Canada and the Honduran Coup

The purpose of this article is to expose the part played by Canadian imperialism in Honduras before and after the military overthrow of democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, on 28 June 2009. It draws attention to the neglected role of the Canadian state's efforts to protect the interests of Canadian capital in Honduras and Latin America more generally through the constant undermining of Zelaya's attempts to return to his legitimate office, and in the ultimate consolidation of the coup under Porfirio ‘Pepe’ Lobo in early 2010. The article simultaneously develops a critique of what has become the standard account of the Honduran coup of 2009. We show how Zelaya was neither a puppet of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, nor an autocrat seeking to entrench his power indefinitely through illegal constitutional reform when he was violently tossed out of government.     

Political Parties and Grassroots Clientelist Strategies in Urban Turkey: One Neighbourhood at a Time

Both principal Turkish political parties make extensive use of patron–client networks, but in very different ways. The CHP relies on competing local brokers and synchronous vote buying. The AKP is at the centre of a network of public and private funding turning social policy to clientelist ends. Socially anchored AKP activists link the party to voters, allowing it to target social assistance for political advantage and take credit for improvement in local conditions. The case presented in this paper provides a natural experiment suggesting that this distinction is an important explanation for the AKP’s electoral success in low-income urban areas.     

Development as recolonization: the political ecology of the Endosulphan disaster in Kasargod,India

This paper examines the Endosulphan pesticide disaster in Kasargod, Kerala, India. The paper argues that the pesticide disaster was the culmination of an agrarian modernization project implemented in the region by the state-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK). An exploration of the political ecology of the disaster shows the recolonization of residents and nature by PCK through neocolonial forms of centralized and exclusionary spatial and resource control mechanisms. In this context, the paper questions the glorification of the “Kerala model” of development from the standpoints of environmental justice and resource rights, relying on the lived experiences of the people of Kasargod.     

From rural rebellions to urban riots: political competition and changing patterns of violent political revolt in Uganda

Violent political revolt has been common in independent Uganda. For a long time, such revolts were exclusively expressed as rural-based rebel groups fighting the government. Since the mid-2000s, however, this seems to have come to an end. Instead, urban riots, very rare in the past, have become much more common. This article analyses these changing patterns of types and location of violent political revolt in Uganda under the National Resistance Movement government. It argues that the earlier prevalence of rural rebellions can be explained by the combination of a coercive and militarised state, and weak and ethnically factionalised political forces who took their violent resistance to rural regional bases. Over time, however, government counter-insurgency became more effective and the conditions for insurgency were undermined by withdrawal of external support. Furthermore, the reintroduction of multi-party politics in 2005 opened up new avenues for political expression. The changes to the political system were, however, more nominal than real in many respects. While the rebel option had become less attractive and feasible, a series of social, economic and political grievances remained which were only partly channelled through party politics. They also found expression through sporadic urban violent revolt.     

The artist as a medium and the artwork as metaphor in Murakami Haruki’s fiction

Abstract

In many of Murakami Haruki’s works, the protagonist is in a profession close to the world of literature, although usually not exactly a writer. In their role as translators, advertising copywriters, journalists, or editors, Murakami’s protagonists are invested with the task of rearranging fragments of reality into narrative or artistic form, and/or of transmitting a message. This process is emotionally charged, often involving a supernatural dimension. While the process of reconstructing a narrative is largely unconscious, the narrator’s choice to act in this capacity is deliberate, and is presented as a way of fulfilling his responsibility towards others. I read this element as an expression of Murakami’s vision of the role of a writer in society. The figure of the artist-narrator takes an interesting form in Kishidanchō-Goroshi (Killing Commendatore, 2017), where the protagonist, a visual artist specialising in realistic portraits, decides to pursue a more creative approach to painting that leads him to a series of supernatural adventures. Through a close reading of the novel, this article investigates how Murakami’s portrayal of the artist as a shaman-like figure functions like a metaphor for the role of the literary author as a catalyst that enables people to connect with their inner self and with each other.     

成汉政权及其族属

成汉政权是由南方的少数民族贝宗人所建,李氏宗族是成汉政权历代统治者的主体为期共45年,其势力范围除西南地区外还达到了西北的甘肃境内。与两晋之际出现的众多地方政权相比较,成汉政权和它们都同属于割据性质的地方政权,但却有着自己的诸多的特点:建立政权的时间最早;南部唯一的地方政权;实行武装割据,但并未断绝与中央王朝的关系;关注社会稳定;大规模移民。     

实体经济发展中产业工人思想政治引领的实践路径探索——基于全国12家企业、6所职业院校的调查

目前我国经济已经进入高质量发展阶段,需要建设现代化经济体系、振兴实体经济,而产业工人队伍是振兴实体经济,支撑中国制造、中国创造的重要基础.本研究基于12家企业以及6所职业院校的调研情况,发现当前产业工人在思想上存在职业自豪感不强、主人翁意识淡薄、学技能动力不足、建功新时代着力点不清等问题.这些问题产生的原因主要是产业工...     

论大学生思想政治教育网络创建

随着人类进入信息社会,网络以其独特的方式影响着社会各个领域.大学生作为一种特殊的群体,网络给他们的思想带来了诸多影响,文中就如何借助网络做好大学生思想政治教育工作进行了探讨.     

我国人民陪审员制度兴衰的原因和改革设想

我国人民陪审员制度自确立后,经历了曲折的历程。除了在个别时期由于党和国家的高度重视和民主高涨,使陪审制度得到较好实施以外,在绝大部分时间里由于"极左"路线、政治和司法集权以及制度设计上的原因,陪审制度或者被弃之不用,或者其实施仅流于形式。2005年新的人民陪审员制度本身仍存在很多问题,原因在于该制度对陪审员的职责定位不准,仍把陪审员定位于法官的参谋和助手,没有将陪审员的职责定位于对职业法官的监督制约,根本原因就是没有将保护民众的权利作为立法目的。在民众权利日益受到公权力和个别职业法官侵犯和威胁的今天,陪审制度应把保护民众的权利作为其立法目的,以民主和权力制约作为制度设计的理念,这符合时代要求和民众的愿望,这样才能使该制度免于重蹈覆辙。     

Symbolic Political Communication,and Trust: A Young Voters’ Perspective of the Indonesian Presidential Election

Communication in political marketing plays an important role in political mobilization, building trust both in political actors and the government. Politicians construct their messages through careful branding as the power of the cultural symbols and signs conveyed through the brand are potent heuristic devices. This is particularly important in emerging democracies, where there is limited political knowledge and understanding. Therefore, this research explores how young voters understand the symbolic communication fashioned by political actors in Indonesia and how it relates to their brand. Indonesia is an interesting area for study; it is both secular and the world’s largest Muslim democracy. Using a phenomenological approach, a total of 19 in-depth interviews with young voters were conducted to gain rich insight into perceptions of the complexity of political symbolism, and trust among young voters. This study conceptualized political communication as a dual approach. The political brand promise is intrinsically linked to cultural references and conveyed through symbolic communication combined with a distinctive brand message. This builds trust, which then affects political participation. This conceptual framework provides insights into the importance of culture in branding which has implications for policy makers and actors in emerging and established democracies.