The Bazaar, the State, and the Struggle for Public Opinion in Nineteenth-Century Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-633
Author(s):  
ALI KARIMI

AbstractPublic opinion is formed by the information that the public consumes. The state, whether democratic or authoritarian, employs various media of communication to influence people's opinions and behaviours. In the nineteenth century, Afghan rulers would traditionally use force and religion to gain popular support and strengthen their authority. In the second half of the century, they started to use print technology to build their relationships with the public. The state's print, however, had to compete with the institution of the bazaar that had long served as the central place where information circulated in public. This article, drawing mostly on unexamined Afghan sources, offers an account of how the bazaar operated as a source of information and how the Afghan state tried to suppress it. The history of this information conflict uncovers new aspects in the troublesome relationship between the government and the governed in Afghanistan.

Orthodoxia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
F. A. Gayda

This article deals with the political situation around the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Empire in 1912 (4th convocation). The main actors of the campaign were the government, local administration, liberal opposition and the clergy of the Orthodox Russian Church. After the 1905 revolution, the “official Church” found itself in a difficult situation. In particular, anti-Church criticism intensified sharply and was expressed now quite openly, both in the press and from the rostrum of the Duma. A consequence of these circumstances was that in this Duma campaign, for the first time in the history of Russian parliamentarianism, “administrative resources” were widely used. At the same time, the authorities failed to achieve their political objectives. The Russian clergy became actively involved in the election campaign. The government sought to use the conflict between the liberal majority in the third Duma and the clerical hierarchy. Duma members launched an active criticism of the Orthodox clergy, using Grigory Rasputin as an excuse. Even staunch conservatives spoke negatively about Rasputin. According to the results of the election campaign, the opposition was even more active in using the label “Rasputinians” against the Holy Synod and the Russian episcopate. Forty-seven persons of clerical rank were elected to the House — three fewer than in the previous Duma. As a result, the assembly of the clergy elected to the Duma decided not to form its own group, but to spread out among the factions. An active campaign in Parliament and the press not only created a certain public mood, but also provoked a political split and polarization within the clergy. The clergy themselves were generally inclined to blame the state authorities for the public isolation of the Church. The Duma election of 1912 seriously affected the attitude of the opposition and the public toward the bishopric after the February revolution of 1917.


1977 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-240
Author(s):  
Maurice Milne

The effectiveness of the strike weapon in early-nineteenth-century England depended in some measure upon the response of public opinion. Obviously the state of trade and the relative cohesion and determination of masters and men were more significant factors, but the attitude of non-participants could not be discounted. The readiness of civil and military authorities to intervene, the reaction of the general public to requests for contributions to relief funds, the willingness of politicians to contemplate changes in the laws concerning combination: all these were influenced by the state of public opinion. It would be an oversimplification to regard “public opinion” and “newspaper opinion” as synonymous. The platform, the pulpit, the placard and the popular song were other means of public expression, not that they necessarily provided a complete or reliable guide to the public mind. Nevertheless the newspaper, particularly in the nineteenth century, was in an advantageous position to influence the response of the public to current controversies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Susanto Polamolo

