Academic literature on the topic 'Politics and Government - Civil rights and citizenship'

Abstract Children remain marginalised in theoretical analyses of citizenship and political rights, with their partial citizenship status attracting minimal attention. We consider the ontological need for political engagement, children’s political agency and intergenerational justice. We discuss how Derrida’s hospitality concept may inform analyses of power structures that serve to exclude children from the demos. We then examine the case of Japan where education law neglects children’s political rights, though respect for human rights and popular sovereignty are core constitutional values. Analysis of parliamentary debates addressing Article 12 and children’s right to be heard and organise collectively reveals a long-standing ideological divide concerning children’s political participation. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has explained Japan’s reluctance to implement Article 12 as reflecting “traditional” attitudes. The reality is more complex. From the late 1950s, Japan experienced a wave of student-led protests, focusing on the US-Japan Anpo Security Treaty. Subsequently, the Japanese government prioritised public order over students’ political rights, and global economic competitiveness over citizenship rights. Article 12 remains a site of struggle between those wishing to extend children’s citizenship rights and those who wish to maintain their partial citizenship, fearing social unrest and a focus away from global economic competitiveness.

The concept of citizenship is one of the old key concepts in political philosophy that has been reproduced in various forms since the formation of classical political philosophy up to modern times within the theory set forth in this type of theoretical philosophy. So, pre-modern theory, modern theory and postmodern theory can be noted. The concept of citizenship is an idea which governs the right of modern human and was emerged in the Western Europe and is a product of modern politics. Accepting Legal and political rights and duties is raised by citizenship status, its main foundation and the basic idea of the concept. In the contemporary world, citizenship has been interested more than other societies. The question that comes to mind here is that how is the situation of civil rights in the era of theoretical terms in globalization? In response to the question hypothesis is that with globalization, citizenship in its modern form that was enclosed in the geography of the national government has lost its sense and civil rights embodied in the discourses that are outside the reach of state law. This study aimed to investigate the impact of globalization on the civil right and conceptual evolution theoretically, as contemporary theorists have theorized it. Research findings indicate the "global citizenship" as a concept is emerging in the era of globalization as the result of rethinking of citizenship in the modern age. The methodology of study is analysis - descriptive, this means that the concept of civil right is described and then the theoretical changes in the era of globalization will be analyzed.

This research aims to explain how spiritual groups in Malang City struggle to obtain their rights as citizens. This research is important to carry out as a benchmark for the obligations that the government should give in the form of rights as citizens to marginalized groups, in this case spiritual believers in Malang City, Malang City. By borrowing the theoretical framework of citizenship politics from Kristian Stokke, which divides citizenship into four dimensions, namely citizenship as legal status, citizenship as rights, citizenship as membership, and citizenship as participation. This research uses descriptive qualitative methods by collecting data through literature study, document study, interviews and observation. The results of this research show that spiritual groups in Malang City have made various efforts as a form of struggle to obtain various rights, namely membership rights, legal status as an organization or community, civil rights, social rights, political rights and participation rights. The findings of this study show that groups of religious believers in Malang City have proven to be very proactive and take initiative towards government institutions in various fields such as administration, education and the social sphere.

AbstractFollowing the landmark essay of T. H. Marshall, Citizenship and the Social Class (1949), it has conventionally been assumed that the introduction and expansion of social rights in Europe happened as the final stage of a long process of democratization that included the granting of first civil and then political rights. We present a radically different perspective on the relationship between the extension of suffrage (under meaningful competition for government power) and social rights, that is state-financed entitlements that make citizens’ livelihood independent from the labor market in the instance of events such as unemployment or sickness. First, some countries institutionalized a state-financed poor relief system much before mass democratization. In these countries, the primary effect of suffrage extension was to reduce public social spending, not expand it. Second, the way this retrenchment occurred was partly by creating a negative link between social rights, on the one hand, and civil and political rights, on the other. We test our argument with case studies of nineteenth- to early-twentieth-century England, Denmark, Norway, and Prussia, all of which are paradigmatic cases that represent the variation in welfare state types.

One of the central demands of the feminist movement (which started in the 1880s globally [but first arose in France in 1870]) has been and continues to be women’s exercise of their full and active citizenship, which they consider was denied them as a result of not being recognised as equals at the moment of the definition and construction of citizenship in the eighteenth century. Since then, the women’s movement and feminist movement have denounced this exclusion, calling for equal citizenship for women. At first, between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, the feminist movement demanded the right to vote along with other civic, civil, and political rights, considered as a first wave of feminism.1 The second wave of feminism during the 1960s and 1970s continued to demand the expansion of women’s citizenship in the case of the African continent as a whole, and called for a redefinition of the private sphere in which women were isolated. In this sphere they were excluded from certain human rights and were thus unable to fully exercise rights expressing an equal citizenship.2 In for example the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the focus for this discussion, the participation of Congolese women in the decision making of the country by 2011 was supported by the recently promulgated constitution of the DRC in 2006. The constitution promotes equal opportunity for men and women, but the current government has to date not yet achieved what was promised then. This paper is a critical historical reflection of women’s status and political participation in the DRC. It also argues that the DRC government should encourage women to become actively involved in political parties so that they are eventually able to achieve the highest office in the country in order to serve justice to human rights. Furthermore, the government should take the initiative to introduce a quota system for women in the different state structures. The paper also calls upon political parties of the DRC to encourage the participation of women in party politics.

