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As a vast literature on political disaffection, populism, 'pitchfork politics,' and the emergence of an 'age of anger' testifies, the nature of democratic politics and the socio-political context in which it operates appear to have shifted sharply during the last decade. This is reflected in the rise of challenger parties, the election of unorthodox politicians, and widespread concern regarding the 'crisis,' 'death,' or 'end' of democracy. Existing analyses have, however, understandably adopted a conventional model of party-based representative politics as their main interpretive lens or reference point to make sense of these changes. This article adopts a far bolder position. It suggests that a new form of 'grievance politics' has emerged that constitutes a distinct and novel species of representative democracy. Grievance politics is defined by the fuelling and funneling of negative emotions and various blame-based political strategies which explicitly challenge and confound many of the core principles and values that have traditionally underpinned conventional conceptions of party politics. It is the tension between party politics and grievance politics-and their contemporary co-existence as competing modes of political representation-which this article seeks to underline and through this, to develop a clearer understanding of possible futures for representative democracy., Author(s): Matthew Flinders [sup.1] , Markus Hinterleitner [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11835.3e, 0000 0004 1936 9262, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, , Sheffield, UK (2) grid.5252.0, 0000 0004 1936 [...]

Author(s): Joseph C. Hermanowicz [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 1936 738X, grid.213876.9, Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, , 30602, Athens, GA, USA There will be controversy and dissent [...]

Sociology already has a well-developed mission to help rising classes fight inequality. Sociology has an equal duty, and already has the tools, to help the dominant classes become responsible leaders of society as a whole. Following Bourdieu's focus on the composition of capital, we can see that the knowledge-class fraction of the dominant class has the tools to teach the corporate-class fraction of the dominant class - and their children - to become a responsible establishment for the benefit of society as a whole., Author(s): William Weston [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0004 0394 1316, grid.420676.1, Centre College, , 40422, Danville, KY, USA When we teach students at a selective liberal arts college, we [...]

Most of the few studies and press articles dealing with the U.S. Armenian lobby have tended to insist on this lobby's successes, regarded as impressive and disproportionate. This has generated a few problems in its global understanding, especially with regards to its impact on U.S. foreign policy, and has contributed to shape a generalized perception of a 'small' lobby, capable of considerable influence on U.S. foreign policy. The main goal of this article is to question this common perception in order to propose a more accurate evaluation of this lobby. Mostly thanks to its influence in Congress, it has succeeded in getting positive results, particularly concerning U.S. financial assistance to Armenia. However, it has also experienced some failures, particularly on issues related to Turkey or American energy policy. Keywords Armenian lobby * Ethnic lobbying * American foreign policy * Armenia * Turkey * Armenian National Committee of America * Armenian Assembly of America, Lobbying is an important and historical component of American political life. It finds its origin in the idea that individuals or groups must be able to play a direct role [...]

This article reviews the foreign policy of the Obama administration with a special focus on the Middle East. It shows the gap between the lofty rhetoric of the President, a great orator, and the decisions taken by the Administration. This gap is the inevitable result of the normal play of forces in the decision-making process involving many actors and the interplay of domestic policies and foreign policy. The author argues that if Obama's foreign policy is analyzed in electoral and domestic terms then it is quite wrong to argue, as some have done, that it is dumb. Smart in electoral terms, however, does not necessarily mean smart on the international stage. Keywords Obama * Foreign policy * Middle East * Cairo Speech * Geopolitics * US elections, Political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see. Barack Obama, Jerusalem, March 21, [...]

The current widespread renewed interest in the development of grand military-political strategies is a function of a rapidly changing global configuration of powers. From the bipolarity of the Cold War, which by its very construction limited either the United States or the Soviet Union from constructing much less implementing a unilateral framework, we have moved to a political and economic environment in which a variety of nations in parts of the world that did not figure into the power equations of the past century, invites such analysis. This article draws attention to factors profoundly limiting a grand strategy at the global level. It further indicates that the source of such push for grand strategy derives from inherited doctrines, largely of 19th European origin, which continue to emphasize absolutist doctrines based on theology, history and ideology. They are increasingly dysfunctional formulas in a relativistic universe of political systems and military technologies. The emergence of economic Diaspora in place of 'three worlds of development' also serves to weaken approaches derived from imperial doctrines and political approaches that are no longer the monopoly of conventional armed forces. The essay concludes with the belief that one older element that continues to display cachet is diplomacy and face to face human initiatives. Bargaining rather than blustering may be the order of the age. In this, it is Metternich rather than Hegel that may prove a better source of negotiating a complex multi-national world order. Keywords International policy * Military strategy * State power * Authoritarianism * Strategic practice * Strategic thinking * Nationalism * Political pragmatism * Political absolutism * Cultural relativism * Normative values, Each of today's large Powers is left grappling with the age old dilemmas of rise and fall, with the shifting pace of productive growth, with technological innovation, with changes in [...]

... my own experience and everyday knowledge illustrate that comfort and ignorance are the biggest flaws of human character. This is a potentially deadly mix. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (2011) (1) [...]

Dislike among European publics for the Islamic full veil and the desire to ban it are often ascribed to nativist 'Islamophobia.' This article questions that assumption. It argues that, in political terms, the wearing of the burqa and niqab is inconsistent with Western norms of equality, the backbone of the citizenship ideal; and that, in social terms, the full veil erects a partition to interpersonal understanding and reciprocity. While the constitutional duty to protect religious freedom is a good argument in favor of tolerating the full veil, the practice of wearing it is at the edge of solidarity and injurious to the democratic public sphere. Keywords Burqa * Citizenship * Face * Public * Reciprocity * Solidarity * Sympathy, What light can social and political theory throw on opposition to Muslim female full-face covering--wearing of the burqua and niqab--in European societies? Many explain hostility to the full veil as [...]

Author(s): Jonathan Zimmerman [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) Penn Graduate School of Education, , 3700 Walnut St., 19104, Philadelphia, PA, USA In 1949, the eminent sociologist Robert K. Merton shrewdly observed [...]