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The Symbolic Uses of Politics
... Taking a page from Antonio Gramsci, Bachrach and Baratz (1962) suggest that the myths and values embedded in political institutions structure what issues and actors enter the political debate. Edelman (1971) further suggests that states use symbolic politics to influence the way people come to define their very "beliefs, wants, and demands" (8; see also Lukes 1974 ;Foley 1993 ). Yet these powerful tools are built over time and often involve long-term socialization processes ( Oberschall 1973 ;Lukes 1974 ). ...
... Taking a page from Murray Edelman, an early theorist of symbolic politics, this paper builds from the insight that we can think about politics as "a spectacle, reported by the media and witnessed by parts of the public" ( Edelman 1967 , 195). Considering politics as a spectacle causes us to foreground, as Edelman (1967Edelman ( , 1971 did, the centrality of state actors' role in defining how the public understands complex or ambiguous issues and events with the intent of either reassuring them or making them feel threatened. Subsequent scholarship further suggests the important role of symbolic politics in generating social control through the process of winning hearts and minds ( Schlesinger 1991 ), establishing legitimacy ( Krebs and Jackson 2007 ;Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019 ), influencing behavior ( Miskimmon, O'Loughlin, and Roselle 2013 ), and increasing normative compliance and reducing the "need to rely on coercion" ( Mampilly 2015 , 81). ...
... Taking a page from Murray Edelman, an early theorist of symbolic politics, this paper builds from the insight that we can think about politics as "a spectacle, reported by the media and witnessed by parts of the public" ( Edelman 1967 , 195). Considering politics as a spectacle causes us to foreground, as Edelman (1967Edelman ( , 1971 did, the centrality of state actors' role in defining how the public understands complex or ambiguous issues and events with the intent of either reassuring them or making them feel threatened. Subsequent scholarship further suggests the important role of symbolic politics in generating social control through the process of winning hearts and minds ( Schlesinger 1991 ), establishing legitimacy ( Krebs and Jackson 2007 ;Bray, Shriver, and Adams 2019 ), influencing behavior ( Miskimmon, O'Loughlin, and Roselle 2013 ), and increasing normative compliance and reducing the "need to rely on coercion" ( Mampilly 2015 , 81). ...
Many protests are met with symbolic responses instead of, or in addition to, concrete actions, yet concessions and repression receive more scholarly attention than any other protest outcome. This article develops a typology of symbolic protest management, the performative or rhetorical responses that are not only directed at a protesting group, but also are intended to influence the public’s understanding of protest events. The typology is structured around two questions: Does the state response treat protests or protesters as legitimate? And does the state respond in a way that signals a resolution of the conflict? Then, using original data on protest in Mexico, the article explores patterns of symbolic response to protest in Mexico.
... In election campaigns, the politicians' need to engage the general public and appeal to them is accentuated. Through the use of emotions, politicians can strive to attain this kind of public involvement (Brader 2006;Edelman 1964;Johnson 2022;Manning & Holmes 2014). Similar to the most recent general election in Sweden (which took place in September, 2022), the 2018 general election was characterised by a significant preoccupation with law and order which was evident both in relation to the Social Democrats' and the Moderates' elections campaigns. ...
... Specific elections as well as the electoral success of particular political parties have been analysed in terms of emotionality (Bronstein, Aharony & Bar-Ilan 2018;Sampietro & ordaz 2015;Tucker 2018;Valentino, Wayne & oceno 2018;Yates 2016). Edelman (1964) emphasises the emotional aspects of elections by exploring the practice of democratic elections as a secular ritual. However, the mediatised election campaigns that we experience in Sweden (Strömbäck & nord 2008) are probably not associated with the high levels of emotional energy that characterise a number of other rituals. ...
... Barbalet (2006) even argues that the institutional setting of the ballot, or the secret vote, is accompanied by emotions of loneliness and impotence. However, Edelman (1964) argues that specifically because many aspects of politics are remote and abstract to most citizens, the emotional appeal of political messages becomes crucial. Manning and Holmes (2014) additionally stress that citizens increasingly value affinity, i.e. an emotional connection to politicians and to electoral politics. ...
The aim of the present article has been to explore how the public is encouraged to engage emotionally in criminal policy matters. By comparing how two of the largest political parties in Sweden-the Moderate Party and the Social Democratic Party-express emotions during the 2018 election campaigns, the article has illustrated an emotional political struggle over voters. Even though worry and (dis)trust are prominently articulated emotions by both political parties, they address these emotions in different ways and the parties also differ regarding which emotions they encourage in the public. The Moderate Party describes worry and distrust as a result of a correct evaluation of society's state, the constituted solution being to change social conditions through an advancement of state control. Instead, The Social Democratic Party portrays worry as a result of the uncertainty of the future, and the party encourage the public to invest in trust in others to overcome this worry.
... The causal stories create or delineate particular social groups by a process of symbolic designation. In the course of this process, the different actors manipulate images and symbols in order to strengthen their arguments (see, in particular, Edelman, 1964Edelman, , 1988Schneider and Ingram, 1997). This is particularly evident in the case of the theories supported by the extreme Right that deliberately attribute the causes of unemployment, violence and so on to a particular social group, that is, immigrants. ...
... 5. The use of delaying tactics when commissioning studies: like all state measures, the announcement and conduct of an evaluative study may be used as a symbolic act (Edelman, 1964(Edelman, , 1971Kinderman, 1988). In this case, the evaluation does not fulfil any of its primary -that is, instrumental, clarifying or legitimising -functions. ...
