Political Legitimacy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Marciel Pons

R. Coloma, Decidir hechos y argumentar con pruebas: Materiales para una teoría de la prueba en los procesos judiciales

2025, Grammar of Power

This article offers a critical reading of the power exerted by artificial intelligence systems, from both linguistic and historical perspectives. Introducing the concept of synthetic authority, it examines how algorithmic technologies... more

2025, Kaler Kantho

This article analyzes the potential implications of President Donald Trump's re-election on Bangladesh, set against the backdrop of a renewed Republican mandate in the United States. It argues that Trump’s "America First" agenda—marked by protectionism, stricter immigration policies, and reduced emphasis on climate and human rights—poses challenges for Bangladesh’s economic and geopolitical landscape. The piece highlights how Bangladesh’s garment sector may suffer under reduced U.S. trade incentives and how the country’s climate adaptation efforts could be hampered by the U.S.'s deprioritization of environmental initiatives. Additionally, it explores how Trump’s close alliance with India may embolden New Delhi's regional assertiveness, potentially impacting Bangladesh’s political environment. The article also reflects on how these shifts could affect actors like Dr. Muhammad Yunus, whose ties to Democratic administrations may offer diminishing strategic value under a Trump presidency. Ultimately, the article calls for strategic recalibration by Bangladesh’s leadership to navigate a potentially transactional and India-centric U.S. foreign policy in South Asia.

2025, H-Russia

The book under review engages with the question of how the Russian nation is defined and built in the twenty-first century, focusing on inclusionary Russian nationalism based on patriotism. It offers a differentiated approach to nation building and develops a theory of legitimating nationalism, based on material from Buryatia, Karelia, and Tatarstan—three ethnically defined republics in the Russian Federation—collected in the 2010s. In particular, she examines how regional elites adapt national narratives to their local contexts, thereby enhancing the regime’s legitimacy.

2025, East Central Europe

Surveillance was long considered one of the main characteristics of communist rule. The ubiquitous presence of the secret police and its informants, citizens who would spy on their own family, friends, and colleagues, was one trait that was considered almost consubstantial to the exercise of communist repression. The regimes paralyzed the people by mobilizing fear: fear of repression, but also fear of the West, and fear of capitalism. But the participation of large chunks of society to this control culture, as well as its high level of conformism, progressively led to the postulate that the communist domination is no more than one particular avatar of modern society. Such an approach revives the notion of individual choice and that of social actors. As dissident thinkers underlined it, it would have been enough for people to question the official dogma, by refusing to live in a lie, for the regimes to collapse. However, surveillance practices have been studied also in Western countries in the past decades. And the recent coronavirus crisis shows yet again that the use of fear in politics is not a prerogative of communist regimes only. We can observe how potent fear is, also in our democracies, as a motivator of individual behavior and extractor of conformism. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has increased the visibility of state and corporate surveillance, yet this new reality has garnered the massive support of the wider public. In fact, it has largely been a demand on the part of a fearful citizenry, who has voluntarily complied to this new surveillance and self-surveillance model. The communist experience should warn us that surveillance leads to censorship and, even more importantly, to a change of behavior. But the current Covid situation should also lead us to reinterpret the degree of sincerity of social actors under communism: we now see that fear can lead to curtailing freedoms with the willing participation of a large part of society.

2025, PhD Thesis, The Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen

This thesis investigates leadership, power dynamics, and mass-elite relations in classical Athenian democracy (507-323 BCE), addressing critical theoretical and interpretive gaps in current scholarship. While much research either... more

2025, التحولات السياسية في أوروبا الشرقية وأميركا اللاتينية دراسة نظرية وتطبيقية في ضوء حالتي روسيا والأرجنتين - Political Transformations in Eastern Europe and Latin America: A Theoretical and Applied Study in Light of the Cases of Russia and Argentina

