Volume 4, Issue 1

This paper examines how new media is affecting candidate personal vote seeking behaviour, at the constituency level by comparing data from general elections in two countries with different styles of campaigning – party-centred campaigning in the United Kingdom (2015 & 2017) and candidate-centred campaigning Japan (2014 & 2017). By utilising both content analysis of candidates’ use of new media platforms and in-person interviews with candidates, this study gives a deep description of how individual candidates are using online campaigning and to what degree they are pursuing a personal, rather than party vote. This study confirms that that Japanese candidates use new media to run more candidate centred campaigns, replicating traditional campaign styles, but also finds that other factors, namely candidates’ levels of experience and the strength of the national party, play a role in how candidates utilise new media. Now more so than ever, candidates are relying on personal image promotion as a major element of their campaigns.

This research paper is aimed at formulation of a composite Governance and Democracy Index (GDI) based on the six indicators of good governance by Kaufmann et al . (2003, 2007) to assess and evaluate the relative performances of 10 major democracies of the world for the time period of 20 years (1998 – 2017) (Base Year = 1996). In order to do so, three distinct methodologies are adopted based on the absolute values and relative changes in the observations of independent variables. The extended part of this research involves formulation of Governance, Democracy, and Emancipation Index (GDEI) which incorporates the Emancipative values.

The main purpose of this paper is to identify lawlike regularities inside social sciences. This purpose rises from our will to contribute to the debate about the scientificity of such topics. After providing an overview of the most authoritative scholars who have broached the issue, an attempt will be made to propose an alternative answer through scientific computational research, that is neural networks.

The research was conducted in order to understand how democracy has been unable to solve current potential issues of the world and what needs to be changed in this regard. A new political system of Intellectocracy has been introduced based upon the philosophy of Szellemiism- which promulgates that an individuals’ right to vote should be decided as per his/her education, experience and knowledge of the environment around him/her whether national or global. The philosophy determines that, individuals are equal by birth but they do create a difference because of their acquired ability to perform in this world. The concept of Intellectocracy understood as a new political system in which, political leaders at any low or higher level must be elected not just based upon one’s personal preference and judgment equally but, through the weighted voting of individual’s understanding, knowledge and experience of the outside world by using the latest technology. The study concluded at the end that the globe is moving towards a difficult terrain hence it needs wise, patient and intelligent leaders in order to solve native and global issues collectively.

By taking two monarchy countries as examples, this paper discusses the differences and similarities of the policy process model and the systems model. The difference has first been discussed. Policies in the United Kingdom can be applied to the policy process model, due to the fact that step-by-step policymaking procedures can be observed during the policymaking process in the United Kingdom. The case shows that policies made by countries with democracy can also be analyzed by using the policy process model. On the contrary, policies in Saudi Arabia can be studied by using the systems model, due to the fact that unclear policymaking procedures can be witnessed in Saudi Arabia. This paper also discusses two similarities between the two models. They both emphasize on “policy cycle”, as well as influenced by different kinds of environment. While social policy is always influenced by political ideology and system, and can be studied by different models, this paper concludes that the policymaking process is, all in all, a cycle and can be influenced by different environmental factors, no matter what political system a country has.

Perhaps there are never too many different theories about the organization of society, ideas about the normative framework of life in a political community and suggestions on how to institutionalize the political system. Perhaps they go out in public too early. This could also apply to those reflections on society and to those political philosophies that bear the label of utopia. There is no doubt about the importance of such human investigations of what is and what should be. And there is no doubt about the usefulness of constantly imagining what it should be. However, analytical and explanatory caution is required when the word utopia is used to suggest the utopian nature of an idea. In other words, what looks like a utopia can already be presented to us as a provable and tangible fact, only that too many people do not perceive it for too long, and therefore it remains unfulfilled in social practice. Is this really a utopia? On the other hand, what may seem completely understandable, feasible or even self-evident can appear extremely utopian when it comes to the normative approaches to social regulation and the conditions for achieving a “better society.” The deviation of political practice and legal practice from what should be understandable or even self-evident according to the text of the constitution and international law, the findings of jurisprudence, philosophical insights and common sense in political decision-making and in the drafting and implementation of the applicable law is so great that, paradoxically, precisely that which is understandable, feasible or even self-evident appears utopian. And how can utopianism be combined with the realization that so many major and persistent social problems can be solved so easily and quickly - even if only by rethinking the legal system and social realm? How can a human being efficiently oppose neoliberal politics and unbridled capitalist practice, the poor functioning of the rule of law, the low quality of the welfare state, the excessive threat to fundamental human rights and freedoms, the inadequate protection of social rights, the insufficient commitment to the value of solidarity and the inadequate role and weakness of morality in social practice? Can the answers to fundamental social questions and solutions to the greatest problems only be found in a real and literal utopia? I do not believe so. I believe that communitarianism can be a good political alternative. Understood as social liberalism and as a social democracy based on the rule of law, morally founded on social solidarity as a fundamental value. I am convinced that the constitutions of the EU Member States and the EU legal order enable it. A strong and interventionist state is needed to realize the constitutional possibilities of a high-quality welfare state, effectively protected social rights, the realized social function of property and a society based on solidarity. Ideas are needed. Even if they seem so crazy, even if they seem utopian. In these times when the devil has taken the joke away, when people are again protesting massively in the streets, when they protest (unsuccessfully, of course), when it is difficult to know exactly what is happening and why, when more and more people are increasingly confused and frightened, when systemic violence increasingly turns into physical violence, when it is difficult to remain calm and thoughtful, when it is difficult to tame anger and rage..., it is necessary to step out of the existing coordinate system, out of the cube, to form and communicate ideas that seem crazy, utopian... Now, right now, ideas are needed, crazy ideas. We need a utopia. And faith and hope in it. Faith and hope, which will be the driving force of active action, of striving for realization – of a utopia.