... In such cases, policy analysis instruments prove inappropriate for demonstrating the considerable weight of this political factor. However, from the policy analysis point of view, recognition that there is much symbolic (Edelman, 1964(Edelman, , 1971) political activity occurring as opposed to forms of problem solving prevent analysts from getting sucked into evaluation in situations when rational analysis is of little use. That does not, however, imply that it is never of use. ...
... The causal stories create or delineate particular social groups by a process of symbolic designation. In the course of this process, the different actors manipulate images and symbols in order to strengthen their arguments (see, in particular, Edelman, 1964Edelman, , 1988Schneider and Ingram, 1997). This is particularly evident in the case of the theories supported by the extreme Right that deliberately attribute the causes of unemployment, violence and so on to a particular social group, that is, immigrants. ...
... 5. The use of delaying tactics when commissioning studies: like all state measures, the announcement and conduct of an evaluative study may be used as a symbolic act (Edelman, 1964(Edelman, , 1971Kinderman, 1988). In this case, the evaluation does not fulfil any of its primary -that is, instrumental, clarifying or legitimising -functions. ...
... In such cases, policy analysis instruments prove inappropriate for demonstrating the considerable weight of this political factor. However, from the policy analysis point of view, recognition that there is much symbolic (Edelman, 1964(Edelman, , 1971) political activity occurring as opposed to forms of problem solving prevent analysts from getting sucked into evaluation in situations when rational analysis is of little use. That does not, however, imply that it is never of use. ...
... Edelman and Finlayson, key voices which have contributed significantly to this article, have equally identified and voiced the issue of political words being too open to interpretation in their work. Edelman talks of the 'diverse pictures [that] may be in the minds of the various respondents to such cues', of words like communism and tyranny (Edelman, 1964 : 116-7). Finlayson sees how terms like freedom, choice, democracy and even poverty are 'concepts whose meaning cannot be established independently of contestation' (Finlayson, 2007: 551). ...
... This article has recognised the issue of 'Orwellian' in particular encompassing too much in one word, but this does not mean we should give it disproportionate criticism. Tyranny and freedom are just some of the many words (Finlayson, 2007;Edelman, 1964) which, as they are interpreted differently, can also be harmful in eroding the clarity of meaning needed in argumentation when used in parliamentary debate. And this is unlikely to change, a feature of political rhetoric which Orwell identified in his essay on, 'Politics and the English Language', before he even wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell, 1946). ...
The relationship between English Literature and Politics has, historically, been understated and underexplored in academia. This article recognises the value of this relationship, significantly contributing to the field through original research which explores the political appropriation of literature. Using politicians’ references to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in parliamentary debate as a precedent, this research shows how fiction is used as a strategy of political argument. In supporting this claim, this research engages with the rising approach of Rhetorical Political Analysis, and wider theory which views political rhetoric as argumentation.
... In other words, whether it is done from the comfort of one's home or an elementary school is largely irrelevant. It remains an act of symbolic reassurance and as Edelman (1964) has pointed out an event primarily designed to reinforce conformity and reaffirm a fundamental belief in democracy. ...
... Instead, it has to be investigated within a socio-semiotic framework", and that it is a social reality which is itself an edifice of meanings. In another context, Edelman (1964) underlines the fundamental function of symbols in the process of encoding and decoding meaning in versatile political communication. ...
Zimbabwe has been in deep political and economic crises for the past three decades, a scenario that has persisted even after the demise of the late president Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The political terrain in Zimbabwe has been characterised by political conflicts, political violence, alleged elections rigging, abuse of human rights, lawlessness, among other undesirable traits which are detrimental to development. The international community had to intervene to bring sanity and peace to Zimbabwe. The imposed sanctions by Britain and its allies came as a punitive measure to force the Zimbabwean government to observe human rights and the rule of law. Unfortunately, this move instigated untold suffering of the generality of the people of Zimbabwe. The chapter interrogates the protracted and nuanced political conflict and sanctions in Zimbabwe in the context of development in the post-coup society.The chapter explores the essentials of Ubuntu/Unhu philosophy as an ethical framework which helps to frame arguments for a possible ‘rebirth’ of the nation after the demise of the late president Mugabe in order to pave way for the national development. Thus, the virtues of Ubuntu/Unhu/ Vumunhu are utilised in this study in the context of transition politics and the reconstruction process in post-Mugabe society vis-à-vis the effects of the imposed sanctions. The chapter argues that political conflict and sanctions should be carefully examined to unpack the complex dynamics of present-day Zimbabwean politics. It can be concluded that political stasis and sanctions require immediate solutions to pave way for national development in post-coup Zimbabwe. It is also recommended that the use of sanctions as a punitive measure should be revised by the international bodies because it is not the intended people who are punished but the generality of innocent Zimbabweans.KeywordsSanctionsPolitical conflictUbuntu/Unhu/Vumunhu philosophyDevelopmentPost-coup Zimbabwe
... Nors valstybėje įgyvendinama simbolinė politika anaiptol neapsiriboja istorinėmis temomis ir jų neišsemia, tačiau jai dažnai būdinga specifinė praeities interpretacija, reprezentacija, mediacija ir naratyvizacija siekiant tam tikrų politinių tikslų [44]. Bene pirmasis politikos kaip simbolinio veiksmo koncepciją dar XX a. 7-ajame dešimtmetyje pasiūlė JAV politikos analitikas Murray'us J. Edelmanas [12]. M. Edelmano darbai, polemizavę su tuo metu politologijoje dominavusia "racionalaus pasirinkimo" koncepcija, tapo pirmuoju bandymu pateikti teoriją, išsamiau aptariančią simbolinį politinių veiksmų matmenį ir aiškinančią jų efektus santykyje su politinei analizei įprastomis konfliktų, prievartos, grupinių interesų, elito vaidmens ir kitomis kategorijomis. ...
