Late additions
Asynchronous Session
Equality of Opportunism: Citizenship, Capitalism, and the Secret Success of the Far-Right
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rachel Cremona
The purpose of this research is to suggest that the rise of the far-right in the contemporary politics of established Western democracies (specifically Western Europe and the US) is not at all reminiscent of the occidental ideology of early twentieth century fascism. On the contrary, it will be argued that while the West’s far-right parties build much of their strength on the same prejudices and fears that were exploited by their predecessors, they have adapted themselves ingeniously to the 21st century and the cause of global capitalism. In fact, the new European Right, like the new American Right, utilizes first and foremost the rhetoric of freedom in pursuit of its goals. While long considered the ideological utopia of modern Liberal Democratic states, the promise of ‘freedom’ has historically also proven to be the most useful weapon of corporate, capitalist exploitation. It is ‘freedom’ then that has facilitated the evolution of far-right right parties as key players in the defense and re-entrenchment of a Neo-Liberal World Order under threat.
The Populist Challenge to the Liberal Democratic Legal Systems: The Rule of Law on the Margins
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vasileios Adamidis
The paper discusses the populist attack to liberal democratic legal systems. Focussing on the intersections of political theory and jurisprudence, the paper argues that populism aims to reconstruct the democratic rule of recognition (i.e. the ultimate test of legal validity in any legal system, according to Hart) according to the populist set of ideas. In liberal democratic legal systems, the rule of recognition envisages compliance with (a thick version of) the rule of law as a precondition for legal validity, with a qualified version of popular sovereignty and the protection of fundamental human rights (often placing the sovereign will of the people within limits) being mutually constitutive of the system. Conversely, populism proposes a rule of recognition whose ultimate condition of legal validity would be an absolute version of popular sovereignty. By claiming that the will of the people should be unlimited, populism is at best indifferent for the compliance of this will with integral features of the rule of law, such as certainty and predictability, judicial independence or the protection of the rights of minorities. The rule of recognition - as a social rule - depends its existence on its acceptance by citizens and its application by judges and state officials. The advancement of the populist set of ideas, undermines the social acceptance of the rule and breaches the consensus as to its content. This may put the rule of law under pressure, placing it on the margins of the legal landscape and of the societal system of values.
The Archaeology of Colonialism at Fort Mose: Forging Freedom Through Practice
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lori Lee
Fort Mose was the first legally-sanctioned free black community in North America. The Spanish governor of Florida guaranteed the legal freedom of self-emancipated Africans and African-Americans if they converted to Catholicism, built and occupied a fort on the frontier of St. Augustine, and fought against Spanish enemies. These soldiers created a multicultural community of African, African-American, and indigenous families. This paper analyzes archaeological evidence and historical documents to investigate the daily practices people used to enact their freedoms in a location and time where those freedoms were contested.
How Promise Trackers Tools Influence Citizen's Perceptions: A Conjoint Analysis View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Camille Tremblay Antoine
During an electoral campaign, political parties make various promises that they undertake to fulfill once elected. Over the last decades, there has beena proliferation of more or less sophisticated tools making it possible to follow the pledge made during the campaigns, and, then their completion or not during the governance periods. Until now, there are 39 pledge tracking tools distributed across the globe. But what effect do these tools have on citizens' perceptions of political parties and political institutions? Voting behavior theories offer some insight into citizens, taking into consideration of pledge fulfillment, but little by comparing it with other conventional variables of the funnel of causality and, above all, by isolating this factor. Using an experimental research design with a conjoint analysis, this study aims to measure the importance, for citizens, of the fulfillment of pledges by comparing it with several other factors that come into consideration when citizens evaluate a party. The results show that citizens attach great importance to the results of promise trackers and we call for more caution with regard to the methodologies inherent to these tools.
Anti-globalization Ideas in the Eurasianist and Ultra-patriotic Camp in Russia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Joachim Diec
The USSR, which promoted the ideas of social justice (the de facto impossibility of making money for creative individuals) and the brotherhood of all nations, collapsed at the end of 1991. It happened after the significant efforts of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe to break out of this paradise of equality and fraternity and the finding of the command economy's inherent inefficiency. In spite of the shift towards a free market and demoliberal orientation in domestic and international politics it was in the early 1990s that the resentment toward Fukuyama's predictions began to operate in Russia and some neighboring countries. Several ideologists of obvious post-Soviet links, such as Alexandr Prokhanov or Alexandr Dugin began to contest the new reality putting forward the ideas of a new empire and the necessity to fight the liberal "mondialism", the idea of globalization based on free movement of people, capital and ideas. The most influential trend is by all means Dugin's Neo-Eurasianism, which generated the doctrine of a universal struggle with the West in the name of the balance between the conservative (Eurasian) Continent and the Atlantic forces, victorious in the Cold War and representing progress understood in terms of triumphant democracy and free market. Today's Russian militarism is a desperate attempt to prevent globalization on American terms and replace it by a world dominated by several polars of power conducted by ideologically formatted autocracies.
