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This article examines two competing theories explaining the effects of political satire on citizens in an authoritarian context. The "activism" proposition argues that political satire works as a form of resistance to erode people's support for the regime and encourages collective action. The "cynicism" proposition argues that while satire discourages regime support, it also discourages political participation. Our online survey experiment on young Chinese Internet users provides evidence supporting the cynicism proposition. Satire consumption reduces audiences' political trust, deflates their political efficacy, and discourages them from participating in politics, as it reduces the perceived severity of political problems and implies that audience participation is useless. We conclude that the dissemination of political satire may stabilize the authoritarian regime temporarily but induces it to become erosive in the long run.

Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1 British Democracy in the Twenty-First Century -- British parliamentary democracy: theory and practice -- Challenges to British parliamentary democracy -- Democracy and civil society -- Outline of the book -- 2 Changing Political Values and Attitudes -- What do citizens want from the state? -- What do citizens think they owe the state? -- Are people tolerant? -- Do people trust their fellow citizens and the state? -- Do citizens feel they can change circumstances? -- How interested are people in politics? -- Changes in norms and attitudes over time -- The decline in the demand for government -- Conclusion -- 3 Trends in Participation in Britain -- Changes in participation over time -- Who votes? -- Why do people vote? -- Why has voting declined? -- Conclusion -- 4 Political Parties and Grassroots Activism -- The importance of parties -- Parties and voters -- Parties and activists -- Party supporters and political participation -- Parties at the centre -- Conclusion -- 5 Voluntary Activity and Social Capital -- Voluntary activity, trust and social capital -- Changes in social capital and voluntary activity in Britain -- The consequences of declining social capital -- Conclusion -- 6 The Media and Political Participation in Britain -- Media usage in Britain -- Media influences on public opinion -- The role of the mass media in influencing collective perceptions -- Methodological issues -- A case study - the Sun backs New Labour -- Conclusion -- 7 Britain in Comparative Perspective -- Is government too big? -- The growth of government in comparative perspective -- Theorizing the demand for government -- Attitudes to transfer payments -- The demand for government spending and income -- Conclusion -- 8 Government Effectiveness and Civil Society.

Song has the power to express a social truth and is consistently employed in actions across the world in solidarity with political struggle. This article discusses the campaigning work of the Campaign Choirs Network, a UK network of radical political choirs, whose story is founded on
diverse solidarities and a commitment to singing as a means of emotional engagement and pedagogy. The network has conducted a participatory action research programme, including oral history interviews with 42 members of 11 street choirs, exploring members' life-course activism and their utopian
imaginaries. As one aspect of their research, the authors sought to more fully understand the emotions that song and singing release, and the connections that can then be made between people – in order to find out more about the nature of the power of song and the political possibilities
of such connections. Drawing extensively on the interviews, this article discusses the political and pedagogic possibilities of the emotions released through singing.

ABSTRACTUnder what conditions is gender equality policy advocacy successful? This article examines a segment of the largely quantitative comparative political science literature that seeks to answer this question. Recent scholarship emphasizes such factors as the strength of women's movements and the forms of opposition to which their policy demands give rise. However, one consequence of this approach is that the role of strategic choices made by feminist policy advocates is underestimated in explaining their successes. The article argues that understanding variation in the outcomes achieved by women's rights advocates requires close attention to the strategic capacity of policy entrepreneurs, assessed in terms of three inter‐related activities: (1) 'framing' policy demands; (2) forming and managing civic alliances; and (3) engaging with state entities without compromising organizational autonomy.

This article focuses on the political biographies of two sisters, Claudina and Luz García Pérez, between 1918 and 1931 within the Agrupación Femenina Socialista de Madrid (Women's Socialist Group of Madrid) and various trade unions linked to the Casa del Pueblo. Their biographies question the stereotype of the male union and political leader by highlighting the importance of the family unit in adopting and maintaining a lifelong commitment to the socialist cause. Moreover, their transgression of the hegemonic gender system highlights the role played by women-only political fora in relation to the formation of female political leaders within regimes in which women were deprived of the right to vote. ; Este artículo aborda la trayectoria política de las hermanas Claudina y Luz García Pérez en la Agrupación Femenina Socialista de Madrid y en varios sindicatos vinculados a la Casa del Pueblo entre 1918 y 1931. Sus biografías sirven para cuestionar el estereotipo del varón activista sindical y político, al evidenciar la importancia de la militancia familiar en la adopción y mantenimiento de un compromiso de por vida con el socialismo. Además, su trasgresión a los roles hegemónicos de género pone de manifiesto el papel desempeñado por los espacios de sociabilidad política exclusivamente femeninos en la formación de mujeres líderes en regímenes que no reconocían derechos de ciudadanía a las mujeres.