The article analyses the concept of symbolic politics and its potential for explaining the mechanisms and means of struggle used by social protest movements. A detailed discussion of the protest events that took place in Lithuania between 2021 and 2023 reveals how the symbolic capital of major national holidays and commemorations was exploited by the opposing political forces.Between 2021 and 2023, social discontent was rising in Lithuania and so was the number of mass protests in the country. The latter differed significantly from the previous ones not only in the geography and social composition of the participants (mostly not the residents of Vilnius but those of the province, representatives of the so-called lower social classes), but also in the problems and political demands they identified. The rhetoric used was more typical of the ‘culture wars’, with demands for systemic changes and calls for the resignation of some high-ranking officials or even institutions, such as the government of the Republic of Lithuania. The frequency of these protest events and the number of protesters have also been noticeably rising.The main reasons for the growing dissatisfaction of some citizens were the domestic and foreign policies implemented by the ruling coalition formed by the TS-LKD (Tėvynės sąjunga-Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, Homeland Union-LithuanianChristian Democrats), the Lithuanian Liberal Movement (Lietuvos liberalų sąjūdis, LLS), the Freedom Party (Laisvės partija, LS) and the government it appointed at the end of 2020, as well as the legislative initiatives reflecting the so-called gender discourse. These protests were suppressed with the help of a negative image of the protesters in the mainstream media and (not always adequate to the situation) by demonstrating the measures taken by the force structures structures to control the civil unrest. However, early in 2022, protesters spontaneously discovered and exploited, sufficiently effectively, unconventional or openly counter-conventional symbolic political tools: they used major national holidays and commemorations and public events organised on those occasions, which became an arena for demonstrating openly their negative attitudes towards the political elite.With this in mind, the aim of this article is to take a closer look at the official commemorations of 13 January, 16 February, and 11 March, the three most important national dates in 2022, and the forms of civic dissatisfaction that were expressedduring them. The category of symbolic politics was used as a theoretical basis for the study and is presented in greater detail in the article. In addition to sources such as public speeches of politicians, broadcasts of these events, TV reports or discussions about them in official and social media, etc., anthropological participatory research was chosen as a significant method of analysis.Taking into account the specifics of the development of post-Soviet countries, the topic of the exploitation of cultural memory, especially related to the era of the national movement Sąjūdis (the time of the restoration of the state) in the accumulation of symbolic capital and in the solution of topical socio-political problems was of particular importance for the analysis of the interaction of symbolic politics and social protest. The mass protests of 2021–2023 illustrate how the Sąjūdis epoch and the political values and programming of Lithuania’s development put forward during that era are still being used to challenge, reject, and create a vision contrary to the currently established political discourse and its order, including the commemorative ritual. The ongoing struggle for the right to control the symbolic legacy of the Sąjūdis and the lack of ‘feedback’ in political communication are fuelling hostility and radicalisation on both sides of the conflict. The struggle for the appropriation of the memory and moral capital of the Sąjūdis (and of the first Republic of Lithuania, from which the Sąjūdis evolved legally and symbolically) has become extremely significant for each of them, because the appropriation of this resource also plays the role of the legitimation of a particular political group. Denying the political opponent the right to this symbolic resource simultaneously denies any legitimacy they may have and at the same time eliminates them symbolically from the field of political competition.
... Понимание политического как символического пространства с помощью интерпретационного метода дает возможность оценить внешние эффекты интернациональных визитов. В этом отношении интерес представляют исследования М. Эдельмана и У. Сарсинелли, которые рассматривают символическую политику через механизмы дублирования политической реальности, где с целью формирования эмоциональной вовлеченности аудитории значимость придается выражению политических актов драматургическими средствами [Edelman 1964;1971;1988;Politikvermittlung… 1988;Sarcinelli 2011]. ...
The article describes the concept of political socialization of Soviet schoolchildren based on children's public diplomacy in 1982–1986. The authors concentrated on the international visits made by Samantha Smith and Yekaterina Lychyova. The research did not involve other factors of political socialization, e.g., weekly political information, fundraising events for the starving children of Africa and Nicaragua, foreign pen-palls, etc. These international visits provided valuable practical experience of interaction between Soviet and foreign children. Children's diplomacy is a relatively new phenomenon for Russian historiography, and the authors attempted to define its theoretical and symbolic meaning. The ideology-affected political socialization transformed children's everyday life, depriving it of the freedom of choice and opportunities. The analysis of children's diplomacy with its potential opportunities and shortcomings made it possible to determine the bottlenecks of political socialization. It revealed the tension between the public and private dimensions of international politics and actualized the factor of transnational activity in the development of bilateral Soviet-American relations. The research relied on the personal experience of those children, their memories, memoirs of their contemporaries, media publications, etc. The project of children's diplomacy failed because it deviated from its original scenario. Every time the process was out of direct control of political elites, children’s psychology and behavior interfered with the plan.
