Religious Fundamentalism,Right-Wing Authoritarianism,and the LGBTQ Community

According to the advocacy group Parents,Families,and Friends of Lesbians and Gays(PFLAG),gays and lesbians are victims of hate crimes seven times as often as straight peers.The question becomes what underlying ideology currently exists in American society to perpetuate this behavior?This paper explores the impact of conservatism and religious ideology to anti-gay prejudice in public schools.The paper presents a model of an intergroup program using prevention of harassment,bullying and rejection to gay members of the student body by attempting a change in attitudes regarding gay students.It also provides recommendations for school administrators and teachers for confronting these challenges in public education.

Electoral Authoritarianism in Togo: How Has Foreign Aid Impacted the Democratization Process in Togo From 2005 to 2010?

After four decades of military dictatorship,Togo is still facing a dilemma of whether to break with the past and take a path of democratization or make changes in the continuity.The death of the former President Gnassingbe Eyadema in 2005 was seen by the Togolese community at home and around the world as a window of opportunity or a step toward the emergence of the political liberalization in the country.Unfortunately,with the backing of the Togolese army,Faure Gnassingbe,one of the sons of Eyadema,was enthroned as the country’s new President since 2005.The international economic sanctions on Togo in the aftermath of the death of Eyadema,due to continuing human rights abuses and violations by the authoritarian regime,have accentuated the already acute suffering and poverty of the Togolese population.However,the 2006 Global Political Agreement reached between the traditional political opposition parties and the government paved the way to the normalization of the international cooperation with Togo and hence the lifting of economic sanctions by the international community.Drawing from Solow-Swan growth model and a cross-national causality test of the development-democracy-growth hypothesis of Abbas Pourgerami,this paper investigates the impact of foreign aid on the democratization process since 2005 and argues that foreign aid played a paramount role in consolidating electoral authoritarianism instead of establishing a viable democracy in Togo.

Muslim Fundamentalism: Psychological Orientations and Counter-Narratives

The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims.Open ended interviews were conducted with 133 Pakistani Muslim men and women of prominent local religious affiliations.Analysis revealed a grounded theory model of Muslim fundamentalism highlighting cognitive,and social psychological processes involved.Participants saw their religion as a complete code of conduct and inferred various meanings from completeness of Islam as finalized,closed to inquiry as well as rejecting of other cultures and religious traditions.The major inter-related themes of the model were totalitarianism,closed mindedness,binary thinking,hyper-exotericism,ambiguity intolerance,authoritarianism,punitive approach,violent tendencies,labelling,diversity intolerance and paranoia or threat perceiving attitude.The interplay of these factors is discussed in the light of earlier research on fundamentalism.The research also revealed strong counter narratives to fundamentalist stance which formulated the major themes of esoteric religiosity,open mindedness,pluralism,and Islam and civil society.The study carries implications for religious education of Muslims and their socialization with believers of other religious traditions.

On the Crisis of Democracy

In the last three decades of the 20th century, important political changes occurred in all regions of the world, making the institutions of many existing political systems closer to the ideals of democracy. But as happened in other moments of history, those processes of democratization, even when successful, always occurred through advances and retreats. Thus, contemporary political practices, procedures, and institutions embody democratic ideals only partially. In many nations, in the present, the rule of law, civil, and political rights, and institutional mechanisms for citizens’ control of governments remain ineffective or underdeveloped. Thus, a double concern prevails among analysts: on the one hand, the regression to authoritarianism in some countries after the processes of political changes—Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Turkey being the paradigmatic examples;the emergence of semi-democracies, i.e., hybrid or illiberal regimes, which have provoked a new interest in the study of patterns of institutional design, the critical role of civil society, different political-cultural developments, authoritarian legacies in the context of the new democracies, competitive authoritarianism and new dictatorships. On the other hand, the acknowledgement of intrinsic limits of the historical development of the democratic regime even in the case of old democracies, i.e., the fact that political equality, active citizen participation, and effective control of abuse of power have never been fully realized in practice. This is the general context in which many analysts and part of the public opinion sustain that there is a crisis of democracy. The general diagnosis refers to the decreasing trust in political elites, political parties, parliaments, governments, and to the dissatisfaction with the regime among democrats;it refers also to the weaker and sometimes erratic performance of democratic institutions and particularly to the failure of the representative system. The picture is completed with the growing rates of partisan misalignment, electoral volatility, and declining civic participation. All this seems to indicate that democracy is inconceivable without crisis. This chapter discusses this scenario. The crisis of democracies is examined from a critical perspective, and the main objective is to understand the different dimensions of its nature and its consequences.

