Post-crisis Political Normalisation? The 2018 Presidential Elections in the Republic of Cyprus

This article takes stock of the most recent presidential election in the Republic of Cyprus and connects it to broader currents in post-crisis European political settings. Although the elections took place against a backdrop of improving economic prospects, the crisis has left its political mark in a number of areas we identify that include a growing political fragmentation, the rise of the far right and increased voter abstention. The empirical analysis focuses on the media campaign and draws on a topic-modelling approach to identify and contrast emphasis given to policy issues over the two electoral rounds. The policy themes identified clustered around two dominant dimensions of political conflict: the Cyprus conflict and the economy.     

Guizot's Absence of a Plan for Jerusalem

Historians have speculated over the existence of an 1841 plan by the French foreign minister François Guizot to internationalize Jerusalem as a Christian city, a plan holding major implications for the eventual emergence of a Jewish state and for European–Ottoman relations. This article aims, based on fresh archival and other sources, to provide a definitive evaluation of Guizot's plan, its scope, and its motivations. It broadens the field to encompass other great power plans mooted in 1841, including plans of a Protestant yet Zionist flavour, and it reassesses the political weight of early nineteenth-century European religious impulses with regard to Palestine.     

Youth Political Engagement in Egypt: From Abstention to Uprising

This study analyses the dynamics of youth political engagement in Egypt in the light of ‘dual motivation’ theory, which defines political engagement in terms of both citizens' interest in changing the outcome of elections and the prevalence of social capital conducive for political engagement. The first part of the article focuses on the dynamics of political mobilisation in general, prior to the uprising of 25 January 2011. The second part examines the political attitudes and levels of political participation of young people prior to the uprising. The study found that the youth believed in democratic values but did not participate politically. This is explained not by a lack of social capital but rather by an understanding of the dynamics of authoritarian rule and corruption, leading to a general abstention from civic and political engagement. Nevertheless, with the changing international circumstances, especially the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, youth movements in Egypt have proved capable of framing the issue of regime change effectively, leading ultimately to contention on the streets and the toppling of Mubarak. Dual motivation theory, therefore, might not be applicable in authoritarian regimes but in democratising regimes both elements of the theory appear relevant.     

Politically Alienated Through Low‐Wage Work? Evidence from Panel Data

Does low‐wage work lead to political alienation? Even though low‐wage sectors have grown in the advanced industrialized world, empirical evidence so far is sparse. This paper uses household panel data to investigate the effect of low‐wage work spells on political alienation. We argue that repeated low‐wage work spells lead to preference divergence between a low‐income and the median‐income earner, leading to withdrawal from democratic politics among low‐wage earners. Using Swiss household panel data and fixed‐effects regressions, we show that the accumulation of low‐wage work spells decreases systemic trust. In a second step, we demonstrate that an interaction of eroding systemic trust with low‐wage work is associated with increased individual abstention probabilities. These results highlight the threat of a systematic under‐representation of low‐wage workers in the political sphere.     

Émile Lousse: A personal appreciation

It is well known that nineteenth-century France can be regarded as a laboratory of political experimentation. From the perspective of constititutional history, it was in the course of the 1848 Revolution that the first cycle of experiments was completed (1791–1848). Alphonse de Lamartine's celebrated speech to the National Assembly in favour of the direct election of the President of the Republic has its place within this framework. It also merits detailed analysis because it heralds a new political era. Parts of the speech throw light on Lamartine's project, his ideas about the politics of the people and about the man who should lead it. A study of the speech reveals some surprises. One is dealing with a strange mixture of notions about public law, of romantic ideas, and of oriental prophecies. Yet, by an irony of history, the speech was to facilitate the accession to power of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. In the presidential election of 10 December, the nephew of Napoleon I obtained more than five million votes, whereas Lamartine had fewer than 18,000. The significance of this episode is not limited to Lamartine's personal failure. It invites reflection on the romantic roots of the strong presidential model. Thanks to the support of France's most famous poet, the idea of a linkage between the people and its leader was to take root in Western political culture extending beyond the time span of the second phase of Bonapartism.     

