and debated presidencies in recent U.S. history. This timely volume aims to rise above partisan rhetoric and provide a nuanced understanding of the accomplishments of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.The book is innovatively structured, with each chapter taking on a major policy area - from healthcare and immigration to foreign relations and economic strategies. For each topic, the author present side-by-side analyses, offering perspectives from both ends of the political spectrum. This dual viewpoint approach offers readers a unique opportunity to understand the context, goals, successes, and criticisms associated with each president's initiatives.Among its highlights:Economic Policy: Delve into Trump's tax cuts and deregulation measures juxtaposed with Biden's infrastructure plans and approach to corporate taxation.Climate Change and Environmental Policy: Explore Trump's energy independence strategies versus Biden's push for green infrastructure and rejoining international climate accords.Healthcare: Contrast the efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Trump's term with Biden's efforts to expand and solidify it.Foreign Relations: Examine Trump's "America First" doctrine and his interactions with NATO, North Korea, and China in contrast to Biden's multilateral approach and focus on rebuilding alliances.The author strives for objectivity, providing readers not just with factual accounts but also with insights into the broader ideological motivations that drove each president's policies. They also shed light on the challenges each leader faced, both domestically and internationally, in executing their agendas."The Biden-Trump Showdown" serves as both a valuable historical record and a guide to understanding the shifting political landscape of the United States. By examining these two consequential presidencies side by side, the author provide readers with the tools to engage in informed and constructive dialogue about the direction of the nation. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of American politics in the 21st century.

"Tyrants of Africa" offers an unflinching look into the reigns of some of the continent's most infamous dictators, dissecting their rise to power, the nature of their rule, and their enduring impact on their nations and the wider world. Drawing from a wealth of historical records, firsthand accounts, and scholarly analysis, the book chronicles the lives and legacies of these rulers within the rich tapestry of African history.Key features include:Rise to Power: Examine the political, social, and economic landscapes that allowed these individuals to seize control, often amidst chaos and unrest.Reigns of Terror: Detailed accounts of their time in power, from their policies and governance style to the often brutal methods they employed to maintain control and silence opposition.Economic and Social Impacts: Analysis of their rule's effects on their nations' economies, social structures, and international relations.Personal Lives and Psychologies: Delve into the personalities, early lives, and potential motivations behind their actions, painting a fuller picture of the men behind the infamy.Resistance and Opposition: Stories of those who dared to stand up against them, highlighting movements, revolts, and international efforts to challenge their autocratic rule.End of an Era: An exploration into the decline or end of their regimes, whether through internal strife, external intervention, or natural causes.Aftermath and Legacy: Assessing the long-term impacts of their leadership on their respective countries and on Africa's reputation in global politics.Comparative Analysis: Drawing parallels and contrasts between these dictators and others outside of Africa, providing a broader perspective on the nature of autocratic leadership."Tyrants of Africa" doesn't just recount the horrors of dictatorship; it aims to understand the environments that allow such individuals to thrive and the intricate web of influences that sustain them. Through rigorous research and compelling storytelling, the book offers readers a comprehensive understanding of a dark chapter in African history, honoring the victims and celebrating the resilience of its people.

In "The Tragic Destiny of Authoritarian Regimes," the author delves deep into the dramatic, often brutal ends of dictators whose iron grip over their nations culminated in their violent demises. Through a tapestry of historical investigation, and psychological analyses, this compelling book unravels the paradoxical vulnerabilities that lie at the heart of absolute power.The narrative journey begins with an overview of the rise and consolidation of authoritarian regimes, exploring the conditions that enable single individuals to wield enormous, unchecked power. The author presents a panoramic view of various dictatorial regimes across epochs and continents, setting the stage for the central theme of the book.The core of the work is a series of meticulously researched case studies, each focusing on a dictator who met a violent end. From the assassination of Julius Caesar to the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi, the book illuminates the intricate web of palace intrigues, popular revolts, foreign interventions, and personal betrayals that often converge in the final moments of a dictator's life.Beyond the historical details, the author delves into the psychology of these authoritarian figures. What drives a person to such heights of power, and how do they rationalize their rule? And crucially, how do the seeds of their own destruction often reside within their choices, allies, and the systems they establish?In the concluding chapters, the book takes a broader view, examining the aftermath and societal repercussions of a dictator's fall. How do nations rebuild, both physically and psychologically? How do societies reckon with the legacy of an authoritarian past? And what warnings and lessons can be gleaned for contemporary and future political landscapes?A gripping blend of historical narrative, psychological exploration, and political analysis, "The Tragic Destiny of Authoritarian Regimes" offers readers a rare window into the dramatic, often hidden stories of the world's most powerful figures and the ultimate price of unchecked authority. It's a tour de force for anyone keen on understanding the cyclical nature of power, its allure, and its inherent vulnerabilities.

