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In this brief essay, I describe the right-wiheadingng agenda that comes forward day after day, comes forward as a political assault. Isolating just five arbitrary days, I specify what I see as problematic claims by the right wing and offer alternative counter-narratives. I end by identifying actions I feel I should take to speak back to their agenda.

Confucianism is defined as a social and political teaching rather than a religion. Contrary to other religions, here we have a situation that teaching turned into religion. It had extremely great importance for the development of China as the influence of Confucianism was present even in the China Communist party dogma, especially when the state organization is concerned.

The pattern of government in Afro-Asian states has changed through the years from democracy to authoritarian systems. Writings that attempt to explain (while justifying) authoritarian regimes in the new states have prevailed in the literature about underdeveloped areas. Other writers, called revisionists, have questioned the more established position of the apologists. The revisionists' position, which has had inadequate coverage up to this time, is defended. Three lines of apology are taken in turn, & arguments raised to show that apologism is a questionable rationale. About these three lines of apologism, it is argued that: (1) opposition parties do not necessarily endanger national unity in heterogeneous societies, (2) achievement of adequate representation of a democratic type in a one-party system is dubious, & (3) peasants in these societies may well be suitable for participation in government, contrary to claims of the elites. Democracy in underdeveloped states may well be possible; at least rationales used to deny democracy are unconvincing. AA.

This paper attempts to categorize political humor using four criteria: target, focus, acceptability, and presentation. These are applied to examples of the humor of Bob Hope, the Gridiron dinner, Harry Shearer, and Lenny Bruce. Four types of political humor relating to authority emerge: supportive, benign, undermining, and subversive.

AbstractThis comprehensive study of political vigilantism in Ghana examines the motives, membership, and financing of the phenomenon and proffers solutions to combat it. We use a qualitative methodology of personal interviews with a broad section of Ghanaian political stakeholders totaling 50 participants. This included 30 political vigilante members equally affiliated with the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress and selected from the vigilante hotbeds of the Northern, Upper East, and Ashanti regions of Ghana. The other political stakeholders total 20 and are made up of: five public political party executives, five civil society members, five police officers, and five local district assembly members. The motives include institutional weakness, winning political power, and economic and group solidarity. Membership involves family and friends, former security personnel, party members, and unemployed youth. Financing emanates from political parties, politicians, and the business class. We argue that patron–clientelism is the driving force behind political vigilantism and recommend more legal accountability for patrons, particularly through constitutional amendments guaranteeing a fixed term for the head of the police and separating the roles of Attorney General and Minister of Justice. This is to ensure that the former can impartially prosecute vigilante patrons. Punitive financial measures are also recommended to deter patrons, backed by sustained public education and more employment opportunities for the masses of unemployed youth—the bedrock of political vigilantism.Related ArticlesAkwei, Cynthia, Isaac S. Damoah, and Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah. 2020. "The Effects of Politics on the Implementation of Government Programs/Projects: Insights from a Developing Economy." Politics & Policy 48(6): 1161–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12384.Asiegbu, Martin F., Okey Marcellus Ikeanyibe, Pius Otu Abang, Okwudili Chukwuma Nwosu, and Chuka Eugene Ugwu. 2024. "Natural Resource Fund Governance and the Institutionalization of Rent Seeking in Nigeria's Oil Sector." Politics & Policy 52(1): Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12579.Debrah, Emmanuel. 2016. "Decentralization, District Chief Executives, and District Assemblies in Ghana's Fourth Republic." Politics & Policy 44 (1): 135–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12146.

AbstractTechnology costs and deployment rates, represented in experience curves, are typically seen as the main factors in the global clean energy transition from fossil fuels towards low-carbon energy sources. We argue that politics is the hidden dimension of technology experience curves, as it affects both costs and deployment. We draw from empirical analyses of diverse North American and European cases to describe patterns of political conflict surrounding clean energy adoption across a variety of technologies. Our analysis highlights that different political logics shape costs and deployment at different stages along the experience curve. The political institutions and conditions that nurture new technologies into economic winners are not always the same conditions that let incumbent technologies become economic losers. Thus, as the scale of technology adoption moves from niches towards systems, new political coalitions are necessary to push complementary system-wide technology. Since the cost curve is integrated globally, different countries can contribute to different steps in the transition as a function of their individual comparative political advantages.

In response to growing demographic diversity, European countries have selectively implemented political multiculturalism, a set of policies that seek to redefine prevailing conceptions of national identity. We explore the consequences of such policies for mass political support. Applying multi-level modeling to the 2002 and 2010 waves of the European Social Survey and analyzing multiple dependent variables including trust in regime institutions and assessments of the government of the day and the political system's performance, we show that the extensive adoption of multicultural policies magnifies the degree to which hostility to immigration is negatively associated with political support. This finding, robust to multiple specifications, is corroborated using European Values Survey data. It underscores how policies that challenge citizens' conceptions of national identity strengthen the link between opposition to immigration and political discontent, furnishing ongoing opportunities for rightist fringe parties to capitalize on anti-immigrant sentiment among the politically alienated. © The Author(s) 2014.