Visual Culture as Historical Document: Sir John Drummond Hay and the Nineteenth-Century Moroccan Pottery in the National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh possesses a substantial collection of unpublished nineteenth-century Moroccan ceramics, including 49 pieces from the collection of Sir John Drummond Hay, British Minister Plenipotentiary in Morocco from 1845 to 1886. The Drummond Hay wares are of considerable interest to scholars of history and visual culture alike, as the personal collection of a major figure in nineteenth-century Anglo-Moroccan relations, and as representatives of a part of Moroccan visual culture that has been largely ignored within recent discourses of Islamic art history. This paper is the result of a research project into the history of the Drummond Hay ceramic group, examining not only the formal qualities of the ceramics but also their particular social history, and the insight their story provides into perceptions of the Maghreb in nineteenth-century Britain.     

Taking Turns at the Ballot Box: Selective Participation as a New Perspective on Low Turnout

Participation research on voting usually considers only one vote or election, and therefore separates citizens into the categories of participants and absentees. Consequently, low turnout often is discussed to mean that citizens are either not interested in or fed up with the political system. This paper argues that this cross‐sectional perspective severely underestimates political participation particularly in democracies in which citizens regularly are asked to vote using direct democratic ballot measures. Taking into account not just one but 15 ballot decisions simultaneously, this paper demonstrates that a majority of citizens participates only selectively, and therefore voluntarily chooses to abstain. Using official turnout data, which enables the tracking of individuals’ participative behaviour over time in a Swiss commune, this paper demonstrates that selective participation is indeed a relevant empirical phenomenon and presents first conclusions about who participates selectively and when these individuals are mobilized.     

Revelation or revolution: a Gramscian approach to the rise of political Islam

This article seeks to conceptualise the contemporary phenomenon of ‘political Islam’, or Islamic fundamentalism as it is usually classified in the West. This paper takes the view that those movements that utilise the ideology of political Islam are not primarily religious groups concerned with issues of doctrine and faith, but political organisations utilising Islam as a ‘revolutionary’ ideology to attack, criticise, and de‐legitimise the ruling elites and the power structure on which their authority and legitimacy is based. Since the one‐party authoritarian state is the norm in most of the Middle East, only Islam has been able to provide the marginalised, alienated, and disgruntled masses with an oppositional force capable of articulating their specific grievances and general displeasure with these regimes. A Gramscian framework helps to demonstrate that these organisations classified as ‘political Islam’, and promulgated by the core Islamic scholars of the twentieth century, are authentic counter‐hegemonic movements focussed on the overthrow of these despotic regimes and the acquisition of political, economic, and social power.     

Argentine Nacionalismo before Perón: The Case of the Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista, 1937–c. 1943

As the 1930s moved towards their close, a new generation of young men began to dominate the political wing of a generally more radical and assertive Argentine Nacionalismo, replacing the old guard that had found its inspiration in General José F. Uriburu and the regime he had led between September 1930 and February 1932. The Alianza de la Juventud Nacionalista, set up in September 1937, was the most important nacionalista faction of the period. It shared with other nacionalista factions the rejection of liberalism, parliamentary democracy and communism, but in contrast to the elitist and anti-popular orientation of earlier organisations, it aggressively tried to enlist popular support by portraying itself as a group genuinely concerned about the needs of the masses. The Alianza also distanced itself from the glorification of nineteenth-century Argentina, another hallmark of previous groups. Although it failed in its efforts to build up a significant following, the analysis nevertheless demonstrates that the organisation can be described as a genuinely fascist movement.     

