Humorous political stunts:

Author(s): Majken Jul Sørensen / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

The article introduces the concept of humorous political stunt and a new model of five types of stunts that in distinct ways challenge the prevailing order and transcend established power relations. The five types, named supportive, corrective, naive, absurd and provocative, each relate to those in power and their rationality in a different way. Supportive stunts are framed as ostensible attempts to help and protect from harm, here exemplified with a search for landmines in a Belgian bank investing in dubious companies. Corrective stunts present an alternative version of the power holders’ truth, illustrated with a Swedish peace organisation’s parody webpage of a government agency established to support arms export. In an example of a naive stunt, Burmese opposition challenges the military junta from behind a pretended innocence. Polish resistance to socialist rule shows how the absurd stunt defies all rationality. In a contemporary Russian provocative stunt directed towards the secret police, the pranksters transcend power by appearing not to care about the consequences of infuriating the powerful. In all instances, humour is the tool of serious dissent and protest attempting to humiliate and undermine the powerful. The model has been applied to more than 40 stunts and illustrates methods of speaking truth to power that exploit humorous techniques such as irony, exaggeration or impersonation. The examples also document that humour is not always carried out at the expense of those at the bottom of society, but can indeed kick upwards in order to aim for change of the status quo.

Canned jokes in Russian public political discourse

Author(s): KSENIA M. SHILIKHINA / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

The paper addresses a well-documented genre of Russian canned jokes from a socio-pragmatic perspective. The goal of the paper is twofold: firstly, it aims at examining a relatively new phenomenon of telling jokes in public political discourse. Secondly, it argues that jokes – a typical example of a non-bona fide genre – can nevertheless be used to convey bona fide messages. As a specific sphere of communication public political discourse incorporates official interaction of professional politicians as well as publicly expressed attitudes of ordinary people. Because jokes capture our experience and reflect ongoing social processes, modern Russian political discourse in many of its forms eagerly employs the genre. But, whenever a joke is used in the official political communication, we face the discrepancy between the premise of the bona fide mode of political discourse and non-seriousness of jokes. On the surface telling jokes in political discourse might seem to be a temporal switch from the bona fide to the non-bona fide mode of communication. However, the content of canned jokes told by politicians reveals deep social implications: for instance, Vladimir Putin’s frequent references to Soviet realia are signs of superiority and control over the situation. Jokes told by Putin’s opponents, on the one hand, reveal disappointment; on the other, they are part of the struggle for power. Telling jokes in public political discourse shows that the borderline between two modes of communication – bona fide and non-bona fide – is fuzzy since jokes transmit serious messages for the participants of political communication.

Parliamentary punning:

Author(s): Villy Tsakona / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

The present study focuses on the sociopragmatic functions of punning which appears to be the most frequent form of humour Greek politicians produce in parliament. The analysis takes into consideration the institutional particularities of this setting: in parliamentary systems such as the Greek one, competition and disagreement among political parties are more intense than in presidential systems, where party coalitions and collaboration are more frequent. More specifically, I will try to answer the following questions: Are puns the only kind of humour appearing in this setting? Why do Greek parliamentarians resort to punning? How does the use of punning relate to the institutional roles Greek parliamentarians are expected to fulfill, as well as to the institutional particularities of the Greek parliament? The data examined comes from the official parliamentary proceedings, in particular from a no-confidence debate which took place in 2007. The analysis suggests that puns are used as a means of showing off verbal skills: parliamentarians try to project themselves as eloquent orators who are capable of outscoring their adversaries in a highly competitive environment. What is more, via puns parliamentarians criticise and attempt to ideologically delegitimise political decisions and practices. Puns are less often used to bring together parliamentarians and highlight their shared experiences and roles. It therefore seems that punning helps parliamentarians to accomplish their institutional tasks, criticism being (one of) the most significant of them all.