This article delineates the negotiated space of civil autonomy in post-handover Hong Kong through the contingent interplay of law, discourse, dramaturgy and politics. It takes the Public Order Ordinance dispute in 2000 as the first major test case of civil conflicts in the shadow of the right of abode struggle. As it unfolded, the event demonstrated both the power and limits of resistance by the people, and the government's increasing will, as well as the strategies it used, to rule within the “law and order” framework under continual challenges. In the event, civil autonomy had been a contested issue involving considerations of rule of law, rights, civic propriety, state legitimacy and the construction of particular identity (such as student-hood). Given the multiplicity of discourses and sub-discourses, citizenship practices and public criticisms opened up a contested space for resistance and negotiation. A campaign of civil disobedience was at first successfully mounted through an ensemble of political and symbolic mechanisms. A turning point was configured when, mediated by a meaning reconstruction process, the government made a series of political and performative acts to re-script the drama, which turned out to be an ironic success for itself that put state–society relations on an increasingly tenuous course. Ultimately ideological differences were at stake: respect for a rights-based discourse of rule of law versus the assertion of political and legal authoritarianism.

The population living without documents in Indonesia continues to grow from year to year. Law No. 12 of 2006 concerning Citizenship and Immigration Law. Number has not provided a solution regarding their residence permit status and citizenship. Problems that arise the number of people who are settlers without documents increases, especially if they have mixed marriages with Indonesians. The handling so far that has been carried out by the government is only unclear and tends to ignore the problem of how the state's discretion and responsibility towards foreign citizens are without documents. By using normative research methods, research is carried out. The results of the study a. the immigration office's discretion regarding the status of foreigners without documents is unclear. b. The state is not responsible for the status and existence of foreign citizens without documents by neglecting their civil rights status c. Politics of protecting human rights against foreign nationals without documents are unclear until now. Keywords: Foreign Citizens Without Documents, Discretion, and Immigration

Introduction: Citizenship rights refers to a set of rules governing society in relation to politics, institutions, governments, and civil society. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the awareness of citizenship rights using meta-analysis. Method: The mechanism of conducting the research is meta-analysis-quantitative. The purpose of this method is to integrate, systematically review and standardize studies conducted in a specific field of research. The statistical population (materials) of this research comprises 32 research studies conducted in the years 1383-1400, of which 28 samples of research documents were found to be in accordance with the criteria of quantitative meta-analysis (correlation coefficient, sample size, significance level, research quality, validity of research, and survey). Finding: The results show that between political factors (political participation, political orientation, political awareness, and political trust), cultural (social awareness of rights, citizenship rights education, media consumption, and cultural capital), social (social trust, social participation, and social cohesion) and contextual variables (level of education, age, and socio-economic status) were found to have a significant relationship with the level of awareness of citizenship rights. Discussions: Increasing the level of people’s participation in the political and social spheres provides the basis for expanding the political awareness of citizens. Strengthening citizens’ political trust in the political system would lead to the development of citizenship rights. Education of citizenship rights provides the basis for increasing political-social awareness.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the U.S. federal government expanded the scope and extent of its constitutionally enumerated powers in naturalization, Indian policies, and regulation of interstate commerce. In doing so, Congress became more involved with matters of citizenship, both in defining public purposes and national identity. Citizenship had traditionally been a matter for the states, where governance rested on the features of differentiation, jurisdictional autonomy, and local control. The entry of the federal government and the federal constitutional norms of citizenship might have been expected to bring an overarching coherence to the fundamental liberal values that were declared after the Civil War. Under expanded federal power and federal citizenship, however, multiple traditions of both liberal rights of citizenship and illiberal conditions of status continued, and illiberal positions gained new footing.

Abstract: Indonesia as a pluralist country holds the principle of equal citizenship, which considers that every individual and community group has the same rights and obligations and adheres to a democratic system of government. One of the main platforms to determine the leader who will represent the will of the people is the village head election. However, after the village head election, conflicts or disputes often occur in various regions including Mamasa, West Sulawesi. This conflict can threaten community unity and integrity. Therefore, the author links the phenomenon of post-village head election conflicts with citizenship politics and Amos Yong's Hospitality theory. The author presents the concept of hospitality as a new approach to overcome post-village head election conflicts and encourage inclusion in society. The method used is a qualitative approach by observing the phenomenon or case study under study, and using literature review to support the analysis. The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of civic politics, apply Hospitality theory, and encourage new thinking in overcoming post-village head election conflicts. Keywords: Citizenship Politics, Conflict, Difference, Hospitality, Village Head Election.