... Society tends to use, among others, edifices, artworks, songs, and other timeless expressions to glorify and immortalize such individuals. However, the importance of political symbols depends on what they evoke in the minds of people (Hayward & Dumbuya, 1983) because the meanings of a symbol(ism) are what matter (Edelman, 1985). ...
This chapter examines the leadership emergence of Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 1947–12 November 2020) as a democratic ruler. Ghana’s Jerry John Rawlings is arguably one of the most charismatic leaders to have ruled an African country in contemporary times. His charisma and leadership style helped to transit Ghana from a political and economic decay in the 1980s to constitutional rule and economic recovery in the 1990s. Although he was a coupist, Rawlings became an icon and respected leader in Ghana, Africa, and the world during his term of office as Head of State and President. Rawlings’ ideology and leadership style was a mixed bag of approaches grounded in his belief in the principles of probity and accountability. The goal of this chapter is to examine how Rawlings emerged as a transformational leader in Ghanaian politics, and African and world politics at large. We, therefore, argue that he demonstrated transformational and charismatic leadership skills which led Ghana through a successful economic recovery program and democratization. We do so by unpacking his ideology and leadership style from 1993 to 2001. The chapter shows that Rawlings’ goal was to rid Ghana of corruption and to decentralize the decision-making process and enable institutional process for development that centered around the people at all levels of governance. He had a vision of a government free from corruption and inclusive government connected to the grassroots. Rawlings pursued economic reforms through structural adjustment programs that help to strengthen Ghana’s economy.
... Perhaps effectiveness was used merely as a vague reference to (or flirtation with) something that the policy makers presumed resonates with many, due to implications of rationality, economics, or other abstractions with positive connotations (Edelman, 1967). The concept then takes on vague moral overtones, as if an effective policy were superior a priori to a policy that lacks this epithet. ...
This paper builds on the presumption that the idea of effectiveness refers primarily to an organizational and managerial context. It asks the question how this idea is transformed when used as a rationale for action in contexts where economy and efficiency are of minor significance and where no organizational survival is at stake. The EU and Swedish migration policies show, however, that persistent egoistic implications help construct a specific territory as an organization to be managed much like a business firm. It is concluded that the meaning of effectiveness does not necessarily change when this concept is used in an alien context. Instead, references to effectiveness help transform the context to which the concept is applied.
... It has been pointed out quite clearly in the context of other political issues that the symbolic rewards which emanate from political action are frequently more important than any tangible results (Edelman, 1964). ...
... В 1960-1970-х гг. американский политолог М. Эдельман опубликовал работы «Символическое использование политики» и «Политика как символическое действие», заложившие концептуальную основу для исследования символической политики [Edelman, 1964[Edelman, , 1971; об истории концепта символической политики см.: [Ишменев, 2011; Поцелуев, 2012; Ефремова, 2014; Смирнов, 2016]. Сегодня в российской политологии различимы две интерпретации символической политики. ...
«Враг номер один» в символической политике кинематографий СССР и США периода холодной войны / Под ред. О. В. Рябова. — М.: Издательство «Аспект Пресс», 2023. — 400 с.
The monograph deals with the “cinematic Cold War”. The authors analyze how the images of Soviet and American enemies were employed in symbolic politics conducted by by U.S. and Soviet cinema respectively.
The book is addressed to specialists in the field of History, Film Studies, International Relations, Cultural Studies, and Political Science.
The publication is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant № 18–18–00233 “The Cinematic Images of Soviet and American Enemies in the Cold War Symbolic Politics: Comparative Analysis”
... Mettler and Soss (2004) explored how desirable policies influence citizens and recapped in their article that appropriate policies shape citizens' patterns of behaviour and mobilise interest groups by making them more politically engaged and bolstering their level of commitment to that issue; for them, policies are a way of conveying messages to the public about civic engagement. Additionally, Edelman (1964) remarked that policies can intimidate or comfort, foster beliefs or evoke mass collective participation. In a similar spectrum, Feldman & Conover (1983), Kinder &Sears 1985 andKrosnick (1990) investigated the effect of favourable policies on citizens in stimulating votes; according to their summary, government targets the population with policies that it deems relevant to them, and subsequently, citizens acquire a sense that these policies attribute great importance to their cause, thus proceed to vote to the candidate with the most suitable policy. ...
During the past years, environmental protection and adopting countermeasures against climate change have been on the agenda of many East African countries, as well as western nations, although a common challenge confronted by policymakers is directing young people’s interest toward the environment. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of certain factors that can be adopted by government bodies as a strategy to make youth more engaged in environmental activities. An electronic questionnaire was completed by Djiboutian young people from February 2022 to late June 2022. We retrieved 440 out of 500 questionnaires; a structural equation model was subsequently employed to assess the effects of government rewards, interactions, capacity building and favourable policies on youth engagement. According to the results, all the factors demonstrated a positive impact on youth engagement; consequently, we conclude that young people have tendencies to engage in activities that revolve around environmental issues when there is a reward system in place. Likewise, establishing an interactive platform that accommodates young people’s opinions while the government provides reasonable feedback will stimulate engagement. Reasonably, embracing policies in favour of the environment will depict the government as an effective, responsible leader, retroactively influencing young people’s perceptions. On the other hand, allowing youths to participate in the process of policies formulation will guarantee a long-term societal engagement, since, pragmatically speaking, these adopted policies will eventually influence their future; at the same time, we conclude that providing proper training and building young people’s capacity will provide them with fundamental personal skills, while simultaneously enhancing their sustainable attitude to respond adequately to environmental challenges consequently assisting the national government with their environmental endeavours. Finally, the following paper contributes to the relevant existing body of literature, by providing empirical evidence on different types of government initiatives that could make young people more engaged and inclined in environmental issues.