The power of internet as a game-changer for Belarusian protests

Author(s): Veranika Laputska / Language(s): English Issue: 05 (48)/2021

When the 2020 presidential election campaign launched in Belarus, the government authorities did not pay much attention to the enormous popularity of the online media, especially social media. Being confident in his “elegant victory” (this was the term used by the long-term head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, Lidziya Yarmoshyna), Alyaksandr Lukashenka did not invest much effort on any inventive campaign tools. His campaign team mainly relied on the monopolised television and radio channels, and state financed newspapers.

Egyptian Facebook satire:

Author(s): Yomna Elsayed / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

The Arab Spring offered Egyptians a brief opportunity for political freedom of expression; it also offered many creative youths a chance to experiment with their newfound digital talents. However, this was soon followed by a state crackdown on public forms of dissent; subsequently, creative expression had to find other platforms and modalities to continue its practices of playful dissent. Through Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1984) theory of Carnivalesque, this paper examines how Egyptian youths managed to create alternate spaces, other than the highly scrutinised political square, to challenge officialdom and generate their own folk culture through laughter and creative digital arts. This research is based on interviews conducted with administrators and fans of Facebook pages that offer satirical content in the form of memes and remix videos. Fans of these pages mostly belong to the 1980s and 1990s generations, but they also include younger adults whose formative years were those of the Arab Spring. This study argues that, like Bakhtin’s carnival, laughter and everyday comedy was a means by which creative artists could continue to express their opinions and indirect dissent amid intensifying state surveillance. These spaces, therefore, constituted third spaces away from polarised politics, where fans could playfully discuss the comedy away from the heat of events. They were spaces where youths could exercise control over the objects of laughter and challenge established institutions. Like the carnival, youths exercised Carnival practices of both reversal and renewal to craft a new folk culture of their own that did not have to abide by the rules of patronising politics.

Spontaneous humour and Malaysia’s democratic breakthrough in 2018

Author(s): Shanon Shah / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

The 2018 Malaysian general election was the first democratic change of government in the nation’s modern history. The victory of the Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope – PH) coalition surprised several observers within and outside the country, especially considering the intensified repression employed by the outgoing Barisan Nasional (National Front – BN) ruling coalition leading up to the polls, including media censorship, the silencing of political opponents, and the manipulation of Islamism and ethnic Malay nationalism. This article examines the role of spontaneous, conversational humour in constructing a viable political identity for the PH. It does this by considering humorous moments during press conferences and similar media events held by the PH coalition, led by its designated choice for prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad. This article aims to contribute to the scholarship on the role of humour in identity construction and political campaigning.

Being Politically Incorrect: Stereotyping And Prejudice in English Idioms

Author(s): Andreea Vlădușel / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

As a repository of culture, language preserves relics of past accounts, animosities and biases formed throughout history. The English language has many examples of offensive, stereotypical or even racist idioms, which have stood the test of time and are still being used today, often with little regard to their original meaning or their defamatory connotations. The purpose of this article is not to offer solutions for racism and discrimination, but to shed some light on the origins of these problematic expressions, which would hopefully, in turn, increase awareness of such sensitive topics.

Assessment of the transparency of the functioning of the Church Fund in Poland in terms of granting it

Author(s): Łukasz Bernaciński / Language(s): English Issue: 34 (2)/2021

This paper attempts to assess the transparency of the Church Fund’s operations in the area of awarding grants for the maintenance and renovation of historic sacred buildings and for supporting socially useful ecclesiastical activities. For this purpose, the author has outlined the procedure for awarding grants from the Church Fund by the Minister of the Interior and Administration. The author has also presented the practice of secretly increasing the budget of the Church Fund during the financial year, as observed in recent years, and the problem of not publishing decisions on awarding grants insofar as they concerned the distribution of funds from the said increase in the Fund’s budget. Basic measures have been proposed to potentially contribute to increasing the transparency of the granting procedure and to build citizens’ trust in the State. The area related to the financing of the Church Fund should be considered as non-transparent. On the other hand, the transparency of the grant award procedure is given credit for it is transparent, albeit apparently quite complicated, and is communicated to applicants in a comprehensible manner. When presenting the said procedure and assessing the functioning of the Church Fund in this respect, the author analyses and interprets the current provisions of the constitutional, statutory and sub-statutory rank laws in force applicable to the subject matter. Incidentally, elements of the historical overview of applicable laws are also used.