يقدّم هذا الكتاب تحليلًا نقديًا مقارنًا للتحولات السياسية في أوروبا الشرقية وأميركا اللاتينية، من خلال دراسة حالتي روسيا والأرجنتين. وينتقد الأطروحة السائدة حول "الانتقال الديمقراطي"، مبرزًا الدور الحاسم للمتغيرات البنيوية والتاريخية والجيوسياسية في تشكيل مسارات مختلفة: من "الاستبداد الانتخابي" في روسيا إلى "ديمقراطية هشّة" ولكن متواصلة في الأرجنتين. بالاستناد إلى مفاهيم مثل "تبعية المسار" واستراتيجيات النخب وحدود الإصلاح الليبرالي، يفكك الكتاب الافتراضات الغائية لنظرية الدمقرطة. كما يُظهر كيف أن "العلاج بالصدمة" والليبرالية الجديدة أدّيا إلى تفكيك الحماية الاجتماعية وإعادة هيكلة الدولة، بإشراف المؤسسات المالية الدولية. ومن خلال دمج التحليل التاريخي المقارن بالمقاربتين البنيوية والنخبوية، يعيد الكتاب تعريف مفهوم التحول السياسي بوصفه سيرورة غير خطية، متعددة المسارات، تخضع لشروط داخلية وخارجية معقدة. ويخلص إلى أن الديمقراطية والاستبداد ليسا مرحلتين متتابعتين، بل تعبيران عن استجابات ظرفية لتحولات موازين القوى الاجتماعية والسياسية.
This book offers a critical comparative analysis of political transformations in Eastern Europe and Latin America, focusing on the trajectories of Russia and Argentina. It challenges the dominant "democratic transition" paradigm by highlighting the structural, historical, and geopolitical variables that shaped divergent outcomes: the emergence of electoral authoritarianism in Russia versus a fragile but sustained democracy in Argentina. Drawing on the concepts of path dependence, elite strategies, and the limits of neoliberal reform, the study critiques the teleological assumptions of democratization theory. It demonstrates how “shock therapy” and radical liberalization dismantled social protections, restructured state institutions, and produced hybrid regimes under the supervision of international financial institutions. By integrating comparative historical analysis with structural and actor-centered approaches, the book redefines political transformation as a non-linear, multi-path process shaped by internal dynamics and external constraints. It ultimately argues that democratization and authoritarianism coexist as contingent responses to shifting power relations, not as stages in a universal sequence.

2025, Byung-kwon JEON

The previously unexplained verses of 天符經 have now been interpreted through astronomical diagrams. The meaning of the Trinity Principle has been understood from an astronomical perspective. Stripping away all religious mysticism, this... more

2025, Law & Society Review

2025

Much contemporary political discourse revolves around the concept of crisis. Phrases such as the ‘immigration crisis’, ‘financial crisis’, ‘crisis of democracy’, or the ‘climate crisis’ among countless other cases are ubiquitous not only in common parlance but are also pervasive in academic contexts as well as in policy making. Its omnipresence notwithstanding, the concept of crisis is highly nuanced and subject to misuse. I propose that there exist different categories of crises, each category requiring its own interpretive schematic with regard to how it may be coped with. Thus, this dissertation will develop a theory of protracted crisis as a particular and conceptually underdeveloped category of crisis, one which I propose demands a re-evaluation of modern crisis governance. This prompts my primary research question, namely: what criteria for legitimate governance can reasonably be maintained in the face of a protracted crisis? I will answer this question across two chapters using anthropogenic climate change as a case study which I will argue conforms to a categorisation of protracted crisis. My analysis will yield two relevant features of protracted crises: their conformance to an undefined timeframe and their attritional lethality. Combined, I propose that these features cause protracted crises to resist legitimate and effective governance by undemocratic means of crisis politics such as ‘exceptionalism’. This, I propose, entails a requisite demand for a democratisation of emergency politics under such circumstances.

2025, International Political Science Review

Deliberative democracy is for many the most significant development in democratic theory in the last 50 years and it has been used in some places to solve real-world policy problems. However, measuring the impact of deliberative methods is not clearly achievable because several independent variables are manipulated simultaneously. One of the main goals of deliberation is opinion change and thus it is important to understand why opinions change. This paper utilises comparison groups in order to isolate the impact of deliberation from information in the deliberative process. We outline the results of a quasi-experiment in which deliberation took place in a citizens’ assembly (CA) in Ireland. As part of this we measured the impact using pre- and post-test controls, including a group given the information the CA participants received, but without the deliberation. The results of the analysis provide evidence of a separate deliberation effect.