Возникновение и удержание политической власти предполагают формирование некой смысловой картины мира, которая объясняет и оправдывает порядки, реализуемые этой властью. Доминирование такой смысловой картины мира является базой для легитимности власти, консолидации социума, общности идентичности. Смысловая картина мира многослойна и подвижна, в ее формировании принимают участие не только политический класс, но и гуманитарные науки, система образования, личный опыт. Прагмасемантический подход позволят представить этот процесс как каскад интерфейсов (контекстов) смыслообразования, каждый из которых операционализируется как ценностно-регулятивная система (ЦРС). С этой точки зрения политическая власть предстает ЦРС, которая для обоснования влияния на упорядочение других претендует на доминирующую смысловую картину мира. Концептуальный анализ опирается на содержание, представленное в пятитомнике В.П. Макаренко, проделавшего обстоятельную работу по систематизации идей и концепций политической науки в ее современном состоянии, выявившую парадоксальность и противоречивость ее теоретических построений. Аналитика приводит к выводу, что понимание концепта власти на уровне общих понятий ведет к парадоксальному аналогу теодицеи или множества всех множеств в основаниях математики. Без власти индивиды не могут образовать общность, необходимую для достижения блага каждого из них, но при этом любая власть есть ограничение, подавление субъектности. Поэтому, так же как в теодицее или в основаниях математики, конкретные содержательные характеристики применимы не к власти вообще, а к конкретным ее проявлениям. Для развития социума важна конструктивная вариативность осмысления действительности и форматы организации власти, способные порождать и поддерживать такую вариативность. Тем самым и в политической теории необходим переход от оперирования общими абстракциями к конструктивному пониманию процессуальности и операциональности политики применительно к конкретным социумам с учетом их актуальных проблем и исторического опыта. Данная тематика приобретает нетривиальное значение в наши дни, когда радикально меняются форматы ЦРС в управлении, бизнесе, науке, образовании, искусстве, личной жизни. Современные информационно-коммуникативные технологии в цифровом формате обеспечивают широкий доступ к источникам и каналам информации, открывая возможности непосредственной презентации и трансляции мнений, оценочных переживаний, эмоционально окрашенных образов. При этом государство получает исключительные возможности контроля за содержанием этих информационных потоков, их пользователями. Социальная ответственность, ее содержание, институты ее реализации приобретают новое качество, предъявляя новые вызовы и запросы к морали и праву, каждой личности.
This study explains the role of discourse analysis in understanding political speeches by shedding light on the application of theories and techniques of discourse analysis to analyse political discourse. Language is a multi-layered entity, and based on this, the study analyses the meanings and constructs that lie behind the linguistic elements in political speeches. The study is based on three female political speeches viz., those of Jacinda Ardern (the previous New Zealand Prime Minister) in Christchurch’s, the first Senate speech of Fatima Payman, a Muslim immigrant to be a senator in the Australian Senate, and the opening speech of Sanna Marin, the Prime Minister of Finland, at NYU in 2023. The selection was made using Fairclough’s Framework to identify different topics for speeches. In the analysis, the researcher unravels the underlying meaning in these speeches, and simultaneously the relationships between power and ideology, ideology and identity. Findings showed that the three speeches used many persuasive techniques and rhetorical devices with concealed meanings betraying ideological biases, and persuasive strategies to advance individual agendas.
The article deals with the issue of the role of patriotism and its relationship with symbolic politics. An analysis is made of how, through symbolic politics, namely, on the example of the organization of the Suvorov Days, the Russian Federation can attract the attention of the international community. It is concluded that there is insufficient attention to the significance of symbolic politics. It is proposed to develop regulatory documents that will contribute to the development of new mechanisms of symbolic politics through the prism of holding the Suvorov Days in honor of Russian national heroes, since this direction corresponds to the real idea of Russia in the framework of the education of patriotism.
The text analyzes the political practices in the province of San Luis, Argentina, in the last five years (2017–2021) examining the public actions of two relevant politicians in San Luis, such as the current Governor Alberto Rodriguez Saá and the opposition leader deputy national Claudio Poggi. His public political action through the press, his presence on social networks, and his public procedures have been analyzed. The question that guides this manuscript is to know the cultural patterns that shape local politics in the province of San Luis; Argentina and analyze the occurrence of a cultural change in political practices. The surveys allow us to determine that these practices are slowly producing a change in the political culture of San Luis, among the politicians themselves and in their relationship with the electorate.
The thesis of this publication is: It is the asymmetrical structures of the theatre and the far-reaching powers of an artistic director based on them, that in some cases lead to the fact, that one’s own person and one’s own actions are seen as so omnipotent and untouchable. Serious mistakes are made in the exercise of the office and in dealing with the employees, as will be proven in this study. Power in this form is particularly favoured by the “Intendant-centred model” and the function of the Intendant, who combines the functions of CEO and Artistic Director in his person. It enables the Intendant to have almost uncontrolled decision-making power in all areas of the theatre. This is one reason why abuse of power and discrimination in the German theatre system may be at an above-average level. The hermetic nature of the theatre as a self-sufficient system means that such incidents hardly ever reach the public and, if they do, their clarification is often suppressed, delayed or prevented. Since most assaults are hushed up and not punished, there are no scientifically collected and reliable figures on German public theatre companies so far. However, with this study, reliable results and findings are now available for the first time.