Defence date: 19 February 2019
Examining Board: Professor Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Matthew Gibney, University of Oxford; Professor Iseult Honohan, University College Dublin; Professor Jennifer Welsh, McGill University (formerly European University Institute)
This thesis explores key empirical and normative questions prompted by deportation policies and practices in the contemporary European context. The core empirical research question the thesis seeks to address is: what explains the shape of deportation regimes in European liberal democracies? The core normative research question is: how should we evaluate these deportation regimes morally? The two parts of the thesis address each of these questions in turn. To explain contemporary European deportation regimes, the four chapters of the first part of the thesis investigate them from a historical and multilevel perspective. (“Expulsion Old and New”) starts by comparing contemporary deportation practices to earlier forms of forced removal such as criminal banishment, political exile, poor law expulsion, and collective expulsions on a religious or ethnic basis, highlighting how contemporary deportation echoes some of the purposes of these earlier forms of expulsion. (“Divergences in Deportation”) looks at some major differences between European countries in how, and how much, deportation is used as a policy instrument today, concluding that they can be roughly grouped into four regime types, namely lenient, selective, symbolically strict and coercively strict. The next two chapters investigate how non-national levels of government are involved in shaping deportation in the European context. (“Europeanising Expulsion”) traces how the institutions of the European Union have come to both restrain and facilitate or incentivise member states’ deportation practices in fundamental ways. (“Localities of Belonging”) describes how provincial and municipal governments are increasingly assertive in frustrating deportations, effectively shielding individuals or entire categories of people from the reach of national deportation efforts, while in other cases local governments pressure the national level into instigating deportation proceedings against unwanted residents. The chapters argue that such efforts on both the supranational and local levels must be explained with reference to supranational and local conceptions of membership that are part of a multilevel citizenship structure yet can, and often do, come apart from the national conception of belonging. The second part of the thesis addresses the second research question by discussing the normative issues deportation gives rise to. (“Deportability, Domicile and the Human Right to Stay”) argues that a moral and legal status of non-deportability should be extended beyond citizenship to all those who have established effective domicile, or long-term and permanent residence, in the national territory. (“Deportation without Domination?”) argues that deportation can and should be applied in a way that does not dominate those it subjects by ensuring its non-arbitrary application through a limiting of executive discretion and by establishing proportionality testing in deportation procedures. (“Resisting Unjust Deportation”) investigates what can and should be done in the face of unjust national deportation regimes, proposing that a normative framework for morally justified antideportation resistance must start by differentiating between the various individual and institutional agents of resistance before specifying how their right or duty to resist a particular deportation depends on motivational, epistemic and relational conditions.

The thesis aims to suggest directions towards a defensible conception of citizenship and approach to citizenship education in Singapore. In recent years, citizenship in Singapore has centred around the themes of identity and participation. Among educationists in general, there is a recognition that citizens need to be prepared for involvement in the political process. In plural societies, however, there is no one set of values which can guide deliberation and resolve differences. Consequently, there are questions as to the values which could be advocated in citizenship education. The approach in this thesis is to analyse the concept of citizenship, with due consideration given to the values and assumptions of Singapore society, and its social, political and economic circumstances. This analysis is carried out in the light of the research and theorising on citizenship and citizenship education in England and Wales. Controversial issues exist on which there is no agreement on which society is divided. The neutral approach, which is sometimes suggested as being appropriate for handling such issues, is examined. The larger question of state neutrality is also discussed, and a case is made for state perfectionism. In addition, it is argued that there are legitimate variations in moral judgement, and an account is presented of the nature of moral thinking that admits of such variations. It is suggested that a common culture is important in a plural society because this provides the grounds for policy decisions, particularly where state perfectionism is espoused; it also allows for the development of a national identity. Developing this common culture requires public deliberation in exploring the values and issues concerning a society. Finally, the arguments that have been presented are related to citizenship and citizenship education in Singapore, and recommendations made.

This study asks how national power capacity and state structures are reconfigured when faced simultaneously with the power diffusion impact of political globalization---defined as a consensus of ideas and subsequent pressure on states for further democratization and liberalization---and the power maximization demands of internal and external security dilemmas. Hypothesizing a resulting bifurcation of such state structures, this study identifies and explores the transformation dynamics of states being pressured by these two forces through an in-depth analysis of the Turkish case. First, the roots of the two pressures are explored from the late Ottoman and early Republican eras, and a pendulum period is observed, in which the incompatibility of the two drives becomes accepted. As the inevitability of the transformation from more authoritarian to more liberal regimes is realized, a resulting gradual development and institutionalization of a dual state structure into hard and soft agendas and, eventually, realms is shown. Within such a structure, a compromised governance system emerges, in which both a form of democracy and democratization is maintained for legitimacy purposes, and a strong power-holding mechanism, unaccountable to the public, is preserved as an ultimate guard to maintain control over the transformation process. An analysis of changes in the Turkish constitutions is used to reveal traceable reflections of the gradual expansion and consolidation of the hard realm. The actual workings of a dual state structure, revealing the realms' actors, their domestic and external allies, their positions, arguments and rhetoric, is provided by focusing on the clash in the Turkish case over the issue of minority rights in relation with the country's application process for European Union membership. The study identifies the new security dilemma of these countries as being the challenge of securing the inevitable transformation, including the

For all the effort and attention Kenyan women receive from the international rights community and at times, from their own government, human rights frameworks are not significantly improving the lives of Kenyan women. Attempting to address this, a great deal of work has been done on monitoring and evaluating human rights based interventions, including tightening funding structures, making recipient organisations more accountable to donors, and assessing the progress of governments and non-government organisations in promoting human rights based reform. I take a different approach. Rather than assess individual projects or goals of aid, my approach questions the assumptions which underpin these interventions from their conception. Following Sally Engle Merry’s work on the vernacularisation of transnational gender rights projects, and taking Kenya as a case study, I argue that the local histories, understandings and hierarchies of gendered power must be understood in much more nuanced and critical manner that we are doing presently. Further, I contend that internationalist human rights discourses create certain kinds of subjects and requires these subjects to behave in particular ways. The current failure to recognize and make space for individual and cultural complexity means that human rights based interventions are only superficially affecting relationships and power dynamics in women’s lives, making substantive, long term change very difficult. My thesis is an interdisciplinary project, and combines an engagement with scholarly literature on gender, post-colonial feminism, human rights theory and practice, as well as Kenyan history and historiography, with research gathered during 13 months of field work. My field work is based on focus groups and interviews with women in Nairobi and rural areas around Lake Victoria and engages with the lived experience of African women. These discussions illustrate the ways in which the discourses of international human rights in fact reproduce the very patterns, structures, and hierarchies which are at the core of women’s disenfranchisement and marginalization. This project historicises women’s current experiences of human rights through Kenya’s late colonial and post-colonial history, and follows these colonial legacies into the modern period through four thematic cases: women as victims and objects of cultural violence; myths of the sorority of African women; women as victims of political and state violence; and women as actors in national political processes. These four cases carry two overarching concerns, firstly, that we need to challenge ourselves to locate women’s agency within their own politics and goals, rather than through what Saba Mahmood describes as the diagnostic and prescriptive lens of feminist analysis. And secondly, we need to be vigilant that our continued attention to the bodies of women does not re-inscribe the embodied-ness of women, and the disembodied-ness of men. In centring the lived experiences and views of Kenyan women, and historicising the production of gender, I critically evaluate the efficacy of modern human rights discourses and projects in local contexts, contributing to the post-colonial feminist project which explores the complex and intersecting dimensions of gender, race, and culture.