An image on a screen can produce a greater effect than thousands of words in conveying a message and in popular culture, movies with images as a representation, create a discourse. Out of many, Hollywood which has become a flagbearer of western cinema, plays an important role in constructing identity and images including the stereotyping of Muslims. This paper attempts to identify the discourse of ‘US’ verses ‘THEM’ through Hollywood and in which ways Hollywood has constructed the stereotypical identity of Muslims. The main research question is whether the stereotyping of Muslims in Hollywood is a result of 9/11 global terrorism or has it been shaped by the historical discourse of western orientalism. The case study method has been employed to derive the insights of the discourse with the theoretical lights of Orientalism. A number of Hollywood movies have been cited to validate the identity formation process led by Hollywood in pre and post 9/11 American society and illustrate how the image has been used by Hollywood to construct ‘US’ verses ‘THEM’ in popular culture. This paper argues that Hollywood has depicted Muslims as barbaric, wicked others as a result of the civilizational mission of the West, orientalism and post 9/11 Hollywood cinema advocate these roots, yet with 9/11 Hollywood cinema plays a pivotal role in the securitization of ‘Muslim others’ and politicize Muslims as a threat to western society by stereotyping Muslim society in a post 9/11 epoch.

This research studied factors militating against women’s participation in politics in Enugu state using four communities (Amokwe, Ikpamodo, Ndeaboh and Eha-Amufu) drawn from three senatorial zones as case study sites. The research approach employed was Community Familiarization Visits, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and In-Depth Interview (IDI). The FGD comprised of women and men leaders in the selected communities who served as the respondents while in the case of IDI the selected women community leaders served as the respondents. The study revealed among other things that women from the study areas have not been actively involved in politics since the return of Democracy in 1999 mainly due to poor finance, lack of education, lack of support from fellow women and an unfavorable political environment. The study thereby recommends different measures to end women’s discrimination and intimidation, and the creation of a favorable environment for the improvement of women’s political participation in Enugu state.

This Article seeks to examine the Russia’s recent interest in uplifting the status of Orthodox church as a pivotal factor in the state and beyond that. Most importantly the position of the Orthodox church has grown rapidly during Putin’s administration as a solacing factor to fill the gap that emerged from the fall of Soviet Union. The 16 th century doctrine propounded by Filofei called “Third Rome”, which profoundly portrayed Moscow as the last sanctuary for Eastern Christianity and the 19 th century nationalist mantra of “Orthodoxy, Nationality and Autocracy” have been rejuvenated under Putin as new ideological path to move away from Western influence. It has been especially evident that the ideological movement that rigidly denies Russia’s hobnobbing with the Liberal West has been rather intensified after the Crimean crisis in 2014. Under this situation Putin’s usage of Orthodoxy and Russia’s spiritual legacy stand as a direct political tool expressing Russia’s uniqueness in global affairs. This article will critically examine the historical trajectory of Orthodox church in Russia as an indicator of its distinctiveness.