The article is a preliminary effort to join neo-positive and historical institutional analysis from comparative politics with insights from discursive and phenomenological analysis. It highlights a message arising from a South Korean film related to moral–ethical dimensions and the implications of development policy. Taken in symbolic as well as empirical terms, the film proffers that economic development policy not attending to political institutional development—including correct institutional practices at the micro-level—is feeding Asia’s demons (e.g., asuras) rather than its forces of stability and (rational, democratic, participatory) political order. The film suggests that institutional atrophy and social decay may emerge from the breakdown of political institutions and participatory politics as a political system moves from rationalized institutions and practices into what the current work calls, “mafia politics.” Political ritual and political theatre are actively employed in the film in ritualized acts of the desecration of political order. The current work suggests that the analysis of symbolic representations relating to ritual politics and performativity (e.g., “political theatre”) located in certain art forms, such as international film, may be useful in studies of religion and politics, and in qualitative comparative political and historical institutional analysis more broadly.
One oft-cited reason for women's political underrepresentation is that women express less political ambition than men. We reframe the puzzle of women's ambition deficit, asking why men have an ambition surplus. Drawing on the concept of symbolic representation, we theorize that political symbols convey to men their capacity for exceptional political leadership. We test our expectations with a US-based survey experiment in which respondents watch one of three ‘two-minute civics lessons’. Men who watched a video featuring the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers reported significantly more political ambition than men assigned to the control group. Additional studies indicate that the effects are specific to the Founding Fathers (as compared to early American statesmen). Men are also more likely than women to identify the Founding Fathers as inspiring figures and to feel pride when considering them. Our findings suggest how history is told contributes to men's persistent political overrepresentation.
Empirical research results on nationalism and the Macedonian issue 1991-1993 together with A. Armenakis, Th. Gotsopoulos, N. Demertzis and D. Charalambis
The purpose of this work is to study symbolic space and related practices of space exploration, a complex of tangible and intangible resources in the course of self-organization of modern communities. The main method is a comparative analysis of concepts and theories, which made it possible to analyze current approaches to the conceptualization of the concept of symbolic space and symbolic power. The symbolic dimension, according to the author's position, is the most important, inseparable from the physical and communicative dimensions of the living space of communities and a condition for their self-organization. The author defends the hypothesis of the cementing role of the practices of individual and collective development of space and resources for modern communities. At the same time, the vector of development of material and non-material resources develops from individual human strategies for interacting with reality to group development models and a system of interactions of interested actors and their associations with each other, animate and inanimate objects. The significance of a symbol, myth, ritual in the processes of formation of modern communities, as well as brands as universal units in various functional spheres, including public policy, is demonstrated. The article attempts to analyze individual practices that form the political space of a joint interested being (political co-being). The thesis is put forward regarding the role of the consumer social model in the organization of space and self-organization of communities based on the principles of development. The significance of the work may consist in determining the trends of qualitative processes of self-organization of modern communities, stimulating further conceptualization of the concepts of symbolic space and symbolic power.
To recapitulate, incrementalism is both inevitable and desirable under normal circumstances; fortunately, it can be adapted to function within our current regime of responsible parties. For partisan incrementalism to work effectively, however, the majority party must be able to enact its program; this requires abolition of the Senate filibuster, a reform consistent with the vision of the framers. Equally important, both policymakers and voters must become realists, rejecting not only idealism but also the emphasis on symbols over substance that has emerged in our social media age. Finally, while this volume has focused on the American context, partisan incrementalism should function especially well within first-past-the-post parliamentary systems featuring two strong parties.
Numerous studies of coal mine laws have argued that the passage of all significant health and safety legislation can be attributed to a succession of catastrophic disasters which heightened awareness and propelled lawmakers into action. This paper takes issue with this "disaster-law" argument because it obscures the intricacies of law creation by focusing on a single factor. More accurately, mining disasters represent one dimension of a process aimed at resolving conflicts occurring within a specific social context. Historically, legislation has been utilized to avert economic crises by addressing the demands of protesting miners. Unfortunately, while the "written law" assured improvements, the "law in action" did not meet these guarantees and the deaths in the mines continued. A case study of the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 demonstrates how a law with apparently progressive standards can fail to effect change because of its dualistic nature and incomplete implementation.
Sovyet sonrası dönemde bağımsızlıklarını kazanan Türk Cumhuriyetleri’nde yeni bir ulus-devlet ve ulusal kimlik inşası süreci yaşanmıştır. Çoğu, bu süreçte siyasal sembollerin ulusal bir kimlik oluşturmadaki rollerinden faydalanmış; etnik, dini ve tarihi ortaklıklara gönderme yapan sembollerle ulus-altı kimliklerin üstünde, birleştirici bir ulus-üstü kimlik oluşturmaya çalışmıştır. Bu bağlamdan hareketle; siyasal sembollerin ortak bir kimlik kurmadaki işe yarar rollerini ortaya koymak için Türki Cumhuriyetler, birer vaka örneği olarak sıkça kullanılmış ve bu konu hakkında literatürde çokça çalışma yapılmıştır. Bu çalışmayı diğerlerinden ayıran özellik; çalışmanın siyasal sembollerin birleştirici rollerinden ziyade, ayrıştırıcı ve rekabet yaratıcı rollerini açıklamak için Saparmurat Niyazov Dönemi Türkmenistan’ı vaka örneği olarak kullanmasıdır. Bu makale, siyasal sembollerin birleştirici ve ortaklık kurucu oldukları kadar; ayrıştırıcı ve rekabet yaratıcı da oldukları iddiasını, Niyazov dönemi Türkmenistan ulusal marşı, bayrağı ve parası üzerinden gerekçelendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada, Niyazov’un ulusal bir kimlik inşa etmek ve iktidarını meşrulaştırmak için kullandığı; marş, bayrak ve para sembolleri açıklayıcı öğeler olarak kullanılmıştır. Makalede tarihsel-betimleyici ve karşılaştırmalı bir yöntem kullanılmıştır. Bu yöntem çerçevesinde, Niyazov dönemi marş, bayrak ve para sembolleri verilerek, Niyazov öncesi ve sonrası dönemlerle karşılaştırılmış ve siyasal sembolizm açısından taşıdığı anlam vurgulanmaya çalışılmıştır.