Why Democracy is Its Own Worst Enemy？

The challenges that lay ahead for democracy are so serious that few political scientists have the courage to risk theirreputation and pin down with relative accuracy what will happen on a 5/10/15 year basis. As a matter of fact, whenthe term ＂democracy＂ and ＂enemy＂ is used in the same sentence there＇s a natural and immediate tendency---forthose who are lucky enough to live in electoral democracies---to look over the fence and not to our own backyard.That is to say, democracy＇s enemies, our enemies, are some sort of mythological creatures that live far away fi＇omour perfect democratic bubble. This reasoning can be in part seen in the on-going debate about democracy＇sstruggle against its external enemies. During the Cold War period democracy was at ＂war＂ with communism and,before that, with national-socialism and fascism. Currently, democracy faces new enemies： global authoritarianism,international terrorism, religious extremism, and Islamic fundamentalism. This thoughtfulness is only partly true.At least it＇s not the only reason why we are debating this matter today. According to this paper, and that＇s preciselypart of the problem, democracy is to some extent its own worst enemy. Why？ Because most of the issues that we＇redebating today are the result of a certain apathy and disentanglement of liberal democracies around the world in thelast decade.

The British Elite Education in Lord of the Flies

The famous English writer William Golding’s masterpiece Lord of the Flies is a modernist novel which has a profound educational significance to the people all over the world.The work mainly tells a story that a group of boys landed on a coral land because of an air crash.After the failure of their practice of transforming their“micro association”,these“angel like”children became the“evil demons”.The novel expresses the author's implicit view of Britain's elite education and expectations for the future.In this paper,I will discuss the cause and effect of the British elite education from the work.From the research of the British elite education,readers can have a better understanding of the author’s implied educational thought.

The Relationship Between Parents’ Demographic Factors and Parenting Styles: Effects on Children’s PsychologicalAdjustment

The present study explored the extent to which parent’s demographic characteristics,such as age,gender,education,place of residence,and family income have an influence on the parental style they adopt and consequently on their perception of their children’s psychological adjustment in regards to their family relationships,peer relationships,school performance,and the development of their self-esteem.Various studies conducted in the past as well as in recent years indicate that parental demographic characteristics are significantly linked with parenting behavior(parental styles)and predict the way parents perceive their children’s adjustment,development,and school achievement.The present study was quantitative and we applied three different self-report questionnaires,namely,a Personal Information Form(PIF)for the demographic data,the Parental Authority Styles(PAQ)Questionnaire,and the Questionnaire of Children’s Family Relations,School Performance,Social Competence,and Self-Esteem.We administered the instruments to 336 Cypriot parents(23%fathers and 77%mothers).Our results showed that parent’s demographics are significantly related to the parenting styles they adopt.Furthermore,authoritative parenting is significantly correlated with positive parental perceptions of children’school performance,family relationships,social skills,and self-esteem.On the contrary,authoritarian parenting is a significant negative predictor to parental perceptions of children’s adjustment in the aforementioned areas of development.