Hell's Not Far Off is a grounded, politically engaged study of the Appalachian journalist and political critic Bruce Crawford, a scourge of coal and railway interests. Crawford fought injustices wherever he saw them at major risk to his own life and became an early interpreter of Appalachian labor history. His writings and actions from the 1920s to the 1960s helped shape southwest Virginia and West Virginia. Through Crawford's Weekly, a newspaper active from 1920 to 1935, Crawford challenged the Ku Klux Klan, lynch mobs, and the private police forces of coal barons. The wounds received for these efforts were the closing of his paper and a bullet to his leg during a Harlan County strike in the 1930s. In his work after journalism, he led the West Virginia branch of the Federal Writers' Project during the political standoff over the contents of the state's official guidebook. In Hell's Not Far Off, Josh Howard resurrects strands of a radical tradition centered especially on matters of labor, environment, and race, drawing attention to that tradition's ongoing salience: "Present-day Appalachia's fights were [Crawford's], and his fights are still ours."

A horror-story history of capitalism and its relationship to the haunted and the gothic, and a manifesto of Gothic Marxism, which finds revolutionary hope in the nightmare of modernity.What does it mean to see horror in capitalism? What can horror tell us about the state and nature of capitalism?Blending film criticism, cultural theory, and philosophy, Capitalism: A Horror Story examines literature, film, and philosophy, from Frankenstein to contemporary cinema, delving into the socio-political function of the monster, the haunted nature of the digital world, and the inescapable horror of contemporary capitalist politics.Revitalizing the tradition of Romantic anticapitalism and offering a “dark way of being red”, Capitalism: A Horror Story argues for a Gothic Marxism, showing how we can find revolutionary hope in horror- a site of monstrous becoming that opens the door to a Utopian future.

This book provides a long history of France¿s infamous indigénat regime, from its origins in Algeria to its contested practices and legacies in France¿s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia. The term indigénat is synonymous throughout the francophone world with the rigours and injustices of the colonial era under French rule. The indigénat regime or 'Native Code' governed the lives of peoples classified as French 'native' subjects in colonies as diverse as Algeria, West Africa, Madagascar, Indochina and New Caledonia. In New Caledonia it was introduced by decree in 1887 and remained in force until Kanak ¿ New Caledoniäs indigenous people ¿ obtained citizenship in 1946. Among the colonial tools and legal mechanisms associated with France¿s colonial empire it is the one that has had the greatest impact on the memory of the colonized. Focussing on New Caledonia, the last remaining part of overseas France to have experienced the full force of the indigénat, this book illustrates the way that certain measures were translated into colonial practices, and sheds light on the tensions involved in the making of France as both a nation and a colonial empire. The first book to provide a comprehensive history of the indigénat regime, explaining how it first came into being and survived up until 1946 despite its constant denunciation, this is an important contribution to French Imperial History and Pacific History.

This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called "e;weak states"e; in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the "e;failed state"e; paradigm

This book completes the project, begun in Nietzsche's Immoralism: Politics as First Philosophy, of critically reconstructing a Nietzschean left politics. Nietzsche's incompatibilist ideal of amor fati requires reconceiving legitimacy as the breeding of a people whose material conditions enable it to affirm its social order. Justice is founded in a future, higher type's right to exist against present individuals who internalize the contradictions of past societies. In opposition to Nietzsche's self-undermining aristocratism, this right can only be realized through a universal promotion of the pluralistic unity of the manifold soul, secured by an equally manifold form of democracy. Against the covert aristocratism of liberal proceduralism, authentic democracy produces a true people grounded in shared, concrete happiness, requiring a comprehensive egalitarianism maintained by a permanent socialist state and achievable only through a populist, coalitional politics across identities that radically transforms the material conditions of our shared social life.