The purpose of the article was to examine the role of information technologies in the formation of symbolic politics through the prism of mass media, communications and new Internet technologies. The methodological basis of the study is formed by legislation and historical literature, using dialectical and comparative methods, as well as general methods of scientific analysis. Symbolic politics is one of the mechanisms of information interaction between society and the political elite; in a new form, it allows solving social and socio-political problems. It has been established that full communication between the political elite and the population is impossible without elements of symbolic politics, such as public relations agencies, Internet blogs and social networks, etc., whose purpose is not only to form a positive image of politics and leaders, but also, it serves to establish an agreement of understanding in society. The authors conclude that new mechanisms of interaction between the elite and society, such as e-receptions, destination portals and digital government, lead to greater government transparency and increased efficiency of its activities.
In any healthy democracy, myriad policy issues compete for the public’s attention. Most remain on the periphery of politics, either because they achieve salience only in narrow communities of interest or because they grab headlines only for brief periods of time. But sometimes issues become what we term “durable attention items”—they capture public attention and sustain it over many years. Why? We focus on one such newly durable issue—gun control in the United States. Using an original dataset of roughly 4,500 letters to the editor over a 40-year period, we demonstrate that this once-episodic issue, long dominated by a narrow constituency of pro-gun advocates, has become a mainstay of mass politics. We show that the gun issue’s growing agenda status is due entirely to pro-regulation people mobilized by a combination of contextual factors, namely regularized mass shootings and efforts to relax gun policy, working in tandem with partisan polarization. Besides offering novel evidence of a fundamental shift in American gun politics, the study contributes to our theoretical understanding of how episodic issues come to command consistent political engagement over the long term.
France, with its approach to managing religion known as laïcité, has been almost unique among Western nations in its approach to religious freedom for minority religious groups and movements. In recent decades it has passed widely criticized laws in efforts to implement a program of social control over such groups, including both new religious movements (NRMs) as well as older religious groups that have functioned in France for many decades. Examining why and how this has happened helps reveal how religious freedom can be curtailed in a modern Western society using the legislative process and the law. We apply theories from the sociology of law offered by Donald Black and by William Chambliss, as well as other relevant ideas, to understand how the situation developed in France. Black’s concepts of status and intimacy are particularly useful, as is Chambliss’ dialectic approach to law, which emphasizes human volition in lawmaking. Chambliss focuses on how societies develop resolutions to resolve dilemmas as they attempt to resolve conflicts that arise from contradictions in how society functions. The role of courts in such situations will also be addressed. We conclude that the liberalistic and humanitarian national motto (“liberté, égalité, fraternité”) of the French Republic does not necessarily lead to the non-discrimination and non-persecution of new religious movements and other nontraditional religious groups. We also conclude that the resolution obtained with the About–Picard law was, as predicted by Chambliss, not a final one, and that dilemmas continue to exist about how to address concerns about religious groups in French society.
This chapter examines the role of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s iconic revolutionary hero, continental liberation and unification, as well as regional cooperation, building on his visionary nationalist political activism and leadership. Using personality and leadership symbolism, the chapter interrogates the significance of Nasser’s involvement in the geopolitics of Pan-Arabism and Pan-Africanism, and in relations between the two regional blocs. The chapter aims to demonstrate, in line with the spirit of the volume, the relevance of Nasser’s legacy in the politics of the regions to which he dedicated his life and public service. The life (and death) of Nasser, the young idealistic activist, purposeful military officer, committed and selfless nationalist leader, erudite internationalist diplomat, and Pan-African statesman standing tall in the modern histories of the Arab world and Africa, provides an important source of knowledge on leadership and international relations broadly, and with specific respect to Africa and the Arab world. Nasserism is an integral philosophy and key intellectual re/source in national and continental leadership, as well as African, Arabian, and Afro-Arabian geopolitics.
This chapter addresses the debasing and rude public language of Matteo Salvini, secretary of the Lega party, and the derisory and deliberate contemptuous language of Beppe Grillo, founder and guarantor of the Movimento 5 Stelle, instantiated in speeches at meetings or occurring on social networks. The expressions examined cover the period preceding the general election of 2018 and the following years, including the time when Salvini was Interior Minister in the same government together with the Movimento 5 Stelle. This public discourse style used to express ideas and to attack adversaries exploits derisory and foul language and vulgar remarks as pragmatic devices aimed at activating or evoking an emotional reading of the facts. Its persuasive strength is typically based on latent attitudes in traditionalist groups and on the securitization of many aspects of social life.
