Was ist Politik? Was ist Politikwissenschaft?

All things politics but overall political science; an expression of (empirical) love for a discipline I try (no, most likely) live and breathe.

[liberalsarecool]

Jenna had integrity, then she worked for Trump and destroyed her career. She is not seeking truth, she is the exact narcissistic person she detested.

All who touch Trump die. #ETTD

[bodypolitic]

Indeed.

[bodypolitic]

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

The roots of the nation’s current inability to control the pandemic can be traced to mid-April, when the White House embraced overly rosy pr

I believe this quote says it all:

“[T]heir ultimate goal was to shift responsibility for leading the fight against the pandemic from the White House to the states. They referred to this as “state authority handoff,” and it was at the heart of what would become at once a catastrophic policy blunder and an attempt to escape blame for a crisis that had engulfed the country — perhaps one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations.”

[mysharona1987]

Well, one teacher is pissed.

[juicetrump]

Not pissed...

The teacher has provided a very thoughtful analysis of issues that must be addressed BEFORE we can SAFELY reopen PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

...proactive.

[bodypolitic]

Think on this.

[whitepeopletwitter]

[bodypolitic]

Quite unfortunate, yes.

[bodypolitic]

India Has a Policing Problem

People supporting George Floyd should also take a look at problems at home.

From journalist Rashka Kumar in Foreign Policy.  Taking a look at India's glass ceiling.

[bodypolitic]

The United States Is Now Considered a ‘Flawed Democracy’: Report

For the first time ever, the United States has been downgraded to a ‘flawed democracy’ says report.

Tell us something we don't know.  It doesn't take a crisis to know that there are dislocations in the American polity.

[bodypolitic]

Donald Trump has preyed on the American psyche like a demon. At last the exorcism has begun

I've wondered whether America could recover from this president. A movement and a moment have made that possible

Dan Froomkin, taking the pulse of the nation.  It has a fever that its antibodies (the people) are fighting. @salon

[bodypolitic]

He Won A Landmark Supreme Court Case That Changes LGBTQ History, But He Lost Nearly Everything To Make It Happen

"I don't regret one decision," said Gerald Bostock, the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court ruling banning workplace discrimination

A stalwart decision. Discrimination, any kind, has no place in an open, democratic society.

[bodypolitic]

Elections are won on the basis of who offers the most, and the most believable, bribes to the greatest number of the electorate.

A reader commenting on Alistair Campbell's appreciation of Jeremy Corbyn's chances of winning the UK's next general elections. The interview took place last night on BBC's Newsnight. Check it out: http://bbc.in/1WkDb6m

[bodypolitic]

A continuación, una apreciación interesante en torno a la polarización política de los EstadosUnidos.

[bodypolitic]

On discourse and policy (in Spanish)

Sí se me permite la disquisición: 'Discourse is policy' Entendida como 'Discurso es política', puede tener ciertas limitaciones semánticas que es lo que no se pretende. En tanto, 'discurso es política pública' se percibe más precisa aun si incluso esta última también – es discutible – adolece de ser abarcadora. Aquí, pues, hablo de lo que Ferrater Mora, (2004; en Govea, 2010) se refiere como la "persona que ejecuta la acción del verbo...que obra y tiene poder para producir un efecto". En ese sentido, lo que el ente habilitado de poder dice podría necesariamente vincularse a la acción (o inacción) del aparato o ente que administra, en este caso, el Estado, o de aquel que pretende dirigirlo. Es por tanto críticamente imperativo que la reflexión y el juicio (Arendt, 1997) precedan a la articulación del discurso si viene desde el poder. Decir “me vale” desde el podio cuyo logo indica que es el gobernador (o la mera presencia del ente ante el ojo público) es indicativo de un vínculo primordial al (in)actuar. Lo mismo ocurre con frases como “Assad must go”; “the use of chemical weapons constitute a red line" desde el podio de la presidencia o, desde la aspiración a la obtención del (o, de más) poder decir semejante desacierto: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people” Precisamente, desde este punto de partida lo que se dice mueve al ente, o a entes próximos, a la acción: el atentado contra un inmigrante sin hogar, reflejar que no tienes idea de cómo abordar la crisis fiscal, o que el liderato en política exterior de tu administración es abismal. Aquí se los dejo...