石原现象及其成因分析

石原现象是日本国内政治环境整体"右倾化"的具体表象之一,以其所代表的右翼势力为主要依托,其主要特点是思想上体现右倾与民族主义情结,行为上进行组织整合、企图问鼎国家政权,在政策主张上修宪、改变国家制度以及外交上的排外反华等;其产生与持续演化,受到日本的经济萧条、政党制度、社会思潮与日本文化的特性等诸多因素共同作用。石原现象不仅冲击了日本政局、毒化了日本社会,也严重损害了中日关系,必须引起重视与警惕。在安倍当政且日本第三极势力崛起后,注重研究石原现象是审视日本内政外交之间多元互动、应对日本在整个国际格局中非良性作用渗透的重要参照物。     

Political decentralisation and conflict: The Sharia crisis in Kaduna,Nigeria

When states in northern Nigeria started processes for implementing Sharia laws in 1999, it triggered sentiments all over the country. In Kaduna State, the proposal led to demonstrations and violent clashes. The article examines the ways in which different scales of politics are mutually constituted in the Sharia case and how the Sharia proposal subsequently resulted in clashes in Kaduna. It is argued that the Sharia initiative, even though it started as a sub-national question, was connected to a national power contestation. However, the federal government remained passive and diverted the issue to local political space. In Kaduna, the issue took dimensions that incurred with apprehensive local political contention that made it escalate into violence and polarising people according to religion. An analysis of the crisis in Kaduna is offered that does not regard the conflict as locally confined, but as inherently related to wider political and historical processes.     

Engagement with empire as norm and in practice in Kazakh nomadic political culture (1820s–1830s)

This article offers an analysis of the Kazakh nomadic political culture of the 1820s–30s with focus on two issues: (1) service and loyalty as elements of Kazakh engagement with the Russian Empire; and (2) the place in local political practice of the regional administrative offices (diwans) created for Middle Horde Kazakh nomads in 1822. While Russia’s goal was ‘bureaucratization’ and creation of ‘order’ in the steppe, in part through directing nomads to engage with the diwan and its elected Kazakh officials, Kazakh political actors variously embraced and rejected formal structures, and continued to define relevant norms and practices of governance. The analysis challenges both statist and nationalist narratives of nineteenth-century Kazakh steppe history by acknowledging the complexities of the Kazakh nomadic experience of empire-building. The ultimate purpose is to suggest new approaches for interpreting historical change throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.     

Venezuela's Contemporary Political Crisis in Historical Context

Since the election of Hugo Chávez Frías to the Venezuelan presidency in 1998 on a platform of 'revolutionary' change, the country has been wracked by political turmoil and violence between pro- and anti-government groups. While the political crisis has been reported and portrayed as a new phenomenon that has emerged as a result of Chávez's policy programme and style of government, this article argues that the conflict has deep historical roots and that it has been shaped by the legacy of political organisation in the pre-Chávez period.     

Is Brazil becoming a “boring” country?

The article looks at the condition of Brazil's political system in light of the 1998 electoral results. It critically examines arguments that electoral volatility, political fragmentation and weak institutionalisation have produced a highly unstable political system unsuitable for sound policy‐making and processing change. While not underestimating the influence of electoral rules, it argues that given the combination of political, institutional and economic turmoil of the 1980s, it is not surprising that electoral volatility over the period was amongst the highest in the world. Arguably, however, these factors are now having a diminished impact on the political system, lessening volatility and allowing the emergence of a more institutionalised party system.     

Todos juntos: hippies,rock music,and the Popular Unity era

Scholars traditionally have characterized the 1960s and early 1970s as an era of political polarization in Chile stemming from an intensifying rift between those who supported the leftist Popular Unity government (1970–1973) and those who opposed it. While there is little question that this division was the fundamental political axis in Chilean society at that time, it was not the only one. This article traces the development of rock music and culture among Chile’s youth to assert that while Chilean society polarized over the Popular Unity government, an additional segment of society emerged as an additional socio-political pole. During the Popular Unity era, a significant number of Chile’s youth rejected both the political right and left by assertively refraining from taking stances in regards to party platforms or candidates, rejecting those sounds, images, and traditions tied to the right and to the left in favor of an alternative political and cultural orientation tied to rock music and hippie counterculture.     