Book Review: Democracy and Truth a Short History by Sophia Rosenfeld

Author(s): Sakina Shakil Gröppmaier / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Review of: Sakina Shakil Gröppmaier - Democracy and Truth a Short History by Sophia Rosenfeld, 2018.

Kompetencje kulturowe w siłach zbrojnych państw NATO w XXI wieku. Stan badań

Author(s): Marta Nowakowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

Culture and heritage preservation in the context of military missions in the education of officers of allied forces is a topic dating back to antiquity. At the same time, in connection primarily with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, interest in this issue has increased at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The importance of knowing the enemy's culture to achieve success in military operations is emphasized in strategic studies. To meet the new challenges, the U.S. Army created the so-called Human Terrain System, which relied on the cooperation of cultural anthropologists with the military. The article aims to characterize the current state of research on cultural competence in the military and systematize the subject based on Polish studies in security sciences. There appears the concept of cultural competence, shaped on the psychological ground, denoting problems with the adaptation of war veterans to the civilian environment, reflecting the issue of modern armed conflicts and the associated contact of different cultures. The research for this article was based primarily on the analysis of the literature on the subject with the help of a statistical review. This allowed the author to develop systematics and show the direction of implementing research results to the practice and military organization; to show the changes in the researched subject at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries with emphasizing the differences between Western and Polish science, revealing the fragmentary nature and causal character of the latter. On the other hand, regardless of the Polish or Western science, there is a noticeable lack of research and studies with a practical dimension in building programs in cultural competence. The discussed publications do not exhaust the topic of cultural competence. One can even say that the scope of meanings and competencies is still being built.

Szczepienia przeciw CoViD-19 jako problem sprawiedliwości dystrybutywnej

Author(s): Grzegorz Lissowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the so-called local justice problems,the purpose of which is to solve practical problems of allocating goods or burdens in specific situations. Vaccine distribution can be presented as zero-one allocation. The method of its determination can be a point system. The problem of the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is distinguished by the fact that it has two dimensions: individual and social. The individual dimension consists in providing a person with a certain level of immunity to infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus or at least a milder course of the disease caused by it. The social dimension consists in creating an appropriate level of herd immunity that reduces the possibility of contracting this virus. A simplified vaccination model, a priority relation established in the National Vaccination Program and a hypothetical point system that determines such a priority relation, will be presented.

Book review

Author(s): Răzvan Săftoiu / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny wobec problemów Wielkiej Brytanii (1919–1921) w Irlandii, koloniach oraz dominiach i jej polityki względem Rosyjskiej Federacyjnej Socjalistycznej Republiki Radzieckiej i Polski

Author(s): Paweł Przybytek,Piotr Przybytek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The popular Cracow daily, Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny tries to explain the tense Polish-British relations with the English strategy adopted towards Soviet Russia, taking into account the global context - not only European but also Asian, African, and North American. At the same time, it seems to show understanding for the Irish struggling for independence, even as they seek allies in the Bolsheviks. On the other hand, he is hostile to the Jews, whom it accuses of inspiring the anti-Polish policy of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Comparing the news from the IKC column relating to such topics with the contemporary scientific literature leads to a preliminary conclusion that the newspaper was well-versed in the international situation at that time. The verification of a research problem formulated in this way requires extensive and, at the same time, detailed exploration.

