Extensive empirical evidence and theoretical developments in multiple disciplines stimulate a need to expand the range of rational choice models to be used as a foundation for the study of social dilemmas and collective action. After an introduction to the problem of overcoming social dilemmas through collective action, the remainder of this article is divided into six sections. The first briefly reviews the theoretical predictions of currently accepted rational choice theory related to social dilemmas. The second section summarizes the challenges to the sole reliance on a complete model of rationality presented by extensive experimental research. In the third section, I discuss two major empirical findings that begin to show how individuals achieve results that are “better than rational” by building conditions where reciprocity, reputation, and trust can help to overcome the strong temptations of short-run self-interest. The fourth section raises the possibility of developing second-generation models of rationality, the fifth section develops an initial theoretical scenario, and the final section concludes by examining the implications of placing reciprocity, reputation, and trust at the core of an empirically tested, behavioral theory of collective action.
IN SPITE of the tremendous importance of government decisions in every phase of economic life, economic theorists have never successfully integrated government with private decision-makers in a single general equilibrium theory. Instead they have treated government action as an exogenous variable, determined by political considerations that lie outside the purview of economics. This view is really a carry-over from the classical premise that the private sector is a self-regulating mechanism and that any government action beyond maintenance of law and order is "interference" with it rather than an intrinsic part of it.2 However, in at least two fields of economic theory, the centrality of government action has forced economists to formulate rules that indicate how government "should" make decisions. Thus in the field of public finance, Hugh Dalton states:
ABSTRACT This article aims to provide some broad strokes towards an analytical and methodological framework for the analysis of sustainable development. This is done by calling sustainable development's scholars to return to the multilayered legacy of the classical political economy and conceive sustainable development in both historical and transhistorical terms. It is argued that a return to the tradition of the classical political economy, through the lens of Smith’s, Mill’s and Marx’s stage theories of development, provides a powerful theoretical framework able to contextualise, develop and integrate the multiple, diverse, and middle-range contemporary strands in development studies. The classical political economy provides an analytical backbone of certain elements, including the important role of history, the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach, and the analytical priority of social classes that could be critical in enriching sustainable development studies. Students and scholars of international development would benefit from this worthwhile exercise that distinguishes in a succinctly and methodically manner between the current state of development studies and classical political economy perspectives on economic development.
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to making national borders more visible and less permeable, reasserting the centrality of citizenship “as the ultimate marker of belonging and solidarity”, and reaffirming the distinction between citizens and non-citizens. In this context, citizenship and national belonging functioned as rigid categories for determining entitlement to protection and assistance. Many states failed to guarantee social rights to all residents, leading to forms of exclusion, particularly for non-citizens. Simultaneously, the crisis sparked the emergence of new forms of civic engagement and solidarity “from below,” enacted by civil society to fill the void left “from above.” Volunteerism flourished supporting those facing food insecurity, evictions, and economic hardship. In some cases, immigrants themselves became central protagonists of these initiatives. This paper contributes to debates on inclusive citizenship and solidarity by jointly analyzing the concepts of citizenship from below and solidarity from below, applying them to a case study of grassroots practices promoted by migrants and citizens in the city of Naples (Italy) during the pandemic. Drawing on long term ethnographic research, it examines how, through the creation of transversal alliances and mutual aid networks, these actors responded to systemic exclusion and economic marginality. Special attention is given to two intertwined pathways: migrant-led initiatives such as the S.E.E.D.S. project, and actions embedded in the urban commons (beni comuni), self-managed civic spaces that became material and symbolic infrastructures of proximity and care. Both trajectories fostered inclusive solidarity capable of contesting institutional boundaries and reimagining belonging. The paper shows how these practices reframed citizenship, challenging, and renewing how participants defined and enacted their civic roles through social relations. The analysis extends the theory of acts of citizenship by demonstrating how social and political participation during crisis—particularly by migrant actors—produced new grammars of recognition and belonging. These findings encourage a rethinking of solidarity, alliances, membership, borders, and citizenship in more inclusive and dynamic terms.