The central objective of the post-socialist European countries which are also Member States of the EU and Council of Europe, as proclaimed and enshrined in their constitutions before their official independence, is the establishment of a democracy based on the rule of law and effective legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In this article the author explains what, in his opinion, is the main problem and why these goals are still not sufficiently achieved: the ruthless simplification of the understanding of the social function and functioning of constitutional courts, which is narrow, rigid and holistically focused primarily or exclusively on the question of whether the judges of these courts are “left or right” in purely daily-political sense, and consequently, whether constitutional court decisions are taken (described, understood) as either “left or right” in purely and shallow daily-party-political sense/manner. With nothing else between and no other foundation. The author describes such rhetoric, this kind of superficial labeling/marking, such an approach towards constitutional law-making as a matter of unbearable and unthinking simplicity, and introduces the term A Populist Monster . The reasons that have led to the problem of this kind of populism and its devastating effects on the quality and development of constitutional democracy and the rule of law are analyzed clearly and critically.

The return to democracy in Nigeria in 1999 ushered in some form of political reforms, particularly in the conduct of multi- party elections however political violence appears perverse. The objective of this study is to explore how the prevalence of political violence has undermined Nigeria’s democracy. The analysis follows survey data to address the questions regarding democracy and political violence. The study draws from the frustration-aggression and group violence theories and provides a deepened analytic exploration. Based on some of the assumptions of democracy understood as freedom, equality, accountability, rule of law etc, the study argues that these assumptions obviously constitute a ‘universal pattern’ in democratic practice, which makes a critical evaluation of the Nigerian experience important. Consequently, our findings suggest that the prevalence of political violence is fundamentally an attribute of vested interests of the political elite. Some policy recommendations follow.

The United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) mentions that the rights of women and female children are inalienable, integral and indivisible. It further highlights the full and equal participation of women in every segment of the social process without any discrimination or without considering sex - gender hierarchies.1 The legal frameworks of the international system and local political space is accepting of the normative values of gender equality and the eradication of gender-based discrimination. But most of the majoritarian societies challenge these legal frameworks to address their political, social and market-oriented interests. These actions are driven by political, social and structural frameworks which have been accepted by the majoritarian societies in the liberal democratic world. Tamil women in upcountry tea plantations in Sri Lanka were subjected to systemic and structural violence because of Sinhala majoritarian statecrafts in post-independence Sri Lanka. The ethnocentric violence directly problematises human security, survival and the personal rights of the upcountry Tamil female labour force. This paper discusses the survival of Tamil female plantation labour forces, focusing mainly on the security crisis of female reproductive rights under the ethnocentric Sinhala Majoritarian Society.

The paper seeks to explore the transformative essence of intellectual feminism in Africa, with particular reference to the contributions of Amina Mama. Following textual and contextual exegeses of works by or on the focal scholar-activist, as well as insights drawn on extant literature on aspects of her gender/feminist engagements/scholarship, the paper posits that Amina Mama has made significant transformative contributions in various sites of intellectual feminism, especially in the areas of intellectual resourcing, academic leadership and mentoring, as well as strategic scholarly activism/advocacy. Among other things, the study intends to set an agenda on how to effectively link feminist scholarship to practice in an effort to mainstreaming social transformation in Africa.

The farmer-pastoralist conflict (FPC) in Nigeria has aggravated in recent years. It generated intense debate between 2015 and 2018 because of the aggravation of the conflict and the increased fatalities associated with it. This paper analyses the media representation of the conflict. Data were newspapers’ editorials and regular columnists’ stories and supplemented by government and independent bodies’ reports. Newspapers, as agents of popular culture, play a critical role in the propagation of various discourses of the conflict which seek interpellation and are also contested. This paper shows that the discourse is dichotomous and conflictive between ecological reasoning and ethnic-regional and religious imaginations.

The authors analyse the constitutionality of the Ordinance and the constitutionality of restrictions of constitutional rights and freedoms imposed by the Slovenian Government. They systematically and consistently present arguments on the unlawfulness and unconstitutionality of the Ordinance and the constitutional nature of restrictions of constitutional rights and freedoms by the Government (part 1). The decision of the Slovenian Constitutional Court on the legality and constitutionality of measures is critically commented. In the following one of the authors presents analysis and arguments regarding the new ordinances and measures taken by the Slovenian Government after the official end of the pandemic (part 2).

The Declaration of Independence asserts that “All men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Nevertheless, the United States, at its foundation has been faced with the contradiction of initially supporting chattel slavery --- a form of slavery that treated black slaves from Africa purely as a commercial commodity. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom had some discomfort with slavery, were slaveholders who both utilized slaves as a commodity. Article 1 of our Constitution initially treated black slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning representation in order to increase Southern representation in Congress. So initially the Constitution’s commitment to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” did not include the enslaved black population. This essay contends that the residue of this initial dilemma still affects our politics --- in a significant manner.