[salon]

Bush says his Catholic faith is central to his politics — unless it means aiding the poor, helping the sick or…

[bodypolitic]

Atención estudiantes subgraduados de Ciencias Sociales, Humanidades y Ciencias Naturales. Oportunidad para competir por becas para financiar estudios graduados. Ver afiche.

[bodypolitic]

The latest British election poll still has Conservatives at the lead but shrinking in terms of support. There's relief at UKIP's deflating campaign, but it's little consolation seeing as how the outcome will be a hung parliament. If Labour and Ed Miliband were to enter Downing Street it will probably mean they will do so with the support of Scottish nationalists, the Greens (perhaps) and a badly-bruised Liberal-Democrats. Coalition politics is indeed a double-edged sword, or, in this case, Labour couldn't grab the sword at all. Because if this is the likely scenario, the grip and pommel would reveal sharp edges as well. It'll be a bloody mess.

[bodypolitic]

Reflecting on war...

War as dislocating human activity represents the monumental failure of politics, not necessarily – as Clausewitz iterates –, the continuation of politics by other means. There is still the exercise of power, but only towards the obliteration of the 'other'. It denies plurality, and interaction with the 'other', degrading him/her as political subject. Civil dialogue is non-existent as there is no recognition, no validation of that 'other' who dissents from officialdom or ideological rigidity. These are aspects of politics and the political that are not present in war or high-intensity conflict. Thus, all other human activity (productive, leisure) is absent or subservient to the "war machine" depleting affluence and human resources. Propaganda substitutes public reason leaving instead monolithic discourse and thought. Once this mindset enters the collective psyche a shattered society and state (contingent on the conflict's length) is at pains to re-structure the political space, from which everything else derives.

[bodypolitic]

Multiples miradas al agonismo, como articulación de lo político y posibilidad política

El artículo enlazado abajo es - además del público lector -, para mis chicos de Ciencia Política - particularmente aquellos y aquellas que se viven la teoría y filosofía política - y para mis estudiantes del curso Principios y problemas de la Ciencia Política (CIPO 3011)

Este párrafo me fascina:

"There is a parallel difficulty between the challenge of radical political action and its philosophical articulation. At the political level, the challenge is to stage resistance to the social order in a way that does not reinforce the institutions it seeks to transform; at the philosophical level, the challenge is to articulate a critique that resists being appropriated by the ideology it interrogates. In this context, to describe the current preoccupation with agonism in contemporary political theory as a corrective to dialogical liberalism would be to surrender too much. For, as Bonnie Honig observes,‘the corrective view is a liberal strategy – it is how liberalism treats all its critics, and that is why it is hegemonic’. The return of the political is often thematised in psychoanalytic terms as the certain re-emergence of those conflicts that liberalism represses. Similarly, the return of agonistic democracy can be anticipated as the inevitable revelation of those depoliticisations that enable liberal dialogue in the first place."

Me parece críticamente relevante para entender el fenómeno de SYRIZA en Grecia, hasta cierto punto los fenómenos de Occupy y la primavera árabe y los disloques existentes en Puerto Rico que hace improbable el agonismo y desarticula el diálogo civil perpetuo montado sobre la pluralidad (en peligro de extinción en Puerto Rico, si es que ya no está erradicada). Ejemplo de ello la imposibilidad de incorporar la perspectiva de género en el currículo de educación del país y las dificultades de romper el cerco que mantiene el bipartidismo catastrófico del PNP-PPD, el vicio patológico del PIP en torno al fondo electoral y los partidos políticos emergentes - el PPT particularmente - en el ostracismo .

Es importante recalcar que el artículo es de Andrew Schaap de la Universidad de Melbourne y fue publicado en Political Studies Review en el año 2007

Political Theory and the Agony of Politics by José R. Rivera

[bodypolitic]

Some highlights about British politics

From our friends at The guardian:

[View the story "Hoy en la política británica...según 'The Guardian'" on Storify]