Hasrat Efendi Samosir, Md Noor Bin Hussin, Sudianto
et al.
This study explores the Constitution of Medina as an early model of prophetic political communication grounded in consensus, offering a relevant framework for managing diversity and fostering social cohesion in pluralistic societies. Utilizing a qualitative library research method, the study draws upon the primary source—the text of the Constitution of Medina—and integrates secondary literature from the field of political communication. The data were analyzed through content analysis to identify underlying communicative principles and political strategies within the Charter. The findings reveal that the Constitution operationalizes participatory dialogue and peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms, aligning closely with contemporary consensus-based political communication theories. These principles served not only to manage inter-group tensions but also to build a cooperative and just social order. The study concludes that the Constitution of Medina is not merely a historical document but a normative model that offers practical insights into inclusive governance, interfaith cooperation, and the ethical foundations of political discourse. Its relevance is especially significant today, where polarized societies seek coexistence and constructive engagement frameworks. Thus, the Medina Charter is relevant as a prophetic guide for inclusive political communication in multicultural and multireligious contexts. This study contributes to Islamic political thought and communication by providing a normative and historically grounded model for inclusive governance. It bridges classical Islamic sources with contemporary political communication theory, offering a framework applicable to modern pluralistic societies seeking ethical and participatory governance models.
This study explores how socio-economic factors affect the effectiveness of public accountability frameworks in EU member states, with Romania as a case study. Using data from the World Bank, Eurobarometer, and cross-country comparisons, it identifies five key determinants: income inequality, education, healthcare access, political participation, and economic stability. Grounded in institutional theory, the research shows that inclusive institutions and lower disparities lead to stronger accountability, while weaker frameworks often reinforce inequality and corruption. For Romania, the study recommends boosting transparency, enforcing anti-corruption measures, improving rural-urban equity, and enhancing civic education to strengthen the link between citizens and institutions.
Marketing. Distribution of products, Office management
How should we deal with racist political theorists like Locke, Kant, and Jefferson? Does their racism affect their political theory? When they say “all men,” do they only mean all White men? Or is their racism a vile but personal prejudice that does not actually affect their political theory, such that “all men” really means “all men”? The best-known methodological tool for making such decisions, Quentin Skinner’s “mythology of coherence,” warns us not to overstate the coherence of texts. But this risks us treating racism merely as a personal prejudice rather than as something that can also cohere with an author’s political theory. Robert Bernasconi and Charles Mills, among others, warn us against such errors. My paper thus combines and adapts the insights of Skinner, Bernasconi, and Mills, to offer methodological guidelines for addressing potentially racist political theory—including two new “mythologies” to add to Skinner’s.
The paper explores Michael Novak’s understanding of the human person and his normative case for the market economy, specifically its points of agreement and tension with natural rights libertarianism. For Michael Novak, the imago dei provides the strongest account for the relationship between the market economy, human dignity, and natural rights. Rationalistic attempts, such as those within libertarianism, cannot adequately ground human dignity or sustain free institutions capable of serving the common good, the market economy, and political liberty. However, Novak’s affinity to his libertarian interlocutors presents an opportunity for dialogue on the necessity of economic freedom and related theological influences on natural rights theory for securing human flourishing.
Conspiracy theories present a relevant phenomenon in society and are studied within different disciplines. One of the aspects of analyzing conspiracy theories is understanding the pattern whereby social movements utilize the media to construct and spread those narratives. In that regard, social movements frame certain events as part of a conspiracy. By applying an international comparative approach, this study examines the media framing of events as a conspiracy theory in the USA and Egypt. The study focuses on political conspiracies targeting the local elite or political establishment as serving foreign enemies. Qualitative framing analysis is applied to analyze news segments (n = 140), 80 articles, and 60 videos from the Egyptian Islamist media and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) conservative media in the USA. The results show a huge similarity in the frames utilized by the media in both countries in constructing conspiracy theories. The Egyptian and American media constructed conspiracy narratives about claimed secret collusion between the elite leaders and foreign enemies. Whereas the Egyptian media morally framed the conspiracy as treason, the American media framed it as part of corruption. Moreover, the historical continuity in the Egyptian conspiracy theories was more obvious than in the theories in the USA. The empirical analysis shows that conspiracy theories are strategically used in the media to achieve certain political goals.
