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Assange: Secrecy and Sovereignty
Assange / Correa: Can this be a win-win for both of them? Ecuador is tonight alleging that the UK authorities have threatened to arrest Julian Assange inside its embassy in London. Mr Assange,...
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Karl Popper, and Social Probability
I’ve not read much of Popper, a failing I’m looking to rectify soon. However, one snippit has intrigued me – his assertion that if we can predict a solar eclipse, then we should be able to predict...
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Reaction: The Constitution Project @ UCC
I attended the inaugural meeting of The Constitution Project last night, a new academic research unit at UCC, whose meetings are open to the public. Groups and projects on The Irish Constitution and...
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Feeling, Emotion, Attachment, and Twitter
Sebastian Faulks in the Guardian helps pull together a global visualisation (well, Global to the extent that the Globe is represented by Twitter) of sentiment. Call me an old cynic, but I suspect...
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The Competitors for State Legitimacy
In many ways, the question of whether State Legitimacy is being eroded is a question about the future of the Nation State. This is not a new question, and many writers have had various points of view...
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Do Supranational Organisations Compromise State Legitimacy?
While globalization generally has an impact on the role and nature of the State, there are specific components of globalization – including communications technology and the impact on community,...
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Gilley on Political Legitimacy
I stumbled upon a most excellent article called The Meaning and Measurement of State Legitimacy by Dr Bruce Gilley, formerly of Princeton University and now at Portland State. One of the most useful...
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Nebulous Concepts: Revolution becomes Civil War
The Syrian Conflict became a Civil War on September 16th, according to Google. At, emm, about tea-time. State Legitimacy is an amorphous thing. It’s difficult to measure, difficult to assert, and...
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Replacing Religion with…
Replacing Religion with… Tom Chivers in The Observer laments the demise of religion for its impact on social cohesion – and challenges that secularism needs to replace it with something else that...
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Will The Legitimate Syrian Government Please Stand Up?
Bashar Al-Assad: Time’s Up A draft declaration from talks in Marrakech on the situation in Syria from the Friends of Syria has recognised the opposition as ‘the legitimate representative of the Syrian...
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Blurred Lines: Defining Terrorism
Careful now! (image credit News With Attitude) Glenn Greenwald’s most excellent series on Security and Liberty in The Guardian addresses most recently the definition of terrorism, and in particular the...
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The Assault on British Legitimacy
Scotland, Northern Ireland, maybe Wales? What about Pimlico? The United Kingdom is under tremendous strain of late. It may not appear to be at first glance, but considering the following points....
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What Happens When State Legitimacy Dissipates?
Bob Neuwirth’s book on the economies that operate completely independent of the State is an indictment on State effectiveness, and State Legitimacy. In considering the concept of state legitimacy, we...
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The Informal State
I posted just yesterday about the Informal Economy described by Robert Neuwirth as System D, where it is projected that by 2020 two thirds of the world’s workers will operate. That’s an economy almost...
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Global Political Movements
Zizek’s ‘First as Tragedy, Then as Farce’ On the plane to New York I was reading an interesting article in the Economist on The Politics of The Internet, that asked the question whether Internet...
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Zizek’s Technological Post-Humanism and Anonymous
Anonymous: Abstract Technological Representation of the Excluded As mentioned in my last post, Zizek identifies four apocalyptic antagonisms that threaten the liberal democratic status-quo. They are...
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Systemic Issues: Marx, Python, Equality and Capitalist Doom
Karl Marx. The man had his moments. Charles Moore’s article in the Telegraph yesterday caused something of a stir. Equality, he said, was not really a good thing at all. What’s that you say? He must be...
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Sovereignty, Poverty and Interdependence
Seán Lemass, Taoiseach of Ireland 1959-1966. Lemass believed Ireland had given up its sovereignty to the International Community in the years after World War II. Ireland has had a well documented,...
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The Legitimacy of The King
Janina Ramirez: Her series on the Hundred Years War on BBC4 is revealing on the legitimation of the King. Much of the history of the infrastructure of State harkens back to feudal and older systems of...
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Inequality and Democracy
Outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao: “Social strains are clearly increasing.” Outgoing Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao today added his voice (not for the first time) to those warning against rising...
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