This thesis examines the life of James Wesley Silver, a professor of history at the University of Mississippi for twenty-six years and author of Mississippi: The Closed Society, a scathing attack on the Magnolia State's history of racial oppression. In 1962, Silver witnessed the campus riot resulting from James Meredith's enrollment as the first black student at the state's hallowed public university and claims this was the catalyst for writing his book. However, by examining James Silver's personal and professional activities and comparing them with the political, cultural, and social events taking place concurrently, this paper demonstrates that his entire life, the gamut of his experiences, culminated in the creation of his own rebel yell, Mississippi: The Closed Society. Chapter 1 establishes Silver's environment by exploring the history and sociology of the South during the years of his residency. Chapter 2 discusses Silver's background and early years, culminating with his appointment as a faculty member of the University of Mississippi in 1936. Chapter 3 reveals Silver's personal and professional life during the 1940s, as well as the era's notable historical events. The decade of the 1950s is discussed in chapter 4, particularly the civil rights movement, Silver's response to these changes, and those in his own life. Chapter 5 follows the path of James Meredith's integration of Ole Miss, the publication of Silver's book, and its aftermath. The conclusion is a brief epilogue of Silver's post-Mississippi life.

My dissertation focuses on the rise and spread of Aboriginal mobilization in Canada between 1951 and 2000. Using social movement and social-political theories, it questions the relationship between contentious actions and formal organizational growth comparing among social movement and political sociological perspectives. In most accounts, contentious action is assumed to be influenced by organization, political opportunity and identity. Few scholars, however, have examined the reverse relationships, namely the effect of contentious action on each of these. Drawing upon time-series data and qualitative interviews with Aboriginal leaders and representatives of organizations, I found that critical events surrounding moments of federal state building prompted contentious action, which then sparked mobilization among Aboriginal communities. I argue that three events: the 1969 White paper, the 1982 patriation of the Constitution, and the 1990 'Indian Summer' led to mass mobilization and the semblance of an emerging PanAboriginal identity. This finding returns to older collective behaviour perspectives, which note that organizations, opportunities, and identities are driven by triggering actions and shared experiences that produce emerging norms. Nevertheless, in the case of Canadian Aboriginal mobilization, unlike that of Indigenous movements in other countries, building a movement on triggering actions led to mass mobilization but was not sustainable because of a saturation of efficacy. As a result, Aboriginal mobilization in Canada has been characterized by divergent interests and unsustained contention.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Kurds, numbering somewhat 40 million, are the largest stateless nation worldwide. As smaller minorities, they are mainly spread in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey in the Middle East. The Kurdish claims for self-determination have been a century-long struggle, and at the moment only the Kurds in north-Iraq have achieved the establishment of the semi-autonomous territory of Kurdistan, and the Kurds in Syria have autonomous control over the Kurdish region. Iran and Turkey with their significant Kurdish communities have not been successful in addressing the Kurdish claims of selfdetermination in an efficient and structural manner. This thesis assessed the possibilities of a successful implementation of a federal model in Iran and Turkey in order to address the Kurdish claims for self-determination. The main finding of this thesis is that the current political atmosphere in each country is not ready to make the necessary accommodations, as the transition to a federal system requires, and consequently will not be successful in addressing the Kurdish claims of self-determination. In Iran, it is found that the union between religion and politics, and consequently, the controlled nature of the theocratic system, will not accommodate for a society along federalist principles in which rule is divided amongst groups in society. In Turkey, it is found that while the political rule in Turkey is different from that in Iran, it is however believed that not even a possible transition to a direct Presidential system will change the governments fears of separatism, or the constitutional constraints which further hinders a federal transition. As seen from the assessment of the case studies, a federal implementation is not foreseen in Iran and Turkey within the nearest future, and will subsequently fail in addressing the Kurdish claims of self-determination. A transition of this manner requires dedication and willingness, and this research presents recommendations for the road towards a federalist political arrangement and greater Kurdish self-determination in order to reach a peaceful solution to the century-long Kurdish issue.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Koerde wat 40 miljoen lede het is die grootste staatlose nasie in die wêreld. Hulle word hoofsaaklik in Iran, Irak, Sirië en Turkye in die Midde-Ooste aangetref. Die Koerde se aanspraak vir selfbeskikking is ‘n eeue-lange stryd: op die oomblik het slegs die Koerde in Noord-Irak die vestiging van die semi-outonome gebied van Kurdistan terwyl die Koerde in Sirië outonome beheer het oor die Koerdiese gebied. Beide Iran en Turkye het aansienlike Koerdiese gemeenskappe, maar was onsuksesvol om die Koerdiese se aanspraak op selfbeskikking aan te spreek. Hierdie tesis assesseer die moontlikheid vir die suksesvolle implimentering van ‘n federale model in Iran en Irak om die Koerdiese aanspraak vir selfbeskikking aan te spreek. Die hoof bevinding van hierdie tesis is dat die huidige politieke klimaat in elkeen van hierdie lande ongunstig is: hierdie lande is nie gereed om die oorgang tot ‘n federale sisteem te maak nie, en sal gevolglik onsuksesvol wees in die aanspreek van Koerdiese aanspraak op selfbeskikking. In Iran is daar geen onderskeid tussen godsdiens en politiek nie: die streng beheerde teokratiese sisteem sal nie die ontwikkeling van ‘n samelewing langs federale beginsels toelaat waar mag tussen verskillende groepe in die samelewing verdeel is nie. In Turkye waar die politieke sisteem verskil van dié van Iran, sal ‘n moontlike oorgang na ‘n Presidensiële sisteem nie die vrese van separatisme verander of die grondwetlike beperkings verander wat ‘n federale oorgang verhinder nie. Soos uit die gevallestudies blyk kan ‘n federale sisteem nie in die nabye toekoms in Turkye en Iran voorsien word nie en sal hierdie lande gevolglik misluk in die aanspreek van die Koerdiese aanspraak op selfbeskikking. ‘n Politieke oorgang van hierdie soort benodig toewyding en bereidwilligheid, en hierdie navorsing stel aanbevelings voor vir die pad na ‘n federale politiese ooreenkoms en groter Koerdiese selfbeskikking. Dit is nodig indien ‘n vreedsame oplossing vir die eeuelange Koerdiese kwessie gevind moet word.