2025

One reason for growing distrust of politicians, parties, and governments is the increase in 'careerism': politicians who have never worked outside politics and seem to work inside politics for themselves as much as for the common good. Sortition-choosing representatives by lottery-is one solution. However, random selection of representatives breaks the accountability link provided by elections and leaves amateur politicians at the mercy of their civil servants. It would, critics argue, destroy competitive party politics, the foundation of modern democracy. We suggest that parties select their candidates through sortition of party members, with successful incumbent MPs standing again. This would mitigate the ills of patronage and adverse selection without losing professionalism and political experience. It would encourage deliberation and the proper persuasive and representation function of parties, alongside the accountability that elections provide. It would also, we suggest, lead to better advice to politicians from policy units within and outside the public service.

2025, cpsa-acsp.ca

Abstract: Fifteen years after the formal introduction of European Union citizenship is an appropriate time to reconsider its political impact. At first dismissed by many, EU citizenship is now generally recognized as fundamentally... more

2025, Multidisciplinary Research in Archaeology, Vol. 7, No 2, p. 174 186.

Подробный обзор книги американского археолога М. Смита «Городская жизнь в далеком прошлом».
Detailed review article on the book of M.Smith «Urban Life in the Distant Past».

2025, Abyssinia And King Theodore (Translated) PDF

Explorer, geographer, and linguist, Antoine d'Abbadie takes us into 19th-century Abyssinia, a mysterious and little-known land to Europe. Through his account, he paints a striking portrait of Emperor Tewodros II, a charismatic yet tragic... more

2025, Ethics & International Affairs

This article aims to explain the protean nature of the concept of “legitimacy,” arguing that its variability largely stems from denoting a quality of institutions that is both internally complex and sensitive to variations in institutional context. While this institutional-context sensitivity often leads to confusion and miscommunication, it is also what centers the concept’s meaning and use. To better understand legitimacy’s different forms of institutional-context sensitivity, and how they are interconnected, the article shifts from analysis and comparisons of concepts and theories of legitimacy to analysis and comparison of specific legitimacy arguments regarding specific institutions. It introduces a structured framework for analyzing legitimacy claims, beginning with the identification of the institutional level that the argument is directed at. This approach highlights how legitimacy assessments vary across higher and lower institutional levels—a crucial aspect of institutional-context sensitivity that has been underexplored in recent institutional legitimacy literature. The framework, comprising four steps of analysis and two supporting figures, advances our understanding of the complex nature of institutions’ legitimacy and underscores the importance of distinguishing between the legitimacy of an institution and the legitimacy within an institution. Throughout, the article illustrates the framework with examples drawn from scholarly debates on the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court.

2025, Sara, https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2008/08/bahrains-democracy-balance-sheet?lang=en

Bahrain is either moving toward democracy or going nowhere, depending on to
whom one listens. Pro-government quarters depict the Bahraini situation as an
advanced model for democracy in the region.
•

2025, 1526 Magyarországa

A mohácsi csata éve napról-napra.

2025, Journal of Contemporary European Studies

Since the 2000s, the legitimisation of the European Union (EU) has been increasingly politicised and become a battle of narratives on various policy issues, of which higher education (HE) is a prominent one. Although not a direct EU competence, HE has been subject to a dynamic of 'creeping integration', turning universities into arenas, instruments and objects of European public action. Our article examines to what extent and how mainstream EU political narratives have been mobilised in HE by European institutions, stakeholders and civil society. We focus on two overarching narratives: 'Europe of rights' and 'Europe of values', the latter being divided into two sub-narratives, 'Market Europe' and 'Cultural Europe'. Case studies shed light on the use of these narratives since 2017 in relation to different policy instruments (e.g., ERASMUS, European University Institute, European University Alliances). Our findings
suggest a weakening of the ‘Europe of rights’ narrative and an ambiva
lence in the use of the ‘Europe of values’ narrative, characterised by the
mainstreaming of the ‘market Europe’ narrative and a resurgence of the
‘cultural Europe’ narrative. In conclusion, developments in HE confirm the
broader politicisation of narratives in European governance, with some
specificities related to the symbolic function of universities.

2025, Sobranie

Во второй том альманаха вошли работы ведущих российских и за-
рубежных специалистов в области изучения древних цивилизаций —
историков, археологов, филологов, искусствоведов. Том составили
статьи, посвященные археологии, искусству и быту иранских кочевников Евразии, последним результатам археологических исследований античного Причерноморья, музейным собраниям. Также публикуются новейшие переводы ряда древних текстов.
Для научных работников, специалистов по истории и культуре
древнего мира.