Indonesia pernah melalui masa sulit di rezim Orde Baru. Kala itu, segala sesuatu yang paralel dengan khususnya sejarah seputar perumusan dasar negara (Panca Sila), menjadi begitu sulit untuk diperoleh, apalagi untuk mengemukakan fakta yang sebenarnya. Penelusuran dokumen-dokumen sejarah begitu minim didukung pemerintah, dokumen-dokumen itupun tercecer di mana-mana, publik hanya diedukasi dengan pendidikan sejarah dari para sejarawan versi pemerintah saja. Bukan karena Orde Baru telah menjadi masa lalu, tetapi, karena apa yang disebut sebagai sumber-sumber primer perlu diperiksa kembali. Di antaranya seperti: Naskah UUD 1945, yang disusun M. Yamin; Risalah Sidang BPUPKI-PPKI yang disusun oleh Sekretariat Negara; Sejarah Nasional Indonesia Jilid VI, yang disusun oleh Nugroho Notosusanto (dkk); Piagam Jakarta, yang disusun oleh Endang Saifuddin Anshari; Sejarah Pemikiran Tentang Panca Sila, yang disusun oleh Pranarka. Sumber-sumber ini diam-diam diterima, dan diam-diam pula diakui bermasalah, atau diragukan keotentikannya. Persoalan tersebut semakin diperjelas dengan temuan sejumlah arsip oleh para sejarawan tata negara seperti A.B. Kusuma, di mana sebelumnya, “Panitia Lima” (1975) telah pula menegaskan bahwa sumber-sumber yang dipakai pemerintah tidak valid, di antaranya adalah naskah yang disusun M. Yamin. Maka, sejarah perumusan Panca Sila kadang berada di jalan bersimpang, simpang batas-tegas pertentangan tentang keotentikan sumber sejarah, menjadi tugas utama agar sumber-sumber tersebut diuji satu dengan lainnya (metode heuristik dan konklusi eksplanatoris). Agar mengerucut satu kesimpulan yang utuh dan sistematis mengenai sejarah perumusan dasar negara dan pemikiran-pemikiran yang dikemukakan di dalamnya menjadi satu kesatuan pemahaman atas kenyataan, dan agar menguatkan sendi-sendi konstitusionalitas kita hari ini yang mulai tercerabut dari akar sejarahnya, bagaikan “inang yang dipaksa berpisah dari induknya”.Indonesia had been through a difficult period in the “Orde Baru” regime. At that time, everything parallel with history especially around the basic principle of the state (Panca Sila) became so difficult to obtain, especially to express the facts. The tracking of historical documents was so poorly endorsed by the government. The documents were scattered everywhere. The public was only educated with historical education from only government version historians. Not because the “Orde Baru” has become the past, but, because the so-called primary sources need to be checked again. Among them are: Naskah UUD 1945, compiled by M. Yamin; Risalah Sidang BPUPKI-PPKI, prepared by State Secretariat; Sejarah Nasional Indonesia Jilid VI, compiled by Nugroho Notosusanto (et.al); Piagam Jakarta, prepared by Endang Saifuddin Anshari; Sejarah Pemikiran Tentang Panca Sila, prepared by Pranarka. The above sources are secretly accepted, and secretly admittedly problematic, or are doubted the authenticity. The issue was further clarified by the findings of archives by state historians such as A.B. Kusuma, in which before, the “Panitia Lima” (1975) had also asserted that the sources used by the government were invalid, one of them was the text compiled by M. Yamin. Thus, the history of Panca Sila sometimes in a stray way of disputes about the historical sources authenticity. That became the primary task for which resources were tested against each other (heuristic methods and explanatory conclusions). In order to conceal a whole and systematic conclusion about the history of the basic formulation of the state and the ideas expressed in it become a unity of understanding of reality, in order to strengthen the joints of our constitutionality today which begins to be uprooted from its historical roots, like “a host which is forced to apart from its main”.


Author(s):  
Pablo Piccato

This book examines the construction of crime as a central focus of public life in postrevolutionary Mexico. It does so by exploring cases, stories, and characters that attracted Mexican publics between the 1920s and the 1950s. The problems of learning the truth about criminal events and of adjudicating punishment or forgiveness concerned a broad spectrum of the population. This book looks at narratives, debates, and social practices through which a diversity of actors engaged the state and public opinion around a theme of common interest. Narratives and media about crime and justice that are still in place today developed during the decades of the twentieth century examined in the book: broadly shared ideas about impunity and corruption, extrajudicial punishment and the public meaning of homicide, and the divorce of legal justice and the truth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-139
Author(s):  
Yaping Peng

The logic of technical governance goes as follows: the knowledge of society can be obtained by the state via technology, and thus social problems are identified and solutions are found. Questions have been raised about whether technical governance would ever work. For many the answer is negative and doubtful. However, one defense remains: technical governance fails not because the idea is inherently flawed but because the technology is not good. Would technical governance succeed with better methodology and more technical rigor? In order to challenge this defense, this paper examines the operation of opinion polls—a form of technical governance supported by rigorous quantitative social research methodology—run by a sub-district government in the city ‘S’. In particular, this paper asks whether it is possible for a government-run poll to reflect manipulated public opinion, despite the strictest compliance with quantitative polling methodology. The finding of this paper gives an affirmative answer. It argues that on the surface, polls are statistical surveys, but in actuality they are a political process controlled by the government despite their compliance with all statistical requirements. The power structure of the local government determines the questionnaire items, their multiple-choice answers (the screening, compressing, and quantifying of social scenarios), and the final make-up of the public opinion index. The rigorousness of methodology does not guarantee the authenticity of ‘public opinion’ in final poll figures. More likely, the outcome is controlled by those who organize polls. Hence, quantifiable technical governance presents a contradiction: the state manufactures biased public opinions precisely when it is looking for unbiased public opinions. In the end, the government constructs an image of society that is its own reflection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 2013-2055
Author(s):  
JOSHUA EHRLICH

AbstractThis article reveals the Charter Act of 1833 as a turning point in the history of British-Indian political thought, which foreclosed, for a generation, liberal efforts to reform Britain's avowedly despotic regime in India. Anticipating a victory in their transmarine campaign to make the state accountable to an Indian ‘public’, reformers were disillusioned to find instead that the new Act was founded on enlightened despotism. Attempting to gather popular support for the authoritarian vision of reform espoused by Thomas Babington Macaulay and the other framers of the Act, Governor-General William Bentinck organized a grand fireworks display in Calcutta. The failure of this event, however, compounded the initial backlash against the Act, widening the rift between state and ‘public’, and precipitating the latter's decline as an effective political formation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-140
Author(s):  
László Pribula