The study of Machiavelli was recurrent in Louis Althusser. Machiavelli allowed him to rethink political action without supposing the a priori existence of a subject in whom Political Theory should axiomatically recognize the ability to carry out this action. This article aims to analyze the lecture Althusser gave in 1977 at the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris. Then, Althusser not only suggested this reading of Machiavelli, but also offered a non-cumulative conception of history, which enables a differentiated appropriation of Antiquity.
Victoriia Rohalska, Oksana Bronevytska, Gediminas Buciunas
The importance of legal regulation of extradition in the system of legal aid in criminal proceedings is determined both by the national interests of states and the interests of international cooperation in combating transnational and international crimes. The objective of this paper was to get the answer to the main question of this research - Did the provisions of the law on extradition in Ukraine meet international standards? A set of general and special scientific, and philosophical methods of scientific research were used while preparing this article, to clarify the approaches to the extradition procedure of different countries and in practice. The results of the research suggested that the current criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine in the sphere of extradition generally meets European standards. Although, there are some gaps in the national legal regulation of extradition that may adversely affect the observance of the rights and freedoms of persons to whom it is applied.
As one of the most visible aspects of political life in recent years, the populist rises imply the ‘crisis of representation’ that means the existing institutional mechanism of representative democracy is ineffective in representing the variety of social demands. While this situation, according to the liberal democratic approach, warns of the revival of mass society and new versions of authoritarianism, the radical democratic approach considers it a possibility to retrieve democracy. Which variables determine the contending evaluations of the impact of populism on democracy? The present paper presupposes that the contending evaluations are driven by different conceptions of the principal constituent of democracy (rule of law or general will?) and the populism entity (a manner of governance or a movement constructing collective will?). Given the postulates of the contending democratic theories (liberal and radical), the paper hypothesizes that evaluating the effects of populism on democracy depends on the way of interaction of some variables: a) the content of the populist discourse (egalitarian articulation of plural demands or discriminatory one?); b) the context in which the populist movement arises (democratic structure of opportunity or authoritarian one?) c) the mutual strategy of political actors whether from opposition or in position ones (the connection between street politics and institutional one or disconnection?). Taking advantage of the contending democratic theories (liberal and radical) in a combinative theoretical framework, the paper attempts to justify the hypothesis by highlighting the fact that both democratic theories are built on one aspect of the conception of democratic order. Marking the elements such as individual subjectivity, rationality, the rule of law, pluralism, etc. as characteristics of democratic order, a liberal democratic approach considers populist popular and exclusionary (i.e., determined by populists’ particular definition of the people) orientation as a threat to democracy. It is because such orientation restricts public debates and leads to weakening democratic institutions, the opposition’s rights, and the plurality of society. On the contrary, the radical democratic approach points to the significance of the populist mobilization for the democratization of status quo democracies owing to re-politicization of the issues neglected by the sovereign elite, provided that to articulate accumulated demands around a democratic egalitarian nodal point. Such evaluation emanates from the fact that this approach identifies democracy with collective subjectivity, general will, participation, and so on. It seems that a non-paradoxical and justifiable reference to both the above-mentioned approach in an analysis of the effect of populism on democracy entails taking their different concentrations into account. It means ‘populism-in-power’ (as a way of governance) puts the structural foundations of democracy in danger and facilitates the emergence of authoritarianism due to its anti-institutionalism, anti-pluralism, and tendency to mass politics. It is whilst, in the status of ‘opposition’ (a mobilizing movement), populism might be an opportunity to revive democratic politics. This argument resorts to the action of constructing a new collective will, in populist strategies of mobilizations, which reveals shortages of representative systems such as the monopoly of a minority, technocratic elitism, and so on. Nevertheless, the