The Eurasianist Transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy after the Coup Attempt:An Evaluation in the Context of the SCO

In the aftermath of the coup attempt,there have been debates about a Eurasianist axis shift in Turkish Foreign Policy.The development of relations with Russia and China in parallel with the tension in relations with Western actors has given rise to these debates.The fact that the links established with these two countries do not depend on a conditional cooperation and criticism from the West on the basis of authoritarianism,together with the background of political alliances formed after the change of government system,keeps the Eurasianist discourse at the forefront.Statements on rapprochement with the SCO and even membership are integrated into pragmatism in the context of tensions with the West,regional security risks and expectations,and economic/commercial needs.The government’s continued emphasis on NATO membership,the public’s view of the EU accession,and the continued dependence on trade and investments show that the Eurasianist outlook is a pragmatism linked to conjunctural needs.

The Psychosis of Power:A Lacanian Reading of Augusto Roa Bastos’s I the Supreme

In the mid-seventies,Paraguay was two decades into what would ultimately be the second longest dictatorship in its history,second only to the reign of its“founding father,”Doctor Jose Rodriguez Gaspar de Francia.The regime of Alfredo Stroessner justified its existence and articulated its continued role in Paraguayan politics on a genealogy of national identity that had its supposed roots in the Francia government,Francia’s political ideology and,in fact,in the historical person of Francia himself.In this essay I show how the great Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos’s 1974 novel,I,the Supreme,takes aim at the“kernel of the real”in the Stroessner regime’s political genealogy,using fiction to make evident its anamorphic manipulation of national and nationalist identity.By taking at its word the regime’s historical discourse,I,the Supreme reveals the psychotic logic animating its version of political power.

“选举”在中东地区专制主义政权中的作用——以埃及与约旦为例

选举作为一种正式的决策程序,是被管理者表达政治意愿的正式渠道,也是政府进行集体决策的方式,往往与自由、平等、民主等概念挂钩。本文将讨论中东和北非地区的集权政府进行选举的政治原因,并以埃及和约旦两国政权作为案例探讨选举、民主化和独裁之间的联系。文章的第二部分笔者将阐明选举在专制统治中的三个主要作用,从而解释独裁统治者将选举作为其政治工具的主要目的,即建立政权合法性,增强精英管理,以及降低革命和政变的风险。最后,笔者将简述威权选举在其他方面的一些作用,并结合其他学者的研究成果充实论述。

Education Under Siege: Exploring How International Economic Sanctions Create Crises of Pedagogy

Purpose:This article examines the adverse impact of international economic sanctions on pedagogy.The article considers the contemporary times as a period of misinformation,false news,and untruths.Utilizing anti-hegemonic literature,international economic sanctions are viewed as neoliberalism's instrument of coercion,a Western weapon used to enforce Western values on thosewithdifferentperceptions toward thefreemarket system.Design/Approach/Methods:This article utilizes critical scholarship to unmask authoritarian neoliberalism and a scoping review of sanctioned societies.Critical analytics are deployedto interpret and make sense of the dominant educational policy framework that appears to be against diversity.Findings:Neoliberalism has caused a crisis in pedagogy.Education is under siege as academics and scientific evidence are being disregarded.The call is for pedagogues from all over the world to continue to avail evidence to power by practicing critical education.Literature is utilized to propose critical pedagogy when scientific evidence is disputed,and non-Western epistemologies are considered anachronous.Originality/Value:Linking sanctions and neoliberalism is relativelynovel,as is the contribution of the same lenses to authoritarian neoliberalism.The assault on divergent epistemologies is critical,and the defense of critical scholarship is every academic's duty.The article joins conversations on the neoliberal assault on education and society.

Authoritarian leadership and task performance:the effects of leader-member exchange and dependence on leader

This study examines how and when authoritarian leadership affects subordinates’task performance.Using social exchange theory and power dependence theory,this study proposes that authoritarian leadership negatively influences task performance through leader-member exchange(LMX).This study further proposes that the effect of authoritarian leadership on LMX is stronger when a subordinate has less dependence on a leader.A two-wave survey was conducted in a large electronics and information enterprise group in China.These hypotheses are supported by results based on 219 supervisor-subordinate dyads.The results reveal that authoritarian leadership negatively affects subordinates’task performance via LMX.Dependence on leader buffers the negative effect of authoritarian leadership on LMX and mitigates the indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee task performance through LMX.Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.