AbstractIn this chapter, I discuss the Hungarian government’s call for “flexible solidarity.” I juxtapose flexible solidarity with grassroots efforts undertaken by different actors to welcome asylum seekers and facilitate their onward journey to European countries, where opportunities for more permanent settlement existed. I show how the flexible and effective solidarity promoted by the Hungarian government created deserving and undeserving refugees. I also present the position of religious leaders toward refugees to show how some attempted to welcome the Stranger, while others sided with the Orbán administration to advocate for solidarity abroad. I also demonstrate how different solidarians representing civil society organizations and informal community networks contested the government’s anti-refugee policies. While the civil society actors provided invaluable assistance to asylum seekers, they were not able to affect major policy changes.

AbstractMozambique's 1997 Land Law was praised by international donors and the country’s own civil society for its democratic and open drafting process. The process included public hearings throughout the country and the recognition of customary law. However, once it became operational, there were many instances of so-called land grabbing. This chapter argues that the reason for this lies in the political operation of the law rather than in the technicalities of its application. This chapter aims to explore the political dynamics in Mozambique that distort the implementation of the Land Law of 1997. The land law in Mozambique was developed with the technical support of international donors, and the government of Mozambique followed these external trends in the expectation of receiving financial support and private investment while it also reflected the axis of conflictin Mozambique's domestic politics. The case studies show that the operation of land law has resulted in the emergence of party-political oppositional axes in rural areas. These facts suggest that the specific political environment strongly influences the process of law-making and implementation. Mozambique's political environment is an obstacle to achieving the law's original objectives of establishing rights to land resources and social stability.

This paper explores subaltern cultural counterpublics in Serbia in the last three decades, through different forms of performative and participatory music activism: from radio activism, public noise, and performances in public spaces during the 1990s, to self-organized choirs in the 2000s and 2010s. By referring to the concept of citizenship, it emphasizes the importance of the relationship between politicality and performance in the public sphere. Analyzed case studies have shown how subaltern counterpublics brought together aesthetical, ethical, and intellectual positions, challenging principles imposed by the state and the church. Through music activism, cultural counterpublics addressed different social anomies: nationalism, xenophobia, social exclusion, hatred, civil rights, and social justice, becoming a focal point of civil resistance, a discursive arena that provokes and subverts mainstream politics. An interdisciplinary research framework has been achieved through linking music and cultural studies with political sciences and performance studies, then applied to the data gathered from the empirical ethnographic research covering several case studies.

Abstract At the close of the Civil War, Pennsylvania’s blacks, while free, were not yet clearly citizens, had no right to vote, held no political offices, and just one single government job, as a menial messenger for the city’s health department. Citizenship was granted officially by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, but its meaning, in a still racist and segregated society, would not be clear for generations. The Fifteenth Amendment, passed two years later, was in contrast short and simple. Its first section read: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Abstract Are citizenship and human rights effective tools to overcoming barriers and obstacles to societal membership for people with disabilities? This chapter investigates persistent barriers to social and political participation experienced by people with disabilities in spite of citizenship and human rights they possess. Through an appraisal of historical literature on citizenship and its conceptualization as a bundle of civil, political, and social rights that are interrelated and interdependent, this chapter examines citizenship as a foundation to the UN’s notion of human rights and its contemporary application to disability-rights issues. It examines whether and how rights have become important tools to producing social change for people with disabilities, as well as the problem of decoupling of disability rights, when a national government ratifies a human-rights treaty but fails to implement it at home. This chapter asks whether rights and their use by disability-rights movements foster citizenship and societal membership. It concludes with a discussion of new approaches to overcoming barriers that people with disabilities experience in participating in society.