The Politics of Child Prostitution in South Africa

This paper argues that policies, interventions and discourses pertaining to child prostitution have been guided by overarching political agendas that have masked the underlying structural basis of this phenomenon. These political agendas have shifted in accordance with the locus of power, control and resistance in South Africa since the nineteenth century. On the basis of a historical analysis this paper identifies distinct periods in which child prostitution was used to legitimate policies in favour of social control rather than social development. In the colonial period, child prostitution was used to justify stricter controls on adolescent and adult women's sexuality and movement by colonial and traditional patriarchal authorities. In the colonial and Apartheid periods, policies on child prostitution were informed by fears of miscegenation and sexually transmitted diseases, which were used to support the racist and oppressive legislation of sexual behaviour. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the issue of child prostitution was ‘discovered’ in the press both to deflect attention from the incarceration of juveniles during the 1987 State of Emergency and as the basis upon which liberals attacked the Apartheid state. In the latter half of the 1990s and 2000s, it was used by the African National Congress (ANC) government to attack the moral legacy left by the Apartheid state and in turn deflect responsibility for the root causes of this phenomenon. Furthermore, child prostitution was used to support stricter controls on adult sex workers and on the movement of undocumented migrants. This politicised and sensationalist approach has undermined detailed analysis of the root causes of this phenomenon and children's motivation for engaging in prostitution. For many children in South Africa it has been one means by which they can exercise their agency and power in order to ensure their survival in the face of high levels of socio-economic deprivation and rapid socio-cultural change. This paper therefore proposes a shift from policies and interventions centred on social control to social development, based on an in-depth understanding of children's agency, risk and resilience.     

Clase política y medios: explorando el fenómeno de la publicidad política encubierta en México

This work presents the results of a qualitative research that explores the phenomenon of political publicity on noncommercial television content, which has been growing since the electoral reform of 2007–2008. Since then, the acquisition of airtime for electoral advertising purposes, as well as the appearance of public officials on government advertising has been prohibited. The information was gathered through ‘in depth’ interviews, and analyzed through Strauss and Corbin grounded theory model, which allowed confirmation of the existence of covert political publicity, as well as to provide a definition of this concept and determine its causes, characteristics, and consequences. It was concluded that, despite the legal modification aiming to guarantee a more equitable political communication model and the eradication of airtime commercialization for electoral campaigning, this was not achieved due to structural conditions of the political system in Mexico and the relation between media and government, which impacts political communication, and extends beyond the electoral issue and its regulatory framework.     

Manifestos and elections in Ghana's Fourth Republic

Debate continues over the factors that influence electoral outcomes or voter behaviour and alignment in elections all over the world. Several factors have been noted, including the manifestos of political parties. In spite of the potential influence of the party manifesto, several comparative and empirical studies on elections in Ghana have paid little or no attention to manifestos in determining the electoral outcomes of political parties in the Fourth Republic.This paper makes a contribution to the debate by examining how manifestos have influenced the electoral chances of the two main political parties which have been in and out of government in Ghana since the inception of the Fourth Republic, namely, the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party. Analysis covers the five elections held in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Specifically, it discusses not only the ability of the manifestos to shape policy debate but also to some extent, influence electoral outcomes. The paper concludes with some lessons learned.     

The Rise and Fall of Turcophilism in Nineteenth-Century British Discourses: Visions of the Turk, ‘Young’ and ‘Old’

This article examines the evolving British perceptions of the Ottoman Empire from the onset of the Tanzimat to Abdülhamid II. The article aims to attest the emergence of a positive image of the ‘reforming Turk’ and the erosion of this positive assessment following the disillusionment with the achievements of Tanzimat. The article discusses the Christian dimensions of the positive and negative attitudes towards the Ottomans and ‘moral racism’ inherent in both the positive and negative assessments. The article ends with concluding that this reference framework from which the British discourses on the Ottomans derived had eclipsed with the demise of the British nineteenth-century political elite and culture in tandem with the waning of the Ottoman political culture and elite.