actualization of the progressive effects of the populist movements on democracy depends heavily on the interaction of variables which are as follows. a) If the populist discourse articulates accumulated social demands around a democratic egalitarian will, then the populist moment (as the moment of crisis in a representative democracy) can be of progressive connotations for democracy-deepening. Conversely, discriminatory articulation (like racist or class populism) paves the way for authoritarianism. Hence in terms of democratization and de-democratization, various populisms can be imagined; ranging from democratic populism to authoritarian, leftist to far-right. b) Realization of the above-mentioned progressive version of populism depends on the ‘democratic structure of political opportunity’. The possibility of mobilization by democratic egalitarian populism is only imaginable where the rules of the democratic competition are guaranteed. In other words, if there is no equal and fair opportunity to declare the policies in electoral campaigns and implement them after taking into power, then there can be just governmental types of populism that mobilize the mass for advocating governmental policies and decisions. Here, populism appears in its authoritarian face in a mass society. c) The third variable is the strategy that political actors of both realms, movement, and institution, in a political structure adapt. If the populist movement ties its street activism with institutional bargaining (e.g. by resorting to parliamentary parties) and, mutually, the government opens up the policy-making input to populist demands (rather than rejecting them), then the rise of a democratic egalitarian populist movement might result in democracy- deepening. Otherwise, populism can bring about some contending de-democratizing mass mobilizations, whether in the shape of authoritarian up-to-down governmental populism or fruitless gross-root radical populism. In brief, the paper maintains that by vindicating ‘popular sovereignty’, populism has double-edged effects in terms of weakening or strengthening democracy; ranging from an infertile radicalism leading to authoritarianism to radical reformism containing the possibility of retrieval of democracy. Hence democratic theory needs to develop an order that balances the rule of law and public will as two sides of democracy. It calls for a new social contract based on a balanced relationship between specialism and democratic responsibility. To reach such a situation, more inclusive politics should be targeted by current-day democracies. The key, however, is hearing the demands of populist advocators rather than populist leaders’ programs.
Political institutions and public administration (General), Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only)
Using a qualitative research approach, this study provides an inquiry into the nature of democracy and digital political activism discourses on @Hopewell Chin’ono and @Jacob Ngarivhume prior to the 31st July demonstrations. Alternative communications spaces have revolutionised political communication in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, political polarisation has created a monolithic voice in the mainstream media. In the “Second Republic”, digital activism is a growing phenomenon where subalterns question the state. This study is guided by Manuel Castells’ Power and Counter Power Theory. Data gathered using netnography was analysed using critical discourse analysis. Findings show that digital activism has turned into social media “dissidence”, calling for the resignation of the government officials including the Executive through 31st demonstrations. There is an intimate relationship between digital democracy and digital activism, enabling political advocacy and lobbying. Twitter is used to safeguard the lives of activists. Religious discourses were used by both Jacob Ngarivhume and Hopewell Chin’ono as they drummed up support for the July 31st demonstrations.
This study aims to analyze how the effectiveness of the presidential threshold concept is implemented in the presidential and vice presidential elections in Indonesia. The theory used is the theory of democracy associated with political parties and elections. The method used in this study uses a normative approach by analyzing the law on the symptoms that exist in the election process, and using a qualitative approach by collecting existing data in literacy and literature. The results of the discussion show that the process of using the presidential threshold in the election results in pros and cons and conflicts in it because of various understandings and incompatibilities with the social life that exists in Indonesian society, which incidentally each region has its own culture. The character of the presidential threshold seems to be a planting bomb for every political party that carries each candidate because the strategies and steps that are determined can make a wrong position and have a negative impact on the related political parties
Islamic law, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence