Professional Politicians

Max Weber re-presents "Politics as a vocation," on the 100th anniversary of the lecture, originally given to students in Munich, Germany. A class at the University of California - Santa Cruz taught by Professor Hillary Angelo hears  a shorter, updated version. For a video of the performance go to: https://youtu.be/CyfwF90QI_E . As a special bonus, in the video, Weber takes questions concerning his own scholarship as well as politics in the wake of neo-liberalism today.

After twenty years the third-wave of democratization took place in Africa, democratic regressions have proven a common outcome. Causes are well rooted in the key actors’ attitudes towards the rules of the elec- toral competition. Stabilization of power reflects the institutionalization of authority, which increases to the extent that political elites are able to ensure legitimacy through their conducts. Prior experiences and pro- fessional paths are thus crucial, since their heritage contributes to model preferences of present political actors. Ghana and Benin were both suc- cessful in establishing working multiparty institutions across the 1990s. On the basis of an analysis of political personnel, I argue these countries were capable to install a viable multiparty competition by virtue of the ‘institutionally-oriented’ strategies that political elites deployed across the transition. The return of ‘certain’ former politicians, and political parties, shaped the politics reducing the uncertainty of competition, factor that has reinforced the institutionalization of power.

The Çelebi/Ulusoy are supposed to be the descendants of the Anatolian saint Hacı Bektaş. This family has long controlled different kinds of resources (religious, economic) reinforcing each other, this circuit being secured by its integration in the Ottoman imperial system. The closing of the bektashi brotherhood in 1925 caused both the diminution of the resources they controlled collectively, and conflicts about the distribution of these – most importantly the spiritual leadership[mürşitlik] — inside the family. Consequently, the strategies that appeared aiming to increase and convert these resources into other sectors (mainly politics) became individual, and were mostly initiated by persons marginalized from mürşitlik. These initiatives caused both an increase and diversification of their personal resources and, since some of them were considered illegitimate, the decrease of the value of the collective resources (family authority, reputation). In the same way that family resources determine the strategies and margins for action of each of its members, their individual initiatives also have effects on the collective resources. At the same time, these individuals aiming to come closer to the core family have built centripetal alliances, thus contributing to produce a bounded family more favourable to them during future decades. As sacred as it may be, and even if based on something as tangible as blood, family remains a social construct and the product of collective action, at the crossroads of multiple tensions.

Апстракт: Целта на овој труд е да се создаде корелациска анализа помеѓу изборните понуди и остварувањето на изборните ветувања на политичките партии односно коалиции, пред сѐ на оние кои имаат парламентарен статус и значително влијание во политичката арена, во процесот на одлучување и во процесот на креирање на јавните политики. Од посебен интерес на трудот е да се утврди не само дали релацијата меѓу изборните понуди и изборните остварувања навистина е обратнопропорционална, туку и да се направи истражување за тоа колку е голем јазот помеѓу програмските понуди на главните политички субјекти во државата, наспроти нивниот реален капацитет за реализирање на истите откако ќе дојдат на власт. Според тоа двете главни варијабли во хипотезата ќе бидат: независната-програмите на клучните политички актери учесници во последните неколку изборни циклуси и зависната-програмата на оние субјекти кои ја освоиле власта, разгледувана преку програмата на Владата. За на крај преку компаративна анализа да се дојде до утврдување на хипотезата дека постои јаз помеѓу изборните ветувања и постизборната пракса. Клучни зборови: политичка понуда, изборна кампања, изборни програми, политички партии, недиференцијални политики

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a correlation analysis between electoral offer and electoral promises realization of political parties and coalitions, primarily of those with parliamentary status and significant influence in the political arena, in decision-making and in the process of creating public policies.

Like in many countries, MPs in Turkey are confronted with contradictory role expectations. However, in a context characterized by high turnover, there seems to be no strong standardization of role learning, neither through the main ways of transmission of political roles (party and elected offices) nor through the professionalisation of legislative activity. This statement makes it even more important to take into account each individual’s extra-parliamentary experience to understand how the MP role-set is interpreted. The basic assumption is that the way individual MPs invest the role-set is shaped mainly by the resources at their disposal. The qualitative analysis of a limited number of selected cases, resting on observation and in-depth interviews, tends to show that the main factor affecting Turkish MPs’ role orientation is their relation with the party. Non-parliamentary (especially professional) skills and relations with the constituency also contribute to shape the MPs’ role orientation.

The rise of Estado Novo in Brazil gave birth to many political-bureaucratic apparatuses. On one hand, those apparatuses were a clear expression of the new regime's authoritarian ideology, administrative reform and way of regulating social classes' interests and institutional politics. On the other hand, they were also a privileged channel through which the ideology of the new authoritarian state manifests and spreads itself through the political system. Such feature is important to the understanding of the success of authoritarianism in Brazil and its assimilation by regional political elites, even by the anti-Vargas ones. This article analyses the trajectory and the discourse of three professional politicians from São Paulo after 1937, in order to document how this group converted to the authoritarianism of Estado Novo. This conversion could be explained, the article postulates, by the assimilation of the State ideology as a political formula and not only as a constrained consent to the authoritarian rhetoric. Therefore, the article present empirical elements to the understanding of the way the State apparatus, especially the Administrative Departments, operated as an efficient tool of integration between regional political groups and the ideas of the new authoritarian regime.

Avant de s'intéresser au profil des candidats pour les élections fédérales du 18 mai 2003, il importe de se pencher sur la logique présidant à la confection des listes. Une juste métaphore serait celle de l'offre et de la demande 12. En Belgique, l'offre est principalement aux mains des ...

Draws attention towards the Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) first innings in politics from 2001-2009. From the end of the year 2009 on-wards TRS started to had political peak. Thus, the first innings of the TRS is presented in this article.

Primarily published on personal blog: www.ssanthiswaroop.wordpress.com