Tradicionālisms un nedrošības valoda Latvijas publiskajā telpā

Author(s): Mārtiņš Kaprāns / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 39/2019

This essay focuses on the discourse of insecurity that has gradually become salient in Latvian public sphere. The discourse of insecurity in Latvia is created by individuals with different experience and motifs; they use different conceptual sources to express ideas. A sense of insecurity is objectified with geopolitical, civilizational, and psychoanalytical categories. The European refugee crises and discussions on the so called Istanbul Convention has tempered this discourse over the past years by introducing more specific themes and by setting more particular basis for ideological positioning. Analytically, the essay reflects on the grammar or structural elements of insecurity discourse that define this discourse as a distinct phenomenon. Simultaneously, this analysis also intends to explain the origins of such discourse and to reveal its meaning in a broader context. Thus the essay has two parts. The first part examines the referents of Latvia’s insecurity discourse, i. e. what this discourse is attributed to and what it problematizes. The second part outlines various conceptual layers that might facilitate the understanding of the advent and persistence of insecurity discourse. In particular, the essay demonstrates why and how liberalism has become the centrepiece of the insecurity discourse. It also illuminates solutions that the actors of such discourse provide in order to avoid the societal atomization and disappearance of Latvia as a national state. The essay invites to look at the genealogy of the insecurity discourse from the ontological security perspective. In light of this perspective, the central argument is that the actors of Latvia’s insecurity discourse and their opponents are united within the framework of risk society. Namely, both proponents and opponents are mobilized through risk awareness with respect to existential threats. However, different types of risks are problematized in both discourses – the disintegration of collective identity vs. catastrophic risks – that lead to diverging opinion on what the ultimate basis of societal solidarity is.

Social Media and Political Participation among Youth in South-Eastern Nigeria: A Case Study of 2015 and 2019 General Elections

Author(s): Abdulrasheed Abdulyakeen,Yusuf Abdu Yusuf / Language(s): English Issue: 54/2022

The study examines the role of social media and political participation among youth in southeastern Nigeria during the 2015–2019 general elections. Both primary and secondary data were used. The instruments used for data collection were a validated questionnaire and guided interview. The data were analyzed using content analysis. Against this backdrop the Public Sphere and Political Campaign Theory was adopted as a framework of analysis. The findings of the study show that the social media have a very crucial role to play in the promotion of accountability in any democratic society. It was also discovered that for twenty years now, the democratic journey has remained tortuous because of the reckless pursuits of power by the political class. It was concluded that the Nigerian social media need to overcome some of the above mentioned challenges that limit their performance as a credible institution entrusted with the role of serving as the watchdog of the society without flouting the media ethical standards and squander imperatives for objectivity. The study recommends a need to address good governance that would position fundamental governance and create an enabling environment for self-participation. Electorates should critically analyze the situation and make inquiries before voting for a candidate who will not bring about growth and development in the country.

An inquiry into the evolution of Romania’s public sphere

Author(s): Iulia Anghel,Elena Banciu,Flavius Pană,Ana Maria Birtalan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The concept of ‘public sphere’ remains one of the most disputed landmarks within the inquiries and debates upon sources and legacies of Romanian transition. Drawing on the arguments of Frazer, Hauser, and others, the present article argues that nowadays reconfiguration of the public sphere in Romania is influenced by ascent of hybrid public-private arenas enabled by a rhetorical function of the internet. The article discusses the sources, genesis context and evolutions of Romanian public sphere, tackling issues as role of diasporic communities in reshaping publics’ categories, democratic balance, and the notion of legitimacy, highlighting also possible outcomes stemmed from ongoing multiplication of modernity. The research employs a two-step methodology: the first section of the article proposes a conceptual reconstruction of the public sphere term, exploiting the peculiar casuistry of Romanian communist and post-communist scenarios, while the second part analyses the evolution prospects of public sphere in the Eastern Europe and not only.