Ongoing volatile political activism in the Indian Punjab, embodying an armed guerrilla warfare, inter-religious dissensions and severe official retaliatory policies, is a microcosm of a pervasive governability crisis in entire South Asia. The dilemma, with all its intensity, is the culmination of various parallel political processes in currency for almost one century. While the state, both colonial and post-colonial, may conveniently and simplistically perceive it as a mere administrative prblem or, at the most, an enduring communal disharmony fostered by hazy ideas,1 its very endurance warrants a serious review of numerous crucial denominators. Politicized ethnicity, largely banking on religious and similar other primordial factors, has received added momentum from interaction with a sterilized and elitist state structure in the wake of vital demographic changes and diasporic quest for identity. Neighbouring Pakistani Punjab exhibited a profile in political defiance for the entire period of Benazir Bhutto's premiership when her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) confronted a formidable opposition from the provincial government of the Islamic Democratic Alliance (IDA/IJI). It eventually catapulted Mian Nawaz Sharif into premiership.2 Such an increased political activism in the grain basket of the sub-continent may pose a perplexing issue for those to whom the province since early times has been a conformist, centrist and pro-establishment area when it came to its relationship with Indiawide movements all the way from the stormy events of 1857 to the 1980s Quest

Aktivisme bruges hyppigt blandt forskere og praktikere som en "overordnet etikette på dansk udenrigspolitik" (Pedersen & Ringsmose, 2017, s. 339). Der er ikke konsensus om, hvornår Danmark blev aktivistisk, eller om etiketten passer lige godt på alle områder af udenrigspolitikken. Ikke desto mindre er der bred enighed om, at Danmarks militære engagement i de seneste årtier, herunder særligt deltagelsen i Irak- og Afghanistan-krigene, udgør et højdepunkt i dansk aktivisme. Vores analyse diskuterer og nuancerer denne karakteristik ved at formulere en alternativ forståelse af politisk aktivisme inspireret af Hannah Arendts politiske teori. Med vores konceptualisering gentænker vi centrale begreber i litteraturen – initiativ, risiko og deltagelse – og sondrer mellem militært engagement og egentlig politisk aktivisme. Ud fra denne begrebslige ramme genbesøger vi Danmarks krigsdeltagelse i 2000'erne. Vi argumenterer for, at dansk udenrigspolitik, selv hvad angår krigsdeltagelsen, har været reaktiv, risikoavers og med begrænset folkelig forankring og derfor mindre aktivistisk, end litteraturen hidtil har antaget. Ved at fjerne den aktivistiske etikette forsøger vi at rejse nye spørgsmål om, hvad udenrigspolitisk aktivisme fremadrettet kan og bør være.
Abstract in English:Military Activism Without Political Action? Towards a New Conception of Activism in Danish Foreign and Security Policy Inspired by Hannah ArendtActivism is frequently used by researchers and practitioners alike as "a general label on Danish foreign policy" (Pedersen & Ringsmose, 2017, p. 339, authors' translation). There is no consensus as to when Denmark became activist or if the label is equally fitting to all foreign policy issue areas. However, there is broad agreement that the military engagements in recent decades, particularly the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, constitute a high point in Danish activism. Our analysis challenges and nuances this characterization by exploring an alternative understanding of political activism inspired by Hannah Arendt's political theory. Our alternative concept of activism revisits the central elements of activism; initiative, risk and participation, and distinguishes between military engagement and political activism. Drawing on this conceptual framework, we revisit Denmark's war engagements focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s. We argue that from a political perspective even Denmark's war engagements have been reactive, risk averse, and with limited popular anchorage, and are therefore, less activist than hitherto argued. By tearing off the activist label we aim to revitalize the discussion about what Danish Foreign and Security policy can and should be at a time when such questions have rarely had more relevance.