2025, Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política

Ao perceberem que a "máquina pública" e o "sistema político" estão corrompidos, ou seja, desviando-se das suas funções públicas para atender interesses particulares, o cidadão deixa de confiar nelas, tornando-se mais suscetível a discursos populistas/autoritários. O problema da corrupção tem sido especialmente discutido na América Latina. Diferentemente de democracias mais longevas, as jovens democracias latino-americanas foram construídas sob grandes dificuldades econômicas e

2025

Kaempferia parviflora (KP), Butea superba (BS), and Deer velvet antler (DVA) have long been used in traditional medicines for their regenerative and tonic properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate 97 วารสารพยาบาลทหารบก

2025

No atual contexto globalizado, as normas técnicas desempenham um papel cada vez mais relevante na regulamentação de diversas áreas, como a saúde, a segurança, o transporte e a internet. Essas normas, muitas vezes produzidas por agentes privados, exercem uma influência direta sobre Estados, empresas e indivíduos. Neste sentido, o presente artigo visa analisar a problemática das normas técnicas transnacionais a partir do ponto de vista da democracia procedimental. Trata-se de pesquisa exploratória que se vale do método indutivo e da revisão bibliográfica como técnica para coleta de dados. Como resultado, dois cenários se destacam. No primeiro, a democracia procedimental emerge como um critério para a legitimidade das normas técnicas no âmbito transnacional, demandando a participação cidadã, transparência e mecanismos de responsabilização. No segundo, reconhece-se a incapacidade do modelo de democracia procedimental para organizar a produção normativa no âmbito transnacional. Nesse cenário, a necessidade premente é o estabelecimento de um novo modelo teórico de legitimação, que incorpore instrumentos práticos visando garantir a liberdade dos indivíduos. Palavras-chave: democracia procedimental; transnacionalidade; atores transnacionais; regulamentação.

2025

Cfr. art.º 130.º do TfUE. 12 Cfr. art.º 127.º do TfUE. Acerca das prerrogativas de emissão e de autorização para a emissão de dinheiro, cfr. idem, art.º 128.º. Quantos aos poderes regulamentares e de imposição sancionatória,

2025

Read at the commemoration of the Red shirts, the 15th anniversary, held in front of the Oct 14, 1976 Memorial, organized by Thida Tojirakan

2025, Tidskrift för politisk filosofi

2025

В исторических и правовых исследованиях ХІХ-ХХ вв. самое пристальное внимание вызвали положения X таблицы, содержавшей нормы, регламентировавшие погребальные обря ды. Античная традиция сообщает о существовании целого комплекса мер ограничительного характера при погребениях -оговаривалось количество одежды, плакальщиц, флейтисток, употребление вина и благовоний, запрещалось захоронение вместе с умершим изделий из золо та 1 . Еще Б. Нибур интерпретировал нормы X таблицы как попытку ограничения чрезмерных

2025, 鄧紹光

On Dietrich Bonoeffer's Sanctorum Communio: A Theology of Socality of Individual and Community
1998
《道風》漢語神學學刊第八期 1998年春

2025

This essay was written during a historic moment for Syrians," December 8th, 2024," a turning point that marked removing an oppressive regime that lasted for 54 years and the beginning of a complex and uncertain journey toward liberation. This moment, filled with profound change and possibility, has underscored the importance of documenting and reflecting on the past and the future. It is a time when history is being rewritten not by abstract systems of power but by the collective actions, voices, and resilience of people who dared to dream of a better tomorrow.

2025, Memorial del Ejército de Chile

Ensayo sobre la intuición y el razonamiento en las decisiones militares.

2025, European Journal of Social Psychology

The status-legitimacy hypothesis posits that low-status groups more strongly endorse social hierarchies and disadvantageous systems (i.e., engage in system justification), particularly under extreme societal inequality. Buchel et al. (2021) found supportive evidence for this hypothesis based on a 28-nation survey (N = 48,802). However, other large-scale studies have produced contradictory evidence. Consequently, we re-examined Buchel et al.’s (2021) data, this time breaking down the critical status × inequality interaction and visualizing the patterns with scatterplots. Contrary to the status-legitimacy hypothesis, our results often showed that both objective and subjective status were associated with system justification in the opposite direction—even in contexts of high societal inequality. However, higher societal inequality sometimes reduced system justification gap between status groups. We discuss the implications of these mixed findings for the debate around the existence of a system justification motive.