UN AN DE LA DECLANȘAREA RĂZBOIULUI DE AGRESIUNE AL RUSIEI ÎMPOTRIVA UCRAINEI: ANALIZĂ MULTIDIMENSIONALĂ

Author(s): Dan Lucian PETRESCU,Alexandra SARCINSCHI,Cristian Băhnăreanu,Daniela LICĂ,Mihai ZODIAN,Cristina Bogzeanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

Ziua de 24 februarie 2022 va rămâne pentru multă vreme în memoria colectivă a ucrainenilor și rușilor, dar și a cetățenilor altor state de pe mapamond, întrucât reprezintă începutul unei perioade extrem de dificilă care va marca istoria acestora și va influența semnificativ evoluția mediului de securitate european și global. În mod inevitabil, toate dimensiunile vieții comunităților, considerate atât la nivel național (în special al beligeranților), cât și regional (estul Europei), sunt și vor fi afectate de declanșarea și desfășurarea confruntării directe dintre Federația Rusă și Ucraina, precum și de apariția și/sau creșterea în intensitate a altor confruntări subsecvente și indirecte dintre beligeranți și alți actori din mediul internațional.

DISCOURSE AND INFLUENCE IN THE PROJECT OF THE GREAT UNION

Author(s): Ioan Gherghel / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 30/2022

The study proposes a hermeneutic approach to the main temporal landmarks that shaped the idea and project of the Great Union, as well as on the role of reference personalities of the Romanian cultural space, whose speeches and influence, along whit the pragmatism and inspiration of some political leaders, contributed significant to the creation, over time, of the public support necessary for making the decision to involve Romania in the first world conflict. Elements of the hostile public and political climate are highlighted in which cultural personalities acted for the development of the feeling of national unity and, above all, for its fulfillment in a political project of country unity.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE THERVINGI-GREUTHUNGI POLITICAL RELATIONS FROM THE NORTH OF THE LOWER DANUBE REFLECTED IN THE LITERARY SOURCES

Author(s): Ştefan Lifa,Alexandru Fodor / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 30/2022

The migration of the Gothic population from the Vistula region and its settlement north of the Lower Danube and the Black Sea in the first part of the third century had the effect of establishing the Goths as the dominant political factor among the barbarian populations of the region until the Hunnic invasion of 375-376. Another effect was the gradual grouping of the Gothic tribes into two distinct confederations bounded by the Dniester. The two political structures, the Thervingi and the Greuthungi, would constitute the skeleton of the future branches of the Goths, the Visigoths, and the Ostrogoths, respectively. The article aims to analyse the political relations between the two confederations of Gothic tribes of the mentioned period in the context of interactions with the Empire. Among the most significant events for the topic covered are the attack of the coalition led by Rausimodus in 322-323 and the disintegration of the two Gothic confederations at the time of the Hunnic invasion. From the comparative analysis of the narrative sources, a number of elements stand out, such as the clear distinction made by Ammianus Marcellinus between the Thervingi and the Greuthungi leaders, for whom he uses the titles of judex and rex, respectively, but also the tendency of the sources to use the term Greuthungi many times when referring to the entire Gothic population. These aspects indicate the existence of a permanent relationship of subordination of the Thervingi confederation in relation to the Greuthungi. The article also discusses the problem of the names used for the two Gothic branches, considering that an equivalence relationship between the two pairs of terms, Thervingi/Greuthungi and Visigoths/Ostrogoths, cannot be established.

THE RISE OF NATIONALISM AND RADICAL RIGHT MOUVEMENTS IN THE EASTERN EU COUNTRIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY. CASE STUDIES POLAND AND HUNGARY

Author(s): Bogdan Iulian Ranteș / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 31/2022

The present work aims to analyze the evolution of nationalist movements in the Eastern bloc of the EU. This manifested itself differently from the situation in Western European states because in the East there were many particularities. For example, at the end of the 90s, only currents and movements of the extreme right or the radical right developed in those states, the blood extreme movements being completely absent due to the communist past of those states. In the first part of the paper, we will analyze the causes that led to the appearance of these currents and movements in the studied region. Then, we will specifically study the emergence and evolution of extremist movements in Poland and Hungary, their roots going back to the interwar period. We will present at length their organization and how some of them came to lead these states, often with anti-EU policies and messages.