This article presents an analysis of the evolution of Russia’s image representation in Georgian and Ukrainian political discourses amid Russian-Georgian and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts escalation. Even though Georgia’s and Ukraine’s troubled relations with neighboring Russia have been extensively studied, there has been little attention to the ideational dimensions of the confrontations, manifested in elite narratives, that would redraw the discursive boundaries between “Us” and “Them.” This study represents an attempt to fill the void, by examining the core narratives of the enemy, along with the discursive strategies of its othering in Georgian and Ukrainian presidential discourses through critical discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the image of the enemy has become a part of “New Georgia’s” and “New Ukraine’s” identity construction - inherently linked to the two countries’ “choice for Europe.” Russia has been largely framed as Europe’s other, with its “inherently imperial,” “irremediably aggressive” nature and adherence to illiberal, non-democratic values. The axiological and moral evaluations have been accompanied by the claims that the most effective way of standing up to the enemy’s aggression is the “consolidation of democratic nations,” coming down to the two countries’ quests for EU and NATO membership.

The paper examines the issue of whether the process of policy formulation and implementation on urban regeneration in Poland is done pursuant to the rules of a cycle of public policy-making. This is carried out through the use of the functioning cycle of public policy in Poland proposed by Zybała (2015) that stresses the specificities of Polish conditions in the public policy-making. Hence, the aim of the study is to provide an overview of public policy-making on urban regeneration in the context of legislative and institutional-administrative practices. In the light of increasingly complex challenges faced by cities, there is a need for the necessary counter-balancing regeneration measures taking a form of state sponsored public policy. Therefore, the Act on Regeneration was adopted in 2015. The paper concludes that the adoption of this Act was dominated by the legislator which, with relatively little contribution from other stakeholders, resulted in a rather unambitious set of legal provisions on regeneration that have not substantially changed the instrumental approach of local authorities to urban regeneration.

After the Cold War, global governance emerged as an umbrella to address transnational challenges. But this concept is still somewhat ambiguous, and so is the contemporary world order, where a significant power shift has occurred from the nation-State to the “new actors.” On the other hand, it is now over a year since a global threat emerged, affecting millions of people. The COVID-19 challenge revealed several flaws in the contemporary world order, the United Nations system, and the international organizations’ role. It is therefore imperative that we ask ourselves about the nation-State’s ability to face the COVID-19 challenge on its own, as an introduction to raise the topic of facing the future transnational challenges. In this setting, the objective of this study is to shed the light on the aforementioned flaws, the contemporary challenges, and the way we tackle new threats as human beings. This study was conducted using a qualitative methodological approach based on analysis of secondary data. Following deductive reasoning, it highlights the importance of global governance in facing contemporary challenges in general before addressing the COVID-19 issue in particular. Study findings show that states, international organizations, and unofficial actors need to update the traditional approach to transnational challenges towards global governance. In this context, international conferences are a necessary tool to tackle new challenges related to human security.

The aim of this study is evaluate various single winner voting systems with the help of computer aided simulations. The impact of phenomena such as strategic voting, spoiler effect and centre squeeze are studied on various election systems such as First Past the Post, Ranked voting, Approval voting and Score voting. The democratic process gives great moral legitimacy to the winner as they are deemed to be chosen by the people, ergo the election system too needs to accurately reflect the will of all the people. Single winner systems or “winner takes all” systems have the advantage of decisive governments as compared to proportional systems but by its construct exclude parliamentary representation to a large percentage of voters who ended up on the losing side. It is therefore even more important that the single winner system mirror the voters mandate as accurately as possible. I conclude after evaluation that alternate systems such as Instant Runoff or Approval voting could be considered in lieu of the FPTP systems as they have fewer flaws and are more likely to give a truer representation of electorate’s choice.

Abstract: Russia’s social scene has been anything but stable. Through economic turbulence and social unrest by political opposition, Navalny being only the most recent figure in a long list, Russia, under Putin’s leadership, has shown that it can persist when faced with hardship. How does the regime do this? This article argues that its robust propaganda machine is the answer to this question. I provide three arguments to support this thesis. First, I will present how information is produced and disseminated. Second, Russian propaganda, used for branding itself, attempts to influence foreign just as much as domestic audiences. Finally, using private proxies to peddle a positive message on Twitter will be analyzed. Russias propaganda machine threatens liberalism in the West. This article hopes to add to the conversation as first, recognizing the threat, and second, providing information for combatting the regime.

Political opinion polls in India are holistic snapshots in time that divulge deep dive information on electoral participation, ideological orientation and self-efficacy of the electorate and faith in core democratic values. The popularity of election surveys stems from the political socialization and crystal ball gazing curiosity of the citizens to foresee the outcomes of the hustings before the pronouncement of formal results. The opinion polls provide crucial data on voting behaviour and attitudes, testing theories of electoral politics and domain knowledge production. The obsession of the Indian media with political forecasting has shifted the focus from psephology to electoral prophecy, but it continues to furnish the best telescopic view of elections based on the feedback of the electorate. The ascertainment of subaltern opinion by surveys not only broadens the contours of understanding electoral democracy, but also provides an empirical alternative to elitist viewpoint of competitive politics in India.