2025, Právník

V článku sleduji tři vzájemně provázané cíle. Prvním z nich je prostřednictvím hohfeldovského rozboru pojmu práva vyjasnit, co se má na mysli, přisuzujeme-li politické autoritě obecné právo vládnout (prostřednictvím právních norem) a adresátům jejích rozhodnutí obecnou povinnost poslušnosti těmto normám. V tomto ohledu se jako klíčové jeví pečlivé odlišování legálních vs. morálních práv a povinností. Zadruhé budu argumentovat, že v kontrastu se standardním přístupem v politické a právní teorii interpretujícím právo vládnout jako hohfeldovský nárok a povinnost poslušnosti jako hohfeldovskou povinnost, přičemž tyto pozice jsou chápány jako symetrické a neodlučitelné ("korelativní"), je případnější zaměřit se na hohfeldovský vliv a jemu odpovídající otevřenost. To má dále za následek opuštění předpokladu obsahové bezpodmínečnosti a preemptivnosti rozhodnutí autority. Zatřetí, v protikladu k většině soudobých příspěvků zdůrazňuji, že morálka nemůže zůstat teoretickou černou skříňkou, jejíž obsah a platnost se v debatách o legitimní autoritě předpokládá, a ukazuji, jakým způsobem lze toto šedé místo zaplnit. Výklad a argumentace v textu jsou motivovány snahou najít stabilní teoretickou pozici, která nesklouzává ani k přijetí "sebechápání státu" jako v případě standardního přístupu, ani k "noční můře" filosofického anarchismu.

2025, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

2025, Democratism: Explaining international politics with democracy beyond the state

Elgar, as well as the whole team of editors who entered the process later with the same diligence. My sense of gratitude also goes to participants in seminars where I have presented excerpts at WZB (Wissenschaftszentrum) in Berlin, LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) in London, the Departments of Political Science in Uppsala and Stockholm (all in 2019), the meetings of BISA (British International Studies Association) in London ( ) and SWEPSA (Swedish Political Science Association) in Stockholm ( ), and the reviewers either of the whole manuscript or of the excerpts that have appeared as journal articles in earlier versions. The intellectual challenges and support by more people than I can name on these occasions have been a source of joy and inspiration. The material support for this research has not followed the same trajectory and does not incur the same number of thanks, unfortunately. Funding decisions are ships built for sailing in calm waters. Still, the sometime adventurous local management of collaborative research grants by Christer Jönsson (Transdemos 2008-13) and by Jonas Tallberg (Transaccess 2008-13, LegGov 2016-21) resulted in streams of funding also for the requisite studies of this book while creating enjoyable, relevant and productive research environments. To help with the actual book writing once the research was done, I also received a grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond to spend a sabbatical year at the universities of Catania and Oxford. Without such material support my work would still be far from finished.

2025, Leviathan

Summary: The article analyses the protests against the Corona measures in German cities through their affective and narrative claims. Building on field research conducted during the rallies in Hamburg and the large demonstrations in Berlin, it carves out the narrative of a »great awakening« resonating in rightwing, spiritual and QAnon milieus. This narrative suggests an apolitical subjectivity that is in sharp contrast to the antiracist and climate activist struggles of our times.

2025

In the summer of 2020, the Belarusian regime experienced an unprecedented challenge to its power. Large-scale demonstrations erupted across the whole country as a response to a rigged election and police violence against protest participants. Social media and messaging platform Telegram assisted in maintaining and coordinating the protests and played a significant role in the mass mobilization. The Belarusian regime predictably reacted with repression against protest participants, as well as censorship of media and digital platforms. At the same time, in a reaction against the protests and the activation of digital platforms, the Belarusian regime expanded its repertoire by co-opting technology. This included utilizing a sophisticated system to shut down the Internet, developing a network of pro-governmental Telegram channels, spreading false information about the opposition leaders, and intensifying control over the Internet via legal regulations. This article aims to explore the digital repression and legitimation claims of the Belarusian regime in the aftermath of the 2020 post-electoral protests. I argue that, alongside the growing incorporation of social media and digital platforms into the protest movement, the Belarusian regime employed an advanced authoritarian toolkit and supplemented “negative control” with proactive strategies of legitimation. The article seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of how post-Soviet autocracies incorporate technology to make digital legitimacy claims and reinforce political repression.