Abstract Integration of women’s experience into U.S. history courses provides opportunities for students to explore how American ideals—equality, justice, and democratic rule—have translated into policies and practices that have shaped the lives of individual women, as well as groups defined by race, ethnicity, and class. Students gain a deeper understanding of the role of the Constitution in American life; they realize that individuals— both those serving in government and those challenging government policies—make a difference; they learn the importance of civil, political, and social rights and the power that comes from asserting those rights. In addition, they discover the importance of perspective in the study of history and how our understanding of the past is influenced by the issues we raise, the sources we use, and the questions we ask.

Abstract During the era of popular President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), Indigenous CSOs in Ecuador were forced to adjust to a new political context and citizenship regime that simultaneously extended social citizenship and provided new opportunities for participation while imposing limitations on civil rights and restricting space for CSOs. They turned their attention to “civic” practices permitted by the state. When the gains they had achieved over the years were threatened, and the political opportunity structure shifted again, they were able to build on their experience to assume a leadership role within Ecuadorian civil society. The relatively solidarity and cohesive structure of Indigenous civil society, supported by the skillful use of ICTs, demonstrated that Indigenous CSOs remain a strong political force in Ecuador. They adapted their approach to political participation, resource mobilization, and communication, and they have continued to develop an expanding repertoire of tactics through multi-scalar positioning. The chapter also looks at how community work in the territories is used to gain support. Finally, it demonstrates that there is considerable variation with respect to use of digital technologies, but that they played a central role in the 2019 protests that threatened the survival of the government.

This article examines philosophical assumptions of whether and how happiness could become a goal of political action and standard for assessing government’s performance. It is argued that solidarity and care for the common good require the political economy of citizenship balanced with affirmation of the dignity of the human person in the form of basic human rights. The rule of law and fair procedures should be complemented with the concern for character development into citizenship and mature civic commitment. This unfolds both in faith-based and secular attempts to imagine and measure human development in terms beyond GDP index and economic statistics. To succeed these attempts must be based on an adequate anthropology, draw their strength from a sound moral source and inspire mature ethical agency. Catholic social thought conceives of integral human development as a way of envisaging social arrangements that foster flourishing of the whole person and each person. It is based on the vision of the human being as an image of God and draws its energy from the idea of “good society” in which respect for the dignity of the human person and care for the common good of all people are central to political and social life. KEY WORDS: Integral human development, common good, dignity, good society, human rights, social progress

In Brazil and around the world, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) provide valuable public services for society. Through CSOs, people have organized and defended their rights, communities and interests, and can fully exercise their collective potential, often acting in partnership with governments to carry out public policies and/or develop their own projects, financed by the private financing or being self-sucient. Public transparency and availability of quality data are requirements for analyzing the strength and capacity of these organizations. Understanding the distribution of non-governmental organizations across the world and at the national scale, their areas of updating, projects in progress, and their execution capacity, is critical to promote the financing conditions of CSOs, to make it visible and to make it more e↵ective, transparent, and strong. With these goals in mind, we developed the Civil Society Organizations Platform1, an open, free and public on-line portal that provides a wide variety of information on the profile and performance of the population of CSOs in Brazil. Its core mission is to provide data, knowledge, and information on the role played by the almost 400,000 CSOs in activity in Brazil and their cooperation with the public administration in delivering public policies and services. We show how we developed this platform, the integration with several di↵erent databases, the challenges of working with open government data and how we integrated a lot of recent open source technologies in all spheres of system development. The first empirical results are shown and some new features regarding public data are presented.

This paper asks: when and under what conditions does religion become a source of coopera- tion rather than conflict? The Gülen movement is an Islamic social movement that bases its philosophy on increasing religious consciousness at the individual level and making Islam an important social force in the public sphere. It is this intellectual and social activism that has made the movement a global phenomenon and the focus of socio-political analysis. The Gülen community brings different sectors of society together to facilitate ‘collective intellectual effort’ and offer ‘civil responses’ to social issues, seeing this as a more subtle and legitimate way of influencing public debate and policy. To this end, the movement initiated a series of symposiums, known as Abant Workshops in Turkey. The scope of these meetings was later expanded to include a wider audience in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East. This paper looks specifically at the Abant Workshops and the movement’s strategy of bridge building and problem-solving. It uses the press releases, transcripts and audio-visual records of the past 14 meetings to discuss their objectives and outcomes. This material is supplement- ed by interviews with key organisers from the Journalists and Writer Foundation and other participants. The discussion aims to understand how far religiously inspired social groups can contribute to the empowerment of civil society vis-à-vis the state and its officially secular ideology. Beyond that, it aims to explain the role of civil society organisations in democratic governance, and the possibility of creating social capital in societies lacking a clear ‘overlap- ping consensus’ on issues of citizenship, morality and national identity. The hesitancy at the beginning turns into friendship, the distance into understanding, stiff looks and tensions into humorous jokes, and differences into richness. Abant is boldly moving towards an institutionalization. The objective is evident: Talking about some of the problems the country is facing, debating them and offering solutions; on a civil ground, within the framework of knowledge and deliberation. Some labelled the ideas in the concluding declarations as “revolutionary,” “renaissance,” and “first indications of a religious reform.” Some others (in minority) saw them “dangerous” and “non-sense.” In fact, the result is neither a “revolution” nor “non-sense” It is an indication of a quest for opening new horizons or creating a novel vision. When and under what conditions does religion become a source of cooperation rather than conflict in the civil society? The Gülen movement is an Islamic social movement that bases its philosophy on increasing religious consciousness at the individual level and making Islam an important social force in the public sphere. It is this intellectual and social activism that raises the Gülen movement of Turkey as a global phenomenon to the focus of socio-political analysis. The Gülen community brings different sectors of the society together to create and facilitate a ‘common intellect’ to brainstorm and offer ‘civil responses’ to social issues. The move- ment sees this as a more subtle, but more effective, and legitimate way of influencing public debate and policy. Hence, the movement initiated a series of symposiums, known as Abant Workshops in Turkey. The scope of the meetings was later expanded to include a wider audi- ence in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East. In early 1990s the Gülen Movement launched a silent but persistent public relations cam- paign. Fethullah Gülen openly met with the prominent figures of government and politics, and gave interviews to some popular newspapers and magazines. With a thriving media net- work, private schools, and business associations the movement seemed to have entered a new stage in its relations with the outside world. This new stage was not a simple outreach effort; it was rather a confident step to carve a niche in the increasingly diversified Turkish public sphere. The instigation of a series of workshops known as Abant Platforms was one of the biggest steps in this process. The workshops brought academics, politicians, and intellectu- als together to discuss some of the thorniest issues of, first, Turkey, such as secularism and pluralism, and then the Muslim World, such as war, globalization and modernization. This paper seeks to explain the motives behind this kind of an ambitious project and its possible implications for the movement itself, for Turkey and for the Muslim World in transition.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