This paper aimed at examining the growing influence of China and India in South Asian nations. Both China and India have been doing their utmost to consolidate their influence in this sub-continent through economic, political and military deployment. Although Beijing and New Delhi both want to conquer the heart of neighbor state governments; but Beijing’s regional policy primarily focuses on to ensure peace and stability in this region for China’s internal stability, sustainable economic development and for slacking the powers of the West particularly the US. India, on the other hand, believes that China wants to contain it with the name of help to its neighboring countries which in fact has stolen the peace of New Delhi. The mistrust between the two countries has been reached in a high peak after the border conflicts and global pandemic (COVID-19) followed by vaccine diplomacy.

This study assesses the viability of relations between the US and sub-Saharan Africa by examining the trends of their political and economic cooperation. Given the high number of member states involved in this partnership, a strong alliance could influence good governance practices beyond their continents. The gist of their relationship challenges lies in claims by sub-Saharan states that the partnership is one-sided in favour of the US, turning the enterprise into a zero-sum game. For instance, the US insist on their partners to meet thresholds of ‘good governance practices’ as determined by the US itself. However, governance breaches are revealed from both sides. Data for this study were gathered from secondary and primary sources. The study concludes that the relationship is lukewarm due to mistrust, and this has led to the unsuccessful US involvement in sub-Saharan Africa.

The paper is intended to highlight the key tenets of Szellemiism including education, experience and wisdom and interactions of all three and how Szellemiism can be adopted in the society by creating new social classes, institutional mechanism and social contract. Moreover, Szellemiism emphasizes upon creating the right economic, social and political balance between intellectuals and non-intellectuals. Szellemiism explicitly rejects the idea of equal voting for all eligible citizens, rather it promotes idea of weightage voting based on one’s understanding of environment by objectifying three main elements, one’s education, one’s experience and one’s wisdom by using latest technology of artificial intelligence(AI). Following that philosophy, the three key institutions should be developed including parliament, senate and council of intelligentsia. Afterwards, those three collectively choose the head of state as, the majority tyranny is avoided at each and every stage of intellectocracy and the best among the all is chosen to tackle with complicated and sophisticated national and international challenges. Moreover, Szellemiism supports the idea of a new social contract that ensures timely health, education and livelihood support to the individual by the state but by allowing the state to get maximum private information about one’s self. Hence, the paper concludes that, the new slogan of 21 st century would be “Maximum state support with maximum private information”.

The idea of ‘homelanď performed a central role in nationalist debates, and particularly majority/ minority societies exercise the concept of the homeland, religion and religious texts to shaped their nationalist discourse and claimed their rights over a given territory. In this context, nationalism and religion can be understood as contested terms, particularly in third world nation-states including countries like Sri Lanka, which has suffered from the three-decades-long civil war between Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarian government and minority-Tamil community based separatist movement of LTTE. The formation of Sinhala- Buddhist nationalism carries interesting links with the religion and religious textbooks and based on these Buddhist religious and historical claims the majoritarian political mindset of the Sinhala community believes Sri Lanka is their homeland, and other minority communities are alien for the society. The contemporary, political and security discourse of Sri Lanka has strongly brought these Buddhism and religious texts to claim rights over the territory and galvanised ‘Sinhala-Buddhist rights’ over the popular nationalist movement. In this context, the paper discusses ‘how and why Sinhala nationalist movement strongly shaped by the Buddhist religious values and books’ and the rationale behind the link between Sinhala nationalism and Buddhist religion based on the conceptual framework of “Geopiety.”

The accession of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries to the European Union has triggered their active participation in assistance to less developed countries. Since joining the EU, the analyzed countries have developed ODA legislation and an institutional framework and increased financing in development co-operation. Being a member of the EU and DAC, all V4 countries also have their legal and financial obligations in the area of development co-operation. The shared experience of those countries in creating and implementing their development policy gives reason to investigate their aid systems, development policy challenges and implementation of their commitments as a group of donors. The aims of the paper are to identify main development trends of the V4 countries’ development policies as well as to investigate the implementation of their development commitments taken at a global and EU level. This has allowed to define the main challenges for V4 countries in delivering efficient development assistance to other developing countries in the future, such as improvements in institutional systems, transparent and clearly defined legislation as well as substantial increase of financing transferred by V4 to ODA.