This chapter lays the groundwork for the answers to the research questions. In this chapter, I focus on Mexico and identify a specific sub-class of boundary-blurring actors in the country: journalists. This identification is based on the fact that journalists can increase subnational power uncertainty for subnational political elites in Mexico. After selecting journalists as a sub-class of boundary-blurring actors, I analyse data about the attacks on journalists, zoom in specifically on homicide data, and demonstrate that in many Mexican states journalists are a specifically targeted subgroup of the population. I will also demonstrate that the level of targeting varies subnationally. Finally, I demonstrate in the chapter that the targeting of journalists is likely to be connected to their boundary-blurring role.
This study investigates the visual framing of the Biden Presidency based on a content analysis of images released by the White House for its first 100 days in office on Flickr, an online photo-sharing site. The rhetorical ideas of Kenneth Burke and the communication theories of agenda-setting and frame-building provide the conceptual foundations for the study. The Biden administration frames Vice President Harris as a coequal to the President and an active participant in White House spaces and political processes. Harris is charged with ritualistic symbolic power that inserts her and other marginalised minority groups into the collective memory of the United States society and moves its national story to integrate a more diverse community. At the same time, the individual personality of President Biden is minimised in favour of institutional power. These narratives offer a stark contrast to former President Trump’s visual rhetoric and serve to negate news frames critical of Harris’ performance as Vice President.
The central objective of democratic governance of intelligence is, through debate and law, to establish public confidence that the agencies work efficiently, effectively and properly. Oversight of intelligence can be seen as a contest between agencies, government and overseers for the control of information. The four interacting dimensions of information control are secrecy, gathering, evaluation and persuasion. This article assesses the oversight performance of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) through the prism of information control in investigating the allegations of UK involvement in torture since 2001. Operating within an overall context of executive dominance, these dimensions constitute a series of filters including what officers tell their managers, what the agencies record, what they tell ministers, what they tell oversight bodies and, finally, what the ISC reports to the public.
The book is a collection of articles dedicated to Professor Stanisław Filipowicz for his 70th birthday anniversary. The texts refer to his scientific achievements in political philosophy and the history of thought and political ideas.
The objective of this study was to assess the digital-analogue ideological positioning of the jubilee coalition. Lakoff’s (1993) Conceptual Metaphor Theory was the guiding principle to this study for it hoists metaphor above its linguistic value to consider the conceptual property on which this study is founded. This study adopted an interpretative research design targeting all the telecast campaign coverage between 24th December 2012 and 1st March 2013. The video clips as well as the FGD participants were purposively sampled in terms of specific relevance to the objective of this study. The study made use of video method of data collection as well as FGDs. The video clips used in this study were sought from the mainstream TV channels namely Citizen TV of Royal Media Services (RMS), Kenya Television Network (KTN) of Standard Group (SG) and Nation Television (NTV) of Nation Media Group (NMG). The clips were transcribed and then interpreted for their conceptual relevance to the digital-analogue metaphor. This study established that the digital alagoue Metaphor summarized the ideological incline that characterised their campaign discourse which in turn accorded them a favourable attitude from the voter. It was clear that majority of the voters were influenced by the ideology pedalled in the digital-analogue narrative. The study recommended that there should be a critical evaluation of campaign discourse for the public to decide based on deliberative and substantive policies from those seeking elective positions.
The article raises the question of the special properties of the modern media environment, capable of playing many social roles – an informer, a reasoner, an archiver, etc. The most diverse texts in a latent form are “on the shelves” of the network space, but once brought together in one semantic field they are capable of causing the cumulative effect on the audience, resonating the values of the past in the present, actualizing them. This phenomenon is directly related to the phenomenon of historical memory, which is inherent in both society as a whole and its mass media, largely determines the behavior of a contemporary. The study of topical issues of the historical memory of the society, including its media environment, has become an integral part of the scientific research of philosophers, culturologists, and journalism theorists. Thus, the relevance of this article is determined by the requests from both science and practice ‒ the deepening of crisis situations in the world has led to the demand for analysis of the manifestations of historical memory in modern mass media. Historical memory is ambivalent, its presence in the public consciousness is always marked by ambiguous assessments and approaches to the facts of history and their significance in modern political and cultural life. It is more important to understand how the ideological and moral components of the past and the present are docking in the media environment of our days, to what extent they can resonate and, therefore, be included in the creative practice of the humanistically oriented mass media. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine the hermeneutic possibilities of the student youth in interpreting a historically significant journalistic text given in comparison with the politically relevant text of the modern media environment. Accordingly, a focus group program was drawn up from among students – future journalists specializing in media and society culture. Separated by more than half a century, the texts of the essay “Clash” (1963) by the “Izvestia“ journalist Anatoly Agranovsky and the conversations of the journalist-blogger Yury Podolyaka (2022) were submitted for discussion. The results of the focus group showed that in the actual field of meanings, the values of the past effectively resonate with the present, and their interpretation by the audience leads to a reassessment of the ideology as a component of the public consciousness in the direction of emphasizing the urgent need to create a unifying ideology in the life of modern Russian society.
The article reveals the features of applying the methodology of discourse analysis in the study of the communicative policy of the state in the modern information space. It is proved that state-political reality is a multidimensional phenomenon, where political discourse will establish the basis of human ideas about the value and cultural-historical aspects of the implementation of models of power relations. The potential of strategic communications discourse in the context of building a state's communication policy is noted.
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