Southern California's San Fernando Valley is a huge expanse of land that comprises the northernmost section of the City of Los Angeles. Although it is currently the home to over 1.8 million residents with roots from across the globe and for several decades has been a city within a city, powerful and competing images of "the Valley" continue to shape public consciousness about this well-known American space. For better or worse, the San Fernando Valley has become a metonym for the rise and fall of post-World War II suburbia. This linear narrative - that privileges the transformation of agricultural fields into industrial plants and residential suburbs that later fell victim to urban sprawl - elides the histories of people of color in favor of broad generalizations about segregation or demographic change.This dissertation challenges those assumptions and uses the San Fernando Valley as a site to understand the overlapping relationships between race, space, and activism in the twentieth century. I propose that the San Fernando Valley is an instructive site to examine those relationships because of its historically multiethnic neighborhoods that have been shaped by the forces of such as war, metropolitan growth, and economic restructuring. Through an examination of major structural events and their social repercussions, such as the construction of railroads, the rise of the military industrial complex, various exclusionary laws or ballot initiatives, and a complex relationship with the City of Los Angeles, I show how African Americans, Latinas/os, and Asian Americans have claimed the San Fernando Valley for themselves, crafted their own communities, and fought against different forms of inequality. To be sure, their community building, political goals, and tactical strategies goals were informed by their respective racialization and distinctions based on class or migration status. Nevertheless, these individuals fashioned alternative forms of activism, community building, and knowledge that challenge dominant narratives of the San Fernando Valley.

Electoral turnout in Norway has been declining over a long period for local elections and, at the four most recent Storting elections, turnout has been at a lower level than in the preceding 25 years. This article investigates whether the fall in turnout generalises to other forms of political participation and political involvement. Data from the Norwegian Election Studies 1965–2001 and the Norwegian Values Studies 1982–1996 are analysed. In contrast to the decline of turnout, the authors find that the broader political activity of citizens has increased. The rise in political involvement and activism is quite widespread, covering dimensions like political interest, political discussion and political action. The increase includes forms of participation where political parties play a strong role and in direct action where parties are supposed to be less important. Education is strongly associated with most forms of civic participation and the rise in educational levels normally leads to an increase in participation rates. Data show that women are now as active as men in most dimensions of participation. In Norway, turnout at elections displays one pattern over time, while other indicators of political participation and involvement show different trajectories. There is no general civic decline. Using political involvement and participation as a criterion for judging the state of democracy, and taking into account the whole set of indicators studied in this article, one may reasonably conclude that Norwegian civic democracy is in better health than if one focused only on the fall in electoral turnout.

The abuses and atrocities committed against Indigenous populations during the colonial era are coming back to haunt the old imperial powers. As the idea of retributive justice becomes increasingly popular, former colonizing countries such as Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands are being held to account, through lawsuits and national apologies, for crimes they committed against Native populations, requiring them to confront some of the grimmer aspects of their imperial pasts. This comparative study explores attitudes toward the existence of German, Spanish, American, and British concentration camps at the turn of the 19th Century. Through a critical genealogical study of these camp cultures, this text explores how imperialists and anti-imperialists have justified and condemned these camps and analyzes the continued debate on their legality, legitimacy, and necessity. Crucially, the study looks at current disputes between those who wish to revive memories of the struggles faced by Cuban guerillas, the Boers, and the Herero and Nama communities who were the victim of such horrendous atrocities and those who against calls for restorative justice for these crimes.