This Handbook has been created for development partners and civil society actors that design and implement youth employment interventions, particularly in contexts marked by fragility and political-economic crises. Youth employment programmes usually strengthen young people’s business and entrepreneurship skills. They fail to consider the civic and political competencies needed by young people in order to negotiate fair, safe, and decent working conditions and influence the wider policy environment for decent work. The Handbook offers suggestions for integrating youth active citizenship strategies into youth employment interventions, thus building young people’s civic and political skills. Adopting these strategies will strengthen the capacities of young people to engage both private sector and government actors, foster inclusion, and strengthen coalitions that can influence a enabling environment for decent jobs for youth. Recognising that many young people start their trade and businesses in theinformal economy, the Handbook takes their experiences as the point of departure. It is widely recognised that political economy matters for development and development interventions. This also applies to youth employment programming. Ideas in this Handbook recognise that politics influence youth employment opportunities. This is particularly the case in contexts commonly referred to as fragile, conflict-affected and violent settings (FCVS). Approaches to youth employment interventions need to respond to these dynamics to avoid that powerful actors capture them to serve their interests and avoid increasing risks to conflict. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has proved that fragility is multidimensional and manifests in many countries across the globe. Early on in the pandemic, it quickly became clear that the informal economy would be hard hit. In addition, the challenging politics of FCVS influence opportunities for both formal and informal employment.

Turkey, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia span one of the longest continuously inhabited regions of the world. Centuries of cultural infusion have ensured these societies are highly heterogeneous. As plural polities, they are ripe for the kind of freedoms that liberal democracy can guarantee. However, despite having multi-party electoral systems, these countries have recently moved toward populist authoritarianism. Populism —once considered a distinctively Latin American problem that only seldom reared its head in other parts of the world— has now found a home in almost every corner of the planet. Moreover, it has latched on to religion, which, as history reminds us, has an unparalleled power to mobilize crowds. This report explores the unique nexus between faith and populism in our era and offers an insight into how cyberspace and offline politics have become highly intertwined to create a hyper-reality in which socio-political events are taking place. The report focuses, in particular, on the role of religious populism in digital space as a catalyst for undemocratic politics in the five Asian countries we have selected as our case studies. The focus on the West Asian and South Asian cases is an opportunity to examine authoritarian religious populists in power, whereas the East Asian countries showcase powerful authoritarian religious populist forces outside parliament. This report compares internet governance in each of these countries under three categories: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. These are the digital toolkits that authorities use to govern digital space. Our case selection and research focus have allowed us to undertake a comparative analysis of different types of online restrictions in these countries that constrain space foropposition and democratic voices while simultaneously making room for authoritarian religious populist narratives to arise and flourish. The report finds that surveillance, censorship, disinformation campaigns, internet shutdowns, and cyber-attacks—along with targeted arrests and violence spreading from digital space—are common features of digital authoritarianism. In each case, it is also found that religious populist forces co-opt political actors in their control of cyberspace. The situational analysis from five countries indicates that religion’s role in digital authoritarianism is quite evident, adding to the layer of nationalism. Most of the leaders in power use religious justifications for curbs on the internet. Religious leaders support these laws as a means to restrict “moral ills” such as blasphemy, pornography, and the like. This evident “religious populism” seems to be a major driver of policy changes that are limiting civil liberties in the name of “the people.” In the end, the reasons for restricting digital space are not purely religious but draw on religious themes with populist language in a mixed and hybrid fashion. Some common themes found in all the case studies shed light on the role of digital space in shaping politics and society offline and vice versa. The key findings of our survey are as follows: The future of (especially) fragile democracies is highly intertwined with digital space. There is an undeniable nexus between faith and populism which offers an insight into how cyberspace and politics offline have become highly intertwined. Religion and politics have merged in these five countries to shape cyber governance. The cyber governance policies of populist rulers mirror their undemocratic, repressive, populist, and authoritarian policies offline. As a result, populist authoritarianism in the non-digital world has increasingly come to colonize cyberspace, and events online are more and more playing a role in shaping politics offline. “Morality” is a common theme used to justify the need for increasingly draconian digital laws and the active monopolization of cyberspace by government actors. Islamist and Hindutva trolls feel an unprecedented sense of cyber empowerment, hurling abuse without physically seeing the consequences or experiencing the emotional and psychological damage inflicted on their victims.