2025, IJMFR

None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which god at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often in your eyes when-like artists of every age captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colours and shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.

2025, XXIII Сергеевские чтения: сборник тезисов. – М.: Гаудеамус, 2025. – С. 92-93.

2025, Franco Angeli eBooks

Belgio) e Newcastle (Regno Unito). E' specializzato nello studio del ruolo dell'Innovazione Sociale per lo sviluppo umano e spaziale. www.frankmoulaert.net.

2025, Verband der Ägyptologie. Newsletter #4

Liebe Mitglieder, liebe Kolleg*innen, zunächst einmal möchten wir uns den Glückwünschen aus Würzburg anschließen und DR. MOHAMED ISMAIL KHALED ganz herzlich zu seiner neuen Position als Generalsekretär des ägyptischen Supreme Council of Antiquities gratulieren und ihm hierfür alles Gute wünschen. Aufmacher der aktuellen Ausgabe ist die Lage der Studierenden in der Ägyptologie. Wie schätzen sie selbst ihre Situation und ihre Zukunft ein? Hierzu haben Studierende ihre Kommiliton*innen befragt. Der Konflikt im Sudan hält leider unvermindert an, ein Ende ist nicht abzusehen, zudem tritt er in den Nachrichten hinter andere Ereignisse des Weltgeschehens zurück und wird daher immer wieder aus den Augen verloren. Als weiteres aktuelles Thema greifen wir daher auch in dieser Ausgabe die Situation im Sudan nochmals auf; ANGELIKA LOHWASSER berichtet über die Arbeit des sudanesischen Antikendienstes NCAM, der, so gut es geht, seiner Arbeit im Exil in Kairo weiter nachzugehen versucht. Im Verband hat sich wieder einiges getan. Der VÄ ist seit Ende letzten Jahres ein eingetragener Verein und verfügt -leider deutlich später als erhofft -mittlerweile auch über ein Vereinskonto. Wir möchten hier nochmals alle, die noch nicht ihren Mitgliedsbeitrag für das Jahr 2023 entrichtet oder ein SEPA-Lastschriftmandat eingerichtet haben, daran erinnern, das dringend nachzuholen. Nachdem diese formalen Dinge geregelt waren, konnte der Vorstand sich nun auch verstärkt der inhaltlichen Arbeit widmen. Verschiedene AGs haben ihre Arbeit aufgenommen (AG Studium und Beruf, AG Studierende, AG Mittelbau, AG Ethische Richtlinien, zudem hat sich die AG Altägyptisches Recht gebildet). Außerdem fand eine Online-Podiumsdiskussion zum Peer-Review-Verfahren statt. Über diese Aktivitäten wird im Newsletter in der neuen Rubrik Aus dem Verband berichtet. Wie auch im letzten Jahr findet unsere diesjährige Mitgliederversammlung auf der SÄK statt: Wir hoffen, in Hamm am 28.6. zahlreiche Mitglieder begrüßen zu können! Auch sei an dieser Stelle nochmals darauf hingewiesen, dass immer noch eine ausrichtende Institution für die SÄK 2025 gesucht wird. Der Verband bietet gerne an, den Ausrichter bei dieser Aufgabe über seine Geschäftsstelle zu unterstützen. Schließlich haben wir noch etwas in eigener Sache zu berichten: KATHRIN GABLER musste wegen zahlreicher beruflicher Verpflichtungen ausscheiden, dafür konnte ROMAN GUNDACKER als neuer Mitstreiter gewonnen werden, der nun von österreichischer Seite die Redaktion unterstützt. Wir nutzen auch die Gelegenheit auf den Hinweis, dass die Inhalte der Beiträge alleine von den Autor*innen stammen. Das Redaktionsteam greift lediglich auf Ebene der Formalia bzw. aus Gründen der Vereinheitlichung oder der sprachlichen Richtigkeit ein, soweit solches notwendig ist. Der Einsendeschluss für den nächsten Newsletter ist der 15.11.2024. Rückmeldungen und Anregungen für zukünftige Ausgaben sind natürlich auch jederzeit herzlich willkommen unter 󰇰