This work outlines the way student theatre groups managed to negotiate a degree of independence with the ideological and administrative State authorities in charge of artistic activities in post-Staline USSR. As a theatrical mode of expression as well as a type of social behaviour, did stageplay lead some youths to outplay the moral norms and organizational, discursive and aesthetic paradigms that were imposed on them? Even though those groups seemed to reproduce most official paradigms, irony together with a degree spirit of their minds resulting from artistic practice, allowed them to "play" with the dramatic framework and even at times to "outplay" it, while remaining within the limits of what was socially and artistically acceptable. Though they never went as far as constituting hotbeds of insurrection, the groups studied here could indeed be construed as outposts where a certain independence of mind and action remained possible. This research is based on interviews and both private and public archives and retraces the productions and operative modes of several types of groups: "theatre workshops" overseen by professionals, "studios" created by students themselves, teams running for KVN (a popular TV game where teams compete by giving funny answers to questions and performing sketches), "propaganda brigades" whose purpose was to spread urban culture in the countryside and on major building sites. ; Ce travail retrace la manière dont des troupes de théâtre composées d'étudiants négociaient les marges d'autonomie vis-à-vis de l'appareil administratif et idéologique chargé d'encadrer les activités artistiques dans l'URSS de l'époque poststalinienne. Le jeu - en tant que mode d'expression dramatique mais aussi en tant que comportement social - pouvait-il conduire des jeunes à déjouer les normes morales, les paradigmes organisationnels, discursifs et esthétiques qui leur étaient imposés ? Même si les groupes semblaient reproduire la plupart de ces paradigmes, l'ironie et une certaine libéralisation de l'esprit, ...

A sharp rise in the use of digital media in Southeast Asia in recent years has raised questions about the impact of these digitally networked technologies on the prospect for democratization in a region known for its authoritarian resilience. In the absence of a regional uprising as witnessed in the Middle East through the Arab Spring, Southeast Asian authoritarian states have maintained their durability despite a massive surge in online political activities and in some cases, digitally mediated large-scale mobilization of opposition groups. What explains authoritarian resilience in Southeast Asia in the face of rising opportunities for online political opposition? This article argues that while digital media has emerged as an important repertoire of activism, particularly for political opposition groups, a deft combination of political authoritarianism and increasing Internet controls have stunted democratic pressure in society and hampered future prospect for democratization. It also offers a comparative analysis of how the Internet more generally and digital media in particular has affected state-society relations in Southeast Asia in recent years. In order for digitally mediated political opposition to meaningfully challenge the existing authoritarian incumbents, sufficient opening in the political system is needed. This means, authoritarian states with competitive, routinized elections which have recently experienced large-scale or sustained mobilization by opposition groups are most likely to be susceptible to breakdown than closed regimes.

We contribute to critical theory building in relation to political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) by conceptualizing the underlying processes and practices through which corporations seek to counter threats posed by activist groups. We argue that the problematic nature of PCSR is entangled not only in its state-like aims, but also in its covert deployment of military tactics towards the maintenance of corporate hegemony. We illuminate how corporations use counterinsurgency tactics to undermine the ability of activists to hold them accountable for their wrongdoing. Building on the work of Gramsci, we propose that counterinsurgency tactics combine elements of force and persuasion that enable corporations to maintain hegemony (i.e., secure consent over time). We ask: How are counterinsurgency tactics used by corporations to neutralize activist pressures and maintain corporate hegemony? We draw upon historical sources regarding the Nestlé infant milk boycott case to undertake a genealogical analysis that exposes counterinsurgency tactics enabling corporations to counter activists and sustain their hegemony. We find that Nestlé deployed four key counterinsurgency tactics to nullify activist pressures (suppressing external support, isolating the activist(s), capturing the dialogue, and covert intelligence gathering). From our analysis, we propose the term corporate counterinsurgency and theorize the historic use of corporate counterinsurgency tactics as an example of a hegemonic strategy that enables corporations to covertly undermine activist pressures. We conclude by calling for further reflexivity in organizational studies research on the military origins of PCSR, and by outlining how activist organizations might mobilize against corporate counterinsurgency tactics.

Publicly confronting political misperceptions enacts political conflict, generating communicative forms of public resistance as well as psychological resistance. Applying Schattschneider's classic model of interest group political conflict to communication by those who publicly resisted messages debunking the misperception that vaccinations can cause autism offers insight into how misperceptions evolve and survive in public discourse. It also extends the model, establishing its relevance for contemporary forms of political conflict. Faced with debunking, believers socialize conflict, inviting audiences to join the struggle on their side, and alter the debate's terms such that discussion escapes control by authorities. The resulting political debate is a moving target with changing standards of evidence. Consequently, confronting political misperceptions may generate activism that encourages misperceptions to evolve and spread.