Turkey, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia span one of the longest continuously inhabited regions of the world. Centuries of cultural infusion have ensured these societies are highly heterogeneous. As plural polities, they are ripe for the kind of freedoms that liberal democracy can guarantee. However, despite having multi-party electoral systems, these countries have recently moved toward populist authoritarianism. Populism —once considered a distinctively Latin American problem that only seldom reared its head in other parts of the world— has now found a home in almost every corner of the planet. Moreover, it has latched on to religion, which, as history reminds us, has an unparalleled power to mobilize crowds. This report explores the unique nexus between faith and populism in our era and offers an insight into how cyberspace and offline politics have become highly intertwined to create a hyper-reality in which socio-political events are taking place. The report focuses, in particular, on the role of religious populism in digital space as a catalyst for undemocratic politics in the five Asian countries we have selected as our case studies. The focus on the West Asian and South Asian cases is an opportunity to examine authoritarian religious populists in power, whereas the East Asian countries showcase powerful authoritarian religious populist forces outside parliament. This report compares internet governance in each of these countries under three categories: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. These are the digital toolkits that authorities use to govern digital space. Our case selection and research focus have allowed us to undertake a comparative analysis of different types of online restrictions in these countries that constrain space foropposition and democratic voices while simultaneously making room for authoritarian religious populist narratives to arise and flourish. The report finds that surveillance, censorship, disinformation campaigns, internet shutdowns, and cyber-attacks—along with targeted arrests and violence spreading from digital space—are common features of digital authoritarianism. In each case, it is also found that religious populist forces co-opt political actors in their control of cyberspace. The situational analysis from five countries indicates that religion’s role in digital authoritarianism is quite evident, adding to the layer of nationalism. Most of the leaders in power use religious justifications for curbs on the internet. Religious leaders support these laws as a means to restrict “moral ills” such as blasphemy, pornography, and the like. This evident “religious populism” seems to be a major driver of policy changes that are limiting civil liberties in the name of “the people.” In the end, the reasons for restricting digital space are not purely religious but draw on religious themes with populist language in a mixed and hybrid fashion. Some common themes found in all the case studies shed light on the role of digital space in shaping politics and society offline and vice versa. The key findings of our survey are as follows: The future of (especially) fragile democracies is highly intertwined with digital space. There is an undeniable nexus between faith and populism which offers an insight into how cyberspace and politics offline have become highly intertwined. Religion and politics have merged in these five countries to shape cyber governance. The cyber governance policies of populist rulers mirror their undemocratic, repressive, populist, and authoritarian policies offline. As a result, populist authoritarianism in the non-digital world has increasingly come to colonize cyberspace, and events online are more and more playing a role in shaping politics offline. “Morality” is a common theme used to justify the need for increasingly draconian digital laws and the active monopolization of cyberspace by government actors. Islamist and Hindutva trolls feel an unprecedented sense of cyber empowerment, hurling abuse without physically seeing the consequences or experiencing the emotional and psychological damage inflicted on their victims.

At their most basic level taxes carry, in the words of Schumpeter ([1918] 1991), “the thunder of history” (p. 101). They say something about the ever-changing structures of social, economic, and political life. Taxes offer a blueprint, in both symbolic and concrete terms, for uncovering the most fundamental arrangements in society – stratification included. The historical retellings captured within these data highlight the politics of taxation in Alabama from 1856 to 1901, including conflicts over whom money is expended upon as well as struggles over who carries their fair share of the tax burden. The selected timeline overlaps with the formation of five of six constitutions adopted in the State of Alabama, including 1861, 1865, 1868, 1875, and 1901. Having these years as the focal point makes for an especially meaningful case study, given how much these constitutional formations made the state a site for much political debate. These data contain 5,121 pages of periodicals from newspapers throughout the state, including: Alabama Sentinel, Alabama State Intelligencer, Alabama State Journal, Athens Herald, Daily Alabama Journal, Daily Confederation, Elyton Herald, Mobile Daily Tribune, Mobile Tribune, Mobile Weekly Tribune, Morning Herald, Nationalist, New Era, Observer, Tuscaloosa Observer, Tuskegee News, Universalist Herald, and Wilcox News and Pacificator. The contemporary relevance of these historical debates manifests in Alabama’s current constitution which was adopted in 1901. This constitution departs from well-established conventions of treating the document as a legal framework that specifies a general role of governance but is firm enough to protect the civil rights and liberties of the population. Instead, it stands more as a legislative document, or procedural straightjacket, that preempts through statutory material what regulatory action is possible by the state. These barriers included a refusal to establish a state board of education and enact a tax structure for local education in addition to debt and tax limitations that constrained government capacity more broadly. Prohibitive features like these are among the reasons that, by 2020, the 1901 Constitution has been amended nearly 1,000 times since its adoption. However, similar procedural barriers have been duplicated across the U.S. since (e.g., California’s Proposition 13 of 1978). Reference: Schumpeter, Joseph. [1918] 1991. “The Crisis of the Tax State.” Pp. 99-140 in The Economics and Sociology of Capitalism, edited by Richard Swedberg. Princeton University Press.