2025, PArtecipazione e COnflitto

The article studies the everyday of violent conflicts and wars. It uses Somalia as a case study to explore how ordinary people experience and legitimize actors of violence. Building on biographic interviews, I show how violence became a normalized aspect of daily lives and was integrated in the habitus of people who developed the ability to routinely respond to it. However, I also show, that the specific temporality of violence impedes its full routinization and normalization. Legitimation processes in Somalia are marked by the tension of the routinized extraordinariness that protracted violence generates. Unsurprisingly, therefore, legitimation was mainly driven by experiences of security. These experiences were closely tied to four factors: clan membership, mobility, justice, and patriarchal conventions. These findings demonstrate the need to further develop a relational and processual understanding of legitimation that takes account of the everyday, as it is here that the actions of violent groups are felt, discussed, agreed-upon, rejected, or contested.

2025, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies

This article analyses the jihad waged by the ʿĀmirids and the causes behind it, as well as some of the effects it had both within al-Andalus and among the Christian kingdoms and counties. In order to do so, previously known sources have been consulted and new research methods have been incorporated. The results of the research show that the military might of the Christians had been growing moderately but steadily long before al-Manṣūr came to power, and the ʿĀmirids believed that it was necessary to wage war against them in order to maintain the Muslim hegemony on the Iberian Peninsula. However, the ʿĀmirid successes were not substantial enough to end the potential Christian threat and the outbreak of the civil war or al-fitna al-barbariyya in al-Andalus (1009–1031) led to jihad being directed against other Muslims. At the same time, the Christian kingdoms and counties reacted differently to the ʿĀmirid aggression. In the Catalan counties, a previously unknown degree of hostility towards Islam and the Muslims emerged.

2025

"Эссе исследует феномен взаимодействия с древними богинями в современном мире без культовых практик и ритуалов. Автор анализирует, как возможен контакт с высшими силами вне традиционных форм поклонения, сравнивает современные эзотерические тенденции с древними мистериями и делится личным опытом взаимодействия с богинями, включая Никс, Исиду, Сехмет, Фрейю и других. Также рассматривается вопрос: являются ли современные культы возвращением древних традиций или просто модным трендом?"

2025

The metaphorical language of philosophical and Christian texts of late antiquity quite often turns to medical imagery, which has a psychagogical function and conceptualizes the role of ancient philosophy and Christian faith as teachings aimed at healing the soul. A particular prevalence of this perception of philosophy and Christianity is manifested in the fact that medical metaphors in their various forms are found in large numbers in many schools of ancient Greek philosophy (Platonism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism) as well as in the earliest texts of Christian literature. The purpose of this article is to compare the metaphor of the hospital as a philosophical school in the «Discourses» by Epictetus (2nd century) with the metaphor of the hospital as the Church in Origen’s «Homilies on the Psalms» (mid-3rd century), where this imagery is associated with repentance (ἐξομολόγησις), an opportunity in early Christianity for the excommunicated to return to the Church. At the same time, we were able to show that in both texts the medical metaphor has a similar role to the extent that the philosophical school and the Church, which accepts the penitent, through the process of healing allow the sick to turn to a qualitatively new way of life. A comparative analysis of the selected passages also clearly shows a similarity in the relationship between doctors (philosophers, priests or bishops) and the sick (students who want to learn philosophy or sinners who have come to repentance): although doctors have authority and knowledge, the responsibility for the assimilation and practical application of the teaching belongs to the students.

2025, Social Theory and Practice (Forthcoming)

This paper develops an interpretation of political realism centred on strategic rationality. It contends that political agents have instrumental reason to anticipate how their rivals will respond to their decisions. A strategic focus has various payoffs for realists. First, strategic rationality is superior to the Hobbesian desire for peace, which is the instrumental norm already prevalent among realists. Second, strategic rationality reveals how a realist theory can be centrally concerned with feasibility while remaining distinct from non-ideal theory. Third, strategic dynamics lay the basis for a distinctively realist account of moral progress.