In March 2020, the Hungarian civil procedure faced an extraordinary challenge by the unpredictable but widely threatening Covid-19 epidemic, which necessitated the introduction of provisions as effective as possible to protect public health. The task was challenging because the public does not only expect the courts to settle the legal disputes righteously, but, based on a century-long development in the history of law, the requirement of verbal and direct hearings has become of accentuated importance. The traditional model of civil cases centres around the public institution of hearings with the simultaneous presence of the judge, the parties, and their representatives, as well as other actors in the case. Simultaneously, the legislator accentuated the importance of concentrated and rapid case management, especially in the past few years. The extraordinary situation caused by the epidemic might have raised the complete close-down of courts. But, as there is no court proceeding without hearings, this solution could not have been acceptable by either the parties seeking to assert their rights or by court employees for reasons of human resources management, as the judgements of legal disputes would have been postponed for an undefined period. The interests of both the citizens seeking justice and the court employees could be fulfilled by a solution that created the conditions of uninterrupted jurisdiction and the avoidance of personal contacts to protect their health. After a necessary period of preparation resulting from the unexpected situation, this extremely difficult issue was solved by the Government Decree 74/2020 (from 31 of March), officially abbreviated as Veir., which did not abrogatethe generally effectual procedure rules, but merely adjusted them to the specificities of the crisis situation. The same happened to the civil procedure too. During the period of the state of danger, in contentious (and noncontentious) cases, depending on the date of bringing of the action, the regulations of either Act III of 1952 (the 1952 Civil Procedure Code, henceforth 1952 Pp.), in force until the 31 of December 2017, or Act CXXX of 2016 (the current Civil Procedure Code, hereafter Pp.), in power from the 1 of January 2018, were applicable, with the amendments included in the government decrees. This different regulation formed the special state of danger procedure law to mitigate the consequences of the epidemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 1712-1717
Author(s):  
Worachet Tho-un, Somchai Saenphumi

This article would like to reflect the history of the Thai gambling industry. The nature of gambling that is hidden in tradition, opinion of Thai society towards gambling. Moreover, the effects of gambling that the state allows and does not allow through literature, law, Buddhist principles, the King's philosophy and the theoretical concept of gambling, and the theoretical concept of gambling. The results of the synthesis of the data showed that gambling has been in conjunction with Thai society for a long time. The context and process of gambling in Thai society can take many forms. It will depend on the context of the environment, the law, and the government, etc. Their views and attitudes towards gambling can be divided into two groups: the one that sees gambling as a pleasure. It has created a social space to legitimize gambling in various forms, such as gambling for gambling. The hidden gambling tradition gambling of the types permitted and prohibited by the government, etc. Furthermore, the second group viewed gambling as a danger to society. It is a terrible thing that the state must restrict it from society. This concept is primarily connected and related to religious and legal principles. From the information found, I believe that gambling is a huge source of income for the government, even though the state knows that it is mescaline. But cannot cancel the business, that is, the deadly poison or the public's silent threat that is submitted to the government.


Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Paul Brusanowski

The night of the Hungarian Aster Revolution (October 30-31) in Budapest brought about the birth of not only the Hungarian National Council, under the leadership of Mihály Károlyi, but also of the Romanian National Council, consequently moved to Arad two days later. On the one hand, the Romanian Central National Council considered itself to be the Romanian counterpart of the Hungarian National Council which had just taken over the governance of Hungary (although, for the time being, the state was still considered to be the Kingdom of Hungary, under the House of Habsburg). As such, the new Romanian Council’s first concern was to put an end to anarchy and reinstate order in the territories inhabited by Romanians. The organization even affirmed its anti-revolutionary and pro-dynastic position, in contrast with its Hungarian counterpart, which was considered to be too much taken over by revolutionary flames. Very soon after this, the Romanian Central National Council was confronted with new geo-political developments in the Eastern European space. On November 5, 1918, during a press conference, the American State Secretary Robert Lansing mentioned the possibility of uniting Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania. Two days later, on the occasion of signing the armistice with Hungary, the French General Franchet d’Espèrey held a speech that had a crushing effect on the Government and the public opinion of Hungary that country, in which he utterly proclaimed the dissolution of Great Hungary.


Traditio ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 31-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Julius Wolff

Students of the history of Greek procedure generally hold that public administration of justice originated in a prehistoric habit of settling disputes between individuals by voluntary waiving self-help and resorting to arbitration. This ancient custom is supposed to have been gradually developed into a system under which the parties were denied the right to seek realization of their claims by private force and compelled to submit their cases to authorities designated and empowered to try the claims and hand down binding judgments. Litigants are believed to have been forced by an ever increasing pressure of public opinion, as well as by the growing power of the rulers, to refrain from armed feud and blood-vengeance, and to seek the decision of the princes who by virtue of their social and personal preponderance were predestined to act as arbitrators. After the consolidation of the state, their jurisdiction, according to the prevailing theory, became a legal institution and passed, after the abolishment of the early monarchy, to the aristocratic city magistrates, and later, in the democracies, to the popular courts. As an intermediate stage, the existence of a system of ‘obligatory arbitration’, indirectly enforced by the public disapproval of those not complying with it, has been suggested for the type of society known from Hesiod'sWorks and Days.


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